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In the Daily News, Adam Rubin writes that free-agent 2B Luis 
Castillo underwent knee surgery and will be 100 percent by spring training.
Rubin adds: “The Mets are expected to make a strong push to re-sign him.”
…well, lord knows he needed to have his knee cleaned out…his ability to run hard, slide, get up, look to be in total, unbearable pain, then seconds later sprint to third as though nothing was wrong, which was followed by more wincing and hobbling around, only to dash home without missing a beat was amazing to me…he’s a perfect solution for second base, in that he plays great defense, he works well with Jose Reyes and can bat second…i just worry about those knees…
Rubin also reports on Paul Lo Duca, and whether the Mets intend to re-sign him; Duaner Sanchez, who will pitch in Winter Ball; as well as Tim Tuefel, who may get a minor-league promotion.
If healthy, I would really like to see Luis comeback. He is the prototypical #2 hitter and has a tremendous glove. If he and LoDuca come back, which seems awfully possible – we’re very likely to have a very similar lineup to last season.
I’m fine with that, however – the pitching staff needs a bit of an overhaul.
I still think they should look for a better solution (younger/healthier/someone that can hit the ball out of the infield).
This prototypical 2 hole hitter stuff is nonsense. Look around the leagues, and you actually will find guys that can hit for some power, generate runs, etc. Not just slap gound balls with a slugging percentage in the .350 range.
Gotay might not be the answer, but he could make a nice 1/2 of a platoon with a RH slick glove that can hit lefties.
I just have a bad feeling the mets will sign Castillo for 3 years and spend most of them hobbling around with the range of my grandmother, watching his BA and OBP take a nose dive.
If anyone in the next couple of years is capable of putting up a sub-.600 OPS, Castillo is the guy.
If they do sign him, it better be a real short term deal (2 years guarantted max, 1 even better + options).
maybe some other team will swoop in and blow him away with an offer.
Is your grandmother already under contract?
Unfortuneately, she is dead, so maybe not the greatest comparison.
I will switch it to the same range as I have, completely with my own creaky knee, and occasional bad back.
Great! We’re already getting younger!
Do it, Omar!
That prototypical 2 hitter stuff isnt nonsense.
Castillo has the ability to beat out balls for infield hits.
Castillo can hit with 2 strikes like David Wright but with less K’s.
Castillo batting second allows Reyes to run more. Gotay wore Reyes out with all of the foul balls on what should be valls.
Castillo’s defense is just as good as Gotay’s.
Castillo is cheap, and will probably be a rental to help Gotay, who is streaky and 25 years old, develop for a little while longer.
Gotay isn’t going to start next year, and unless you want to start Marlon Anderson, Kazuo Matsui, Marcus Giles (terrible and just as injury prone), Tony Womack (yes he is eligible), or Craig Biggio, Luis Castillo is the Mets answer for 2008.
Why can’t Gotay start next season?
Can somebody please answer me this.
No reason at all. I like him a LOT.
I hope he gets a chance to KEEP opening eyes.
Hah! NESTED ANYWAY!
Has anyone remembered that after he hit .353 his average went down to under 300?
Has anyone noticed that he hits .200 against lefties, and went .271/.336/.364 after the all star break?
Gotay was spectacular before the all-star break….. In 71 ABs. I’m not sure why you all want him to be a starter because of this.
he also can’t turn a double play, maybe the most important part of being a second baseman.
That sucks to hear about Lo Duca. Who is going to be our resident Italian if he goes?
You can’t forgot about Bullpen Coach, Guy Conte.
Forget having any Italians on this team. Omar is only interested in hispanic players. Of course he will sign a crippled Castillo who has a bad rap as a bad partying influence on reyes but he won’t sign a gritty catcher who always gave his all. Don’t worry Omar will undoubtedly sign a hispanic catcher to replace Lo Duca. Sorry but the evidence is there as to what Omar is doing and the wilpons are letting him do it….
Wasn’t LaDuca considered to be a bad partying influence on Wright?
