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According to MLB.com and ESPN.com, Carlos Silva has agreed to a four-year deal with the Mariners.
Chad Durbin will sign with the Phillies, and not the Pirates, reports the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Lastly, according to Ken Rosenthal at FoxSports.com, Ron Mahay and the Royals have agreed to a two-year contract.
…thanks to tr, michael and jason for the links…
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Omar, can you please do effing something here? Please?
I think Wise was a precursor to unloading Heilman in a deal.
If not, then why did they not just trade Mota for Wise (rather than for Estrada who was released) a few weeks ago?
I figure they have since gotten close to something that involves Heilman, and are shoring up the pen now rather than later.
Hopefully, something big.
Well at the time, not having starting catcher yet probably seemed to be a more pressing issue. I don’t fault the Mets for trying to act quickly in that dept, and I’m glad they’re taking their time with the bullpen. You don’t find quality middle relievers by being the first guy lined up to overpay. You wait until the market settles out a bit and pick up low risk, medium upside types, such as Wise.
i hope you’re right
How about we signed Wise and he couldn’t be traded for.
My bet is that Heilman will go (with a number of other players) for either Lowry or Blanton. Unless Omar is going to suprise us all with a bigger trade that none of us thought about……..Please give us a Merry Christmas Omar.
That’s the thing about Omar, he’s full of surprises. I think all of his trades have come as surprises.
Well if you think that Wise is a good replacement for Heilman, guess again. Wise is not a very good pitcher at all.
I… can’t… believe… we’re… out… of… the… Durbin market.
Sigh…
Mets, Reds, and Sox left in the running for two pitchers.
Martinez, Heilman, Pelfrey, Mulvey, Humber for Santana.
Please?
They don’t want Pelfrey……………..Martinez, Heilman, Mulvey, Humber, Guerra. With Maine, Perez and Santana the team have time to look for Piching prospect for future.
How do you know they don’t want Pelfrey?
And also, if they prefer Guerra over Pelfrey, well then that’s just dandy.
+3
no one’s untouchable.
Personally, I’m glad Silva is off the market. One less mediocre pitcher for the Mets to consider.
I second that. Thank God we didnt sign this bum.
Yesss!!!! hope the same for Livan, Lohse………With Bartolo lets see what he do in the DR League….
Exactly! I’m glad Omar didn’t do anything in this case. Four years of Silva would have been ridiculous.
Now I just hope someone else signs Livan before Omar does something stupid.
So if you don’t want the free agent pitchers on the market.. and Santana is what it is… how do we upgrade our medoicre pitching staff? Even if we didn’t give a contact to Silva, this signing makes our lives that much more difficult… am I just dumb?
not dumb, but not considering all possibilities.
we either go for the HR (Santana, Bedard, Haren oops)
OR
we let our prospects grow and gamble that one or two of them become Silva or better, which isn’t all that beyond possibility.
I wouldn’t say the staff is mediocre. With Pedro basically replacing Glavine, I would say it is stronger than it was at the start of 2007. It just needs one more starter that’s at least a #3 or #4 pitcher (of course if Omar can get someone better, who’s gonna complain?).
That said, on the whole I agree with points guy, but I would add that Omar should take a gamble on guys like Garcia, Colon and/or Prior and see what happens. As has been mentioned many times, those guys could be had for a 1-2 year, incentive laden contract.
If he snags Colon, he can start the season while Pelfry and Humber can start in AAA. When El Duque takes his annual trip to the DL, that should be right around the time Garcia or Prior would be ready to pitch.
And if Colon doesn’t work out after a few starts, they can call up Pelfry.
That scenario would play better with me that signing someone like Livan to a bloated contract.
Agreed…… I’m afraid to ask how much silva signed for……
From what I have seen it appears to be 4 years 44 million. I know if I was medicore at my job I would not be getting that kind of security unless it was building security to show me the door.
No offense intended, but Omar is due to sign another Hispanic player. I bet a pay check that he still signs Livan. They have too much history.
He has history with Colon too. Sometimes, when everybody thinks Omar is gonna zig, he ends up zagging.
BTW, Santana is Hispanic too.
