Oscar-inspired rides for Yoenis Cespedes

Yoenis Cespedes has made a spectacular entrance at Met camp every day this week in vehicles ranging from a  three-wheel Polaris Slingshot to a Lamborghini Aventador. How can he continue to top himself? With the Academy Awards coming up this weekend, here are some possibilities from this year's nominated films.

Gigahorse from 'Mad Max: Fury Road'

Ideally with Chase Utley strapped to the front.

Rover from 'The Martian'

When Cespedes comes up with a runner on base, Met fans all over the world
will be rooting for the slugger to "bring him home."

Millennium Falcon from 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' 

If one franchise can return to glory days not seen since the 1980s...

 Bear from 'The Revenant'

If Cespedes can tame a grizzly bear, taking care of the Cubs should be no problem.


Train of Thought from 'Inside Out'

When Cespedes re-signed, Met fans' emotions switched from Sadness to Joy.

Mets finally stop pulling snow job with return of Cespedes

We've been hearing how close the Mets are to overcoming any financial concerns for years now. First it was getting rid of Carlos Beltran, Francisco Rodriguez and not re-signing Jose Reyes. A couple of years later, it was the expiring contracts of Johan Santana and Jason Bay. Finally, it was increasing revenue by getting to the postseason.  But while even the Kansas City Royals raised their payroll to $130M, the Mets were content with no major signings and a below-average payroll of 115M.

And then the Mets finally put their money where their mouths have been.

Without Yoenis Cespedes, the Mets would not have made the World Series last year. If you're not going to sign him, you need to find another way to make up the lost offense. Before yesterday, all the Mets had done was reshuffle their infield, and for the outfield, add Alejandro de Aza. 

In 2015, de Aza had seven HR and 35 RBI in 325 at bats while playing for three teams. Cespedes hit 17 HR with 44 RBI in 230 AB after joining the Mets. For the season, he hit 35 HR with 105 RBI and a .291 BA for the Mets and Tigers. That might have been a career year - or it might have been a star player from Cuba reaching his potential in his fourth season in MLB at age 29.  It's worth a three-year deal to find out which one it is.

Kudos to Sandy Alderson and the Mets front office for apparently getting Cespedes to leave a lot of money on the table. Kudos to Mets ownership for finally getting the payroll back towards where it was the last time the team was good. And kudos to local columnists and fans for putting on the pressure to get something done.

Now the Mets have gone from a team in danger of reverting to mediocrity - Fangraphs had just projected them to win 83 games in 2016 - back to a playoff contender. The revamped Cubs still look formidable, but at least the Nationals won't have Cespedes and Daniel Murphy flanking Bryce Harper in their lineup.

On the day of the biggest local blizzard in years, the Mets finally stopped trying to pull their financial snow job.

Mike Piazza and the days when the Mets reached for the stars

  

Mike Piazza reached the pinnacle of the baseball world this week when was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. On Friday, I had the opportunity to be there when Piazza stood at the pinnacle of New York, on the 86th-floor observation deck of the Empire State Building, talking about what makes the Big Apple so special to him.

Piazza found it "euphoric" to be "back here in New York as a Hall of Famer, the way people just honor you, hearing the 'way to go Mikeys' when you’re walking around. It’s a lot of fun."

He praised the "passion of the fans" in New York, noting that, "as a player, you can choose, it can really be a lot of pressure – some guys don’t respond well to it, or you can use it as a catalyst to get better, and for me it was the latter. I was blessed to do that."

Met fans were blessed that management traded for Piazza during the 1998 season, eventually jump-starting their offense. Then the Mets gave Piazza a big contract after the season even though they already had someone at his position (Todd Hundley). Within two seasons, the Piazza-led Mets were in the World Series.

In 2015, Sandy Alderson made a midseason trade for Yoenis Cespedes, eventually jump-starting their offense. At the end of the season, the Mets were in the World Series. But if Cespedes ends up in the Hall of Fame, it doesn't look as if he'll be wearing a Mets cap.

There may be valid reasons to avoid giving Yoenis Cespedes a long-term deal, but spare me the excuse that the Mets have no room in the corner outfield. Even if Curtis Granderson and Michael Conforto perform as hoped, (which is no sure thing given that Granderson turns 35 in March and Conforto has just a few weeks of MLB experience, during which he was primarily a platoon player) Granderson's contract has just two years to run, so the Mets will soon need to fill a void regardless.

