GMJ GONE

[nymr83]

good riddance!!!

[Guest attgig]

I wonder who'll be sent down for Niese tomorrow. Hopefully Mejia will finally become a starter again.

[Ceetar]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: I wonder who the emergency center fielder is? I'm guessing, in order: Francoeur, Bay, Tatis, Cora.

Bay has major league CF experience, so my guess would be him. And my guess is Tatis would get the nod over Carter in LF if that happened. Though I could see Manuel using Frenchy first. After Cora I think it's Carter, Ollie, Mejia (so he can get major league experience on what happens when the balls get hit over his head), then Tejada because he's fairly fast so that must mean he can play CF and after that Jerry himself will try to play it.

[Ceetar]

err..I didn't post twice. fine.

Shame Blanco's hurt, and Thole's hurt. But hopefully only for a couple of days. It's sad that as much as I wanted to get rid of GMJ both moves actually made the team worse today.

[MFS62]

I'll try to answer some of the questions in this thread:

Why a catcher? Because I heard that Blanco is slightly banged up.

Why Santos from Binghamton? Because there are only two catchers on the Buffalo team, Thole and JR House. And Thole is day to day from a concussion from a batter's backswing.

Why not Feliciano? Because the only other centerfielder on the Buffalo team (at least, the only other one you'd want to see play there), Pridie, is on the DL.

I hope that when Pridie returns, and Blanco feels a little bit better, we'll see Santos go back down and Feliciano brought up. But, since Pridie is on the 40 man roster, who knows?

Later

[Ceetar]

Also I heard Howie relay that Manuel said Bay would be the backup in an emergency, with Carter in left.

[Willets Point]

Edgy DC wrote: Edgy DC wrote: What kind of tweeting economy is that? I was hoping for: GMJ NG WO PED. NYM DFA. OMG! Even better.

And you'd still have room to include: OMIR UP.

[metirish]

MFS62 wrote: I'll try to answer some of the questions in this thread: Why a catcher? Because I heard that Blanco is slightly banged up. Why Santos from Binghamton? Because there are only two catchers on the Buffalo team, Thole and JR House. And Thole is day to day from a concussion from a batter's backswing. Why not Feliciano? Because the only other centerfielder on the Buffalo team (at least, the only other one you'd want to see play there), Pridie, is on the DL. I hope that when Pridie returns, and Blanco feels a little bit better, we'll see Santos go back down and Feliciano brought up. But, since Pridie is on the 40 man roster, who knows? Later

Thanks Omar

[Benjamin Grimm]

So, what ever happened to Gary Jr.?

Did the Mets ultimately release him? Or is he going to Buffalo or somewhere?

[Guest Edgy DC]

Placed on waivers Friday. He has 72 hours to clear waivers. (I'm sure we all imagine he will, even though I guess a pickup would only be at the Mets salary rate, rather than the untenable full rate.) He's expected to be released after he clears.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Edgy DC wrote: Placed on waivers Friday. He has 72 hours to clear waivers. (I'm sure we all imagine he will, even though I guess a pickup would only be at the Mets salary rate, rather than the untenable full rate.) He's expected to be released after he clears.

In a brief fit of furious Googling and scanning so far, I can't seem to find anything on this.

But my understanding of swap rules seems to dictate that they're picking him up at the full rate. A renegotiated salary wasn't part of the trade, just a simple cash transfer from the Mets to the Padres as part of an exchange of players, right?

[Benjamin Grimm]

If that's the case, then if somebody claims Matthews, they'd have to pay him the $20 million (or whatever) and the Mets would be able to keep the money from the Angels?

That would be quite a windfall! I can't imagine it happening, though.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Yeah, it's a tough call. I guess I take back what I said, but if true, the Mets have little motivation to trade him.

[MFS62]

The way I read this, the Angels are paying most of the money directly to GMJ.

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2010/01/mets-to-acquire-gary-matthews-jr.html

Doesn't sound like the major portion of the money is passing through the Mets' books on the way to him. If so, any other team that signs him would also only pay him what they sign him for or the remainder of his contract with the Mets.

