SaberMets.com

They gave up an "A" ball player with potential to get a gold glove first baseman with average offensive skills. I make this trade for good reasons. The mets are in desperate need of a excellent defensive first baseman to support a yound infield. Doug M is a good veteran player and according to his past teammates, great in the clubhouse. This is a good move for the mets...

The Mets have won their championships with stellar defense and deep pitching. This is all a blessing in disguise.

Minky is a bit over-rated defensively, but this turn of events will free up $ for the Mets to build real middle relief between a very strong rotation and a solid back of the 'pen in Yates & Looper.

Doug never hit for power(and Shea won't help), but if he gets his OBP back up in the .370 range I like this trade. I agree they should have gotten it done for less though. Bladergoren's makeup and #s look promising, even if just at single-A...

Why trade for Mienkiewicz? Mets would be better off with a platoon of Valent and Galarraga. Valent had a better fielding pct and ZR in 28 games last year than Mientkiewicz (yeah I know it's a small sample).

Also, if you take Valent's 2004 stats v. RHP and Galarraga's 3-year splits v. LHP and adjust them for 600 AB's (400 v. RHP w/ Valent and 200 v. LHP w/ Galarraga), you get a platoon with the following stats:

.284 batting avg, .350 OBP, and 28 HRs and you still have the Blade floating around in single A ball.

Valent had a .996 fielding percentage at 1B and a .889 ZR.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think FP and ZR adequately measure a first baseman's handling of throws from the infield; aren't they primarily measures of his defense on batted balls? Mientkiewicz might, hypothetically, have a reputation as a great defender because he provides a solid target, stretches well, has good footwork around the bag, etc. I know Kazuo Matsui put up about 30 errors last season that really were due in equal part to Piazza; anything a foot off the bag went by him for an error on the infielder and an extra base.

You're probably right about ZR and FP. Piazza's ZR was terrible anyway. FP would obviously include errors on balls thrown to first but probably wouldn't adequately reflect a first baseman's stretching capabilities. Although anecdotally I remember Valent looking solid at 1B.

Regardless, Mets can always use Valent at 1B if we get the 2002/2004 Mientkiewicz instead of the 2001/2003 Mientkiewicz.

FP, ZR, and RF (Range Factor) do not measure a first-baseman's handling of throws; there is no metric that I have seen that does so. UZR is the best measure of a defender's range, and Mientkiewicz is #2 in the bigs (based on 2000-2003 data) at 17 UZR runs. Todd Helton is #1 with 20 UZR runs. 10 runs equals approximately one win prevented with the glove.

I would like to disagree with many Met fans for a moment. Ian “Blade” Bladergroen was/is a single A player. These are the type of players we should be trading on those times we need to make a trade. That is part of the job of a minor league system. Do we know what Mr. “Blade” will be? No. But I can tell you that I find all the hysteria over trading him after a good half a season in single-A is little bit unfounded.

I also feel Mientkiewicz is a PERFECT fit for the type of team we are trying to create. He is professional, he is a fantastic glove, and is a line drive hitter (which by the way is what is needed at our beloved Shea Stadium). There are other means to get a younger left handed bat with pop that we will probably see unfold around the trading deadline. I also feel that Mientkiewicz is ideal to have for another reason. We have a 24 year old first baseman that can hit the cover off the ball (from the left side of the plate) but is defensively challenged. This is who we should be working with to carry 1st base beyond the time of Mr. Mientkiewicz (his name by the way is Craig Brazell). However, before this can happen, he needs to learn how to field the position. Doug throws right handed which is the same as Mr. Brazell. I would submit to have them work together in the spring. Send Craig down to a full season in AAA to work on what he has learned, and then work with him some more during September. Let him learn from one of the best how to improve at what he can do.

You know, I find it funny, that people want the Mets to bring up the kids, but if they don’t produce immediately, they’re not given the time to grow and mature. I remember what a young Ron Darling was like; I remember what a young Lenny Dykstra was like. Give them LOTS of time in the minors - don’t rush them up - and then let them make their mistakes and grow from them.