Non-Tender deadline Thurs - catchers available maybe ...

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I have a kind of CAHNfidence the Mets can dig up the next Chris Carter or Sean Green if they try hard enough.

BTW, the Green rejection may close the book on Omar's stupidest trade.

[DocTee]

Lastings Milledge now available, as is the intriguing Scott Hairston.

Surprised Oakland nontendered the recently acquired Edwin Encarnacion. Some pop there.

[Guest Edgy DC]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: BTW, the Green rejection may close the book on Omar's stupidest trade.

My loyalty will always be to Bell & Ring for Adkins and Johnson, with some side love going to Bannister for Burgos (though Bannister may never be good again).

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Bell himself makes that one a doozy, but still...

Cumulative B-R WAR for Mets of Putz, Reed, Green: -1.2
Cumulative B-R WAS of Joe Smith, post-trade: 0.5

And that's just two years down the road, leaving out Vargas, Endy and a few other parts.

(H/T to Ted Berg/B-Ref)

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Edgy DC wrote: John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: BTW, the Green rejection may close the book on Omar's stupidest trade. My loyalty will always be to Bell & Ring for Adkins and Johnson, with some side love going to Bannister for Burgos (though Bannister may never be good again).

Bah. All of them sucked, but none were as weighted with hubris, intentionally showy and aggressively wasteful as Chavez ... and Heilman ... and Vargas ... and Cleto ... and Carp ... and Carrera ... and what the hell, Joe Smith ... for a fat, expensive injured closer we didn't need (Putz), a shitty reserve player who couldn't lend a hand despite the entire team getting injured (Reed) and sidearming project who'd spend half his time injured (Green).

[metirish]

I'l credit bucket for always thinking that trade was terrible , I clearly remember Omar making a big show of convincing Putz to be the famed eight inning guy.......

[Guest Edgy DC]

Fair enough, Bucket.

The Carter rejection closes the books on the Billy Wagner trade, and the Maine rejection closes the books on the Benson trade (one of Omar's defter ones).

I swear, irish, if I have to program in a forum filter to ban the use of the phrase "eighth-inning guy," I will.

[seawolf17]

Edgy DC wrote: I swear, irish, if I have to program in a forum filter to ban the use of the phrase "eighth-inning guy," I will.

How will we make fun of Jerry in perpetuity? We'd need to come up with a double-secret Edgy-free code.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

DocTee wrote: Lastings Milledge now available, as is the intriguing Scott Hairston.

... who has a little bit of a second-base background and experience at all three OF spots.

(Iffy defensively at all three... but not, say, Carter or Duda iffy.)

[Frayed Knot]

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: Well, that makes sense. Tweetin' Adam Rubin wrote: I'm told there's a rational explanation for Carter. You have to make 60% of last year's salary, even in AAA. That's expensive if demoted. about 12 hours ago via web

60% of 400K is expensive?!?

And I'm not making the case that Carter deserves to have a place reserved on the '11 roster, only that it seems odd to pre-dump him this early when at worst it seems like he could be the the back-up plan or the throw-in on a trade.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Yeah, I've been scratching my head over that also.

Yeah, guys on the 40-man roster can get paid even they're in the minors. Nothing new there, but these aren't exceptional cases at all.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Word is that the Mets let him go because they wanted to open a space on the 40-man roster.

Maybe that means they have somebody in particular that they like better who's going to take that spot. Who knows?

[Guest Edgy DC]

Sure, fine, but they had only 38 guys on the roster as it was and after Green's and Maine's non-tenderings, that was down to 36.

It's now at 35 with a little bit to go before the Rule 5 draft, so they must be planning some sort of orgy of transactions if that's the case. It just doesn't add up.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Orgy, yeahhhhh!!11

[Frayed Knot]

Barajas to the Dodgers on a one-year deal.

[smg58]

I'll wait and see on Carter. If Alderson winds up spending more money to bring in a lefty bench bat to replace what we already had, I won't like it. I also wouldn't be surprised if Carter comes back on a minor league deal. He could have been outrighted when Hessman and Valdes were, but that would have enabled another team to claim him off waivers.

