He may have not been successful with the Mets but at least he was not like Oliver Perez!

Frankie is not a closer, Rauch is not an 8th inning guy and Parnell is not a setup man. I’m not sure whether that problem can actually be rectified this season, given the fact that a) the Mets are in no position to trade high end prospects and b) they are unlikely to take on the kind of money it would require to bring in a closer, without giving up the necessary prospects.

Ideally, the Mets could bring in an impending FA like a Matt Capps, Huston Street, K-Rod (the latter two probably can’t happen b/c of past issues), and take on the entire contract plus a prospect that no-one will really care about leaving like a Gonzalez German, Taylor Whitenton or Armando Rodriguez.

As for Torres, he’s perfectly fine as a part time player especially given how beloved he seems to be in the clubhouse and the possibility of improvement.

I always believed in this team during the off-season to contend for a wild card but wow not even the most optimistic Mets fan as we are would never have imagined this but I love this even more because these guys we have are clutch and very scrappy but the main key is for our starting pitching to keep producing as they have done during the season thus far if we really want to be relevant during September. Dickey and Santana in my personal opinion is right up there as one the best 1 and 2 punch in the big leagues. Also with a pretty solid arm when healthy which is Chris Young can really carry the back end of the rotation if Niese and/or Gee get roughed up during a series.

Now what does concern me is this very heavy lefty line up, our starting line up in most cases if Tejada returns on schedule I believe is: Kirk, Murphy, Wright, Duda, Davis, Hairston, Tejada, Thole, pitcher. I only see 2 regular right handed bats in that line up because Hairton’s best role in the ball club is off the bench to mash lefties. Now I believe we have a empty spot at left field and that is another concern. So we need a right-handed bat from the left field position that has power, and I say power bat because doubles and singles can only win you so many games but when we face a solid defense all those hits wouldn’t do much and this is where the long ball comes in.

Carlos Quentin is a right-handed left fielder with a power bat. His contract is a 1yr, 7million contract with the Padres so I believe the Mets could eat that this season and I believe a fair trade for Quentin would be Quintanilla and Elvin Ramirez. I say Quintanilla because when Tejada comes back, Sandy would need to send a hitter down and with Valdespin getting hot and developing as a solid potential 2B, Sandy’s best choice is sending down Quintanilla and if he did then Quintanilla would have to go through waivers and most certainly someone would take him so why not trade him for some value and I chose Elvin Ramirez also because the streak of him as a great bullpen arm in the minors is just that, a great arm in only the minors.

So now imagine this power house of a line up if everything goes all fine and well: Kirk, Murphy, Wright, Quentin, Duda, Davis, Tejada, Thole. Now that is a certified line up for a team that is tied for fourth with most runs in the National League and leading the National League East with 310 runs. Just imagine Gary and Howie saying “DEEP LEFT FIELD AND OUTTA HERE, OUTTA HERE, OUTTA HERE, WALK OFF HOME RUN BY CARLOS QUENTIN AND THE METS TAKE THE RUBBER GAME FROM THE NATIONALS FOR THE DIVISION LEAD”. Gives me chills just thinking about it with the AC on but nonetheless sounds sweet doesn’t it?

Just going to have to wait and see how it all plays out.

besides, there is certainly no chance the Mets are gong to allow it.

it does hurt though since the Mets could really use a RH power bat in the lineup (though Hairston is doing a fine job vs. LHP) on a daily basis. What Bay was supposed to be, just wasn’t.

given his recent history, you have to figure that he is done for the year. What next year brings, who knows, but I would not be surprised if he has played his last game as a Met, or even his last game period.

I feel for the guy…I think the whole “go the other way” screwed him up his first year..his 2nd year, missing a ton of time the year before and trying to regain his power, his swing was all screwed up which led to an even worse year…then as soon as he looked like he was turning the corner, he got hurt and he lost all the progress he was making.

People think I’m nuts, but I saw a real difference in him this year. I know the numbers don’t necessarily show it, but it seemed like he was close to being a guy who could drive the ball again. I saw a lot less “waving’ at the outside offspeed pitch and a lot less rolling over to short.

I’m still a firm believer that this team needs a good RH bat in the lineup…and eventually Harrisiton is going to remember he’s Scot Harriston.

What’s real scary is, it’s been a week and we don’t have word one way or another on his condition.

As for the Mets, we’ll have to wait and see. I think Hairston gets more ABs but this might also guarantee more ABs for Torres. Maybe there’s a bat to be had in a trade, but who knows. Thing is, this’ll enable more ABs and consistent playing time for Duda and Kirk, that is a very good thing. A week or so ago everyone was freaking out as to how this will all work out, turns out the baseball axiom is always right: these things always work themselves out.

I hate the fact that we are benefitting from someone else’s pain but in my mind he shouldn’t be in pain in the first place because he should have still been down at AAA working on his swing until he sorted himself out so when he did come up it might actually cost the team if he got hurt!

I will say this though….(and yes it is a joke)

If he does get cleared to play again I suggest we immediatly break one of his fingers because both Wright and Quintanilla went on a hitting tear right after they broke a finger!
Maybe it will help him too!

The other thing is that vesting clause in his contract will be more difficult to vest.

But seriously, it’s heart breaking to see a player losing career playing time due to injuries, but his automatic outs (and not even productive hard outs) had to be destined to AAA or at least riding the pine in favor of a productive bat at some point of the season. I wonder if he were to make the comeback to the team, if they were able to swing the condition that he would have to play in the minors and prove that he is “healthy” and swinging the bat well.

That could be huge.