Last night's game was sort of bizarre, with the Mets putting together one and only one scoring inning on Planet Coors. Jose Acevedo, whom I once expected to become a quality #2 or #3 starter last year in Cincinnati (derailed by terrible gopheritis), set our boys down in order more often than not.
I was genuinely surprised to see the Mets lose this game, right up until the moment Piazza broke his bat to make the last out. I wasn't expecting Glavine to shut down the Rockies by any means, but the offense had been clicking rather nicely, and I thought they would put up at least two if not three innings like their 3-run fourth. They put plenty of balls in play, but none of their 9 flies had quite enough on them.
Jose Reyes's bat maintained its unusually high temperature, including his major league-leading 11th triple. This one was different from most of the others in that it wasn't a double that he managed to stretch into a triple; it was a triple that, for Reyes, didn't even require a slide into third base. He had time for a light snack before the throw came in. He's still not a good hitter, or even acceptable in the leadoff spot, but the guy is really, really fast.
The latest on the trade front is that Omar is still in talks with the Rangers about Alfonso Soriano, which is quite exciting, I must admit. Unfortunately, it sounds like the Texas front office is making demands that would make a seasoned Columbian kidnapper feel a little bit sheepish.
On Mike and the Mad Dog this afternoon (recap courtesy of Metsblog), Omar expressed openness to making "the right deal" for a big-name player, but added that he was not entirely in a "2005 mindset."
Of course, no GM is going to get on the FAN and tell Francesa "I want [Player X] desperately and will do whatever it takes to get him." All the same, it sounds like Omar really is more reluctant to gut the farm system of its crown jewels than Jim Duquette was.
Here's my take on the situation: I'd really like to get Soriano, and believe that doing so would put the team in a very strong position for the division or the Wild Card. On the other hand, he'd be a rental, and none of Lastings Milledge, Yusmeiro Petit or Brian Bannister are too far away from the Show at this point. What about Soriano-Reyes straight up? Huh?
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2 comments:
Hi Doyle, I follow your blog pretty regularly. And I gotta say...you are the only person in Mets blogville who is FOR the Soriano trade, especially given the types of talent we would have to give up to get him. It's just not worth it.
Think about it - this potential trade has disaster of unmitigated proportions written all over it. Soriano has had the gift of playing in two hitters' paradises and sucks away from both of them. OK maybe not "suck" all the way, but pretty darn close. Shea is not known for being a hitter haven. Even Todd Helton can't seem to bat out of the infield there.
I guess what I am saying is the Mets would be crazy to give up a.) Reyes, b.) Milledge, c.) Petit, d.) Bannister, or e.) a combination of any of the above, to get a washed-up ex-Yankee who Minaya and Randolph obviously have huge man crush on.
Omar needs to make a deal, just not this one. We are sorely mistaken if we think Soriano is what we need. We need a big bat, his will wilter. You think there was backlash for the Kazmir/Zambrano trade last year? There will be hell to pay if they do something similar - mortgaging the future for "now." Sorry but next year is next year. I'm going to paraphrase something I read yesterday - all Soriano will do is make us 3 games out of first rather than 8. Not worth it.
Other than that, I really enjoy reading your stuff :). Sorry if I ranted. I'm just against Yankee bums, even Willie Randolph managing.
Coop -
Thanks for the comment. Good stuff.
I can see why most of the commentary on these negotiations has been negative. All of the packages we've heard Texas ask for have been absurd. I'm with you there.
The reason I'm still happy to see these talks continue is because I'm cautiously optimistic that Soriano will be attainable for a lot less as the deadline approaches.
Your take seems to be that any one of our top prospects would be too much to part with. I'm not so sure about that.
For all Soriano's warts, especially the big, hideous one that he shares with our own Mr. Reyes (appalling BB/PA), he's a 2B with 35-40 HR pop (Texas is a RH hitter's park, btw, but the Stadium is not) and legitimate basestealing ability. He'd be a huge upgrade over Cairo.
As for Milledge, he may be our best positional prospect but I'm not sure he's really got all the 5 tools being attributed to him. In 288 minor league ABs this year, he's only hit 4 home runs (all at St. Lucie).
It's just not immediately clear to me that he's a lock to be more valuable to the Mets than Soriano could be during the '05 stretch run and maybe a couple years beyond.
I hated Black Friday as much as anyone, but I think Soriano's a bigger target than Zambrano, and Milledge is a smaller price than Kazmir.
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