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Luis Castillo, Paul Lo Duca, Ramon Castro, Marlon Anderson and Shawn 
Green all filed for free agency today.
By the way, check out MLB.com for a list of Important Off-Season Dates, such as November 13, which is the first day free agents may negotiate and sign with a team other than their former club.
…remember, though, that while a player is not able to sign with a new team until then, they can, however, talk with other teams - they just can’t discuss money…so, expect a lot of rumor and suggestion about what teams are talking with what players, as sort of a sneak preview in to the totally open market…
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Only 3 out of those 5 should be pursued by the Mets: Castro, Castillo, and Anderson.
Milledge replaces Green. Replacement for LoDuca via FA or trade (Paulino, Shoppach, Hernandez, Posada, etc.)
I feel that Lo Duca is the best solution for catcher.
Paulino is crap, Shoppach has never actually proved anything, Hernandez is available via trade, but who are you going to trade for him? Certainly he is not worth anyone of actual value.
Hernandez hit .258 with 9 Homers.
Lo Duca hit .272 with 9 Homers.
Posada is good, but expensive in both money and years, Lo Duca would probably only want 1 or 2 years for much cheaper. Posada is a year older, and just wouldn’t have the heart and soul and the Brooklyn style that Lo Duca had, not to mention that he doesn’t know the pitchers as well.
Lets go Pauly!!!
Pauly is over the hill. Sorry to slap you in the face with reality.
Shoppach hasn’t proven anything b/c he hasn’t had an opportunity yet to do so. But after not playing for a while he was raking doubles in the post-season. The Mets need to get young at the catching position.
LoDuca is slow, bad temper and doesn’t call a particularly good game. Plus he’s injury prone now.
Unless there’s a team offering Anderson a starting position, there is no excuse for omar not signing him. He was arguably our most clutch hitter all of last year.
And the Hot Stove has officially been turned on for the Mets. Let the games begin.
I’m ultimately all for resigning everyone but Green. Time to move on from him.
Anderson is great from the bench. Alou is a great, cheap offensive force. Castillo is a great #2 hitter and fielder. Castro is a rare, good catcher from the bench.
For the Lo Duca haters, we aren’t getting Posada, considering that he’s older, demands years and $$ until he’s 39. Nobody brings the heat like Brooklyn Pauly anyway.
For A-Rod stalkers, Minaya wouldn’t want to meet his demands, A-Rod doesn’t want New York. Move on, young one.
The Mets won’t give what it takes to get Johan.
Silva averages 167 innings per year, with a 4.31 ERA, 1.36 WHIP, 20 HR’s per year
Trachsel averages 203 innings per year, with a 4.32 ERA, 1.40 WHIP, 28 HR’s per year.
SIlva = Trachsel with less innings. Whoopee lets give him $10 Million a year over 4 years!!!!
Milledge + other lesser prospect for Slowey. That guy is good news.
I really only want Anderson and Castro back from that bunch. Shopach is intriquing, WOnder what it would take to get him?
I expect Castillo back, but I just have this real bad feling he is about washed up, and may lose the little power he has soon (that is, he will no longer be able to reach the OF grass on the fly).
I know 12 YOs in little league that can juice the ball farther than him! That, and he isn’t what he used to be in the field (bad knees not good for range!)
Getting a young, solid, 2B for th efuture (assuming GOtay isn’t that guy) would be a nice thing. barfield, if he can regain what he showed in SD, would be wonderful.
Trade for Shoppach and Barfield. Give them Humber and Gomez (or some such package). Kill 2 birds right there. Resign Castro to B/platoon. Keep Milledge.
Reyes
Milledge
Wright
Beltran
Alou
Delgado
Barfield
Shoppach/Castro.
Even better, find a sucker in the AL to take Delgado, and find a replacement 1B someplace.
OK, I took the radical step of lookin gup stats.
I still think Shoppach, with some regular ABs, is primed for a nice stretch (just hitting 28). That could be a solid pick up. No idea what a back up catcher costs these days, but for a mid level prospect package, go for it.
Barfield had hideous numbers (and his 2006 wasn’t quite what I remembered). He is still young, but regessing tha badly is scary. Horrible K/BB ratio, and no power. Not good.
That would fall into the catagory of taking a chance. But, if he could be had cheap enough??
I wouldn’t mind seeing GOtay everyday, but only if he gave up hitting RH! As long as he had a solid platoon type guy to go with him.
Anyway, debate the specific players, but I would love to see Omar get creative and go after younger players with upside, where he can solidify weak positions, potentially for years to come, instead of signing the old farts with declining skills, just because they were on the team last year.
