Okay, now let's talk about Asdrubal Cabrera

[Benjamin Grimm]

Is he Plan B after Zobrist?

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

eh. Let's revisit my trade for Xander Boegarts

[Centerfield]

Fuck Cabrera. Go get Heyward you assholes.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Asdrubal talk makes me mildly Asdepressed.

[Lefty Specialist]

His wife doesn't appear particularly hot. So, no.

[Ceetar]

He's probably better than Flores, if similar. low OBP with some pop. Probably better defensively.

But Flores is young and can get better and I'm not sure the marginal upgrade is worth paying for. even less so at second.

[Centerfield]

Bonus from the Walker deal: NO ASDRUBAL CABRERA.

Win!

[Benjamin Grimm]

I agree, but Jim Duquette seems to think otherwise.

[Centerfield]

Maybe I spoke too soon.

[Centerfield]

2 year deal plus an option, says Ken Rosenthal. 18.5 guaranteed.

[TransMonk]

I'm not sure I like this one. Seems expensive given the slight upgrade from Wilmer. I'm not even sure his defense is any better.

[metsmarathon]

Okay... This is interesting.

Wilmer as super-ute, or should I be really really worried about wright?

[Centerfield]

Exactly TM. You were talking about cost-efficient moves? Put this one down as an example of inefficiency.

I don't get this at all. Either they are working on a trade with Flores, or maybe Wright is hurt more than we know?

Complete head scratcher. It probably also means that whatever slight chance we had at Cespedes/Hayward/Upton is out the window.

Jesus Mets. Can't even give me one night to enjoy the Walker trade?

[Guest d'Kong76]

Feels like they went from Plan B to Plan D.

[Frayed Knot]

Yeah, this is odd.
I would have thought ONE middle IF but not two and if they were going to go get a SS I assumed it would be a glove-first type.
Not sure what it says about the future of Wilmer and his injury, or about Tejada who they just (in effect) re-upped by offering a contract, or about the likes of Herrera/Reynolds/Cecchini.

[Guest themetfairy]

We already have shortstops who can't hit at less than half the price.

[Fman99]

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[MFS62]

Gee.
I leave you kids alone while I go to work and this is the kind of excitement I find when I get back home.

As CF and Thon mentioned above, this makes me think the Mets are very concerned with Wright's health.
I like both moves- they got themselves a new keystone combo that can both field and hit for power. (Cabrera had a real hot second half last year, and Walker won the Silver Slugger for 2B in 2014.)
This frees up Wilmer to be great insurance for Wright. But don't forget, if David is ok, Wilmer can play first when Duda needs a rest or is in a slump.

Incidentally, I saw an interview with Sandy earlier this week on Yahoo sports(it may have been a reprint of an earlier one). Someone asked Sandy if he knew how much, if any, the Mets have received from the insurance coverage of David's contract. He said he didn't know. Maybe he just looked inside the envelope and saw that he has more money to play with than he had thought.
I hope so. There's more work to be done.

Later

[Edgy MD]

I expect their concern is more with the wounded wheels of Flojada.

[batmagadanleadoff]

MFS62 wrote: Incidentally, I saw an interview with Sandy earlier this week on Yahoo sports(it may have been a reprint of an earlier one). Someone asked Sandy if he knew how much, if any, the Mets have received from the insurance coverage of David's contract. He said he didn't know.

It's probably none of Sandy's business.

When should I stop rolling my eyes?

[MFS62]

batmagadanleadoff wrote: MFS62 wrote: Incidentally, I saw an interview with Sandy earlier this week on Yahoo sports(it may have been a reprint of an earlier one). Someone asked Sandy if he knew how much, if any, the Mets have received from the insurance coverage of David's contract. He said he didn't know. It's probably none of Sandy's business. When should I stop rolling my eyes?

