#199 - Never heard of Syndergaard before yesterday, but it's an interesting comparison. Both Syndergaard and Wheeler were drafted out of high school, Syndergaard debuted at age 17, Wheeler at age 20.

I'd say that Syndergaard kind of looks like Wheeler probably did when he was the same age - Wheeler was ranked as prospect #49 by BA before he debuted, which is around where Syndergaard might be right now. Both big guys with big fastballs and questionable curveballs. Syndergaard wasn't quite as highly regarded out of the draft, but the results have been totally dynamite since he signed.

Still, isn't Buck probably done? 32 years old, OPS+ dropped from 102 to 87, to 75, and can't hit his weight? I don't know if Buck even qualifies as a warm body at this point.

Only reason Buck's happening in this deal, is it would seem Anthopoulos is making it somewhat conditional that Thole accompanies Dickey because of their working partnership. Arencibia has been in the top 3 for passed balls in MLB the last two years. Thole's high as well, but it's because he catches a knuckleballer I assume. They seemingly don't want to depreciate Dickey's value with Arencibia's subpar defensive abilities. Buck was only in the Marlins deal because the Marlins made it a sticking point, that they receive Mathis. Even payed cash to off-set the salary differences.

Assuming Dickey's gone, who is going to be the fifth starter? I'm assuming it's going to be Johan, Harvey, Niese, and Gee for the first four spots. Meija hasn't been particularly impressive since coming back from injury. Familia and Wheeler shoud start their years in the minors. Hefner is awful.

How good is Syndergaard compared to Wheeler?

I'm not going to pretend I know anything about Syndergaard beyond his impressive minor league numbers, so if you want to read a scouting report on him, you can check it out here.

Assuming Dickey's gone, who is going to be the fifth starter?

They could grab Pelfrey or Karstens.

Snydergaard'll be 20 in (presumably) High-A in 2013. I like that.

Yeah, Hefner's pretty bad, but he's cheap. Are they really going to do better fishing around with no money? And Hefner's actually gotten results, well, sort of, in AA one season, and in about 10 starts in AAA. So, never mind. But I don't know where they'd go to do better. No to Pelfrey. He depresses me. I'd rather send Mejia out and see if he can get it together.

Karstens made 3m last season, and even though he had only 15 starts he was close to league average when he got to the mound. Won't he be out of the Mets price range?

@202--that all makes sense. I just don't want there to be any temptation to rush D'Arnaud. It's not worth it. They shouldn't start his service clock prematurely, and they should avoid playing him into the ground once he's up.

Collin McHugh - the next Dillon Gee?

@202--that all makes sense. I just don't want there to be any temptation to rush D'Arnaud. It's not worth it. They shouldn't start his service clock prematurely, and they should avoid playing him into the ground once he's up.

Totally. d'Arnaud would have already been brought up to MLB in late July when Arencibia went on the DL for 6 weeks, but d'Arnaud had already hurt his knee sliding into second base in June. Jays fans know what losing Dickey is like, as we were forced to do this with Halladay three years ago.

Early in Anthopoulos tenure, he said his goal was to assemble All-Star level talent at every position someday. d'Arnaud has been a piece of that far off goal, Jays fans have looked forward to. I can tell you, most intelligent Jays fans don't mind in the least trading talent for talent, but losing d'Arnaud hurts. The disgust (for many) with JP. Arencibia has been mitigated for more than a year now, because it always appeared soon enough d'Arnaud would replace him. Anthopoulos has refused to trade him up until now. For many, knowing Arencibia and his .275 OBP and sub-standard defense are staying, not to mention cocky demeanor, is worse than trading high-end prospects for Dickey. I'm one of them.

Count me as a supporter of this trade. No modern Mets team has had any measure of success without a catcher who could hit the ball, and no modern Mets GM has seemed to understand the concept of trading players at the peak of their value, not the trough (*cough* Lastings Milledge *cough*). This is a good haul. Maybe it enables Sandy to flip a pitching prospect for a young outfielder.

Assuming Dickey's gone, who is going to be the fifth starter?

Lucky you, the Mariners non-tendered Oliver Perez at the end of this season. I think he'd be a great fit for New York!

Lucky you, the Mariners non-tendered Oliver Perez at the end of this season. I think he'd be a great fit for New York!

Harsh.

Maybe it enables Sandy to flip a pitching prospect for a young outfielder.

Yeah, no such thing as too much pitching, but there is such a thing as not enough outfielders. Though I thought d'Arnaud plus Gose was a little unreasonable, and landing Syndergaard instead still leaves this as a good haul, they still need OFs desperately. Prospect-for-prospect trades are tough though. As I said before, I would have loved to get Rajai Davis from the Jays, but he has value to them in 2013.

In the absence of Davis, I'd like to see them try to grab some in that mold-- speedy, no-hit glove guy-- to stick in CF for 2013. Kirk can play RF, move Duda to LF. Did Hairston sign with someone else already?

I don't think Ollie can be NT'd. He has way more than 6 years of service time.

I'd like to see them try to grab some in that mold-- speedy, no-hit glove guy-- to stick in CF for 2013.

Bourjos? You'd have to part with something substantial, but he's a good player.

Hope we don't have to give up Thole here, although I expect we will. It's selling low, and he's a decent player who will probably be around for many years. I do realize that d'Arnaud is a top prospect, and that regardless of whether we give up Thole or not, it's going to be a bad deal for the Mets if d'Arnaud flops. But I'd still like to have a security blanket.

The Mariners signed Oliver Perez to a 1.5 million contract. sorry, no Ollie.

@207--good to get this from the perspective of a Jays fan. Thanks.

@212--swapping Thole for Buck makes no sense from the Mets pov. Buck seems done, to me, and Thole may rebound. In any case, the Mets can't really go into 2013 assuming Buck is going to play any kind of role. Well, they can, but they shouldn't. They really shouldn't. Could this really have been a sticking point?

I assume the Jays wanted Thole because he's caught Dickey for 3 years and the Mets needed a body coming back to start 2013 behind the dish. Actually, Recker doesn't look too terrible on paper, but maybe they're not so sure.