Daily Archives: November 20, 2007
Tonight at 9:30 pm I will taking part in an online chat with The Happy Recap’s message board to discuss the Hot Stove, the Mets and MetsBlog.com.
To log in, chat, or simply follow along, click here.
At his blog for the Journal News, John Delcos reports the Mets may play a three-game away series against the Marlins in Puerto Rico next July.
According to Delcos, ‘nothing has been signed yet.’
Tagged Mike Nichols |
During his weekly appearance on WFAN’s Mike and the Mad Dog program, SI.com’s Jon Heyman had the following to sa
y….
“The main thing for the Mets right now is that they need to do something big. They can’t come back with basically the same team they had. They gotta save their chips and try to make a run at Santana, long shot that it may be.”
…heyman cited this line of thinking when relaying Omar Minaya‘s reluctance to include Lastings Milledge as part of a package for Brian Schneider and Ryan Church of the nationals…with today’s acquisition of Johnny Estrada, the need for a catcher appears to have been filled, but the important thing to take from the trade is that minaya did not have to part with a valuable prospect to pull it off…
To listen to Heyman’s entire segment, during which he also discusses the Luis Castillo signing, the NL MVP award and assorted off-season news, go to WFAN.com.
The Mets have traded RHP Guillermo Mota to the Brewers in exchange for C Johnny Estrada.
Omar Minaya, on the acquisition of Estrada…
“Johnny adds depth to our catching situation. He’s a former All-Star who switch-hits and has hit over .300 three times in his career.”
In 120 games with the Brewers last season, Estrada hit .278 with 10 homers and 54 RBI.
He threw out just 7.6 percent of runners attempting to steal, the worst among NL catchers.
Estrada underwent arthroscopic surgery on October 4th to repair torn medical meniscus in his left knee. He also had a bone spur removed from his right elbow.
…so long and good riddance, Mota…looks like the mets may have found their catcher…i’ve never been thrilled with estrada’s patience at the plate, but with the options presented, this is a potential low-risk, high-reward type of move…
…oh yeah, see ya paulie…
Tagged johnny estrada |
Marty Noble at MLB.com discusses David Wright and National League MVP voting.
“A 30-30 season; career highs in batting average, runs, home runs and stolen bases; and team-best finishes in batting average, slugging percentage, on-base percentage and total bases were factors in Wright receiving the most points among Mets players, 182, in the voting by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.”
Also, Dayn Perry at Fox Sports joins Rob Neyer at ESPN in thinking Wright should have won the NL MVP.
“On the year, Wright authored a batting line of .325 AVG/.416 OBP/.546 SLG with 74 extra-base hits, all while playing his home games in a park that’s quite tough on right-handed batters. Throw in his Gold Glove defense and his 34 steals in 39 attempts, and you’ve got an MVP season. It’s also worth noting that Wright hit like a house afire down the stretch (.394 AVG/.516 OBP/.657 SLG in August and .352 AVG/.432 OBP/.602 SLG in September/October), even as the rest of the team fell apart.”
…you can certainly make a valid argument for wright, no doubt about it, but as brandon eddy mentioned earlier, the images of the mets falling apart down the stretch had to be looming in the writer’s minds when filling out their ballots. meaningless award in the whole scheme of things anyway. everyone associated with the mets knows how important wright is to this team…
At his blog for the Philadelphia Inquirer, Todd Zolecki reports the Phillies acquired OF Chris Snelling from the Rays for cash.
Snelling, who the Rays acquired off waivers, played parts of 2007 with the Nationals and A’s batting .246 with 1 HR and 7 RBI in 69 at-bats.
Tagged Mike Nichols, Phillies |The Red Sox have issued a press release to announce the signing of 3B Mike Lowell to a three-year deal, details have not yet been disclosed.
…no real surprise here, been hearing about it for a few days now, i’ll update with official contract info as soon as i have it…
Update: Rotoworld.com is reporting that the deal is three-years for $37.5 million which he accepted despite an apparent last minute offer from the Phillies of $50 million over four-years.
…the part about the phillies is interesting, they were denying interest in lowell the entire time. if that offer was actually on the table, then lowell must have had a real desire to stay in boston, and i’m glad he did. this should appease the red sox fans as Theo Epstein and company got this one right…
Rob Neyer of ESPN.com makes a strong case for why he believes 3B David Wright should be the 2007 National League MVP.
He says, “It doesn’t bother me that Jimmy Rollins won the NL MVP Award … What bothers me is the utter lack of consistency from year to year … So if you don’t have to play for a playoff team, what’s wrong with David Wright, exactly?”
In 2006, 1B Ryan Howard was crowned the NL MVP, but he missed the playoffs just like Wright did in 2007.
Neyer argues that the Mets collapse should not be held against Wright as he batted .352 in September and scored 48 runs in 54 games from August 2nd through the end of the season.
He also points out that Wright led the NL in a very overlooked statistical category – times on base with 297.
…neyer makes a very strong case for d-wright…however, i hate to admit it, but i think the voters are correct…both wright and rollins had great numbers across the board plus a gold glove each, however it is obvious the Mets late season collapse played heavy on the minds of the voters even though neyer disagrees with that thinking…
According to MLB.com, Phillies’ shortstop Jimmy Rollins has won the 2007 National League MVP Award. Rockies’ outfielder Matt Holliday, came in second place.
David Wright finished in fourth place behind Prince Fielder, and received no first place votes.
…ouch…i regrettably have to say that he talked a big game before the season started and backed it up…this certainly helps to kick a Mets fan when he is down…sour grapes aside, i personally would have voted for holliday who propelled the rockies into the post-season and then, after the fact, on to the world series…
Tagged Regis Courtemanche |According to a report on FOXSports.com, ‘citing major-league sources,’ the Indians are close to an agreement with free-agent RHP Masahide Kobayashi.
Kobayashi is in Cleveland today to take a physical.
He has averaged 31 saves the past seven seasons with the Chiba Lotte Marines, the team managed by Bobby Valentine.
…looks like the indians took a page from the Red Sox (see Hideki Okajima) …kobayashi should be a nice compliment to bullpen workhorses Joe Borowski and Rafael Betancourt…
…by the way, wasn’t there a guy named kobayashi who was looking for keyser soze…
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