Or, 35 and Broadway: That’s the uni Lance Broadway turned up in yesterday, in his first appearance with the Mets since being acquired from the White Sox earlier this year for Ramon Castro. Broadway arrived when the Mets noticed something was wrong with Oliver Perez. Broadway is the first Met to suit up in 35 since Bazooka Joe Smith last season.
Tag Archive for Ramon Castro
Castaway
The controversy of the Mets’ catching situation seemed almost too easily resolved as Ramon Castro was traded to the White Sox on the same night that Omir Stantos drove in both Mets runs, including the walkoff gamewinner, and Brian Schneider returned to the dugout for the first time in weeks.
Castro, the meaty backup who’d been a reserve forMike Piazza, Paul LoDuca and Schneider, and who provided a buttload of big moments for the Mets, was swapped for Lance Broadway, a tall 25-year-old one-time prospect.Castro leaves as the longest-serving No. 11 since Tim Teufel (1986-91). Despite ranking sixth in games played among Met 11s, Castro has more home runs and RBI than every Met 11 except Teufel and all-time leader Wayne Garrett.
Broadway — who just has to appear in New York at some point — is assigned for now to the starting rotation at AAA Buffalo. He was wearing No. 41 in the White Sox bullpen before the trade.
Good luck to Castro, who despite frustrating the Mets with injuries and a seeming unwilliness to take over starting duties when the team needed him, at his best was probably a better hitter than Santos will ever be. But, Santos certainly has been the man for this season, and the next few months will probably be pretty close anyway.
Home runs by guys who wore 11 *
1. Wayne Garrett 55
2. Tim Teufel 36
3. Ramon Castro 33
4 (tie). Duke Snider, Lenny Randle 7
6. Gene Woodling 5
7. Dick Schofeild 4
8 (tie). Ed Bouchee, Roy McMillan, Kelvin Chapman 3
*-Only HRs hit while wearing No. 11 count
Manuel Laboring
Being a positive guy who desperately wants to like the team he roots for I’m hoping there’s some hidden benefit at work amid the recent managerial misadventures of Jerry Manuel. But they cannot be worth the the price in bad baseball we’ve witnessed this week.
For the second time in as many series against the Marlins, Jerry overmanuevered the Mets into losing two of three winnable games. He pulled his starters too early, inserted relievers unnecessarily and/or curiously, and this afternoon, publically flipped off Ramon Castro and called it a pinch-hitting decision.
None of it worked, and the team, once again, seems to be taking on the passive and frightened style of its manager.
I admire Jerry and came into the year convinced he possessed a good understanding of what troubled this team and how to fix it but it seems he’s determined to demonstrate that the hard way. I can’t imagine Castro sees much more time with the Mets, and wonder what it might take to get Ken Takahashi to show that No. 36 he got the other day. Yeah, David Wright could make it all go away with a few well-timed hits but he’s struggled before too. Onto Philly.
Castro Returns
Ramon Castro returned to the active roster on Saturday while Raul Casanova was designated for assignment as the Mets swapped lumpy reserve catchers. Casanova took a few games too many to get going while Brian Schneider sat out with injuries or he might have made this a more difficult decision. The sample is obviously not fair to anyone but that’s life for a backup.
Castro was in “action” as the Mets, predictably, followed a more-or-less solid Game 1 win with a listless, sloppy loss to the Reds in Game 2. We’re seemingly up against it this afternoon when Reds phenom Johnny Cueto opposes Oliver Perez in the rubber game. Cueto has said he channels Pedro Martinez while on the mound: His stature and, sometimes, his numbers, suggest a resemblance.
Yup, that was me forgetting to button my top button on Mets Weekly. They stuck a mic in there.
Johnny Benchwarmer
We should know for sure how things shake out soon, but thought I’d forward a few ideas on the bench in case they’d like to check with me first.
Raul Casanova, wearing No. 30, looks like he’s going to start the year as the backup catcher to Brian Schneider. I don’t mind this. Casanova’s not as bad hitter and he switch hits. Ramon Castro has missed large parts of the last two seasons with back injuries and will miss the start of this year. I like my scrubeenos more reliable than Castro’s been, and hope for the sake of competition, and for the sake of having a lousy hitter as our No. 1 catcher, that Casanova makes his case.
I thought when Olmedo Seanz was canned the righthanded-hitting reserve job would go to Jose Valentin, but he’s hurt and may retire. Instead the Mets appear to be wavering between veterans Brady Clark 93 and – surprise! – Fernando Tatis. With Angel Pagan likely to be the starter in left while Moises Alou heals, and Endy Chavez the all-around defensive replacement, it may very well be Tatis, whose outfield experience is weak but who could also serve as a 3rd base and 1st base reserve. Tatis seems to be have been given a better chance than I’d anticipated given a dignified uni number (17) and fact he’s from early-90s Texas Ranger stock — USDA Prime as Omar is concerned.
Marlon Anderson (2B, 1B, corner OF) and Damion Easley (the only emergency shortstop) are the collective veteran lefty-righty pinch hitting tamdem. Let’s hope they survive the season unscathed.
Also:
* Pat Jordan fulfills the fantasy of every journalist who ever dealt with a difficult subject byblasting Jose Canseco out of the park. What a shot!
* I’ll be appearing with co-author Matthew Silverman at a book signing Saturday April 5, 3 p.m., at the Barnes & Noble in Bayside Queens.
