Frayed Knot

The story of dealing 5 prospects for a 29 y/o Twins lefthander were too juicy to let the comparisons go ignored. Viola turned 29 two months prior to his trade deadline day deal to the Mets for Rick Aguilera, Kevin Tapani, David West, Tim Drummond, and Jack Savage. Santana will turn 29 in about 5 weeks from now. 5 (complete) seasons prior to the trade/possible trade: FV: 93-46, 1,261 IPs, 3.46 ERA 1984: 131 ERA+ (lg/season adj; 100 = lg avg), 1.16 WHiP, 6th in CY voting 1985: 106 ERA+; 1.32 WHiP; 1986: 95 ERA+; 1.38 WHiP 1987: 159 ERA+; 1.18 WHiP; CY = 6th 1988: 153 ERA+; 1.14 WHiP; CY = 1st JS: 82-35; 1,071 IPs, 2.92 ERA 2003: 148 ERA+; 1.10 WHiP; CY = 7th 2004: 182 ERA+; 0.92 WHiP; CY = 1st 2005: 155 ERA+; 0.97 WHiP; CY = 3rd 2006: 161 ERA+; 1.00 WHiP; CY = 1st 2007: 130 ERA+; 1.07 WHiP; CY = 7th Viola went on to pitch 2-1/2 seasons for the Mets: a decent half-season, then a top-notch (3rd in CY) full year, followed by a sub-par one. After that he went FA having two good seasons for the Red Sox but was then essentially done at age 33. He hung around for 3 seasons after that but appeared in just 15 games combined totalling 75 innings w/a 2-5 record.

metirish wrote: Twins will resign Santana to a 6 year $1120 millon cantract. I know MLB is making a lot of money these day, but $186 million per year sounds kinda high to me. I'm of the mind that Santana will be traded prior to the start of ST and I'm increasingly convinced it will be to the Mets. Hopefully they'll do a deal because it's a good one rather than out of desperation.

]As the largest city in the Bay Area, San Jose would be a natural fit for either the ML A's, AAA Giants San Jose already does host the California League (High A) Giants farm team. As to why San Jose doesn't become a AAA team instead of an A+ team considering the size of SJ I'm not sure although, as MGiM notes, the big club doesn't usually own their minor lg affiliates and can't simply make the switch on their own. The SJ stadium might not neet AAA standards (even though the city certainly would) so an upgrade might be needed first. Also, the SJ owners group would need to convince the PCL to include them in their league while dumping Fresno, something the PCL might not be inclined to do if Fresno has been a long-standing successful town. They might welcome a SJ application but would prefer to dump a different city instead. ]That business with San Jose never did make sense to me. Would the Athletics also be able to block the Giants from moving to San Jose? That situation out there seems to be based on the whole 'different cities yet same market' mindset. Territorial rights is one of the few places where MLB's anti-trust exemption still has some free reign and so those two teams have drawn an 'East Bay - West Bay' line of demarcation where one has veto power over the other on their side of a point which is more or less at the southern point of San Francisco Bay. So, I believe, the Giants could move to SJ w/o Oakland permission but not the other way around. By the same token the Giants couldn't move to Fremont on their own and have no power to stop Oakland from doing so. btw, back to the Richmond situation for a minute; several Carolina League teams (A+) have already expressed interest in moving to Richmond when the affiliate FA-gency season opens up this coming fall. The stadium there, which turned off the Braves and is apparently sub-par for AAA standards, is probably an upgrade for most Car Lg teams, as would the city's population. The CL is an 8-team league currently in Frederick, Md; Wilmington, Del; Lynchburg, Salem & Potomac, Viginia; Winston-Salem & Kinston, NC.; plus Myrtle Beach, SC. The Mets don't have an affiliate in that league.

The problem with the whole Heilman/Schoeneweis comparison is that service time is such a big part of determining pay that it makes the "who's better" question almost irrelevent. Schoeneweis got his deal via an open market that Heilman is still 3 years from testing. The only consolation to Heilman in the whole thing is that acheiving arbitration status nearly tripled his salary from last year when the club was able to simply renew his contract at their price. Marty Noble also notes that Heilman has been nicknamed 'Wall Street' by some of his teammates so maybe that means he's invested his meager pittance well.

Heilman is the first player to jump off the train before reaching Arbtration Station as he signs a one-year deal. The remaining five have submitted their salary figures: - Oliver Perez is seeking $6.5mil vs the club's proposal of $4.725 - Pedro Feliciano: $1.2mil vs NYM = 800K - Jorge Sosa: $2.750mil vs $1.70 - Ryan Church: $2.45mil vs $1.75 - Endy Chavez: $2.075mil vs the same $1.725mil that he made in 2008 The team has, almost famously by this point, not gone the full arbitration route with any players since 1992. I remember hearing NYDN writer Adam Rubin saying he thought the club's mindset had changed just a bit recently to the point where they may be willing to see one of these cases all the way through, even if only to avoid the reputation of being the club who wants to avoid arbitration at all costs (and maybe pays too much because of it). On the other hand he said that prior to last year's arb period and they again skirted the process then too.

