Wagner Headed Elsewhere?

[duan]

one thing that people are forgetting even about type a free agents is that there's no guarantee that you actually get a pick in the first round for them. That only happens if the pick is between 16-30 and if the team doesn't sign any higher ranked free agents.
Sure we may have got a sandwich pick and a round 2/3/4 pick but it's not like we're getting first dibs on a top 5 pick.

[Guest sharpie]

Bring him up. Give him some starts.

[Farmer Ted]

Carter gets stranded in AAA because Youkilis, Papi, Kotchman and now Gonzalez can all play first.

He's probably that happiest fucker in New England right now.

[MFS62]

The Mets are so decimated that I'd take any mouth breathing mammal who can swing a bat.

Later

[ashie62]

You don't suppose they would have given us Reddick, do you?
That would be too much to hope for.[/quote:3sm9lnrs]

Not getting Reddick..

How about Caleb Clay...

[Benjamin Grimm]

Caleb Clay? Didn't he change his name to Mohammed Ali?

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Caleb Clay? Didn't he change his name to Mohammed Ali?[/quote:2xrtmp87]

Mama named him Clay, I'm-a call him Clay.

[MFS62]

Caleb Clay? Didn't he change his name to Mohammed Ali?[/quote:25x0rdzs]

No, he was the one who changed his name to Mohammed Steinberg.
He had issues.

Later

[Benjamin Grimm]

Chris Carter is supposed to be one of the two PTBNL. Not the ex-Viking. Not the host of "Breakfast With The Beatles."
[/quote:ywmvf28t]

Never heard of either of those guys. When I hear "Chris Carter" I think of the creator of The X-Files.

Anyway, our Chris, if he is our Chris, will turn 27 next month. In 106 games at Pawtucket, he's .279/.340/.439 with 14 homers! (It's pretty bad that we've reached a point that when I see a guy with 14 homers I think, wow! That's a lot of homers!)

[metirish]

27 , he's only now entering his prime....a steal by Minaya

[MFS62]

This guy didn't become a regular until the age of 26 because he had a guy named Gil Hodges blocking his path to the majors:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/g/gentiji01.shtml

We can only hope, right?

Later

[Valadius]

Sad that when I think of "Chris Carter" I either think of Cris Carter or Chris Carlin.

[Guest Edgy DC]

My hometown had a team make it to the Little League World Series. They were a year ahead of me in school, and while they were some good players, it's not like any of them went on to future glory, or even that our high school team was particularly excellent their senior year. They just ckicked well and peaked at 12.

Their cleanup hitter was named Chris Carter, and he struck out in a big spot (probably against Taiwan) and the poor guy, who to my 11-year-old eyes was a big tough dude, ended up in Newsday as a crying moppet. To this day, 31 years later, I hear the name Chris Carter and I see the chapped sobbing face of a 12-year-old Little Leaguer.

[Vic Sage]

Chris Carter? Chris freakin Carter? A 26-year old AAAA LHed DH/1Bman? We've already got Murphy, who is 2 years younger and already a better glove at 1b (by all accounts) than Carter. Carter has more power, but not alot more, based on his minor league numbers. We would've been better off with the draft choices. We need an upgrade over Murphy, but it ain't Carter. Hopefully, Ike Davis will be the answer.

But, unless the other prospect has more upside, the Wagner deal looks like a pure salary dump, which irritates me greatly.

[Vic Sage]

one thing that people are forgetting even about type a free agents is that there's no guarantee that you actually get a pick in the first round for them. That only happens if the pick is between 16-30 and if the team doesn't sign any higher ranked free agents.
Sure we may have got a sandwich pick and a round 2/3/4 pick but it's not like we're getting first dibs on a top 5 pick.[/quote:gihseoso]

Past Mets compensation picks include David Wright, Heilman, Kunz and Ike Davis. I'd take a chance with that over Chris freakin Carter, who is behind not only Murphy but Ike Davis and Lucas Duda, as far as LHed 1bmen/corner OFers go.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

But, unless the other prospect has more upside, the Wagner deal looks like a pure salary dump, which irritates me greatly.[/quote:3p37rvyv]

Not only that, but the deal's PTBNL-ness may mean that we need to have our fingers crossed that Lil' Country doesn't pull an Eric Gagne gag job in order to snag as MUCH as Carter.

The Sox are paying Wags' salary. The Mets aren't getting anyone back without a distinctly limited ceiling or major, major flaws as a player.

[bmfc1]

Welcome Eddie Lora.

From mlbtraderumors.com (the system won't let me post a URL):

The Red Sox are sending minor league first baseman Eddie Lora to the Mets to complete last month's Billy Wagner trade, according to Joe McDonald of The Providence Journal. The 20-yr old Lora hit .222/.287/.414 in 99 at-bats with Boston's rookie level Gulf Coast League affiliate this year. He was not ranked as one of their top 30 prospects coming into the year according to Baseball America.

It's been reported that New York will also receive Triple-A first baseman Chris Carter in the deal, but he'll have to wait until the offseason to officially become part of the deal after the Yankees claimed him off waivers.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Well, then Lora doesn't exactly complete the trade, does he?

[MFS62]

Well, then Lora doesn't exactly complete the trade, does he?

[Benjamin Grimm]

Closer Billy Wagner retiring

By Mark Miller

It's looking like former All-Star closer Billy Wagner is going to forever be stuck at 385 saves in the record book. The word is that he's retiring this off-season, according to the New York Post.

