According to Jon Heyman at SI.com, ‘the Yankees will not be in the ballpark,’ if they offer Derek Lowe and A.J. Burnett contracts worth $60 million over four years, as they intend to do.
Instead, Heyman believes Burnett is seeking a five-year deal, while Lowe is reportedly seeking a ‘Zito-like Deal,’ as was reported by FoxSports.com earlier in the week.
That said, the Blue Jays may be willing to give Burnett a five-year deal, reports the Toronto Sun.
…from what i can gather, lowe is more concerned with the dollar amount than the years…he is far more likely to accept a four-year, $70 million deal from a team on the East Coast, than he is to accept a five– or six-year deal worth less per season…the buzz around lowe suggests he would like to retire at or around his 40th birthday, and would like to sign with a team who has a spring training facility near his home in Florida…
In a poll earlier this week on MetsBlog.com, 48 percent of voters said they are only willing to give Lowe a three-year contract, while 36 percent would go as high as four years.
Meanwhile, 12 percent would not sign him at all, and less than three percent are willing to give him a deal over four years.
{ 68 comments }
burnett can take his 5 year deal and shove it up his beep beep meep beep !!
lowe would fit right in as a member of the aarp club. let’s resign moises while we’re at it.
well, Lowe isn’t picky, is he? Pretty nervy for a guy that is already 35, and not exactly a cy young caliber pitcher!
I would rather go hard at Sheets on a shorter deal. Wonder what he is holding out for? 2 years at a higher per year rate, 3rd year vesting option based on starts or innings?
Johnson or Wolf to cover the 5 hole. And i still think they snag Vazquez, who likely will be just as productive as Lowe, you just only are commiteed for 2 years, at a lower cost.
add sheetsor vazquez, and wolf or Johnson, and the rotation will be real solid. Keep neise to get seasoning in AAA, or even use him out of the pen for part of the year.
look at who his agent is – i personally think this free agent market is the one that finally does boras in – i mean u can’t deal with a snake oil salesman all the time i mean enuff z nuff
I’d be for a combo of Vasquez and Sheets. If you taking on one Injury risk guy the other guy you have better be capable of making 32 and 200. I wouldn’t want 2 injury risk guys and be left with a rotation that looks like Johan, Pelfrey, Neise, Vargas, Parnell.
Maine is coming off shoulder surgery which hasn’t been mentioned much on this board other then he’s an injury risk. Signing a guy like Lowe or Garland fits. Lowe is a bigger “Name” but statistically he isn’t all that much better then the 29 Year Old garland. Both are very good innings eaters. Same with Vasquez. Sheets and penny have very good #2 value in them if they are healthy. Sheets is Filthy. But Penny is coming off a shoulder surgury and sheets who knows hoe many starts he makes a year.
I find it funny how Burnett is going to get a 5 years deal and Sheets will be forced to accept a 2 year deal. They are the same pitcher.
you have to go with sheets on a 2 year deal if available.
Mark- Lowe is about 2,000 times* better than Garland.
*unscientific
who does he think he is with all these demands – aaron heilman?
as I said before, of course Boras doesn’t expect Lowe to get the Zito-type deal, especially the length, but by asking for it, , or simply mentioning it, it makes the 5 year deal seem more palatable and the 4-year deal seem like a bargain (to the buyer)
Reminding prospective buyers of the Zito deal over and over is maybe not the best salesmanship on Boras’ part.
I think it is Lowe or bust for the Mets in terms of a front line pitcher via free agency….Burnett and Sheets are not likely due to their injury history….if they fail to sign Lowe, the Mets need to turn to acquiring Vazquez….if they don’t get a number 2, I don’t care how well they revamp the bullpen, they are in serious trouble….even if they re-sign Perez and add a Garland or a Wolf
agreed
Phillies won the world series with myers as there #2?? just sayin if we can get vazquez and a solid #5 guy, possibly sheets, are rotation will be just as good as the phils if not better with a healthy maine. Bullpen is what cost us not SP
Exactly.
A rotation of
Johan, Pelfrey, Vasquez, Johnson, Maine may not have a dominant #2 but would be a very solid if not the best rotation in the NL.
You make up for not having a dominant #2 by having 4 #3’s.
Josh Johnson?
LOL, That would be Randy.
Do you remember who our #2 was the year that we missed the WS by one game? Do you remember who our #1 was?
Having a great #2 is not as important as having a quality 1-5.
Do you remember how bad the NL was that year? Pitching wins….there is no disputing that. If the Mets don’t get a formidable #2 they will be a third place team, because they will be worse than last year.
? Oliver Perez was not a great #2. All they have to do is replace him and they will have just as good of a staff as last season.
