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The Mets have signed 29–year old minor-league 1B-OF Valentino Pascucci, who will report to Triple-A New Orleans, according to the team’s 
website.
…looks like some one has been taking the advice of SNY’s Ted Berg, who is the only person i had ever heard mention this man’s name prior to today…
…frankly, i thought pascucci was a 16th century artist…guess not…
Pascucci led the Pacific Coast League with 34 home runs while playing for the Albuquerque Isotopes last season. He finished the year fifth in the league in on-base percentage, fifth in slugging and fifth in extra-base hits.
Speaking of first basemen and outfielders, according to Geoff Baker at his blog for the Seattle Times, Brad Wilkerson has been designated for assignment.
As you know, the M’s now have 10 days to trade, release, or outright Wilkerson to the minors. However, as a veteran, he can refuse the assignment and become a free agent.
Also, the Rangers have designated minor-league 1B Jason Botts for assignment, and will try to trade him, per the player’s request, even though he can simply be returned to the minor leagues.
Botts, who is 6’5”, 250 pounds and a switch hitter, hit .320 with 13 HR and 36 doubles in Triple-A last season, with a .436 OBP, while striking 102 times in 102 games.
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The Isotopes, huh?
Is this the kid who had a 3 HR game vs Shelbyville?
No wasn’t that Homer Simpson? Ohhh wait, he was their mascot!
I’ll see your Hungry Hungry Homer and raise you a Paint Drinking Pete.
You’re thinking about the guy who scored 3 goals for the Ice-o-topes.
Fantastic! So happy to hear about life imitating art…er, cartoons.
“Marge: It’s been a whole week. Why are you letting my husband die? What does it have to do with baseball?
Isotope Exec 1: Death is a part of baseball.
Isotope Exec 2: Oh, yeah, the main part.”
well played Turk… well I’ll be quirky Duff man.
lol okay seems like the mets are stocking up in the 1b dept.
Great…more former Expos.
Beat me to it. :)
If they all play like Church and Schneider I say bring them on!
Hope he’s closer to a Church than a Tatis!
Does anyone know anything about this Pascucci? Is he a possible replacement for Delgado if he continues to stay under the Mendoza line?
On wikipedia and baseball reference, his stats through 2007:
.117 BA
2 HR
6 RBI’s
These stats came while with the Expos in 2004. Sounds like a hall of famer! LOL
He had 62 at bats in 32 games.
Yes but I believe he is one of the Three Tenors.
His AAA numbers are pretty good but he didn’t hit at all in brief stints in Japan or the Majors.
“On April 26, 2004, Pascucci was called up by Montréal from Triple-A Edmonton. He debuted for the Expos in right field later that day. Val, however, was sent back down to the minor leagues on May 28. Pascucci wasn’t called back up to the Majors until September 1, when MLB rosters expanded. He hit his first career home run on September 15, 2004 and also played in the final game of the Expos’ history on October 3.”
We sure have a lot of former Expos in this organization. :)
Great, that means we will dominate in D.C. everywhere else not so much!
Brad Wilkerson was released yesterday by the Rangers. Intriguing…
he also fits the former Expo “criteria”
So prior to this year we were called, the “New York Marlins”. A year later we became the “New York Expos”. What’s next the “New York Braves”? “New York Phillies”?
It honestly is uncanny how many recent big time Mets players came via the Marlins organization……Lieter, Piazza, Cook, Delgado, Lo Duca, Castillo, Looper…
Well, Piazza was a Met for eight days.
Damn, I mean Marlin. Wow that’s the worst typing mistake I have ever made in my entire life! :(
“On April 6, 2007, Pascucci was signed by the Florida Marlins and spent the season with their Triple-A affiliate, the Albuquerque Isotopes. In December 2007, Pascucci signed a minor league contract with the Philadelphia Phillies.”
Well if he doesn’t catch on here, maybe the Braves will give him a shot to complete the NL East Bingo card.
I think this is a shot across the bough of Carlos Delgado. That being said, I think Willie is in hot water right now as well. It seems this team is going to start making some moves.
One other thought and I know this sounds a little crazy. But Ollie is in a walk year, he isn’t going to re-sign with the Mets. Figueroa seems to be a fair replacement for him. When Pedro comes back, the Mets should trade Ollie. They can get some value for him easily. They should also consider trading Heilman. No matter what happens he will always have that inconsistent aura around him.
Figueroa is a nice story, and has done well so far, but Id be skeptical to call him any kind of replacement for the entire season.
“But Ollie is in a walk year”
I wonder if that in itself has created more pressure thus decreased performance?
As someone said in yesterday’s game post he seems to be taking that term literally.
Thank you - you read my post…
Always great to add a nice italian guy to the mix!
The long-awaited replacement for Marco Scutaro
Pasucci strikes me as a Roberto Petagine-type — a guy who’s hit a lot in the minors but for whatever reason never earned more than a cup of coffee in the majors. High OBP guy too. Last year was his 3rd season in AAA and at his age, you’d expect him to dominate if he’s any good. We could do a lot worse if Delgado goes down/fails to get it going. I’d expect Pasucci to be decent if he ever got a shot.
Just think of it this way…
If any of these players hits over .225 with 3 or 4 homers a month, they will be doing better than Delgado.
Check out Jason Botts total minor league numbers. He is a switch hitter that hits LHP better then RHP. He also plays the OF. HMMMMMMM. Sosa for Botts sounds good to me.
Ted Berg also advocated Botts
Seems like the perfect fit to me. I would also at that point explore trading Endy or Pagan.
More Minor League bodies.
I’d like to see the Mets take a look at Botts, switch hitter who was reasonably highly touted, given the way he’s raked in the Minor Leagues, who was just never given a shot to be a full-time MLB player so far. His best look was 160 at-bats last year. But we’re going to be under a bit of a roster crunch as is with Alou and Schneider coming back. Then our bench would be Pagan, Chavez, Anderson, Easley, Casanova/Molina. And I can’t picture us letting one of them go (Although perhaps they should).
You have to trade one of Endy/Pagan. They are too similar to each other unless you move Pagan back to the minors as he has options left but that would seem to be a waste.
He could be the next Ben Johnson! Or Victor Diaz!
Could be, but you would not be giving up much for him either.
Are the Mets serious?
I live 2 minutes from the Iron Pigs stadium (Phillies AAA) and I was at the game Sunday. This guy was botching balls all over the place and he looked awful. He was booed out of the park and released the next day.
PLEASE!! Tell me the Mets don’t think he is the answer to replace Delgado. If so then there mistaken because this guy is not good at all…
Maybe they figure if he’s gonna be booed anyway, he might as well be given a shot here at some point.
Well, let me tell you something about the little I know about him. The Iron Pigs are the Phillies AAA affiliate. The team now plays in Allentown and the stadium is four-tenths of a mile from my house. I have been to about three games so far this year. I have not been impressed at all by his play. On Sunday, he struck out twice and botched a dribbler down the first base line. He has been the whippping boy for the Iron Pigs fans here in Allentown. I mean, they do not boo this team yet since this is their inception year in Allentown, but you already know from the grunts and goans from the crown that he is not a crowd favorite (was).
This is the equivalent, in my mind, to a Jose Lima signing.
i would pick up botts to go along with pascucci. botts is probably the only one that could possibly become a full time starter. wilkerson looks like he’s done and probably not worth throwing $4M prorated at.
Wilkerson would not be needed here. You know what he brings. Botts is very interesting. Kinda the Heath Bell of 1B. Maybe we can get a reverse of that one.<