Rico Brogna, Good Fit (and other ex-Met updates)

[Guest Swan Swan H]

A new-board restart for one of my favorite threads, the ezboard version of which was started by The Big Train.

Ol' Dolphin Face has been [url=http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ap-braves-hampton&prov=ap&type=lgns] disabled again [/url] by the Braves.

Also, Eddie Murray has been [url=http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=indiansmurray&prov=st&type=lgns] fired[/url] as hitting coach by Cleveland.

[Guest ScarletKnight41]

I've always found the phrase strange when I read that a team has disabled a player. It sounds like they took him out back and roughed him over.

[Guest Swan Swan H]

If I ever read that the Yanks disabled Kevin Brown or Jason Giambi, that just might be the case.

[Guest Nymr83]

lol. i have a Brogna jersey in my closet to this day.

[Guest Elster88]

Kenny Rogers leading the AL with an ERA around 1.70.

[Guest ScarletKnight41]

Elster - who were you at ezBoard?

[Guest Elster88]

ejflor. Gender = M

[Guest Edgy DC]

Toby Borland is still bringing it with the Memphis Redbirds.

Gus Bell's granddaughter misses him.

[Guest Swan Swan H]

Goings:

Ty Wigginton sent to Indianapolis by the Pirates.

Todd Greene (COL) and Roger Cedeno (StL) placed on the disabled list with strained right hamstrings.

[Guest MFS62]

]Oakland Athletics - Recalled outfielder Matt Watson from Sacramento of the Pacific Coast League (AAA); Washington Nationals - optioned pitcher C.J. Nitkowski to New Orleans.

Later

[Guest Edgy DC]

This day in 1980, the Cards fired ex-Met third basemanKen Bouyer as manager and replaced him with ex-Met executive/scout/coach Whitey Herzog.

[Guest Willets Point]

And the Mets paid dearly for that throughout the 1980's. Except for the Hernandez trade of course.

[Guest seawolf17]

Not really an update, but a neat tidbit:

Signed with New York Mets as a free agent on June 10, 1980.
Signed with New York Mets as a free agent on June 9, 1990.

No sense making a quiz out of this, because it's easy enough to figure out from the UMDB... but it's from [url=http://leaptoad.com/mets/profile.php?PlayerCode=0335]Doug Sisk[/url]'s Mets transaction history. He signed with the club almost ten years to the day from the first time he signed with them. Weird.

[Guest ScarletKnight41]

Sisk came back in 1990?

I have no memory of that. Then again, my oldest child was an infant at the time, so I was kind of busy. Just as well.

[Guest Edgy DC]

He signed with the Mets in 1990, but never appeared for them.

[Guest ScarletKnight41]

OK - thanks. I'm glad to hear that I wasn't totally out of touch.

Although the Dallas Green years are a major blur for me.

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

What a disappointment Dallas was.

When the Mets hired him, I thought he was a great choice.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Neil Allen returns to St. Louis and looks back, full of wist.

Does anybody recall any specific reports of Allen's supposed wild nightlife? I remember him coming to the club and confessing a drinking problem, a self-diagnosis which was supposedly dismissed by the club's staff.

Funny that the Cards would get such a guy while trying to dump a cokie.

[Guest TheOldMole]

I didn't know he was with the Yanks now...also didn't realize he'd done that well with the Cards.

[Guest seawolf17]

CHICAGO -- A day after contemplating whether to skip Al Leiter from the rotation, Marlins manager Jack McKeon made the decision official Monday.
Leiter, who is 2-6 with a 6.75 ERA in 14 starts, will work out of the bullpen until most likely the Marlins' series against the Devil Rays, June 24-26.

"With his experience, maybe he can help us out of the bullpen," McKeon said.

The 39-year-old Leiter last threw in relief in 1993, while he was with the Blue Jays. That year, he appeared in relief 22 times and made 12 starts.

Leiter has been a starter ever since, and has enjoyed an impressive career, compiling a 157-126 record.

The Marlins are in position to go with a four-man rotation through the Tampa Bay series because of off-days on Thursday and June 20.

Leiter's spot in the rotation was to come up Friday in Anaheim against the Angels. With the team off Thursday, Brian Moehler, who pitched Sunday, will fill in.

Until Leiter later this month, the rotation from Friday on will be Moehler, Dontrelle Willis, Josh Beckett and A.J. Burnett.

"I think you take life as it is," Leiter said. "The mood I'm in right now is disappointed, pitching-wise. But I can't beat myself up over it. What I can do is think of things to make me better, so that I can win games, go deeper in games, and be an asset to this franchise."

In his second stint with the Marlins, Leiter was a hero on the club's 1997 World Series title team. He also threw the first no-hitter in Marlins history.

After spending the past seven seasons with the Mets, Leiter signed as a free agent with the Marlins in December, accepting an $8 million contract.

"Maybe it's like more of getting away from thinking about it," Leiter said of pitching in relief. "Clearing your mind. I feel fine."

General manager Larry Beinfest said: "The next two weeks, we'll look at it. You know Al. He's been a big winner for a long time. He needs to work through this."

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

Edgy DC wrote: Neil Allen returns to St. Louis and looks back, full of wist. Does anybody recall any specific reports of Allen's supposed wild nightlife? I remember him coming to the club and confessing a drinking problem, a self-diagnosis which was supposedly dismissed by the club's staff. .

The "Tales from the Mets Dugout" book includes an interview with pitching coach Bill Monbouquette detailing Allen's flakiness, not his drinking. He was unreliable, didn't follow directions, often unprepared to work.

[Guest Elster88]

Good luck in the pen, Al. I have no ill will towards him.

[Guest Edgy DC]

I think Whitey, no matter what he says about nobody wanting Hernandez, really liked Allen and wanted him.

Allen had a real compact motion and Whitey's Cards supposedly had a lot of trouble running on the Allen/Stearns battery, which probably drove him a little nuts.

[Guest seawolf17]

The Kansas City Royals recalled 1B Justin Huber from Double-A Wichita. He was hitting .332 with nine homers, 50 RBI, 50 runs scored and seven stolen bases as a 22-year-old in Double-A.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Jose Bautista is doing alright for Altoona, but I suspect the regrettable thing about the Benson deal was not the deal itself (Wigginton/Peterson/Bautista for Benson) but the Huber-Bautista deal that set it up.

That said, Huber has been repeating AA and his knee injury seems to have put his catching days on hold.

[Guest ScarletKnight41]

The fact that Huber is/was an horrendous defensive catcher has to be a factor as well.

[Guest Bret Sabermetric]

Like the Mets don;t need a first baseman, too.

[Guest seawolf17]

I was more upset about trading Huber than Kazmir at the time, actually. We'll see.

[Guest Rotblatt]

Huber was moved to first primarily because C was blocked by John Buck. Not that he was great defensively, but most peeps seemed to think he would be able to handle catching for at least a couple of years.

And losing Huber kind of got lost in the Kazmir thing, but Jesus would it be nice to have a Huber sitting in AAA right now--either as a C or a 1B.

Shoppach's value has likely dropped after he couldn't hit the ball in his brief cuppa, and Boston would kill for a good relief pitcher, of which we have a few. If we could land him for, say, Hernandez or Bell, we should do it.

Willie, can you pretty please get on the horn with Theo?

On edit: Willie, I take that back. You get on the horn with Norfolk and tell Padilla to keep his bag packed. Omar, YOU get on the horn with Theo. Please.

[Guest seawolf17]

I would trade Roberto Hernandez for Shoppach in a second. Hernandez is never going to have more value than he has right now; I said it in spring training, and I'll say it again... he's Mel Rojas II.