Mets Make Trade - El Duque To Return To NY

I was all set to write a post about tonight's starter - Cuban defector Alay Soler making his major league debut, and I planned to include anecdotes about past Cubans in New York, notably Rey Ordonez and Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez. Whenever El Duque would struggle for the Yankees, I would taunt my friends who were Yankees fans that it was because he was still distraught over the Elian Gonzalez fiasco. Now we had our own Cuban pitcher, and I was all set to receive a call from my buddy Willlater tonight if Soler struggled. "Elian! Elian!"

But now El Duque is a Met - The Mets traded Jorge Julio to Arizona for El Duque himself! Ed Coleman just announced it on Mike and the Mad Dog - Francessa and Russo acted as though this was an absolute steal by Minaya. "Why would Arizona make this deal?" wondered Russo. Apparently just because he used to pitch for the Yankees, this a tremendous acquisition. Of course it's really no surprise that the duo have no concept of what's going on outside of New York. As Matt Cerrone points out, Hernandez is 2–4 this season with a 6.11 ERA. He's allowed six runs or more in four of his nine starts.

As a Mets fan we can't really hate this deal. The Mets were desperate for a starter, Julio stinks, and if you told me at the end of the World Series last year that the Mets would trade Kris Benson for El Duque, I would think it was a pretty good deal.

Although now the Mets have two starters to cry over Elian...