Insult to Injury, or: Mr. Walnuts Goes to Washington

Paul Lo Duca--a.k.a. Paulie Walnuts to discriminatory Mets fans--has signed with Washington of the National League, for a one year, five million dollar contract.

So, the bad blood between the Mets and the Nats has thickened. Just days after stealing a young, star-quality outfielder right out of Omar Minaya's "castle," Trader Jim Bowden turned around and replaced the overrated, aging catcher he sent to New York with another member of the 2007 Mets.

It's as if Bowden said to Minaya, "Look, that trade was awful for you guys, and I'm going to rub that in. I'm going to take your catcher from last year, just to emphasize how replaceable Schneider is--hell, Lo Duca is actually better than Schneider, and we foisted our offensive zero on you and got the better catcher in the deal, too, for just a cheap one-year commitment! You guys downgraded at two positions with one trade!"

Yeah. That's pretty much what Bowden said with this move. Look, I'll be the first guy to admit that Lo Duca isn't really any good, and I'm glad he won't be on the Mets next year. There's also the fact that he'll be 36 in April, which probably means he's done being a useful offensive player. But I say, Schneider never really got started, and Lo Duca has at least slugged over .340 the past two seasons, which Schneider can't say for himself. Lo Duca is flat-out a better hitter than Schneider, and I'll bet that fact plays out over the course of the 2008 season. Any Mets fan that thinks the team has gotten a substantial upgrade behind the plate is fooling him or herself.

As a Mets fan, I take this signing by Bowden to be a slap in the face. The man took our best young player for pennies on the dollar, and then signed away our catcher. It's a clear message to New York: we've got a new park, new players, a new image, and we're coming for you. This will all make for some very interesting games between the Mets and Nats next year--19 of them, according to the unbalanced schedule. Combined with the fact that the fighting Actas basically ripped the heart out of New York down the stretch last season, delivering several devastating blows that contributed to the second-worst collapse in baseball history, and you have the stirrings of a Grade A, nasty rivalry.

I love it.