Jerry Manuel Makes the Mets a Worse Team

That is all.

Marlon Anderson To Go?

It sounds too good to be true:

It looks like Marlon Anderson's final game as a Met may come Friday night in Florida.

Hopefully it won't just be that he "accepts" a AAA assignment and becomes the first man up if there's an injury.

Blastings-Approved!

He's no Val Pascucci, but we'll take him!

Marlon Anderson is still around

so I'll see you guys later.

Oh, and by the way

Raul Ibanez? Raúúúúúúúúúúúúúúl Ibaññññez?

No.

I wrote last year:

I can't believe this is a real possibility and apparently no one is interested in Adam Dunn because he strikes out too much. Guess what Raul Ibanez can do? If you guessed "play outfield," you would be wrong. He is quite possibly the worst defensive outfielder in the game today. If Barry Bonds came back, he would be better. Hell, Marlon Anderson and Fernando Tatis are better outfielders. Manny Ramirez is better when jogging at half-speed. Mariners blog Lookout Landing lists him as "LF" when they post the lineups in game threads. (They also list Jose Vidro as "DH".) They have a sidebar called "Raul Ibanez is Really Good at Defense." It contains this. And this. And this. And this. AND THIS.

Also here.

Big Putz Trade

I have been out of the loop, as they say. I watched with mild interest as the Mets signed "K-Rod" for considerably less than had been rumored. And now my eyes are opened a little wider at this creative three-team trade between the Mets, Seattle and Cleveland.

Just seeing that the participants are the Mets, Seattle, and Cleveland, I figured, immediately, that the Mets and Mariners had been screwed. But that wasn't exactly the case.

Still, I read the names and then the analysis at the intelligent sites (mostly Amazin Avenue. Also K-Law at ESPN and Carruth at Fan Graphs.) And I was kinda shocked at how universally praised this deal has been from the Mets' side.

Doesn't it strike anyone as a little uncreative? A little too Ed Wade-like, throwing prospects (however mediocre) away for relief pitchers? Yes, Putz is good. And yea, I guess the prospects are not that good.

A dynamite relief corps does not a championship team make.

Tim Marchman is with me a little bit.

Aaron Heilman is Aaron Heilman; this year aside he's a perfectly good setup man, but he had to go and I don't think anyone will miss him even if he turns into a passable fourth starter. Joe Smith, though, is actually pretty damn good, and a pitcher whom right-handers simply can't hit is a valuable thing to have around. Sean Green, whom the Mets picked up in the deal, is to Smith as Reed is to Chavez: He'll fill the role, but not nearly as well.

As for the prospects, Mike Carp is probably going to be a homeless man's John Olerud, a passable second-division starter, while Makiel Cleto is your generic live arm. They're hardly irreplacable, but you can hear overtones of late 2006, when the Mets pissed away a ton of talent including Heath Bell and Jesus Flores.

Right, well that's what bothers me. That's why I didn't really have the energy to write up my Ranking the GMs for Omar and talk about his two-year extension and do a Building the 2009 Mets and all that. Because the modus operandi of this team is just a tired cliché to me.

The minor leagues are fodder for the major leagues. In the major leagues, we throw a bunch of money and prospects around for players who have established themselves as stars already (and may be fading) and surround them with the dredges of mediocrity, "established veterans" who have outlived their usefulness and block better minor leaguers.

I know, I'm a broken record too.

All in all, I am far too harsh. Omar paid a lot for Carlos Beltran, but he has been more than worth it (though I wasn't around to criticize that deal and probably wouldn't have). He paid a lot for Johan Santana, but he has been great as well (though the jury is still out on that one). However, what did it get us? The exact same record as the year before, because while Santana was a significant improvement over the alternatives, the Mets failed to make the same upgrades at the margins, where they gave away what they had gained.

That's why Valentino Pascucci was a rallying cry.

That's why I have a hard time getting excited over the big deals, which Omar, to his credit, often gets right. Because the organizational philosophy is complete shit. The team may luck into a pennant but it will not have long-term success as long as it continues to rely on big-name-talent and lets the rest rot as if it were unimportant.

Eh. I bore myself.

A call to arms for Mr. Peterson!

Please return and analyze this 12 player trade I just read about.

It looks like the Mets dealt Heilman, Chavez, Vargas, Maikel Cleto, Mike Carp, and Ezequiel Carrera for J.J. Putz, Sean Green, and Jeremy Reed. Reed seems to be a Chavez replacement, Sean Green is an average bullpen arm, and J.J. Putz instantly becomes one of the top setup men in the game behind K-Rod.

So the Mets' bullpen at the moment is something like: Feliciano, Schoenweis, Sanchez, Green, Putz, K-Rod - with the possibility for the return of Ambiorix Burgos.