The former reliever for the Boston Red Sox, New York Mets, Houston Astros and Philadelphia Phillies was considered one of the best closers in baseball for a time but injuries have hurt him in the last few years and he spent most of 2009 rehabbing along with most of the other Mets' starters.

But he got a slight reprieve when he got picked up by the Boston Red Sox, where he appeared in 15 regular season games and two postseason games against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Suckers.

All you circular-logickers and your "I think the Mets did the wrong thing because the Mets did it and therefore it's wrong" --- you're suckers.

Suck. Ers.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Yeah, Carter and Lora are looking a whole lot better than the Type A picks that Boston won't be getting.

Of course, the "according to the New York Post" part of the article makes me not all that sure how official this is. Billy may yet do a Brett Favre thing.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Wags' final game will be remembered for another closer's implosion, but he of course started that fire.

Yeah, good thing we weren't too bent on collecting draft pix if this were the case.

Perhaps this postseason could go a long way toward changing expectations for bullpens. "Closers" Franklin, Lidge, Street, Papelbon, Nathan have all been touched up and even Mariano allowed a costly RBI hit. The only guy with any success here has been Torre, who's been using Broxton unconventionally.

[Frayed Knot]

The odds on collecting draft picks from hanging on to Wagner were never better than remote to begin with - and then the odds of one or more of them being a better bet than a player who's already reached AAA (and briefly the majors) is iffy as well.


And, not to sound like a Wagner suck-up, but his final game where he started the fire that burned Papelbon was more bad luck than bad pitching. The leadoff "double" off him was a chopper that Youkilis tried to scoop and wound up swatting into the photog's booth. He then got two outs sandwiched around a walk including another slow chopper hit too slowly to become a GiDP. He got charged with both runs when Papelbon allowed a 2R single to the first batter he faced.



He always said he'd retire after this contract ran out but starting saying otherwise after he got hurt.
Not sure what made him (apparently) reverse track now - possibly an acknowledgment that he's not going to get a big-money closer's deal.
I think he can still be a serviceable pitcher, but maybe that's not what he wants.

[ashie62]

Somehere there is a song paroday for Wagner and Billy Joels' "We didn't start the fire"

[ashie62]

Yeah, Carter and Lora are looking a whole lot better than the Type A picks that Boston won't be getting.

Of course, the "according to the New York Post" part of the article makes me not all that sure how official this is. Billy may yet do a Brett Favre thing.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Somehere there is a song paroday for Wagner and Billy Joels' "We didn't start the fire"[/quote:14te1zpv]

Harry Parker, Owenby, Bob Shaw, Norm Sherry
Rigo Beltran, Tim Burke, Jesse Orosco
Jim McAndrew, Guetterman, Isringhausen, Gunderson
Komiyama, Kashiwada, Armando Reynoso

Hamilton, Hudek, Cory Lidle, Lockwood Skip
Roger Mason, Doug Sisk � can we take another risk
Roy Lee Jackson, Bob McClure, what else do you want us for
Greg McMichael, Tommy Moore, will someone shut the goddamn door?

We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it

Pulsipher, Pete Smith, Joe Sambito, Yorkis
Grover Powell, Tracy Stallard, Jonathan Hurst
Don Aase, David West, Charlie Williams, Shourek
Bill Hepler, Ron Herbel, which one was the worst

Guthrie, Denehy, New York�s got a scary team
Mauro Gozzo, Brent Gaff, Greg Goosen, Bruce Chen
Rich Rodriguez, A Young, Cal Schiraldi, Reardon
Mel Rojas, Bob Friend -- trouble in the bullpen!

We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it

Mike Fyrie, Brian Rose, Kenny Rogers, Tug McGraw
Neil Allen, Pat Mahomes, answering the bullpen phone
Ron Taylor, Tom Hall, heart-stopping baseball
Buzz Capra, Don Cardwell, children of late-inning hell

Dennis Cook, Jerry Cram, get this team out of a jam
Toby Borland, Cisco, here comes Acevedo
Apodaca, Espinosa, Nolan Ryan, Jack DiLauro
Brent Hincliffe, Jeff Innis, help us Johnny Franco!

We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it

Ray Searge, Johnson, no one out and two men on
Musselman, Jim Mann, Chuck Taylor, Ed Glynn
Roger Mac, Sugar Kane, Ralph Terry, Randy Tate,
Roberts, Rusteck and Riggan, bring David Weathers out again
Bob Rauch, Hal Reniff, warming up: Another stiff
Jacome, blown away, what else do I have to say

We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it

John Pacella, Vinegar Bend, Pete Walker, back again
Moorehead, Whitehurst, Terry Leach, they�re the worst
Brad Clontz, Ed Lynch, we need you guys in a pinch
Seminara, Falcone, Schiraldi, Candyman
Barry Jones cannot hide, Barry Manuel -- suicide
Blown leads, lost games, heart attacks, migraines
The bullpen always makes us sore, no matter what the time or score
Benitez� finger in a door, I can't take it anymore!

We didn't start the fire
But when we are gone
Will it still burn on, and on, and on, and on...

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

No one ever called me on including Greg Goossen among the relievers.

[Frayed Knot]

I'm assuming that parody was already kicking around some place (past parody challenge?) and wasn't just slapped together in like 7 minutes?
Hell, it would take longer than that just to type it.

[Guest Edgy DC]

No, that's an oldie.