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The A’s have re-signed RHP Kiko Calero to a one-year contract, one day after non-tendering him.
According to local reports, the Astros have shown interest in free-agent RHP Mark Prior, while the Phillies have shown interest in free-agent RHP Akinori Otsuka, both of whom were non-tendered on Wednesday.
…in looking over the non-tender list, which you can check out at MLB.com, the one name aside from prior and otsuka who piques my interest is Josh Towers…
…i feel like towers could be a good fit for the Mets, in that he he has good control, he can command an inning, and he’ll ‘eat innings,’ as the team keeps referencing as a priority…when paired up with Rick Peterson, and put in a larger park like Shea Stadium, where potential home runs die on the warning track, towers could be a decent and surprising fifth starter, assuming no trade can be made, and assuming Mike Pelfrey and Philip Humber are not ready for the job in spring training…
Otsuka would be a good fit…
yeah man, weren’t we trying to trade for him?
he’s got some arm issues
So the Phillies have interest in signing Otsuka, my question is with the state of our bullpen why aren’t the Mets? Omar please don’t bring in Josh Towers, I know we’re getting desperate at this point, but come on now. Why don’t we just bring in Mark Hendrickson and Chad Durbin, honestly I would rather see Mark Prior.
This is our chance to acquire some real talent with only giving up $ to get them. Jump on this opportunity, give some 2 year deals to bullpen guys. Just do it and open up the competition.
Otsuka had a strange forearm problem and thought he was going to need Tommy John. He was able to put it off so who has any idea what he’ll be like pitching every day. It’s worth a shot.
Oh and when the extremes of our offseason can be either Johan or Josh Towers in the rotation….
Matt Wise.
agreed
otsuka is a stud! 3 years 18 mil. can that lock him up?
I’d rather have Towers than Livan
unfortunate comparison. lt implies we have to choose. when you say josh towers, Matt, I see brian lawrence. a guy who gives up as many runs as he does will never eat innings. he will be yanked before he gets the chance.
Am i missing something, or why wouldn’t Kevin Mench be a perfect fit?
If we sign Mench, what does our full bench look like? Do we still keep Easley, Chavez and Anderson on the roster?
That definitely is a problem, but so is not really having anyone to platoon w/Mench. Wouldn’t we have room for Mench though if Anderson Hernandez is in AAA?
That was Marlon Anderson, our pinch-hitter deluxe he was talking about.
Sign Mench and trade Chavez for a BP arm.
It’d be Castro (C), Endy (OF), Easley (IF-OF), Marlon (OF-IF), Mench (OF-1B), and Gotay (2B-SS)
That’s a well-balanced bench with two lefty bats and a switch plus two-three speed guys that allows us to get Hernandez and Gomez more AAA seasoning. I like it.
Except we won’t carry 14 possition players and only 11 pitchers.
Out of that group, then, I’d see Gotay starting the year in AAA.
5 starters (Duque here for now)
Wagner
Heilman (if not traded)
Feliciano
Sanchez
2 of:
Schoeneweiss
Sosa
Smith
Collazo
Muniz
Humber
Doesn’t seem so unrealistic, if (big IF) the starters actually stay in games!
We have no hats big enough.
Towers has some awkward numbers… the past two yrs spit time with the BP and Starting…. i’d take him for two yrs 10M – even keep him as a long man to replace sele if he doesnt make the rotation – lock it up
$10MILLION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I hope Omar is on the same stuff you are
********NOT on
That’s twice what he would have earned at arbitration.
I can’t say I remember seeing him pitch, but looking at Tower’s stats from last season I’m not sure I get it. Okay he has good control, but how does that help when the ball must like to the batters like a beach ball when he throws it? He didn’t eat up innings for Toronto because he usually got yanked in the 5th inning.
They have to be able to do better than that.
Interesting side note on Towers…. I used to date a girl in college that was his unofficial adopted little sister, (towers used to pitch for the redwings and we live in rochester)… I always found that so interesting….
Isn’t that really an interesting side note on YOU?
I live in Toronto and couldn’t disagree with you more here. In the past two years I’ve never seen Towers pitch a gem. Peterson may work miracles, but this would be turning water into wine.
I am getting pretty disappointed in this offseason. No real exciting moves, nothing to believe they really changed from last year.
I look at the lead they blew and said “Some heads have to role”. However, it was just Ricky Henderson. I hope he wasn’t the only reason we lost last year.
So Omar, you need to do something besides trying to convince your fans that Maine and Perez can anchor a staff. We all know that there needs to be an ace to get past the first round of the playoffs.
Some did, Loduca, Milledge and Glavine.
Towers is not the answer, I would rather start Humber or Pelf and see what happens…b4 giving towers 10 mill…..And I have a question? Is El Duque a starter ??? I have not heard anyone say wether he is or isnt.
Omar has stated that Elduque is a starter “for now”.
So we want someone that the ORIOLES dumped?
Towers has been nothing short of horrendous the past 2 years. I’m sure his numbers would improve somewhat in the NL, but I can’t see Pelfrey or Humber as being any worse, and they don’t cost any money.
