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According to Johnette Howard in Newsday, the time has come for David Wright to step up and become the vocal leader in the team’s clubhouse.
Also in Newsday, David Lennon explains why Willie Randolph should return Ryan Church to batting second in the lineup.
Kristin from We’ve Got Heart provides a Q&A with Nationals C Paul Lo Duca, who says he was disappointed that he missed playing against the Mets at Shea Stadium in April.
Lastly, in his Rumblings & Grumblings column for ESPN.com, Jayson Stark suggests that if a team were to trade for Barry Zito, the Giants will have to eat at least $80 million of his contract.
According to Stark, citing a scout, Zito’s only hope may be to reunite with Rick Peterson.
Barry Zito may be the biggest bullet the Mets ever dodged.
Each day Delgado dreams of a world where the mets had Zito, and every 5th day Delgado could live in peace and quiet.
lol, great post
Hypothetically speaking…if the Mets traded for Zito, do you think Peterson would be any help in searching his mechanics?
ohhhhhh no no no no no….no barry zitoooooo..please
Peterson cant fix his velocity… or maybe he can, he did fix zambrano in record time.
if they get him they better take the risk and just shoot him with some juice
i love this idea. worth the risk. he’d have to pass a physical, right?
80 million would make the contract around 40 for a little less than 6 years.
That is not a horrible contract if he could be fixed. My question is, would MLB even allow a team to eat that much contract and would the Giants even do it? They would have to decide that Zito is not even worth 8 million a year.
$7 million/year for six years for a pitcher with the league worst ERA (7.53) sounds pretty horrible to me. Plus I don’t get the feeling that Zito has the personality to thrive under the bright lights of New York.
IF HE COULD BE FIXED. That is up to Peterson and Omar. If he sees something that is up and thinks he could it would be worth a risk. If not then no way.
My only concern about this is Barry Zito seemed to do pretty well all of those years after Peterson left and he was still pitching for the A’s.
He has only seemed to struggle since going to the National League, not since he lost Peterson as his coach.
well if the Mets keep pitching like this Peterson will be free to join Zito on whatever team he is on next year…
I like Peterson don’t get me wrong, but I love how he gets credit for any pitcher who pitches better when they get to the mets, but any pitcher who fails to perform who doesn’t get called out on. I guess if Peterson can’t make you better, you are not fixable.
*he doesn’t get called out on
I agree. Let Peterson go now and let’s get a pitching coach who preaches throwing strikes and keeping the pitch count down! Peterson has sucked with the mets young pitchers. it’s time for him to go…
You know who preaches throwing strikes and keeping the ball down?
Rick Peterson.
Let’s not start the Church hitting #2 part again. He is our best RBI man right now and needs to be in an RBI position. Castillo is doing fine in the 2 spot. Our lineup will be deep enough with
Reyes, Castillo, Wright, Beltran, Church, Alou, Delgado, Schnieder and even better when Castro comes back to face LH and you can go with Alou, Easley, Castro.
I agree, having Church and Alou in the later RBI spots makes the Mets lineup potent for big innings. Putting Church second makes the bottom of the lineup weaker, and limits Castillo’s abilities.
I’m sure everyone will get on me about this, but trading Perez and Heilman for Abreau would be a good deal, and something I think the Yankees would seriously consider.
The problem with that is, where do you put Alou? Alou and Abreu are not platoon players. Granted, Alou gets hurt a lot, but what do you do for those 80 games or so when he is in the lineup?
Yup, if we get anyone it should be a 1B/OF guy. Abreu is something we could look at next season. I would not trade Perez yet until Pedro is back and Pelfrey and Figgy get more time to prove themselves. Besides Abreu is in his walk year too right?
“I’m sure everyone will get on me about this”
Uh yea.
-Lets get older than we already are.
-Just thinking of Abreu trying to catch a ball near the wall scares the hell out of me.
-Were not going to, but if we were to package Perez and Heilman, you better get a LOT more than an aging slugger.
-What will trading Perez do except suck the depth out of are rotation. You think you’ll get someone better than him in a deal?
-Letes not crucify Perez after his horrible outing.
