FanHouse RamonCastro

The Mets rewarded the rookie after all. New York dealt catcher Ramon Castro and cash to the White Sox in exchange for pitcher Lance Broadway, opting instead to keep surprising 28-year-old Omir Santos in the bigs.

Santos wasted no time Friday night assuring the Mets they made the right choice, hitting a game-winning RBI single in the 11th inning to give New York a 2-1 win over the Marlins.

New York Mets manager Jerry Manuel announced that he's making some lineup changes for Thursday's game. The biggest deal is the fact that he plans to move David Wright down two slots to bat fifth, while moving Beltran up to bat third.

A move from batting third in the batting order to batting fifth doesn't seem like much, but batting order studies have shown that the fantasy devaluation that Wright could take might be dramatic. If the switch is long term Wright could miss out on about 5% of the plate appearances he'd see in the third slot. He would also be subject to a 5% drop in RBI and a 10% drop in home runs. The biggest hit, however, could be in stolen bases, where he could possibly see a 40% drop-off. Does anyone want to see David Wright with these kinds of drop-offs in production?

It was less than an hour before game time and Willie Randolph had no idea where his starting catcher was. Petco Park is only a 10-minute walk from the team hotel and the Mets provide transportation, so there must have been an emergency keeping Ramon Castro from being in the clubhouse, right?

Only if you consider not knowing that there's a time difference between San Diego and New York an emergency. Castro looked at one of those pocket schedules you get as a giveaway and saw that the game was set to start at 4:05 so he planned on getting to Petco a little before one to start preparing. That sounds diligent until you realize that the schedule, presumably for New Yorkers, gives all times as Eastern.

"I was ready to come here at 1 because I thought the game started at 4," Castro said. "I'm a little embarrassed. It's my fault. It won't happen again."

As if losing the first three games of their series with San Diego wasn't enough for Randolph (how long before his seat heats up again?) to deal with.

"The explanation is not acceptable, and he'll be fined for it," Randolph said.

I can't blame Randolph for not thinking he needs to explain that there's a time difference between New York and California? You'd think somewhere along the way in a 10-year big league career that information would have come Castro's way.

Having backed out of a deal with Yorvit Torrealba at the last minute, the Mets are still in the market for a catcher. Re-signing Paul Lo Duca is one option, but the Mets still think he's asking for too much money and too many years.

Unfortunately, there's really not many other options on the free agent market, which means if the Mets want anything better than a replacement-level player behind home plate, they'll need to hit the trade market. According to Ken Davidoff of Newsday, the team has Baltimore's Ramon Hernandez and Texas' Gerald Laird in their sights, although a deal does not appear imminent:

At the moment, the Mets view the asking prices for Hernandez and Laird as too high. One official familiar with the Mets' thinking predicted that no moves will be made, for either a catcher or a starting pitcher, before the Dec. 3-6 winter meetings in Nashville.

What's wrong with simply using Ramon Castro as a starter? Nothing, if the team knew for sure that he'd stay healthy. But he's 31 years old and has appeared in at least 55 games in a season just once. Plus, as attractive as his bat may be, his work behind the plate is more than suspect. Davidoff also notes that the Mets are trying to improve their pitching, and are willing to dangle the likes of Aaron Heilman, Phil Humber, Lastings Milledge and Carlos Gomez, among others, to get a deal done.

The music has stopped, and it looks like Paul Lo Duca is left standing in the Mets' game of musical catchers. Reports have sprung everywhere that both former Rockie Yorvit Torrealba, and incumbent back-up Ramon Castro have agreed to deals with the Mets.

Torrealba's agent Melvin Roman told 1050 ESPN Radio New York that they have agreed to a three-year contract. If Torrealba passes a physical, an announcement is expected in the next day or two. Roman told the radio station that he expected to formalize the deal Thursday afternoon.

According to the New York Daily News the Ramon Castro agreed to a two-year contract for just over $4 million. The paper reports that the deal won't be made official until Castro takes a physical. "I've been there for three years," he told the Daily News. "We have a great bunch of guys. I love it."

Some rumors have Torrealba making $15 million over three years ... that's an incredible amount of money for a guy who hit .212 away from Coors Field. There are also rumors that Torrealba and Castro are going to split time more evenly with Castro's better hitting numbers. If that's the case, $15 million over three years is a lot of money for a platoon player, no matter how many big hits he got for the Rockies in the playoffs.

Just in case you were wondering, Mike Piazza is not headed back to the Mets. From Steve Popper of The Record:

The Mets' pitching has been a question for most of the season. But the question now is just who is going to catch? Not Mike Piazza.

The Mets may reek slightly of desperation right now, but according to one source, the team is not interested in acquiring the former franchise player who is on the market and reportedly has cleared waivers.

I'm not sure the notion of Piazza returning to the Big Apple even had a chance to become a rumor, but just in case it was going to, Popper's source proactively nipped it in the bud. Why are the Mets so desperate? Because Paul Lo Duca is on the DL and Ramon Castro is ailing with an arthritic lower back.