Somehow, I don’t think that Castillo took Reyes and converted him from a tea drinking alter boy into a wild party animal in 1 month or less (about how long it too for Reyes to go into his slump).
Since this seems to be common knowledge (hey, it’s on the internedt!), I am sure that Omar, etc. will perform due dillegence before deciding to offer Castillo a contract.
And even if he is doing what you claim, I am sure he can find anothe rHispanic 2B someplace (hey, just use A Hern, they already have him!)
Actually, Ahern will hit for just as much power too.
Man, a Chase Utley type guy at 2B would be sweet. Even Pedroia.
I knew Bill O’Reilly was a Mets fan, but I did not realize he was a poster on Metsblog.
come on. omar added plenty of white players last year: newhan, sele, schoeneweis.
does it really matter? i just want the team to win.
i dont care who omar gets or what they are as long as they win games….although if we see some more mota over bradford or bannister/burgos, lidstrom/vargas deals some of these people may have a legit point.
Omar would sign Castillo because he’d rather have him then Craig Biggio.
We could always move Reyes back to 2B… Like that worked so well in 2004….
Guiliani…
Hear Hear!!!
What exactly does 100% mean in terms of Castillo? I don’t think castillo will ever be the player he was a few years ago before his knees started to go.
Regardless, I’d be ok with 2 years and an option, but I’m willing to bet someone will give him more.
Gotay is probably a nice backup option for Castillo, as Luis will certainly need to sit out a game one a week or so to rest his knees, and can mentor Gotay on the school of 2B.
No one wants Castillo. Minnesota didn’t even care about him. They took trash for him, and that’s undeniable.
The big news in this update is not actually Castillo…it is Duaner will be pitching in 4 weeks. I am looking forward to hearing more about his results there. Duaner is the key to the offseason bullpen moves. If he appears back and dominating…we can either shop Heilman in a package for a starter or we can move Heilman into the rotation. If Duaner is not…there is more pressure to sign someone to take the 8th inning (F Rod)
Castillo would be terrific if healthy batting in the 2nd hole and playing great infield defense. I think Gotay can get 300 abs next year as a utility fielder both infield and occassionally LF. Gotay certainly has more pop in the bat but he also has a lot more to prove to deserve consideration as a starter
I think if Dauner makes anyone a rotation candidate it would be Sosa instead of Heilman. He has much more recent experience and success as a starter. At the same time, a pen of Heilman, Feliciano, back to 2006 form Dauner, and Wags would be a lights out group. Why mess with that?
I see a deal for a Joe Blanton type coming down the pike and I think its a deal with Heilman in it personally.
I can see Heilman in our rotation because we need another starter but he may not get the chance. Omar knows he needs Milledge in RF and can’t do better on the FA market. So he restricts sending Milledge out in any deal. That leaves Heilman as the next most controllable asset that has ML service time successfully that we can replace if we trade. Heilman and Gomez for Blanton or Dontrelle Willis improves the starting rotation some.
Leaves us Pedro, Maine, OP and either Blanton or Willis plus Pelfrey.
Duque gets shifted to the pen which has hopefully a healthy Duaner Wagner Feliciano as you say plus keep Shoeneweis and dump Mota, resign Sosa as 7th inning support and sign……FROD to be the closer in waiting and set up man in 2008.
That is why I encourage breaking ties with Heilman as reliever. Start him here or trade him in a package for another starter who is more certain to give innings for us.
Willis and Blanton both fill that bill.
when you say F rod, you dont mean francisco rodriguez do you? bc hes not a free agent, felix rodriguez is and hes 35 and sucks.
To be honest, I think it’s time to actually trade Heilman. His HR’s are up very high, and he had been struggling in big spots. He wants to be a starter still, let’s let him be one. Send him off for a solid pitcher – or every an actual RP that can replace him.
