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According to Jerry Crasnick at ESPN.com, trade talks between the Mets and A’s regarding RHP Joe Blanton have ‘hit a lull.’
…for what it’s worth, given the holiday season, and the commish’s office being closed, my guess is that most all talks will hit a lull…
The Mets are still interested in Blanton, writes Crasnick, but not at the expense of Carlos Gomez, Kevin Mulvey and Aaron Heilman.
Last week, at his blog for ESPN.com, Buster Olney was the first to suggest that the Mets could acquire Blanton for the above package.
…this is consistent with what i said earlier in the week, which is that blanton will cost at least two, maybe three, of the Mets top prospects, including gomez…turns out, according to buster, it’s gomez, one pitching prospect and heilman…
Last season for the A’s, Blanton was 14–10 with a 3.95 ERA through 34 starts, during which he allowed an average of just one walk per start.
He made at least 32 starts in each of the last three seasons.
He is eligible for salary arbitration this off-season, and eligible for free agency after 2010.
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Thank god.
Seriously, when did Joe Blanton become Johan Santana Jr?
He’s a good starter. He’s not worth a king’s ransom. If the Mets wanted a late 20s, slightly above average starter who is overweight, they could have just paid cash and had Silva.
Blanton puts up slightly better stats than Silva. But it’s hardly enough of a difference to completely ignore 1, while trading the farm for the other.
I’ll be very disappointed if they actually overpay for this guy.
I was going to comment on how absurd that offer is and I saw everyone else already beat me to it.
This is around the same deal we are offering for Santana. Blanton is a nice pitcher and all but Oakland is insane.
I’m actually in the middle of Billy Beane’s book. I’m curious to see what makes him into a crazy person.
If you’re talking about “Moneyball,” please don’t repeat Joe Morgan’s fallacy of saying that Beane wrote it. If you’re that far into it, you should know that he did not.
Joe Morgan is the worst!
Oh and Moneyball is one of the best books i’ve read about Baseball.I’m in the middle of 3 nights in August, and so far its awesome.
you are right. you cannot overpay for a middling talent. but omar will.
Like he overpaid for Maine and Perez and Duaner?
Give Omar some credit.
pay attention. the discussion is about free agents.
Blanton is NOT a free agent. We’re talking about a trade for Blanton.
Free agents? OK, like he didn’t overpay for Zito?
And don’t bother to respond with the prices he paid for Pedro, Beltran or Wagner as a) they are not “middling talent” and b) they are bargains compared to the going rates for pitchers and outfielders these days.
Totally agree. Either we trade our youth for Santana or we keep them. No need to overspend for a middle of the road pitcher. We have enough of those types. Santana or bust!
Looking at Blanton’s career thus far, can anyone really say for sure that he’d be a better starting pitcher for the Mets in 2008 than Aaron Heilman would be?
Have you ever looked at Heilman’s stats as a starter? Absolute FAIL. We need to give Pelfrey, Humber, and Mulvey a shot (or another shot) rather than throwing them to a small market team to develop and trade to a competitor at a later date. LET THE KIDS PLAY!
Epic Fail.
He only started 25 games in his career. Not a large enough sample size.
he has 2 pitches. are you kidding me?
First I want to wish everyone Happy Holidays.
Second I agree with you that the kids should be given a chance.
Third you’re making the same mistake that many Heilman bashers make. They forget that the Mets changed his mechanics after he was signed to come overhand and he was a total failure. Finally they came to their senses and allowed him to go back to the arm slot you now see and he started having success. He has not been given the opportunity to consistently start with his present pitching motion. And BTW the people that initially changed him should have been fired!
Yes.
yes, Mike Pelfrey is already a better starter than Heilman ever was…the guy is a relief pitcher and a good one, leave it at that
Don’t you think the Mets would have made Heilman a starter by now, if they thought he would be better as a starter? Can we stop this silly fantasy of Heilman being our savior as a starter.Please.
I don’t think these two will ever pull off a trade they’re too similar – always looking for the most for the least ….. No way Omar gets a Julio=El Duque, Maine for a Benson deal and no way he allows a Blanton for Gomez, Mulvey, Heilman….. These two are better off dealing with others. i think they’re so similar that they’re suspcious of each other and always looking for how the other is trying to rip each other off…
holy crap this has been a boring day but god willing i will be leaving the office soon.
merry xmas mets fans.
die a thousand deaths from my fists, braves!
merry christmas everyone.
what do you think Omar is giving us as a present?
my guess is a nice flan.
Merry Christmas.
I would say he is giving us the middle finger and indigestion.