I think we’re all in agreement that a low-guarantee, incentive-laden contract for Prior would be a great idea. Of course, I’m sure just about every other MLB club that has money to spend is thinking the same thing, so it’ll be a matter of who’s willing to guarantee him the most.
That’s about it with Prior and I would assume things being equal he would rather go West.
As for Otsuka, I think Omar has to push hard for him. We can’t take the chance that the Phillies have Romero, Lidge and Otsuka and we got uh Register.
I think this Phillies rivalry has to be like the Yankees and Sox in that any move that the Phillies make we have to one up them. We know that pitching is their down fall so why stand by and let them improve it with out improving our own?
I know we are still in the big fish hunt but last year I think Omar missjudged the market twice. Once with Bradford and then with Zito. By that time our pickings were few. I am affraid he will do the same this year. Go ahead and sign or trade for that reliable 4/5 guy and then if we can still get the Ace then great. If not, we can go to war with what we have.
I think he’d be worth at least a minor-league or a cheap two-year deal, just to see if he can push Mouthguard Mike during spring training.
I am not worried about fifth starters. Most teams don’t. Get a number one. the number one should eat the innings.
But when a #1 is not attainable, then you need to worry about the 5th starter.
I dont agree.
so with otsuka and lidge the phillies could have potentially a great bullpen or potentially a horrible bullpen (injury to otsuka, lidge being a headcase). frankly i dont want to wait around to find out. omar please do not let the phillies get better while we sit around doing nothing. this offseason is becoming very frustrating.
Don’t usually agree with you that much but it’s like you read my mind on this one.
How can we even be talking about a guy like Josh Towers (career era 4.96, WHIP 1.38, HR/9IP 1.51; last year 5.38, 1.41, 1.51) and his sparkling 5-10 record in ‘07 when half the people here are eager to trade Aaron Heilman (career era 4.04, WHIP 1.27, HR/9 0.87; last year 3.03, 1.07, 0.83), not mention Pelfrey and Humber? I mean, we’ve got many better in-house solutions than trash like Towers.
Come on, people!
I agree if we can keep Pelfrey’s innings down or he and Humber can split time. The thing that we keep saying is that someone has to eat innings. Neither Pelfrey nor Humber should even be ask to give anything close to 200 innings.
Having lived in Baltimore for a little while I beg Omar, PLEASE NO JOSH TOWERS.
If this is the best we can, I’ll pitch his starts. I can do what he does….
Omar,
Consigue a Santana…Pronto!!
Gracias
I’m not even sure who Towers is, but if Matt likes him, go for it!
As long as he isn’tLivan, doesn’t cost prospects, and doesn’t get signed for more than 2 years (or huge $$), go for it! Especially if he can get shifted to the pen.
I would still rather see Pelfrey get that role, but Omar isn’t asking my opinion these days.
SPend th emoney. Get prior. This is a classic case of being able to flex the financial advantage they have. And if it doens’t work, it is only money.
Prior and Otsuka would both be good, pretty splashy (especially Prior) moves for the Mets- especially considering that they’ve done absolutely nothing and have just sat on their hands for 2 consecutive offseasons now. So just sit back and relax Omar, and continue to do nothing (except “talk” about wanting big players), like you’ve been doing. I’m sure at most Omar will go out and sign yet ANOTHER 3rd string h*spanic catcher (giving us a grand total of about 6 catchers acquired this offseason) like he did with that worthless g*rbage pickup of Raul Casanova this week…these cr*p moves are about all we can expect from Omar/The Mets for the rest of the offseason, looks like. They have done nothing to address their starting rotation/bullpen deficiencies this offseason, and I expect Omar to continue to sit on his hands and just “talk” about acquiring good players without ever actually making any significant moves. They are just telling the fans this to appease them so that they’ll by tickets for next year when in reality they just want to bring back the same lousy, collapsing team minus a few fiery “troublemakers” (Loduca, Milledge)…and have no intention of adding any payroll- they only are looking to dump payroll (Estrada). But I’m not stupid enough to give Fred anymore of my $$$. F you Fred.
firemetmanagement
I bet that you’re one of those guys that has to hear everything that is going on in the mets front office to believe that something is actually happening. Look, I believe that Minaya is doing everything within his power to improve the Mets this year without allowing other teams from depleting the few prospects we have. If other teams want to fall for that trick then let them. I personally think that we need one stud in the bullpen and one in the rotation. The bullpen guy is out there in free agency and the only starter I want is Santana. If we don’t get Santana then we go in with what we have. It really isn’t that bad. Pelfrey can do it. He just needs to be put in there and pitch every 5 days.
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Except for the facts that
1) Every team in baseball that plans to contend next year will be interested. It was a God send for him to be nontendered.
2) He will get to choose where he goes and may not want to be any where near the back page of NY>
Well then I guess it’s time for Omar to make his 1st big splash of the off season and outbid every team in baseball that plans to contend and get this guy.
Make him an offer he can’t refuse.
Then go get Johan.