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In an article for Newsday, Mets beat writer David Lennon writes, that while everyone is focused on the Yankees and Johan Santana, the Mets are quietly and actively pursuing A’s pitchers Dan Haren and Joe Blanton.
According to Lennon:
“Plenty of teams also will be after Haren if Beane chooses to move him. But it is Blanton, according to a person familiar with the Mets’ thinking, who should be easier to get. The A’s aren’t thrilled about the possibility of going to arbitration with Blanton, and at the moment, they have no plans to sign him to a long-term deal.”
…it seems that the Mets and A’s rumors will never end until omar deals Aaron Heilman and/or Lastings Milledge to oakland for one of these two pitchers…if it is true that the yankees are actually going to get santana, haren and blanton would be a good consolation prize, but at what cost…
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Heilman and Milledge for Average Joe Blanton is a horrendous deal. Milledge plus anything for Blanton is a bad deal.
I don’t like acquiring Blanton one bit. Great, another guy who doesn’t strike anyone out and is a good bet to be around league average.
I do not mind Blanton but not for Milledge and Heilman. Milledge straight up or preferably Gomez straight up so we can have a rf next year without doing another trade or getting some free agent loser
I would be surprised if Blanton posted a sub-4 ERA for the Mets next year. Does he add some value? Sure. He will eat up innings and be about league average. That is valuable. He will also probably be the 4th or 5th best starter in the rotation. The price it will cost to acquire him is not commensurate to that.
I think people overestimate the effect that moving these A’s pitchers to the NL will have. The A”s pitchers pitch in the offensively challened AL West and in the second-best pitcher’s park in the league behind San Diego. Oakland’s home park was significantly more pitcher friendly than even Shea Stadium last year.
Blanton is not that good. He won’t be that good for the Mets. He’s simply not worth a top prospect, even just one of them.
And he really stunk 2 years ago, right?
Heillman in the rotation = Blanton basically, so why trade Milledge + Heilmann to get him?
Take him sure on a lower level deal, He is basically a younger, signed version of Silva.
Heilman + 2 extra pitches and the proven ability to start 30+ games and 200+ innings a year = Blanton
Heilman + Milledge + Pelf + Mulvey + Gotay would be a nice package for Blanton AND RICH HarDen
Rich Harden won’[t pitch so that package for the two would be horrendous.
So far, it seems that
A) The Yankees want Santana, but aren’t prepared to part with Cano, or 2 prestigeous pitching prospects
B) The Dodgers may be willing to part with major prospects a la Kershaw, Kemp, Abreu etc. to obtain Santana.
C) The D’Backs would certainly top a Mets offer for Dan Haren, if they wanted to.
D) Omar wants to do something big to obtain a pitcher better than Carlos Silva
So…
The Dodgers and Yankeesare front runners for Santana.
The D’Backs and Yankees are front runners for Haren.
So…
Either….
A) Hope that Santana is actually traded, and to the Dodgers, so the Mets are front runners for Erik Bedard
B) Hope that the D’Backs aren’t giving away the farm for Dan Haren and go for him.
C) Hope the Delmon Young-Matt Garza falls through and push for Garza with Gomez and Gotay. Certainly enough.
D) Give away Milledge and Heilman for Blanton, who will probably consistantly give us around 200 IP and a 3.50 ERA.
At this point I’ll take either Haren or Blanton, just not at an astronomical price, otherwise we may as well go after Santana.
But this is such a typical Mets move, getting second rate players, while the Yanks get the best. I feel like the unwanted second child.
Did I miss something?
Did the Yankees aquire Santana? Did the Mets trade for a “2nd rate player?”
How about we wait for something happen before we complain about it. Jeze….we’ve been on the “verge” of acquiring Blanton for the past 2 seasons according to the media……..calm down.
I agree. I don’t think Blanton is a bad pitcher. I remember him dueling with El Duque on a Saturday in June in a 1-0 Mets win. Blanton went 9 innings and made us look silly at times. I think he could be pretty good in the NL. If we could acquire Blanton, Haren, and Travis Buck for a number of our prospects, I would be all for it.
And if G-d played baseball I’d like to get him for prospects but that’s a stretch.
You’re right. The Mets will not trade for Blanton/Haren. They’ll just sign Livan. Forget 2nd rate, that’s just a dream. We have to settle for 4th rate players.
Seems to me like you haven’t been Mets fan for long. Maybe all of two years?
Nah, I actually have been a fan for one year and 150 games. I bailed on them the last two weeks of last season.
Why don’t you buy a clue before you come at me with front running b.s.? Did they get a 2nd rate player when they signed Beltran? How about Pedro? What about trading for Delgado? Was he not a very good player? Wana go further back? Bonilla was very coveted as a free agent, who landed him? How about Saberhagen, Viola, and Alomar? It’s not a matter of getting 4th rate players. It’s more, would you bet your last dollar (which is what it will take to acquire Santana) that this is the move that puts the Mets over the top? Not sure about you, but I wouldn’t. You either prosper from it, or you suck for the next 7 years.
You need to have a few bullets left for the trade deadline or for depth, so we don’t have to see David Newhan get 100 ABs again this year.
You bailed at the right moment.
As for the Santana trade, if the Yanks/Sox don’t give up a ton for Santana, then Omar didn’t do his job. Besides, worst case scenario, Johan turns into the current Pedro, and EVERYONE seems to love Pedro.
