Six Years Ago in Mets History

[metirish]

07/26/2004


David Wright hit his first Met home run in Montreal , opposing pitcher was John Patterson .It was a crazy game with the Expos winning 19-10.....yes , 19-10.

Look t that Mets team , geez but those were the days.

http://www.leaptoad.com/mets/gamedetail.php?gameno=6834&tabno=A


then

07/30/2004

Scott Kazmir traded to the Devil Rays


more interesting looking back though was the trade for Benson

July 30, 2004: Traded by the New York Mets with Matt Peterson (minors) and Ty Wigginton to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Kris Benson and Jeff Keppinger.

Jose Bautista and Wiggy were All-Stars this year.

Bautista is having a huge breakout year this season, I have no memory of him in the Mets system, was he on anyones radar?

Not posting this saying we should have kept Bautista , just looking back at history is all

[Guest Edgy DC]

I think Bautista was a PtBNL, too. I had no idea the season he was having.

[metsmarathon]

June 5, 2000: Drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 20th round of the 2000 amateur draft. Player signed May 19, 2001.

December 15, 2003: Drafted by the Baltimore Orioles from the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 2003 rule 5 draft.

June 3, 2004: Selected off waivers by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays from the Baltimore Orioles.

June 28, 2004: Purchased by the Kansas City Royals from the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

July 30, 2004: Traded by the Kansas City Royals to the New York Mets for Justin Huber.

July 30, 2004: Traded by the New York Mets with Matt Peterson (minors) and Ty Wigginton to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Kris Benson and Jeff Keppinger.

August 21, 2008: Traded by the Pittsburgh Pirates to the Toronto Blue Jays for a player to be named later. The Toronto Blue Jays sent Robinzon Diaz (August 25, 2008) to the Pittsburgh Pirates to complete the trade.

[Gwreck]

Edgy DC wrote: I think Bautista was a PtBNL, too. I had no idea the season he was having.

We never really had Bautista. IIRC, he was somebody the Pirates wanted, so we made a trade with KC to get him first, and then shipped him with Wigginton and another prospect to Pittsburgh for Benson.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

As I recall it, reacquiring Bautista was considered by the Pirates as key to the Benson deal.

The Mets could always be counted on back then to throw around their prospects to make other teams happy in deals.

Benson in many ways was a bigger disappointment than Zambrano when you look it over.

[Guest Edgy DC]

But they got some certain low-cost productivity when they flipped him.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Yeah. But what gutless POS he was for us (I know, he was hurt allatime).

One afternoon I was out back cutting the grass listening to Benson fail to get out of the 2nd inning agaisnt the Expos or something, and thinking: Could I hate a Met starter any more?

(bravely hits submit before verifying that such a game ever happened)

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Bam:

http://ultimatemets.com/gamedetail.php?gameno=7021

[metirish]

Yeah. But what gutless POS he was for us (I know, he was hurt allatime). One afternoon I was out back cutting the grass listening to Benson fail to get out of the 2nd inning agaisnt the Expos or something, and thinking: Could I hate a Met starter any more? (bravely hits submit before verifying that such a game ever happened)

This game perhaps

http://leaptoad.com/mets/gamedetail.php?gameno=6089

[Willets Point]

Christ, as recently as 6 years ago Joe McEwing and Todd Zeile were still on the Mets.

Also, Zeile pitched in that game.

[Guest Edgy DC]

The world is full of mediocre starters, and they're all one pitch away from becomeing useless for a season. Putting down big change on any but the game changing dominators seems real foolish. Why sign Kris Bension for multi-millions when you can get 90% of the same from Matt Ginter for chump change?

[ashie62]

Edgy DC wrote: The world is full of mediocre starters, and they're all one pitch away from becomeing useless for a season. Putting down big change on any but the game changing dominators seems real foolish. Why sign Kris Bension for multi-millions when you can get 90% of the same from Matt Ginter for chump change?

On this I totally agree.

[Frayed Knot]

That previous winter the Pirates had been raped during the Rule 5 draft, losing like 4 or 5 players out of the first 10 drafted or something crazy like that. Bautista was one of the ones they lost and they wanted to find a way to get him back so they made getting him a condition of the Benson trade and the Mets were only too happy to oblige.

-- it's at this point where you can throw in comments about how this is what happens when you decide beforehand that certain players or certain trades are 'must-haves' and never consider that there may be a price at which you should walk away

So anyway, the Mets sent catching prospect Justin Huber to the Royals to get Bautista in order to then package him as the cherry on top of the Wigginton & Matt Peterson cake that was the Kris Benson deal.


* Peterson was a decent - though not great - pitching prospect at the time who never worked out
* Huber, the Australian catching prospect, was a good bat whose prospect status dropped when he was seen as unable to handle the defensive part of the game. He put up decent offensive numbers in the KC system for years and I'm surprised he never caught on as a bench player but he never seemed to get much of a chance.
* Bautista, as usual for Pirate luck over the last decade or two, kicked around their team until they gave up on him at which point he suddenly 'found it' and is now leading MLB in HRs

[Guest The Second Spitter]

Bam: http://ultimatemets.com/gamedetail.php?gameno=7021

Ryan Church leading off for the Expos.........really?

[Benjamin Grimm]

Who knows? The guy who runs that site is a crackpot, I hear.

[Guest The Second Spitter]

That was a dig at Frank Robinson, not the esteemed webmaster of UMdB.

[HahnSolo]

He did reach base 4 out of 5 times up that day.