Heilman I would trade if we could get some value in return.
I agree, the only way I trade Perez and Heilman is if I get a SP in return.
You tell Alou or Abreau to pick up a first base mit and swap delgados bat out of the lineup. Plus I’m done letting old fragile players like Alou and El Duque handcuff what this team does. Alou is done after this year and so is Delgado. I’m not sure if it is Abreau’s walk you, but you just trade with the contingency that he signs an extension. Perez is in his walk year too. Church, Beltran, and Abreau isn’t a bad outfield for the next few years. Then you plug FMart into 1st base.
Ok so you want to switch Alou and Abreu’s positions in one’s last year and one’s walk year. Where do you guys get the idea that a player can just change positions over night?
There are better options out there than to trade for an OF and turn him into a 1B.
I’d prefer Alou switch to first base. Delgado’s defense already leaves a lot to be desired. Alou is just waiting to get injured in that outfield. I am not going to cater to Alou anymore - if you want to play for Mets learn first base, we have already paid you enough money to vacation for half of seasons at a time.
No Abreu! He is the last thing this team needs. He will fit right in with the low key attitude and lack of toughness. Did you see him fail to catch two balls last night near the wall? He is atrociuos in the outfield. Also, the Phillies got much better after they traded him to the yankees. What does that tell you about his influence on a team? He would be another non-leader type of player. No thanks…
I have to pass on Bobby Abreu. I’m sorry. The guy is just way too soft to be walking in to a stadium that is already chomping at the bit to boo someone. Aside from the fact that I don’t want an ex-Phillies/ex-Yankees player on this team, I also watched him last night back track to the wall and miss two very catchable balls.
The guy came to the Yankees with the reputation of being afraid of the wall and I see why.
Why do you think that Alou would be able to play 1B as well as Delgado? And if you are tired of catering to Alou then you don’t want his bat at all. Just release him then. If he is going to be here then you find a guy that can play 1B/OF and bring him in. Get a RH guy and he can play for Deldgado against LH and fill in for Alou when he needs a break.
Alou at 42 years old will not play first base. He will most likely retire after this year. And even if you were to entertain that idea, what will we do with delgado…Have him benched for pinch hitting duties(not even sure if he can do that)..talk about a waste of money. And we are still left with the same problem. Who plays OF. Pagan has come back to earth offensivly and his defense is not inspiring/ Endy has great defense but his offense is not inspiring. Trust me alou will be our LF period.
I agree, you find a RH OF/1B guy that can fill in for Delgado against LHP and give Alou a break at times as well. That’s why I like the idea of Botts. He is a switch hitter that hits LHP better than RHP. He would be perfect for that.
i don’t know, it seems like ever since castillo was acquired and hitting 2nd behind reyes, reyes started that deep slump… I don’t remember who the #2 hitter was in 06, i think it was an assortment of different players, but I remember him thriving without this prototypical #2 hitter behind him… Can we get some stats on reyes’ numbers since castillo was acquired and has been batting 2nd… I also remember ryan church basically leading the league in runs those 5 games he batted 2nd with i think 10-12 runs scored…
It always seems like Wright is getting up with 2 out, or leading off the inning…
To justify trading for Zito, the Giants would have to include salary *and* at least one prospect. I’m sure they’ll discuss with Peterson and their scouts whether anything can be done to improve Zito. Has he lost velocity?
He has lost lot’s of velocity.
He was always a soft tosser. His pitch is the looping curveball. I wouldn’t mind it if the Giants ate half his salary.
I wouldn’t give them much in the way of prospects though. We’ll be taking their horrific contract.
are you guys not paying attention? I can’t believe some people would actually want to trade for Zito. The guy used to throw around 90 mph on his fastball, and down to 86-88 the past few years. Now, he’s at 81-83, and his change up, is only a few mph’s slower then that, which makes it ENTIRELY ineffective, along with that curveball, that no one has ANY reason swinging at anymore. Zito, with the way he’s pitching, is easily one of the worst pitchers in the game right now. Players are batting over .330 against him! That’s horrible! Zito is horrible right now, and beginning to discuss trading for him makes absolutely no sense.