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of the Mets’ 2009 bullpen — fluidity, and the ability to move people up and down, is a much better plan than the outdated “roles for the season” strategy that hasn’t worked in Flushing the last two years.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.
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.
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.
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.
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.