In a column for the New York Times, Jack Curry takes a look at 12 free agents, not named Sabathia, Teixeira or Ramirez, such 
as Orlando Hudson, Derek Lowe, Juan Cruz and Joe Beimel.
According to Curry, “If the Mets ate most of the $18 million left on Luis Castillo’s contract and traded him, they could sign Hudson. Still, GM Omar Minaya said, ‘Right now, I think Castillo is going to be our second baseman.’
…i love how that is prefaced by, ‘Right now,’ which is classic…i mean, right now, it’s Monday…tomorrow, it will not be…
…i sense the Mets have interest in hudson, and they like him a lot, for a variety of reasons, but i do not think he’s a priority – at least in terms of how they spend their money, and how to fill the roster…if, for some reason, they get iced out of other positions, like left field, or catcher, etc., things could change…
By the way, speaking of second base, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Cardinals 2B Adam Kennedy requested a trade in late August of last season.
{ 38 comments }
I don’t understand why Murphy doesn’t seem to be getting a serious look. He’d have to be historically bad defensively to be less valuable overall than Castillo. I mean I’d expect he’d be a pretty poor defensive 2nd basemen but at least he’d be a poor defensive second basemen who’d be useful offensively. Castillo is just useless at this point.
Because 2B is a premium defensive position. You can live with the defense if the player has a + bat, but NOT at a position that requires such skill and importance that 2B does.
LF, RF, 1B. Haven’t you noticed, those are the positions many in the Mets hierarchy project Murphy to be playing? He’s that bad, defensively (especially his feet)…
Haven’t you noticed we’re talking about Castillo who is bad defensively and offensively? I’m not saying Murphy as a long-term solution at 2b. I’m saying Murphy over Castillo.
Tim Teuffel was no great shakes with the glove. Why bring this up? Just cuz.
This is simply bad analysis. A player contributes to his team with his bat and his glove. Any number of runs he gives up with his bat, he can regain with his glove and vice-versa. This is as true with 2nd base as with left field. Runs are totally fungible. A run created is the same as a run saved.
It’s like that commercial where a kid is mad because his brother is getting all the new minutes and he only gets the rollovers. A minute is a minute.
If you had a player who was -15 runs defensively, but +35 runs offensively at 2nd base (and this is how I would project Murphy) you have a very valuable player who is worth 20 runs overall. Furthermore, if Murphy at 1st base would be, say, 0 and +15 (which is reasonable) he is then more valuable at 2nd than at 1st, even with the worse defense.
Consider that the very organization that seems to be selling Murphy short is giving consideration to Raul Ibañez, who is worse in LF than Murphy is at 2nd base, and probably only marginally better offensively.
Murphy strikes me as the kind of player who can play almost any position somewhat poorly and none particularly well. The best thing to do with a player like that is to stick him where his bat will be most useful, because no matter where you put him, he won’t help you on defense, nor will he kill you.
Well Murphy has said it himself… when asked what position he plays, he said he’s a batter.
“Any number of runs he gives up with his bat, he can regain with his glove and vice-versa.”
That’s overstating it a bit. Few are the players who in the field can overcome truly impotent numbers at the plate.
People used to say things about Rey Ordonez “saving 1-2 runs a game.” No player on defense does that. Defense should not be overlooked, but it shouldn’t be overvalued either.
I wouldnt say hes useless. He has a contract that pays him a lot of money for nothing so hes worse than useless
yea Bobby bonilla-esq
Bonilla was good. Good and terrible.
I was referring to his excellent contract that paid him after he was gone.
I think they are still paying him.
lmao…
mo vaughan did pretty well for himself too.
hell, el duque made 8 mil this year just for having a bunion.
Omar can’t come out and say that, Castillo needs to have some sort of value to our team for him to have perceived value on the trade market. I actually agree with Matt on this one. The priority will be other positions, but could turn in 2B if those other situations don’t work out. It’s just a tough situation, how do you deal with a 3yrs/$18mill for a Castillo type player? Not easy. And I mean, we did win a bunch of games with Argenis Reyes playing everyday, so who knows. D should continue to be big there, and an upgrade at either catcher or LF is a must. We certainly cannot have another year of 2 blackholes in our lineup.
Hudson has declined drastically at 2b too. If our options are bad defensive second baseman, slightly worse defensive second baseman and slightly worst than slightly worse defensive second baseman, take the dude with the best bat.
Hudson finished in the top 5 in Bill James’ defensive list. He finished ahead of Brain Roberts
That wasn’t Bill James defensive list. It was a list based on a panel of voters of baseball media guys and what not, Bill James just happens to be one of the voters.
Yeah, but James voted Hudson 6th and he voted Brian Roberts 8th.
He also voted D-Wright second best at third.
well that would be Hudson…
Maybe soon Murphy, but when healthy Hudson has proven what he can do.
And he’s not that bad defensivly…he hasnt made more than 15 errors in a season b4.
And hes not THAT injury prone.
the guy has played in 130 or more games in 5 of his 7 seasons. but only over 150 once. That looks like minor injuries.
