5/9/08 Activated C Ramon Castro from the 15-day disabled list; Designated C Raul Casanova for assignment.

We’re finally getting to the point of the year where everyone that got hurt early is starting to come off the DL. Castro is ostensibly the Mets best hitter behind the plate, assuming he’s fully healthy, and the way Brian Schneider has performed with his throwing and pop-up tracking on the recent west coast road trip, may be the best option behind it defensively as well. Seeing as how Castro threw out 3 of 30 runners attempting to steal last year, well, CRIPPLE FIGHT!

The bigger question begged by this move is what the catching split will look like. Castro has the distinction of being the one of the two that can actually hit for power, with Schneider carrying zero extra-base hits in 65 at-bats as of this writing. For those of you hoping that Schneider’s high batting average will keep up, remember that he’s never had a BABIP over .295 in the last four years, and it is currently at .364. I think if you put them both in a normalized 500-at-bat box at this point in their careers, you’d get lines looking like this:

Catcher      AVE    OBA    SLG
Schneider   .260   .325   .380
Castro      .245   .335   .440

Normally I’d be telling you here that Willie Randolph is a complete and utter idiot because he already has Castro pegged as a twice-a-week backup despite being the better player. I think that point can still stand on its own merit, but given Castro’s relative fragility, I’m not sure that it ends up being a bad move to give Schneider the lion’s share of the time at catcher. Granted I’d rather have a four-three split out of every seven games instead, but that’s splitting hairs: Castro has a history of back problems, the hammy kept him down for a month, and I think, given the situation, it’s likely he’d break down with a starter’s workload. So maybe Willie is making the right move here. Accidentally, of course, but still, credit where presumptive credit is due.

Speaking of credit, where credit is due kudos to Raul Casanova for his yeoman’s effort in his return to New York. It was a great story and he was fairly productive (.283/.340/.391, one homer) when the Mets needed him to be, unlike the Sandy Alomar Jr.-Mike Difelice combo last year. He’s proven his worth as a good third catcher and has said he’ll report to New Orleans should he go unclaimed.

Furthermore, although no official transaction of this has been made as of the writing, Matt Wise arrived in New York over the weekend although the team has made no decision regarding who’ll swap places. It’s obvious that Randolph and Minaya have chosen to send down Joe Smith for the crime of being too good at baseball and having options left. Jorge Sosa, the other candidate to go down, has been the worst pitcher in the bullpen all year but makes real money and is Willie-approved to go multiple innings, unlike the rest of the bullpen. If the Mets were going to get rid of Sosa, they probably would have done it on Friday, seeing as how he would probably opt for free agency instead of Norfolk, and it might be a slap in the face to ask a guy to eat multiple innings to save the rest of the pen in a doubleheader and then DFA him. As image-conscious as the Mets are, it seems like a good bet that Wise will be replacing Smith.

I have no opinion on this beyond indignation for sending down Smith, mainly because I have no real opinion on Matt Wise as a Met yet. The one impression he left us with was the walk-off homer he served up to Robert Andino in the second game of the season, but, other than that, I didn’t think he allowed a hard-hit ball in either of the appearances he made. I’ll be anxious to see him pitch.

THE DOWN LOW ON THE DL

Pedro Martinez – Threw another side session on Friday, 60 pitches. Will probably face live batters next, and is still on target for a late-May/early-June return.

Orlando Hernandez – Out of the protective boot, but still has the bunion that was the original reason for him missing time. Probably in training for his next job.

Jose Valentin – No news. Not a factor at this point.

QUICK PITCHES

• With the MLB Draft less than a month away and the Mets holding three of the top-32 picks, I figured we could take a quick look at the Mets early round drafting history under scouting director Rudy Terrasas:

  2007: Eddie Kunz, RHP, Oregon State (1st, supplemental, 42nd overall, Nathan Vineyard, Woodland HS GA (supplemental, 47th overall). Top 6 picks were all pitchers.

  2006: Kevin Mulvey, RHP, Villanova (2nd round, 62nd overall). Top 5 picks were all pitchers.

  I’m thinking we may see some pitchers early; how about you guys? Granted those were later first picks than the Mets will have this year, but Terrasas seems hell-bent on picking out pitchers, preferably college ones, in the first few rounds. With that in mind, I figured as I am no draft expert, I’d just link to John Sickles Top 12 College Pitchers. I’m partial to Shooter Hunt, because that’s a great baseball name.

• It’s a good thing the Mets have so many early picks, because this farm system has fallen from mediocre to horrible following the Santana trade. I’m not and have never been against that deal; I think it’s a deal you have to make. But the fact of the matter is that the Mets have no trading chips left. This is the team. Xavier Nady is a pipe-dream at this point. The only minor leaguers of any interest to other teams are Fernando Martinez, who has looked far from a sure thing this year, even given the good lofty/age combo, and Jon Niese, who has the type of player profile (polished lefty) that often gets more mediocre the further up the ladder things go. If the Mets want to improve, they are going to have to do it with waiver moves and smart pickups on the cheap, something Minaya has never been good at. Most of the rest of our top 10 prospects after the Santana trade were just our recent high picks in 2007, and as Aaron Dorman points out, yikes!
• One thing I think most of the “Fire Willie” crowd is guilty of is coming up with an actual replacement for him. I don’t think Bobby Valentine is up for the job—from everything I’ve read he’s not interested in coming back across the Pacific and enjoys managing the Lotte Marines. Which isn’t to say that giving him a Scrooge McDuck vault couldn’t change his mind, but Valentine has never seemed to be about the money to me.

  Here are some guys who I think make sense for the Mets:

  • Larry Dierker: If he’d consider a return to managing, was someone who I thought had a good tactical sense. I’m not sure if he’d be willing to try again, and he did have a problem in Houston with calling out his players, but that’s small beans in comparison to Randolph’s many shortcomings.
  • Buck Showalter: Prior experience with the New York media and I’ve thought he was a decent tactician at times, or at least not too bad. He had playoff appearances with the Yankees and Diamondbacks, and while he didn’t achieve the same with the Rangers, he’s still the only manager to manage them to a winning record in this millennium.
  • Ken Oberkfell: Longtime Mets minor league manager. 2005 Baseball America manager of the year when he led the Norfolk Tides to the IL title. Paul Horan made these points long before I did, I’m just the messenger.

  The guy who I absolutely do not want anywhere near the Mets that I keep hearing: Larry Bowa.