Next in our Offseason In Review series, the Mets.
Major League Signings
- Jason Bay, LF: four years, $66MM. Includes $17MM club option for 2014 with a $3MM buyout. Can vest based on plate appearances.
- Ryota Igarashi, RP: two years, $3MM.
- Alex Cora, IF: one year, $2MM. Includes $2MM vesting option for 2011.
- Kelvim Escobar, RP: one year, $1.25MM.
- Fernando Tatis, 1B: one year, $800K (estimated).
- Henry Blanco, C: one year, $750K.
- Chris Coste, C: one year, $650K.
- Rod Barajas, C: one year, $500K.
- Clint Everts, P: one year, $400K.
- Total spend: $75.35MM.
Notable Minor League Signings
- Kiko Calero, Hisanori Takahashi, Josh Fogg, Mike Jacobs, Frank Catalanotto, R.A. Dickey, Shawn Riggans, Russ Adams, Jolbert Cabrera, Luis Hernandez, Mike Hessman, Bobby Livingston, Elmer Dessens
Trades and Claims
- Sold Rule 5 pick P Carlos Monasterios to Dodgers
- Claimed RP Jay Marshall off waivers from Athletics
- Acquired CF Gary Matthews Jr. and $21.5MM from the Angels for RP Brian Stokes
- Claimed CF Jason Pridie off waivers from Twins
Notable Losses
- Gary Sheffield, Brian Schneider, Jeremy Reed, Cory Sullivan, Carlos Delgado, Wilson Valdez, Tim Redding, Brian Stokes, J.J. Putz, Ken Takahashi, Lance Broadway
Summary
The Mets came into the offseason with needs at left field, first base, catcher, the rotation, and the bullpen. GM Omar Minaya's approach: one big move and tons of little ones.
Bay was the major expenditure; his option has a decent shot of vesting and turning this into a five-year, $80MM deal. The Mets also surrendered the #57 overall draft pick. Should the Mets be praised for giving Bay three fewer years than Matt Holliday, at about $643K less per year? Or did both teams overcommit, given an apparent lack of comparable offers? Perhaps in both cases, the Mets and Cardinals feared that their targeted sluggers would could sign short-term deals elsewhere and they'd be left with nothing.
Though I initially liked the Escobar signing, it's already looking like a waste of $1.25MM. In hindsight, he deserved a minor league deal. I still like Minaya's approach to the bullpen with the low-risk signings of Igarashi, Calero, and others.
Minaya committed $1.9MM to catchers Barajas, Blanco, and Coste, which at least looks good compared to the $6MM deals given to Ivan Rodriguez and Jason Kendall. The Mets are probably lucky that Bengie Molina didn't take their one-year, $5.5MM proposal, but they deserve faint praise for not offering a second year.
It looks like Daniel Murphy (.274/.328/.429 projection) has the inside track on the Mets' first base job, with Jacobs in camp as a backup plan. Minaya never seemed too keen on tossing $2MM at flawed but more interesting bats like Troy Glaus and Russell Branyan, nor did he make a play in the $6MM range for Nick Johnson or Adam LaRoche.
With all the uncertainty in the Mets' rotation, I expected them to sign two starters to big league deals. Instead, they added a couple of fifth starter candidates on minor league pacts in Takahashi and Fogg. I don't blame the Mets for not topping Oakland's $10MM offer to Ben Sheets, but they could've been more aggressive on Joel Pineiro or Jon Garland. The Mets have a probable rotation of Johan Santana, Mike Pelfrey, John Maine, Oliver Perez, and Jon Niese – and I have no idea how they'll perform or how many innings they'll provide.
The Mets are comparable to their division rival Marlins, aside from the $80MM payroll difference. The teams project to have similar offenses, granting full health for both clubs (though I downgraded Carlos Beltran's projection slightly for the month-plus of Angel Pagan we'll see). Both clubs also have unpredictable rotations. I won't rule out the Marlins and Mets as contenders, but the Braves and Phillies have fewer question marks.
Both Piniero and Garland weren’t great options to begin with. Both have a shaky K/9 and rely a lot on their defense. Garland didn’t want to leave the West Coast anyway.
Both Piniero and Garland weren’t great options to begin with. Both have a shaky K/9 and rely a lot on their defense. Garland didn’t want to leave the West Coast anyway.
Only the media thinks the mets came into the offseason needing a 1B. The Mets have internal options at 1B and never had any intentions of signing one. Basically they solved their need at LF, C, bullpen, bench.
Fogg was never brought in to compete for the 5spot. The 5spot is between Niese, Nieve, and Takahashi.
And why would the Mets bid more aggresively for Pineiro, he is garbage. And its debatable whether Garland is better than anything in the top 4. You arent going to pay a SP 5mil to be your #5.
I hate Omar, but the Mets had a pretty good offseason considering how weak FA was. Only the clueless media thinks otherwise.
I disagree. First base solidifies the whole infield (look at what Tex did for the Yankees). And the catcher is one of the most important positions. They have NOBODY at catcher, and their first baseman is a guy who could go south in a hurry.
Their defense in the OF makes one cringe with Bay and Francouer covering no ground. And they have the same back rotation that has failed them for a while now.
Their bullpen is a plus though…
For 1B, it was always Murphy until Davis is ready. They never had any intentions of signing anyone. At catcher they have 2 very good defensive guys, which is most important from that position with Thole almost ready. The OF D is being overstated.
And the only time the backend failed them was last season, it was always the bullpen that failed them. got anything else?
Nobody said they had intentions of signing anyone at first base. We are questioning whether their plan (which they had all along) to go with Murphy is smart compared to free agent possibilities. You believe it is smart, some others don’t. I am also questioning their decision to sign no one for the rotation. You liked it, I did not. If they have a good rotation in 2010, you and the Mets were right.
The only people out there that were clear upgrades to the rotation were Lackey and Sheets. Both cost too much.
Alright, we will see if the Mets’ worst starter is better than all other FA pitchers then.
You don’t think a pitcher’s ERA is reflective upon the division he pitches in?? Also, what were the mets supposed to do? Bump Pelfrey, Maine, or Perez from the rotation? Stunt Niese if he is ready?
I didn’t say anything about ERA. You’re right, the Mets’ hands were tied, they had no choice but to run with the current five.
If you plan on winning in the NL East you can’t love the idea of having a guy starting at 1st base with a projected OPS of 750. That’s not going to get it done when you have other glaring offensive weaknesses (catcher, 1st base, 2nd base, RF and pitcher). Honestly, they are sporting 4 below average offensive starters, 2 guys coming off major injuries, 1 guy who forgot how to hit a HR, and another guy who is fine offensively but has major holes in his defense.
The Mets are a lot like the Braves in my mind. Both have major question marks. If Beltran and Reyes stay healthy, if Bay holds up, if Wright hits HR’s and Francouer can replicate the 2nd half of 09 then yes, they have a shot. I just don’t think that you can count on all of those variables holding.
The division is really the Phillies and then a couple of teams praying that their patchwork teams hold up and perform at very high levels.
2B offense isnt really a weakness if he hits anything close to what he did last season. And i totally expect Murphy to continue to progress, not stay the same. I also believe Francouer won’t be as bad as he was with ATL. This is all with prospects knocking on the door at these positions, Thole, FMart, and Davis. haha, wright didn’t forget how to hit HRs, he tinkered with his approach/swing.