I wish the Mets would sign someone. Pelfrey and Humber will get their starts, but it would be nice to have someone in there who could eat some innings and give the pen a rest. Especially since Duque will need some time off around August or so. And we cant be sure how Pedro is going to do.
I wouldnt have been upset with the Mets getting Silva, but it just seems more and more Omar is ready to go to war with who we have.
I agree somewhat. However, I can’t see the Mets signing a below average pitcher and having him tie up a rotation spot for 4 years just because he’s making 11+ million a year. A two year deal would have been great. However at 4 years, this guy could go 2-15 next year and still be in the starting rotation the following year and perhaps beyond that.
+2
4 years is way too many, i hope omar quickly learned that lesson with the castillo signing.
If the Mets do not get Santana look for Livan to eat the innings. No one is running out to sign him yet. Stay away from Colon he was hurt and can break down easily.
This is great news…thank god.
Some things to note:
Reds, Sox, Mets are looking for an ace. Reds and Sox for Bedard, and Mets and Sox for Santana.
Reds: Offering Josh Hamilton and Homer Bailey. Wouldn’t be surprised if they add Frazier or Encarnarcion to the mix.
Reds Sox: Offering Jed Lowrie, Jon Lester, Justin Masterson and Ryan Kalish
Mets: CURRENTLY offering Carlos Gomez, Aaron Heilman, and Philip Humber
Right now, the two Red teams are in the lead.
But things to know: Wise, Wagner, Sosa, Schoeneweis, Feliciano, Register and Sanchez are all but locks for the bullpen.
This could mean a deal involving Heilman is in the works.
or it could mean that omar has given up and Heilman is gonna finally get his chance to start hes been begging for
Not. Gonna. Happen.
+3
i’m gonna go out on a limb here and say that register is definately not a lock for the bullpen.
heilman is better than sosa, no-show, wise, register. there is no guarantee that sanchez will be healthy and effective. omar better get a bif time reliever if heilman is traded.
It doesn’t matter who Heilman is better than. Schoeneweis is here because he’s our second lefty, Sosa has had success and is our backup starter, Sanchez will be back by spring training, and the Mets should be taking a chance on him. Register pretty much has to be in teh bullpen or he’s a free agent I believe?
If the Mets do not keep Register on the 25 man roster than he goes back to the team he was on before being selected in the rule 5 draft along with cash. So its worth the gamble to bring him into camp and see if he can contribute to the team for the year, if he can’t than all we lose is a small sum of money. So Register is not a lock to be in the bullpen.
Ken Rosenthal is that you? How do you know this information?
They’ll only carry 6 relievers, so one of those guys has to go.
Wise (couldn’t find the plate the last 2 months after he hit a guy in the head) and Register (Rule V pickup) are low-risk “projects”, not locks for the bullpen. We haven’t seen Duaner pitch in a year-and-a-half, so we can’t yet know what he’ll show in the Spring. So, in my mind, two spots are still up for grabs, even if we keep Heilman (which I think we will, because I see no signs of a trade fro a quality starting pitcher).
Lima-time anyone???
Just kidding….
please don’t scare us with those words again
please omar i want a merry christmas im not even asking for santana just for you to do your job
Silva takes the mariners out of the trade market. Durbin gives the Phillies six starters on a tight budget so there done and the bottom of their rotation is weak. I’ll be very surprised if the Mets sign another lefty for the pen with three aready there so Mayday, affledt and miller are going elsewhere.
Register might not be a lock for the team, they may work out a cash consideration deal. Mitch Wylie was kept two years ago when SF couldn’t make room to bring him back….
Of the available free agents, I say only two are worth a flyer…Bartolo Colon and Mark Prior.
Assuming Bartolo is healthy, he can eat up a few inning. However, this dude has gained at least 35-50 lbs over the years, which leads me to question his training habits. He looks like a latin Hideki Irabu!!! Nontheless, plug him in as your 4th-5th starter, he’s money in the bank. Again, assuming he’s healthy and comes at a reasonable price (money and short term contract).
good news. now can somebody please sign livan hernandez and kyle lohse so i don’t have to worry about them either
Brian “The Law” Lawrence
b-law! wow, i hope we can lock him up long term. he was outstanding for us last year!