I still think Heilman is a solid pitcher – One of the few in our bullpen – but on the bright side trading him for a starter would bring El Duque to the Bullpen. But then again, even if that is so, we’d still need another lefty who can pitch at Shea. I.e. Jeremy Affeldt.
sign castillo. max 2 years. let gotay be the understudy/insurance policy who also plays once or twice a week. there isn’t a better option available without a trade. omar needs the trading chips for pitching.
i’m fine either way with lo duca. i can’t be 100% behind the signing b/c it was way too annoying last year with all the media attention for his big mouth (radio shows, interviews). it’s fine when the team is winning. too distracting when it’s not. i could live with torrealba and castro sharing time.
we all know how valuable sanchez was to the 2006 team. grrrr. even if healthy, omar needs to bring in a big bulpen arm (mariano, nathan, etc)
HA! A couple of weeks ago there was a post article touting eckstein and rowand for the mets, because they had the right “attitude”, and I brought up the subject of race, for which I was throughly lambasted…did everyone read NYMBosco’s comments? Do you guys see what I’m talking about now? Your assertion would make sense if it weren’t for the fact that it was Minaya who acquired LoDuca in the first place… But why let facts get in the way of a good conspiracy theory? Let me get this right: LoDuca (and I like him, for the record) is an over the hill, light hitting, injury prone catcher with bad defense and you want to re-sign him, but Castillo is at the end of his prime, is a better contact hitter (I won’t even discuss power, neither of them has it), better defensively, and you want to let him go? hmm… I’m sure that has everything to do with baseball… No, really.
I like eckstein and rowand for the way they play the game just like I like Lo Duca for the way he plays the game. I want to see what Omar plans on doing to replace Lo Duca, a proven player.
why did you include the 3 white players on your list of players you like for “the way they play the game”, while you omit the hispanic player from that list.
If you didn’t notice Castillo played the game just like the other three. The guy spent his whole two months with the Mets hobbling around on his sore knees like Kirk Gibson. Every loss he and LoDuca were the last guys on the bench really feeling the sting of these losses. As a matter of fact I recall LoDuca singing Castillo’s praises when they hired him saying he was one of the most fiery players he ever played with.
I agree that Castillo plays the game hard and I did like what he did for us but I worry about the chronic knee problem. Maybe a one year deal would work but I would be hesitant to sign him to a multi year deal. I do like the way castillo plays the game. I would have no problem if he is back next year.
I agree with everything you said. Except if Dr,’s could give the approval i might go 2 yrs. Don’t want another Jose Valentin.
Ugh. You suggested Rowand. That would be like another Mike Cameron situation, but more expensive and even dumber. If Cameron didn’t help us win, Rowand won’t.
David Eckstein. Another laughable idea. He would want a long term deal with some Julio Lugo bucks. I’d rather pair up Castillo and Gotay and save some bucks, and possibly have a great second baseman (in comparison to other second baseman) in Gotay for the long run.
Why get rid of the old injury prone second baseman with no power when you can get a somewhat younger, just as injury prone shortstop with no power in a trade?
David Eckstein is 31 years old and has played in 150 games in a season 3 times. He’s never had an on base percentage over 400, had an average over 300 once, and never had an on base percentage over 370.
Loving him now?
I’m on the fence when it comes to Castillo..
If its for one year and they keep a full set of backup 2B around (Gotay, Easley, Marlon Anderson) then its a good idea.
If they have to give him 2-3 years then its not a good idea.
If they can reasonably trade for Orlando Hudson its not a good idea.
It just dawned on me, the perfect comparison player for Gotay is Gregg Jeffries… anyone else see that in him?
****GIULIANI / LO DUCA in ‘08****
They will clearly get the divorced Dad vote.
Rudy = Yankee fan = no vote from me.
The comparison from Gotay to Jeffries is a tad off. I think Gotay will give more, and that he has a very unique. almost uncomparable abilities to hit foul balls.