Ho Ho Ho.. juuu know what I’m sayeeng
I think he already has. it is called a ticket price increase of 20%
Holy crap! The comments are on!
i was wondering what happened to matt, did carlos beltran kidnap him? because he had a post about interviewing him and at the end there was a reference to someone wearing a bat on their shoulder as a costume then it was quickly taken down, oh wooowww
Here’s my take:
1. There are maybe 15 or so true “top of the rotation” starters in all of the mlb. In any given year, almost all of them are locked down in contracts, unless they’re close to FA and their team decides to ask for a boatload of top prospects in exchange. The very few who are available as FAs or through trade in any year are desperately pursued by a dozen teams.
2. The Mets have two prospects–FMart and Gomez (maybe Guerroa for a third)– who other teams percieve as top-level prospects. The rest are iffy or replacement level. So, to land Santana, the Mets must give up Reyes, which isn’t going to happen. Bedard is unlikely to be traded by Angeleos, and the Os will want more talent than the Mets have in any event.
3. You can expect a similar scenario next year. Few top starters chased by too many other teams. Most of the ones who are approaching free agency never really come onto the FA market due to “trade and sign” deals. The Mets only chance would be to offer more years and money than anyone else to a top starter who actually makes it through to FA. But the odds are long on that.
4. So, the choice is to (a) make this trade for a guy like Blanton, who just turned 27 and would join Maine and Perez to help form a very solid middle roation for the next few years, or (b) in 2008, hope that Pedro and El Duque hold up physically, and that Pelfrey can develop into a credible #5 starter (otherwise, it’s “Brian Lawrence. come on down time”), and in 2009 and beyond, hope that our pitrching prospects beocme anywehre near as good as Blanton.
5. Barring some miracle, the choice is not “hold out for Santana” (or Sabathia and whoever else next year). It’s a choice of building a solid rotation, with a deeper bullpen than last year behind it, or continue with our current staff and pray that Pelfrey, Humber, and/or Mulvey can truly step up in a year or two. But bear in mind that the reason the Twins and the As are insisting on our top young position players is that they’ve seen our pitching prospects and are not impressed.
i have some doubts about Pelfrey, who I see as “soft”, but Omar screwed his development up BIG TIME. He should have been in the minors taking his lumps, not coming up early and getting swatted around. Bringing him up destroyed his trade value for one thing.
did you see pelfrey in spring training last year? He earned that rotation spot, then choked. The only reasonable thing to do was to give him a chance….hardly Omar’s fault.
amen brother
I still think its too much to give up. If your exchanging Heilman alone to only marginally upgrade your rotation depth, you’re not particularly helping the pitching staff as a whole. Sure, Blanton may go 8 and hand it to Wagner a buttload of times, but when Pedro and Duque pitch we’d still probably have either Matt Wise or Scott Schoenweiss pitching in the 7th or 8th, if not both. Feliciano and Smith become your only credible setup guys, and neither have the track record of success or durability that Heilman has had for three straight seasons now. If we deal Heilman for a middling starter, we’d better pray that the doctors worked a miracle on Duaner Sanchez’s shoulder or that Carlos Muniz is the next Heath Bell.
I wouldn’t give up any Heilman centered package for a guy like Blanton, not to mention Heilman along with our both our most valuable high level pitching prospect and our best high level position prospect.
What’s the point of giving a bullpen extra rest if your sacrificing (arguably) the most valuable piece of it? Those extra Blanton innings just aren’t above average enough to justify this kind of move.
4.89 ERA in the 2nd half. He’s not an ace or a number 2. In fact, he’d be a #4 on our team
good, with that asking price, hopefully the lull takes a long time
its the same garbage rumors everyday
welcome to the hot stove, circa holiday time.
im glad though – blanton isn’t worth trading for and giving way all that potential talent.
someone on the fan just said mulvey/heilman/pelfrey for bedard. kinda old news, o’s want more and bedard seems to be off of the market.
instead!! we get kyle loh-she. :(
Santana to the Sox
Santana not going to the Sox
Santana to the Yanks
Santana not going to the Yanks
Santana to the Mets
Santana not going to the Mets
Choose any of the following using that as the headline.
Rinse. Repeat.
The one headline I would take out is “Santana to the Mets.” That is never reported anywhere except hinted at here on Metsblog. If you read national news or go to other the fans in other cities take on the Santana thing you will find that they dont even consider the Mets a player in the Santana sweepstakes. For all I know, Mariner, National, Cub, Pirate, and Giant fans (for example) think they are in this as much as we Met fans do.
and one national headline you never heard last year was “zito to the giants”
goes to show how realiable national news is. I’d trust matt’s sources more than any of those blow hards.
