Starting to get the value of Schneider

I have to admit when I hear someone say he's a defensive catcher or handles a pitching staff well I really never understood what that meant. The Mets have a long history of consistency behind home plate, in fact it's been our best position over the life of the team. Coming into this season in 31 yrs of the teams 46 yr existence the Mets have had six starting catchers, all six of those catchers appeared in All-star games as a Met and one is a Hall of Famer; Grote, Streans, Hundley, Piazza, Carter and Lo Duca. All except one hit for .250 or better and Todd Hundley who was a lifetime .230 hitter was a major home run threat for a few years. The Mets have a history of good hitting catchers and while I remember getting sick of watching the league run on Piazza I never really appreciated much more then their average.....

So I really didn't understand why the team was going to move it's biggest chip for a weak hitting catcher and a platooning outfielder. It's not that I thought Milledge was that good, in fact I thought he was more valuable as trade bait then as a player but I was shocked when Omar didn't get a single pitcher in return. While Church has clearly shown why Omar wanted him and is easily the MVP of the first quarter of the season, it hasn't been as easy for me to see the extra value of Schneider. The whole good defender, calls a great game mantra to me meant he was an Omar guy that he wanted. I'm not a scout I couldn't see a difference in game calling from Lo Duca to Schneider, but I did start to notice especially after he returned from the injury that pitchers seemed to do better with Schneider behind the plate and they seemed to have more confidence by throwing a more aggressive game. But even as recent as last week I said to myself, what if we got Rauch instead of Schneider wouldn't Estrada or Lo Duca been good enough.....

As if the cartoon light bulb went on over my head, in that one spectacular play yesterday the whole trade started to make sense to me and I think I'm getting the idea behind Schneider. After three days of a miserable negative atmosphere surrounding the team they finally had a chance to prove themselves and silence their critics, while giving Mets fans something to feel good about. There didn't seem to be any better way for it to happen then against the Yankees, in the Bronx with Johan Santana on the mound. I don't care what their record is or where they are in the standings, they are still the Yankees, our big brother in this city and had Andy Pettitte on the mound. With the Yankees up 2-0 when Abreu ripped a gapper double and I saw Damon coming home, I will admit I started to doubt, in that split second with the momentum leaning towards them the thought "oh no, here we go again" started to creep into my head. And while this season is still in it's infancy, the biggest play to date won't be a huge homer or splendid pitching performance but instead a defensive gem. Started by a hustling outfielder with a canon arm, cont. by a fundamental sound infielder and completed by an old school defensive catcher. When the Amazin's needed something, anything all it took was a well placed left foot.....

"You've got to show him the plate and then take it away," Schneider said. "That's what we're taught to do. If you show them no plate, they're going to run you down."When told that the practice is a lost art in the game these days, Schneider smiled."I guess I'm just naive," he said. "You're going to take your lumps now and then, but that's what your job is - to block the plate." source Newsday