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In yesterday’s Cleveland Plain Dealer, Paul Hoynes reported that Indians GM Mark Shapiro and Mets GM Omar Minaya met in person on Wednesday night.
…naturally, this has led to a lot speculation that the two must have been discussing trade possibilities…
…from what i understand, the Mets are not looking for pitching…so, i believe we can scratch Cliff Lee from the list…instead, as has been reported quite often in the last week, the Mets continue to shop for an outfielder, who can hit lefties and has some power, such as Xavier Nady, who is barley available, if he’s available at all…for what it’s worth, the Pirates just demoted the one player who would have played in place of nady, had nady been traded…so, make of that what you will…
According to Tim Dierkes from MLB Trade Rumors, three outfield possibilities from Cleveland’s roster could be: Franklin Gutierrez, David Dellucci or Jason Michaels.
In 56 games for the Indians last season, the 34–year-old Dellucci hit just .230 with four HR, while batting .167 against lefties.
…umm, no…pass, please…however, he has been been battling forearm soreness all spring, while missing a lot of time, so, in that sense, he’d fit right in…
Michaels, 31, hit .270 with seven HR in 105 games for Cleveland last year, while batting .287 in 136 at-bats against lefties, during which he hit five home runs.
Michaels has played left, right and center field during his six-year career between Cleveland and Philadelphia.
Meanwhile, Gutierrez, 25, is slated to start in right field for the Indians, and hit .266 with 13 HR in 100 games last year.
Gutierrez hit .330 against left-handed pitching last year, and has a career .309 average in 68 games against lefties in his three major-league seasons.
…obviously, gutierrez is the most exciting of these players, and a guy i would go a bit out of the way to try and acquire…dellucci is not better than Angel Pagan, though…meanwhile, michaels seems fairly comparable to pagan…
…again, the goal must be better than pagan, otherwise i don’t understand giving up yet another young arm for the sake of adding to the outfield…if the Angels want a player like Jon Neise for Juan Rivera, it stands to reason that the Indians will at least want such a player for gutierrez – if not more, considering his slated to be a starter for them…
…that said, if the deal involves clearing a roster spot, or trimming a contract, that could make sense…otherwise i am fine with how the outfield currently stakes up – seeing as how no quality player will be acquired for free or for spare parts…
…of course, there is always the chance that minaya and shapiro just got together to have dinner and talk politics…
Thinking that if they make a deal it means they will trade Gotay and a reliever in a deal
Michaels is not bad but thought they would try and get a guy who can play 1B as well
Have a feeling they will just go with what they have to start the year and wait for Alou……..then use Easley as the main 1B/RF backup with Gotay in the IF
Maybe Omar’s asking about Casey Blake, who can play all over the field.
OR, is he asking about C.C.?
Blake would make sense…solid RH bat, plays 1B/3B/Corner OF…and Cleveland has Andy Marte to play 3rd…the problem is finding something Cleveland needs, at an acceptable price for them.
Thrilledge is better than all of these bums
How about a deal for Andy Marte? I’m purely speculating here, but he seems like the typical Minaya guy….once the top prospect in the game who has fallen from grace and battled small injuries. He can play first, third, and outfield. I’d take a chance on him if the price was right.
Marte actually makes some sense casue he is out of options and the Indians would likely dump him for Gotay……fair deal
but once again does he even play the OF or 1B for that matter……he’s a 3B guy
Gotay is out of options as well, isn’t he?
yea Gotay is out of options, if the Indians are looking to move thier 26th man they cant take one back…
thats why a Marte for a Neise type of guy trade makes sense for both sides.
The problem here is that teams have guys who are no better than Clark or Pagan, or much better. Another problem is that these teams the Mets are looking at dealing with are competitive teams. They want current big league help, and honestly they can get Schoeneweis like production from a AAA call up.
Marte for Neise totally makes no sense as a trade.
Marte’s a specialist 3B - no professional innings logged at any other position. We don’t need a 3B, we like our current one. Even if you do manage to turn Marte into a serviceable 1B/OF, his offensive production is very unlikely to exceed that of Pagan, Easley, Anderson, Endy or Gotay.
And we really can’t afford to be trading away yet another pitching prospect without making an obvious improvement to the team.
I, for one, don’t understand how these infielders even get brought into Mets trade talks. Our primary goal is an outfielder who can play 1B. I keep on hearing about 3B/1B players who possibly can play the outfield….nonsense….
Minaya getting Gutierrez without opening up major holes (Heilman, Pelfrey) is not gonna happen. If Omar can pull off a Gutierrez for Jon Niese, he’ll deserve more credit than he got for landing Santana….i don’t see any way the Mets can get anyone better than Pagan without trading away [our] top talent from the minors or opening up major holes on the major league roster…
I agree, if he gets Gutierrez for only Niese that is incredible. No thanks on Brandon Inge. He is a below average 3B to begin with, and with his contract, just no thank you.
We can throw around names forever but who thinks I am nuts to think that Brandon Inge is a good fit
Tigers will give him away and eat the salary…….he has 3 yrs left at 18 or so million
Scho has 2 yrs at 3
So how about the Tigers who need bullpen help take Schoenweiss at 3 million and give the Mets Inge and Cash to offset the contract?
Inge can play all over the place and hits lefties well…….plus he has been a starter so he can fill in LF for Alou in RF vs Lefties for Church and I am sure he can play 1B for Delgado
maybe throw them Gotay in the deal sicne he is out of options and there is no where to put him……..Tigers also have a surplus of OF’s ………..sure Thames would be great but he is part of the platoon in LF with Jacque Jones
I agree that Inge is agreat fit, but if they want Heilman for Thames, I imagine the price is equitable for Inge.
