Seo for Sanchez

[Guest GYC]

http://www.newsday.com/sports/baseball/mets/ny-spmets044574692jan04,0,7751798.story?coll=ny-mets-print

Mets set to say Seo long Frustrated in Baez talks, Dodgers would send Sanchez to Shea Email this story Printer friendly format BY KEN DAVIDOFF STAFF WRITER January 4, 2006 Unable to complete a deal for Tampa Bay's Danys Baez, the Mets have turned West to fill their void for a setup man. According to officials from two major-league clubs, the Mets had all but finalized a trade to land Duaner Sanchez from the Los Angeles Dodgers. In return for Sanchez, a 26-year-old righthander, the Mets will surrender righthander Jae Seo, the officials said. The trade will probably be announced by the end of this week. Sanchez pitched in 79 games for the Dodgers in 2005, going 4-7 with a 3.73 ERA, walking 36 and striking out 71 in 82 innings. He throws a fastball that reaches about 95 mph on the radar gun, and he also displays a curveball, slider and changeup. He instantly becomes the Mets' primary setup man to new closer Billy Wagner. With two-plus years of service time, Sanchez is not yet eligible for arbitration, a further asset for the Mets, who would still take Boston's ultra-expensive outfielder Manny Ramirez in the right deal. Seo, 28, went 8-2 with a 2.59 ERA for the Mets last season, starting 14 games. The Mets spent extensive time pursuing Baez, the Devil Rays' hard-throwing closer, and ultimately grew frustrated enough to look elsewhere. The Devil Rays preferred Aaron Heilman to Seo, and the Mets wanted to keep Heilman, who flourished last season. Heilman can now become the Mets' seventh-inning pitcher, further strengthening the club's weakest unit of 2005. With their setup man acquired, the Mets can focus on their last significant task of the offseason - upgrading at second base. They'd like to unload Kazuo Matsui - Boston and Tampa Bay have expressed interest, and the Mets are offering to pay $5 million of Matsui's $8 million salary - and find someone else to play the position. Notes & quotes: The Houston Astros signed free-agent outfielder Preston Wilson to a one-year, $4-million deal ... The Anaheim Angels, having lost starting pitchers Paul Byrd (Cleveland) and Jarrod Washburn (Seattle) to other teams through free agency, are speaking with former Yankee Jeff Weaver, whose younger brother Jered is in the Angels' minor-league system ... The Orioles hope to resolve the future of unhappy shortstop Miguel Tejada by week's end, and they could very well keep him. Baltimore, meanwhile, is negotiating with former Yankee Ruben Sierra ... The Yankees spoke yesterday with the representative for free-agent reliever Jeff Nelson, but Nelson, a two-time former Yankee, isn't close to deciding on his next employer.

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

well I'm awake.

Duaner Sanchez is the pitcher who threw his glove to catch a ball last year. See grainy video here:

http://www.dodgerblues.com/content/features_moments.html#sanchez

"I'm the type of guy who has too much Adrenalin," Sanchez said. "... I overreacted on the play. That's about it."

I try and skip anger and go straight to bargaining with my Met Grief, so the positives of Sanchez: He gives up more hits than you'd like, but he's still young (he'll be 26) and really improved his K numbers last year, throws pretty hard and seemed capable of a lot of appearances. More upside than Baez and evidently, a cheaper price.

He also wears goggles on the mound.

[nymr83]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
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OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

FIRE OMAR

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

Tooooo many O's

[Guest Rotblatt]

Stupid. He's essentially a glorified ROOGY--lefties hit .310 off him last year and .299 over his career.

I'd sooner put Seo in the bullpen. He has a better career ERA, a much better WHIP, and infinitely better control. He is, essentially, a better pitcher.

I bet Seo dominates in LA.

[Elster88]

I don't like this trade....but I'm not as high on Seo as everyone else is. He had a very good half a year last year. He should be at peak trade value right now.

That said, we should be able to get more than a mediocre reliever for him, no? Maybe not.

[Guest sharpie]

Sanchez's Baseball Reference most similar by age guy - Braden Looper.

[metsmarathon]

i have to keep telling myself that maybe jae seo was just a flash in the pan last year, and that maybe he's really just a back of the rotation guy...

sanchez' scouting report from ESPN.com basically calls him a solid middle reliever, with ability to move up.

he throws a two-seamer, curve, and split. all have average movement, and hte two seamer has plus velocity. his control, they claim, will improve with experience, and he's a plus fielder and competitor, with above average intelligence.


nothing in there has me loving the trade. i mean, there's enough room for the trade not to suck. but right now, like mcdonalds, i'm not lovin' it.

[Guest Edgy DC]

We have a bet on the table from Rottblatt. At the very least, preditiction archives material.

[seawolf17]

You all are, of course, shitting me.

[metsmarathon]

i assume you like the trade, wolfy?

i do have to admit, that from a bullpen-building standpoint, i like the trade. it does resolve the uncertainty we had in our bullpen going into the season, what with all those starters floating around.

with seo out of the way, and a setup man in hand, it frees up heilman for the rotation, as we no longer need him to deepen and strengthen our pen.

which gives us a rotation, going in, of pedro, glavine, benson, heilman, and likely trachsel, with zambrano first one out of the pen.

and we've still, presumably, got the elderly insurance in soler waiting in the wings, likely down in AAA.

i think that seo is the best blend of our willingness to trade him and our ability to get something good back that we have in the rotation, so from that standpoint alone, he becomes the most sensible and most likely to be traded.

the question then becomes wether or not sanchez is enough of a return for jae. and that's a tough one to answer, because we weren't going to get baez for jae, i don't think. i believe we should have been able to get more from trading jae than this, but i'm not really sure how much better we should have expected.