I like Castillo..becuz he showed emotion when we wer goin down the tubes….however..I think we should take a shot at Iguchi..why not I mean I know he is Asian or whatever…but , He can field , and he would be a nice #7 hitter….I also have to squeeze this in ..I think we should not trade any prospects unless it is for a bonafide #1 starter..PERIOD. just sign Silva and Colon to contracts (Colon 1 year w/opt.) why not?? Let Milledge get a year in w/chavez replacing Alou in late innings or resting him ….and plz resign Loduca and put him back in the 2 hole..thats why he was off this year.
line – up
reyes
lo duca
wright
beltran
delgado
alou
iguchi
milledge
rot.
pedro
perez
main
colon
silva
not too bad?? Well bottom line in 2 months all this spec. will start to fade and we will start to see our team for what it should be spring training…ohh and good luck Duaner..plz do well and comeback soon!!
LETS GO METS!!
Why would we put Lo Duca in the 2 hole – he hit into more double plays this year than anyone on the team, and he’s slow. The only reason we had him at 2 was because there was no viable replacement. An out is an out at #2 even if it moves reyes over.
Of all people, why Bartolo Colon and Carlos Silva?
Colon is an old man with injury problems, not to mention that he would be crazy expenisive, and Silva is probably going to demand Gil Meche type money, which isnt going to happen for a starter as average as he is.
The Mets probably would have a more realistic shot atJoe Blanton, who they can land with Heilman and Milledge. They can then get a hold of Alou, Fukudome, Castillo, Marlon Anderson, Castro and Lo Duca via free agency/option.
For all of the Lo Duca neigh sayers, the only other options are Posada (36 yrs old, would probably demand big years and bucks), Torrealba (Not as good as Lo Duca at all), and Barrett (injuries like Lo Duca, didn’t produce with the bat except for 2006, mucho dinero).
I left out the addition of lefty Jeremy Affeldt.
Great news about Dirty Sanchez!
Anyone know if Milledge is playing Winter ball? I remember there being that big fuss about him not playing last year.
here is the list of Carribean participants:
Mexican Pac Lg: Brett Harper LF/1B
Dominican WL: Carlos Gomez OF, Miguel Negron OF, Fernando Tatis IF, Victor Mendez OF,
Venezuela WL: Jesus Feliciano CF, Luis Matos OF, Ender Chavez OF,
Jose Santiago P, Ivan Maldonado P.
Nothing really of note other than Gomez getting some playing time to make up for his DL time and bench time.
Most of them are AAA guys who will be moving on next year.
Harper was lights out in 2006. Too bad his injury slowed him this year. Is he still considered a possibility for 2009?
That’s great news!!!
Fernando Tatis needs the ABs.
I saw Colon’s name and I got excited at first, but I don’t think he’s the same guy we remember with the Cleveland Indians. I’ve read reports that there might be something wrong with his elbow, and of course, there are the weight issues. I think Castillo is the best available FA 2B avaialble. I agree with the notion that we shouldn’t waste any of our chips on anything that’s not pitching-related. Now…
To NYMBosco’s point, I understand that you like Eckstein and Rowand (I like them too, actually) for the way they play, but what makes you think that our guys don’t play with the same intensity? If your measure of intensity and concentration is errors, then you need to look no further than david wright, who lead the team with 21. is it bad at bats? Wright had 115K, second to only Delgado… To be clear, I don’t think Wright is the problem, but I’d like to know how you came up with the notion that our guys don’t play hard, or are somehow bad influences on our young players…
I’d think he came up with that by observing…
when one of the veterans on the team says they are bored, its not a leap to think that they lack intensity and concentration. In fact, I think it would be a direct, logical connection to suggest those things are missing in a big way when that is said.
And by my eyes that certianly seemed to be the case for almost all of the season. A few times when a 9th inning rally started going there way they woke from the duldrums and bore down, or when they were playing the Braves late in the year they looked completely into it. But 75-90% of the time they looked asleep out there. This wasnt a Sept problem, but an all season problem. At least imo it was apparent.