But Id sign for 130 games for a guy that hits around 30 doubles, 10 triples, 10 HR, and 60-70 RBI and around .280 avg
the relationship between middle infielders and errors is slightly overrated. jeff kent gets fewer chances than orlando hudson, so he has fewer chances for errors. (ask chipper about that)
I agree Gina,
Some people act as if they’ve seen Murphy play over and over again at 2nd base and that he apparently is really bad at it. I mean nobody really knows and if we had Murphy at 2nd we could get some big bat for Left Field because if we don’t have Murphy at 2nd and we don’t get Orlando Hudson, who do we project to play 2nd? Castillo again? If we can fill holes with guys that we already have why not do it?
I am not saying that Murphy is the answer at 2nd i’m just saying it should be given consideration.
It doesn’t sound bad having Murphy AND Orlando playing for us.
Although I would love Orlando Hudson at second. TheReal made a good suggestion in having Mark Grudzilanek replace Castillo.
I don’t know what the answer is, but it’s definitely NOT Hudson. We are trying to get rid of one lousy contract so we can sign the next one? He’s at that age when 2b start to fall apart and for some miraculous reason, he wants to come here? STAY AWAY!!! I can live with Murphy, I can live with a lot of things, but I definitely do not want to get rid of Limpy McSlapster just to bring in the next bad contract to replace him and pay them both. There are a ton of options out there, but Hudson shouldn’t be one of them because of his Type A status and contract demands. Unless he puts his money where his mouth is, and decides he will play for less than market value, because he wants to play for the Mets, they need to stay away. And can anyone actually see that happening? The whole reason he wants to come here is because he has $$ in his eyes. No thanks.
Well, he did say he woudl take less money to play for the Mets. The question is how much less. If you figure that even a reasonable contract woudl mean that the Mets would have Castillo’s contract and Hudson’s contract sunk into one position. Say $6M per year plus Castillo’s $8M………that is $14M locked up into a second baseman.
100% agree with your comment. I want to see murphy playing 2nd base. It’s way easier to fill in the void in the Outfield, and Murphy has been working hard at 2nd in the minors. I don’t know how good or bad he is, but when the Minor league blog was reviewing his play they said he was adequate. That’s fine with me. Easily was adeduate fielding with a decent bat, and Reyes was good fielding with no bat. So I’d rather get someone who consistently puts up great at bats and take what you get with the defense. This was a guy who has played SS, 3rd, LF, 1st in his life. I’d say he should be able to transition and be decent there.
Dan Uggla is bad defensively, but he doesn’t kill the team. In fact he had only 13 errors which was 2 more then the Castillo/Easily combo had. he also had a 981 fielding percentage only 2 points lower then the Castillo/Easily combo. Do I think Murphy can do that while out producing offensively what was at 2nd last season. 100% I can see that. I think that’s why it’s Omar’s lowest concern for this team.
pretty obvious that our infield for ‘09 will include castillo.
even if we ate the contract, who the heck wants him?
matter of fact,who but omar wanted him last year?
as for murphy,anyone on this blog ever hear of greg jefferies?
hopefully,murphy will be eased in playing LF,RF,1B,2B&3B.
kind of a 10th man.
Who, as in Whou-ston :-)
Omar is a complete joke if Castillo is back at 2B. Cut your losses already.
I don’t think there is any problem with bringing Castillo back at 2B next year….if they can trade for Russell Martin and bat him 2nd. Otherwise, 7-8-9 of Schneider-Castillo-Pitcher will never beat the Phillies.
funny. but opening day not only will luis be our 2B
but he’ll be batting second.
b/t/w, how does omar cut his loses?by eating 18mil?
yea…at his point hes gonna try and get something for that 18 mil…whatever it be…doormat for the new clubhouse or maybe a few more “castillo grounds into double play” or “castillo auditions for a role as the most painful walk to watch”
b/t/w part2. I love the stories here lately that
pedro and duque have filed for FA indicating thats
pretty much the end of their Met careers.
Given omars track record what would make anyone
think that?
I think moving castillo while eating the contract
might cause even the wilpons to question,
why’d we sign him in the the first place omar??.
Eating the $18 million or working out some buyout is what they will need to do with Castillo if they cant trade him to offset some of his contract. Addition by subtraction is very important going into next year. The Mets did it in ‘99 with Bonilla and they went to the World Series the next year. By even considering Castillo as part of the team next year, has me really questioning why in the world Minaya was brought back. His complacency is a complete joke.
My God if I see Castillo’s mug come Apri wearing a Mets hat Im going to vomit on the television. Seriously.
*April
Stay away from Hudson. Destined to end bad. His perceptin 9nad contract demands) just don’t seem to equate to his salary demands. ANd all the grit and clubhouse rah rah ain’t gonna overcome a weak bat and shot D. And at 2B for the Mets, off 2 straight wrist injuries and pushin into his 30s, no chance he improves!
luis I don’t want back. Least favorite met, by far. Cut him if need be.
Look at it this way. No one seemed to have a problem paying Duque 8 mill to not play last year. Paying Luis 6 mill to not play this year shouldn’t be so bad then! Actually better than paying him and he plays!
Just let Murphy have the job. Just don’t announce it until they pawn Castillo off on some other team..
Actually, Murhpy taking 2B makes life for Omar much easier. major hole filled, and Murhpy gets a home. And he is cheap.
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