Read: MLBTR’s Q&A with Bannister
In a post to MLB Trade Rumors, Tim Dierkes has a long talk with Royals RHP Brian Bannister, who was traded to Kansas City by 
the Mets during last off-season.
Bannister, on his reaction after being traded to the Royals…
“As baseball players, all we want is an opportunity to play. I don’t know what plans the Mets had for me in 2007 before the trade, but I knew that the Royals wanted me to step up and be in the starting rotation right away, and that’s all I could ask for. The Mets will always be very special to me…I have a lot of respect for the Wilpon family and the way they run their organization, the coaches that made sacrifices for me, and the fans that supported me.”
In 27 starts for the Royals last season, Bannister was 12–9 with a 3.87 ERA, though he struggled in September going 1–2 in five starts with a 7.30 ERA.
…for the record, i wrote the following on the day that Brian Bannister was traded for Ambiorix Burgos…
…i am disappointed to see bannister go…however, the Mets have a lot of bannister’s at this point, be it John Maine, Oliver Perez, Philip Humber, or Mike Pelfrey, i.e., young, very promising starting pitchers…what they do not have is a collection of strong, power-arms in the bullpen, and burgos is just that…in other words, the Mets traded from strength to fill a weakness…and i am cool with that…
…also for what it’s worth, you’ll be hard pressed to find a fellow blogger who was overtly passionate about seeing bannister go…frankly, i liked bannister, not only because he is into photography, like me, but because i always admired his poise and pedigree, two things that can never be underrated when staffing a team in new york…that being said, there is no way to know that bannister would have duplicated his impressive stats from the last-place Royals here in new york, for the Mets, in a ridiculously wild, pressure-packed pennant race…personally, i suspect he would have done fine, but who knows…
…in hindsight, this trade is not helped out by the fact that burgos has been nowhere to be found…he underwent Tommy John surgery in late August and has been off the grid ever since…
In late October of last year, Mets GM Omar Minaya told reporters that Burgos will likely miss most of next season, though it’s possible he could pitch towards the end of the year.