The Phillies aren’t without question marks.
The only people out there that were clear upgrades to the rotation were Lackey and Sheets. Both cost too much.
Nobody said they had intentions of signing anyone at first base. We are questioning whether their plan (which they had all along) to go with Murphy is smart compared to free agent possibilities. You believe it is smart, some others don’t. I am also questioning their decision to sign no one for the rotation. You liked it, I did not. If they have a good rotation in 2010, you and the Mets were right.
Holy cow are 90% of the posters on this blog going through PMS?
What the hell do you mean “got anything else”? You didn’t even respond to anything I said. You didn’t answer how 1B isn’t a strength, you just said they were waiting for someone. You ignore the fact that the 2 catchers you are talking about are 1 unproven guy and a guy who can’t hit for the life of him. When you have Reyes running around with thyroid issues and Beltran out for the first month YOU NEED OFFENSE.
I’ll sit back and enjoy the fact that you ignored their rotation. Though I’d love to hear an argument for Maine, Pelfrey and Perez.
Not all positions need to be a strength. Murphy was above average at 1B defensively and progressed from June on. Which of Blanco and Bajaras is unproven? The thyroid issue is treatable, chances are it will have zero effect on anything.
What about the rotation? Just because last year was a hiccup doesn’t mean they are all crap all of a sudden.
I agree with the first statement. However, the loss of Delgado (though a non-factor last year) really sapped them of power and they need a replacement. Wrights digression really hurts but MAYBE he will turn it around. The Mets, as constructed, are one injury away from falling off the grid again. A loss of Wright, Santana, or KRod would cripple the team. That is why having Murphy at first, Barajas at home, combined with Beltran and Reyes injured hurts them. You believe Reyes will come back fine, OK. But to me a guy who missed an entire year, gets linked with that HGH doctor (not insinuating anything), then has Thyroid issues, comes with questions.
The problem with the rotation is just what you said, last year was crap. But Pelfrey hasn’t shown any consistency, Oliver Perez is still a head case, and Maine fell apart long before last year.
Counting on a lot of bounce-backs here.
“the loss of Delgado…they need a replacement.” Maybe like Jason Bay?
The thyroid issue would have nothing to do with hGH (trust me, I’m a doctor), and unless you have information the FBI doesn’t, it’s is a non-issue.
A doctor! Could I ask you a medical question since my phony doctor keeps subscribing me ear medication.
I have 3 problems I am wondering if they tie into something…
1) Lower back pain… 2 lumps to the right of my spine on my lower back (feel like tightened muscles).
2) Popping in the back of my neck when i move it up in the cerebral area right by the tip of the spine (which tends to lead to motion sickness)
3) Benign vertigo when I lay down and stare straight up.
Probably not the best place to discuss this but I take any advice I can get.
Benign vertigo when you look up? Benign Positional Vertigo is usually induced when you move your head. Do you have it when you look up after having moved quickly? Other than the medicines they’ve given you, have they tried any of the techniques that may be used to “reset” your body’s positional sense? Unfortunately, all of the things we use to treat this have less than ideal effectiveness, and even when we do everything right, short of surgery which has significant risks and is usually only done when this is very severe and intractable, we often have trouble curing this. I would imagine that your doctor probably gave you an anti-cholinergic medication, but these are usually only effective in lessening the severity of a bad attack and don’t help so much in preventing them.
Obviously, over the internet, my advice is limited, but if you’ve really worked at getting this taken care of and nothing seems to work, you might consider seeing someone who specializes in Osteopathic Manipulative Treatment. I went to an Osteopathic school after the experience my mom had with OMT fixing some chronic problems she had in her lower back and hips. Someone who specializes in OMT will assess your neck, back, extremities, etc., and may be able to use manipulative therapy to correct any structural abnormalities that may be there. If your doctor has tried to use other things to fix this and nothing seems to work, it could be a neuro-musculo-skeletal issue that is affecting your body’s conduction of the sensations rather than an inner-ear issue. I can by no means give any guarantees, but if it’s something really bugging you and it won’t go away, you can find someone near you who does it, and your insurance will pay for it, it’s worth a shot.
Wow, very good information! Benign Position Vertigo is what they called it, though I experience it often without movement, just staring straight up no matter what the position. I get a rush that makes me dizzy and I find it impossible to hold my head in that position. It doesn’t bother me when I sleep because I can just keep my head to the side. Even at a slightly elevated position on a pillow it isn’t as severe. And I make sure to keep off rides that go upside down but even things like limo rides and sitting in the backseat of a car for a prolonged period induce some sort of sickness… but I find those instances are more common with everyone.
I will definitely look for an OMT as the symptoms appear to have gotten a little worse. It doesn’t help sitting here at a desk for 8 hours staring at a computer screen, which seems to irritate me and I need to force myself to get up more often. Resetting my bodies positional sense is interesting as well. I really should take my girlfriend up on her yoga classes! Thank you so much for the advice. I completely understand your advice over the internet is limited but even what you told me here is more substantial than what my doctor said in person.
Doc, you should contact the mets with some more medical advice — I know they can use it.
ill be the first to agree… we are counting on a lot of bounce backs… did you see our team last year? I went to a game and got injured watching!!
as for the team this year… our line up
reyes
castillo
beltran
bay
wright
francoeur
murphy
barajas
Pitcher
and lets assume that murphy his his projected .274/.328/.429… can you tell me how thats bad from the 7 hole? not to mention i anticipate him playing better than that.. also ike davis is tearing it up this year! look at his ST stat line.. .524/.583/.952 in 21 ABs… chris carter (who i hope makes the team over jacobs) has rediculous numbers this year in st… but a smaller sample size.. 3 HRs in 8 ABs.. he has always raked in the minors but never really had a position.
btw.. Fernando Martinez’s line is nearly identical to Davis’s and Thole is hitting well also…
Now i agree with the rotation… it needs help
You shouldn’t take too much stock in Spring Training stats. To say someone is tearing it up in 21 AB’s is really saying nothing. Brian Schneider could look like Joe Mauer in 21 AB’s. And again, 8 AB’s for Carter.
The problem here is that about half of the lineup you are looking at in the first month is: Murphy, Gary Matthews, Barajas, Pitcher. And that is if Francouer doesn’t regress OBP-wise back below 300.
On offense it comes down to avoiding injury. With Beltran out (as is getting common), the Mets can’t afford to lose Wright or Bay. Neither can they afford to lose Santana or KRod.
Realistically, not many teams could afford a loss like that. But the problem is, the teams the Mets are up against are much deeper and can sustain inevitable injuries.
For 1B, it was always Murphy until Davis is ready. They never had any intentions of signing anyone. At catcher they have 2 very good defensive guys, which is most important from that position with Thole almost ready. The OF D is being overstated.
And the only time the backend failed them was last season, it was always the bullpen that failed them. got anything else?
They went for defense with some limited power at catcher, basically an upgrade over last year’s tandem, while wisely committing limited dollars (what would you say if they had wasted $5 million on Molina for likely the same numbers?).
I agree with jaydh that they were convinced that staying with Murphy with Ike Davis possibly less than a year away made sense. I cannot fault that.
As I see it, the biggest question is the rotation staying healthy. The Mets did not do a great job this winter but they weren’t horrible either.
They went for defense with some limited power at catcher, basically an upgrade over last year’s tandem, while wisely committing limited dollars (what would you say if they had wasted $5 million on Molina for likely the same numbers?).
