Mondesi, Mail and More

Jason Michael Barker

One of the great things about having the Tuesday column here at Strikethree.com -- I write on Monday nights, if you haven't figured that out already -- is that I get first crack at all of Monday's news. And if you haven't noticed, quite a bit tends to go down on Mondays during the season.

Like this wacky Raul Mondesi trade, for example. I say wacky because it really did come out of nowhere. Everyone knew the Yankees were after another outfielder, but the hot name has always been Florida's Cliff Floyd, not Mondesi. Everyone knew the Blue Jays wanted to move Mondesi, but that he was still due a considerable chunk of change was thought to be a major roadblock to any deal, not to mention his .224 batting average this season. Finally, according to published reports the Yankees were the only club in the running for his services, and their interest only began last Saturday. These things don't usually happen so quickly.

I suppose it makes some sense, because if any club was going to pick up Mondesi's tab, it was the free-spending Yankees. They didn't give up anything, really, just a mediocre AA reliever. That leaves them plenty of bargaining chips should they choose to go after yet another player before the trade deadline, which is a big frightening when you think about it. And while I'm quick to rip Mondesi's sub-par production, he does have two tools -- power and speed -- that can be extremely valuable in a post-season series (see: Soriano, Alfonso).

Thinking he's some gigantic upgrade in right field is a bit silly, however. Mondesi comes with a .736 OPS this season, or .827 for his career if you prefer the larger sample. He replaces the platoon of Shane Spencer and John Vander Wal, who posted marks of .766 and .780 against righties and lefties respectively. The Yankees, with revenues to burn, can afford to gamble that Mondesi hits at least his career average the rest of the way... all at a cost of roughly $5.5M over the rest of the season.

As for the Blue Jays, that they got anything at all in exchange for dumping Mondesi's salary should be considered a bonus. It's worth noting that they will pay $6M of his $13M salary for next season, but that's considerably better than paying him the full amount to hit the way he does. Kudos to general manager JP Ricciardi for finding a taker -- his rebuilding effort is well underway.

Moving on, I haven't answered any reader e-mail in a while, so I thought I'd clear out the old inbox.

Back in May, I commented that Minnesota's Dustan Mohr was just holding right field warm for prospect Michael Cuddyer. That prompted the following from Chris:

Subject: dustin mohr is holding right field until cuddyer gets here???
hmmm, have you seen dustin and kielty play, cuddyer will be lucky to be up in MINNESOTA AT ALL!!!!! Mohr and kielty both are better then pena and blalock!!

I must admit, Chris, that I've never seen Mohr or Kielty play other than the occasional highlight on TV. They certainly have fared well this season, however, making it hard for Cuddyer to get a call up despite his gaudy numbers in the Pacific Coast League (most notably a .643 slugging percentage and 20 homers, second and third in the league respectively).

As an aside, Twins manager Ron Gardenhire deserves a great deal of credit for his handling of Kielty, who is hitting .328/.452/.533 in 137 at-bats this season. Gardenhire has obviously put Kielty in situations in which he can succeed, by playing him all over the outfield, at first base, and as a pinch-hitter (Kielty is 6-for-17 in that last role).

As for those two being better than Pena and Blalock... slow down.

Next, this from David:

You forgot the other major (so far) acquisition from the winter that most people wrote off, Jeff D'Amico. Despite a mediocre 4-4 record (thanks to the dysfunctional Mets offense giving him 2.4 runs/game), he's been one of the best starters in the NL this year with a 3.03 ERA and a .92 WHIP. D'Amico has been amazing, and while he probably won't go the season without arm troubles, his success so far is one of the biggest reasons the Mets are in 1st.

David was referring to this column, in which I noted that the Braves and Mets were winning despite their respective off-season acquisitions: Gary Sheffield in Atlanta, and Roberto Alomar, Mo Vaughn, Roger Cedeno and Jeromy Burnitz in New York. At the time the Mets were 27-25, one game back of the Braves in the NL East.

Since that column the Mets have gone 13-16, while the Braves have gone a sparkling 24-6 to open a 9.5 game lead in the division. The Mets have fallen to fourth place, 11.5 games back, and are much closer to last than they are first.

David's e-mail turned out to be quite prophetic, however -- as D'Amico was knocked around in June to the tune of an 8.19 ERA, the Mets finished the month with a 11-15 record. It's also worth noting that neither Alomar, Burnitz, Vaughn nor Cedeno have started hitting yet, though Vaughn did have a decent month of June.

Time to call it a season in New York? You might think so, but according to a Bobby Valentine interview I saw Sunday, you don't call it quits with the current group of players until it's October and you haven't gotten the job done. Hmm. Somehow Valentine doesn't sound like the guy to manage a rebuilding club, which is what the Mets should be as they approach the trading deadline.

Now if they can just find someone to take Vaughn's contract. The Yankees, maybe? Nah...

about the author

Jason Michael Barker hopes the Blue Jays will pay at least half of his Strikethree.com salary next season. Remind him that half of zero is still zero when you write to jmb@strikethree.com.

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