Second Base Question
No, this isn’t a question about a second baseman for the Mets.
The question is: how did the Phillies — in the market for a second baseman for about three hours — pick up a very serviceable one from the White Sox in return for an A-ball middle reliever?
Don’t believe the headlines that state “Tadahito Iguchi Dealt for Pitching Prospect”. A guy who is pitching middle (not closing) relief in the South Atlantic League, and sporting a 3.88 ERA, is NOT a prospect.
Now, I’m not saying the Mets should have chased after Iguchi. But, if he could have been obtained for some schlep pitching mopup for Port St. Lucie? Welcome to New York, Iguchi-San!
If that’s the cost for Tadahito Iguchi, I imagine the Mets can pick up Mark Loretta for Lino Urdaneta. Get it done.
Which leads me to make a Tampa comment: They have picked Brazelton, Nieman and now David price They have ipicked up Edwin Jackson who seemingly has turned a corner and Kaz. Baldelli, crawford Upton, Young and Dukes are still high upside talents. Why does that system still suck so badly?
All we have to do is look back to the year of the SI cover of the Mets with Izzy, Wilson, Pulsipher, and others they had. How many actually made it and were anywhere near the expectations?
The Marlins have the right idea, as do the Braves and Twins. Just keep getting more and more arms, and eventually two or three crack through.
And BTW, if anyone bothered to look at statistics 10 years ago, bill Pulsihphiers and Isringhuasens failure was easily predictable. Their strikout rates were as low as Kevin Mulveys.
No one. There is no Brandon webb, or Facimile we can point to. There best pitchers were developed elsewher. There is a nice comparison here of the 90’s Mets and present Tampa. The Mets, under the microscope drafted chris Roberts, Kirk Pressley, along with Wilson. Wilson, Izzy, of course had injury issues, I doubt Pulse was really worthy of the labels put on him, But Roberts and Pressley should have done better, Robert Person was a decent pitcher for Philly, Schourek was great in Cincy for a while, Arnold Gooch Juan Acevedo should have done better. In other words the Mets could have done better.
AND there is no excuse for Tampa who btw are better positioned (geographically) to influence the latin american market.