I agree with jaydh that they were convinced that staying with Murphy with Ike Davis possibly less than a year away made sense. I cannot fault that.
As I see it, the biggest question is the rotation staying healthy. The Mets did not do a great job this winter but they weren’t horrible either.
Francour covers a lot of ground, and has a cannon… what are you talking about?
I disagree. First base solidifies the whole infield (look at what Tex did for the Yankees). And the catcher is one of the most important positions. They have NOBODY at catcher, and their first baseman is a guy who could go south in a hurry.
Their defense in the OF makes one cringe with Bay and Francouer covering no ground. And they have the same back rotation that has failed them for a while now.
Their bullpen is a plus though…
Only the media thinks the mets came into the offseason needing a 1B. The Mets have internal options at 1B and never had any intentions of signing one. Basically they solved their need at LF, C, bullpen, bench.
Fogg was never brought in to compete for the 5spot. The 5spot is between Niese, Nieve, and Takahashi.
And why would the Mets bid more aggresively for Pineiro, he is garbage. And its debatable whether Garland is better than anything in the top 4. You arent going to pay a SP 5mil to be your #5.
I hate Omar, but the Mets had a pretty good offseason considering how weak FA was. Only the clueless media thinks otherwise.
I like the mike jacobs signing, it provided them some depth should daniel murphy prove to be a fluke or have a tough sophmore season, mike can add power off the bench as well, something they seemingly lost in carlos delgado. Little known fact, and a little ironic, mike jacobs was traded to the marlins a few years ago for carlos delgado, the marlins replaced delgado with jacobs, and now (pending the most likely outcome of delgado hitting off the bench) the mets replaced delgado with jacobs.
and no im not counting the 49 games he played in ny in 2008, im talking full seasons
and no im not counting the 49 games he played in ny in 2008, im talking full seasons
If Daniel Murphy proves to be a fluke or has a sophomore slump? The guy posted a 95 OPS+ last year as a first baseman. He can’t prove to be a fluke or have a sophomore slump because he hasn’t established himself as anything yet.
The Mets better hope Ike Davis is ready quickly.
Murph was a rookie. He got better as the season progressed. He will be solid.
He got better … I guess.
His OPS by month showed that he had 1 month where he eclipsed the 800 mark (September – 888). His July and August were 715 and 741 respectively. A more accurate statement was that Murphy went from awful to below average to one great month of above average. His amazing September was fueled by an unlikely power spike (his Sept SLG % was 150 points higher than ANY OTHER month of the year).
So, which is the real Murphy? The guy who posted an OPS over 850 for one month last year OR the guy who posted a sub 750 OPS for the remainder of the year + a career minor league track record that shows an OPS of below 800 in over 1000 PAs. I’ll stick with the projections which show Murphy to be about 10% below LA in offensive production.
Murph was a rookie. He got better as the season progressed. He will be solid.
If Daniel Murphy proves to be a fluke or has a sophomore slump? The guy posted a 95 OPS+ last year as a first baseman. He can’t prove to be a fluke or have a sophomore slump because he hasn’t established himself as anything yet.
The Mets better hope Ike Davis is ready quickly.
Jacobs? I don’t understand this at all. They just got Chris Carter from the redsox for wagner at the end of last year. Jacbos/Carter are both power guys who don’t hit well and can’t play the field. why do you waste your money on getting two of the same guys?
I like the mike jacobs signing, it provided them some depth should daniel murphy prove to be a fluke or have a tough sophmore season, mike can add power off the bench as well, something they seemingly lost in carlos delgado. Little known fact, and a little ironic, mike jacobs was traded to the marlins a few years ago for carlos delgado, the marlins replaced delgado with jacobs, and now (pending the most likely outcome of delgado hitting off the bench) the mets replaced delgado with jacobs.
The 2010 Mets, not good enough to win it all, but not as bad as advertised.
This is probably the most intelligent and level-headed comment on here. Good work by you.
I would have said “probably” not good enough to win it all, but not as bad as advertised, but otherwise I am in complete agreement.
The reasons I leave the possibility of contention:
1) while on paper they are definitely behind the Phillies, if you stack them up against every other NL team, they don’t look so bad. Everyone has holes.
2) one of the big question marks is the bullpen, and that’s not a bad thing- because the question could very well end up answered positively. Would it be shocking if Rodriguez was the best closer in the NL this year? Setting him up, while their is certainly no sure things, there are plenty of arms fighting for roles who could do well.
3) they are a NY team, meaning that, unlike say Florida, if they are in contention come late June, they will find the money to pick up players. I will expect in that scenario they will get a pitcher to slot in behind Johan, and let’s face it, that changes everyone’s perception of this team, if they had a legitimate #2, no one would be complaining about Pelfry, Perez, Maine, and Niese as 3-6.
at all*
The Mets have earned all the crapola that gets dumped on them, and I say that as a lifelong Met fan. As for this past off-season, the Bay signing was excellent and should pay many dividends but the other glaring need was an upgrade to the rotation. I reject the notion that aside from Lackey and Sheets there were no other options. Some teams are willing to trade top prospects to get front line starting pitching: Hanley Ramirez and Anibal Sanchez for Josh Beckett. The Mets either don’t make those deals or they trade top prospects (like Scott Kazmir) for trash.
One ho-hum offer for a pitcher who won’t waive his no-trade clause (Carlos Zambrano) is not being serious about upgrading the rotation. The Mets are gambling the season on the hope that Pelfrey, Maine and Perez will actually be able to get someone out, and, judging by their performances already in Spring Training (you’d think they might want to make a good impression) only Maine may do well.
And please don’t lecture me about how it’s early in Spring Training. Pelfrey and Perez had all winter to get ready to be impressive this Spring — they had something to prove– and they got lit up by no-names. If Pelfrey pitches well during his next outing he’ll be no different than last year: inconsistent. Perez officially sucks.
This team WASTED TWO WHOLE SEASONS leaving the bullpen unaddressed and it cost them two playoff berths — likely two division titles. Now they’re playing the same game with the rotation. Absolutely inexplicable and completely mind-boggling.
CF – Carlos Beltran. If he is healthy, a top 5 CF. Agreed?
RF – we have a 25 year old defensive stud. Top 5. Citi Field is big, need defense. Average hitter, but LOTS of potential. A great second half reaching that potential. Hopefully will do it again. Agreed?
LF – Jason Bay. Average defense, great power, great hitter, one of the best. Agreed?
I can’t even keep going, nobody will agree with anything. The Mets suck and always will, right?! Last year they were the joke of baseball… injuries happen, right? The team outright sucks. SI picked them to win the WS last year, but they are all garbage. No prospects, no leadership, no pitching. Krod sucks, Wright is weak, Reyes took HGH. Beltran’s career is over, Murphy belong in the little leagues. Should have signed Jack Parkman as catcher b/c Barajas/Blanco’s defense is irrelevant. Who needs Thole? Stop talking about Jenrry Mejia, he’s not a top 50 rank. SIGN MANNY!!!!!!
You guys will see. I’m leaving this site and coming back in two months when the Mets are in 1st place. I hope you at least admit you’re wrong.
Actually Jason Bay is a below average almost terrible fielder. Francoeur was a stud defensively his rookie year, but his past two years he has been below average. So both outfield corner positions are below average this season. While you’re crying that others are wrong, you just made two false statement about the quality of players you have. Maybe you need to reassess the Mets situation kid.
