Wednesday, January 28, 2004
More mildly maddening Met moves
Aggravating acquisitions allow for annoying alliteration. Now the Mets have sent Jaime Cerda to the Royals in exchange for Shawn Sedlacek. Now, I've always liked Cerda, even after his major league performance ceased to warrant it, but I think even someone with no emotional attachment to either player can see that this deal doesn't make a whole lot of sense from the Mets' perspective. Now it's true that spots in the New York bullpen are at a premium given the sizable collection of more experienced, higher paid (and likely less effective) relievers already fitting Cerda's prospective job description at the major league level and the gaggle of recently acquired relative youngsters likely to be pushing up on him from the minor league level in the coming months and years, but you'll have a hard time convincing me or anyone else who's paying much attention that Sedlacek will be any more useful to the Mets at the major league level. While Cerda may have struggled with the Mets in 2003, not only was Sedlacek's ERA at AAA nearly four times that of Cerda, but Sedlacek is more than two years older than Cerda and has never had a year in the majors nearly as successful as Cerda's 2002, when he put up a 2.45 ERA in 25 2/3 innings, striking out 21 and walking 14 while giving up no home runs (incidentally, Cerda pitched at both AA and AAA in 2002 and didn't give up a dinger in the minors either).
This isn't a move likely to greatly impact the future of the New York Mets franchise, but based on Cerda's often dominant minor league career and some flashes of promise in the big show, he seemed like a candidate to be a relatively useful lefty out of the Mets' bullpen in the years to come. Sedlacek seems like a candidate to never see the inside of Shea Stadium without the word "September" atop his calendar. The Mets are understandably unsure about putting the fifth spot of the starting rotation up for grabs among Aaron Heilman, Jeremy Griffiths, Grant Roberts and whoever else they can dig out of the the minors, but if none of those guys pitches well enough to beat out Sedlacek for the spot, 2004 will have already started off on a sour note.
In other news, the Mets seem to be near signing up former Yankee flash-in-the-pan Shane Spencer to compete for spot in some sort of right field platoon. I don't really have a problem with this, especially if it's just a minor league deal he signs, as he won't be blocking a whole lot of better options in the Mets organization, but I won't exactly be ecstatic to see him make the team either. I still think if Victor Diaz can be taught to play right field halfway competently, he'd be clearly the best option out there, but I haven't seen anything to indicate that the Mets are thinking along those lines. It looks like we'll have little more than hope that 2004's right field situation will be a significant upgrade over 2003's. ¶ joe | 12:18 AM |
Aggravating acquisitions allow for annoying alliteration. Now the Mets have sent Jaime Cerda to the Royals in exchange for Shawn Sedlacek. Now, I've always liked Cerda, even after his major league performance ceased to warrant it, but I think even someone with no emotional attachment to either player can see that this deal doesn't make a whole lot of sense from the Mets' perspective. Now it's true that spots in the New York bullpen are at a premium given the sizable collection of more experienced, higher paid (and likely less effective) relievers already fitting Cerda's prospective job description at the major league level and the gaggle of recently acquired relative youngsters likely to be pushing up on him from the minor league level in the coming months and years, but you'll have a hard time convincing me or anyone else who's paying much attention that Sedlacek will be any more useful to the Mets at the major league level. While Cerda may have struggled with the Mets in 2003, not only was Sedlacek's ERA at AAA nearly four times that of Cerda, but Sedlacek is more than two years older than Cerda and has never had a year in the majors nearly as successful as Cerda's 2002, when he put up a 2.45 ERA in 25 2/3 innings, striking out 21 and walking 14 while giving up no home runs (incidentally, Cerda pitched at both AA and AAA in 2002 and didn't give up a dinger in the minors either).
This isn't a move likely to greatly impact the future of the New York Mets franchise, but based on Cerda's often dominant minor league career and some flashes of promise in the big show, he seemed like a candidate to be a relatively useful lefty out of the Mets' bullpen in the years to come. Sedlacek seems like a candidate to never see the inside of Shea Stadium without the word "September" atop his calendar. The Mets are understandably unsure about putting the fifth spot of the starting rotation up for grabs among Aaron Heilman, Jeremy Griffiths, Grant Roberts and whoever else they can dig out of the the minors, but if none of those guys pitches well enough to beat out Sedlacek for the spot, 2004 will have already started off on a sour note.
In other news, the Mets seem to be near signing up former Yankee flash-in-the-pan Shane Spencer to compete for spot in some sort of right field platoon. I don't really have a problem with this, especially if it's just a minor league deal he signs, as he won't be blocking a whole lot of better options in the Mets organization, but I won't exactly be ecstatic to see him make the team either. I still think if Victor Diaz can be taught to play right field halfway competently, he'd be clearly the best option out there, but I haven't seen anything to indicate that the Mets are thinking along those lines. It looks like we'll have little more than hope that 2004's right field situation will be a significant upgrade over 2003's. ¶ joe | 12:18 AM |