I use the “other guy” test. That is, if he was some other guy on a different team, would you be clamoring to get him?
LoDuca, with his numbers and average at best D, at age 35, if he was on another team, would you want Omar to go snag him (FA of course).
Same with Castillo. If he was still on Minn, would you be desperate to get him?
It seems that the known quantities are always glorified over some unknown new guy.
Frankliy, IMO, other than Anderson, none of them showed enough in 2007 to think they wil lmake a difference in 2008, and the Mets certainly could upgrade any of these positions (maybe not all, but certainly some). Just gotta have Omar earn his money this year!
Right on.
I’m all for seeing what Gotay/Easley platoon can do, and even making Gotay face lefties hitting left-handed. We traded Kepp for him, let’s give that trade a chance not to be the worst deal of Omar’s career.
If we can find a backup to Castro, we don’t need the Willie Randolph-Paul LoDuca love affair to continue. My eye is on Jaime Burke. The Mariners have Johjima and Clement. That’s a huge catcher backlog to unload.
Goodbye Green; Hello Anderson.
I thought Castillo played well despite a bum knee. He’s a great #2 hitter behind Reyes. A Gotay/Easley platoon doesn’t compare w/ Castillo. Little things like defense and base running you’d really start to miss Castillo after you were to see Gotay play daily. Gotay is better suited as a back up/DL fill-in type and a good one at that.
why would you ever think about trading Humber and Gomez for Shoppach (career back-up so far) and Barfield (terrible)?? Thank God whoever proposed this trade isn’t calling the shots…
Hye, you gotta read the disclaimers!
“Anyway, debate the specific players, but I would love to see Omar get creative and go after younger players with upside, where he can solidify weak positions, potentially for years to come, instead of signing the old farts with declining skills, just because they were on the team last year”.
The specific players were just a discussion starter. It was the concept I was going for.
Someone else mentioned Burke. Or find another 2B better than barfield. maybe the Mariners have one? Or if you want Barfield and Shoppach, trade some different prospects.
My real point is, guys like Gomez and Humber are probably not going to make an impact on the team in 2008, and they have other guys to cover for them in the system.
So, if you can take what is effectively an excess, and turn them into some younger guys that will be under control for a while, that also fill gaping holes in the lineup, and they are legit players, you go for it.
Lets just say the got Shop and Barfield, and they both reach their potential. Then, instead of a 33 YO 2B with bad knees and no pop, and a 36 YO catcher with nothing, you have more young nucleus guys.
Reyes
Milledge
DW
Beltran
Alou
Delgado
Shoppach
Barfield
Only 2 guys over 30. And they are both gone after 2008. The rest are in their 20s (unless Beltran turns 30 this year), and under control for probably ~5 years. Power up and down, even lost of speed. heck, you can evan argue that Delgado belongs hitting 8th in that lineup.
So other than the perennial search for pitching, for 2009, they just need to find a LF and 1B (or 3B if DW moves to either of those spots). And LF and 1B aren’t the hardest spots to fill. maybe even make a run at Teix?
bsically, the team is set for years to come, and any hot prospects that get blocked can go for pitching, unless you move the incumbant.
And all by figuring out a way to snag a young C and 2B.
the C FA market is horrible. let some other desperate team over pay for lo duca, resign Castro (if he’s still cheap) and get some vet mins to cover. we wont be the only team thin at C in the NL.
green has got to be done. aging OFers are literally the last thing we need.
castillo and anderson should get good hard looks. neither are essential but at the right price will definitively help the team.
I agree, don’t just cut Castillo loose! The FA catchers don’t jump out at me with stats to replace Paulie. Anderson must be resigned, and Castro has always filled in admirably. I like Green, but he’s done. Nice to be moving forward with the Hot Stove stuff, tho’ the bad taste still lingers…
For me, the name you have to lock up first is Castillo, followed closely by Marlon Anderson. Anderson is such a HUGE part of this bench. Pleeeeese don’t let him walk…again!
Why not give Castro a shot as the full-time catcher, and sign someone to back him up? His bat is much better than it used to be and he has more pop than LoDuca. He may not be the defensive catcher that he used to be, but he’s still better than Paulie. Plus, I understand that he’s one of the most popular players on the team.
Castro is a back-up since he has a long history of being injury prone and not able to stay on the field. he is a solid back-up who an platoon but he is not a starter.
Got to resign Anderson..I love lo duca but I just dont think he can get the job done anymore. We need a catcher that can throw runners out.