Really?
He is the GENERAL MANAGER. He is the one with the budget. He should know how much he has to spend.
It IS his business, by the definition of his position.
Later

[batmagadanleadoff]

MFS62 wrote: MFS62 wrote: Incidentally, I saw an interview with Sandy earlier this week on Yahoo sports(it may have been a reprint of an earlier one). Someone asked Sandy if he knew how much, if any, the Mets have received from the insurance coverage of David's contract. He said he didn't know. It's probably none of Sandy's business. When should I stop rolling my eyes? Really? He is the GENERAL MANAGER. He is the one with the budget. He should know how much he has to spend. It IS his business, by the definition of his position. Later

I ... umm ... agree with you. I'm rolling my eyes at Sandy's quote, not at you.

So again, when should I stop rolling my eyes?

[nymr83]

MFS62 wrote: MFS62 wrote: Incidentally, I saw an interview with Sandy earlier this week on Yahoo sports(it may have been a reprint of an earlier one). Someone asked Sandy if he knew how much, if any, the Mets have received from the insurance coverage of David's contract. He said he didn't know. It's probably none of Sandy's business. When should I stop rolling my eyes? Really? He is the GENERAL MANAGER. He is the one with the budget. He should know how much he has to spend. It IS his business, by the definition of his position. Later

Exactly - he should know how much he has to spend. Now, are you really assuming that the Wilpons are "letting him spend" Wight's insurance money? or do you think they pocketed it? I know what I think and I'm not even in the top ten on the list of "Wilpon Conspiracy Theorists" around here.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Mets Named Asdrubal
Asdrubal Beauchamp (1972, 1973)
Asdrubal Bethke (1965)
Asdrubal Dwyer (1976)
Asdrubal Fregosi (1972, 1973)
Asdrubal Gosger (1969, 1973, 1974)
Asdrubal Hickman (1962 - 1966)
Asdrubal Lindeman (1994)
Asdrubal Mann (2000)
Asdrubal Marshall (1962)
Asdrubal McAndrew (1968 - 1973)
Asdrubal Tatum (1998)

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

whoa I sacked out on the couch last night and missed this.

I guess one thing you can say is he's a better SS than Flores and a better hitter than Tejada. Modest approval?

[smg58]

He'll give you an OPS in the mid 700s, which Tejada can't do and Flores has yet to demonstrate he can. Defense is the bigger question mark. It's not a bad pickup unless he turns out to have no range at all.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Very concerned with poor reviews of this guy's D. I mean, I guess the Mets are saying if you're going to put average/worse defensive players out there every day they may as well hit some home runs but I'd have hoped for a stronger statement about the D.

Though to be fair I don't know anything about Cabrera IRL, I conflate him with a million other American League SSs and have never watched him closely.

[Edgy MD]

In a matter of hours, Tejada went from starting shortstop to third string. And that's not bad, considering the lack of depth that the team has had at the position and the pattern of Tejada playing his best with a gun to his head.

I'm trying to look at it like I look at Grandy and Cutty. His job is to hold down the job until somebody takes it from him.

[Lefty Specialist]

Bit of a head-scratcher, unless they know more about the WilmerRuben injuries than they're letting on (which would be typical Mets).

Well, the infield's got more pop than it did yesterday anyway. Wonder if Wilmer is the supersub or trade bait at this point, though.

[Vic Sage]

the infield does NOT have more pop. Flores hit 16 HRs last year; that's more than Cabrera did, and more than Cabrera's hr avg per season. the SLG and BA are virtually identical. Flores has a disastrous OB% but he's 24 and control of the zone is something you can develop over time. Cabrera is a Venezuelan 30, meaning he plays like he's 35. He has very little, if anything, on Flores offensively, and considering how well Flores played SS toward the end of the season, and how Cabrera's range became so limited that they moved him to 2b last year, i don't see much of a defensive upgrade either. This retards Flores's development, as well as cecchini, and doesn't give us much of an upgrade. And the $8m could've gone toward a quality OF bat, instead of a LHed hitting OFer to platoon with Lagares which is what we're going to get, if we got anybody out there at all.

Modestly happy about Walker (because we filled a hole from our surplus, without impacting our small-market budget), but Murphy had a higher slg% last year, so no, our IF does not have more pop, at least not $8m more. This deal sucks.