I'm glad Alderson is doing better, but I don't want to hear him say that the Mets are spending again because their payroll has gone up $35 million since 2014 when their payroll dropped $50 million just two years before that.

What would the traditionalists say
about using a bat as a selfie stick?

This has been a special year for the Mets - a trip to the World Series and a trip to Cooperstown for a player who considers himself first and foremost a New York Met. Seeing Piazza in person and hearing him praise teammates John Franco and Al Leiter made me nostalgic for 2000, a year I generally try to forget because of how it ended.

I've been a lot more able to appreciate 2015, since the Mets' success was so unexpected and it didn't end with a loss to the Yankees. But it would be nice to experience another world championship at some point, and unless 2016 Mets management starts acting more like the 1998 version, it may be a long time before we see another title - or another Hall of Famer in a Mets cap.

Ben Zobrist, Michael Cuddyer and the phony big move

The Mets failed to get their top target, Ben Zobrist, and I'm almost relieved. Four years and $56 million seems a lot for a player who turns 35 next May whose days of double-digit homers and stolen bases are in the past. Getting Neil Walker for one year until Dilson Herrera is ready while shedding Jon Niese's salary is a better plan, since the Mets are now in better position to add the big bat they still need.

The big bat that nobody expects them to get.

I have to wonder if part of the Mets' interest in Zobrist was to attempt to refute the notion that they are unwilling to spend money to improve the team. Look, we signed a big free agent that lots of teams wanted! Zobrist is a good player, but he's more of a complementary piece than a game-changer. And $56 million is practically chump change in this free agent market - the top players available could end up getting four times as much.

Last year, the Mets raced to lock up free agent Michael Cuddyer. It looked like a dubious move at the time - Cuddyer was turning 36 and injuries had limited him to 49 games the previous year. After preaching prospects for several years, the Mets surrendered their top draft pick to sign Cuddyer.  But for $21 million, they could say they signed a free agent, even if his entire contract was less than a superstar makes in a year.

At best, Cuddyer could have been a starting point to a productive offseason, but the Mets' only other offseason signing was, wait for it, John Mayberry Jr.  I wish Sandy Alderson a speedy recovery and appreciate the fact that he delivered a pennant last year, but all of the praise he got for his midseason moves should not obscure the fact that the offense was in such bad shape last July because of the moves Alderson did not make the previous offseason.

So far, this offseason is going better than the last one. Adding Walker and Asdrubal Cabrera shores up the infield, while Niese was ticketed for the bullpen once Zack Wheeler returns. If the Mets re-sign Bartolo Colon, all that would be left to worry about would be another reliever and a big bat.

But until I see otherwise, it's hard not to wonder if this will be another wait-and-see-how-the-Mets are doing before opening the pursestrings at the trading deadline when you only have to pay for two months of the next Yoenis Cespedes and Tyler Clippard.

Cespedes has his issues, and I'm not saying he's worth any price. And the money being talked about for Jason Heyward is money you give a superstar, not a very good player who is not yet a superstar. But the Mets' offense was the worst in the league before they got Cespedes. Michael Conforto's first full season is unlikely to make up for the loss of Cespedes. A full year of David Wright at his peak would go a long way, but Wright is well past his peak and injury-prone. A full year of Travis d'Arnaud would be great, but d'Arnaud is very injury-prone as well. 

The Mets have been pushing 2016 season tickets since before last season ended. How would they feel if fans waited to spend money on the team until July 31 to see if they were in contention?

***

Update - just saw that the Cubs signed Heyward. So the Cubs have now added Zobrist, Heyward and John Lackey to a team that won 97 games last year and has young hitting talent to match the Mets' young pitching. It must be nice to root for a big-market team. 

Mets-Royals World Series Game 4: Now Mets have their own Murphy the Goat

The Cubs are supposedly cursed because of a goat named Murphy was not allowed to remain at Game 4 of the 1945 World Series. Now another goat named Murphy in another World Series Game 4 has helped to doom the 2015 Mets.

Murphy was not the only goat, though. There are a lot of different names for groups of goats, such as herd and flock, but I'm going with tribe, because last night, all we needed was for Jeff Probst to say that the tribe has spoken, because the Mets are not going to be the sole survivor this year.

But while Bill Buckner was far from the only goat in 1986, his error on a ground ball was the lasting image, and Murphy is probably doomed to the same fate.  The image of Tyler Clippard walking two batters is just not as compelling. And neither is Terry Collins not going to the mound to take out Clippard after the first walk. Or Collins not leaving Bartolo Colon in to become the bridge to Jeurys Familia. Or Familia waiting in the bullpen rather than coming in for a six-out save.

