Comments on: From Left Field: Players With Mets Ties In World Series

By: MetsFanMD

MetsFanMD — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 04:22:12 +0000

You forgot Jose Oquendo, third-base coach of the Cardinals. Played with the Mets in 83-84.

By: paul nassau

paul nassau — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 17:19:52 +0000

I might amend it to :Good pitching out of the bullpen beats good hitting.”

By: Metstheory22

Metstheory22 — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 16:24:53 +0000

I thought at the time it was a mistake letting the bullpen go and that is what happenned.

By: alex68

alex68 — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 16:13:27 +0000

theory22, i agree with melvin.. also, regarding oliver, omar figure he was taxed after using ALL year in 2006, then schoeneweis had that great second half for cincinnatii where in 14 innings he allowed only 1 run or no run.. didn’t know scho was gonna be as bad as he was

By: Metstheory22

Metstheory22 — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 16:12:59 +0000

Maybe on Val, but I did not like they gave him #15 that quick.

By: Metstheory22

Metstheory22 — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 15:47:41 +0000

Don’t forget we traded Melvin Mora who was playing decent for Bordick. Not a good one for Steve Phillips, I thought at the time.

I also thought it was a mistake to let Oliver and others go from that 2006 year bullpen. They were the ones that kept us in the pennant race that year.

By: Alan

Alan — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 14:09:39 +0000

From the little I have seen from Nelson Cruz (I rarely watch the American League (DH) version of ML baseball), it is hard to imagine that anything but his own attitude or work ethic “retarded” his growth early in his career. No one has mentioned steroids so what else could be the answer. Sure, maybe one team could make a mistake and not be patient with a young player but for 3 different teams to send a guy packing for little in return spells an attitude problem for that player….

Regardless, Cruz has been more than a solid player for Texas and has carried the Rangers in these playoffs.

Congratulations to Nelson Cruz!

By: jessep

jessep — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 13:59:08 +0000

Nelson Cruz is a rare example of a late bloomer and any team that traded him at an early age cannot really be blamed in my view.

People that say he was written off at an early age are treating him as though he turned the corner at 25.

He turned the corner at 28. That is a ridiculously long time for a baseball “prospect” to develop. He was a pretty solid minor league hitter but it never translated to any big league success. That’s not a prospect, that’s Lastings Milledge

By: any

any — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 13:43:54 +0000

good comparison, though Milledge I think was higher rated as a young prospect.

so if Lastings is suddenly leading a team to the WS 5 years from now, you can have credit for thinking of it first!

but yeah, for every Nelson, there are dozens of guys that are out of BB by age 28.

By: any

any — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 12:02:45 +0000

Nelson Cruz is certainly a good example of why it is risky to write-off a prospect at age 23 after 1/2 a year in AAA!

Some guys really do take a long time to finally click, but very, very few guys that have essentially reached the point of being a career minor league vagabond end up becoming AS players at such a late age.

But, maybe there is hope for Val Pascuscucci after all.

By: Bayonne Mets Fan

Bayonne Mets Fan — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 03:24:37 +0000

So that means Oakland traded Nelson Cruz. And the Brewers traded Cruz as well too so he’s pretty well traveled before he finally started to bloom. He even hit .235 as recent as 2007 before his first really good season in 2008. So it took him around 9 years and several teams before he finally blossomed.