***reliable
but real-liable works too
;)
Mookie normally I find your posts to be among the better ones at Metsblog but this post suggests that Matt, a relatively newcomer to the professional sports reporting business, has better sources than professional reporters that have been at their trade for dozens of years. It’s like saying the man on the street has more knowledge of legal issues than a professional lawyer. Give Matt his due but please keep some perspective.
I see your point, but I think you’re giving “professional reporters that have been at their trade for dozens of years” a little too much credit. It’s been shown time and time again that these guys are digging for stories, and often presenting their opinions as facts, in order to meet deadlines and make columns. There’s also a huge pro-yankee bias and a generally anti-mets bias ..
All through the winter meetings, to make it more exciting, we heard about “the santana sweepstakes” and “once the big names are off the board the dominoes will fall” .. well it was all a bunch of BS aimed at spicing up an otherwise very boring event, and a little logic going in would have told you that no way a huge trade like that was going to just happen in a week. Within a few days we heard how no one liked mets prospects, then all of a sudden the same guys were calling gomez a hot prospect.
There is a reason that the old media is being replaced by the new, and I have indeed found Matt’s info to be generally more reliable and more candid than much of the stuff being purveyed by the old guard.
I think your lawyer metaphor is a little off base here, being that to get that information, a lawyer has to study for years … reporting is more about who you know and who you talk to, and Matt seems to have an inside source in Santana’s camp here, I trust that to be true.
is anyone else sick of this? we know whats going to happen. the mets, like always, will make noise, but not deliver.
sick of this yes, but the only way for it to stop is the arrival of pitchers and catchers, and that’s still 2 months off. Alas, we will read recycled rumors and misplaced blaming for the duration.
Gotta go start the fish fry; but before I do, may I say to Matt and his crew and all you nutty Mets fans
MERRY CHRISTMAS
and here’s to a happy, healthy New Year filled with Mets wins!
*********************LET’S GO METS ************************
The same to you and yours!
The package is too rich but we can sure use Blanton on our team. That’s replacing Glavine’s innings and then some, plus he would have a lower ERA than Glavine did coming over to the NL. I don’t care how FAT he is as long as he can pitch. Anyone remember Sid Fernandez? This guy would definatly bolster the rotation. He’s better than Loshe, Colon and any other scrub on the FA market.
P.S. I would also still go after Prior. Costs us only money!!!
Dear Mets fans,
We are trying our hardest to be as cheap and dormant as possible this off season. You see we don’t have to acquire the likes of a Johan Santana or Joe Blanton because we don’t see the urgency to acquire such a top-flight starter for our rotation. I’m very content with the team we have right now and feel very confident that we will have an outstanding season with our brilliant manager Willie Randolph and our savvy General Manager, Omar Minaya. In the end, all you fools will continue to support the New York Mets. We are breaking attendance records and business is good for our franchise and that’s all that matters. The Mets continue to be one of the most popular and profitable franchises in all of baseball thanks to you. We wish all of you a not so Merry Christmas and a miserable New Year
Happy Holidays
Freddie Coupons & Family
LOL – omg! greatest thing posted in months. Awesome. And it’s so true, it’s sad.
No it’s not!!!
I wish there was a way to petition Mets ownership to get a trade done for Santana. Its obvious that the majority of us want him and you would think they would want to please their fanbase. I truly believe the Twins would take their choice of 6 of our prospects for Johan. Then Wilpon would have to pony up the dough. I will be irate if we ever find out we could have had him but passed because of contract fears by Fred. That will be the last straw for me. Lets figure out a way to let them know we all want Santana and they better get him or else. He has said he wants to play for us so he can use his no trade clause to strong arm the Twins into taking a fair package from us. Let them have any 6 of our prospects. None of them will ever turn out to be nearly as talented. We have a chance to get a lefty ace who can help us win it all now while our aging talent (minus Reyes, Wright, Beltran, Maine, and Perez) are around. Its a no brainer.Lets all write Minaya and ownership and voice our opinions. I already have. Merry Christmas to all.
6??? wow
tell me about it….6 players for someone who will we see every 5 days (and our brilliant manager will want to give him extra rest so it will be 6 days sometimes)…that is crazy….we are not in the american league (we dont have to worry about the red sox, tigers angels and skankees til the world series…from my lips to gods ears)…dont get me wrong…i would love the mets to get johann…but i know there is a kazmir or two in this group and dont believe we should mortgage our whole future…HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL!!!!
