4/15: Pre-Game Report

Jose Reyes returns to the lineup after taking a few days off with his injury, and with his return comes a shake-up in the lineup. With Luis Castillo struggling, and after Angel Pagan did a great job replacing the two at the top of the lineup, Castillo drops to 8th in the batting order. However, it is not Pagan batting second, but rather Ryan Church has been moved up into that position.

This would not be as surprising if the Mets were facing a right hander today, as Willie Randolph has put Church above Pagan against some righties. But Odalis Perez, a lefty, will pitch for the Nationals, yet Willie still chose to put the left-handed hitting Church second. It seems like an odd move, but I think Pagan is pretty valuable batting 6th behind Carlos Delgado. I certainly missed his presence lower in the order when he was batting 1st and 2nd. The move also moves Church out from in between the left-handed bats of Delgado and Brian Schneider. I don't know how permanent this will be, so it will be interesting to see what kind of lineup Willie sends out tomorrow.

Of bigger news though is the reactivation of Duaner Sanchez from the DL. Sanchez was a major part of the bullpen's success in 2006, and his absence may have helped lead the bullpen to falter down the stretch in 2007. He last pitched in a Major League game on July 28, 2006. It will be great to see him back.

Carlos Muniz was sent back to the Minors to make room for Sanchez. Muniz did a tremendous job in his three games filling in for Matt Wise, throwing 4 scoreless innings with just 2 hits and 2 strikeouts.

Finally, the Mets will be honoring Jackie Robinson today. All the Mets will be wearing #42.

A recap of last series will come later today. Enjoy the game.

More notes: Ryan Church, Claudio Vargas

Something really annoyed me during this past series, and it wasn't just the Phillies. It was Ryan Church coming up to bat with Ozzy Osbourne's "Crazy Train" playing over the loudspeakers. And it wasn't just a one time thing, it was most of his at bats, and I think it's safe to assume that it will be most of his at bats in the future.

"Crazy Train" is a great song, I won't deny that. But when I'm watching a Mets game, that is the absolute last thing I want to hear. If you're not aware, a certain third baseman in Atlanta named Larry also uses that as his walk-up music. For me, the association between that song and Mets games is a strong evil and hatred. I cringe every time I watch a Mets vs. Braves game in Atlanta, and I hear that music come on in the background, because it means that I'm about to see the person who I might just hate the most in this world. And usually, when that music comes on, he gives me even more reason to hate him, as he always seems to kill the Mets.

And now, I'm going to be forced to hear that music many more times this season. And at my beloved Shea Stadium, too. I don't cringe quite so much, knowing that it's Ryan Church coming up, and not Larry Jones. I'll get used to it soon.

But that song really should be banned at Shea. It represents pure evil for Mets fans. The guy even named his kid "Shea" because of how much he kills the Mets. Though I'm not sure, I assume Church used that song when he was in Washington, so I can't blame him for wanting to stick with it, or the organization for wanting to let him be happy and comfortable coming to the plate. That pretty much leaves no one to blame. But for the time being, it drives me crazy, and I had to vent.

I did hear it played on the organs the one game, and that was awesome.

In other news, the Mets signed pitcher Claudio Vargas to a Minor League contract. I don't have much of an opinion on this deal. I don't trust Claudio Vargas to be much help to the Mets, but it seems that he won't be plugged right into the rotation to fill the hole left by Pedro and El Duque. Instead, he will start at the minors, likely as a backup plan in case Nelson Figueroa doesn't work out as the replacement 5th starter. He could even help out in the bullpen if need be. I have no problems with this deal, and if he ends up not helping, that it's not hurting us much.

Figueroa will pitch today at home against the Brewers to start the series. Johan Santana will face the Brewers' ace, Ben Sheets, tomorrow, with Oliver Perez wrapping up the series on Sunday.

The offer for Santana?

The reported offer the Mets are trying to get Santana for is Carlos Gomez, Deolis Guerra, Phil Humber, and Kevin Mulvey, and the Twins want Fernando Martinez added to that package (Minnesota Star Tribune).

That's basically our entire list of top prospects there. Especially Fernando Martinez, who I've been really looking forward to seeing. Our five top prospects does seem pretty steep for just one pitcher, but when it's Johan Santana, the Twins have the ability to demand.

This will pretty much go along with my previous post, but things have been real quiet lately and I felt the need to post something, anything. As much as the trade scares me, I still have to say "Yes" to it. Getting Johan would mean so much to this team.

The thing is though, both of our corner outfielders are short-term (unless Ryan Church turns out better than expected, or Moises Alou gets five years younger), so having Fernando Martinez ready to step in in a year or two in one of those spots would have been great to see. So if this trade happens, both of those spots will need to be replaced by free agent pickups. Alou may be in his final year of baseball, and Church could easily fail to produce the way we need, so next offseason could be rough. This is where I regret the Milledge trade.

Of course, if Santana were to come in and help us win the World Series, then all those problems go away.

Late thoughts on the Lastings Milledge trade.

November 30, 2007: The New York Mets trade Lastings Milledge to the Washington Nationals for Brian Schneider and Ryan Church

The first impression of this trade is definitely a puzzling one. There were a lot of trade rumors going around, and most included Milledge, so I expected him to get dealt. However, all of those rumors circled around him being traded to boost our pitching staff. So when I saw this trade, two things came to mind: 1) This is all we traded Milledge for? and 2) Now what are we going to do to boost our pitching staff?

I suppose if you look at the first question, the trade starts to look better the more you think about it. We traded a developing outfielder for another young outfielder plus our new starting catcher (which means no more Johnny Estrada, but that trade was still more than worth it just to get rid of Guillermo Mota).

I always liked Ryan Church, but I don't really know enough about him to know how he will compare to Milledge as our right fielder. The justification from Omar Minaya seems to be that Ryan Church will be a better player in the present, to help the win now approach. Milledge certainly has a brighter future, but I'm not so certain that the potential will be realized. Losing Lastings doesn't really sting me too badly.

However, that is where the second question comes in. I had no problem trading him for pitching help, and was eagerly anticipating seeing which pitcher we would get for him, be it a guy like Dan Haren or even the mighty package for Johan Santana. However, now we are seeing some guys slip off the market and others where the front office is struggling to put a package together for. I don't like to think about what could have been, but I can't help but wonder what could have been done with him, and what will not be able to be done now that he's gone.