23 Skidoo

I was just about to write a message expressing the desire to see a jersey reveal photo-op when I came across this here photo of new Mets catcher Brian Schneider, his cuteypie wife Jordan, and the No. 23 jersey he may wear next season.

As related by Larry in the comments secition of the Matt Wise post below, issuing 23 to Schneider leaves Marlon Andersonin temporary digital limbo: The 18 he wore in his first Met go-round blongs to Moises Alou, and the 8 he wore most frequently (though never exclusively) in his career is itself in mothballs for Gary Carter. (The New York Post, you may recall, reported the Mets had designs to retire the number back in 2006 but never got around to it).

Either way, 8 has been conspicuously unissued since Desi Relaford cleared out in ‘01. At any rate, it’s good to see a new guy holding up a new jersey, even if Schneider isn’t exactly the answer to the prayers of those of us who recognized that the Met offense needed some work too this off-season. The Mets are still presumably in the hunt for pitchers Johan Santana and/or Eric Bedard should they get moved, and Kyle Lohse when he goes. More grip-and-grins to come.

Wise? Because We Like You

The Mets yesterday signed free agent Matt Wise to a one-year contract with intentions of using the lanky former Brewer righthander as a middle-relief candidate.

Wise most recently suited up in No. 38 for the Brewers — incidentally, the same number associated with Eric Gagne, the free agent whose recent arrival in Milwaukee, along with former Met Guillermo Mota, prompted the Brewers not to offer Wise a 2008 contract. Wise, reports say, utilizes a funky delivery to give deception to a variety of junk pitches. His results have been pretty good if not spectacular, and ought to provide an interesting contrast with the results of Mota.

No. 38 in Metland was seen most recently on the back of Carlos Muniz, the last of the Mets’ desperate callups in September. Wise by the way has also suited up in No. 26 for Milwaukee. That belongs to Orlando Hernandez here.

Roid Amnesty Now

A little late to be bringing this up, but had Bud Selig and the Players Association any sense at all, they’d have declared amnesty for all PED users with the introduction of the new CBA, admitted there was a steroid epidemic and asked for forgiveness and fresh start long before Washington got involved. With the Mitchell Report due to drop Thursday, they’ll wind up doing that anyway, only with dozens (hundreds?) of reputations ruined and a whole new layer of suspicion upon baseball.

Surely this report will only serve to further muddy up the entire whodunnit, witch-hunt aspects of the investigation, and will likely leave a false impression of the supposed “innocence” of those ballplayers whose names don’t appear. What we won’t hear nearly enough is the idea that for the guilty parties, PED use was a matter of course. If the pitcher is using, so must the batter. With millions on the line in a game where performance is obsessively quantified, a player who does not use obviously ran the risk of losing his job to one who does. And so on. That’s the nature of an epidemic.

Another bad idea we’ll hear thrown around this week is that of affixing astericks to the published accomplishments of those whose names may appear. Do your sport a favor and don’t support this. Contextualizing statistics for their eras has been a part of properly understanding baseball thoughout history. Ruth’s records were set before integration and air travel. Other eras require mental adjustments for circumstances like the dead ball or the higher mound. In the future we should look back to see accomplishments of the late 1980s to early 2000s as those that came in the “questionable training methods era” and leave it at that.

44 Caliber Killers

Ladies and gentlemen, Flushing is burning.

Reluctant to rest upon a history of historically stupid dealmaking, the Mets have reportedly coughed up Lastings Milledge 44 in a trade for Washington Nationals players Ryan Church and Brian Schnieder. Wow. Schneider, who wears No. 23 with Washington, at one time was a pretty heads-up defensive player but has never been a good hitter and in fact is quite a bad one, appears to spell an early end to the Metly career of erstwhile backstop Johnny Estrada. Church, a lefthanded hitting insect type who’s actually better than I would have guessed though only about as good as Milledge is right now, was seen most recently wearing No. 19. Both guys could conceiveably retain their digits in 2008 but it would mean a third career uni number for Marlon Anderson.

