Can we trade Julio for him?

[Guest Bret Sabermetric]

Why not?

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

I doubt that Tampa would be interested.

[Guest mlbaseballtalk]

I like how ESPN is behind the ball when it comes to official player photos.

When Lance Carter was the lone DRay all star a few years back Jim Rome made a joke about the fact that ESPN.com didn't even have a picture of him on his page, and joked that if he made it into that All Star Game he would never watch a single All Star Game (any sport) ever again. Carter wound up not pitching though, but it was funny that a player selected to an All Star Game did not have his photo on the World Wide Leader's website.

Back on topic, would Wiggy want to be Wright's and Delgado's caddy? Can he play the outfield? Isn't the reason why we traded him for Benson was because of the call up of David Wright in the first place?

Or maybe do some sort of goofy three way with the Marlins and we get Cabrera, Wigginton and Willis!

Lets see, Wright to Marlins for Cabrera and Willis, we trade Juilo to TB for Wiggy...

[MFS62]

He wouldn't just be a caddy for Wright and Delgado.
He played shortstop in college and second base in the pros.

He'd certainly look like a good second base option if Keppenger remains in somebody's doghouse. (Assuming Matsui is terrible again) Of course, anybody with a measurable pulse rate looks better than Valentin.

Later

[Guest KC]

I don't know what they make in 2006, but in 2005 Jorge made approx 7 1/2
times what Ty made and Tampa Bay doesn't strike me as the type of team
looking to add payroll for suspect players.

OE: duh, the salaries are on the ESPN pages .... it's only about 4 times this
season. But still.

[Guest Hillbilly]

Not you can't he's a Met, not a Red Sox.

[Frayed Knot]

I actually saw Wiggy on the highlight films last night.
He was playing out in LF ... a ball was hit right to him ... he dropped it.

[Guest Bret Sabermetric]

Some non-Mets fans believe David Wright made three errors yesterday. Is this somehow significant?

[seawolf17]

I don't think anyone expects Wright to take home the Gold Glove this year; everybody has bad days. But he's gotta be better defensively than Wigginton.

Either way, even eating Julio's salary, I'd make that deal. I don't know why Tampa Bay would want Julio, though.

[Guest sharpie]

I also remember Wigginton as a godawful second baseman.

[Guest Rotblatt]

Ah, Ty. He was a fun player to watch and he's having a hell of a season so far.

He'd probably be adequate defensively at second, and if he gave us his career line of .262/.325/.438/.763, I'd be pretty darn happy.

Still, it's not going to happen, at least not unless we give up someone valuable and cheap.

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

sharpie wrote: I also remember Wigginton as a godawful second baseman.

Actually he was a poor defensive 3rd baseman for most of his Metly days. I didn't see enuf of him to make a decision of how he could field at 2nd but certainly he was no acrobat out there.

I don;t think he'd come in a deal for Julio and not sure he'd bring much more to the bench than say Victor Diaz, who had the same offensive role he would.

We need a lefty-hitting Wigginton to replace Valentin a little more badly.

[nymr83]

]He'd probably be adequate defensively at second, and if he gave us his career line of .262/.325/.438/.763, I'd be pretty darn happy.

Keppinger can put those numbers up with equal or better defense than Ty Wigginton if thats all you are looking for. Matsui might even be able to do it.

[Elster88]

Nymr83 wrote: ]He'd probably be adequate defensively at second, and if he gave us his career line of .262/.325/.438/.763, I'd be pretty darn happy. Keppinger can put those numbers up with equal or better defense than Ty Wigginton if thats all you are looking for.

You're pretty sure of yourself for someone who assured the world that Cairo and Anderson were both better players then Matsui at different times over the past ten months.

If you think Keppinger is slugging .438 in the Major Leagues you've got some research to do.

[nymr83]

I wasn't a Cairo fan, i just wanted Kaz out, i spent July, Augustr, and September screaming for a prospect to get a chance to no avail.
Hernandez isn't a failure yet.
Keppinger will give us the .735, who the heck cares if he does it with a little more obp and a little less slg?

[Elster88]

Keep fighting the good fight.

Hopefully either KazMat or AndHer will make the argument an easy win for one of us.

Kaz's line after the first at bat...

1.000 / 1.000 / 4.000 / 5.000

....EVERY YEAR BABY!!!

[nymr83]

I'd be more than happy to see Kaz succeed, but he hasn;t yet and until he does he doesn't deserve to start full-time, all i asked for Hernandez is a reasonable time to show what he can do (which he hasnt had.)

If i were the Mets right now i'd cut Valentin on his ass and call up Keppinger, giving Matsui 4-5 starts a week and Keppinger 2 until one of them shows they deserve more or less than than.

