Ramon will have a good chance of getting back towards his career numbers next year, which would basically make him Paul LoDuca with a few more Ks (nothing out of control though) and a slightly lower BA to go with more power and RBI production. For a bottom of the order hitter, that’s definitely preferred right now. Plus if you add in Brian Roberts you can snag a draft pick for Luis by offering arbitration (assuming he’d reject in favor of garunteed playing time and longer, more lucrative deal) and possibly add Chad Bradford on the two year deal Omar initially wanted, plus maybe snag a decent deal on Bedard for taking all that salary off the Orioles hands.

This is by far the best trade proposal I’ve heard. It fills ALL the Mets needs if it could get done (assuming beefing up the package and taking all that salary off the O’s hands could make Bedard available). Maybe some package of Gomez, Guerra, and two or three out of Heilman, Humber, Pelfrey, and Mulvey for Bedard, Hernandez, Roberts, and Bradford. I think you have to seriously think about that if your Omar. You could restock the farm with four picks before the second round even begins in the draft (between the pick they have, the two for Glavine, and the supplemental for Castillo) and your plans for 2008 with Milledge in RF are intact. Spend the money you would have spent on the FA market on locking up Bedard and Oliver Perez and maybe even John Maine and Brian Roberts if you can. Spice it up with some more of Omar’s signature international signings, and you’ve made your big league club much stronger while only doing minor damage to your farm, maybe even making it stronger if Omar drafts well.

Lo Duca is going back to New York, and in a Mets uniform.. I guarantee it.

Ship Milledge, Heilman, Pelfrey, Humber and Gotay for Roberts and Bedard.

They can’t reject it…. Heilman is a young bullpen force to add to Bradford, Ray, Cherry and Walker. Pelfrey and Humber are young starters with some good potential, or at least Pelfrey is. Gotay and Milledge are nice, young, solid hitters who can build around Markakis. If they can send Tejada to the Yankees for at least Cabrera, they’d be starting on a decent young core.

As for Roberts and the possibility of being mentioned in the Mitchell Report, it doesn’t matter to me. Even if you consider his 2007 as a down season, Roberts was still better than many other 2B last year, and certainly better than Castillo offensively and defensively. At 30 years old, he’s not so old that he’s going to fall apart all of a sudden. I like his speed very much at the top of our lineup with Reyes, and he’d be a nice 2-hole hitter with a little pop. If the Mets were willing to sign Mota who was already serving a suspension for steroids and that didn’t faze Minaya in the least when he did that… then Minaya should NOT be affected to trade for Roberts just on the off chance he once used steroids.

But, if we have to speculate on a pitcher on the Orioles staff, how about Daniel Cabrera. Cy Young stuff; Anthony Young performance. He might be worth the risk, just like Oliver Perez was two years ago.

Personally, and trying to be as realistic as I can,

Mets
-Milledge
-A Hernandez
-Heilman
-Mulvey, Pelfrey or Humber
-Two High ceiling AA Prospects that interest the Orioles that the Mets would be open to considering

Orioles
-Bedard
-Hernandez
-Roberts
-Bradford

I think it works for both, losing salary for Baltimore AND aquiring MLB ready players, and picking up a pitcher plus empty spots for the Mets