I’m sorry you feel that Francoeur didn’t earn his gold glove his 2nd year, I guess you are a better judge of his talent. And yes, he had a terrible year offensively in 2008. Scouts believe he has a top arm in baseball, but you know more than them, too.
Bay has poor range, but doesn’t make a lot of errors. He played on bad knees in his first bad defensive year, and has been playing in Fenway since. Left field in Fenway deflates all defensive metrics, look it up. He is one of three players of all time ever to lead the league in put-outs with no errors. But still, I’m only calling him average. If you want to call him one of the worst outfielders in baseball, fine. Go ahead.
Re: Francouer – A laser rocket arm does not a good outfielder make.
Re: Bay – “He doesn’t make a lot of errors”. Neither will the sign I’m gonna stick in left field, reads “L O L”
Thank you for being a voice of reason.
I’ll enjoy watching the Mets security remove your for your boorish behavior.
You are right Citi Field is big and out field defense is huge. Unfortunately Francoeur was a stud defensively his rookie season and has been below average his past two seasons… Oh and Jason Bay, average defense, are you kidding me, he was been BELOW average defensively his entire career. What Jason Bay have you ever watched play that you make the statement he is average defensively. You need too check out both these players Zone Ratings and then respond that you were wrong in assessing the Mets talent levels and that is the reason no one will agree with you.
So in other words, you want us to watch him play but would rather us look at Zone Ratings? Please make yourself clearer. What would you rather us do? Watch the game, and watch it like actual scouts? Or use a statistical database that isn’t yet fully verified or accepted as the gospel of God? I say we watch the games.
(and before you say it is, I beg to differ; it’s not peer reviewed or evaluated, and is essentially run by non-experts of statistics and mathematics).
that was the best comment ive ever read .. thank you
So here is my logic on saying that Bay will be bad defensively in Citi.
PNC Park Dimensions:
325 LF Line
410 L/CF
-4.32 UZR over a 5 year span.
29 Assists in 5 years to go with 15 Errors.
(Also at a much younger age)
Fenway:
310 LF Line
379 L/CF
23 Assists to go with 4 errors.
-14.7 uzr avg over a shortened 2 year period.
My defense to this is that until a GG caliber player like Beltran comes back and completely remains healthy for the span of Bay’s career, a steady decline is inevitable in his defense. I do not feel that his bat is good enough to carry bad defense. Although he will be surrounded with Wright, Reyes, and Beltran, he had great protection in Boston also.
Although a pole would not account for 15 assists, agreed, you can also argue that it is a well known fact that Manny is horrible defensively and in 2005 he accounted for 17 assists himself. I’m just saying…
I totally agree with your comments, SportsME23! Mets will be fine going into midseason. They’ll pick up a #2 starter at the trade deadline, and suprise alot of people.
And I think that Francouer, if he can put it together, is still the .285 BA, 20 HR, 90 RBI hitter that he was in Atlanta a few years ago.
I think the thing that everyone always forgets re: the Mets is the fact that if revenue drops across the league in baseball this year the way it has in other sports, teams are going to be looking to dump salaries mid-season. By saving their money not buying crap this offseason, the Mets have put themselves in good position to pick up some good players for less than market value prospect-wise. Will this be enough? I have no idea. Will the Mets be true contenders? Maybe, maybe not. Will they finish over .500 and be in the race for a wild card slot? Absolutely.
the question is, can the mets afford it? what kind of money/prospects are we talking about? There were questions about the wilpon’s financial health with madoff, and plus, season ticket holders aren’t renewing… there’s no guarantee that the mets are going to be in a buying mood…
The Madoff thing I believe was created by the media. It seems from some of the more reliable sources I’ve read that the Wilpons got most if not all of their money back. I can’t argue that season ticket holders aren’t renewing, at this point, but I know Mets fans – while they’re extremely fickle in their attitude toward the team, if this team as it stand wins games and shows any kind of legitimate life, tickets will sell. If that doesn’t happen then the Mets won’t be in a position to be deadline buyers anyway, and we’ll be having legitimate talks of major shakeups and rebuilding.
Other than not bringing in another SPer, IMO, the Mets had a good offseason.
-Barajas and Blanco are an improvement over Schneider and Santos.
-Bay replaces Delgado’s bat.
-Francouer seems to be doing better than Church ever did.
-Murphy should improve hitting down in the lineup and Jacobs provides depth.
-Could do worse than GMJ for the 4th or 5th OFer spot.
-A guy like Wright doesn’t just forget how to hit, he’ll be fine.
-Reyes’ legs seem healthy and the thyroid news is a non-issue.
Like I said, I would’ve liked some more depth for the rotation, but that’d mean blocking Niese who seems to be ready or trading an injured Maine, Ollie or Pelfrey. And as Tim notes, the bullpen is a strength, even if Escobar doesn’t pan out.
Unless the rotation is a major failure, I can’t see how a team w/ a lineup of Reyes-Castillo-Wright-Beltran-Bay-Francouer-Murphy-Barajas is a third place team.
when it’ll be more like Pagan-Murphy-Reyes-Wright-Bay-Francouer-Barajas-Castillo, things don’t look as good.
Murphy has no business hitting high up in the lineup, but Jerry has a huge mancrush on him for some reason.
And it’s obvious the phillies have the strongest lineup in the east. and braves/marlins lineups aren’t that much worse than the mets…..so, yeah… they may have a third place, or even a fourth place team again…
Not sure where you get the idea Murphy will bat second. nj.com/mets/index.ssf/2010/02/jerry_manuel_says_he…
“Manuel said Friday he would like to have Reyes start the season batting third, with Angel Pagan or Luis Castillo replacing him in the leadoff spot.”
The Braves and Marlins lineups can’t sniff the Mets lineup.
That lineup would be terrible after Bay.
Not many teams have great 6-8 hitters.
speaking as a mets fan,
#1: I think mets fan in general have a bigger martyr complex than any other fan. they think everyone is against the mets, and thus, most defensive about the mets (imo). I see it in the mets forums and message board i’m involved in. maybe it happens everywhere else too, but personally, it’s a little annoying.
#2 I’m hopeful (as should any fan of any mlb team be in march), but know that there’s TONS of question marks coming into the season.
imo, the bay signing was a good signing considering what was available out there.
the musical chairs they’ll be playing at the catcher position is understandable for defensive pourposes.
However, I have a hard time with Murphy, and the pitching staff, which were bigger question marks from the beginning. the starters from 2-5 were horribly inconsistent. you can’t just write off 2009 and say they had a blip in their careers and they’ll be fine this year. maybe they will be, but, that’s a LOT of question marks. But at the same time, you can’t trade them away and just sell when they’re at their lowest value. But that said, should they have paid 80+ to lackey? would piniero really be someone worth spending money on considering the defense?
and as for 1b… they should never have put so much hope in murphy in 09. but because of the amount of playing time he got (he would’ve gotten just as much even without injuries) and the eggs omar put on him, they can’t just cut him lose already.
In the end, I’m really looking forward to this season and next winter, because so much will become apparent. at the end of the season, there will be plenty of front line starters to go after (instead of JUST lackey), 1bmen to trade for (AGon?), and maybe even a catcher to sign (Mauer). only one year of castillo’s contract left that if they want, they can get rid of him, and time that some prospects are ready to prove themselves.