[Guest sharpie]

I'd rather see Heilman in the rotation than Seo. If trading Seo is the way that this happens, so be it (though I'd rather have found a taker for Trachsel). Haven't seen much of Sanchez but he does seem to have an upside. My counter-prediction is that Seo would not dominate in LA as I don't think he has dominating stuff.

[Guest Edgy DC]

sharpie and Rottie locking horns. Let's see some stakes and defining of terms.

How about: Dominate = 120 or more ERA+ from a starter, or 135 or more ERA+ from a reliever?

[Guest sharpie]

OK, but no one has stepped up to say whether Sanchez will dominate or not.

[Guest 86-Dreamer]

What is it about Seo and Heilman that makes most of us (and apperently both our GM and other GMs) think that Heilman is untouchable while Seo is fair game, despite both long and short term evidence that says it should be the other way around?

2005: Heilman 132 ERA+ in 108 IP, Seo 162 in 90 IP

Career: Heilman 91 ERA- in 201IP, Seo 110 ERA+ in 397 IP

and Seo has pitched all but 11 of those career innings as a starter, while Heilman has racked up an ERA of 5.93 in 134 innings as a starter. I don't get it.

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

]What is it about Seo and Heilman that makes most of us (and apperently both our GM and other GMs) think that Heilman is untouchable while Seo is fair game, despite both long and short term evidence that says it should be the other way around?

Upside.

In the Omar Era, at least, the Mets seem to be making pitching decisions by boiling everything down to naked ability, asking: If "talent" were bullets, who'd commit the more gruesome shopping-mall shoot-em-up?

[smg58]

So the Mets are getting one of the many solid prospects in the Dodgers' system (the deepest in the league) in addition to Sanchez, right? The whole world needs starting pitching, so the Mets could obviously get more than a righty middle reliever with a 3.72 ERA for a cheap, young starter coming off a sub-3 ERA season, right? Right?

[Elster88]

I would hope so. Maybe other GM's aren't buying that the rest of his career is going to be similar to his 2005 season.
_________________________
This post had the designation 91) Carl Everett

[Guest 86-Dreamer]

and the indicator of that upside is .....?

I guess some combination of the radar gun, age, height, and maybe ethnicity. and i don't mean to accuse our GM or anyone here of racism, but i think it is easier for many to look at Heilman and think "stud", and look at Seo and thing "fluke"

[Elster88]

avi

[metsmarathon]

i'm more wary of seo because i feel like i've been burned in the past. 2004 to be exact. i guess that could be why we feel more positive about heilman, who seems to have put it all together, than seo, who seems capable of putting it all together and having it all fall apart again.

which is not to say that heilman cannot fall apart, only that he hasn't shown it to the extent that jae has.

[seawolf17]

People get blasted here when they play the race card. That's not always fair. Omar has a perceived reputation, fair or not, that he favors Latino players. To man, almost every player rumored to be heading our way this season has been Latino: Baez, Ramirez, Lugo, now Duaner Sanchez. I'm not saying it's politically correct, but it's the perception.

[metsmarathon]

billy wagner, paul loduca, chad bradford

[seawolf17]

That's why I said "almost."

[Guest Edgy DC]

I think Heilman's rep is perhaps boosted by his first-rounder status, his related bonus baby status, and the awesome college career that fed into that. The thing about relievers is that while their dominance isn't in as many innings (or in this case, only 20% more inings than Seo), their dominance can be more exciting because they showed up dominant in more games. Heilman gave up two earned runs in his last 24 games, covering 37.1 inings --- a 0.48 ERA over that stretch.

I think Seo's rep is perhaps hurt by his post-operative status, his prior big-league track record of mediocrity being longer (if better) than Heilman's track record of sub-mediocrity.

First time the Omar Loves Whitey angle has come up.

[Valadius]

Omar, what in God's name are you fucking thinking???

[Centerfield]

This is even dumber than the LoDuca trade.

[Valadius]

There can be only one explanation:

Steve Phillips has replaced Omar with an android.

[Guest Bret Sabermetric]

Ah, at last, Valadius articulates what I've long held as the question that, will, in time, show whether the Mets, and Omar in particular, know more than we do.

On the face of it, this is a stupid, unpopular challenge trade. I don't like it, you don't like it, none of us are ordering tickets on the basis of it. If Sanchez's parachute doesn't open and Seo has even a seo-seo season for LA, ignorant pedantic posters like me will never drop it as evidence of Omar's blatent incompetence--Val's question, "WTF was he thinking?" will become our watchword.

But if it succeeds, such ignorant louts will have to pause, at least, before launching their next tirade. (Well, not me, but some ignorant louts will feel compelled to pause.) The ONLY possible justification for it is that Omar knows something that the knowledgable Met fan does not, either about Sanchez or about Seo or both.

[nymr83]

apparently we all know something Seo that omar doesn't....he's a better pitcher than the guy you got back!

edit- i find it very obnoxious that when i change my sig quote the old one doesnt stay on previous posts.