But there is a clip from after the game of Collins saying that using Familia for a meaningless inning Friday night in a 9-3 game affected his availability for a six-out save. This is unforgivable. On Friday, we were told that Familia thrived on regular work and it was good to get him back on the horse after he blew the save in Game 1. And now the story changes.

Just as bad is using Clippard in the eighth inning because that's his usual spot, and he was great at it in August. But Clippard has been terrible after that, with a regular-season 6.14 ERA with four homers in 14.2 innings in September and October. Now he's given up runs in three of his eight postseason appearances, and Collins still thinks of him as his primary setup man.

Familia earned his goat horns when he gave up the game-tying homer in Game 1 and now he has two blown saves in the World Series. But while he did give up two hits in the eighth to allow the winning and fifth runs to score, the bigger culprits in the disastrous eighth inning have to be Murphy, Clippard and Collins.

Our tribe of goats would not be complete without Yoenis Cespedes, who may need his own section on the lowlight reel. Cespedes failed to appear when he was introduced before his first World Series game, then promptly muffed a fly ball that resulted in an inside-the-park home run. Last night, Cespedes somehow kicked a fly ball across the outfield. (I heard a radio caller this morning say that Cespedes was a three-sport athlete - baseball, soccer and golf.) Then Cespedes capped off last night's debacle by being doubled off first after he thought Lucas Duda's liner would hit the grass.

Cespedes, Murphy and Clippard are all going to be free agents. At different times, it looked as if all three should be re-signed. Now it's goodbye, Clippard and most likely goodbye Cespedes, whose head does not always appear to be in the game.  Granted, he is injured, though the circumstances of that injury are murky. But it just seems hard to commit long-term to him, especially at a huge salary.

We're still getting to know Cespedes, for better and worse, but we've known Murphy since 2008. You're not signing him for his fielding. But he's a good hitter, even if that home run streak was not typical, and if and when the Mets let Cespedes go, if they don't bring Murphy back they will need to find another second baseman who can hit. Howie Kendrick and, yes, Ben Zobrist are also free agents.

This has still been a great run and a great year. But it's a shame that the World Series has turned on errors by Murphy last night and David Wright in Game 1. The two Mets with the longest tenures. The two Mets whose numbers are worn by the most fans (according to my unscientific observations).  It's not over till it's over, but it's getting late early out there. Let's go Mets. 

Mets-Royals World Series Game 1: Extra painful

There's not much worse than having your dominant closer give up the lead in the ninth inning of a World Series game. Unless he went in facing the 7-8-9 hitters. And the number 8 hitter smacked a 428-foot home run. And now that the game looked lost - a deflating homer, the game now to be decided by the middle relievers, a big disadvantage for the Mets - the teams continued to battle for five more innings before the Mets lost with the help of an error by the captain who had waited so long to get to the World Series.

This is a bad loss and potentially a fatal one. But let's not call David Wright and Jeurys Familia goats just yet. Wright has made several great plays in the field this postseason, including a leaping catch in yesterday's fourth inning. Familia's blown save was that much more disappointing because he's been so dominant in this postseason. Compare that to Armando Benitez, who blew the save in the last World Series Game 1 the Mets were in before yesterday. That postseason, Benitez had two saves and two blown saves. For his Mets career, he had three blown saves in six postseason chances. That's why he's remembered as a regular-season star who couldn't get it down in the postseason. Familia is now 5 of 6 in postseason save chances with an 0.82 ERA.

The Mets really seemed destined to win the game when Eric Hosmer, winner of the last two American League Gold Gloves at first base, allowed the go-ahead run to score when a ground ball got by him on a play that naturally brought up memories of Bill Buckner in the 1986 World Series. If the Mets had gone on to win, the Royals would have been lamenting a loss due to one of their main strengths - defense - faltering at a critical moment. But one of the Mets' main strengths, Familia, returned the favor an inning later.

Along with Buckner in 1986 and Benitez in 2000, the game also brought back memories of the 1969 World Series, when Tom Seaver gave up a home run to the first batter he faced, Don Buford, in Game 1. And my friend Roger suggests that five-tool centerfielder Yoenis Cespedes' mishandling of the ball that Alcides Escobar hit that went for an inside-the-park homer was reminiscent of the 1973 World Series, when the ultimate five-tool centerfielder, Willie Mays, was struggling in the outfield at the end of his career.

