Daily Archives: January 4, 2008
Mets manager Willie Randolph will join Newsday’s David Lennon, MLB.com’s Marty Noble and host Kevin Burkhardt during Monday’s edition of Mets Hot Stove on SNY, which airs live at 6:30 pm and again at 11 pm.
Tagged SNY, Willie Randolph |Earlier this week, Impacto Deportivo wrote that the Royals may be close to signing free-agent RHP Bartolo Colon.
However, today, Impacto Deportivo writes 
that, despite his streak of two to three good outings in the Winter League, Colon has yet to reach 90–mph with this fastball.
The online newspaper speculates that he may not be entirely healthy, or that he is holding back in fear of getting hurt, and so clubs may be waiting to see a few more starts before seriously considering whether to sign him.
…thanks to Jorge from Puerto Rico for the translation…
During a chat with the Boston Globe, ESPN.com’s Peter Gammons said the A’s could be interested in acquiring Coco Crisp from Boston, assuming he isn’t traded to the Twins in a deal for Johan Santana.
“I could see Billy Beane trading for Crisp and then turning around and trading him before season starts,” writes Gammons, ‘since the A’s think he’s best center fielder in game right now.’
…great…boston, trade crisp and company to oakland for Joe Blanton, instead, which will let the Yankees know you are out of the running for santana, paving a way for johan to casually waltz in to queens…come on, do it…do it…
In the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Pirates writer Dejan Kovacevic notes that the Pirates will trade RHP Matt Morris, along with his $10 million salary for next season.
…hat tip to Mets Fever for the link…
According to Kovacevic, though little action has occurred regarding Morris, “It could change quickly if two of the game’s wealthiest teams - the Mets and Yankees - turn to Morris to address rotation needs.”
…for what it’s worth, i have never once heard morris’s name linked to the Mets, be it through my own ears or in rumor…thankfully…
In 32 starts last season, for the Giants and Pirates, the 33–year-old Morris was 10–11 with a 4.89 ERA through 198 innings pitched, during which opponents hit .308 against him.
At the outstanding, well-connected Bucco Blog, Jake writes that the Pirates and M’s have been talking for ‘quite some time,’ regarding a deal that could involve M’s OF Adam Jones, Ian Snell and OF Jason Bay, among other prospects.
According to Jake, “Bay has Cleveland written all over him, although the Padres might have something to say about that.”
…jeez, Fran Healy has a video clip up on MSG’s communal sports blog, Game On, during which he talks about who is most deserving of the Hall of Fame…
…i’m sure fran is a great guy…in fact, i know he is, since i 
hear people say those exact words all of the time…that said, i don’t know what it is about his voice…he’s not a bad broadcaster at all…i think it’s subconscious for me…you know, his voice and some seriously-awful Mets moments are just linked together in my brain…it’s Pavlovian, i guess…i hear him speak, and i am depressed…
…the thing is, MSG should give him his own blog, which of course must be called Can of Corn…i mean, talk about your natural name…he could sit at the keyboard and ramble for a few moments on a variety of topics, and i bet it’d be pretty damn entertaining…no video or audio of course, just text…
According to multiple reports, Mets GM Omar Minaya and Agent Arn Tellem, 
among others, will be part of a delegation leaving this weekend for Israel to do work with Seeds of Peace, which aims to improve relations between Israeli and Palestinian children.
If you recall, Minaya joined Dave Winfield and others last off-season on a trip to Ghana to hold a baseball clinic.
…good for you, omar…don’t turn off your phone, though…
Tagged Omar Minaya |In a chat yesterday for Baseball America, site-editor Jim Callis wrote that the Devil Rays, Red Sox, Reds, Rangers and Yankees have the best group of minor-league prospects in MLB.
The Red Sox were ranked eighth by Baseball America last off-season, up 13 from 2005, while the Yankees were ranked 24, the same as in 2005.
…so, basically, it’s possible to spin a system around in just a few years…begging the question: where are the Mets…
According to Baseball America, the Mets had the 10th Best Farm System in MLB after the 2004 season - after having traded Scott Kazmir and Matt Peterson a few months earlier.
