Raul_Ibañez_-_LF

I think he should/will be in the Mets plans for 2009. Although he
will be 37, he has been a consistent player and seems like has some
good reports about the way he plays everyday (a gamer). He was born in
NY, so he may be willing to finish his career playing at Citi Fields.
I know about the age, but stat-wise he has some numbers that will
improve the Mets offense. He definitely seems like a guy who prefers
to get a hit with runners on than look for the 5-run HR Mets players
are looking for.

Some interesting stats that we should look at:

Clutch Hitting (0: Avg Obp Slg Hr Rbi Ab
Bases Loaded .400 .438 .800 2 19 15
Scoring Position .327 .397 .480 5 82 171
Scor. Pos, 2 outs .324 .407 .479 3 30 71
Close and late .284 .381 .431 3 15 102
Man 3rd, <2 outs .444 .468 .694 1 36 36

His Home/Away record seems pretty balance in spite playing 82 games at
Safeco Field:

Avg Obp Slg Hr Rbi Ab
Home .276 .353 .497 14 67 308
Away .309 .362 .462 9 43 327

Again, he has been a consistent hitter over the past few years:

Avg Obp Slg Hr Rbi G
2005 .280 .355 .436 20 89 162
2006 .289 .353 .516 33 123 159
2007 .291 .351 .480 21 105 149
2008 .293 .358 .479 23 110 162

I know he will add another lefty to the lineup (Church, Delgado,
Ibañez, Murphy, Schneider), but I think this will be 1 of many moves.
The Mets need to rebuild an entire bullpen (including finding a
closer), find two starters, LF and 2B. Although they could get by with
current catchers, I think Minaya may want to find the catcher of the
future too. Don't be surprise if Church and Delgado are both gone
during the Winter. I expect Minaya to be active.

So FA has some good players, but will be really expensive and I don't
think they will deplete the minors. So his best option is to trade 1
or 2 of his starts to fill so many positions. Reyes and Wright are
going nowhere as they are the cornerstone of Franchise. Beltran was
once again the Best CFer in the league and prove how valueable CF
defense is. I think the guy that will be traded is Delgado, because
the way he turned it around. Although he will be in the last year of
his contract, teams could actually see him as a player who can help
them get to the playoffs (Cleveland, Minesota, Anaheim...if they lose
Texeira) or help young players (Oakland) while receiving the draft
picks at the end of the contract.

LGM 2009!!

On Oct 5, 9:20 pm, Bill <billru... DeleteThis @prodigy.net> wrote:
> Met-in-PR wrote:
>
> > I think he should/will  be in the Mets plans for 2009. Although he
> > will be 37, he has been a consistent player and seems like has some
> > good reports about the way he plays everyday (a gamer).
>
> Haven't we had enough players who are close to 40 (or more)?
>
> Bill

Not if they are still productive.