Pitching does win but its about averages.
A great #2 over a good #3 gets you 3 wins or so.
A good #2, #3, #4, #5 gains you about 10 wins.
dude give us 2 wins and we would of been in the playoffs last season….you need to look at the big picture
Give us 10 wins and we would have homefield advantage.
Who is not looking at the big picture?
If faced with either having Lowe and Niese in the rotation or Vaquez and Johnson I take the later every time.
Think about this
#1 18 wins
#2 15 wins
#3 12 wins
#4 10 wins
#5 8 wins
That’s about average for a MLB good team.
63 wins
Now take this rotation
#1 18 wins
#2 12 wins
#3 12 wins
# 4 12 wins
#5 12 wins
That’s 66 wins. Thus a quality rotation from top to bottom is better than a dominant #2 and some scrub at the #4 and or 5.
Don’t even argue the fact. I posted yesterday that a Rotation of Johan, Pelfrey, Perez, Maine, Garland would be pretty solid. And i got dragged through the coals by someone.
I don’t know how 4 guys who make 30+ starts and had over 190 innings, each winning 14 games last year, and one in Maine who has the ability to be really good is a problem.
I said even though Pelf isn’t a #2 he could mold into it by years end. But what team has a better #3 then Ollie, a better #4 then Maine and a better #5 then garland.
But what do i know. The mets rotation should be Johan, CC, Halladay, Peavy and Pelfrey. Get it done omar or your fired.
Right or the ones that say we only need a dominant #2. So their rotation is
Johan, Lowe, Maine, Niese and Parnell. The Yankee’s are calling, ask them how that worked out.
Get me 5 guys that can pitch 200 innings and I will show you a winner and a great bullpen.
I would trade right away for Vasquez and then try and get Sheets on a 2 year deal. No luck then get Randy Johnson on a 1 year 5-8 million deal.
I’ll agree with you on Vasquez and Sheets, and either Johnson or Pedro fro 1 year. That way we can welcome Niese in 2010.
Let the rest of baseball overspend on starters while we get a discounted K-Rod (low demand), trade for Street, and put our big money in O-Dog and/or Tex.
GET ME…. BEN SHEETS!!!!!!!
“Phillies won the world series with myers as there #2?? ”
This is true, but in the playoffs you use a 3 man or a 4 man rotation….like I said in a previous post….we need to get to the playoffs
And to get to the post season you need a consistant 1-5 that avoids injury. Not a dominant # 2 and crappy 4 and 5.
goodpoint casestreet. If the market (supply/demand) is way out of wack in the demand side (like SP) you get creative there instead of wildly overpaying. And stock up on the bargains where supply is in your favor!
You can only fills holes as well as the market lets you, so go where the best talent is.
Exactly what I have been saying for a while. Stay out of this year’s SP market as everyone’s in it. Make some trades and sign some high reward guys for #5. However in the closer’s market it’s thin. You could get Krod, Putz and Lyon if you wanted to.
TheReal
I totally agree with this approach. Lowe’s Value is going through the roof and he really isn’t that good. He had 14 wins, 3.24 era and a 1.13 WHIP….. All of those are the lowest since guess when… 2002. If you sign him your getting the Lowe who will go right around a .500 record, High 3 ERA, a Whip Around 1.25 and a BAA about .260.
Is that #2 rotation stuff? I’m much rather sign Ollie for cheaper, or Garland for cheaper. Sign Sheets or penny on a short term contract and live with the fact you know they will miss some starts.
I mean when you really look at it over the last 5 years. There isn’t much of a difference statistically between Lowe, Garland and Vasquez.. So why sign a 35 year old to a 5 year deal. When you can either trade for a 33 year old who has 2 years left at a reasonable 11 million, or a 29 year old who will get a 3-4 year contract at a reasonable 10 mil.
And then sign a ? like Sheets who has the ability to win 20 games and Dominate teams if he stays healthy.
I would like any of the following rotations:
1. Johan, Sheets, Pelfrey, Maine, Garland/Vasquez
2.Johan, Sheets, Ollie, Pelfrey, Maine( only put Ollie 3 for LRLR
3Johan, Pelfrey, Ollie, Maine, Garland/Vasquez
Exactly. Everyone is going crazy with SP. Meanwhile, Tex isn’t getting a high demand.
Besides, LAA who is in the market for him? The Yanks won’t be able to get CC, Lowe, Burnett and Tex. Boston would have to move Lowell or Youk and proably are only showing interest because of the Yanks. Tex won’t go with Baltimore or Washington because he’s want a chance at winning. And LAD won’t be able to afford Manny and Tex.
So say hello to Tex.
