Mr. Koo Goes to Norfolk

[Valadius]

It's about goddamn time he was sent down! Danny Graves earns one more chance with his fantastic outing today, but one more slip-up and I want him shipped down to Virginia with him.

[Guest ScarletKnight41]

Who comes up in Koo's place?

[Valadius]

Trachsel? That's what I'm guessing, as I saw him in the dugout today.

[Guest ScarletKnight41]

Reasonable guess.

Does anyone have any confirmation?

[Frayed Knot]

Presumably Trachsel - but that would leave the pen w/o a lefty at all.


Trax needs to be activated soon. His rehab time is all used up but they're now saying he'll pitch a simulated game on his next start.
Something's gotta give somewhere.



And while I'm not going to go overboard protecting Mr. Koo, he's hardly been the problem he's being projected as lately.

[Guest ScarletKnight41]

He's hardly pitched since dislocating his shoulder sliding into home plate against the MFY's.

[Valadius]

Even regardless of his performance, Willie rarely used him. If he's not going to play here, he might as well go down to the Tides.

[Frayed Knot]

Like I said, it's fine with me, except that they're going to want to have a lefty up here at some point and the most logical candidates are:

- Ishii, who seems hardly ideal out of the pen and is at least as despised as Koo by most fans

- or Ring who - despite the fact that he's treated as a savior by some - had a worse ERA (5.00+ vs sub-4.00) and walk rate (nearly double) while he was here than Koo

[Guest SI Metman]

The answer is Tim Hamulack and Heath Bell. Both are joining the team in Arizona. I'm guessing Jake is the other casualty making him a career 1.000 hitter if he never sees the bigs again..

Tim Hamulack is a 28 year old lefty journeyman who pitched in the Red Sox organization in 2004. His ERA this season between Bing and Norfolk is about 1.20 in 61 IP. Hopefully it translates to the bigs.

[MFS62]

I think I read that Hamulack throws in the mid 90's. That will be a refreashing change.
I'm hoping the adage that it takes lefties longer to develop is true in his case.

Later

[seawolf17]

Well, Mr. Koo... we'll always have this:

[MFS62]

Hamulack:

(LHP - 28 years old) - 32.1 IP, 1.11 ERA, 20 H (.180 AVG Against), 8 BB, 32 SO

Later

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

Jacobs made the flight to Arizona, according to the Post wheras Koo';s luggage was pulled off at boarding. So it's possible someone else goes when Traxxx is activated.

That's if he is... because Post sez Minaya wouldn;t be averse to trading Traxxx for a reliever.

If I'm running the team, I'd look into what it would take to acquire Daryle Ward from Pittsburgh and Ray Durham from SF.

That would solve the team's 2 biggest problems

I just don't think the Mets are going to turn over a position to a Jacobs or Hernandez at this point in the year.

[Elster88]

Trading a starter for a reliver makes no sense at all, especially on a team where the major problem is hitting.

[Valadius]

I was going to mention Hamulack, having looked up our minor leaguers' stats for the Future of the Mets thread, but I had never heard of him, so I neglected to.

[Guest Rotblatt]

Hamulack took over closing duties at the end of July, but now he's sharing with Bell.

FWIW, I don't like sending down Koo. I think he was pretty solid when healthy, but as y'all have said, it doesn't much matter when Willie won't play him.

Hopefully Hamulack (or whomever gets called up) will get a fair shake.

I'd rather we sent Graves through waivers, Jacobs & Zambrano back down to Norfolk then promoted Bell, Hamulack, Valent & Trachsel.

Wouldn't address our 2B problem, but we could do that by putting Matsui on the DL for some bullshit reason then calling up Hernandez or Lambin (most of his errors, by the way, came at 3B. Which is a bit confusing, since that apparently is his "natural" position which he was moved from when Wright came along.).

I wouldn't mind getting rid of Offerman, either, but I think you HAVE to keep Woody, Cairo & Anderson at this point.

[Frayed Knot]

Well, just to complicate matters, Trachsel DOES have to be activated by tomorrow (Wed). So at the moment HE is the guy assigned to the pen where, considering what a creature of habit he is, seems like a logistical mismatch. And, of course, somebody needs to go down - and maybe even a 40-man roster move made since I think he's been on the 60-day DL list all this time.

Zambrano starts tomorrow and his next start (or lack thereof) may depend on this one.

Did this Hamulack(sp?) guy made the trip? Cuz, as of now, we're still lefty-less in the pen. But that'll mean another name to drop.


Oh, and it seems that Alberto Castillo did NOT sign a deal with the Mets. Rather he signed one w/Oakland.
Something odd must have happened there.

[nymr83]

]Presumably Trachsel - but that would leave the pen w/o a lefty at all.

since Koo wasn't allowed to pitch in meaningful spots it doesnt really matter.

[Theoldmole]

Too bad. I always liked Castillo. And he's trilingual.

[Frayed Knot]

Koo wasn't necc there for "meaningful" spots so much as he was for specific spots; ie situational leftys.
That he didn't do such a great job there is the reason he's expendable ... except that at the moment there's no one here to fit that description at all.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Whatever hapulacked to Hamulack?

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

He was flown to AZ so as to meet the Mets there but was not activated because of the decision to stay with Jacobs, so he was sent back.

I'd be surprised if we didn;t have a LH bullpenner for the Philly series btw.