Yes 6 prospects. Being that we dont have as talented of prospects to give as the Yanks and Sox it will take more in quantity to make up for the lack of quality. And he is worth it even if he only pitches every fifth day. A championship club needs an ace and we dont have one. Look at Boston. You say dont worry about them until we get there but what do we do once we are there? We would need an ace to match any teams ace that we face. Also with the aditions Arizona has made they are the team to beat in the NL. Without Santana we can forget it. So again, yes he is worth all 6. And no there isnt a Kazmir type in the bunch. Kazmir was a cant miss and touted as such. None of our guys are getting any reports close to what he got. They just arent that good. It sucks, believe me I know but true.
Given that the price for Dan Haren (yes, he has a cheaper price-tag and more teams are able to compete for his services, but you have to imagine that with Johan’s talent the price tag is at least similar) was 6 prospects, including 4 top 10 guys and a former top prospect (Eveland), it’s not crazy that the Mets would have to give up Gomez or Martinez (#1 Mets prospect, depending on who the Twins like more) along with Heilman, Mulvey (#4-5), Pelfrey (#3), and a fourth guy like Joe Smith (bottom half of the top 10), especially since the DBacks farm system is regarded as a far better stockpile of talent than the Mets farm system, and Carlos Gonzalez is significantly better than Gomez and Martinez (higher ceiling than Gomez, more proven than Martinez).
To be fair, the reason the D’Backs system was so highly regarded was more because of guys like Conor Jackson, Chris Young, and Micah Owings than because of a lot of the guys they gave up. The only super high ceiling prospect in that deal was Carlos Gonzalez. And I don’t think his ceiling is necessarily that much higher than Gomez’s. In fact I think Gomez’s is higher. Gonzalez i basically the same age and posted an .806 OPS in AA (where he spent most of the season). Gomez was .777 at AAA plus he had three times as many SB, not to mention made his big league debut. Aside from clearly being faster, Gomez is also bigger and projects as a superior defensive CF. Gonzalez is smaller, suggesting Gonzalez also had more than a full year head start on Gomez in his pro career.
The only thing Gonzalez has that jumps out as a significant advantage over Gomez is his HR numbers. But given their respective sizes and the levels at which they played, I still believe Gomez’s power ceiling is higher, Gonzalez is just further along in that respect. And either way, the superior defense and SB should at least even Gomez out. You have to imagine a guy who’s 6′4″ 195 in his age 20-21 season is going to develop some power. He won’t just be another Endy Chavez.
Happy Holidays fellow metsfans!
Merry Xmas
the rays apparently have their own version of scott kazmir called jacob mcgee. that makes me wonder if scott kazmir is a bit more expendable
Happy Holidays everyone! I’m testing out my first post to MetsBlog. We have a 1st round pick plus we get a first round and a second round pick for Glavine walking. Lets just pile up on high ceiling pitching prospects and use our money to sign them. We can give up our pitching prospects that we have now for Santana. We can rely on our young core staff and free agency to hold us over until our high ceiling guys develop or trade them for the sure thing and start the routine over again.
I am so tired of hearing all of these “Heilman is terrible as a starter” comments. First of all, how do you all know that? Didn’t Johan start out as an obscure relief pitcher before getting his shot to start? Santana did not appear out of nowhere and become a pitching god. He was given his chances. Aaron Heilman should also get more chances as well.
The fact that Omar let Guillermo Mota screw up so many times in releif makes giving Heilman another shot so much more plausible.
Once more, I am tired of everyone saying Heilman is a bad starter. No one out there has enough evidence to say so. Aaron has not been given the opportunity to truly prove himself in a solid starting role.
i agree…i believe he started before and was not too successful but he deserves another chance…one of the issues i have with mets management is they seem to be stubborn to the point of being stupid…once they get an idea in their head its like its written in stone…give the guy another chance at least in spring training for gods sake…
Its a Christmas miracle.. I agree with rosemarymets. If you are going to start Williams, Lima, Park, Lawrence, etc.. why not giving the loudest voice in the bullpen a chance to sink or swim. The only thing Heilman has wanted in his tenure here is to be given a chance to start ballgames. The fact that he wasn’t given a chance, and his drive to do so, I believe impacted his early season appearances. After the AS break, he was actually pretty reliable. I think that he was given the mgmt. shaft and its a shame. I really think that Heliman will blossom when he gets off this team and its a travesty that we used him for two years as a reliever when his heart/mind wasn’t in it. It’s too bad that his value is much lower now than it was a few years back. Why do all of our “great” prospects die on the sunlight… or get either horribly injured (Escobar) or killed (Cole).. weird.