Omar Minaya joined the Mets in the Fall of 2004, and further traded Mike Jacobs, Yusmeiro Petit, Grant Psomas and Gaby Hernandez, among others, during his first 12 months in an effort to quickly acquire proven, major-league talent.
…as he has said in the past, minaya’s argument is that in order to make a quick 180–degree transition, from a 71–91 team in 2004 to getting one game away from the World Series in 2006, he had no choice but to a) sign major free agents, like Carlos Beltran, Billy Wagner and Pedro Martinez, which also cost him top draft picks, while b) also trading his best young talent for proven veterans like Carlos Delgado and Paul Lo Duca…in other words, he had to cripple his farm system to quickly improve the major-league team…fact is, he did both…yes, the team won quickly, but he did in fact weaken their minor league talent pool…
…and so, here we are again…the Mets are good - far, far better than 2004’s team - with a pretty good crop of young talent in Fernando Martinez, Kevin Mulvey and others, and three top picks in the coming draft…yet, minaya is being tempted to decimate his farm system, again, to acquire one pitcher: Johan Santana…
…as i have said, at this point, given the pressure to win and the desire to field a popular team for the debut of Citi Field, i would give up this club’s best young pitchers to get santana, who will almost certainly always be better than Mike Pelfrey, Philip Humber and Kevin Mulvey…
…to do this, though, if he’s going to trade several prospects for one pitcher, minaya has got to abandon his team’s painful loyalty to MLB’s slotting system…
For more on the ‘slotting system,’ check out Ken Davidoff’s recent column for Newsday, during which Minaya insinuates a need to sway from his previous draft style.
Tagged Minors, Omar Minaya |According to dozens of readers, David Wright made an appearance on last night’s premiere episode of Celebrity Apprentice on NBC.
Here is what happened, according to one reader…
“The teams were competing to make the most money from selling hot dogs in NYC, so some of them called some high-profile contacts to try to get them to come down and make donations. One of the contestants is Jennie Finch, the softball pitcher, and she had David’s number and called him. He came down and bought out the rest of the hot dogs the women’s team had in their cart.”
The episode will repeat on CNBC this Saturday, January 5, at 8 pm and 11 pm.
…though i have never watched a single episode of the show, i actually worked on Season Five of The Apprentice…it was a horrible, but entertaining experience…anyway, here is a clip from david’s appearance…
…so, i guess david carries enough cash around with him to by two entire cart’s worth of hot dogs, which is weird…actually, the whole thing felt weird…is it me, or did it come across like he had no interest in being there, and just wanted to get out of dodge as quick as he could…
…by the way, check out Metstradamus, as john’s recap and opinion of wright’s performance is a must read…
In a recent chat for ESPN.com, Keith Law had the following to say when asked about Fernando Martinez, and whether the Mets should trade him, among 
others, since they have three of the first 40 picks in this year’s draft…
“I wouldn’t deal Martinez for one year of Santana under any circumstances, but thinking that a June draft pick can replace a player who’s already in AA or AAA isn’t quite right…
“Even if you get an equivalent prospect, you’ve lost two to three years of time, and in present value terms, that new player is worth less…
“The guy to keep is Martinez. Everyone else should be negotiable. I’d give Mulvey/Heilman/something for Santana, because I’m not that high on Mulvey and I think Heilman may have peaked…Martinez is a better prospect than either Hughes or Ellsbury, but is higher-risk because he’s younger and further from the majors.”
…i’m certain the Mets will do all they can to keep martinez…and for the same reasons the Mets prefer to keep him, the Twins almost certainly will want to acquire him…
…during the Winter Meetings, i heard martinez being compared to every one from a young Juan Gonzalez to a young Sammy Sosa…of the bunch being discussed in rumored deals for santana, he’s the one most close to untouchable i would think…but, no team’s ace will be acquired on the cheap…
In his chat, Law also discusses a wide variety of issues, from the Hall of Fame, to other team’s minor leaguers, next year’s free agent pitchers, and the future of Bartolo Colon, among others.
Tagged Minors |Yesterday, Mets 1B Carlos Delgado spoke with reporters on a conference call to talk about last season, next season and his charity Extra Bases.
