When the Maddux sponsorship expires in March, I have half a mind to use it to mock your outrageous claim.

Make sure to mock his spelling of boyhood too.

When the Maddux sponsorship expires in March, I have half a mind to use it to mock your outrageous claim.

A David Eckstein thread is no place to debate such lofty matters. I will not soil the immortals by discussing their relative merits in such a setting. Harrumph.

Make sure to mock his spelling of boyhood too.

Everyone's a critic.

I am not going to argue that Kendall is a defensive genius, but he does play more games and innings than other catchers, so the raw SB-against total is misleading. He allowed .87 stolen bases per 9 innings last year. Lo Duca allowed .82. If we did a 3-2-1 projection on each guy's totals from the last three years, we'd project Kendall to allow .80 SB per 9 innings and Lo Duca to allow .88. I guess we're not taking this to the Torrealba thread after all, so I'll just copy my post :-)

Kendall at this point seems like the non-sociopathic version of Lo Duca: Decent OBP, no power, "bat control," could be plausible either as the world's slowest #2 hitter (relying on the fact that Reyes' SBs bail you out of many DP situations) or at the bottom of the order. I would much prefer that they try to find more than a one-year solution to this problem, but it doesn't sound too bad to me.

(After writing this, it occurs to me that one argument against Kendall could be that he's too durable. It's a little wasteful to have a great backup C like Castro if he's only going to start 25 games per year. It might be more "market efficient" to find a guy who needs to rest more... But I still don't have a feel for how the Mets really feel about Castro, whether they have any desire for him to expand his role or not.)

Rotoworld says Mets get Castillo at 4y-25MM.

Meh.

Yeah, meh, is about how I feel. I would have rather 2yr-16M even just so they don't feel tied to him during his age 34 and age 35 season. I think he projects to be about league average for the next 2 seasons and seems like a solid professional type so I think this looks solid for 2008/09. There weren't a lot of great option out there and I didn't see the DBacks trading O-dog. Might not look so good going into '10 and '11 though.

Now, lets sign a Matt Clement or Kerry Wood or Octavio Dotel, hold on to our prospects and draft picks.

btw, if some other team signs Lo Duca away we do get a supplemental pick. That could be reason enough to go with Kendall isntead.

Will the Braves/Glavine delay so that we don't get a first and a supplemental from him (assuming we can't offer him arbitration)?

4/25 is a much better deal than i thought the mets would get. I support it.

I thought the Torrealba thread was dead, and this was where the original quote was anyhow, wasn't it, DA?

As far as Kendall, he had an OPS last year of .610. Significantly worse for the A's than the Cubs, actually, he had to put up a .718 OPS with them to RAISE his yearly total to that .610. How can that plus 52/57 runners allowed make for wanting him at ANY price? Off all the catching options offered, he's the worst one by FAR.

Actually, Perros, maybe some, but not many. That diving film with Alba I would never watch again, no matter how great she looks. I have some weakness for PVC, shall we say.

OPS is a pretty piss-poor stat to evaluate a player whose OBP is about as high as his SLG... but no, obviously since I'd be ok with Kendall, I don't think he actually is a 610 OPS player, or a 242/301/309 player or however you want to phrase it. Note that he had a .241 BABIP with the A's (18.7% LD%), and a .291 with the Cubs (18.2% LD%). Cubbie Kendall is very similar to 2005 and 2006 Kendall... I have no reason at all to think that '08 Kendall will be all that different, other than of course being a year older.

I dunno where you're getting 52/57 extra SB allowed from... compared to whom? My math shows it's not compared to Lo Duca, unless you wanna penalize Kendall for durability. It sure ain't compared to Torrealba, whose stealing-against stats were also pathetic.

I don't want Barrett because (and yes, my quote was from the other thread but it'll all be over here now :-P)

This won't be the most stathead-y thing I will ever say, but when you're a catcher two years removed from the Silver Slugger, and one year removed from hitting 307/368/517... and your playoff-hopeful team nonetheless dumps you for nothing because you are that much of a jerk... I find that pretty convincing. (Never mind that he then proceeded to absolutely stink on ice for the Padres, and can't field.)

And, uhh, what other options have we got? Would you prefer Laird, who has a better CS%... but nonetheless more SB allowed per 9 innings, and I don't think anyone has any idea at all what he might hit, and he'd cost players to acquire? I would love to see a trade for Johjima or for one of the "stuck" catching prospects (Clement, Shoppach, Montero, Doumit), but I have not heard any indication whatsoever that the Mets are considering such a thing. I sure hope Omar surprises me, though.

I dunno, DA. He's just a year older and already old. I don't see how the player you think he is from 2005/2006 can make an appearance again at his new age years removed. When they go, catchers fall off a cliff, don't they? I think he's off it and only getting worse, so no I DON'T think he'll be back. Also, he has kind of a reputation as a fight-starter, which I hate. Torrealba wouldn't be that good but STILL be better than Kendall. This is one of those "veteran" moves that I really want to stay away from because I can't see ANY use to him that we can't get from Castro or any other schlub. Even if I can't use the copyright/trademark symbol like Sam does.