Mets Hot Stove: Delgado Reaction and Opinion

Considering the holiday weekend that's looming, there has been a lot of interesting reaction to this trade. I'm going to try hard here to give a decent range of opinion and not just list the ones that are closest to mine.

I linked to Buster Olney's column in my earlier posting. I stated that I thought it offered some food for thought, although I thought it was unfair in that the Mets were getting $7 million back and if the Marlins were inclined to give away Delgado, it wouldn't be to the Mets.

Mike from The Metropolitans had a different take in Douchebag Extraordinaire and the follow-up Further Clarification.

Vinny from No Joy in Metsille in a post titled Enough Already has an answer to the whole God Bless America controversy. I started to write something myself about this today, bur read this and realized I couldn't say it any better. So many people have attacked Delgado over this, many of them not even bothering to find out what the whole thing is really about. I grew up in an era when people tried to force their own personal views on patriotism onto others. It's disturbing to see this type of thing come back. I say this as someone who would defend this country in a heartbeat if need be. There are some legitimate concerns here with Delgado; I wish we could just stick with them.

Speaking of legitimate concerns, Metstradamus brings up what is to me the biggest worry with Delgado.

Ryan from Always Amazin' finds nothing not to like about the deal. The Blog about the New Mets loves what Delgado brings to the lineup. Greg from Faith and Fear in Flushing has lots of questions. Shari from Take the "7" Train isn't happy that Jacobs was in the deal, while 7 Train's Kevin isn't happy at all. Finally, Matt Cerrone from MetsBlog has a long, favorable opinion piece towards the trade.

My Opinion
I will write something longer on this as time permits, but the short version is that I am taking a wait and see attitude towards this trade. My personal preference would have been to keep the 2 kids the Mets traded away, however, given the Mets' determination to upgrade the line up, this move made sense. I liked Jacobs and have advocated for him in this space, but the absolute pinnacle of his potential was somewhat less than Delgado is now. Petit was an intriguing prospect with some questions -- a potential right-handed Sid Fernandez -- but the Mets actually have some depth at pitching prospects in their thin minor league system. I can't in any conscience kill Omar for this deal.

What scares me a little is the question of how Delgado will react to coming here, given all the crap that happened last year. There is a good-sized segment of the fan base that will be looking for any reason to boo him. This is a deal that really has the potential to go bad.

The other part of my wait and see approach has to do with what Omar does next. I hear Alfonso Soriano might be next to come here. If this rumor is true, and especially if Lastings Milledge goes in the deal, I will undoubtedly have a strong negative opinion.

Happy Thanksgiving
I will be posting over the next 4 days, the regularity of these posts will, of course, depend on whether anything of any real consequence happens.