Mets Acquire Conine

It’s official; the Mets dealt prospects Jose Castro and Sean Henry for Jeff Conine

My first reaction was “How in the world the Mets deal ten times more for Jeff Conine than they dealt for Luis Castillo?” The fact that they dealt two top 10 prospects, even in as barren a farm system as the Mets have, for a guy with a lower OPs. than Shawn Green was a bit of a surpirse to say the least. Nevertheless, I’m sure you’re far more interested in who the Mets gave up than my incredulous reaction.

Jose Castro: I was never a huge fan of Castro’s. The sum of his value was his batting average, and although nearly everyone said that about Jose Reyes up until 2006, keep in mind that Castro, who’s 20, is in the Florida State League as opposed to Reyes, who at the same age, was making his major league debut.

His .318/.350/.383 line was a pleasnt surprise following a meager .222/.276/.255 line at Hagerstown a year before, although it’s also terribly. Most of Castro’s hits came on infield singles (57% GB%) and consdering his low LD rate, (11%) and high BABIP, (.337) Castro got quite a bit of help from the luck gods.

He sustained a hamstring injury at the end of July, and it orignally sounded as though the Mets would keep him out the rest of the year given his age, but Castro recently came back, although cealry not at full strength. (.167/.286/.167) Really not too much of a loss here, and I’d have been perfectly fine had the Mets dealt him along for Conine.

Sean Henry:  Henry was pegged as Baseball Prospectus’s breakout canidate of the year, and he made Kevin Goldstein look pretty smart, posting a very solid .293/.353/.456 line at St. Lucie this year. Once he was moved to the leadoff spot in May and began to learn to take pitches, Henry caught fire at the end of the year, posting solid BB/K ratios in June, July, and August. There’s no doubt Henry has 25+ HR potential, as he smacked 11 home runs in the spacious parks of the FSL, and accumulated a .500+ SLG% in both June and August.

The knock is that he’s old for his level, (22) but you also have to take into account that A) was very raw when he was drafted, and still is and B) this is his first year as an outfielder after being drsfted as an outfielder.

 You could give Omar the benfit of the doubt considering he’s Omar, and he’s done pretty good when it comes to trading the right prospects. (Jacobs hasn’t don’t too much thus far, Yusmerio Petit, Gaby Hernandez) The only problem is they dealt him for Jeff Conine. He might slightly help out if they platoon him with Delgado, considering Conine has over an 100 point OPS. edge when it comes to hitting southpaws, but Willie isn’t exactly shrewd when it comes to splits. (Cough, Pedro Feliciano, cough) More likely, he’ll head to the bench to face left-handers, a role that could be filled by Fernando Tatis, or Chip Ambres, or Caleb Stewart.

I see little foresight in this deal.