8/5/10

Cutnpaste: - Ramon Ortiz, Wildest Wild Card-Era Trade, Wilmer Flores, Eric Turgeon... and Mike Piazza

Ramon Ortiz:
link  - Ramon Ortiz, who made eight starts for Triple-A Buffalo after getting dumped by the Los Angeles Dodgers with a 6.30 ERA, has been granted his release by the Mets at his request. Ortiz had an oral agreement that he would be called up by Aug. 1, or at least on the verge of a promotion. The Mets asked him to make a few more starts in the minors and Ortiz declined. The 37-year-old right-hander had been dominant in his final four starts for the Bisons, limiting opponents to a combined three earned runs and 15 hits in 29 innings, good for a 0.93 ERA.

Wildest Wild Card-Era Trade:


link  - The wild card-era waiver trade that turned out to have the most star power was likely the August 26, 2003 trade that sent Pirates All-Star outfielder Brian Giles to the Padres in exchange for outfielder Jason Bay, who would win the NL Rookie of the Year award the next season, left-hander Oliver Perez and minor leaguer Corey Stewart.






Wilmer Flores:


8-3-10: - link  - A Adv. St. Lucie Mets - Position Player of the Month: Shortstop, Wilmer Flores - One of the Mets' top prospects at his level, Flores seems to adjust quickly to each level after every call-up. Moving up to St. Lucie has only seen Flores continue to post consistent hitting numbers. In 29 games in July, he hit a solid .279 with three home runs, 18 runs knocked, 34 hits, and 13 runs. A righty batter, he is also mashing against left-handed pitching, batting over .400 against southpaws. This kind of all-around game will assist him in rising the ranks very quickly in the Mets farm system.






Eric Turgeon:


8-3-10: link -mets-july-organizational-report-players-of-the-month - Pitcher of the Month: Right-handed pitcher, Erik Turgeon - On a team of struggling starters, relief pitchers have been given a chance to stick it out at St. Lucie. Turgeon is a young righty arm and is developing his stuff in a late inning role for the Mets. He converted on four save opportunities in July and posted a 2.87 ERA in 12 appearances while striking out 14 and walking only six. Turgeon throws pretty hard and will stand out even more if he can put up larger save totals.






Mike Piazza:


http://espn.go.com/blog/new-york/mets  - When I think of Piazza's time as a Met against the Braves, I think of three swings. Mike Piazza hit more home runs as a Met against the Braves than anyone. This one won the first game back in New York after the September 11th tragedy. The first was a rocket to right field against John Smoltz to tie Game 6 of the 1999 NLCS (we'll skip the ending and just remember this part). The second was a line drive bullet down the left field line, capping a comeback from an 8-1 eighth-inning deficit on June 30, 2000. The third was the home run off Steve Karsay, to win the first game back after the September 11 tragedy, a monstrous shot that rose and rose until it cleared well over the centerfield fence. Those three swings defined Piazza's Mets tenure against the Braves better than any numbers can. To borrow a few icons from other sports, Piazza rose to the occasion like Joe Namath, Walt Frazier, and Mark Messier when it came to big-game, big-time performance.

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