I agree with Inge as a great fit, but the main reason he wants out of Detroit is because he wants to be an every day player. With the age of the Mets in general, he would probably play a lot, but he wouldn’t be an everyday player with a set role, other than “utility guy,” something he already seems loath to do.
Plus, I think it’s his versatility that’s appealing more than his actual skills. He can play a lot of positions, though most of them at average ability, and his bat has fallen off a lot.
Inge is a horrible fit. He’s a 3B by trade - and he may be will do ok at other positions. The worse part about him is that we’ll be stuck with him for 3 years - and after ‘08 we’ll have no where to put him just like the tigers now. We need a one-year fill in for Alou and Delgado, not a 3 year headache….
Essentially what all this means is that Lastings Milledge must have really really really made himself an enemy of Omar’s. I mean, Church looks awful. Schneider? Well, everyone knows what he is (a light-hitting catcher).
The reality is hitting home. The trade was not in our favor, thus we will need to lose yet another young arm to fix the mistake.
Just stop, Millegde will not even do as well as Church this year. If people will calm down they will appreciate what Church gives us this season a professional who will hit well and field even better while being a great clubhouse guy with no distractions. That is the difference between him and wantabe Milledge.
The very fact that we could get 2 major league starters for Milledge seems like a steal for me.
Yea the Milledge crap needs to stop. It’s over get over it. We got 2 everyday starters for him, and hes still a huge question mark. Some people on this site think Milledge is a lock to make the All-Star team this year.
We would have JOHNNY ESTRADA as our catcher if we didn’t make this deal and we would still have the same exact problem in LF. So not only would we still have a light hitting catcher, but a light hitting catcher who can’t throw anyone out.
Plus its spring training, spring training numbers mean nothing, Church has had 1 season as a everyday player. Lets wait and see.
i think you are both out of line here. telling me to stop? what have you seen from scheider or church in their career that has shown you they are worth anything in a trade. the fact that church looks like billy crystal against lefties doesn’t worry you? i’m okay with schneider because most catchers can’t hit and he has a good reputation as a defensive catcher, but he’s not going to hit, and church does’t really hit.
i’m not saying milledge is going to have a better season than anyone right now, but damn, guys, this looks like a bad trade. it looked bad when they made and it’s looking worse now.
it’ll be a while before this milledge stuff with stop. sorry.
I think the key for you is realizing that in 2008 Schnider and Church are more valuable to the Mets than Milledge. There is no other argument that needs to be made here.
Come 2009 or 2010, you can bring this up again, but as of today we have a great defensive catcher and a RF who will produce comparable numbers to Milledge in 2008. I agree with you that a few years down the line, Milledge will be more valuable than both of these combined, squared, and multiplied by 5, but in 2008 his value is less [to the Mets] than these 2 guys….
so, we make decisions based on one year? and, we compare the production of players to one? not the way to look at.
of *two players to one?
What you need to realize is what someone pointed out to me earlier this week: if we didn’t ship LMillz out for Schneider and Church, he would have most likely been part of the Santana deal. Think about it. We got 3 for 5 instead of 1 for 4…
That is… 3 Major League-ready players for 5 prospects… Sounds a lot better now, huh.
Errr… Major LeaguERs…
TGIF.
i don’t know. minny said they didn’t want him. he most likely wouldn’t have been in the deal. but, let’s just say he would have been. we probably have carlos gomez now. or guerra, or mulvey, or humber. probably not a 5 for 1.
Just because they’re starters doesn’t make them good.
Exactly. Something that seems interesting to me is that I get the impression, that if we made a trade like say… Milledge for Ivan Rodriguez and Marcus Thames, people would callit a steal, and a fleecing, and things like that. I for one will take Schneider over Pudge everyday and twice on sunday. Schneider and Church are both solid, underated players. I remember when Paul Oneil couldnt hit left handed pitching either before the Yankees gave him a chance. We have a guy in Church, in his prime coming into a solid lineup, with a chance to finally get 600 at bats, and a top 5 defensive catcher, who still provides more offensive production then Lo Duca, despite batting 50 points lower. Schneider is only one of a handful of guys to have an 86 percent contact rate, and a 11 percent walk rate, and he will be batting 8th. I cant understand how anybody can complain about this trade, while blessing the Santana trade. We are in win-now mode.
We will not know how bad of a trade this is until or should i say if milledge lives up to his hype. I for one think it was a great trade considering how his trade value diminished once he got to the ML. If i remember correctly there was an article in some NY newspaper that said the Twins did not even want milledge in the trade for Santana. IF milledge was sooooo good as people say he is going to be, why settle for carlos gomez. Think about that for a second. The whole reason Minaya traded milledge’s a** was because he would not make a differance in the Santana trade. So with one move Minaya trades away a player who might not be as good as people say and is a constant distraction to fill two voids. People we would still be in the same predicament if not worse if Minaya did not do what he did. WE WOULD HAVE JHONNY ESTRADA AS OUR CATCHER!! HELLO!! that enough should send up red flags. Look we got a young defensivly sound catcher in schnieder and we got a DEPENDABLE(key word) defender in Church(something we may have never gotten with milledge at least for a few more years). 2 good dependable players for one player who may not live up to his hype. Id say we came out on top with that deal not to mention they are both lefties which h