It looks like Alderson received a great haul for Dickey.
Alderson has used his two biggest trading chips (Dickey and Beltran) and turned them into two top pitching prospects and the best catcher in the minors. We need to keep out fingers crossed since they are still prospects, but the future looks bright. The organization has a lot of very good pitching depth, and now a potential middle of the order hitter in d'Arnaud.. Still need more bats, especially in the OF, which is comically bad. but things are looking bright.
Imagine the players Alderson would have received if those dopes, the Wilpons allowed him to trade Reyes.
By the way, I think this is agood trade for Toronto as well. Dickey will round out a very good rotation there. Also, it isn't every year the AL East is as wide open as it appears to be next year, so they must go for it. I wish Dickey luck.
How is this a good deal for Toronto? I can't see that it is from any angle. Thole is terrible, and Nickeas is even worse...so the centerpiece of the deal is Dickey obviously. This is a 38 year old who had an ERA of 4's, 5's and even 6's before becoming a Met. He is due to either get hurt, or vastly underperform...it's a textbook let down coming up for Toronto. Now he changes leagues and will have to face the O's, Yanks, Rangers, Angels, etc. and will likely get lit up. I will be shocked if his ERA even stays in the 3's for Toronto...this was a journeyman pitcher for almost 10 years and he magically figured it out a few years ago. These kinds of things usually don't last. If he was 23 I would think the trade is much more fair for Toronto.
I'm a long time suffering Mets fan. After Villanova's OT defeat of STJ, after another Mets dismal season, after the Jets seaosn was demolished in one minute vs New england and never recovered, my son asked, "Dad, why do all the teams we root for do so badly?"
I am bi-polar about this trade. I go back a long way with the Mets. Amos Otis for Joe Foy, Nolan Ryan for Jim Fregosi was youth for veterans - we know how those turned out. Seaver for a bunch of young Reds players, none turned out to be more than just serviceable - Zachary, Norman, Henderson, and a second baseman whose name escapes me.
You cannot devalue Dickey as a journeyman. He has developed a pitch that has never been thrown before with such velocity. Knuckleballers fluttered in the 60s and 70s (mph). Dickey throws his in the 80s, adn with more precision than his predecessors, who often have no idea where it's going. With today's conditioning, he may have as many as 7-10 more years in his arm, and based on the past three seasons could perform at the highest level. I do think however that a knuckleballer is best suited for an outdoor stadium, where factors such as the wind and humidity affect the break of the pitch.
Prospects in baseball are the hardest to assess. Piazza was a 26th round draft choice. Many players weree drafted at one position and get to the bigs as another. Success at any level doesn't guarantee success at the next. There are many can't miss prospects who miss - actually most do.
Alderson is playing the best hand he can play. The Wilpons can't afford to run a top notch big city franchise. It's ridiculous that the Mets are the only big league team not to sign a major league free agent this off season. I was all set to buy a great holiday 4 pack deal, but also saw what their starting outfield figures to be, and it looks like shades of 2009 when as Stengel said, you can't tell the players without a scorecard.
I think he did the best he could do in return for Dickey. My guess is Thole handles Dickey well, an important aspect for a knuckleballer. If the prospects turn into all stars, its a great trade. If the simply become average players or busts while Dickey performs at the level fo the past three seasons, well, "Meet the Mets, meet the meets, step right up and.."
