So the Mets have dumped Roberto Alomar, on the White Sox, for three minor leaguers (mainly minor league closer Royce Ring), while the Mets will swallow virtually all of Alomar’s remaining $3.9 million contract. I suppose I’ll be frustrated if Alomar goes all Tony Fernandez on us (Fernandez, who the Mets cut in early 1993 looking for all the world like he was washed up, batted .306 the rest of the way for the Blue Jays, drove in 9 runs in the World Series that year, and went on to play until 2001), but at this point it hardly matters. I don’t know much about Ring (I’d never heard of him before yesterday) and know even less about the other two, but at this point, any value the Mets could get is worth a try, and while minor league closers (especially ones whose fastballs don’t crack the mid-90s) aren’t famously good investments, Ring does have a solid college pedigree, and bringing in a potential replacement for Armando the Arsonist (who last night cost Aaron Heilman his first major league win) seems like a good move.
For the White Sox, bringing in Alomar and Carl Everett seems rather desperate, although a win-now approach does make sense in their division (and Cy Young seasons from guys like Esteban Loaiza don’t come around every day, either). The Alomar deal puzzles me a bit, when the Sox already had D’Angelo Jimenez at second. Jimenez has been in free-fall for the past month or so after a blazing start, but he’s still a solid ballplayer unless the Sox really think his various nicks are wearing him down. Apparently they may use Jimenez at third and bench the utterly helpless Joe Crede, another youngster who was a hot prospect not so long ago but has a .271 on base percentage that drags on the Chicago offense like Marley’s chains. Upgrading from Crede to Alomar will be a big help (Crede’s no whiz on the basepaths either), as will slotting in Everett for various disasters in the outfield.
7 thoughts on “Robby Gone”
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Oriole fan here. Robby’s heady days in Charm City were among our best. God he was a pleasure to watch in the field, and I’ll always remember him as a tenacious clutch hitter particularly when it mattered. He was like the venerable Harold Baines that way, every time he walked up to hit you could reasonably think “Something good could happen here in a minute.”
Seems like Robby lost interest since he departed though. The Mary Pierce Experience sapped his strength or sumtin. (Btw, have you seen a pic of Mary lately? Baby doll, skip a meal. She’s just a-lumbering around.)
You don’t need me to tell you he stone cold STUNK as a Met. But it’s worse than that, I think he’s fallen way off the table. We used to talk of him being one of the best all around second basemen ever but you haven’t heard that talk in years. Think he’s still a decent HOF candidate?
Flem
Yes, Alomar’s a lock for HOF if he retires tomorrow.
According to Baseball-reference.com, Robbie Alomar stacks up as follows:
Black Ink: Batting – 3 (Average HOFer ~ 27)
Gray Ink: Batting – 95 (Average HOFer ~ 144)
HOF Standards: Batting – 53.9 (Average HOFer ~ 50)
HOF Monitor: Batting – 193.0 (Likely HOFer > 100)
Looks pretty good for him.
Well its not like he went from sweetness in Baltimore to stinking it up for the Mets, he had some good years in Clevland as well.
Gammons had a tidbit in one of his notes a while ago that Duquette (Dan of the Red Sox) over ruled his people and signed Offerman when they wanted Alomar, I don’t know if that’s true or not, but as a Sox fan I can only imagine what a difference that would have made.
this is a good reminder for me to avoid any baseball discussions that require statistics to make any kind of an impact or point. i’m much better with anecdote.
in this regard, my sodden brainpan is emblazoned with the memory of mr. alomar poking one over the right field wall in 1995 (1996?) of Jacobs Field to seal the divisional series over that hegemonic Tribe team that was supposed to win it all that year. two outs, IIRC, in some late inning, maybe even the 9th. he literally just stuck his bat out over the plate and the ball crept over the wall.
don’t tell me if i have my nostalgic image wrong in some respect. i want to remember it this exact way, vagaries of history be hanged
Flem
Crank-
Do you think Leiter could help the Sox this year? Does he have anything left?
B
I’m not totally pessimistic about Leiter — the Mets defense has been awful behind him. And he wouldn’t have to be the Leiter of old to be useful. Unfortunately, because Leiter’s a hometown guy, I suspect he won’t want to be moved.