Cutnpaste: - Jose Reyes, Ed Kranepool, Juan Padilla, Daniel Murphy, and Jerry Koosman

michael g. baron

Jose Reyes:

Jose Reyes – It is no longer just a matter of health, when it comes to Reyes’ future with the team. Sandy Alderson has recently expressed concerns over long term contracts. So, if the Mets are in contention at the deadline, they certainly wouldn’t trade Jose and sacrifice the opportunity to win now. If the organization is adamant about not issuing long term contracts to risky investments, success this year may mean that the Mets will receive nothing in return for the player once considered the most exciting in baseball, should Reyes chose to walk as a free agent. - metsfever  



Ed Kranepool:

Ed Kranepool, a New York lifer, certainly wasn’t good. He was born and attended school in New York City, came up to the Polo Grounds as a teenager in 1962, played 18 seasons with the Mets, and still lives on Long Island. For the first half of his career, Kranepool was among the worst regulars in baseball. By Baseball-Reference’s count, he is one of just two players from the 1960s to have 3000 plate appearances and register negative wins above replacement. In his defense, Kranepool was incredibly young in the decade, being 24 when the Mets won the ’69 Series. That said — and my father loves to point this out — Kranepool did manage to lead the 1965 Mets in hitting with a .253 batting average. So it’s not like he had a lot of help from his teammates. He was a lovably bad player on several lovably bad teams. -

patrickfloodblog.  

Juan Padilla:

The Ponce Leones (5-2) destroyed the Carolina Gigantes (2-5) 7-1, banging out 16 hits. Alex Cintron contributed four hits, including a 2-run homerun in the sixth. Robinson Cancel also got four hits for the Leones. Juan Padilla pitched seven innings of shutout ball to pick up his second win in round robin. He has yet to give up a run in 16 innings of work - myworldofbaseball.  



Daniel Murphy:

He has been selfless and responsible for his own mistakes, never directing the blame to his constant changing of positions, or even the learning curve at his newest spot. He's a fiery, energetic player, and the type often found around winning teams. Terry Collins has stated that he considers Murphy one of the legitimate contenders for the starting job at second. Given his history of doing whatever is necessary to keep himself in the lineup, I fully expect him to come out strong and win the position outright - metsfever  



Jerry Koosman:

Could easily have the same win totals as a Bert Blyleven, or at the very least, Jack Morris. If he did, I suspect there would have been more debate about his Hall of Fame worthiness. It’s not easy to be a .500 pitcher (140-137) with a 3.08 ERA. That’s what Koosman did during his Mets tenure. The 108 complete games were also very impressive. Won two games against the Orioles in 1969. Without Koosman’s Game 2 performance that year we may never have a seen miracle. - nybaseballdigest