Now, I’m not one of those guys vulnerable to misplacing my faith in every young kid who tears up the Florida State League; nor do I believe that Milledge’s various acts of youthful idiocy ought not to be a cause for concern. What I worry about are the Mets seemingly never learning not to let their guys go so easily.

More harrowing news to follow at the Winter Meetings.

Let’s Hurry Up And Give 47 Away Again

47When the 2003 Mets crashed and burned for good, fired Steve Phillips, and hired doomed interim general manager Jim Duquette, one of Duke’s first orders of business (along with the promotion of Jose Reyes) was to clear the team of its disappointing deadwood: Roberto Alomar, Armando Benitez and Jeromy Burnitz among them. And not only did the Mets bounce these guys, but they moved rather quickly to erase their memories by re-issuing all of their numbers, on guys who played the same positions, before the year was out. Before you knew it, Alomar’s 12was on the back of second baseman Danny Garcia. It was reliever Orber Moreno (remember him?) in Benitez’s old No. 49. And in the outfield, Prentice Redman, and not Burnitz, wore No. 20. How cruel. How brilliant.

With that in mind, do you think Johan Santana might mind downshifting by 10 from his customary 57? Because, provided he winds up with the good guys, that would be an appropriate tribute to Tom Glavine, the last of 2003’s disappointing veterans and the newest member of the Atlanta Braves. Can you believe Reyes is now the senior Met?

Hello again to Luis Castillo, whose four-year contract represents about four times the commitment he probably deserves. Expect to see Castillo back in the No. 1 jersey next year, hopefully without the spare tire providing emphasis.

What in the Name of Norihito Nakamura

Someone ought to explain how where A-Rod had three subsidized years at $75 million coming from the Yankees and will wind up with $275 million and 10 years guaranteed, it’s he, and notHank Steinbrenner, who’s on his knees. Right, Hank. He crawled to you.

In the meantime, the Mets have abruptly opted out of the Yorvit Torrealba sweepstakes. If you had any faith that the Mets knew what they were doing when they pursued Torrealba in the first place, this isn’t good news. And if you were hoping they’d bring Paul LoDuca back, probably even worse news, because LoDuca’s price just went up. A lot.

We’re more in the first camp than the second, though it’s probably proper here to give LoDuca our thanks and a proper send off. He was a Met fan born in Brooklyn (like Lee Mazzilli), and a boyhood fan of Dwight Gooden and the 80s Mets. In other words, he was born to wear No. 16. And for half of his stay in that jersey, he did it proud. I’ll remember LoDuca for his fiery temper and teenage girlfriends generally but two plays specifically that bookended his remarkable 2006 season: Dropping the ball at the play at the plate on opening day but faking his way to an out; and — catching the ball this time — tagging consecutive sliding Dodgers on the very same play.

Thanks, Paul. Now, beat it. Is that Montero guy still available?

Caught

The Mets today are expected to announce they’ve reached an agreement to keep reserve catcher Ramon Castro in the No. 11 jersey for the next two years (though the agreement requires a physical, so you never know). We may also learn soon whether Yorvit Torrealba (spellcheck wants to call him “Orbit Terrible”) accepts an offer to be Castro’s partner. The Torrealba bid may in the end resemble the Ramon Hernandez/Begie Molina teases of a few years ago, where the Mets dangled some cash in front of the free agent catchers but gave them a short window to decide: When the players delayed, the Mets swiftly pursued Paul LoDuca in the trade market. So if Torrealba is truly en route, we ought to know soon. And if not, let’s hope the team won’t overlook such trade targets as the Diamondbacks’ Miguel Montero, who looks like a hitter and as a lefty, would make a great platoonmate for Castro.

We may also know soon enough whether the Mets’ unofficial mothballing of the No. 8 jersey will continue, as Torrealba currently sports that number for the Rockies. The Mets have not issued No. 8 since Gary Carter’s induction to the Hall of Fame. Castro’s return, by the way, would represent yet another two years of No. 11 — a jersey that has appeared on at least one Met player in all but three seasons (1967, 1968 and 2002) in Mets history.

Yes I Think It Can Be Easley Done

After that horrific ankle injury — ever do something like that? It makes a noise — Mets never really adequately replaced Damian Easley.

