|
The legendary Sandy Koufax made his annual trip to visit the 
Mets at Tradition Field today to speak with a few of the pitchers, specifically Billy Wagner, who requested his help with a curve ball.
For more on Koufax, and the day in camp, check out Adam Rubin’s blog for the Daily News, David Lennon at Newsday and Jeremy Cothran at the Star-Ledger.
It was also photo day in Mets camp, which you can learn more about by reading Steve Popper in the Bergen Record.
Meanwhile, according to Burt Hubbach in the New York Post, both the Mets and Oliver Perez are happy with yesterday’s arbitration ruling that will pay Perez more money next season than the Mets have initially wanted to.
Lastly, in the New York Post, Mike Vaccaro quotes David Wright as saying he and the Mets owe the fans for last year’s collapse, adding, “And we owe ourselves one, too.”
Cool! Now pay up!
According to Steve Popper from BR:
The one player absent from photo day was David Wright, who left early this morning to make it to Virginia in time for the viewing for his grandmother, Helen Wright, who passed away Thursday.
I want to pass the condolences of the collective Mets fans to DWright – and I hope no one would disagree with that…DW – may she rest at peace…
My thoughts and prayers.
Win it for her, David . . .
It’s great to see a couple of the pitchers interested in learning from Sandy Koufax. As for the fact about both sides being happy with the Arbitration ruling for Oliver Perez, while I don’t doubt that’s what is being said, it seems a bit excessive that a pitcher as erratic as Oliver Perez and someone who is not more than a #3 starter is making 6.5 million dollars.
Really? For a #3 starter $6.5 million is a bargain. If someone told you that right now you could lock Ollie up at 5/$32.5 mill (that’s $6.5 mil a year) everyone would JUMP at that.
I bet you he doubles that on the market next year.
If he would sign for that right now he would be crazy. Silva got what? 10 or 11 million a year? Perez is better than Siva so I expect Perez getting a minimum of 13 or 14 per year especially if he wins 15 games again. The Mets really may choose to let him walk unfortunatly which is why I think they should have signed Freddy Garcia to a cheap 2 year incentive laden deal to replace Perez next year if need be. We need money to re-sign Pedro, replace Delgado, and sign a LF if Alou is done and F-Mart isnt ready to be the everyday guy. My wish would be resign Pedro for 2 years at 24 to 28 mil, Sign Texiera for 1B at 15 mil. a year for 6-7 years, give F-Mart the job in LF, and try hard to get Perez signed otherwise CC Sabathia. However I dont think the Mets will give Perez or CC all the money they want AND sign Texiera. If a choice I would choose in the following order: Perez, Texiera, Sabathia.
I know it is early (by a year) to be thinking abot 2009 hotstove but I want to do a quick poll with you guys. If a choice of only one of the following which would you want the Mets to do?:
1-Re-sign Oliver Perez
2-Sign CC Sabathia
3-Sign Mark Texiera
If the Mets would do two of the above which would you want them to do?
Also if Alou gets 400 at bats this year and lets say for example he bats .305 with 22 HR’s, 75 RBI’s, and 70 Runs, but F-Mart tears up AAA would you rather have the Mets re-sign Alou and let F-Mart have one more year at AAA? Or let Alou go and give F-Mart the LF job?
Also if Pedro gets 25 starts and goes lets say 13-4 with 2.75 ERA, 1.20 WHIP, and 165 K’s would you want the Mets to give him 24 to 26 million for 2 more years?
Just interested in what you guys feel about these possibilities. Thanks.
I lost trck of the uestions half way through…
Sign Pedro if he is healthy for 2 years. Let Alou go and play F mart. Sign Ollie and Teix if 2 of them.
let go of Alou (Fmart starting his career at Citi bank will be an argument for letting him go.
let Perez go (I think Maine get’s 18 wins this year and pedro re signs as third starter) so next year a 5th or 4th starter is the only need we have for the rotation..