On the other hand, just because we won't see Piazza behind the plate for the Mets doesn't mean we're not close seeing another fossil magically re-appear -- as it is now, we're just one Mike DiFelice injury from Sandy Alomar Jr. being called up from Triple-A Norfolk New Orleans (ed -- fixed after a correction in the comments).

The Mets, like most teams, have been hit with the injury bug hard and fast in 2007. Names like Carlos Beltran, Moises Alou, Shawn Green, Lastings Milledge, Carlos Gomez, and Endy Chavez have all seen time on the shelf due to injury (and that's just the outfield). Have all the injuries made the Mets too trigger happy when it comes to putting guys on the DL?

Consider the case of catcher Paul Lo Duca, who tweaked his hammy Saturday night trying to avoid a tag. The Mets, rather quickly like ... right after the game put Lo Duca on the disabled list. Lo Duca, not pleased at the decision, skipped out without talking to the media. But on Sunday, before the game, expressed his displeasure:

"It's upsetting," Lo Duca said. "I want to play. It's been a frustrating last couple of months. I want to play, and that's the bottom line." (...) Lo Duca hadn't yet gotten an MRI on his leg before the game, though he was planning on having one at some point on Sunday.

His problem with the decision, however, stems from the fact that the Mets wouldn't wait even until Sunday morning to make a move. Manager Willie Randolph and general manager Omar Minaya met after Saturday's game and made the decision without Lo Duca's consent. And on Sunday morning, the catcher said that he felt fine.

"I woke up this morning and it feels absolutely great," Lo Duca said, repeatedly confirming that two weeks was plenty of time to recover.

Odd, because this is the same organization that has been known for leaving an injured guy like Beltran on the bench, waiting at least a week before placing him on the DL. Yet with Lo Duca, they wouldn't even wait a couple of hours.

And if Lo Duca does feel great, that's too bad ... because guess who left Sunday's game with lower back discomfort and is now day-to-day? That's right, it's back-up catcher Ramon Castro ... leaving Mike DiFelice as the Mets starting catcher as this very moment. Yikes.

The last game the Mets played, as well as the last game that Oliver Perez pitched, were both disasters. So there was a lot of redemption to be had on Saturday afternoon. The Mets did well on both parts with a 7-2 victory.

After a game where Perez became the first Mets pitcher in history to walk or hit five straight batters, Perez went through a stretch where he threw 20 straight pitches for strikes (talk about a model of inconsistency). But one thing worth noting, even with a small sample size, is that Perez has looked his best this season against the Atlanta Braves (Perez has not walked a single Atlanta Brave in two starts this season). So as long as Perez saves his clunkers for the rest of the division and league and continues to defeat Atlanta, his spot in the starting rotation will be secure.

As for the Mets, their bats came back to life as Carlos Beltran went four for five while just a home run short of the cycle, they got home runs from Jose Reyes (who had three hits), Ramon Castro and ... of all people ... Damion Easley, who got the start against lefthander Chuck James leaving Jose Valentin on the bench. (That's what's called "pushing the right buttons"). Reyes and Beltran had seven of the Mets 11 hits.

The nastiness of this rivalry may be slowly bubbling to the surface soon. After Easley's home run, James came up and in on Perez. Not dangerously close, but close enough for Perez to glare at the mound and nod his head. Nothing came of it, but I wonder if it will remain in the backs of the minds of the New York bench.

Not a good time to be a Marlin right now. Fredi Gonzalez's team has just lost five in a row, including two blowout losses at the hands of the New York Mets, but they may be missing Miguel Cabrera as well:

"We're not playing very good right now," said Florida slugger Miguel Cabrera, whose team has lost five in a row. To make matters worse for the Marlins, Cabrera left in the third inning with an injury to his right oblique and declined to predict when he'll be back in the lineup.

Neither the Mets broadcasting team nor I knew what Miguel was doing when he laid down a sac bunt in the third inning. Now we know that it was probably injury related:

He gave a hint that he was hurting came when he bunted with a runner on second in the first inning - his first sacrifice since his rookie year in 2003. "When I swing and miss a ball, I feel something," he said.

Oblique injuries ... as you well know ... are no joke. It probably cost Albert Pujols the MVP award last season. But there's a lot more at stake here than that, where a team like Florida needs their big hitter ... now more than ever ... just to stay afloat.

As for the Mets, they enter a big series against the Braves with the bats smoking. As of right now, the Mets are hitting .303 as a team, and that includes a .357 average by, of all people, Ramon Castro who had a two-hit, three RBI night. David Wright extended his two-season hitting streak to 26 games, and Carlos Beltran was a triple away from the cycle when he doubled in his final at-bat, but never did he think of going for third to get the cycle. Why? Because he's a nice guy.

"With the score of the game, I don't think it would have been good if I had tried to go to third and was thrown out," Beltran said. "That would have looked like I was trying to show them up -- not a good thing." He shrugged. "Maybe I'll be able to hit for the cycle before I quit playing," he said.

And he knows the rules ... whether they're written or unwritten.