The Mets have traded Kaz Matsui to the Colorado Rockies. In return the Mets receive Eli Marrero, a jack of all trades, master of none kind of ballplayer. He's one of these guys that can play a whole lot of positions and considering some of these extra inning marathons the Mets have been involved in, he could come in handy since he has catching experience. According to Newsday, the Mets will pay most of Matsui's salary. This is an addition by subtraction trade.

Look, I always rooted for this guy to succeed and I really thought this year was going to be a big one for him. When he got injured in spring training I began to think that maybe this guy just will never succeed here. Then when Anderson Hernandez got hurt and Matsui took over in San Diego and hit that lead off inside the park home run, one might have thought that maybe he will succeed finally. His defense at second was solid this year. A natural shortstop in Japan, he was moved to second base after his first year when it was decided that Jose Reyes would be the every day shortstop. But last year he was injured a lot, never really contributing much. This year after a fast start he slumped again. He pulled off the ball constantly and stepped in the bucket way too much. Rarely did he come up big in meaningful situations, often striking out when the Mets had runners in scoring position.

Since Valentine has taken over at 2nd, the writing was on the wall as to Kaz's future in New York. The Mets weren't about to pay his huge salary to sit on the bench and occasionally pinch hit or run. But apparently the Mets will pay him to play for the Rockies. Never the less, another pre-Omar regime deal is gone.

I never understood this deal, the one that brought Mastui to the Mets. I know the scouts felt Kaz could have been an all star player in New York but the plan was for Jose Reyes to be the shortstop of the future. They moved Reyes to second when he had been a shortstop his entire professional career. Honestly I think the Matsui signing was an attempt to upstage other teams and especially the Yankees who had shown some interest in him. Considering all of the needs the Mets had three years ago, the one place they were set was at short with Reyes. So why then pay all that money on a position that was set if not to get some "hey we can sign big free agents from Japan too" publicity. It was a mistake, plain and simple. But now Kaz is gone and we can move on. The one thing that Matsui will be remembered for in years to come is a trivia question: who is the only Mets player to hit home runs in his first at bat in three consecutive seasons?

Notes: The seventh time is the charm. The Mets finally get to 13 games over .500. It was their seventh chance to reach their high water mark.

It's hard to believe in this day and age of modern day baseball that it took till June 8th for a Mets pitcher to pitch a complete game. And a good effort it was by El Duque giving up just 3 hits in nine complete innings of work. But thats's just one complete game coming in game 59 from an entire pitching staff. Do you realize that Tom Seaver, the all time greatest Mets pitcher, pitched 18, 14, 18, 19, and 21 complete games in his first 5 seasons in the Major Leagues. He ended his twenty-two year career with 231 complete games. You would be hard pressed to find a team total to match that over the same time period. Do you think that's just because Tom was a star pitcher? Well check this out. During the same time period, Don Cardwell, a journeymen pitcher, who played three plus seasons with the Mets as a fifth starter accrued 12 complete games. That's still a lot of complete games by today's standards. Pedro Martinez, who will go to the Hall himself one day, has pitched four complete game since coming to the Mets. The game has changed since I was a kid. Today, pitchers do not pitch complete games because it's all about pitch counts. Certainly you don't want to see pitchers blowing their arms out but on the other hand it seems ridiculous to pull out a starting pitcher after six or seven innings just because that's the way it's supposed to be. Ironically to save the starter's arms, the bullpen is what often gets burned out by the end of August. Ah, for the good old days.