Elster88 wrote: 16 Blocks? Really? What was the damage in that one? Bruce Willis's career?

Because first you take Manhattan, THEN you take Berlin. Whatarrya, stupid or something?

More from BA: -- Owen dominated hitters during his college career at Francis Marion (S.C.), earning NCAA Division II 2007 pitcher-of-the-year honors after going 10-1, 1.04 and setting the Peach Belt Conference career strikeout record with 334 in three seasons. His success carried over into his pro debut, as he took advantage of short-season Brooklyn's pitcher-friendly Keyspan Park like few pitchers have. Signed for $50,000 in the 20th round, Owen claimed two-thirds of the New York-Penn League's pitching triple crown, leading in wins (nine) and ERA (1.49). He has a shorter and wider body than scouts would like but also solid-average stuff and an advanced feel pitching. He spots his 86-90 mph fastball to all four quadrants of the strike zone, and while he has below-average velocity, he can get to 91-92 when needed, even late in games. He has above-average fastball command, and he can vary his breaking balls depending on the situation, using shorter sliders for groundballs and bigger curves for strikeouts. Owen doesn't have much projection or a true plus pitch, so he's unlikely to become an elite prospect. But he's likely to get pushed aggressively to see if he can get advanced hitters out, and he could jump to high Class A in 2008.

I think it was when Craig was managing/coaching out in SF and the story goes that he and Scott met in the off-season at some point out in Cali. The addition Ralph used to tell was that Craig warned Scott that he'd be accused of cheating if/when he used it ... then Craig was the first one to do just that the following season.

Minor League guru John Sickels wighs in on Parnell:... has a 90-95 MPH sinking fastball, and a slider which is often overpowering. He gets plenty of ground balls, but his changeup is below average, and Double-A hitter exposed this weakness. His track record, in college and as a pro, is erratic. He clearly has the arm strength to succeed, but is still making the transition from thrower to pitcher. He's a least a year away from being ready for the majors. My guess is that he'll have to move to the bullpen to succeed in the majors.

Publicly admitting that he sent his pitching coach to make a mid-inning pitching change because he didn't want to hear himself booed, for instance, didn't to much to dispel the image that he wasn't cut out for the scrutiny that goes with the job.

Cities - actually an ownership group within a city - have to first establish an agreement with the various minor leagues (Intl & PCL for AAA; the Eastern, Southern or Texas Leagues for AA, etc) for them to land a team. So, yes, a balance has to remain within the leagues and a new ownership group in Richmond would need to strike an agreement with the IL [u:b986c8e056]in place of[/u:b986c8e056] an existing city in order to attract a new team. The Mets wound up in N'awlins after the last shuffle because there were no IL cities left when the music stopped (I think Mont/Wash moved their AAA team from the PCL to the Int'l). In the case of the Braves, they actually own their AAA team (most clubs don't) which is how they can decide now where they're going to play next year.

NY Sen Chuckles Schumer is actively lobbying for Syracuse to drop its long-standing (30 years) affiliation with the Blue Jays when their agreement runs out after the 2008 season with an eye towards striking one with the Mets. Schumer is described as a "longtime friend" of Fred Wilpon and claims that the Wilpons like the idea of having their top two minor league teams just 75 miles apart and within reach of NYC. Schumer, of course, is working the angle that it would be good for NYS in general. No discussions can (legally) take place until the 2008 season ends in September. That's when all the current 2-year deals run out and a two-week window opens on the bi-annual game of musical chairs begins where teams either re-up their agreements at all levels of the minors or look to strike better deals with other cities. In other news, Richmond Virginia is now open territory as the Braves just announced that they will not renew their 42-year affiliation with the Virginia capitol and will move their AAA team to ... Atlanta! Suburban Gwinnett county, actually, some 20 miles outside of urban Atlanta. Interesting concept having a team so close to the major league one. I know some hockey teams have had this - the Philly Flyers had (or maybe still have) their top farm club playing in their old building across the street for a while. Boston-Pawtucket and Phoenix-Tuscon are probably the closest right now. The Braves cite the "antiquated" state of the stadium in Richmond (although barely 20 years old) and the slow pace on talks to replace what has been described as "the worst facility in AAA baseball today" as their reasons for leaving. So one would suspect that any new team thinking of moving there would want a new stadium deal before committing (not easy to do by next April unless they get going NOW!!!!). But it does open up an east coast city with a long tradition of top level minor league baseball and there's an eastern team who wound up with a PCL team when the music stopped during the last shuffle period who even has ties to minor league ball in the state of Virginia.