:rolleyes: lol :)
durbin? sounds familar? or maybe i’m thinking of jd durbin.
chad durbin? ugh looks like its time to focus on the wild card everyone
durbin, tyler durbin.
I’d be happy if we can pick up Colon and Prior and keep the youngsters.Guaranteed that by the time Prior is ready Duque and / or Martinez has already broken down.That way we can keep the kids in the minors where they can use the extra seasoning they need.
I am not upset that we did not get Silva. However, with Silva off the market, our needs get magnified and it will be that much harder for us to make a deal. It is much easier to negotiate with Lohse or Hernandez (kill me now), when there is another FA pitcher on the market. With each signing, we get a weaker bargaining position. Do I want us to sign silva.. no.. bit if Seatlle will go 44M and 4 Yr for him, how much more expensive does the FA market become. This offseason just got that much harder. Oye.
Why don’t the Mets try to revisit a trade for Burnett? If anyone remembers he was the pitcher that got it done for the Marlins in the World Series. Imagine him and a healthy Prior in front of Martinez ,Maine and Perez. That’s a deep rotation if they can STAY healthy.
Actually, it was Josh Beckett who got it done for the Marlins. In fact, Burnett was their 4th best pitcher, at best.
Good baseball teams are not made of IF’s
I want to keep Heilman and Pelfrey. hopefully something can get done with only one of them….
Oh, like I said before….looks like the Royals mean business
speaking of the royals, hows our boy ambiorix?
He will be out for all or at least most of 2008 recovering from TJ surgery.
u can imagine a healthy Burnet and Prior while i imagine my equally unrealistic goal of winning the lottery
I have a lot on my mind. I’m still trying to figure out why we don’t sign Prior before someone else gets him. He’s still young and even if he returned to half the form that he used to be in he would help our staff. Same with Colon. Now for Santana…the buzz has been that the Sox are still the favorites. I do not understand this one bit. They have the best rotation in the majors they don’t need him! Seriously it’s pointless. Santana would BARELY be an upgrade if any at all in their rotation since it’s that good as it is and Sox fans think they need him. HELLO…Boston just won the WS because of their awesome pitching. Why can’t the Met’s move in, give them the young guys they want (obviously without Reyes) and sign him? We have the chips, we have the money and we can do it but Omar is just scared to make the move. Let’s face it…our young pitchers that we developed in recent years have been subpar (except Kazmir of course). The chances that our young pitchers or even OF’s will become all stars is pretty slim. The Mets confuse me…they have the “win now” attitude but now they all of a sudden want to save our young arms. Our young arms=years and years to develop….santana’s arm=proven, winning, established and most importantly…he would have an immediate impact and he’s the piece of the puzzle we’ve been looking for to lead the rotation.
what makes you think the Twins want “our young guys”. It appears they DO NOT want “our young guys”.
Looks can be deceiving. I don’t think Omar’s offered up enough of our prospects.
points guy, i feel like regarding the santana issue we share the same opinions. i to am under the impression omar is trying to be a little too cute with these trade negotiations. not that hes lowballing but kind of like hes trying to steal santana, but its not like maine or perez where teams give up. no one is going to steal santana the twins dont have jim duquette. i doubt he’s offered more than 3 players thus far for no reason other than i think if youre the twins and youre offered 5-6 players over 3 from the sox or yanks you take the 5-6 deal bc prospects are prospects and the more you have the better your chances are of getting one to pan out.
Or maybe the Twins are just playing the waiting game to see if someone will up the ante. They’re in no rush to get rid of Johan, it’s not like anyone’s giving them a “real” deadline.
How long did John Maine go from a young arm to a proven arm? It doesn’t take years and years.
Also, the reason they won’t sign Prior, who you say is young and may only return to half his form (which would not help this staff), is that he wants a one year deal on the West Coast, money not hugely important. He wants to use 2008 as a showcase season, so he can hit the jackpot in 2009. The Mets are not a team in position to give a guy starts just so he can make money later, they are a win now team. Let a last place tam with a thin pitching staff allow him to take some lumps or pitch 5 innings while building up his arm. My prediction: He takes less money to pitch in his hometown of SD, or stays in warm weather and goes to Texas or Houston.
