The “core” issue
-
- October
- 6
We run a weekly pro-con on Sundays in The Journal News. This Sunday’s pro-con asked: “Should the Mets break up the core of their team after collapsing again?”
Obviously, the question is an ode to Mike Francesa, who has debated the topic ad nauseum on the FAN — and seemingly done so since the moment Ryan Church’s fly ball settled into the glove of Cameron Maybin eight days ago.
Two of our writers debated the topic Sunday. You can read their takes here. Jeff Gold said the Mets should keep ‘em all; Eric Lebowitz, as big a legend as a Met fan as anyone in our office, says the club should dump Carlos Beltran for a starting pitcher.
Give both a read and leave your thoughts below…
This entry was posted
on Monday, October 6th, 2008 at 7:07 pm by Josh Thomson.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Print This Post
| 
Was Lebowitz required to defend the “pro trade” position simply for the sake of having a pro and a con?
He doesn’t even bother to throw in a name of a starting pitcher someone should trade for Beltran—just your generic “top-flight” starter.
This break up the core is not a real issue if nothing else, solely on pragmatic grounds. You simply cannot get value for Beltran, Wright, or Reyes. With Beltran it’s like trying to trade Kobe Bryant. It sounds like good idea but anyone who is serious about landing that kind of talent won’t give back comparable talent. That’s just treading water.
With Reyes and Wright they’re too cheap to move. A team would have to blow me away with a package of young(er) talent.
Crockett, you made some fair points. I probably should have given a few specific examples. Here is one idea I had – what about trying to get Roy Halladay? He is 31, and the Blue Jays have good young pitching, so they might be willing to explore that idea. What about something like Maine and Beltran and for Halladay and Vernon Wells? I think putting Halladay and Santana at the top of the rotation would be dynamite. Getting a guy like Halladay would mean more of a “win now” attitude, but I don’t necessarily think that’s a bad thing.
The other thing I would say is that I don’t think comparing Carlos Beltran to Kobe Bryant is fair. With the exception of Lebron, it is literally impossible to get equal value for Kobe, as he is one of the two or three best players in the NBA. Beltran is excellent, but he’s not the baseball equivalent of Kobe.
Beltran may not be the best player in the entire major leagues but he is EASILY the best center fielder in the game.
Find me a top defensive center fielder with as much range as Beltran with as strong an arm as Beltran.
Ok… easy enough task a couple names come to mind.
Now find me a center fielder who can do all that defensively and then provide the type of offense Beltran provides.
The only two center fielders in the game that have that kind of offensive and defensive production, Carlos Beltran and Grady Sizemore.
Trading Beltran does nothing but hurt the team because besides Sizemore there is simply no one even close to the type of player Beltran is. So… that’s it, the “argument” stops there.
The core should stay. And I think trading Beltran is crazy. Aside his full no trade clause, I think something clicked down the stretch…i.e., he gets it and we’ll see him playing more and more as leader and in the mold Manuel wants for this team going forward. Don’t be surprised if he starts hitting again for average and has his best season yet as Met, in that regard.
A couple of responses:
First, Beltran probably is the best centerfielder in the game. He’s still not a Kobe Bryant-level player. Kobe Bryant is one of the 15 or 20 best players in NBA HISTORY, and one of the best 2 or 3 in the league right now. Beltran is excellent, but he’s not a once-in-a-generation type. Albert Pujols, Manny…those are guys like Kobe.
Second, I never said you could get someone as good as Beltran to play CF. My point was that you could make the TEAM better by bringing in someone like Halladay. Even Jeff, who took the other side of the pro-con issue, said he would at least consider trading Beltran and Maine for Halladay and Wells, because the Mets would probably have the best 1-2 punch since Schilling and Randy were together. The idea is to improve the team.