I agree the Mets could be in a position to substantially improve mid-season, but after the last three seasons there really is no margin. They need to be better from the opening gun, they need to hustle and keep their heads in these games, they need to throw strikes, and for God’s sake, they need to hold leads and finish games.
I’m willing to write of last season, the injuries were ridiculous. But the rotation was a huge glaring need and they did nothing to it. I think Pelfrey should’ve been packaged to a smaller market team for a proven pitcher. I think Perez should be cut.
Just to show that I’m not all negative, I do see some good signs. I think Barajas may prove to be a pleasant surprise given what we signed him for. If Fernando Martinez stays healthy and continues to perform he could make a significant contribution, and Mejia needs more minor league innings but could be really special. If he’s dusting minor leaguers bring him up mid-season and see if he can help the bullpen. Ike Davis can hit, question is can he field.
The rap against the Mets’ prospects appears premature and part of the inevitable piling on. These guys look good.
At least Omar did not make any incredibly stupid moves this offseason, like giving Luis Castillo a huge contract or trading an all-star caliber reliever for a guy who washed out of baseball in less than a year (Bell for Johnson). It was a pretty conservative offseason. Okay, the Cora contract was pretty stupid, especially when you could have had Felipe Lopez and his 50 extra-base hits for the same price, but by Omar’s admittedly low standards the offseason wasn’t the disaster some are making it out to be.
The first few months of the season should tell the story for the team. If they can hold their own and stay above .500 for a few months, they could conceivably improve the team from within (Ike Davis, Fernando Martinez, Josh Thole) or trade some of those guys or their better lower-level prospects (Jennry Mejia, Wilmer Flores, Brad Holt) to fill whatever holes that arise. If they stink out of the gate, I imagine Omar will be fired and a new GM will probably be brought in to commence some sort of rebuilding process.
Unfortunately, that new GM will probably be Wayne Krivsky, whose GM record is a mixed bag at best. Hey, nobody ever said it was gonna be easy being a Mets fan
At least Omar did not make any incredibly stupid moves this offseason, like giving Luis Castillo a huge contract or trading an all-star caliber reliever for a guy who washed out of baseball in less than a year (Bell for Johnson). It was a pretty conservative offseason. Okay, the Cora contract was pretty stupid, especially when you could have had Felipe Lopez and his 50 extra-base hits for the same price, but by Omar’s admittedly low standards the offseason wasn’t the disaster some are making it out to be.
The first few months of the season should tell the story for the team. If they can hold their own and stay above .500 for a few months, they could conceivably improve the team from within (Ike Davis, Fernando Martinez, Josh Thole) or trade some of those guys or their better lower-level prospects (Jennry Mejia, Wilmer Flores, Brad Holt) to fill whatever holes that arise. If they stink out of the gate, I imagine Omar will be fired and a new GM will probably be brought in to commence some sort of rebuilding process.
Unfortunately, that new GM will probably be Wayne Krivsky, whose GM record is a mixed bag at best. Hey, nobody ever said it was gonna be easy being a Mets fan.
completely agree, except Jerry Mejia is going nowhere.
the braves have middle-relief issues and a closer pushing 40 who has been injured 3 years in a row..
if wags goes down….the braves are automatically in 4th place
while i don’t think we can call the offseason a success, i don’t understand how people think this team won’t be a wild-card contender. i know about all the question marks, but the lineup is not bad, and if perez and maine can stay healthy the rotation won’t be as terrible as people think.
but the points people are really missing here are:
a) the last year or so on bay’s contract may be shaky, but unlike the last few years omar didn’t hand out any contracts that are really going to kill us. thus, the mets are in position to make a splash mid-season this year. and if theyre somewhat in contention, and the rotation is a bust again this year, i can easily see omar trading for a frontline starter.
b) sure there may be holes in the lineup at C, 1B, and RF, but the mets have some pretty decent prospects ready to step in if not this year, then next. if franceour and murphy truly can’t hit, i look forward to seeing what davis and martinez can do given consistent playing time in the bigs. i know fmart has had injury problems, but so did reyes when he was first coming up. people always talk about the mets prospects being overhyped, but i truly believe the next crop (davis, martinez, meija, and niese specifically) are a little underhyped but a lot of people right now.
truth is, nobody knows what will happen. but as of right now, im pretty optimistic about this season.
Daniel Murphy might need to look at his backdoor, Ike Davis is knocking with a very impressive spring training. He also leads all players right now in AB’s. I like IKE. Livingston and Pridie are great acqs. as well. Livingston looked good for the Pirates AAA club. I wonder why they didn’t bring him up?
Daniel Murphy might need to look at his backdoor, Ike Davis is knocking with a very impressive spring training. He also leads all players right now in AB’s. I like IKE. Livingston and Pridie are great acqs. as well. Livingston looked good for the Pirates AAA club. I wonder why they didn’t bring him up?
Kingman 26:
You either can’t read or have a serious problem comprehending what you read. Maybe it’s both. Omar added KRod and Putz after (can you read that? Here, I’ll help you…) AF-TER the Met bullpen blew countless games in ’07 and ’08 when the problem was clear to anyone paying attention in April and May of ’07. Perhaps you were visting your home planet back then.
As for Pelfrey and Perez your command of the obvious is sorely lacking. If Jennry Mejia, who was in single A last year, can throw 5 scoreless innings in March, why can’t Pelfrey or Perez at least show up? Yes I’d cut Perez, my 2 year old daughter can pitch better than him. She also knows more about baseball than you ever will.
I guess Santana is trash after todays outting as well.
Kingman: Funny, I couldn’t tell the difference between Perez’s first Spring Training performance or just about all of his starts last year. Maybe you’d want to continue paying him $12 million a year for that but among intelligent people that’s more commonly known as stupidity. But that’s never stopped the Mets before, maybe you’re Jeff Wilpon. That would explain a lot.
jaydh: Pitchers like Santana and Lincicum (who also got hit in his first March appearance) have nothing to prove. Couldn’t care less what they do in March. Pelfrey and Perez have a lot to prove and so far they look the same. After the eggs they laid last year they should come out strong first time out and show that it’ll be different this year. Pelfrey is inconsistent but they could still get something for him. Perez really, really sucks.
it doesnt work that way. perez and pelfrey, like santana, aren’t trying to blank their opponents during ST. They are working on mechanics, pitches, and velocity.
Um, if you cut him, you still have to pay him the $12M. Since you already owe the guy another $24M no matter what happens, it seems like it’d be worth it to see if he can turn it around. He was quite good in 2007 and league-average in 2008. His career has looked like this:
2002 Good
2003 Sucked
2004 Amazing
2005 Sucked
2006 Sucked
2007 Good
2008 Average
2009 Sucked
He’s only 28 this year, so it’s certainly possible he can avoid racking up another sucky season. I think it would be pretty idiotic to flush $24M down the drain because the guy had a couple of shaky spring training games.
jaydh: Oh, you can’t get guys out while you work on mechanics? It was just a couple of weeks ago that Tommy Hanson of the Braves pitched the first inning of Spring Training baseball. Who did he face? The NY Mets. Check out the zeroes on the Mets side of the ledger. Came to camp ready, still had something to prove, worked on his mechanics and got people out. They shouldn’t be mutually exclusive especially for guys who had more to prove than Hanson.
