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December 12, 2008 Latest Mets News Joe Janish

Mets Trade Schoeneweis

The New York Mets have traded Scott Schoeneweis to the Arizona Diamondbacks for righthander Connor Robertson.

Good dump here. Scho never fulfilled the promise suggested by Omar Minaya when the Mets signed the NJ native to an ill-advised, three-year contract. More and more I’m liking the flexibility of the Mets’ 2009 bullpen — fluidity, and the ability to move people up and down, is a much better plan than the outdated “roles for the season” strategy that hasn’t worked in Flushing the last two years.

With Scho out, will Omar now go after LOOGY Joe Beimel? Seems to me a possibility. Though, I’d be just as happy signing Ricardo Rincon to a cheap, one-year deal. The Mets need to assign a lefty to a pure LOOGY role — meaning, “Lefthanded One Out GuY”. Enough of the nonsense of trying to extend a LOOGY into a setup man — it doesn’t work.

Robertson, by the way, isn’t chop liver. He’s fairly young (27) and matches a good fastball with a decent cutter and slider. His one big positive is 377 strikeouts in 300 career IP in the minors. There are about a thousand righties in the minors with his repertoire, but not enough of them in the Mets’ system. Add him to the fastball-slider stable where Rocky Cherry resides.

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Joe Janish began MetsToday in 2005 to provide the unique perspective of a high-level player and coach -- he earned NCAA D-1 All-American honors as a catcher and coached several players who went on to play pro ball. As a result his posts often include mechanical evaluations, scout-like analysis, and opinions that go beyond the numbers. Follow Joe's baseball tips on Twitter at @onbaseball and at the On Baseball Google Plus page.
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  1. upson December 13, 2008 at 12:45 am
    I initially liked the move, but then learned that the Mets eat 1.6M out of Scho’s 3.6M next year’s salary. Assuming you throw 1.6M away, isn’t Scho, when used properly, worth 2M / year? He’s been actually pretty effective agains lefties… Or maybe Omar thinks that this guy Robertson might be a nice pickup.
  2. isuzudude December 13, 2008 at 9:47 am
    upson – I think the deal is that the Mets are tired of having two LOOGYs in the pen, meaning Show and Feliciano. Having two guys out of 7 in the bullpen only able to get batters from one side of the plate out handicaps the rest of the bullpen immensely, which was part of the reason why guys like Heilman, Smith, and Sanchez kept getting burnt out, because they would need to be used every day when Show and Feliciano got into trouble against righties. With Feliciano as the only lefty in the pen, I definitely see Omar going after another LHP for the pen, but one who can get both lefties and righties out. Tougher said than done, I know. But the non-tenders should help a bit. Available bodies of interest include Will Ohman, Dennys Reyes, Tyler Johnson, Wilfredo Ledezma, or even Ricardo Rincon, as Joe mentioned above. I’d pass on Joe Beimel, though. Something about him scares me.

    Show fit the role of LOOGY well, but at his price and with a better LOOGY already on the roster, his time had come to go. We’ll see if Arizona can use him properly.

  3. joe December 13, 2008 at 12:03 pm
    upson – interesting point, and I’m leaning toward isuzudude’s theory. Also, I think the Mets are just as interested in appeasing the fans as they are of improving the team — otherwise Scho and Heilman would not have been shopped so hard.

    Further, I believe the Mets need more flexibility in the bullpen, rather than deciding on 6 guys in March and planning to stick with them through September. Hopefully they’re taking a page from successful teams and will mix and match personnel the first few months, allowing the bullpen to evolve as the season goes on. Arms will be fresher at the end of the year that way.

    I wonder if the Mets would go after a LH starter such as Nate Robertson, to use as a long reliever / spot starter / occasional situational lefty? (I seem to remember someone like that in ’06, who was let go). IMHO another lefty in the ‘pen is crucial with the Phillies in the NL East.

  4. murph December 13, 2008 at 1:15 pm
    Show had to go for the same reason Heilman had to go:
    The Mets have to purge the bullpen of all culprits in the collapses.
    Not just for scapegoat reasons, but for psychological reasons. Every blown lead would bring back the “hear we go again” look that we witnessed on the faces of too many Mets’ players these past two collapses.

    (Damn, we can’t even call it The Collapse anymore because there were two in a row. Three if you count the playoffs in 2006) Cole Hamels is right. (the truth hurts).

    Throwing in $1.6M to the Diamondbacks is just admitting that you overpaid the guy in the first place.

    ps. I liked Show, Heilman and Smith. Nothing personal.

  5. joe December 13, 2008 at 1:55 pm
    murph – i liked all three of them too, and unfortunately you’re right — they had to be purged

    also right on Hamels’ comments. And what’s sad is that Mets fans really can’t argue with him — our team is flawed. Which is why I suggested earlier in the offseason to consider trading Beltran, to shake up the nucleus. I’m not saying Beltran is a choker, rather that something drastic needs to be done to change the team, and he’s the one guy who can be sold at the peak of his value to get a significant return. The drastic bullpen makeover is a step in the right direction, but the team still needs a strong personality — a “Type A” personality — on the field. There were 8 lemmings looking for a leader the last 3 years.

  6. isuzudude December 13, 2008 at 2:11 pm
    can you say Orlando Hudson?
  7. Micalpalyn December 15, 2008 at 10:30 am
    2 LOOGYs: Rincon is still there.
  8. Micalpalyn December 15, 2008 at 10:34 am
    Whoops u said that already. so basically yes, We still have our 2 LOOGYs, (if Rincon is signed). I still feel the Sho deal was a salary dump, AND if Ollie goes to the Braves…I think Omar goes for Peavy.
  9. joe December 15, 2008 at 11:04 am
    “if Rincon is signed” is no guarantee — he’s a free agent, as free as Oliver Perez and Damion Easley. I’d like to see him come back, but my feeling is that he’ll either retire, sign elsewhere, or be signed with a similar deal as last year — non-roster, ST invite, option to pitch in Mexico.