Listen, i am a die hard mets fan. I am not saying all of the other players on this team do not play hard. My reference to castillo was that I do not want a long term contract. he definitely plays the game hard. I do wonder about the rumors of him being a bad influence on reyes who I love but I am worried about his knee problem. I also know that Lo Duca has his off field issues and he certainly has his own issues but I do hope omar re-signs him for a 1 year deal. I feel that we didn’t finish the job in 2006 (let’s forget 2007) and I would hope to retain most of the position players while getting a new bullpen. I
No conspiracy. Just the facts. Omar favors hispanic players
AND that’s alright! To a Point. Heck does everyone forget Delgado’s comments of a couple of years ago? Facts are facts.
He get’s out from under the Uncle Cliffy contract and jumps
right into bed w/Alou despite the fact that at his age and injury
history you can’t count on him for more then half a season.
He trades for Castillo despite not only his knee problems BUT
a degenerating hip which no one seems to mention WHILE
publicly expressing NO interest in Iguchi who IS a better player
and who you don’t have to worry about influencing Reyes to the
negative.He brings in every broken down,wash-up never was
AAAA pitcher he can find from latin america. He gets lucky w/
Valentin who shots his last load AND then gives him a fat new
contract.Then theres the Mota situation! enough said about him.
El Duque? Has any player’s injury problems hurt this team more
the last 2 years? AND he’s coming back again! Lindstrom was
traded for Vargas.What GM trades a young unproven Hard-thrower for a young unproven soft tosser? Burgos?will we ever
see him again?would Heath Bell have been traded if his name
was Hector Baez? Ramon Castro was charged w/Rape!
would Loduca have been brought here w/that hanging over his
head? Julio Franco who is still gettin checks post marked
Flushing,NY! AND what about the last cut in spring training
Reuben Sierra? Reuben Sierra??
With that, I don’t care where players are from as long as they
can bring a Championship! I’ve been on the band-wagon for
35 seasons and have seen 1 .
Yes, I want Santana Or if that can’t be done Silva,Livan and/or
the sleeper Chacon! Plus I do think the best available Catcher
out will be Carlos Hernandez.
But Omar really does need to be careful w/ both Alou and Castillo so that in May we don’t end up having to play reserves
while scouring for others, getting Hi-jacked AND being stuck
w/ salaries which would immobilize the team!
dude – in case you haven’t noticed – the majority of good, young baseball players today come from Latin America. That’s just a fact of how baseball has become less popular a sport among young school age kids in the States and a reflection of how big it is in these other countries. It’s even worse with African American kids who are really leaving baseball behind in this country.Get off the conspiracy theory already.
Spot-On ! I don’t buy ANY conspiracies. Just stating
facts. At the same time the truth about Omar IS
impossible to overlook. Again, that’s fine however, if
he’s going to throw crazy money around, Why not do it
using common sense? Castillo’s legs are SHOT! AND
Alou despite his great finish simply can’t be given a 10mil
contract when you can expect only about half a season
out of him! His place on the team/line-up would be just
too important !
I hope mgmt. is giving some consideration w/ about
40mil in expiring contracts to looking seriously at
1)Carlos Silva,young/prime innings eater. 2) Shawn Chacon,young/prime flexable, AND 3)Corey Patterson,
who’s also young/in his prime and would give us alot
of OF flexability with Beltran,Millage,Gomez and Chavez.
I would think you could sign ALL 3 for less then 20mil—
per season w/contracts of no more then 3 years each.
Assuming Eckstein re-signs w/STL now that it appears
LaRussa will return MAYBE you re-examine Iguchi @2B.
AND if you could get C.Hernandez on the cheap to Catch
I think you go into the season w/ a line-up of:
SS)Reyes—A year older/better
LF)Patterson/Millage
3B)Wright—A year older/better
CF)Beltan
1B)Delgado—Contract/Money year and Healthy
2B)Iguchi
C)Hernandez—The Guru will Love him!
RF)Chavez/Gomez—Lot’s of speed and strong arms.
A Rotation of:
Pedro
Maine
Perez
Silva
Pelphrey or Humber
Wild-cards Duque and Sosa
AND
a Pen with:
Wagner
Heilmann
Feliciano and Chacon along the back end
AND unfortunatley:
Mota and Schoenweiss because we’re simply stuck with
the contracts.
