In this installment of the Mets Weekly Report with Kerel Cooper of On The Black, we talk about the Carlos Beltran trade. Beltran went to the Giants for minor league pitcher Zack Wheeler last week. We recap the trade and talk about whether we think it was favorable for the Mets. We also talk about the Mets strategy, in general, of trading K-Rod and Beltran but holding onto everyone else.
David Wright is also a topic of discussion this week. Is David Wright the undisputed leader of this team now that Beltran’s gone? We talk about Wright’s leadership skills and his relatively lengthy tenure with the Mets.
The Mets trade of Carlos Beltran and cash to the Giants for prospect Zack Wheeler should be completed and announced by both teams today. There’s quite a bit of video of Zack Wheeler available including some boring interviews. Here’s some quality video of a single-A start that Wheeler made for San Jose on May 11, 2011.
Wheeler was the sixth overall pick in the draft in 2009 by the Giants. It’ll be interesting to see if he’s assigned to St. Lucie or Binghamton when he joins the Mets. Here are his minor league stats:
For all the complaints I have made about Carlos Beltran in the past… how selfish I think he was, how he never stood up to be a leader in the clubhouse or on the field, how he didn’t show up to a Veteran’s Hospital visit, how he ended the 2006 NL Championship with his bat on his shoulder and even his preference to play for the Yankees for a discount before he settled on the Mets… his bat and glove will be missed.
Let me make that clear… His bat and glove will be missed. The player will not be.
He has had a productive career here but he was (and still is) clearly playing for his next contract and a chance to win now. Who can blame him? He currently has a 32 game on base streak that dates back to June 16th. It’s the second longest active streak in the majors. He’s leading the NL in doubles with 30 and he’s seventh in the NL with 66 RBI’s. He’s http://laparkan.com/buy-sildenafil/ also tied for 2nd with 47 extra base hits.
Basically, Beltran was having a monster season and showing everyone he was finally healthy, proved he could still play the field and was still dangerous on the base-paths. This was a 4 month audition for his next team. Nothing more so I had no emotional attachments to Beltran this year. I’m not glad he’s gone, don’t really care he’s gone either.
I am glad he went to the Giants though. I can now root for the Giants. Beltran’s going to have a monster 2 months and he still has the capability of carrying that team all the way to the World Series. I would love to see Beltran help the Giants beat the Phillies and the Yankees at some point. The trade is bittersweet but had to be done. We did get a great pitching prospect in return and the future looks a little brighter for it.
So I will say Goodbye Carlos Beltran. I’ll enjoy watching you hit homers out into the San Francisco Bay.
The Mets finally pulled the trigger today on a Carlos Beltran trade. For those of us holding tickets for a game in 2011, we just lost out big time as the Mets threw in the towel on the rest of the season. There’s not much reason to go to Citi Field or watch on TV anymore this season for the casual fan. We’ll check in with you in February for spring training. Only the hardcore fans will remain and it seems like there’s getting to be fewer and fewer of us left.
I don’t blame the Mets or Sandy Alderson for making the deal. They got Zack Wheeler from the Giants a single-A pitcher that was taken sixth overall in 2009 and top 40 prospect. That’s not a bad haul for an aging star with two months left on his contract and a clause that doesn’t allow the team to offer salary arbitration.
My point is now that the Mets have traded their closer and their starting right fielder there’s nothing to really look forward to this season from the Mets. It’s too bad that the Mets haven’t been able to get themselves into contention like the Giants, Phillies, Braves, etc. I wish the Mets were looking to add pieces for a playoff run. It’s incredibly disappointing for a team with one of the highest payrolls in baseball.
This week I talk to Kerel Cooper from On The Black about the upcoming non-waiver trading deadline. The deadline is next Sunday at 4pm and there are several Mets that are being mentioned pretty heavily in trade rumors.
Of course, nobody in baseball is being talked about more heavily in trade rumors than Carlos Beltran. There are several teams tied to Beltran including the Phillies, Braves, Giants, Rangers, and Red Sox.
In this week’s video we talk about some of the other Mets that could be traded this week. And we talk about whether we think the Mets front office will completely break down the team in a “fire sale”. Check out the video below.
It looks like the Wilpons have won round 1 in a legal battle against Irving Picard.
According to Mark DeCambre of the New York Post, Picard dropped his damages claims against the Wilpons and Sterling Equities. DeCambre says that profits that were made by the Wilpons are being sought in bankruptcy court. DeCambre also says that Picard dropped the claim against the Wilpons because he was told that it won’t hold up in court without any evidence.
Adam Rubin of ESPN New York said on his twitter page that the Mets could now be liable for $300 million dollars instead of the original $1 billion dollar estimate back when this whole fiasco started.
This is good news for the Mets and the Wilpons. I know I am not an economic anaylst or expert, but this actually is good simply because the Wilpons will probably pay a lot less then what they would have paid (if the damage claim held up), and now the Mets will probably be less affected by this for the future to come.
The only other question in this whole saga is whether or not the Wilpons will be found guilty of making profits off of Madoff. If the Mets get away with that claim, the Mets will get their hands out of this mess, and (if a deal is in place) the new minority owner David Einhorn will be stuck as the minority owner. All in all, this is still good news. We’ll have to wait and see what happens in court.
The Mets did a job on the Phillies yesterday during the Fox game of the week. Of course, Ken Rosenthal from Fox Sports had his say on the Mets trade market. Everything seems to be focusing on Carlos Beltran right now. In the video below, Rosenthal says that Beltran won’t be with the Mets for much longer and that the Mets are willing to pick up the majority of his $6M salary that’s left this season to get top prospects back.
Rosenthal says that the Giants, Indians, Tigers, Red Sox, and Phillies have interest in Beltran. We’ve heard before that Beltran may be willing to waive his full no-trade clause to go to a contender. He even met with Scott Boras last week when the Mets were in LA to talk about trade scenarios.
At this point, the Mets are 11 games behind the Phillies for the division and 7.5 games behind the Braves for the wild card. And there are four teams ahead of them for the wild card. Playoff chances are fairly unlikely so it would make sense, if the Mets can’t close ground on the Braves in the next week and a half, to trade Beltran and raise the white flag on the 2011 season.
The Mets Report 