On a related note, can somebody 'splain the turnaround of Alexi Casilla? He was in the doghouse and AAA earlier this year. What good things happened to him?

on the radio, dan gladden said that casilla hurt his finger around the time he was called up and that the splint he has been wearing makes him grip the bat looser. In turn he has hit much better ever since.

regarding this story, I'm always glad to see gardy treating his guys with so much dignity. You can say he's babying gomez, but I think it is better for the whole team. The brave supposedly demoted frenchy without talking to him, and I think gardy's approach here has to help the team's comfort overall. Sure, he occassionally buts heads with strong willed players (garza, lohse), but for the most part his guys play hard and perform better than expected. I credit the atmosphere he creates at least somewhat.

He may be a hoot to watch, but it might be time to lean on him a bit and establish some fundamentals.

You mean before its too late? Like all the Braves fans who used to LOVE Frenchy are now afraid of?

Even though I'm a Mets fan I never was enamored of Gomez, the "projections" my fellow Met fans would give for Gomez were, to me, absurd (for instance more than poster has claimed his DOWNSIDE is Carl Crawford).

He's very fast, and he's strong enough that he could become something more than Willy Taveras/ Juan Pierre/Joey Gathright... IOW if everything breaks right and he develops he might become someone like Carl Crawford or Marquis Grissom...

He wasn't ready last year, he still isn't ready this year.
FMart (who has a MUCH higher upside than Gomez) is likely to be called up this year, the mets keep floating that idea out there- he's not ready to help an MLB team yet either, but Omar seems incapable of separating what his mind's eye sees as a player's eventual destination from what the payer is now (In FMart's case- a 19 year old kid playing league average ball in AA).

The Twins problem is that they are in contention and they really can't afford to give 4 PAs a game to someone who is gonna hit at a 71 OPS+. Gomez problem is that he's now good enough defensively and on the bases that he could help a contending team as a 4/5th OF and PR...

Barber? Just a few outs off the top, thanks.

I think Marquis Grissom is an excellent upside scenario for Gomez. Right now, he belongs in the minor leagues, but given the extreme quality of his defense, he may be the Twins' best CF option right now, and they are in contention. But if he's going to be in the lineup, he needs to be hitting 8th.

Well, as a counter to the "other" Mets' fan post, I am one of those who thinks that Gomez's potential is very big and that the Media heavily under-rated his value when Omar gave him up for Santana. The kid has a lot of skills, is amazing with the glove and can do some definite damage on the bases. He needs to learn plate discipline and one can only hope that he manages to progress in the Majors the way Reyes has for the Mets (in terms of plate discipline).

My problem with the Twins is that as a team they don't really seem to teach plate discipline which is going to be a problem for Gomez's growth. As for the Crawford comparison, I think his downside is Carl Crawford, at least this years version of Crawford with his 270 BA/8 HR and 695 OPS :)

FMart (who has a MUCH higher upside than Gomez) is likely to be called up this year, the mets keep floating that idea out there- he's not ready to help an MLB team yet either, but Omar seems incapable of separating what his mind's eye sees as a player's eventual destination from what the payer is now (In FMart's case- a 19 year old kid playing league average ball in AA).

Speaking of this, is there any particular reason the Mets felt they had to jump Ruben Tejada three levels and then watch him struggle?