Lastly, Boston wants Santana so they can continue to win with their awesome pitching. Schilling is on his way out, and the Sox are trying to stay ahead of the curve.
I hope your mind is clear now.
I think Omar is less hung up on giving away our young arms than giving up both Gomez and Martinez………
The Red Sox don’t care if he goes to the Mets, they just want to keep him away from the Yankees. And, he would be a HUGE upgrade to any rotation, all-time.
If the Red Sox get Santana, it would be like the Mets looking for a superstar 3B.
its basically like mets getting greedy and trying to get a-rod….
but consider this…
Santana is the BEST pitcher in baseball……
when he’s on…..HE’S unhittable.
if we ever got to the playoffs…
Santana, MAINE, PEREZ, PEDRO, ORLANDO.
THATS SOME SICK FIRE POWER.
and we all know pitching wins world series….
so apparantly david wright is to 3b as santana is to sp??? did i read those two posts right?
I think it’s more like david wright is to 3b as beckett is to sp in that analogy.
Hopefully one day, but not quite …
“If the Red Sox get Santana, it would be like the Mets looking for a superstar 3B.”
Not exactly, you don’t trot out a different 3B every 5 games.
Pitching wins championships.
The problem for Minaya is the way he framed this offseason, raising all of our hopes that he would actually go out there and acquire a big name front-line pitcher. If he hadn’t set the bar that high, said he was going out there to shore up the bullpen and was excited to compete with Pedro Martinez for an entire year, and maybe wanted to bring in a left-handed corner OF and a defensive-minded catcher, would the fans really be that mad about a roation of Pedro, Maine, Perez, El Duque (people so soon forget what a great year he had through August), and Pelfrey?
Jeremy,
You have to be mad about that rotation of Pedro, Maine, Perez, El Duque, and Pelfrey. Two of the five are conisistant. We have NO idea if Pedro can go a full season, we need to expect that El Duque will get hurt, and Pelfrey is a complete unknown.
It is sad that last year’s rotation will be better than this one. Can we expect both Maine and Perez to win fifteen again? Glavine at least gave us innings. Now I was one who wanted Glavine gone but I had visions of an ace under the tree by now.
Omar has to make something happen. Even if he has to go out and get Blanton while trading Gomez and some other pitching prospects, I say do it. He will be an innings eater and give us 15 wins a year consistantly.
I have been such a Minanya apologist for so long but I really can’t anymore. I don’t mind (not like) the deal for Church and Schneider. But not doing anything after we tanked is really questionable to me.
Resigning Easley, Marlon & Alou. Getting rid of Mota & Lo Duca & Picking up Estrada, Register, Wise, Church & Schneider hardly qualifies as “Not doing anything”.
We all want that big name pitcher but they are not Free Agents. The Twins & O’s are not going to jump at the first offer…they have all the negotiating clout…they don’t have to trade these guys! It is very realistic that they both will be on their respective teams at the start of next season.
Furthermore, a deal isn’t going to get made because we want an early x-mas gift. Last I checked, it is still December and there is 3 months to spring training to get a deal done.
If the reports are true and Prior is only looking for a one year deal, the Mets should jump on him and over pay him for one year. High Risk High Reward guy for one year is fine for me. Will only cost us cash, and we still have an opportunity to make a move.
Patience fellow fans. Omar hasn’t made that huge “Splash” yet, but he has done a solid job thus far filling holes…just not the hole that we all want to see filled…yet.
I disagree. He has apologized for Omar long enough! It’s December 20th already and though no other team has gotten Santana, Omar has not either! Sure he has made a lot of transactions, but I forget about them the next day! So what good is that? Chad Durbin was signed right under Omar’s nose while he was napping, or finishing up the Matt Wise contract (which is SUCH old news now).
If Omar doesn’t do SOMETHING soon, and by something I don’t mean all the moves he has been making, I mean get Santana, or at THIS point get a second rate #4 starter like Blanton instead (it IS December 20th after all! COME ON), because I am SO tired of apologizing to unknowledgeable fans about Omar already.