Joe: The only thing worse than paying Perez $24 million not to pitch for the Mets is paying him TO pitch for the Mets. I’d cut him in a heartbeat and not look back. Wake up, he sucks.
Kingman: Haven’t forgotten your Santana comment. History lesson: The Mets did not trade their top prospect, Fernando Martinez, to the Twins. They also had leverage because Santana wanted to play for the Mets. If they didn’t have that leverage they wouldn’t have landed Santana. It really, really helps to actually pay attention.
i’m sorry, but whatever you say doesnt matter. the statlines in the games right now mean very little.
Dude. You’re getting way too fired up over games that are occurring the first week of March. Spring training stats are utterly meaningless. You know how I know? Because Jeremy Reed hit .400 in spring last year. So did David Eckstein. So did JJ Hardy, who went on to have the worst season of his career. The spring training HR leaderboard included players like Craig Monroe, Travis Ishikawa and somebody named Mike Wilson. The AL ERA leader was David Purcey. The NL ERA leader was Brian Moehler.
If Oliver Perez is throwing pitches over the backstop, pooping his pants on the mound and breaking down in tears in his last spring start, then yes, be very worried. In fact, even if he pitches great the rest of the spring, be worried. He’s a volatile pitcher and there is a very good chance he is going to suck in 2010, I will give you that. In fact it is more likely than not that he will suck. But let’s not pretend like 2007 and 2008 never happened, and that Oliver Perez is completely incapable of pitching in the big leagues. He has had success before, and fairly recently. He has what we call “upside.” You need to give him at least a chance to turn it around before handing the ball to Josh Fogg or Nelson Figueroa or whatever nonentity takes his place in the rotation. Who knows, maybe he repeats his 2008 season and gives you 195 innings of league-average pitching.
Now will come your rebuttal, which will consist of “Perez sucks.”
Dude. You’re getting way too fired up over games that are occurring the first week of March. Spring training stats are utterly meaningless. You know how I know? Because Jeremy Reed hit .400 in spring last year. So did David Eckstein. So did JJ Hardy, who went on to have the worst season of his career. The spring training HR leaderboard included players like Craig Monroe, Travis Ishikawa and somebody named Mike Wilson. The AL ERA leader was David Purcey. The NL ERA leader was Brian Moehler.
If Oliver Perez is throwing pitches over the backstop, pooping his pants on the mound and breaking down in tears in his last spring start, then yes, be very worried. In fact, even if he pitches great the rest of the spring, be worried. He’s a volatile pitcher and there is a very good chance he is going to suck in 2010, I will give you that. In fact it is more likely than not that he will suck. But let’s not pretend like 2007 and 2008 never happened, and that Oliver Perez is completely incapable of pitching in the big leagues. He has had success before, and fairly recently. He has what we call “upside.” You need to give him at least a chance to turn it around before handing the ball to Josh Fogg or Nelson Figueroa or whatever nonentity takes his place in the rotation. Who knows, maybe he repeats his 2008 season and gives you 195 innings of league-average pitching.
Now will come your rebuttal, which will consist of “Perez sucks.”
i’m sorry, but whatever you say doesnt matter. the statlines in the games right now mean very little.
———————————–
OK. I believe you. No, really.
This is my opinion as a Mets fan.
I went into this off season knowing there were a lot of holes, and knowing that I was going to be disappointed.
But there are a few aspects that really annoy me for instance lets start with SP.
We all knew that the rotation as it was last year needed to be improved significantly and whilst we have our ace in Santana there really isn’t a lot behind him in terms of anything better than 4-5 starters. The biggest thing the team needed was a reliable inning eater that could provide at least 180 innings of solid 2-3 in the rotation pitching. A few examples of this that were available are:
Javier Vazquez who went for almost nothing in a trade because ATL were shedding payroll.
Derek Lowe who was apparently being shopped for very little. I’m not entirely sold on him being that strong going forward but if he could have been swapped for one of our bad contracts and a mid prospect I would have done that trade just to have some stability in the rotation.
Bronson Arroyo again I’d imagine the Reds would appreciate getting out from under his contract and I’d guess he could’ve been had for very little. He is over-payed of course but is generally a solid pitcher.
Jason Marquis I do think his first half last year led to him being overrated by many and I’m aware that he isn’t the key to the Mets winning a WS but he apparently wanted to be a Met and I think he already signed for less than I thought. Is Jason Marquis an ace? No. Is he easily worth 7.5 a year given our rotation worries, hell yes.
In addition to the above I think we could have looked at a low risk/high reward type pitcher such as:
Ben Sheets, Erik Bedard or Rich Harden. Given their potential upside I would’ve rolled the dice on 1 of these guys probably in the order of:
Rich Harden, Ben Sheets, Erik Bedard.
Signing two of these would’ve have given us the ability to offer John Maine/Mike Pelfrey to a team in need… I’m thinking in particular I would’ve targeted the Dodgers and Pirates with the aim of bringing back Ryan Doumit or Russell Martin.
Which brings us onto the hole we have at C, out of all the FA options we had I think clearly Rod Barajas was the best option and eventually Omar made the right choice there. I’m fine with paying Blanco/Coste what they’re getting especially if they were going to spend time in AAA teaching Thole. I would’ve liked to take a look at trading for Martin OR Doumit assuming the price would be fair.
LF to me was the biggest mistake of the off season for 2 reasons:
Jason Bay is an awful fielder, when you take into account players of his skill set age poorly I think we are in for an awful future with Jason Bay as our LF. His option WILL vest.
He takes us out of the Carl Crawford/Jayson Werth sweepstakes next off season. Seriously I dreamed of a FMart, Voltron, Carl Crawford OF… now I know this will never happen it breaks my heart.
Would it not have been smarter to give FMart a starting job in RF this year and genuinely see what he can do. If we needed a LF I would’ve been happier to pay Johnny Damon $8 mil for a 1 year contract than sign Bay.
Speaking of OF Jeff Francouer should have been taken out back and shot, he is past the point of being able to improve and anyone who says he improved as a Met is a moron.
RBI’s do not a good player make. I feel like the Mets are the laughing stock of the league for paying him what they are.
I would have liked to see the team pick up Rocco Baldelli as an insurance policy, I mean for $1 million are players like him ever bad signings? This way we would’ve had an OF of 5 players:
LF-Damon
CF-Voltron
RF-FMart
Bench-Baldelli, Pagan.
The infield holes we have would be 1B & a bench IF. For the 1B job I would’ve looked at:
Adam Laroche-Chances are he is going to provide a kind of Bay-Lite type of offense yet would have come a lot cheaper and a lot shorter a contract. I don’t think it would have been a disaster if we’d have matched the Giants offer to him which would have given Ike Davis time in AAA so we wouldn’t need to rush him.
Garret Atkins or Ty Wiggington are two other names that spring to mind. If money was tight I would’ve been happy to let Murphy play 1B in a lefty/righty platoon for the season with any number of cheap FA pickups.
For the money we signed Cora to we could’ve had Felipe Lopez… I don’t think this needs explaining. I would’ve assumed Lopez would win the 2B job in ST and so we could’ve looked at trading Castillo but I wouldn’t have just given him away… I would’ve have looked to get another decent but overpriced player in return… possibly a set up guy.
