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Chad from Louisiana writes:
Hi, Ted. Due to being a huge Mets fan living near New Orleans, I have been able to go to many of the Triple-A games this season. I love [Julio] Franco, but he's just not getting the job done. This guy [Andy] Tracy from New Orleans can flat out hit. He's got 15 home runs in a park that's impossible to hit home runs in and plays first base and bats lefty. He's made for a bench job. Power, lefty, I just don't get why he's not with the big club

The second guy is Jake Gautreau, who's new to the team. He's a third baseman, but they have him at second base and he can also flat out hit. In a game I saw last week, the guy went 1-for-4, but killed the ball 4 times. He went 6 for 7 with 8 RBI's on Saturday.

A Mets fan from Louisiana! Thanks for reading, Chad, and thanks for the tips. Looking at some stats, you're right about Tracy: he should probably be with a big-league club and would be a good fit for the Mets. He's 33, so he's far from a prospect, but with a .399 OBP and a .944 OPS in Triple-A, he'd be a useful power bat off the bench. Going back over his career Minor League numbers, it seems like he's the type of guy that never really got a fair shake in the Majors. He's had some monster years in Triple-A (including a 33 homer, 120 RBI effort in hitter-friendly Colorado Springs in 2004) and was serviceable -- if unspectacular -- in his only prolonged tenure with a big-league club in Montreal in 2000 (11 homers and an .823 OPS in 192 at-bats). Because he can play both third and first, he'd probably be a better option than Franco to pinch hit and spell Carlos Delgado and David Wright, though he's unlikely to earn that role, barring injury to Franco.

I'm less excited about Gautreau, despite his impressive numbers this season. While the Tulane product has hit .349 and slugged .651 in his first 63 at-bats in front of the familiar New Orleans crowd, he's yet to walk, which is worrisome. Beyond that, he's never been close to this effective in his previous Minor League campaigns. He's a nice organizational guy to have hitting homers and playing the infield in New Orleans and he could fill-in admirably for Damion Easley in a backup role, but with Ruben Gotay still playing well, it's probably not going to happen.

While we're talking Zephyrs, I'll mention that I've very intrigued by a fellow named Chip Ambres. A former first-round pick of the Marlins, the outfielder has put up similar numbers to Tracy this season. He's 27, so though he's unlikely to get much better, he should have several productive seasons in front of him and he's always been between good and excellent in the Minors -- with the notable exception of his 2006 season. He spent some time with the Royals in 2005 and didn't exactly set the world on fire, but he seems like a much better option than Ben Johnson to man the Shea outfield if anyone else goes down before Lastings Milledge gets healthy.

Ron from Connecticut writes:
Ted, why don't you like Julio Franco? Sure he might be aging, but he can still hit and play first and third, plus he's such an important veteran leader on the team.

Don't misunderstand me, Ron: I like Julio Franco very much. He seems like a really great guy and he's had a very successful Major League career. At this point, though, with the Mets worn thin by injuries, he doesn't seem like the best guy to be filling up a roster spot. He hasn't gotten a ton of at-bats this season, so maybe his numbers will improve with sample size, but I'm not convinced. Even the ageless eventually must age, and Franco is finally showing the signs that he's too old for professional competition.

That said, I see Franco's push of Carlos Beltran out onto the field for a curtain call at Shea early last season as the turning point of the center fielder's career with the Mets, so for that alone I'll forever be grateful to Franco. I hope the Mets keep him on in some capacity next season when his contract expires, just not as a player. Unless he starts producing, his continued attempt to play until he's 50 will start looking like hapless posturing real soon.

Don from Long Island writes:
Always remember, it doesn't matter a bit if you think of your glass of lemonade as half-empty or half-full when you ordered root beer.

Wow, thanks, Zen master. Is this the type of wisdom they teach you in art school? I'm not sure I even understand your point: I ordered the Mets. They're half-empty. I didn't order any root beer, Cheech.

(Just kidding, Dad.)

Ben from Manhattan writes:
If the injuries and problems keep up in the outfield, can you see Omar Minaya making any trades to get it fixed?

Hey, Ben. Omar has said that he won't look outside the organization to fix the problem, but his tune could certainly change if it looks like Moises Alou and Endy Chavez will be out for much longer. Carlos Gomez is clearly not ready to play everyday for a playoff team, and Ben Johnson didn't look ready for the Majors at all in his time with the big club. As I mentioned above, though, Ambres might be a decent option. And, since Minaya said last Thursday that Milledge would be running by now (though I've gotten no word that he has been), help is on the horizon.

Considering the Mets organizational wealth of outfield prospects -- unripe though they may be -- I don't think the team would be eager to import another contract for an aging outfielder that could further delay the development of Milledge, Gomez and Fernando Martinez. Though I'd be surprised if Milledge and Gomez are starting in the same outfield at the beginning of the 2008 season, picking up player in the middle of the long-term deal would show the world that at least one of the two prospects is not in the team's future plans and so would diminish his value on the trade market.

That's all the time we have for today. Send me an email at Ted.Berg@mlb.com if you'd like to hear my thoughts on these or any other matters in a future mailbag post.