Unknowledgeable? What “Knowledge” are you exactly dropping? It’s the same whiney regurgitated crap you see endlessly on these posts. “Omar has done nothing” Omar has to do something”,”When is he going to sign Santana already” “Fire Omar”. As if all he has to do is pick up the phone, sit down with the twins over a Lennys sandwhich and they are going to give us Johan.
You say yourself omar has made moves. Just because he hasn’t gotten \ an ace yet doesn’t mean he hasn’t done anything. Plus, I didn’t know Omar was under a time limit. Who cares if it is Dec. 20th. Omar isn’t going to make a move to please you and your nonsensical deadline.
And Chad Durbin!!!!!! With his career 25-37 record and 5.75 era! You want him? The Phills can have him, and as far as I am concerned, that move helps us.
Thank for the “Knowledge” and keep your apologies for yourself.
A-
ure I expect Maine and Perez to win 15 again. Actually, I think 15 would be low, they can easily win more.
I expect them to win 26-32 games between them. Neither is a stud type pitcher who can crank out close to 20 wins. Maine might turn into one, but Ollie is definitely inconsistent enough that he can turn in a 12 win season.
So don’t expect more than 32 between them.
Exactly stickguy. I remember a few games last year where better defense/run support and those 2 win more than 15. They are capable of 18 to 20 which would make them 1 and 2 material in the NL. Everyone talks about Santana being unhittable but when on Perez is tough to hit as well.
I don’t understand all of these people who are demanding for Omar to just “do something”. So you all really think he’s at home sleeping and playing Guitar Hero while all the other GMs in the league are at work? I am sure he is trying to make something happen. If he doesn’t its because he doesn’t have the chips to deal with, and the place that he does the best in, the free agent market, is empy this year. I just don’t know how to blame him for this, unless you are willing to give up Gomez/Martinez/Heilman/Pelfrey/Mulvey to get Santana, I’m not sure what else he can do.
And please, I wish everyone would stop suggesting trades that don’t include both Gomez and Martinez. Clearly the Twins are holding out for all of the Mets top prospects.
Silva would not have been horrible but the years they added to the deal are really a poison pill. Its just too long a contract for defined mediocrity.
At this point…realistically analyzing the starting pitching problem…..we have a terribly unsettled back end to the rotation. It killed us in 2007 and was a thorn in 2006 but the division sucked so it did not matter.
We have been shooting for the homerun all offseason. Waiting and hoping for the deal to break on Santana or Bedard (no one realistically thought we were dealing with Beane and getting Haren).
I think we should concentrate on improving the #5 spot in the rotation and nothing else. I’d rather trade a few pieces to get a Chris Capuano or Joe Blanton or Ian Snell or Jeremy Bonderman or Javier Vasquez or even Jose Contreras.
I thought maybe it made sense to take a risk on a guy like Prior but his injury history suggests that is not reasonable. As healthy as his agent may say he is….we need 30 starts and a .500 record out of the #5 spot. 11 – 12 wins would be terrific production.
We should probably start dialing down our expectations some so we are not too disappointed when the secondary pitcher comes and its Mulvey plus Vargas and Gotay for one of the lesser pitchers in a trade
B- I agree except we should still try to get Santana while going after a #5.
I know its not going to happen and I have flipped over and over on this position but….
I think that its time to get a bullpen arm like Otsuka, take that chance on him or trade for Brian Fuentes.
Then move Heilman to the rotation as the #5. Keep Pelfrey as the long man for now. Here me out on this.
We can’t keep saying that Pelfrey is not ready, he either is or is not that great at this point. Let him figure it out in the long man situation. This will keep his innings down. If Heilman struggles or when Elduque or Pedro get injured then Pelfrey is ready to go, already being stretched out as a long man.
I think at some point, if not traded, Pelfrey will be needed to pitch big time innings for a stretch. We can not count on him to pitch 200 innings so there is no way that I start the season with him as the #5.
As for Heilman, I know his effectiveness in the BP and I am not going to say that he will even have an ERA under 5.00 but at this point I think for our future we have to find out. He will be up for FA soon and his value to us has to be either as a starter or as a trading chip because he most likely will not resign.
