Lennon Makes Case for Estrada
David Lennon wrote a nice post yesterday in the On the Mets Beat blog making the case that Johnny Estrada would not be a bad option to start at catcher.
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Shea Logo Unvelied
The Mets have unveiled a logo celebrating the 45th and final season of Shea Stadium. The logo will be used in many places including schedules and yearbooks as well as a commemorative patch to be worn on the players uniforms. In the coming weeks the Mets will announce several promotional dates revolving around Shea history.
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Mets Get Estrada for Mota
The Mets have rid themselves of Guillermo Mota and may have helped their catching situation at the same time. Mota was acquired at the trade deadline during the 2006 when Duaner Sanchez was hurt in a taxi accident in Miami and had a pretty good run for the remainder of the season. During the off season he was suspended for 50 for using a banned substance which he later admitted was steroids. The Mets signed him to a 2 year deal anyway and after serving his suspension he pitched in 52 games posting a 5.76 ERA. But with Sanchez, who sat out the 2007 season with an unrelated injury, slated to return and all the bad press it was clearly time to send Mota packing.
Last night the Mets found a taker for the troubled reliever in the Milwaukee Brewers and got catcher Johnny Estrada in the process. Estrada is a former all star who had a bad year that he blamed on bone spurs in his right elbow. Last month he had surgery to remove the bone spurs as well as arthroscopic surgery on his left knee and is expected to be ready for spring training. He became available due to the Brewers intent on signing free agent catcher Jason Kendall.
The great thing about this trade is how the Mets managed to fill a need while ridding themselves of a problem (as well as the $3.2 million left on his contract) and not giving up any bargaining chips that could be used for pitching. It also makes sense to settle the catching position before acquiring pitching because having a good receiver makes the team look more attractive to prospective battery mates.
The move does not preclude the Mets acquiring another catcher to fill the position. Estrada is arbitration eligible and should the Mets trade for another front line catcher, such as Baltimore’s Ramon Hernandez, the Mets could simply non tender Estrada making him a free agent. If this happens the Mets will not owe Mota or Estrada any money. In this way Estrada is an insurance policy. It’s like Omar Minaya is saying let’s keep this guy in our back pocket and see if we could do any better. Worst case scenario this move gets rid of a PR nightmare in Mota.
This is definitely a win-win deal for the Mets.
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Rollins Named NL MVP
One of the most hated players by Mets fans, Jimmy Rollins, was named National League MVP for the 2007 season. Rollins irked Mets fans by proclaiming the Phillies to be the team to beat in the NL East before the season started. He went on to hit .296 with 30 home runes, 96 RBIs, 139 runs scored and 41 stolen bases. With 353 points Rollins finished just 17 points ahead of second place finisher Matt Holliday. David Wright finished fourth with 182 points. More details on how the voting went can be found on the 2007 MLB Awards page.
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ESPN Picks NL MVP
With the National League MVP award to be announced at 2:00 pm Eastern time today ESPN.com has posted their pick based on a poll of 20 of their writers. Jimmy Rollins was the runaway winner with 13 votes followed by Matt Holliday with 4 votes. Rounding out the field with 3 votes was the Mets David Wright. Wrights votes came from Rob Neyer, Keith Law and Jonah Keri.
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Castillo Signed to 4 Year Deal
The Mets held a conference call yesterday to announce the re-signing of second baseman Luis Castillo to a 4 year, $25 million deal. The announcement came as no surprise as the deal had been rumored for a few days and the terms were leaked earlier in the day.
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Minaya And Randolph Relationship
Looks like there may be some tension in Metsville between manger Willie Randolph and general manager Omar Minaya. While serving up food at the Bowery Mission yesterday Randolph was asked about the tams catching situation and Paul Lo Duca in particualr. His response:
“I’m only the manager, not and the general manager and this is a group decision, but Paulie could play for me any day.”
I think I read similar comments said by Randolph yesterday. The kind of responses you get when you ask a convenience store clerk when you ask when a new shipment of an out of stock item will be received. “I don’t know. I just work here.” Is this a sign that the relationship between Randolph and Minaya is deteriorating? Or is Randolph already bowing to the pressure to prove himself after last seasons massive collapse? Or is this just a standard answer Randolph came up with to put people off when asked about personnel issues that he really has little or no control over?
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ARod MVP
Alex Rodriguez has won his third MVP award. The former and future Yankee third baseman led the American league with 54 home runs, established career highs with 143 runs scored and 156 RBIs and batted for a .314 average. Details on how the voting went can be found on the 2007 MLB Awards page.
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Crasnick on Boras
Jerry Crasnick writes about super agent Scott Boras’ really bad week last week. Crasnick analyzes Boras’ standing after the Alex Rodriguez debacle and firing by Kenny Rogers.
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White Sox Trade Garland
The Chicago White Sox have traded starting pitcher Jon Garland to the Los Angeles Angels in exchange for shortstop Orlando Cabrera. Garland was one of many names that have been bandied about during the off season as a trade possibility with the Mets mentioned at some point as a potential landing point. Though the likelihood of Garland becoming a Met was never very serious the affect of this trade could in fact impact the Mets as it thins out the an already anorexic pitching market making it more expensive for the Mets to land a front line starter via trade, as Omar Minaya has said he plans to do.
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