MLBTR Chat Transcript

For what its worth, Church is hands down the Mets mvp thus far, literally not even close if its up to me. Wright might have the stronger numbers overall, but Church has been consistently between 300-330/.375-.400 all year. Wright came out of the gates smoking, but has been awful in May up until like 2 days ago. His defense has also been pretty bad, where Church has saved runs with his defense. Santana has been good, but he has been very very human in his first month and a half. Without a doubt Church is the Mets mvp on May 13.

I should rephrase what I said about Santana. His numbers are outstanding, but he hasnt been incredibly efficient as far as pitches thrown and innings pitched so far, and he has given up a lot of homeruns. Not to mention he barely ever uses his slider and guys are starting to sit and wait on his changeup. I know he is a late starter (for his standards), but we were talking about to this point. To me, right now Church has been hands down the best and most valuable player for the Mets.

No, I really do think that Church has contributed more to the Mets so far this season then any other Met. Call it the most valuable, most important, most outstanding, I still think Church has been outstanding in the field, and consistently solid with the stick, hitting for power and average while hitting every where from 2nd, 5th, 6th and 7th. This may just be by default, because the Mets offense has been anemic, but to me he has been our best offensive player, and our best defensive player. Right now when there are guys on 2nd and 3rd and 1 out, I want Church up to bat. I mean, Reyes has started off slow, Wright came out torrid but has looked lost lately, Alou has been hurt, Beltran struggled early, Delgado hasn't hit, Pedro has been hurt, Maine and Perez have been inconsistent, and Santana had been really good, but hasnt really dominated yet outside of the friday night game in Philly a couple of weeks back. It is sort of ironic, but to me the best 2 all around Mets so far have been Schneider and Church. It has been really nice to watch the way Perez seems to work with Schneider, he seems so much more relaxed and under control it seems like he is 2 different guys. I am not in anyway saying that Church is their best player, but up to this point, as a guy who has watched every game so far, Church has been the most consistent producer so far.

Yeah, it was cool. This is the first one I have been present for also, and the only part that bothered me a little bit was that I got here about 15 minutes after the chat started, and had a hard time catching up because the side bar would automatically scroll it all the way down to the bottom when a new question came in. Nice job though.

Tim, didn't get to ask this, but when do you think JP Ricciardi will be fired? 2 years left on a GM contract is nothing compared to player contracts. Even the Paul Godfrey (Jays pres) and ownership love him, with a bad finish (.500), 7 years without contention, and 100 million in payroll, they have to see he's not working, right?

And who do you think would replace him? Any of these:
Brian Cashman
Tony Lacava
Terry Ryan
John Schurholz
Bill Stoneman
Paul Depodesta

By the way Tim, you are looking at it as the glass is half full, er maybe that it's half empty, er, okay well here's the point... Church stood out to me statistically when I looked at the Mets and I'm sorry to say, Santana is one of the most overrated pitchers in baseball.

Church is considered to have one of the best outfield arms in the game, plays solid to spectacular defense, probably dependent upon what he ate for breakfast, and is by far the MVP of the team... I mean yes Johan is a good pitcher and I would love to have him in my rotation, but his stuff is not electric, just solid and he's become more average every season as more and more players figure him out!

I'd take Peavy, Haren, Bedard, Lackey, Beckett, Hernandez(Felix), Lincecum, Halladay, Oswalt, or Wang in my rotation over Santana. It's nothing personal against the man, but he's more like Super #2 than a #1.

Last year alone he had only 21 Quality Starts in 33 games and because he got tired of getting his teeth knocked in while playing AL ball we're supposed to dance and cheer because he is about equal to Bedard or Hernandez for Seattle should they be fortunate enough to face a pitcher every three innings or less.

There is a reason starting pitchers don't win MVP trophies because they only play in a 1/5 of the games if they're lucky! Also, if Santana was so damn valueable, the Marlins wouldn't be leading the NL East Pedro or No-Pedro. I agree Church is the best all around player on NY's team. For the record, I'd rather have Aaron Harang than Santana, atleast Harang earns his ERA playing in the cozy confines of GABP. Oh and I'd take Volquez, even if he wakes up, he's still 20-22MM or so cheaper for similar production!

Good call on Krivsky asm!