Memories of Phil Maton Light the Corners of My Mind

[Edgy MD]

We slept through it, but back on Thursday, the Cardinals swooped in and signed Phil Maton to a major-league contract.



It was, of course, the least swoopy swoop in the history of swooping, as the Cards had, amazingly, gone the whole offseason without signing a free agent to a major-league contract, until finally concluding on March 13 that Phil was their missing piece.



As Gabe Kaplan said about his Aunt Rose, Phil was really great, but he was eighty-eight.



[FIMG=600]https://www.reuters.com/resizer/v2/QYIKLGEPFNMB7CXUZODOALUSOI.jpg?auth=7a4a082e741da03ef169f21bda9609195f27164445d09849f3242edb4ae1aed3&width=1080&quality=80[/FIMG]

[MFS62]

Edgy MD wrote: We slept through it, but back on Thursday, the Cardinals swooped in and signed Phil Maton to a major-league contract.

Fmann posted it on the 13th in the Former Mets, Current Situations thread.

https://phpbb3.leaptoad.com/mets/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=34130https://phpbb3.leaptoad.com/mets/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=34130



8 is a lucky number in Chinese culture.

88 is even luckier.

I wonder if Phil knew that when he got his number.



Later

[roger_that]

I'm not clear why we didn't snap him up while he was available for snapping. He was awfully good last year, wasn't he? I thought so.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

Acquired from the Rays a week or so ahead of the trade deadline and as a result nobody really saw him as a trade deadline acquisition, then it dawned it them once the Mets got good.

[Cowtipper]

We have a weak bullpen.



Phil Maton coming back would have made that bullpen a lot less weak.



Instead they brought back Ryne Stanek.



I liked Maton for what he was. A decent pitcher and partial-season fly-by-nighter a la Graeme Lloyd or Steve Reed.

[Edgy MD]

While it isn't a memory, per se, I'm not sure I see a reason why Maton would be a better bullpen piece than Stanek, or why Stanek would be better than Maton.



Like Casey Daigle before him, Phil is a reliever who found a wife in the amateur softball ranks. He also has a brother Nick who is a utility infielder currently with the White Sox. That isn't bad for a family from Paducah, although the Matons had lit out for Chatham, IL, by the time Nick came along.

[Cowtipper]

Stanek: 6.06 ERA, 69 ERA+ with the Mets

Maton: 2.51 ERA, 150 ERA+ with the Mets



Yeah, I can't see why Maton would be a better pick than Stanek, either.

[Edgy MD]

Is that sarcasm I detect?