Just before Cespedes and Michael Conforto mishandled Escobar's fly ball, Cespedes was a no-show for the pregame introductions. That may mean nothing and may be a coincidence. Perhaps he had an upset stomach and did not feel like sharing the details. But this is the player who suddenly came down with an injury in Game 4 of the NLCS and he's already gotten the benefit of the doubt that it had anything to do with him playing golf that day. And then he shows up on the bench in the ninth inning of Game 4 wearing a championship shirt and goggles. Even Ron Darling in the TBS broadcast booth began muttering about the baseball gods. Maybe the baseball gods were hovering over centerfield last night.

The Royals lived up to their billing as a team that keeps coming back. Matt Harvey has gotten a lot of criticism for reduced velocity and not throwing enough fastballs last night, but he had allowed just one run going into the sixth inning, and that run was the tainted inside-the-park homer. But the Royals rallied for two runs to tie the game in the sixth, and Harvey was done after 80 pitches.

The Mets lost the first two games in 1986, and did so at home, so tonight is not necessarily a must-win. But it's pretty close.

NLDS Mets-Dodgers Game 3 wrapup: The Grandy Man Can

Amazin' Amazin' Amazin'! Ya Gotta Believe! Utley Sucks! Some inspirational slogans are more family-friendly than others, but the dirty Dodger unwittingly inspired the Mets and their fans in a pivotal Game 3 win over L.A. Not to mention Ruben Tejada doing his version of a Willis Reed entrance by hobbling onto the field with his leg cast and Met-themed cane.

The pitching-centered Mets scored 13 runs, a franchise record for a postseason game. Yoenis Cespedes and Travis d'Arnaud, both slumping at the end of the regular season, both homered.  Both players also had three hits, three RBI and three runs scored, which had never been done by any Met in postseason play.

Curtis Granderson tied a Mets postseason record with 5 RBI, all off lefthanded pitchers. Granderson turned the game around with a three-run double off Brett Anderson in the second to put the Mets ahead, 4-3. In the seventh, he hit a two-run double off J.P. Howell for the Mets' final two runs.

Matt Harvey pitched well enough to win, but was not at his best. Still, it's hard to complain about anything after such a great game.

In Game 4, Clayton Kershaw vs. Steven Matz looks like a mismatch, but Kershaw is on three days rest and may not go more than six innings, so if the Mets can keep it close, their awakened bats can finish off the Dodgers once they have to go their bullpen. If not, Zack Greinke vs. Jacob deGrom in a deciding Game 5 now looks like a more even matchup than it did before the series.

But if the Mets do have to go back to L.A., we won't get to see fan signs such as "Utley ♥ ISIS." So let's put it in the books tonight!

Postseason finally here for Mets

It's been nine long years, but the Mets are finally back in the playoffs. I didn't expect it this season, but I also didn't expect how great the young starters would be, especially after Zack Wheeler went down for the year. But Jacob deGrom showed he was not a fluke, Matt Harvey did better than expected in his first season back from Tommy John surgery and Noah Syndergaard fanned 166 in 150 innings. The Mets have the pitching to take them to the World Series. Unfortunately, so do the Dodgers.

Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke can be beaten - the Mets won two of the four games this season in which they faced them. The final scores were 3-2 and 2-1 and the opposing pitchers were deGrom and Syndergaard, just like they will be in Games 1 and 2 of the NLDS (during the season, deGrom faced Greinke and Syndergaard faced Kershaw). All four starters pitched well and none figured in the decisions.

Kershaw has also lost his last four postseason starts with an ERA over 7.  It would seem that he's too great a pitcher not to regain his form, but David Price was expected to reverse his latest postseason struggles yesterday against Texas and instead fell to 0-6 in the postseason.

It's been such a magical season for the Mets that even a late season no-hitter against them by Max Scherzer brought up memories of Bob Moose's late-season no-hitter against the Mets in 1969, just before they went on their postseason run to the world championship. The 1969 team had two star pitchers, Tom Seaver and Jerry Koosman, and a promising rookie, Gary Gentry.  The 2015 Mets have deGrom, Harvey and Syndergaard. Both of these teams also could boast yet another promising young pitcher outside the top three. Granted, Steven Matz is not likely to be another Nolan Ryan, and the other starters have a way to go before we start comparing them to Seaver, but the current staff has the potential for a magical run.

