» Mark Derosa

After the first loss to the Phillies this past series, MetsBlog.com writer, Regis Courtemanche wrote, “Win or lose, I love the way the Mets are playing right now.  They seem completely focused on the task at hand, and Citi Field seems to have finally come alive. Still disappointing to let this one get away though.” FYI, MetsBlog is one of the best (Mets) Blogs out there. To be honest, I disagree with the statement, however the Mets are without their starting SS, 1b, 2 SP’s and both our set-up men. That’s right – “both.” Eventually this season, the Mets will have Jose Reyes, Carlos Delgado, JJ Putz, Billy Wagner, Oliver Perez (and John Maine now) all coming off the DL. The Phillies are only 4 games ahead, but with a bullpen of K-rod, and potentially healthy and effective relievers, such as Wagner and Putz, the Mets rotation will only have to pitch 6 effective innings each night (for the most part). And that’s great because it seems Redding , Maine , and Oliver (and often times Santana and Pelfrey) can never pass that plateau. The offense will have to come out romping, however – something they couldn’t do last year and something they haven’t been able to do this season even prior to Reyes and Delgado going down. With that said, I’m still very willing to “wait and see” how the Mets perform after Reyes, Delgado, Maine, Oliver, Putz, and Wagner come back, however, the question is and will be – is it too late?

Do the Mets need to do something to shake the team up? In a prior post (http://www.majorleagueblogging.com/major-league-baseball/lets-play-gm-mets-crazy-trade-scenarios/), I talked about the potential need to shake up the team, and I threw out some crazy trade scenarios. The reality is, people, reporters, and teams are catching on that the Red Sox have 9 at least effective or ready major league starters. It’s also fairly clear they could use an effective shortstop, which is where, to me, the Mets should come in to play. I love Reyes, but could he land us both Clay Buchholz and Michael Bowden? I think he could. I think that’s worth it – for both teams. We could potentially add a catching prospect to the deal (Francisco Pena or Josh Thole) – they’re young, but the Red Sox have and may have a need for a catcher in the future if they don’t trade for/sign Joe Mauer/Twins (after or during) next year. Another potential aspect I would add to to the deal (if I were Omar Minaya) is Oliver Perez. This is only to free up salaray to trade for and sign another need (Matt Holliday)? That’s not essential, but if the Red Sox were willing to take on Perez’s salary in addition to losing their top 2 pitching prospects in the deal, then I would do that. I’d then, however, ask for a more than effective reliever: Manny Delcarmen/Takashi Saito. So i’d potentially like to see:

Mets Receive: Clay Buchholz/sp; Michael Bowden/sp; Takashi Saito/rp; Jed Lowrie/ss

Red Sox Receive: Jose Reyes/ss; Oliver Perez/sp; Josh Thole or Francisco Pena/c

I guess there’s a contingency – Jose Reyes’ health. Would this prevent such a trade? The Sox do still have Nick Green and Julio Lugo to hold down the ss job while Reyes is out. Again this would then allow us to potentially go for Matt Holliday, Mark Derosa, or other outfielders via trade this season or free agency after, so Daniel Murphy could stay at first next year with the assumption that Carlos Delgado will be gone. Our lineup would obviously hurt without Reyes for the rest of the year, but if we trade for another bat for the lineup, the Rotation with Buchholz and or Bowden would be much more effective than Tim Redding.

Agreed?

I had a friend text me again. He asked what I thought about the following trade:

He would give up Alex Rodriguez/3b; Kyle Lohse/sp; Stephen Drew/ss and receive Ian Kinsler/2b; Joba Chamberlain/sp>rp; and Mark Derosa/if.

I told him there were a few contingencies:

1) Is it a keeper league? If so, go for it because I’d definitely keep Kinsler + Joba over Arod + Drew. Kinsler’s younger and cheaper than Arod (even in fantasy depending on how your keeper league might work).

2) Is his middle infielders killing him?

3) Does he have a solid 3b/corner infield to back up for A-rod’s absence (hoping Derosa isn’t it)

4) Finally, I told him to attempt to wait it out and see if Joba will become a reliever since the Yankees have Wang back and the young Philip Hughes. My opinion is that he will becuase he was much more dominant there and Wang’s stuff is meant to start and Hughes is a stud.

Therefore, I told him the only player straight up I’d trade A-rod for is Pujols and maybe Hanley. Unless he believes Joba will remain a starter and so long as it’s not a keeper league, I suggested him not to do it. 1+ Months out of baseball, and A-rod is still on pace for 45+ homers.