Its not even that I really dislike Alex Cora, its more that he shouldn’t be getting paid more than $1 million. If he is that good of a locker room guy hell give him a 2 year $2 million contract… but c’mon $2 mil for a season? And give him an attainable vesting option for another $2 mil? Really? I would’ve been interested at looking into signing Lopez to a multi year contract… say three years $7 mil? Its a risk but I’d have taken that risk.
If Omar does indeed sign Beimel I will be surprisingly happy at the great job he did with the bullpen this year.
Oh yeah this is my first post as well so Hi guys.
So, in other words, you don’t like Bay’s fielding (which is generally considered average, not “horrid”) but you wanted Johnny Damon? Riiiiiiiiight.
Also, you’re operating under the assumption that the Mets wanted to trade Castillo (or had any real buyers) and were in on the Felipe Lopez signing. My take is that the Mets didn’t have any real takers for Castillo (maybe later in the season), and wanted Cora for the bench, where he belongs and has value.
And why would you want to bring in a 1B when you already have Murphy at first, and Ike Davis waiting in the wings? Why?
Also, what do you have against Francouer? He’s a good defender and a nice addition to the lineup. FMart can’t stay healthy, I wouldn’t want him in the lineup until he proves he can stay healthy.
No, Jason Bay is a terrible fielder. It is stone cold fact he is a terrible fielder, just because you don’t believe the facts and think he is average does not mean it is so. I can post all the statistics to back me up if you’d like. Is Johnny Damon also an awful fielder at this point in his career? Yes. Would I prefer Damon @ 1 year $8 mil over Bay @ 5 years $80 mil? Best believe I would.
Well Carlos Silva got traded this off season and he is pretty much the most useless player in the league, so yeah I do think we could’ve switched Castillo for another bad contract. However I stated that I’d be happy for him to be a bench/role player on the team. Cora was signed for $2 million Lopez was signed for $1 million. Their WAR differences are astonishing given the difference in wages given that Lopez actually has potential to greatly exceed his salary I’d say it is clear which is the better signing. If Cora is such a good locker room influence I’d be happy for the Mets to be paying him say $1 million for a season…. $2 million is a complete joke.
You ask why I’d bring in a 1B which I already explained in my original post. Why didn’t you read my post but replied to me? Why?
What do I have against Francouer? Hmm lets see… he is an awful baseball player taking up $5 million in wages for the team I follow. He is not a good defender, he is awful… again this is fact… don’t argue the point or I’ll just respond with statistics proving me right. How is FMart ever going to prove himself if he doesn’t get a chance? It is retarded how many so called Mets fans are willing to write FMart off at age 20 but they keep saying Francouer has ‘potential’ even though he’s 25. You pointed out how injury prone he is but AGAIN I provided adequate reasoning in my original post stating how I’d hope the team would have signed Baldelli & Damon which along with Pagan, Beltran & FMart would be a 5 man OF Pagan & Baldelli can both play any OF position which would help deal with injury. Also poor defensive/decent offensive OF’s are ten a penny in the trade market if such a need occurred.
Again if you’re going to bother to respond at least look up statistics before claiming players are good defenders. And please read all my post rather than cherry picking parts out of it to support your claims.
No, Jason Bay is a terrible fielder. It is stone cold fact he is a terrible fielder, just because you don’t believe the facts and think he is average does not mean it is so. I can post all the statistics to back me up if you’d like. Is Johnny Damon also an awful fielder at this point in his career? Yes. Would I prefer Damon @ 1 year $8 mil over Bay @ 5 years $80 mil? Best believe I would.
Well Carlos Silva got traded this off season and he is pretty much the most useless player in the league, so yeah I do think we could’ve switched Castillo for another bad contract. However I stated that I’d be happy for him to be a bench/role player on the team. Cora was signed for $2 million Lopez was signed for $1 million. Their WAR differences are astonishing given the difference in wages given that Lopez actually has potential to greatly exceed his salary I’d say it is clear which is the better signing. If Cora is such a good locker room influence I’d be happy for the Mets to be paying him say $1 million for a season…. $2 million is a complete joke.
You ask why I’d bring in a 1B which I already explained in my original post. Why didn’t you read my post but replied to me? Why?
What do I have against Francouer? Hmm lets see… he is an awful baseball player taking up $5 million in wages for the team I follow. He is not a good defender, he is awful… again this is fact… don’t argue the point or I’ll just respond with statistics proving me right. How is FMart ever going to prove himself if he doesn’t get a chance? It is retarded how many so called Mets fans are willing to write FMart off at age 20 but they keep saying Francouer has ‘potential’ even though he’s 25. You pointed out how injury prone he is but AGAIN I provided adequate reasoning in my original post stating how I’d hope the team would have signed Baldelli & Damon which along with Pagan, Beltran & FMart would be a 5 man OF Pagan & Baldelli can both play any OF position which would help deal with injury. Also poor defensive/decent offensive OF’s are ten a penny in the trade market if such a need occurred.
Again if you’re going to bother to respond at least look up statistics before claiming players are good defenders. And please read all my post rather than cherry picking parts out of it to support your claims.
This is my opinion as a Mets fan.
I went into this off season knowing there were a lot of holes, and knowing that I was going to be disappointed.
But there are a few aspects that really annoy me for instance lets start with SP.
We all knew that the rotation as it was last year needed to be improved significantly and whilst we have our ace in Santana there really isn’t a lot behind him in terms of anything better than 4-5 starters. The biggest thing the team needed was a reliable inning eater that could provide at least 180 innings of solid 2-3 in the rotation pitching. A few examples of this that were available are:
Javier Vazquez who went for almost nothing in a trade because ATL were shedding payroll.
Derek Lowe who was apparently being shopped for very little. I’m not entirely sold on him being that strong going forward but if he could have been swapped for one of our bad contracts and a mid prospect I would have done that trade just to have some stability in the rotation.
Bronson Arroyo again I’d imagine the Reds would appreciate getting out from under his contract and I’d guess he could’ve been had for very little. He is over-payed of course but is generally a solid pitcher.
Jason Marquis I do think his first half last year led to him being overrated by many and I’m aware that he isn’t the key to the Mets winning a WS but he apparently wanted to be a Met and I think he already signed for less than I thought. Is Jason Marquis an ace? No. Is he easily worth 7.5 a year given our rotation worries, hell yes.
In addition to the above I think we could have looked at a low risk/high reward type pitcher such as:
Ben Sheets, Erik Bedard or Rich Harden. Given their potential upside I would’ve rolled the dice on 1 of these guys probably in the order of:
Rich Harden, Ben Sheets, Erik Bedard.
Signing two of these would’ve have given us the ability to offer John Maine/Mike Pelfrey to a team in need… I’m thinking in particular I would’ve targeted the Dodgers and Pirates with the aim of bringing back Ryan Doumit or Russell Martin.
Which brings us onto the hole we have at C, out of all the FA options we had I think clearly Rod Barajas was the best option and eventually Omar made the right choice there. I’m fine with paying Blanco/Coste what they’re getting especially if they were going to spend time in AAA teaching Thole. I would’ve liked to take a look at trading for Martin OR Doumit assuming the price would be fair.
LF to me was the biggest mistake of the off season for 2 reasons:
Jason Bay is an awful fielder, when you take into account players of his skill set age poorly I think we are in for an awful future with Jason Bay as our LF. His option WILL vest.
He takes us out of the Carl Crawford/Jayson Werth sweepstakes next off season. Seriously I dreamed of a FMart, Voltron, Carl Crawford OF… now I know this will never happen it breaks my heart.