What worries me is whether the same can be said for the hitters. After getting hit by a pitch on September 14, Yoenis Cespedes had no homers and two RBI in his last 16 games while his batting average dropped 22 points. When Cespedes is quiet, the Mets' rejuvenated offense is not so rejuvenated.

I hope I'm wrong, but I think Kershaw and Greinke will be too much for the Mets, so Dodgers in four. Squawker Lisa is also predicting the series will end in four.

No, my mistake, she's just yelling "Fore!" on the golf course.

Speaking of the Yankees, their late-season hitting woes ended up giving them little chance against Dallas Keuchel, which is exactly the scenario that worries me against Kershaw and Greinke. But if the Mets can manage a split in L.A. and Harvey shows in Game 3 that he's worth the aggravation, the Mets can keep the magic going. Let's go Mets!

Subway Series Game 2 and Game 3 Preview: Babying Matt Harvey

Sunday night will be the latest regular-season Mets-Yankee matchup ever, but Matt Harvey will be treated as if it's spring training. Various reports having him getting pulled after 70 pitches or six innings. Or perhaps he will be pulled if he and Scott Boras get colicky again.

Boras will doubtless want to monitor Harvey closely tonight, and it just so happens that Amazon's Deal of the Day is the iBaby Monitor M6 HD Wi-Fi Wireless Digital Baby Camera.

At $139.95 down from $199.95, the Mets could even spring for the device as a peace offering toward Harvey's helicopter agent. After all, the promotional copy promises: "no more endless phone calls from the office to check on your little bundle of joy."

As for Game 2, not much good to say about the 5-0 Met loss. Yoenis Cespedes is 0 for his last 17, but his overall Met numbers remain sensational. What's more concerning, however, is that the Mets have been shut out twice and have scored only eight runs total in their last four games while Cespedes has gone cold.

The Mets now have enough good hitters that others should be able to pick up the slack when Cespedes inevitably cools off.  Lucas Duda hit nine homers in eight games in late July and early August, then failed to hit another one until Friday night. Yet it was when Duda stopped producing that the Mets' offense took off.  Can the Mets now similarly thrive without Cespedes' daily heroics, or is it that, as Cespedes goes, so goes the team? If it's the latter, Cespedes' free-agent price just got higher.

If Harvey does well tonight against the Yankees and shows he is in good form for the postseason, much will be forgiven.  It shouldn't be too much to ask, considering that he is going on ten days rest. As Squawker Lisa would say, sounds like my blogging schedule!

Cespedes! Cespedes! Cespedes!

When Yoenis Cespedes won the Home Run Derby at Citi Field in 2013, the player he defeated in the final round was Bryce Harper. Harper technically won yesterday's home run battle, 2-1, but Cespedes and the Mets won the game and the sweep over Washington. Now the Nationals look done, and deadline pickup Cespedes is being talked about as an MVP candidate over Harper.

Cespedes hit 32 homers in his Derby win, and yesterday's game-winner off of hapless Washington reliever Drew Storen was his 32nd homer of 2015.  He's hit 14 as a Met, along with 36 RBI and 33 runs in just 36 games.

So far, Cespedes has been far more valuable to the Mets on the road than at home. At Citi Field, he is hitting .241 with four homers and six RBI in 15 games.  But check out his road numbers: .354 BA, 10 homers and 30 RBI in 21 games.  So there's a bright side in the Mets probably not having home-field advantage in the playoffs.

I originally wrote the previous sentence as "if and when the Mets make the playoffs," but Squawker Lisa has complained about my newfound cockiness, so I removed the "if."  Deal with it, Lisa, the Mets are going to be playing in a real playoff series, while the Yankees look like they will be in a one-game elimination against Cole Hamels and the Texas Rangers. But at least Stephen Drew has gotten his average over the Mendoza line.

But forget about the Yankees, at least until the Subway Series in a week. Forget about the Matt Harvey circus. All that matters is Cespedes, Cespedes, Cespedes!

Miracle Mets turn Nationals into Walking Dead

On July 30, the Mets were ahead, 7-1, in the seventh inning, but went on to blow the game. The next day, they acquired Yoenis Cespedes. Last night, they trailed, 7-1, in the seventh inning, and went on to beat the Nationals and seriously damage Washington's chances of catching the Mets. Ya gotta believe!