If that big name pitcher is found then Heilman or Elduque can move to the pen. I just think Heilman in the rotation would make us much more flexible at this point.
works for me.
Yeah, they have to fill out the pen anyway, but if thearms are there in ST, Heilman can really help shore up the rotation.
Pedro, Maine, Perez, Duque, Heilman in the rotation.
Wagner, WIse, Sanchez (the wildcard), Felician, Schoe, Sosa, and Register/Smith (or Pelfrey) in the pen.
Assuming Duaner comes back ready to go, the pen looks fine, and better than last year.
Rotation is set, with Pelfrey ready to step in.
I can live with this. Heilman almost has to be as good as the stiffs being discussed!
What makes people on this board think there’s any chance of Heilman starting. Is it Omar’s saying that it’s not going to happen, or Willie saying no way. I think this ship sailed about 3 years ago. Perhaps Dave Cone or Scott Erickson can fill that 5th spot?
If I can remember correctly he was considered when the overated pitcher that we sent to the Royals beat him out for the job. I am not sure he beat him out as much as that pitcher could not pitch in the BP.
At this point we have to assume that Heilman has as much of a chance starting next year for us as Santana does.
And if that is true, then we need to trade Heilman now while he still has value and could net something in return.
Not saying it will happen (of course, most of what is proposed here isn’t ever going tohappen!)
It really was my opinion of what I think should be done! At worst, it is an option to discuss.
The problem with your idea is that what you suggest is done with Pelfrey is exactly what was done with Heilman, who was a first round pick who struggled in his first year, then after a 1 hitter and some good starts with 2 spotty ones was put in the bullpen for a while, but his success there was a double-edged sword — he never got out of the bullpen. If you look at the history, Heilman was as much of a prospect as Humber or Pelfrey at this point in his career.
I do not want Pelfrey to be used in any other situation than the Sele/Oliver role. Heilman was used as the 7th inning guy every night.
Im not saying its a bad idea, but if Pelfrey dominates from the pen you know it will be an option to keep him there if other options are failing. It’s hard to remember but Heilman WAS as highly regarded out of college, though his star fell slightly more than Pelfrey’s has so far, it was very similar to if Pelfrey pitches a 1 hitter in his second start and then is sent to the bullpen forever.
And I’d prefer he pitches every 5th day in AAA than randomly in a Sele role where he may sit for 10 days then pitch two straight days. He is not out of options yet.
If Pelfrey goes to AAA and pitches every 5th day he will not be able to pitch the innings we need him to in the majors. We will need him in August and I do not want him hitting a wall like he would be if at that 150 inning mark.
Lastly, it was not a case of Pelfrey not being ready — he needed a year to learn his new pitch. He started throwing it last Spring, never really trusted it until late in the season, and pitched extremely well down the stretch using it. He now has another spring to fine tune it. He is ready to pitch every 5th day, whether at Shea or in AAA fine tuning that pitch.
So keep him on a pitch count, but using him in the spot starter/long man/mop up role is worse for his young arm.
Last year (late in year) when he got comfortable with the slider he struck out Chipper and Teixeira back to back and looked pretty dominant to me, then won a few straight games if I’m not mistaken before going back to the bullpen (?)
I am not disagreeing that he is ready. He just can’t give us the innings that we are missing from Glavine. He pitched 150, however, last year so maybe he can pitch 180 effectively??? Its a big question mark, however.
And Heilman isn’t? He’s pitched an average of 90 innings the last 3 years. “Pelfrey is not ready to give us the 200 innings we need”. But you think Heilman can magically double his innings without a problem. He’s in the bullpen, face it, live with it. Pelfrey is going to be a starter, whether its with the Mets or down at AAA, or maybe with someone else. Man, to even think of moving Heilman in to start is going against the basic principle of you dont weaken one position to strengthen another. He’ll always be a better reliever than a starter.
Slow down over there. Bonderman will bring back the same level of prospects as Haren and Bedard not Blanton, Cap or Snell…
On that note I think a Cap would be a fine addition, think of it as a younger Glavine.
