In his Sunday Q&A, for the New York Post, 
Steve Serby talks with Livan Hernandez about longevity; pitching in New York; facing the Yankees; playing for Jim Leyland; other pitchers he admires; his favorite entertainer, Jay Z; and how he would handle Johan Santana, if he were his manager.
According to Michael Ganci, in a post to the Daily Stache, Omar Minaya has some tough decisions to make as he gets closer to the trade deadline.
Joel Sherman of the New York Post explains how other teams in the NL East, not just the Mets, have problems as well.
Lastly, Joe DelGrippo of Dugout Central wonders if the Mets wish they had not traded 1B Mike Carp to the Mariners for J.J. Putz.
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I don’t think anyone here thought the Putz deal was a bad one. On another note I watched the Astros highlights the other day and saw Jeff Keppinger still chopping away. He may have been the 2nd base option we need right now. Anyone know his stats?
Kepp has hit well just about everywhere he has gone, but I think the Mets really disliked his glove and had nowhere to move he really isn’t that great to play a premium hitting position. He’s had a nice career as a part time starter, but he needs to be on teams that don’t value defense like the Reds to get PT.
Jason Vargas has also pitched well for the Mariners as a fill in starter. Nieve has been better though so I guess its just as well.
The real issue regarding Putz will be if the Mets can get back equal value when trading Putz this upcoming offseason. I doubt then can, and will like have no choice but to have a 9 mil set up man.
Unless Putz is “lights out ” when he returns in August I honestly see the Mets considering releasing him if they can’t trade him ( which is going to be tough due to the injury) 9 million bucs for a setup man is pretty steep considering the Mets already have the low cost Bobby Parnell fully capable of pitching the 8th as long as Jerry does run him out here 3 weeks in a row! And it’s not like they need him with K-rod aboard. The Mets will have to find a team desperate for a closer and I hate to say they may end up paying 2 or 3 million of his salary. With that said I still don’t think the Putz trade was a bad one, especially considering we got Sean Greene in the same deal. I would have scrutinized his elbow a little closer though, and probably made him get it cleaned out (bone spur removed) as a part of the deal in the offseason that way he would have been good to go by the start of the season. As they say though hindsight is 20/20, but then again if the Mets had known what they had in Parnell, I don’t think they make the trade for Putz..
keep in mind that they gave up Joe Smith as well to get Sean Green… which is basically a wash imo.
The buyout on Putz contract is only 1.0 mil, so the Mets better not be paying some of his salary to pitch for another team next year. They’ll need to make the tough call on that buy out first.
Oh, maybe not a “bad one” but Putz was hurt coming off an injury riddled set of years and Carp was the one player the Mets should NOT have let go of in that deal.
His stats with Seattle at the moment are irrelevant as he has hit 7 times.
Keppinger stinks and has been dismissed by a half dozen teams in his career already. Perhaps he has a bit of a personality problem.
I thought the Mets had options next year w/ Putz?
If not, eat some salary and bundle him up in a trade.
Someone will need a good closer, if only Putz comes back and redeems himself.
You could also keep Putz and if he shows he is healthy you can than turnaround and trade him around mid season to a team in need. The Mets have a lot of options on how to handle JJ so it will be interesting.
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