Later

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

The way I read this, the Angels are paying most of the money directly to GMJ. http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2010/01/mets-to-acquire-gary-matthews-jr.html

MLBTradeRumor Dude wrote: The Mets will acquire Gary Matthews Jr. and cash from the Angels for Brian Stokes.

The description in your link mirrors virtually everything I've read about the trade (and others of its ilk); the way it scans to these eyes is, "The Mets will get a player and cash, with which they can pay a significant portion of the player's salary, in exchange for this other guy."

[Guest sharpie]

GMJ did nothing for us but at least Stokes is doing nothing for the Angels.

He pitched to a 7.31 era before going on the DL and now his AAA rehab assignment has been shut down for a while.

[Fman99]

Officially released. He had one (ONE!) RBI and hit .190 in 36 games. Good luck GMJ.

[metirish]

One of the worst contracts in sports .

[ashie62]

metirish wrote: One of the worst contracts in sports .

But one of the best agents?

[Frayed Knot]

More like one of the best-timed career seasons ... plus that one sucker team willing to bet that it wasn't a fluke.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Frayed Knot wrote: More like one of the best-timed career seasons ... plus that one sucker team willing to bet that it wasn't a fluke.

Part of what has turned out to be a historically bad free-agent Class of 2007, as examined here by Joe Posnanski.

When Zito's one of the better values in a class... that's no class at all.

[Frayed Knot]

Wow! That was historically wretched.

[Guest Edgy DC]

That�s a pretty staggering list of expensive fail*. But here�s something compelling � and you have no doubt noticed this: Here you have all that money spent on Suppan, Zito, Meche, Soriano, Lee, Marquis, Eaton, Pierre, Lugo, Baez, Padilla, Schmidt, Matthews, the movie star and the rest � not one dime of it was spent by the New York Yankees.

Despite eventually mealy-mouthing about the Jason Giambi and and Kei Igawa cases, he refuses to give the Mets the same absolution. But had they, I'm sure somebody might have pointed out the one-year-plus-option on Moises Alou, or the three-year deal on Schoeneweis.

Anyhow, at least there was some cost containment on those deals, staying away from long-term overcommitments (though three years on a middle reliever of any stripe will always be a headscratcher). The Mets real boners that off-season were probably trades. The Bannister-for-Burgos thing isn't seeming like such a wreck any longer, but Bell/Ring-for-Adkins/Johnson followed by Owens/Lndstrom-for-Vargas/Bostick made for a bloody week. In fact, they may well have been the difference-makers in two division races.

[Fman99]

Rotoworld reporting that Cincy has signed GMJ to a minor league deal. I wish him well, and hopefully many at bats against the Mets.

[MFS62]

This thread has lasted about as long as his career with the Mets.
Later

[Guest Rockin' Doc]

MFS62 wrote: This thread has lasted about as long as his career with the Mets. Later

It has been as beneficial to the Mets cause as GMJ also.

[nymr83]

Edgy DC wrote: That�s a pretty staggering list of expensive fail*. But here�s something compelling � and you have no doubt noticed this: Here you have all that money spent on Suppan, Zito, Meche, Soriano, Lee, Marquis, Eaton, Pierre, Lugo, Baez, Padilla, Schmidt, Matthews, the movie star and the rest � not one dime of it was spent by the New York Yankees. Despite eventually mealy-mouthing about the Jason Giambi and and Kei Igawa cases, he refuses to give the Mets the same absolution. But had they, I'm sure somebody might have pointed out the one-year-plus-option on Moises Alou, or the three-year deal on Schoeneweis.

I didn't mind the Alou deal, not even when he was hurt. It was one-year and therefore very low risk. Unlike certain other deals the Mets have given out it couldn't hurt the club by tying them to a guy long after he was of any use here.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Nonetheless, none of these deals (I'm not sure which you are citing) made his list.