Is there a team in baseball having as bad a winter as the Mets? For all the guys they almost lost, Yankees biggest loss is in middle relief. The Marlins have lost significantly more talent than the Mets, but they’ve gain substantial future talent, which fits their long-term goals. I guess the Rockies haven’t had a banner off season, but our off-season is like a continuation of September.
There are more teams that have done less than the Mets than that have done more.
I actually think the offseason has been torture but mostly because the expectations of change were everywhere and we were lead to believe that we would be targeting high end front of the rotation pitching (and we all assumed we could get it).
Every whisper that is mentioned about Santana, Bedard, Haren and others reminds us that we are not yet where we want to be. The big fish has not been secured.
Signing Castillo was a good thing. Maybe the deal is longer than we hoped but really…the price is not that bad for 4 yrs. Schneider and Church are decent pickups…though we all felt that we could get more from Milledge in a trade.
Resigning Alou, Easley, Marlon Anderson…all good moves and necessary to be competitive. Even the Wise signing is a solid pickup.
Its the starting pitching though that has left us with the empty feeling and unfortunately…I believe we will have to live with it.
I’d reach out for smaller fish as I think the biggest problem for the METS next season will not be the top 3 starters….I think the biggest problem will be the last 2. Duque will be injured and Pelfrey is very unknown.
It makes sense to get one bonafide ML pitcher (not necessarily an ace) to be around .500 with 12 wins next year to solidify the back end. If we do that…we have a chance to exceed last years win totals and secure the NL East.
Braves are not better having lost Dotel, Mahay, Renteria and Andrew Jones plus getting Glavine.
Phils are a bit better if Lidge is very good. If not, the team is not better but will be worse in the pen and will lose games that were once saved by Myers in the pen.
Nationals are a little better but not enough to think they can even win 80 games.
Fish are remarkably worse without Cabrera and D Train.
Now the DBacks are better and San Diego should still be able to pitch and the Dodgers and Cubs are both better but in our own division…little has changed….which may be why Omar is not yet panicking
and, anyone who thinks Omar is done on December 20th is crazy. Sit tight, something will happen. Now whether it’s a good move we all like or a panic move like Gomez and more for Blanton (saw that on a post here, talk about panic), is yet to be seen…
What B prospects would it take to get Bradford and Payton from the O’s? They are rebuilding and do not really need either.
Bradford could solidify the pen and Payton would be a perfect platoon w/ Church or 4th OF>
I think at this point ( almost Christmas), it’s become obvious,
O is setting Willie up for failure and a Memorial day firing when
we’re about .500 i.e. Davey. he’ll bring in Felipe Alou to “right the-
-ship” and try to make a splas w/ a big deal by the deadline.
Otherwise, this entire off-season makes NO SENSE!!!
He goes in w/ obvious holes to fill/upgrades needed like’
LF,2B,C and needing atleast 1 SP to replace galvine’s 15W/200
innings, PLUS atleast 1 RP to pitch the 7th or 8th.
With 40% or atleast 40 Million to spend and he’s done NOTHING!—Now O didn’t get to where he is because he’s totally
incompetent. SO, I,ve got to believe theres something else going
on here with him.
He has a LF, C and 2B that are all average or above. That is taken care of. He has upgraded our RF position over last year not to mention the defensive upgrades in RF and C.
He has improved the pen with Wise and getting rid of Mota. He is just missing that SP and I don’t know if that problem will get solved or not.
How has he taken care of LF? By re-signing a 42y/o
Who’s been hurt his whole career? Who you can’t count
on for more than half a season? And 2B? 4 yrs for a broken-down, past his prime speed player when in both
situations there were/are plenty of younger/healthy options out there. ANd while I do give his a pass at C,
Scheider IS A MUCH BETTER defensive player, O’s
done nothing SIGNIFICANT to UPGRADE the pen!
I’m rootin’ BUT who knows what we’ll get f/ WIse, he’s
got no great track record! AND HE MUST UPGRADE the
SPing or the pen will blow-out again in the second half!
I agree on the SP market as I said.
However, signing Wise and getting Sanchez back are improvements to the pen. Dumping Mota and Sele are improvements.