My friend David and I were admittedly not believing when we left the bar where we were watching the game after the Nationals went up by six runs.Matt Harvey had gone from being the Dark Knight to giving his disgruntled fans a dark night. As I walked home, I pondered over which trade destination would be most unpleasant for him. Texas? Milwaukee? What about Colorado? Perhaps a Met ace from an earlier time could fill him in on the school system. But at least Mike Hampton helped the Mets get to a World Series. Of course, to do that, you need to pitch in October. Not that I'm bitter.

By the time I got home, the Mets were starting to rally, but it was still only 7-2. The bases were loaded, but there were two outs. Then Curtis Granderson walked to force in a run, and it was 7-3.

And Cespedes was coming up with the bases loaded.

Never mind that Cespedes' error in the previous inning turned a single into a Little League grand slam. Never mind that he is a lot closer than Harvey is to likely be leaving the Mets for a huge free-agent deal elsewhere.  Right now, he's a Met, and his OPS since joining the team is 1.014.  Sure enough, a bases-clearing double. Now the Mets are within 7-6, and now the Mets are going to win.

Yes it's nice that the Nationals bullpen turned into the Walking Dead, walking three more batters to force in the tying run, giving them six walks for the inning. But what makes this a magical year is that the game-winning homer was hit by a guy who wasn't even supposed to be on the team, just like Wilmer Flores. Kirk Nieuwenhuis was DFA'd, joined the Angels, released, rejoined the Mets, and hit the game-winning homer off of Jonathan Papelbon, acquired by the then first-place Nationals at the trade deadline to help them get to the World Series. Instead, with their postseason in jeopardy, the desperate Nats used Papelbon in the eighth inning, and he blew the game.

Met fans know all too well that a six-game lead is not necessarily safe, but this Mets team is special and the Nationals are a mess. Ya gotta believe!

Yoenis Cespedes over Carlos Gomez looks even better now

No wonder the autographed photos of Wilmer Flores crying have sold out.  If that trade had gone through, and Met fans had realized what they would have missed out on, we would all have been crying.

After last night's three-homer game, Yoenis Cespedes now has five homers, 15 RBI, 13 runs and a .316 batting average in 79 at bats as a Met.

Since going to the Astros after his trade to the Mets fell through, Carlos Gomez is hitting .192 with one homer, 4 RBI and 6 runs in 73 at bats

After remaining with the Mets instead of getting traded, Flores has actually outhit Gomez in August, batting .294 with one homer, 5 RBI and 8 runs in 51 at bats, and that does not include his walkoff homer in July in his first game after the trade that wasn't. (Autographed photos of the walkoff are also being sold.)

With Cespedes, the Mets have opened up a five-game lead over Washington, though the collapsing Nationals have to get some credit for that.

Even with Gomez' struggles, the Astros have to be happy about the trade as of today, since throw-in Mike Fiers pitched a no-hitter last night against the Dodgers.

No airing of grievances for Cespedes!

The Mets' trade for Yoenis Cespedes truly is a holiday for the rest of us! He's exactly what the Mets' lineup needs - a righthanded power hitter. And the Mets didn't panic and give up too much after the Carlos Gomez trade fell apart. Good work, Sandy Alderson!

When I first heard that the Mets got Cespedes, I didn't find out right away what they had to give up. If it had been Zack Wheeler for a two-month rental, I would have been the one crying in the middle of the Met game. Detroit's Dave Dombrowski is a shrewd GM (as Squawker Lisa knows from how many times he has fleeced Brian Cashman), and I knew he wouldn't let Cespedes go for the proverbial bag of balls.

Michael Fulmer was a big-time prospect a couple of years ago, but he fell off the radar due to injuries. This year, he is healthy and has become a good prospect again. The Mets.com pipeline watch lists Fulmer as the no. 7 prospect and Luis Cessa, the other prospect going to Detroit, as no. 16.

By contract, the Tigers received Toronto's top prospect, Daniel Norris, and their #11 and #19 prospects for two months of David Price.  Price is a star pitcher who is worth more than the streaky Cespedes, but with top hitters at a premium, Alderson was able to land Cespedes at what looks like a reasonable cost.

Alderson was willing to take on salary. He was willing to go against his usual plan and take on a player who rarely walks. And he didn't worry about what will happen to his big acquisition from last winter, Michael Cuddyer, when (if?) Cuddyer is healthy again.

And now we can look forward to Cespedes performing his feats of strength for a Mets team that suddenly has a lot more credibility in their bid to get to the postseason for the first time in nine years. Happy Cespedes, everyone!