Caught
The Mets today are expected to announce they’ve reached an agreement to keep reserve catcher Ramon Castro in the No. 11 jersey for the next two years (though the agreement requires a physical, so you never know). We may also learn soon whether Yorvit Torrealba (spellcheck wants to call him “Orbit Terrible”) accepts an offer to be Castro’s partner. The Torrealba bid may in the end resemble the Ramon Hernandez/Begie Molina teases of a few years ago, where the Mets dangled some cash in front of the free agent catchers but gave them a short window to decide: When the players delayed, the Mets swiftly pursued Paul LoDuca in the trade market. So if Torrealba is truly en route, we ought to know soon. And if not, let’s hope the team won’t overlook such trade targets as the Diamondbacks’ Miguel Montero, who looks like a hitter and as a lefty, would make a great platoonmate for Castro.
We may also know soon enough whether the Mets’ unofficial mothballing of the No. 8 jersey will continue, as Torrealba currently sports that number for the Rockies. The Mets have not issued No. 8 since Gary Carter’s induction to the Hall of Fame. Castro’s return, by the way, would represent yet another two years of No. 11 — a jersey that has appeared on at least one Met player in all but three seasons (1967, 1968 and 2002) in Mets history.
They Are What They Is
With the New Orleans Zephyrs swept out of the AAA playoffs over the weekend, representatives of the losers arrived in time to see — and participate — in the worst display of Met baseball since the Art Howe Era.
Soft-tossing righty Brian Lawrence 54 stepped in and registered what we can only hope would be the last outing of his Mets career, coughing up a 4-run lead to Washington. Joe Smith 35 is back, but the velocity he sidearmed with earlier this year apparently didn’t come along with him.Ramon Castro 11 didn’t have the health to stick through short-season games with Brooklyn but is back here anyway. Weak-hitting utilityman David Newhan? Yes, he’s back too, still torturing Keith Hernandez in No. 17.
Perhaps the only interesting returnee from a unicentric standpoint is infielder Anderson Hernandez, who we last saw wearing No. 1 in July. Hernandez was recalled only to discover the Mets had issued No. 1 to Luis Castillo during Hernandez’ stay in New Orleans. No. 4 was hanging in his locker this time around. When he gets into a game, he’ll become the Mets’ 14th 15th player to wear No. 4, and the first since Chris Woodward a year ago Ben Johnson earlier this year. (Props to Gene, below for the correction).
Only time will tell whether this latest stumble is just another stumble or the beginnings of an historic collapse, but you can bet we’ll be here hating ourselves for watching every minute of it!
Bad Break for Easley
Well the all-odd infield as described below went out together for a second straight night Saturday but it’ll be their last for awhile. Damian Easley stepped awkwardly while running and gruesomely rolled his left ankle in an event likely to sideline him for the rest of the regular season. Ever roll an ankle like that? It makes a noise.
Anderson Hernandez was recalled from AAA Sunday to take his place on the roster, arriving to find out the No. 1 jersey he wore in previous visits to New York had been assigned to Luis Castillo in his absence. The Mets roster has Hernandez dressed in No. 4 (bad news for Ben Johnson should he deign to return).
A more pressing concern could be finding an acceptable right-handed pinch-hitter, preferably one who can play first base (among other positions), so as not to further compromise our oftentimes meager attack. Easley was one of the few guys on the team who’d done almost no harm and/or disappointing this season too. But I thought it was weird when Omar didn’t come back after the trade deadline with a right-handed bench hitter, so I’m pretty sure this merits a trade too.
Meantime on Sunday Sandy Alomar Jr. 19 was back for Ramon Castro 11, whose bad back necessitated a DL stay. All as we swept a team for the first time since June and — can you believe this? — reached a new highwater mark at 17 over .500.
Updates
By now everyone knows the Mets will be Pedro-less for the playoffs but let’s be honest: That doesn’t surprise us. He hasn’t been healthy for a long while, and though it would be nice if the Real Pedro was with us, we’ve been more concerned about the lineup than the pitching all year long, even while they made it look easy and now, especially, as they make it look difficult.
Stuff we neglected to mention recently: Ramon Castro 11 returned from the disabled list Sept. 12; Kelly Stinnett 36 was designated for assigment Sept. 27 and Phillip Humber 49 made his big-league debut Sept. 24. Along with the return of Mike Pelfrey 34 to the (nominally) active roster, the ’06 Mets have 36 active players on their roster at once, which ties them with three other Met clubs for the second-most ever, according to Met roster historian Jason:
The only time they’ve had more was in 1967 (38 active). Too bad they didn’t recall Henry Owens & Alay Soler, they could have tied their franchise record! The only other players left on the 40-man are Matt Lindstrom & Ruben Gotay.
Active Players on September Rosters:
38…………..1967
37
36…………..1974, 1985, 2002, 2006
35…………..1965, 1980, 1984, 1987, 1998, 1999
34…………..1966, 1969, 1971, 1982, 1983, 2001
33…………..1970, 1972, 1981, 1989, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003
32…………..1963, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1978, 1990, 1992, 1993, 2004, 2005
31…………..1962, 1991
30…………..1968, 1979, 1986, 1988, 1995
29…………..1976
28
27
26…………..1964
25…………..1994 (strike)
Postseason Positioning
The Mets yesterday made the Anderson Hernandez promotion official, temporarily sending down lefty Dave Williams 32 to make room for him. Williams is expected to return in time for his next start. The recall comes in time to make Hernandez, who was dressed in No. 1, eligible for the postseason roster, along with the 12 other current position players and disablees Cliff Floyd 30 and Ramon Castro 11.
Having not called up recent signee Kelly Stinnett suggests the team is confident in Castro’s return, though reports this morning say Stinnett’s likely to be recalled now that rosters are exandable and Norfolk’s season is winding to a close.
