Four Guys from Opening Day

Besides injured players and guys in our minor league system, there are four Mets from the 25-man Opening Day roster who are no longer with the team.

I thought it would be fun to update them all:

• Ramon Castro
  
• Ryan Church
  
• Marlon Anderson
• Darren O'Day
  

Let's start with Ramon--Shrek--the Man Mountain. A lot of folks were aghast at this move, proclaiming that we were letting the wrong guy go, and that keeping Santos on the big league roster was a mistake.

The jury may still be out for some, but it's hard to argue with production.

Castro has been abysmal as a White Sox. Yes, he did catch a Perfect Game, but his hitting has gone south in Chi-town. His non-Met stats:

6 for 44, 2 HRs, 6 RBIs, .136 BA, .255 OBP, .273 Slg %

Omir Santos has been a solid player, albeit a limited one. He's never going to hit a ton, but he does pick his spots, especially in RBI situations. Santos has a .323 BA with RISP, and an OK .267 BA with 2 outs and RISP.

Ryan Church was a guy I hated to see go. That said, he really never fit in with this team. Had the team been healthy in 2009 I'm confident that Church would have put up a 15-20 HR, 80+ RBI season, with good peripherals.

Alas, it didn't happen, and the Mets sent him to the Braves for Jeff Francoeur.

Francoeur's been good with the Mets for the most part, and I'm part of the minority that wants to see him in rightfield next year. Though his OBP is still pitiful for a corner outfielder (.324), he is hitting a lot of linedrives and has 4 HRs and 19 RBIs in 25 games as a Met.

Church has battled elbow issues, but when he's been in there, he's produced nicely for the Braves, who are making a run at the Phillies. Church has 14 hits in 49 at-bats for the Braves with 2 HRs and 8 RBIs. He has drawn quite a few walks and has a .417 OBP and .449 Slg % for Atlanta.

Marlon Anderson has not played after being released by the Mets after only 4 games.

And that brings us to Darren O'Day. Who could have predicted the season he's having? Well, a few of us didn't want to see him go. The guy is 26 and has a lifetime 2.76 ERA in the minors....that wasn't an accident.

After appearing in 4 games for the Mets and surrendering zero runs, the Rangers picked him up and O'Day has not looked back.

He has appeared in 43 games for Texas and sports a sparkling 1.88 ERA with 36 Ks in 38.1 innings. Moreover he's holding righthanded hitters to a .170 batting average.

All in all not too bad. Church for Francoeur is a wash--letting Shrek go was the right thing to do, Marlon was gone before he started, and O'Day....well, good for him...he's a guy with a lot of talent that has made himself into a very valuable major league pitcher.