Would it not have been smarter to give FMart a starting job in RF this year and genuinely see what he can do. If we needed a LF I would’ve been happier to pay Johnny Damon $8 mil for a 1 year contract than sign Bay.
Speaking of OF Jeff Francouer should have been taken out back and shot, he is past the point of being able to improve and anyone who says he improved as a Met is a moron.
RBI’s do not a good player make. I feel like the Mets are the laughing stock of the league for paying him what they are.
I would have liked to see the team pick up Rocco Baldelli as an insurance policy, I mean for $1 million are players like him ever bad signings? This way we would’ve had an OF of 5 players:
LF-Damon
CF-Voltron
RF-FMart
Bench-Baldelli, Pagan.
The infield holes we have would be 1B & a bench IF. For the 1B job I would’ve looked at:
Adam Laroche-Chances are he is going to provide a kind of Bay-Lite type of offense yet would have come a lot cheaper and a lot shorter a contract. I don’t think it would have been a disaster if we’d have matched the Giants offer to him which would have given Ike Davis time in AAA so we wouldn’t need to rush him.
Garret Atkins or Ty Wiggington are two other names that spring to mind. If money was tight I would’ve been happy to let Murphy play 1B in a lefty/righty platoon for the season with any number of cheap FA pickups.
For the money we signed Cora to we could’ve had Felipe Lopez… I don’t think this needs explaining. I would’ve assumed Lopez would win the 2B job in ST and so we could’ve looked at trading Castillo but I wouldn’t have just given him away… I would’ve have looked to get another decent but overpriced player in return… possibly a set up guy.
Its not even that I really dislike Alex Cora, its more that he shouldn’t be getting paid more than $1 million. If he is that good of a locker room guy hell give him a 2 year $2 million contract… but c’mon $2 mil for a season? And give him an attainable vesting option for another $2 mil? Really? I would’ve been interested at looking into signing Lopez to a multi year contract… say three years $7 mil? Its a risk but I’d have taken that risk.
If Omar does indeed sign Beimel I will be surprisingly happy at the great job he did with the bullpen this year.
Oh yeah this is my first post as well so Hi guys.
(Sighhhhhh) Kingman, Kingman, Kingman: The Mets made a great trade only because Santana gave them huge leverage. He did not want to go to Boston or the Yankees, both of whom had better offers even if the Mets included Martinez. Clearly you couldn’t log onto MLBTR on that planet you were visiting. And if I’m wrong about Perez I’ll take it all back, but continuing to send him out there to get bombed (paying him all that money) and expecting him to magically put it together is the definition of insanity. Kinda like continuing to send Aaron Heilman, Scott Schoeneweis, etc., out there repeatedly for two years and expecting them to hold a lead. They suck and so does Perez.
Actually you got it all wrong concerning santana, no surprise….yanks never made an official offer, and the red sox did but the twins preferred the mets package at the time. thanks for playing!
Actually you got it all wrong concerning santana, no surprise….yanks never made an official offer, and the red sox did but the twins preferred the mets package at the time. thanks for playing!
jaydh: Santana went where he wanted to go, the Twins had no leverage. If Johan was really open to going to Boston or the Yankees he’d be with one of those teams because their offers were better. If he was open to any team there would’ve many with better offers. The Twins didn’t prefer the Mets offer, ultimately they had no choice.
Joe: Spring Training stats are meaningless for some players, they aren’t for others. Did I care that Shawn Green hit .160 in ST before the ’07 season? No, he was a veteran and sure enough came out hitting over .300. I agree with you that for many players it doesn’t mean much. But for players who have something to prove, especially pitchers who are being counted on for so much, it means a lot. Evidently Tommy Hanson understands that, Pelfrey and Perez do not.
2008 was not a good year for Perez and he was rewarded with a huge contract. He came to camp last year out of shape, got bombed early and often, and then joined everyone else on the DL. FWIW I’ve been consistent in my opinion of him on this site and others for a long time, but I was hoping to see change this Spring. So far it’s the same movie we’ve seen wayyyy too many times.
Pelfrey has more upside than Perez, he could actually be packaged for something substantial. I think he’ll continue to be inconsistent in NY but could actually do well in a smaller media market. You could get something for him, but you wouldn’t get squat for Perez because he … well, you know. But look, no one hopes I’m wrong more than me. It’s just that after a certain point I can’t watch the same movie anymore, and I don’t think I’m alone.
Pelfrey’s microscopic K rate and overwhelming reliance on fielders making plays behind him makes him a pitcher with very little upside, actually. Pelfrey will never be more than a back-of-rotation innings eater, and he’s lucky if he survives in that role for long. You just can’t win consistently from year-to-year in this game in this day and age with 5.17 strikeouts per nine innings, I don’t care how many groundballs you induce.
The fact that the Mets start an appallingly poor defensive 2B isn’t helping Pelfrey either. The Mets are obviously not committed to putting a good defensive team on the field, which is why Pelfrey won’t succeed in NY.
Pelfrey’s microscopic K rate and overwhelming reliance on fielders making plays behind him makes him a pitcher with very little upside, actually. Pelfrey will never be more than a back-of-rotation innings eater, and he’s lucky if he survives in that role for long. You just can’t win consistently from year-to-year in this game in this day and age with 5.17 strikeouts per nine innings, I don’t care how many groundballs you induce.
The fact that the Mets start an appallingly poor defensive 2B isn’t helping Pelfrey either. The Mets are obviously not committed to putting a good defensive team on the field, which is why Pelfrey won’t succeed in NY.
Joe: Agree with your take on Pelfrey. I also think he’d make better pitches if he was more comfortable and he has never been completely comfortable with the Mets. There were some flashes in ’08 especially that made you think he’d be terrific but he’s been woefully inconsistent. He’s a number one pick of a franchise in the largest market, he has talent that would have a better chance of flourishing somewhere else — where there’s less of a spotlight, less intensity and less pressure to perform.
The Mets need another SP who is an upgrade over Maine or Perez, and more certain than Pelf or Niese. Ollie is untradeable, and of no value in the pen. Maine has value – either to trade or in the pen – so I’d like to keep him around.
I’d suggest shopping either Tatis (or Murphy) + Santos to CIN for Arroyo; if they insist on an arm, I’d throw in Figgy. It’s a salary dump for CIN, and enables them to stock “depth” – Tatis to back up Votto at 1B and as a super-sub, Figgy for a swingman/long reliever/5th starter.
Then, the rotation becomes Santana-Arroyo-Pelfrey-Niese-Perez, with Maine, Takahashi & Nieve in the pen, ready to step in when Ollie fails or someone gets hurt. The pen is Rodriguez-Igarashi-Feliciano-Calero and those 3.
(If Cinci would only do Maine + Santos, I’d take Arroyo only with some high-ceiling A-ball prospect.)
I really don’t see the point of needing a top notch catcher. Look at none other then the Phillies, Carlos Ruiz is no stud, yet they have no problem making the World Series pretty much every year. We hear about what if someone gets injured the season is over. Well guess what, the same goes for any team.
Do you think if Chase Utley, Ibanez, Ryan Howard went down for the season that their replacements (Greg Dobbs, Juan Castro, and John Mayberry ha what jokes) would keep them in contention? (rhetorical) That is what happend to my terrible Mets last year.