I agree. I would not be so fast to trade Heilman. We would be foolish to depend on a grand comeback of Sanchez and Heilman performed very well after the ASB. Trading Heilman would partially fill one hole we have and could make another hole we have even bigger. If the fact the Pelf had a decent last few games last season gives him another shot at starting, why not use the same logic and give Heilman that same shot? He had a decent second half too.
This is a no-lose situation. If Heilman stinks as a starter, then keep him where he is. Simple as that. No money spent, no trades of prospects needed, our BP does not take a hit …
And the statement about Mota above is correct. The logic of management does not make sense .
I agree with genius. Why trade a bunch of chips to Oakland for a middle-of-the-rotation guy? Mulvey and Gomez, maybe. But Heilman’s actually pretty useful. I’d prefer they sign all the “projects”– especially Garcia and Prior. Just see what happens with one of those guys. I’m just not feeling Joe Blanton.
Sign all of the projects? Why? I know the idea of short term reward is tempting but the load of those contracts could be a burden later. And you know how the WIlpons are with their money lately.
The arguement either goes with “Prospects are being overvalued” or “Starting pitching is too expensive.” You must find a middle ground. I love the IDEA of Fernando Martinez, Carlos Gomez, and Kevin Mulvey being great. I really do. But the fact is the Mets need to WIN NOW. This is Shea Stadium’s last year and it must be a SUCCESSFUL AND MEMORABLE one. If the success of David Wright and Reyes, and the signings of Beltran and Pedro Martinez never happened then maybe going halfway is excusable. But now, when you shelled out so much money before, is the time to go for it.
Make William A. Shea proud and go for it. Leave no regrets at Shea. Be venturous but don’t be stupid either. Giving up Gomez, Mulvey, and Fernando in the same package is a lot. Why not tone it down with something that works out both ways? You cannot expect to get steal with Johan.
Omar is going to choose his favorite among Gomez, Martinez, and Mulvey because he will only be able to keep one of them.
As someone else may have already mentioned, Blanton had a 4.89 ERA and .303 Batting Average Against after the All-Star Break last season. Not good numbers.
gottabelieve07 couldn’t have said it any better.
On a completely unrelated note.. why has #17 not been retired yet? I think that is the biggest snub in our history. HOF.. I can see the argument.. but there is no reason that anyone else should be wearing #17 in orange and blue. Unless you blame the coke scandal.. but there are plenty of people linked to greenies that have had their numbers retired or enshrined in the HOF.. just a random Xmas thought…
Very random thought indeed, but one that has some credence due to the dearth of retired Met numbers.
Ed Kranepool’s number should be retired before anyone else’s.
dont be a billy’s bitch omar
Santana for christmas:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=XnamP4-M9ko
And that there my children is the greatest gift of all; real music!
What happened to this country?
While waxing poetic;
How about Bud Harrelson’s number? 13 year Met & tried his hand at manager.
How about Jerry freakin’ Koosman; 12 year Met with like 140 Met victory’s.
If Mother Theresa played 2nd base for the Mets, they would’nt retire her freakin’ number!
Merry Christmas….
i wonder wat im goin to get from the mets this christmas i’ve already gotten the middle finger and 20% ticket uprising oh boy i hope i get a fatass like joe blanton
hi guys and merry xmas
i dont mean to go off thread but maybe someone can help me shed some light on a situation i have.
im a sat plan holder since last season and im looking to reup i called the mets because i noticed that my bill said that if i upgrade to full season tix i get priority in citifield. i was under the impression from the ads that if u bought any plan from 2007 & 08 u will get priority. anyway the customer service rep (oxymoron or moron?) told me that the fo hasnt decided yet on this policy
can ne1 clarify this for me or are the wilpons really becoming cupons again?? selling us out for the corporate suits? thanx and merry xmas may there be a rusty’s ribs in citi field
I got to watch a replay on Comcast (I live in Philly) of the Phillies come from behind 11-10 win against Billy Wagner and the Mets. This is the game that Wagner pitched both the 8th and 9th innings and the Phillies stole 4 bases off him – two by Jason Werth in the 8th which put him on 3rd base and in position to score the tying run (10-10).
Merry friggin’ Xmas.
man, if a baseball game from last year is making you depressed and angry on christmas, then wow, do you need help. I understand taking the game seriously, but prioritize people, let it go, let….it…..go.
okie dokey.
. . . I would add that if you were to watch that game, you might feel the same.
i only save the games where they have dramatic wins on my dvr and keep them til i run out of space…if i wanna be depressed i have the end of the season meltdown and the current reality and that works just fine…