MLB itself tried to claim that they "owned" the stats generated from their games and therefore had the right to charge other sites who published them for informational or fantasy purposes. They got almost instantly slam-dunked on that one in court. The earlier stuff concerning their wars with fan-run websites (like, say, this one) had to do with the use of logos and confusion that w/could result with surfers confusing some teenager's site with the team's offical one. They're on much more solid legal ground with that one even if they were swatting flies with sledgehammers in a few cases.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: He's now asking if "statistical anomalies" would trigger testing of individual players. Selig again looked dumbfounded, but then said "of course!" Investigate Maris NOW!!!! (never hit 40 except for the year he hit 61, and only twice hit 30+)

I wasn't even thinking of the raw numbers (eventually that HAS TO surpass the living ones as long as the franchise exits) so much as just the rate of deaths. A new-ish franchise has a ratio of ex-players that tilts towards the still-young recently retired types plus middle-agers and away from the somewhat older and very elderly. For the Mets that ratio will start to level out in the next decade or two and the rate of dying ballplayers will start to pick up because of it.

This deal now done. Kotsay heads to Atlanta with Oakland picking up $5mil of the $7.35mil due for this season, in exchange for RP Joey Devine and minor leaguer Jaime Richmond. Devine, a 24 y/o righty, was a rare 1st round draft pick for the Braves, a college reliever to an org that drafts almost exclusivly HS players. As is typical for college relievers, he made it to the majors just months after the draft but has pitched only a handful of ML innings in each of the 3 years since. Richmond is a 22 y/o RHP who pitched in the low-A Sally League in 2007 (IOW, Richmond never reached Richmond)

]Now there are 45 dead Mets players, and 776 who are still living. One would suspect that the rate of deaths will start to increase over the next number of years before eventually leveling off. Guys who were young men 40-some years ago are just now getting to be old men which will signal an increase in mortality for the same actuarial reasons that WWII vets are dying at a faster rate now than they were even during the war itself. ]Cardwell had a pretty good career with the Mets Currently #103 on your CPF hit parade. Just fell out of the top-100 with this year's update.

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Heard it on the radio, no details yet.

I like the fact that he finished his career with ... the Padres, who else? He started - and won - their 2nd ever game, tossing a 7 inning 2-hitter to outduel Houston stud Larry Dierker. He had just turned 23 y/o prior to that '55 WS - although was already in his 3rd season (so much for players serving long apprenticeships in the minors back then)

I think the concept of having Endy insurance was enough of an incentive by itself. Doesn't sound like this hammy episode was, by itself, a deciding factor.

In other broadcasting news; Keith - who was previously committed to SNY only through '08 - has signed a longer-term deal (no specifics). The entire SNY crew (Gary, Ron, Keith & Kevin Burkhardt) are now locked up for several years.

Looks like the Jays & Cards are about to trade their expensive, oft-injured, and none-too-happy 3rd basemen for each other. ** A Challenge Trade!! ** Troy Glaus, coming off foot surgery and the Mitchell list, would head from Toronto to St Louis in exchange for Scott Rolen who's coming off various shoulder surgeries plus an extended stay in Tony LaRussa's doghouse. Both still have to pass physicals (hardly a given) and it may need commish's approval if money is exchanged to even out the mega-bucks deals both have for the next few years. ($33mil over 3 yrs for Rolen -- $24mil over 2 for Glaus)

Sal/Ira/Bret/Doc's problem with Coleman had to do with his reporting skills(or lack thereof). I agree that he's pretty vanilla at times, while also acknowledging that he sometimes had a delicate line to walk as he bounced between beat reporter, pre/post-game show host, and regular FAN staffer. No guy who's in the locker room every day is going to be as confrontational and opinionated as say M&MD for the same reason that Adam Rubin isn't going to tee off on some player with the same degree of freedom as Mike Lupica, or even the regular White House beat crew as compared to their op-ed commentator collegues on the Sunday talk show circuit. Howie Rose, when he used to juggle the same beat, handled it better IMO but would still occasionally catch grief from several directions as he tried to navigate the differences between when the NYM portion of the broadcast ended and the regular WFAN programming took over. Ed has done p-b-p on a fill-in basis and is OK at it but nothing special IMO. I'm pretty indifferent as to whether he gets the job or not. I'm just thinking that either they have no intention of picking him or he's going to look like the ultimate fall-back choice if they do.