Delgado had the following to say about…
…whether his team needs a player like Johan Santana…
“I never use the word ‘need’ just because we really don’t need anything but oxygen, but it would be nice to have a guy like Johan Santana. I’m not going to lie to you. When you bring a guy of that caliber, obviously its going to make a team better. But what is he going to cost you would be the next question….We have a great team. I’m not saying that we wouldn’t like to have him, but if it doesn’t work out, we have to go out and play with what we got. And I believe that we have enough with what we’ve got…If we can get him for the right price, in the right trade, I’m not Omar here, I think it would be great.”
…on his previous comments about the team being bored, turning the page and looking towards next season…
“We need to be able to stay focused for 162 games. I know it sounds like a cliché, but I think that’s what happened…
“We played good baseball from the get-go, we were doing good, we knew we had a good team, we had a good lead, and it got to a point where we didn’t stay focused enough to continue to compete the way we were competing - and I think that’s going to be the biggest lesson for 2008 - nobody is going to hand you anything on a silver platter, you have to go out and get it…
“I know that you learn from the past and learn from your mistakes, but it gets to a point where you have to say, “You know what, enough reflection.” This is a new season and we’ve got to get it going. We’ve got to get 2007 over with, turn the page and start focusing on 2008…it doesn’t make any sense to cry over spilled milk…I think everybody was disappointed, but by the same token, we’re very hungry to get back to where we were.
“It was very disappointing because we know we had the best team. I believe that we still have a great team. The nucleus of our ballclub remains pretty much the same, we’ve done it before, we just have to go out and do it again, but we have to play six months. Actually we’d like to play seven months.”
…more on what he means by a lack of focus…
“I don’t want to say we took it for granted because we don’t really take anything for granted. But we kind of assumed - for lack of a better team - that we were going to win…We kind of didn’t play it out the last three weeks. This is my best guess, because if I knew exactly what had happened, I would have said or done something to not allow it to happen. If I look back, that’s the only thing I can think of. If I see it next year, we’re definitely going to be more aware of it…
“I don’t think it had anything to do with things away from the ballpark. I don’t think it had anything to do with extracurricular activities. You get to a point, and when you’re an athlete at this level, you just got to narrow your mind and go out and do what you’ve got to do. Don’t have any other stuff in your mind. To win that game, instead of thinking, when we get to the playoffs, we might play this or that…We can only control what we can control, which is go out and play good baseball and forget about what other people do…
“Like I said, it doesn’t end on Aug. 30 or Sept. 15. We have to go all the way into October and that’s what we’re going to do in 2008…We can talk about 2007 all we want and try to figure out exactly what happened. But you know what? It doesn’t really change anything. I’m not saying that to minimize it, but if we continue to talk about 2007 in 2008 chances are we’re going to be thinking about something we shouldn’t be thinking about, which is going out and playing good baseball and trying to win as many games as we can…Essentially that’s the message for our team, that’s the message for our fans…We’re going to make it better in 2008 and that’s the bottom line.”
…on whether he is a leader on this team…
“Every time I talk about leadership, it’s a very sensitive issue because being vocal when you don’t need to be vocal, it doesn’t make things great either. We have to deal with each situation as it presents itself. From spring training, we’ve got to get our common goal, which is to win and try to get everybody on the same page and try to get everybody to buy into that. If something needs to be said from that point, obviously I’m not afraid to say it…I feel confident enough if I have to go up to somebody and tell them whatever, I feel confident enough in saying that…If I see something, I will definitely point it out. Unfortunately for you guys, you’ll never hear it from me, but it will be done.”
…his poor performance…
“I had a horrible year, and I don’t think I have an excuse…I did not make the adjustments when I needed to make the adjustments. It got to a point where I was thinking too much about what I was doing wrong instead of just going out and playing the game.”
Delgado fractured his hand after being hit by a pitch during the season’s final game.
He said the hand is doing well and he expects to be at full strength when he reports to Port St. Lucie next month, adding, “I’m back to where I want to be, where I was before the injury.”
For more on Delgado, read the Star-Ledger, the Daily News, the Associated Press, Newsday, and New York Times.