As for our prospects, they all suuuuuuck. How is it possible that all of their stocks dropped as they got more exposure? People here need to wake up; there are way too many who drink the cool-aid. There’s no ace nor MVP among them.
So you ask, would I send the farm for Santana? Hell yea!!! It’s a no brainer. I’ll take 8 years of sub .500 ball for 1 WS!!! We gotta go for it. We can’t aim to be average for 10 years, we need to get that championship.
We can replenish our farm by drafting someone in the 32nd round or pick someone up from a foreign country.
And seriously, if you don’t know that the Mets have a history of second rate players, you haven’t a clue.
Your listing those players just makes my case stronger. Viola? Bonilla? Saberhagen? Alomar? Come on. You can do better.
btw it should go w/o saying but, when I say the Mets get second rate players, that doesn’t mean all of their transactions are for second rate players. Do I really need to say this?
How quickly you forget that the Yanks wanted no part of Beltran. Bonilla? He wasn’t the guy. It was Bonds. In fact, Van Slyke was better. You name some decent players, but getting them in their declining years is, yes, getting second rate players.
Yankees wanted no part of Beltran. How did that work out for them? Would you rather have 3 years of Damon and a year of Bernie, or 7 years of Beltran?
I know those players that I mentioned weren’t exactly in their prime when we acquired them, but they weren’t showing signs of decline either. Bonilla looked like a good move at the time. Granted, Bonds was better. Saberhagen was OK. Alomar was an excellent player.
I understand the sentiment that the Yanks always get their man and we get the remains. I agree with that in full, but it’s not like we get garbage. No other team would spend $1/2 Billion in an offseason. By doing so, they are able to unload their prospects. The problem right now with the Mets is this….Hughes, Joba, and Kennedy are more attractive to other teams than Milledge, Pelfrey, and Heilmann. I have to be honest with you, aside from Joba, I’m scratching my head.
I know that getting Santana at all costs would look great going into Spring Training, but getting Haren shouldn’t be looked at as a failure. Especially if you consider Alou and whoever winds up in right field will need to be relieved at some point. Not to mention, chips at the deadline.
To be fair, what we accomplished last season did not seem very “average” :)
First of all, this has less to do with it being a “typical less move” and more to do with the Yankees having one of the most highly thought of pitching prospects around baseball: Phil Hughes. And if they are willing to part with Cabrera or Cano those are two young players with MLB experience who can contribute on good teams. I know, I know… Cabrera isn’t THAT good, but he has shown to play a good CF and is good enough with the bat to play CF.
And if the Mets end up with Haren, how is that second rate? He’s a bit younger, under contract, and cheaper than Santana. Plus, he shouldn’t cost as much. So if the Mets get him, they will still be in a good position to make further improvements.
Haren vs. Santana. hmmm
Is one clearly better than the other? hmmm tough choice.
Haren has had one very good half-season.
Haren vs. Santana. hmmm
Is one clearly better than the other? hmmm tough choice.
Haren has had one very good half-season, in his career. Santana’s accomplishments speak for themselves.
You mean when the Mets got Pedro and the Yankees got the Big Unit?
Or when the Mets got Beltran and the Yankees stuck with Berine and then signed Damon?
Or even when the Mets were the second highest bidder for Dice K? Yes, even higher than those big bad Yankees.
Get that Yankee monkey off your back dude. Wait until something actually happens before bemoaning the Mets’ front office.
Actually, I’m not comparing the Mets to the Yanks, YOU are. I’m comparing the Mets to everyone else.
Yeah, we got Pedro at the right time, right? What has he done for us so far? 27 wins for 39+mil. We needed to get him in ‘97, not ‘05.
I’ll give you Beltran, but we needed to overpay him b/c we were foolish not to sign Vlad and his supposed bad back, which earned him an MVP already. How many MVPs do we have? Oh yea, as many as we have no hitters.
Dice-K? Didn’t want him, but thanks for proving my point. 2nd to the Sox.
Get the monkey off my back? You’re the one with the Yanks on your back.
Oh I’m sorry. I guess I misunderstood you when you wrote: “But this is such a typical Mets move, getting second rate players, while the Yanks get the best.I feel like the unwanted second child.”
I don’t know how I could have infered that you were comparing the Mets to the Yankees.
Sorry for the confusion. When I wrote that, I meant this case. When I wrote Mets get second class players, I meant in relation to everyone.
trading away our entire farm for johan isnt practical. IF we’re gonna trade L-Millz, Heilman, Pelfrey, Gomez, we should try to acquire 2 pitchers (Haren and Garza, Blanton and Garza, Haren and Blanton?)
The obvious problem after that is a hole in the ‘pen with Heilman and an even BIGGER hole in RF (which i been sayin i’d LOVE to gauge Andruw JOnes’s interest in playin RF for us, hey, Ted Dibiase said it best, “everybody’s got a price! hahahahahaha”)
Love the million dollar man reference…
I think Heilman is more replaceable than RF. But you could find a nice platoon situation for RF thought could be productive. Even if you went with Chavez/Gomez in a worst case scenario.
i just read on mlb trade rumors that Xavier Nady might start being dangled by the Pirates…if L-Millz were to go, i wouldn’t mind seeing him back, with say, Damaso Marte?