Texeria signing is up to Carp’s season this year, but considering Alou and perez leave. Pedro hopefully give NY a hometown discount. Why not sign him
Thanks for your guy’s thoughts. Just killing time thinking about next season while I wait impatiently for this one to start. This season and next are huge for the Mets with it being the last season at Shea and our new state of the art CitiField next year. We desperatly need to leave Shea in style and on a good note. Want to begin first year in Citi on a high note. I think the Wilpons felt the same way as evident by them shelling out the cash for Santana. I cant believe that with Perez winning arbitration our payroll is now 145 million. 145 million! Wow. We can never call them cheap again, not that I ever did. Wonder how far they are willing to go next year with all the free agents we will have to address and holes to fill. The payroll has nowhere to go but up again. Doesnt bother me. I am willing to pay higher ticket prices as long as there is a competetive team on the field. Not much more Omar could have done this offseason. He addressed every need we had. And the need for an ace he addressed with the best ace in the game! I cant wait for March 31rst.
With O’Perez seeming to be relying so heavily on the Jacket for not just advice, but every single one of his starts, you have to wonder just how many other teams would be interested in him. I could see the Padres, the Cardinals, the Rays, even the Cubs…teams who specialize with project pitchers…but I wonder if the Mets use that as leverage when he hits FA?
CitiField will be replacing SheaStadium? I thought there were spaces in EACH of those. No?
I’d like to resign Ollie, if only because his best work happens under The Jacket. Bora$$hole should know this. I can see the Cardinals, with Dave Duncan as their pitching coach, making a run at him, and the Padres have stated that they want hiom back, but as a reliever (ain’t going to happen). I also think Pedro would come back for two years, $26 million.
These contracts/arbitrations are more about compensating the player for he’s done in the past. That being said, this is “the” contract year for OP – so it’s put up or shut up. We’ll see this year whether it was justified and, if it isn’t, I’m sure it’ll be reflected in the free agent market for him.
I know Perez won 15 last year, but he only won 3 the year before. That should be taken into consideration but of course it isn’t. Arbitration is a joke. Because this decision will springboard an average pitcher into the 12 million dollar range next year, and he has not earned that.
That market, which allowed Perez’s arbitrator to find for OP, was created by the owners. No one put a gun to Seattle’s owner and GM and told them to sign Silva to a four year deal at $10-11 million per year.
well, arbitration is a weird set up with all the comparables, etc. Total opposite of an open market.
But, next year he will get whatever $ a team is willing to pay him. If he has a huge, cy young quality year, it will be a ton. If he ptiches like a couple of years ago (bad Ollie), then not so much, but still a large amount, just based on potential.
Ollie is a really hard guy to predict as a FA. Zambrano, Peavy, etc. had a solid track record, so it was pretty clear (barring injury) what they were likely to get. Certainly can’t say that about Ollie.
The question is: what do you think he’ll command if he has a similar year on ‘08 as he did in ‘07 . . . i.e. a solid record (14-16 wins) and ERA (under 4.00) but is still that slightly wild, always flirting with disaster kind of pitcher?
Would you give him 4 years/$45 million?
4 years, $56 mil.
this decision alone? no way
He would be great to just coach their Pitchers.
But, he is 72 and probably wants to enjoy the rest of his life.
MetsBaseball.Tumblr.Com
awesome to see even a vet like wagner turning to a hall of famer like koufax to continue to learn and improve!
and how about wright. the guy is as good with the media as he is on the field! he always knows the right thing to say at the right time.
but just like us i know he cant wait to stop talking and start playing some real games.
I say re-sign Pedro for 2 years $25 million. Then, if I had to choose my top two of those three choices, I’d bring back Ollie and sign Teixiera – that is unless Delgado rebounds this year which I think he will. Lastly, I’d bring Alou back if he puts up his type of numbers and stays on the field for 450 at-bats. If he’s can do that he is still an offensive force.
It should be interesting to see what kind of curve Koufax teaches Wagner. He threw a big, looping 12-to-6 breaking type of curve straight over the top. Wagner of course throws more three quarters and thus naturally has more of a 2/8ths break on his curve. Also, to throw that big ol’ looper that Koufax threw (he was an absolute master at changing speeds), he’d almost have to slow down his windup. Maybe Wagner will develop a hybrid slurve?
Wags may tend to “shoot his mouth off,” but one thing you can’t call him is “stupid.” He wants to help the team. He realizes that another pitch, at another speed, will do exactly that. He really wants to get inside opposing batters’ minds, so he goes to one of the absolute best pitchers to ever play the game and asks for help. I think a changeup would help him more, along the lines of Trevor Hoffman, but if Wags wants to throw a curve in there, so be it.
Please nobody respond to this guy and maybe he will slink away to the Bronx where he belongs. Thanks.
We don’t need fans like you. I sincerely hope you DO boycott the Mets.