Sunday, April 04, 2004
Duquette did the right thing
Peter Gammons was just on ESPN's Baseball Tonight discussing the Milton Bradley deal and mentioned that the Mets were unwilling to give up third baseman David Wright to get a deal done. Given that Cleveland wound up getting Franklin Gutierrez, ranked the 22nd best prospect in the game by Baseball Prospectus, it probably would have taken a prospect of similar quality from the Mets to get Bradley. And whether it was ownership's call or general manager Jim Duquette's, refusing to part with Wright (BP's #5 prospect) or Scott Kazmir (#12) was absolutely the right call.
Milton Bradley had an excellent season last year and would likely have provided a significant boost to the Mets' offense out of the right field spot this year and in the years to come had he been acquired. But with Victor Diaz's move to right field and the pending availability of Carlos Beltran and Magglio Ordonez, Bradley was not the Mets' last opportunity to upgrade the position for the coming years. His landing in LA hurts the Mets in the short term, but not as much as letting Wright go would have hurt in the long term.
While Aaron Baldiris' impressive numbers over the last two years at the low levels of the minors give the Mets some organizational depth at third base, David Wright is still the one who looks like a potential cornerstone for the franchise in the years to come. Just 21 years old and coming off a .270/.369/.459 season in the pitcher-friendly Florida State Leage, the team is talking like he's on the fast track to the majors and could be in Flushing to stay by next year. Wright is the reason the team hasn't been scouring the free agent and trade markets for a high profile replacement for Ty Wigginton. And if he's the reason we have to put up with Karim Garcia in right field for a little while longer, I can ceratinly live with that. ¶ joe | 8:14 PM |
Peter Gammons was just on ESPN's Baseball Tonight discussing the Milton Bradley deal and mentioned that the Mets were unwilling to give up third baseman David Wright to get a deal done. Given that Cleveland wound up getting Franklin Gutierrez, ranked the 22nd best prospect in the game by Baseball Prospectus, it probably would have taken a prospect of similar quality from the Mets to get Bradley. And whether it was ownership's call or general manager Jim Duquette's, refusing to part with Wright (BP's #5 prospect) or Scott Kazmir (#12) was absolutely the right call.
Milton Bradley had an excellent season last year and would likely have provided a significant boost to the Mets' offense out of the right field spot this year and in the years to come had he been acquired. But with Victor Diaz's move to right field and the pending availability of Carlos Beltran and Magglio Ordonez, Bradley was not the Mets' last opportunity to upgrade the position for the coming years. His landing in LA hurts the Mets in the short term, but not as much as letting Wright go would have hurt in the long term.
While Aaron Baldiris' impressive numbers over the last two years at the low levels of the minors give the Mets some organizational depth at third base, David Wright is still the one who looks like a potential cornerstone for the franchise in the years to come. Just 21 years old and coming off a .270/.369/.459 season in the pitcher-friendly Florida State Leage, the team is talking like he's on the fast track to the majors and could be in Flushing to stay by next year. Wright is the reason the team hasn't been scouring the free agent and trade markets for a high profile replacement for Ty Wigginton. And if he's the reason we have to put up with Karim Garcia in right field for a little while longer, I can ceratinly live with that. ¶ joe | 8:14 PM |