There was irony, or something, in the Mets failing to make the playoffs given all the attention to Easley’s dubious ascension in the Guy With the Most games Never to Appear in the Postseason rankings. But you know, Jeff Conine didn’t turn out to be a very good replacement for Easley.

Far be it from me to take away attention from the horrendous performances of the bullpen, Jose Reyes, Tom Glavine, etc etc down the stretch … but when it all comes down to a single game, perhaps a guy who could whack the lefthanders a little more reliably may also have made a difference. All of which is a convoluted route to getting to the point you already knew: Easley will get another chance to end (um… or extend) his streak for playoff futility with the Mets in 2008. A one-year deal for Easley, along with a option renewal for Moises Alou 18, were announced by the Mets on Wednesday. Easley and Alou happened to be the first two new guys added to the roster last off-season too.

The Mets also purchased a catcher, Luis Alen, from the cool-hat-wearing Winnipeg Goldeyes of the independent Northern League. Alen isn’t likely to be a starting candidate on the Mets next year but it’s always fun to note the first appearance in the transaction agate of the hot stove season.

The Mets would be fools not to pretend to be interested in Alex Rodriguez, and for all we know, they are (just move Wright to first and flip Delgado at a loss for pitching. It’s not that unfathomable). With 13 tied up in Billy Wagner, we’d bet on Easley losing No. 3 so that A-Rod could have it here. Meantime, the idea that Jorge Posada turns up on our team was raised in the papers today. Just saying: Shawn Green is out. No. 20 is available.

Holiday Shopping

Brief commercial break: I had the opportunity to contribute several short essays to Armchair Reader: Grand Slam Baseball, which was published recently by West Side Publishing.

This book examines baseball history through 450+ pages of biographies, anecdotes, trivia and lists, none of which runs longer than a few pages. My contributions include mini-biographies of Casey Stengel and Sadaharu Oh, a review of controversial MVP decisions, a list of strikeout feats, mascot stories, and more.
Biographies of the other contributing authors reveal I’m the least accomplished baseball historian of the bunch, but I’m honored to share the same pages as Bruce Markusen, whose Cooperstown Confidential column I’ve long enjoyed and who wrote, among other baseball books, Tales from the Mets Dugout, which which might be described as a sort of a Met-centric version of this book. Also, Matt Silverman, whom I met through this site.
Among lots of other projects, Matt wrote Mets Essential, a terrific little team history published earlier this year. I don’t believe I make any money if this sells or not and I haven’t rigged it so I get a cut of of Amazon sales originating from here. But I will recommend the book, especially for the fan interested in learning more about baseball history.

Wahoo

How about that Paul Byrd?
Wore No. 43 in 1995 and 1996 (thanks) as a Met youngun, just ended the Yankees season in humiliation for the seventh straight time, the third straight in the first round. Heh.
There’s been an awful lot of talk about the Mets’ collapse, but I have to admit to being perfectly satisfied with the Championship Serieses, confident that the teams playing in them are the most deserving. And I don’t much mourn for what was lost. This Met team just didn’t have it; and I’ll be honest: Other than being convinced by Greg back in April that we might have something; and excited by the possibilities suggested by midseason wins over another team destined for failure, I never much offered my heart to this team for them to break.
They pretty much got what they deserved, and so enter the offseason at an interesting crossroads in their evolution. They say Willie Randolph won’t be held solely responsible: That’s OK with me provided they also show some faith in him and allow him to build a staff of his choosing and demonstrate he’s the leader of men he purports to be. I’m not a big fan of Randolph’s tactics but I think tactics are overrated. I want a manager to slap lazy ballplayers in the head when they deserve it, and get them to play together when they have to. I can only guess the Met brass feels Jose Reyes’ head-up-ass problem wasn’t caused… and can be cured… by Willie.
And for all the talk I don’t believe Omar is particularly safe either: He’s going to have to show some creativity in keeping this team going strong while guys like Alou, Wagner, Hernandez, Delgado, etc. continue to creep toward the points at which their stretches of ineffectiveness and injury grow longer and more frequent.
Thanks, Tom. Now scram. Go Kaz.