[Frayed Knot]

So AndyHandy hasn't had enough time yet but Valentin's already proved he's worthless?


P.S.: Ditto Julio

[nymr83]

Frayed Knot wrote: So AndyHandy hasn't had enough time yet but Valentin's already proved he's worthless? P.S.: Ditto Julio

Julio and Valentin have already proven that they stink over the past couple of years, thus a large sample isn't necessary to prove what we already knew.

[Frayed Knot]

Both have also had success on the big league level, something yong Mr. Hernandez has yet to show.

And look, I'm not becoming the president of the fan club for either Julio or Valentin but they're also filling very different roles here. One's a PH off the bench and our only (even potential) lefty power threat (he does have 500+ Xtra-base hits to his credit) while the other is no better than the 4th pen option.
The snag w/Hernandez is he was filling a regular spot in the lineup with VERY sub-standard offense.

[nymr83]

Julio hasn't had "success" since 2002 and he's gotten progressively worse every year since then, it was perfectly fair to say "he sucks" before he ever threw a pitch for the Mets. Prefering guys who haven't been good in years over guys who are too young to have ever done anything is the kind of attitude that sunk the Mets for a couple of years and that makes the Pirates the worst run team in baseball the last 10 years or so.

[Frayed Knot]

How was Steve Trachsel in his first half-year as a Met?

Point is, they're not going to throw away Jorge Julio after just 4 innings as if it's proved anything.

[nymr83]

apples and oranges, Traschel was good BEFORE he was a Met.
Julio, at the very least, needs to be sent to Norfolk until he proves he isn't still the same guy who had a 5.90 ERA last year.

[A Boy Named Seo]

Apples and oranges: more similar than peeps think.

[Frayed Knot]

That may happen yet (sending to Norfolk) although I don't know if there are any obstacles preventing that. If there's a risk that they'd lose him trying I don't think they'll chance it ... not yet anyway. Julio's had some rocky stats lately but is neither old nor untalented at this point in his career.

The Trax comparison was merely to point out that at least as many fans were calling for his immediate dismissal (or was it summary execution?) early-on in his NYM tenure as if it was a no-doubt addition by subtraction move.


P.S. It would have sucked if we had dumped Robo Hernandez if he started off w/2 or 3 bad innings last year and he had a lot less (potentially) going for him a year ago than Julio does now.

[Guest Bret Sabermetric]

I just think this guy would do the Mets some good. He's hit 7 HRs so far and it it's April. I think 7 HRs is Kaz Matsui's high mark for a season, including his first at-bat of the year, and that kind of hitting compensates for so-so defense, not that playing better defense than Matsui is difficult. He earns less than 10% of what Matsui makes. Between Matsui and Benson, if the Mets had decided to hang on to Wiggy instead of making that foolish pennant run in 2004, they'd have had another, oh, 30 million dollars to spend elsewhere over the last few years. Worth considering when you hear them complaining that they already spend too much money on salaries. The idea is to spend that money well, and make defensible choices. The whole Wiggy-for-Benson-for-Julio saga is a series of rash, foolish decisions that will cost the Mets dearly this season, has already cost them dearly, both in terms of wins and dollars, to date.

"Ranks 2 (tied) in AL in RBI (17)" --Where would 17 RBI and 7 HRs and a 1.056 OPS in 58 ABs place him on the Mets' leaderboard, I wonder? KC is on record btw as being down on Wiggy this year, so I'm interested in tracking this closely. He might be my favorite MLB player-- he was when he played in Queens, and I'm a big believer in loyalty.

OTOH, tthey did get Keppinger out of that Benson deal, so their AAA situation has been much improved.

[Guest Bret Sabermetric]

CURRENT SEASON STATS
Year G: ..AB.. R ....H ... ..2B ..HR ...RBI ...... ...OBP SLG OPS AVG
2006 15 ..58 ..10 ....17 .......3 ...7... ..17 ...........349 .707 1.056 . 293
Pro 143. 553. .95..162 ......29.. 67 ...162 ............349 ..707 .1.056 ..293

[nymr83]

Wiggy won't keep hitting like this.
Benmson was pitching fine, it was dealing him for Julio that was the mistake, the first trade was fine.

[Guest Bret Sabermetric]

You don;t think he'll knock in 162 runs? Or hit 67 HRs? Or both?

He can practically coast from here through September and he'll put up better numbers than the Mets' secondbase men. Or maybe you'd just rather have a mediocre reliever?

[Elster88]

I'd rather have Benson.

They ain't trading Wiggy for Julio. They don't want Julio.