With this set-up, you still hold onto the young talent and
wait for someone to blink, i.e the Twinkies w/Santana.
PLUS you don’t inflate the payroll SO if someone who
no ones looking at right now becomes available,
that’s not a problem.
Chacon had a good year as a Yankee. Anything besides that? No.
We’re not obligated to keep Schoeneweis and Mota in the MLB. Neither of them are even averaging $4 Million a year.
Silva is not worth any looks.
Which lefty would you rather have, Chacon or Affeldt?
If I had a problem with Castillo is that when there is a runner on third, he can not generate enough power to drive the runner home on a sac fly.
Willie negates his bunting ability by not squeezing.
Not a bad point. That said, hitting 2nd in the order probably restricts the quantity of times that a runner is on 3rd with less than 2 outs for Castillo. Plus, most times a groundball with the runners back still scores a run with a man on 3rd and less than 2 outs. If the defense moves in to protect that, it is easier to hit a grounder through the middle for a hit.
But… If Reyes is on second, not even he can score on a single by Castillo. The OF plays very shallow
thats true i hate that about castillo they play him so shallow singles dont score anyone from second base. unfortunately i dont see many other options for 2nd base. id love to have a more powerful #2 hitter ala kevin youklis but guys like that are few and far between.
We may have one in Gotay
Methinks Gotay would become very exposed playing regularly. Not to mention his shoddy defense and terrible flips to SS during double plays will probably further destroy the legs of our leadoff man.
Honestly unless Omar can brainwash the D’Backs into giving away Orlando Hudson, I see no other option for everyday 2B other than Castillo.
The sad point of the free agency pool is that Castillo may be the best 2B option.
I’d like to have Castillo back and absolutely wouldn’t mind if the Mets gave him a 2 or 3 year deal.
one thing i dont agree with alot of posters here is the idea of if duaner is healthy we should trade heilman….why would we do that, we need to ADD to the bullpen not SUBTRACT. to me if duaner is healthy then you have sanchez, heilman, wagner, feliciano, scho, sosa, el duque. thats a much better pen, plus you have joe smith in the minors who can be the replacement if el duque needs to slide into the rotation. if we can add a healthy sanchez, then we can go address the starting pitching, personally id sign silva (the joe blanton of FA) then use the big chips to get a front end starter (ex: oswalt). also dump mota please, its over omar you did your charity work now let him go.
ps: whats the deal with juan padilla?
Is Uggie Urbina still in lock-down in Venezuela?
I’m sure he could use a check! Must’a cost a fortune defending
a quintuple attempted murder charge!
Padilla after 2 years is DONE! He was a border line MLBer
to start out with.
PLUS don’t count on Sanchez after almost 2 years and 2 operations.
Why can’t ramon castro be the everyday catcher? Project his numbers from last year over a full season and his stats are ridiculous — in the vicinity of 40 HR 130RBI. They are going to use Castro as the everyday catcher and sign some schlub or use difelice to back him up
wow. you really think he’d put up numbers ANYWHERE near that? guy’s not even a .280 hitter. decent power, but that’s about it. terrible defensive catcher as well.
and the only thing iguchi has on castillo is power, if that. he had 9 home runs last year playing in US cell. and CBP. oh boy.
Let Castillo go.
You have to replace as many of these chokers as possible
How about inquiring Cleveland on the status of Josh Barfield? He’s only 24 years old, came off an off-year playing in the American League, and probably is expendable since Cabrera has taken the 2B job away from him. Barfield would serve us well being back in the NL.
I love it. Was very surprised at his down year. I was expecting him to be a monster this year. The kid can hit.
Above, I said I fully support keeping Castillo, and I still do, but if something could be explored for Barfield, I’d be very willing to take that risk.
baseball might have the most ignorant fans out of the 4 major sports.
I don’t think any of the available free agents at 2B are worthwhile. I’d rather see Omar acquire someone via trade – i.e. Orlando Hudson
Vamos, Los Met’s!