The Butterfly Effect

What a bizarre set of circumstances.

Whilst the inner baseball world speculated whether or not the Mets would be willing to move either or both Aaron Heilman or Lastings Milledgein a blockbuster trade to secure postseason infamy for a name starter like Barry Zitoor Jason Schmidt to strengthen the postseason rotation, instead we mourn the loss of both Duaner Sanchez and Xavier Nady and perhaps the weakening of the Mets postseason aspirations.

Ironically, as a result of these losses, Milledge will be called up to the Mets to prove his mettle and perhaps it will be to the relief of many that he was never traded to begin with and perhaps it will be an injection like Milledge which helps spark the Mets at some point later on. That's the optimistic side of things.

Further irony is that the other piece of trade bait, Aaron Heilman just might be promoted one step further up the ladder to setup man.

Perhaps we should be saying with relief that no, Duaner Sanchez was not traded for former Met Roberto Hernandez, merely the second Met victim in two seasons of a taxi accident since Tom Glavine lost a few teeth. (Taxi conspiracy theories anyone?) He's not dead, having suffered a right shoulder injury which is scheduled to require surgery. And whilst Sanchez might not be back this season, he will be back the next. In the interim, he will be missed. In the interim, Omar had to fill the void and Xavier Nady became the bait.

Which is how Milledge went from trade rumour to promotion overnight.

In Nady's absence Milledge will get his chance once again to prove himself. Duaner Sanchez and Nady for Milledge and Hernandez hardly makes the heart beat faster, at least not for good reasons.

It's not ideal but it's no cause to get hysterical.

Hey, the Pirates even threw in left starter Oliver Perez, either a promising project for Rick Peterson, he says tongue-in-cheek, or another wank job with great stuff but erratic control. Something like oh, I dunno, dare I say it? Victor Zambrano. So let's just pretend it was Nady for Hernandez straight up.

But back to the issue of Hernandez necessarily replacing Sanchez.

You might point out that Hernandez has had a decent season for a losing team (much like he did for the Mets last season) but as we all know, having seen in person, he ent no Duaner Sanchez. In fact, over the last month Hernandez, almost as auld as egads, El Duque, appears to be losing steam. Alarmingly, he was 0-2 with a 5.14 ERA in July.

This is where Heilman might come in.

I can see it now, the minute Hernandez stutters a game or two, blows a lead or two or leaves Billy Wagner with an impossible situation, the cry will go up for Heilman.

So this can be either a disaster or a chance for heavy irony, depending on how you look at it, depending on how these players pan out. If Hernandez falters and Heilman is promoted to set up man, we might wriggle with delight as Heilman finally finds a definitive place in the bullpen at last. Or, Heilman, still bitter at not being a starter, will only make a bad situation worst.

The two biggest names the Mets dangled in trade rumours could either become integral pieces to a National League Championship or they could fail miserably, causing yet further speculation on what could have been; Zito or Schmidt carrying the Mets to the World Championship, Heilman or Milledge in that fateful cab instead of Duaner Sanchez.

Either way, what looked like a worry free close to the season has suddenly become alot more interesting.