Castillo, like it or not, is an upgrade over last years starting 2B both defensively and offensively. Remember at one point it was Anderson Hernandez’s job to lose? Ha. As for LF there were not any better options. Alou’s bat was deadly when healthy and he came a cheap price. We know he won’t be healthy all year but what better options were there for LF. As long as Chavez is here and right now we have not even traded Gomez. That being said I would love to add another OF/1B like Nady or Mench.
You can look at all the moves as bad if you want. I try to be objective. At this moment we are a SLIGHTLY better team than we were last year at this point.
Point is I dont want to look at his moves as bad i luv
to put a positive spin on any thing we do BUT the
Wise/Sanchez thing is a huge ? We have no idea if
Wise is gonna be any good and if Sanchez is gonna
be healthy. There were a multitude of options @2B
this off-season all of which wouldn’t have bound the
position for 4 yrs.! And inLF the Rabbi is 42 yrs old
In the entire history of this great game there haven’t
been any everyday player who’s productionn youcan
count on, let alone aguy whos missed 800+ gms in
his career due to injury before he was 40.
Would orey Patterson and Tad Iguchi have been terrible signs??
Nothing? He’s done more than most GMs and Omar typically makes most of his moves AFTER Dec 20th.
Why are so many people so impatient this season? The collapse? Metsblog.com every day instead of Howie Rose every week? Seriously, it feels like there is more impatience than ever, and it is probably a combination of both things, maybe other factors?
He made the Benson for Julio/Maine trade in late January.
He traded for Duaner in January.
In ‘05 he got Dookie and Delgado early, but all of his other moves before December have been pretty awful panic moves, while his later moves prove to be better.
As for FA’s, he got Chavez and Bradford after Dec 20th, Feliciano in February, but Julio Franco before Dec 20th, and last year signed Woodward on Dec 20th, but Sosa and Show in mid-January.
Looking at the transactions this year he’s actually done a lot, and it’s not even Omar season yet.
There is still time, and Santana is still a Twin. Breathe all!
We’ll regret not signing Silva…
20 starts: Pedro will make more, ElDuque will make less
Kyle Lohse? one “h” away from “lose”
Bartolo and Livan? get to the buffet line before these two.
This sucks.
I wanted Silva too but not at 4 years 40+ million. No way.
yeah, Silva for 4 years, thats what I want on my team. Are you crazy? Wanting Silva is saying I accept mediocrity. Omar is trying to get something done, but he’s not going to just accept something because its there. He wants to win, but he’s not going to sacrifice everything for one guy. We’re still building towards something here, and sometimes you have to wait till it happens, you can’t just force it to happen, because you’ll end up with something that won’t make you better then you were. To everyone that wants Omar to land someone, he’s trying, but why do you think its just that easy? Oh Omar, go do something, why can’t you do something? Other teams are involved here people, it amazes me how people will just not comprehend that. That being said, we’re still a good team with pieces in place to stay that way, when we’re able to land someone worthy of landing, or when our own chips develop, we’ll be better, but I am not for stop gaps and mediocrity just for the sake of it. Flexibility for the future is what i say and the chance to win now. We have both.
Guys,
Why would we be interested in Silva, when we got our main man KYLE LOHSE ready to go!?!??! IN OMAR WE TRUST BABY, THIRD PLACE OR BUST!!!!!!!!!!!!
LOL horrible…
ARTICLE FROM ESPN
WHY ARE THE METS SO WORRIED ABOUT THE LUXURY TAX?
As recently as 2003, a $120 million payroll was unheard of, for any team but the Yankees. This year, the buzz is that at least seven teams — and possibly as many as nine — could top $120 million. The Yankees, Red Sox, Angels, Dodgers, Mets, Cubs and Tigers are all projecting payrolls around that figure or higher. And the Mariners and White Sox could wind up in that zone with the right free-agent signing (or two).
So what are the luxury-tax ramifications of that? Zilch. The threshold for 2008 will inflate to $155 million (and probably affect only the Yankees and Red Sox). From there, the threshold zooms to $162M, $170M and $178M the following three years.
Of course we don’t sign Mahay, he wasn’t mediocre enough