The Good Ship Sheff

I'm taking a different view than most on Gary Sheffield. Bottom line is the Mets should have let Gary go when he was claimed.

Look, the team is going nowhere, Sheff will not be part of any 2010 solution, and it would have been better for the game to let him go to a team that is in a pennant race--in this case, the Giants.

They should have done it because it was the right thing to do.

I was discussing this last night with Joe McDonald of NY Sports Day. Joe thought I was a bit naive and said, "it's not how it works anymore."

It goes back to July and the question everyone had, "Will the Mets be buyers or sellers?"

They chose to be neither--no moves of note.

How nice would it have been to pass off Livan and Sheff in July for a couple of prospects to help re-populate the farm system?

So the trickle down effect comes into play--two older vets, both with some success early on, both with a little value to teams in the hunt--and the Mets front office doesn't take advantage of it.

So instead we get a few more crappy starts from Livan followed by his release, and a waiver and pull back situation followed by a contract demand and a threat to leave from Sheff--nothing to show for either man's early season success and value.

In other words: the Mets lost twice.