The Player Has Been Named

[G-Fafif]

The Mets have received righty reliever Eric Hanhold from the Brewers as the player not named Neil Walker to be named later in the Neil Walker trade. High-A in 2017, sixth-round draft pick in 2015, 23 years old at present, anything else I'd be cribbing or faking knowing.

[Edgy MD]

I wanna hold your han.

[fimg=500:2uug1e44]https://photos.smugmug.com/Gator-Baseball-2015/Super-Gallery-Florida-Gators-1/i-8gVQLtS/0/bb2c109a/L/Florida%20Gators%20florida%20baseball%20fsu%20seminoles%20march%2017th%202015%20Florida%20Gators%20head%20coach%20Kevin%20O%27Sullivan%20Florida%20Gators%20pitcher%20Eric%20Hanhold%20meet-L.jpg[/fimg:2uug1e44]

[fimg=500:2uug1e44]https://photos.smugmug.com/Gator-Baseball-2015/Super-Gallery-Florida-Gators-1/i-7J3bSdk/0/0403ffd9/L/Florida%20Gators%20florida%20baseball%20fsu%20seminoles%20march%2017th%202015%20Florida%20Gators%20pitcher%20Eric%20Hanhold%20throw%20three%20quarter-L.jpg[/fimg:2uug1e44]

[G-Fafif]

If this dude doesn't enter to the Beatles or at least Hootie & The Blowfish, he doesn't deserve to pitch.

[Centerfield]

Baseball America wrote at the time of the draft that he featured a 90-94 mph heater that could touch 95 with downhill plane and heavy sink (subscription required and recommended). His go-to breaking pitch is a slider, per that report, though he also broke into pro ball utilizing a changeup as a third pitch.

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2017/09/mets-complete-neil-walker-trade-brewers-eric-hanhold-ptbnl.html

[Vic Sage]

because you can never have enough marginal RHed relief pitcher prospects. What is that... like a dozen now?

[Edgy MD]

Seven. Gerson Bautista, Jamie Callahan, Eric Hanhold, Stephen Nogosek, Jacob Rhame, Ryder Ryan, and Drew Smith.

I'm all for it, and I can't even say why. Maybe it's because such assets are fungible. Maybe because they are re-flippable. Maybe they kick ass on a cost-benefit analysis. Maybe they pay off big as a quality-out-of-quantity move.

Maybe the Mets are just spooked that their righthanded relievers all blew up in their faces the first half of the season. Probably I'm just intrigued by the idea that a pattern suggests a strategy and a strategy suggests cunning, and I'm totally being duped and it's all going to pay off badly, but it's a new type of drama, and I'm tuning in.

[Frayed Knot]

Plus there's the strategy involving pitchers where if you want to get two or three good pitchers all you have to do is sign/trade for eight or ten of them.
iow, it's certainly unlikely that these guys will all work out and render each other redundant, particularly not at the same time.


BA: The Brewers drafted Hanhold in the sixth round out of Florida in 2015 and developed him as a starter initially, but after middling results he moved to the bullpen this season at high Class A Carolina.
Big and strong at 6-foot-5, 205 pounds, Hanhold sits 94 mph with his fastball in relief and can touch 96 with sink. His main secondary offering is an 87-88 mph slider he can land for strikes.
He has a strong groundball tendency due to the natural sink on his offerings, and he performed well in late-and-close situations. Hanhold’s experience starting helps him hold up over multi-inning relief
stints—he pitched at least two innings in 17 of his 27 relief appearances—but he also has the stuff to blow it out in a one-inning stint as well.

[Edgy MD]

In other words, the pennant is all but assured. $$$

[MFS62]

That it was a relief pitcher came as no big shock.
The only question was the name.

Later

[Chad ochoseis]

No complaints here on this trade. Other than DeGrom, the starting pitchers don't generally go deep into games. So if we're going to lean heavily on the bullpen, it's good to have replacements ready. And I don't know what more we could expect for six weeks of a less than healthy Neil Walker.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I keep being reminded of the 2003 sell-off. I know it was the last moments of the Steve Phillips reign but he always said relievers were good as "chips." We acquired 8 relief pitchers that season but only 3 ever made a big-league appearance for the Mets and none were any good and I don;t believe any of them became CHiPs:

Royce Ring (Alomar)
Edwin Almonte (Alomar)
Jason Anderson (Benitez)

*
Joselo Diaz (Burnitz)
Kole Strayhorn (Burnitz)
Anderson Garcia (Benitez)
Ryan Bicondoa (Benitez)
Jeremy Hill (Graeme Lloyd)

We also scooped up non-relievers Victor Diaz (Burnitz) and Andrew Salvo (Alomar) in that dealmaking season.

[Ceetar]

meh. we know so much more about stuff now than 2003, and the targeting seems very specific to guys that seem like they can/will succeed within the organization.