Category: Latest News

Brewers Going For It- Trade For Sabathia

Cleveland Indians pitcher C.C.Image via Wikipedia

The second place Milwaukee Brewers decided to go for it this season. Major news outlets are reporting that they’ve completed a trade with the Cleveland Indians for C.C. Sabathia. He’s considered the best pitcher available for a trade prior to the July 31 non-waiver trading deadline. Look out Chicago Cubs, the Brew Crew is making a run.

The Los Angeles Dodgers and Tampa Bay Rays were also considered contenders for Sabathia until recent days.

The Indians will receive Double-A Huntsville prospect Matt LaPorta plus other players. LaPorta is a masher, hitting .288 with 20 HR and 66 RBI’s in 84 games.

Sabathia turned down Cleveland’s offer of 4 years/$72 million to play out this season and become a free agent. This season Sabathia is 6-8 with a 3.83 ERA after a bad start.

Sabathia is 27 years old, a three time All-Star, and 2007 Cy Young Award winner. Baseball Reference defines similar players to Sabathia at his age are Dennis Eckersley and Greg Maddux among others. Nice deal for the Brewers.

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Billy Wagner Mets Only All-Star

image Billy Wagner was selected to the 2008 All-Star game to represent the Mets. He’s had a great season, minus the one week that got Willie Randolph fired.

David Wright is one of five finalist for the last spot on the roster. Voting is available at MLB.com. He’s up against Pat Burrell of the Phillies, Corey Hart of the Brewers, Carlos Lee of the Astros, and Aaron Rowand of the Giants.

I’m surprised that Johan Santana wasn’t selected. Despite his 7-7 record he’s fifth in the league in ERA at 2.96 and seventh in WHIP at 1.19. He’s been really good without receiving much run support from his teammates.

Click here for the complete list of All-Star selections.

Phillies Sign Lidge To Extension

MILWAUKEE - APRIL 24: Brad Lidge #54 of the Ph...Image by Getty Images via Daylife

The Philadelphia Phillies announced that they’ve signed a three year contract extension with closer Brad Lidge today. He’s having a great season so far for the Phils. Hopefully, the Mets won’t see him today. He’s sure to be in a good mood after signing his new 3 year/ $37.5 million deal.

The Phillies obtained Lidge in a trade with the Houston Astros prior to this season. He’s currently playing under his last available year of arbitration for a 1 year/ $6.35 million contract that was signed to avoid arbitration.

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Mets In The News: Beltran, Reyes, El Duque, And More

This image is a candidate for speedy deletion....Image via Wikipedia

As the Mets prepare to face the Phillies today at 1:35pm, there are several stories circulating the newswire:

  • Mets manager Jerry Manuel told the press that he’s thinking of moving Carlos Beltran to second in the batting order so he sees more fastballs. I’m in complete agreement. Even moving him to third would be better.
  • El Duque is going to start his rehab work in Port St. Lucie this week.
  • Moises Alou is working out in NYC now. He’s expected to play a few rehab games with Brooklyn or Binghamton before returning to the Mets from his calf strain injury.
  • John Maine feels fine after experiencing cramping in his left forearm last night. He’ll be doing his regular workouts between starts.
  • A fan has filed notice to the City of New York that he intends to sue for $5.5 million after being hit in the face last August by a piece of Luis Castillo’s bat that shattered.
  • David Wright will not participate in the All-Star game home run derby.
  • Mike Lupica writes at the Daily News that Jose Reyes is the best shortstop in New York this season and gets picked on too much for the things he does on the field.
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Pulling Santana After Eighth Was The Right Decision

The analysis of Jerry Manuel’s move last night to pull Johan Santana seems to have come down on the side of leaving Santana in to pitch the ninth inning. Hindsight is 20/20 but I would’ve made the same decision as Manuel.

There’s no need to leave Santana in a tie game for the bottom of the ninth inning. All he can do is hold or lose the game, he’s not going to win it for the Mets. Although he had thrown just 95 pitches Santana is going to be here for six more years so that has to be kept in mind. There’s no need to max him out in a game that he can’t win. If the Mets were up by one or two runs, I would’ve left Santana in there to close it out.

The only thing that I might have done would’ve been to pull the plug on Duaner Sanchez after Pedro Feliz doubled off him. Shane Victorino is a much better left handed hitter. So Manuel could have used Scott Schoenweiss or Pedro Feliciano to turn him around. Victorino hits .213 against lefties versus .289 versus righties.

Sanchez hasn’t given up a run since June 10th. That’s ten appearances since the last run he’s given up. He’s earned his spot at the end of the bullpen. So I don’t have a problem with him coming in for Santana in the ninth.

There’s no point in having your best pitcher, whether its Santana or Billy Wagner, pitch the ninth inning of a tie game. I’ve written about that before here. Santana or Wagner should be used to lock down a win at the end of a game not hold it for someone else.

Report: Reyes- Hernandez Separated On Team Flight

ANAHEIM, CA - JUNE 17: Jose Reyes #7 of the N...Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Bart Hubbuch of the NY Post is reporting this morning that Mets shortstop Jose Reyes and SNY broadcaster Keith Hernandez almost started throwing punches on the team charter flight Sunday night from New York to St. Louis.

Basically the story is that Reyes was alerted by family and friends after Sunday’s game that Keith was speaking negatively about him during the broadcast. Remember, that’s the game where Reyes threw his glove to the ground after making an error. Reyes then confronted Keith on the plane and it was a heated conversation. They were separated and Reyes is still mad about the whole situation.

First, Bart Hubbuch is the same idiot that reported manager Jerry Manuel called the Mets fans “fertilizer”. That story turned out to be a misinterpretation.

Second, Fox Sports had a link to the Hubbuch’s story up this morning and has since taken it down.  So there are some serious credibility issues here.

I’m going to withhold judgment on the validity of this story until it’s confirmed by other beat reporters. The Post has no conscience and Hubbach specifically is a terrible beat reporter. His work is trash.

Here’s a link to the story for you to make your own judgment.

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Audio: Olney On Mets Trading Jose Reyes

ESPN baseball writer Buster Olney talks to Michael Kay about the possibility of the Mets trading Jose Reyes. He says that it’s not out of the realm of possibility if the right deal comes along. Specifically, he mentions the Rays as a team that could put together an adequate package to satisfy the Mets.

ESPN Radio

There are a couple of things that I’d like to mention on this topic:

  1. Omar Minaya would have to be completely insane to trade Reyes. He wouldn’t find another player that’s an equal replacement to lead off. Reyes’ contract is extremely reasonable. The list goes on of reasons not to trade Reyes.
  2. The Rays are mentioned in every trade discussion now even though they’ve never been a major player in trade deals in the past. Just because the Rays have a wealth of talent doesn’t mean that they’ll become dealers overnight. Until the Rays start making major deals I don’t want to hear about them being linked to every player that may become available for trades.