Having Hideki Okajima and J. P. Howell on the list of non-tenders should definitely make it more of a buyer's market for lefty bullpen help.

I hope the Braves regret cutting Matt Diaz.

Fangraphs made an issue of the Nats cutting Joel Peralta. He threw 87 innings out of the pen for KC in 07, his arm fell off, he was dreadful for two years, but last year he was outstanding (2.02 ERA, 0.80 WHIP). You usually don't see guys non-tendered after the kind of year he had.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Frayed Knot wrote: Well, that makes sense. I'm told there's a rational explanation for Carter. You have to make 60% of last year's salary, even in AAA. That's expensive if demoted. about 12 hours ago via web 60% of 400K is expensive?!? And I'm not making the case that Carter deserves to have a place reserved on the '11 roster, only that it seems odd to pre-dump him this early when at worst it seems like he could be the the back-up plan or the throw-in on a trade.

Forgot the [sarcasm] tags.

Unless they really don't like his prospects AND are really jonesing to add a guy to the 40... OR (puts on Joe BenignoTM brand tin hat) it's a simple when-in-doubt-clean-the-Minaya-detritus* move, then it doesn't seem to make sense.


*NOTE: Proposed merely for argument's sake.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Let's wait and see who the Mets add to the 40-man. Maybe they think they have an under the radar comer. After watching Carter for a full season, I now understand why he couldn't stick with a major league team despite his all-star AAA stats. He presented as a below average hitter for a corner outfielder who doesn't field the position very well and throws worse than World Series Rusty Staub. I honestly can't remember the last time I witnessed a worse outfielder's throwing arm. Anyone who thinks that a National League team can simultaneously carry both this guy and Oliver Perez v.2010 is building a charity ward instead of a pennant contender.

[Guest Edgy DC]

I didn't see a full season out of him. I saw 180 plate appearances and 176 2/3 innings in the outfield. And the point isn't carrying him so much as why he's being cut now when he isn't expensive and there isn't a roster pinch. I don't know

I don't think he's a feel-good story. I think he's an asset.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Perhaps Carter hits better with more reps. But where's he gonna get his 350-400 PA's from, on the Mets? And if he's getting 350-400 PA's, that means he's playing an awful lot of outfield. He may hit better. But that's an if. I know he won't throw any better. He's a DH, if anything. Or an almost exclusive pinch-hitter, a luxury on an NL team.

We'll have to wait for further roster shuffling to fully understand why he was non-tendered.

[smg58]

I don't know if it's a question of more reps, or whether the reps that he had were enough to get an accurate sense of his worth. That's true whether his OPS was .700 or .900. Bench players can look better than they really are over a small sample size, too (Timo Perez, Mark Johnson, Eric Valent, Ruben Gotay, etc.). Maybe this is as good as Carter gets, or maybe a different set of 180 PAs tells a very different story.

The problem with players stuck with the AAAA tag is that they rarely get more chances than Carter got to establish themselves on this level. (Although, on a slightly related front, I do have to give props to Nelson Figueroa for getting tendered a major-league contract by the Astros.)

[batmagadanleadoff]

smg58 wrote: Bench players can look better than they really are over a small sample size, too (Timo Perez, Mark Johnson, Eric Valent, Ruben Gotay, etc.)

Mike Jacobs.

[metirish]

Per Rubin

Mets officially re-sign IF Russ Adams......


but that's not the real news, here's that

and sign ex-Tigers catcher Dusty Ryan to a minor league deal

[A Boy Named Seo]

metirish wrote: Per Rubin Mets officially re-sign IF Russ Adams...... but that's not the real news, here's that and sign ex-Tigers catcher Dusty Ryan to a minor league deal

Suck on that, Nationals.

[TransMonk]

Ken Rosenthal tweets: Keep Jerry Hairston Jr. in mind

I truly hope that he's thinking about the old Mets and not the new Mets.

[metirish]

TransMonk wrote: Ken Rosenthal tweets: Keep Jerry Hairston Jr. in mind I truly hope that he's thinking about the old Mets and not the new Mets.

He didn't have OMFG LOL after that tweet?