Some Cross Referencing here – According to Ed Price of AOL Fanhouse via MLB Trade Rumors (http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/), the Mets are talking trade with the Cleveland Indians. The talk surrounds Mark Derosa/infield-outfield. I think he can be valuable at ss/2b/1b/of. However, he’s batting only .255 with a .322 obp. Like MLB Trade rumors says, and it’s as obvious as it gets, the Indians will want the entire 4+ million off the books. I don’t have a problem with that, I just don’t want to give up any top notch talent or even a 2nd tier prospect…Unless of course we can also land a SP, such as Cliff Lee or more probable, Fausto Carmona in the deal. Then i’d give up 2 or 3 2nd teir prospects – Brad Holt or Jon Niese (sp) + Reese Havens or Wilmer Flores (ss) + maybe a Carlos Guzman (of). MLB Trade Rumors previously said that the Indians may be tired of waiting for Fausto Carmona to regain his dominance (http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2009/05/is-cleveland-losing-patience-with-fausto-carmona.html). I think we have a few more sp that will be considered a little bit more talented than Niese in another year or two, and in my opinion, Fausto Carmona + Mark Derosa will help us this year a lot more than Jon Niese. Derosa can plug in at ss until Reyes is back, 1b along with Daniel Murphy until Delgado is back, and OF in place of Church/Sheffield/Murphy. He can even plug in at 3b when Wright needs a break. And oh yeah, he can plug in at 2b when Castillo needs a break/get hurt – especially now that Alex Cora is also hurt. I think Derosa is a no brainer if he comes cheap enough – I just hope we can get Cliff Lee/Fausto Carmona as well (obviously we’d have to add Fernando Martinez/of + another SP prospect for Lee if the Indians don’t think they’ll be in the race). Ideally, we can somehow land Victor Martinez/c-1b, but I won’t get out of hand.

On my way home from a long day of work and class, I called a close friend of mine to talk some baseball. He is one of the few guys that I know who listens to what I have to say and challenges me about baseball.

Tonight’s topic was on Jhonny Peralta and what the best option for him would be. We both agreed that Peralta is not a short stop and that Wedge needs to work on moving him to 3rd base this spring training. What really got the conversation heated was the topic on why they didn’t do this in the second half of last season when the Indians really did not have anything to play for.

My friend gave me a lot of good points, but I see why Wedge did not make the transition last year. With Asdrubal Cabrera batting well under .250, there only option for 2nd base was Josh Barfield. Barfield was called up when Cabrera was sent down to Triple-A Buffalo with a mere .190 batting average. You have to remember, Barfieldwas batting around .250 in Triple-A, so it was not really an upgrade. It was more of a move in desperation. Within the first few weeks of Barfield’s return to the bigs, he was injured and had season ending surgery. With Cabrera still in the minors, Jamey Carroll came in and started to become the Indians every day 2nd baseball proving to the team and the fans that it was the right move. Some of you  might ask, what does 2nd base have to do with Peralta and that is a good question. When the Indians traded Casey Blake in to the Dodgers, that left open 3rd base, which could have been the prime time to start Peralta a few games at 3rd. However, Wedge wanted to see what Andy Marte was made of and Marte became our every day 3rd basemen.  Some of you are still wondering what this has to do with Peralta and here is your answer. What the Indians should have done int he 2nd half of the season is play Peralta at 3rd base, but they were out of options. In an injury free world, the Indians infield should have been Peralta at 3rd, Cabrera at SS, Jamey Carroll at 2nd and Garko at 1st in the last half of the season, but with the injury to Barfield, the poor batting by Cabrera and nobody else in the minors, Peralta was still the every day SS.

Fast forward to winter ball. Peralta was starting the majority of the games at 3rd. Every year I attend the Indians Press Tour and this year I was fortunate enough to attend the Press Tour that Eric Wedge was at. He was asked about Peralta playing 3rd this coming season and Wedge did say that Peralta was playing 3rd in Winter ball, but as of right now he is our every day SS. The fans should expect to see Peralta play a few games at 3rd and in Spring Training, you’ll see Peralta play 3rd. Do you think the signing of Mark Derosa was a foreshadow of things to come? Derosa played 2nd for the Cubs, even though he is really a utility infielder. Is it possible that we can see Derosa playing 2nd, Cabrera at SS and Peralta at 3rd half way through the season?

Another point that really got me heated in my conversation with my friend is how hard he was on Peralta.  At one point he even called him terrible. Yeah, he isn’t a Jeter or a Vizquel. But the kid has done some pretty nice things in his career to not call him terrible.  In a 146 games last season at short, Jhonny had 14 errors. He range might not be as big as Jeter’s, but Jeter played in 148 games and had 12 errors. Jhonny Peralta is not a terrible short stop. Everyone says how horrible Peralta is, but the minute that Peralta starts hitting homeruns and driving in runs, everybody jumps on the bandwagon.

So what really is the best option for Peralta? That is your own opinion. In my opinion, I do have to agree with my friend and say that Jhonny is a 3rd baseman. You don’t need a whole lot of range when playing 3rd and the guy can hit for power. I guess we’ll just have to see if Peralta at 3rd will happen this season.