Monday, May 2, 2011

That Old Brick Building.


That Old Brick Building. A metaphor for what I see as the dilapidating franchise in Queens, NY.

Think about it. That old brick building that exists in every town in America. It used to be productive, probably employed part of the town's population, but now it's falling apart, and industry has moved on to bigger and better places. Every day, you drive by, and a few more bricks have fallen from the top and lay in the too-high grass out front. A few times, a upstart young business has leased the place, and tried to clean it up, but behind the fresh paint stands the same old bricks with the same old structural problems. You keep waiting for the entire thing to fall down, but it never does, it only falls apart brick by brick and keeps just getting uglier and uglier.



This is how I view the Mets. The point of this post is to lay emphasis on what I feel is very important to the Red Sox right now: A right handed bat. Enter Jose Reyes.






Reyes, who I'm not in love with as a player, offers the Red Sox a clear cut advantage to what I feel is a mishandled lineup. His stats are inconsistent, but if there was ever a year to trade for him, this is that year. It's a contract year, and by all accounts, the Sox are definitely going to play Iglesias next year in that spot, so a rental is in the cards for them right now.



I don't know about any of you, but I'm completely uncomfortable play Jed Lowrie or Marco Scutaro on a team built for success right now and the next few years to come.



At this point, the Sox will probably have to eat some or all of Carlos Beltran's deal to get any deal done, and will most likely have to give up at least one decent prospect with a MLB ready player, but those are risks I think are worthwhile.



Here's the deal I make.






Sox Get: Jose Reyes and 0.5 Carlos Beltran ($) - or they keep Beltran, I don't really care.



Mets Get: Jacoby Ellsbury, prospects (2) (I'm thinking a AA player at best) and Scutaro






How it helps: The Sox improve their team at a weak position, and maybe pick up a decent OFer when healthy. Reyes, in a contract year is off to a great start, and will not be blocking Iglesias



How it hurts: The money is a lot, and I'm not for all that. If the Mets demand the Sox eat all Beltran's cash, I hang up the phone.






How I would construct the linup:



1. Carl Crawford



2. Pedroia



3. Gonzo



4. Reyes



5. Ortiz



6. Youkilis



7. Salty



8. Cameron/Beltran/whoever



9. Drew.






That lineup is infinitely better positioned that the one they're fielding now. Period.



4 comments:

  1. Your analogy of the Met's being a dilapidated building is genius and dead on. However that is where your idea should stop because the rest of it makes me laugh! The Red Sox do need a RH bat to even out this lineup, but Jose Reyes batting cleanup would be similar to putting last years Pablo Sandoval leadoff! Your cleanup hitter needs to have some power, a guy who will hit HR's and be a power threat! His career high in HR and RBI came in 2006 where he had 19 HR and 81 RBI! Not quite the power hitter we are looking for! Then you want a busted up and old platoon between Cameron and Beltran?and give up a young talented CF and prospects for a rental? Come on please! We will be complaining about those two washed up jack-holes all summer long! We need a power hitting guy much like a younger Papi... where that guy is right now I don't know! let's take a deep breath and let this team hit like they did last night!

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  2. hahaha.
    Yeah, it's nice to see the bats come alive after a month of sucking.

    PS - nice to see you back alive, and I'm jealous of where you guys sat.

    But, you're missing my point: Reyes is just a name in a bag of names (as I said in the post, I'm not in love with him), but using Ellsbury right now, while he's going through one of what I'm sure is several up and down moments of the year to get a righty bat is the point. I don't care where it comes from, or who it is. I just want a talented bat in return to put in the middle of this lineup.
    There are no "young papis" out there. He was a released fluke outlier int he history of beseball and isn't likely to happen again.
    Right now, and probably for a limited time, Ellsbury is on fire. Use that to your advantage and move him for a middle of the lineup hitter.
    And I only chose Reyes because when he leaves, you get the draft pick, he's better than Lowrie and Scutaro put together, brings back the second guy speed you lose in Ellsbury, and most of all, Cameron is better defenively than Ellsbury.
    Who do you suggest?

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  3. First off sitting behind home-plate is pretty cool! Second, right now I don't want anybody and don't anybody who might be available on MAY 3RD!!!! This team is a great team that has struggled during the first month, but to start making changes especially for an often injured, weak hitting, non-clutch player and a Met on top of that is not what this team needs right now! See me at the end of May and we can debate it then!

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  4. I agree. Maybe we'll be 10 games out by the end of May, and we can have the debate about how we had to watch Ortiz leave the bases loaded a zillion times because Tito left Youkilis in the four hole.
    Shit I'm happy even if he switches Youk and Ped.

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