Agree on Tex. There will still be a market for him but offering him 8/120 to play in NY should be a given. If he does not take it nothing lost. You could trade Delgado and 2 of Evans, Carp and Murphy then. It opens up a lot of posibilities.
agree 100%. Really sets the team up for years to come.
Sholdn’t be that hard to get a LF, and ideally by 2010 F mart is up. Then just replace 2B and C, and good to go!
Teix would be the perfect zag move for Omar.
Delgado gets traded for some parts (young 2B or C? BP help?)
Heck, with Teix at 1B, you can gamble more with Murphy at 2B, and lock up 2 key positions with one FA signing. Get a grudz type to back him up.
LF can be plugged for a year with another lefty bat to go along with Tatis. Or even evans.
I’ll say hello to him, but I guarantee you he’s not coming here.
What makes you 100% sure? Because we need pitching? That’s fine. However, Tex only cost 8 million more this season than Delgado. That would not keep us from getting the pitchers we want. I would not want to sign Lowe or Burnett to 4+ year deals anyway.
Signing Tex is a move that actually looks at the present and the future. It frees up tons of options and in the long run could save us money. Who would not be ok with Castillo at 2B for one more year and Murphy in the OF if we got Tex? I know I could live with
Reyes, Murphy, Wright, Tex, Beltran, Church, Schnieder/Castro, Castillo.
I just don’t see the Mets giving him the long term deal he’s looking for. I don’t think they would offer him more than 5 years, and he’s supposedly looking for 8-10 years. While I don’t think he’ll get that many, Washington or Baltimore will commit to at least 6. We could argue about whether or not he’ll play there, but I think he’ll go where he’ll get paid. I haven’t seen the Mets linked to him at all, and while it is early, they’ll be too involved in acquiring pitching to worry about 1st base, especially after the year Delgado put together.
I can’t be 100% percent certain, obviously, but I feel 95% sure that Texeira will not sign a deal with the Mets.
I agree about not thinking he’ll end up here, and I think it will be for the reasons you named, mostly years, but I think it’s ridiculous the mets likely won’t offer it to him.
this is a no brainer…. 3/4 of the infield covered for the next 6 yrs…. 5 yrs and that kind of money for these SP’s is krazy… throw out a low ball offer for a closer and see who bites first…
Exactly. It opens up trades of all of our top position prospects (not all traded but all available) in one move. That means a lot. It allows you to fill the #5, 2B or RP with Delgado and then trade Evans and Carp for one of the holes as well.
and makes the team better too, which is nice. 2009 , and for sure beyond!
Boston has said they plan on going hard after Tex.
Fwiw they’re plan would be Tex at first. Lowell at third, Youk in the outfield and a platoon of Bay and Drew in the other outfield spot. It would be expensive but can you imagine a bench with either Jason Bay or JD. Drew being the first guy off it.
thats exactly why we need to sign him…
can we trade omar for theo straight up
Don’t you think that is more smoke like the Johan deal than anything else? Knowing that Tex will want to go to a winner and would not want him to fall in the Yankee’s lap?
No because they were apparently deep in talks at the deadline with the Braves trying to acquire him but couldn’t agree to a deal. And because they’re huge on defense and bringing in Tex would allow them to significantly upgrade their defense, moving Youk to lf where he’s a plus fielder and taking one of Bay/Drew, below average fielders, out, while keeping their offense just as strong if not stronger. And because they have so much young talent under control and Manny coming off the books they have money to play around with.
Bay is not a platoon player. Neither is Drew. I seriously doubt they plan to do that.
if you look at Drew’s stats they have already been severely limiting his at bats versus lefties, only 74 last year. And why isn’t Bay a platoon player? He his has somewhat uneven splits, not significantly but still and plays fairly below average defenses. Just because conventional wisdom says he shouldn’t be doesn’t mean there’s no reason not too. They can get the best of both worlds. Improve their defense and their offensive productivity.
Also apparently the Nationals plan on offering him the full 10 years 200 million contract. Which is funny to me.
I would offer it if I were them. They would make it back in attendance alone if they could field a competitive club.
But if I was Tex I would take a 8/160 from the Mets over 10/200 from the Nats.
The reason we didn’t make it to the post season wasn’t starting pitching, it was the bullpen!! in 2006 we didn’t even had a great starting rotation, but we had a great bullpen, that’s why philli won, they had a decent rotation and great bullpen, with that being said is notorious to say that the majorityof pitchers that comes from the AL to the NL has far better superior number than someone who goes from the NL to the AL… vasquez, garland or burnett would do way better here facing teams like the padres, pirates, nats, etc that have no offense, that’s why i’m not sold on lowe, his ERA before he left boston was 5.24 so that’s weary to me.. get sheets, trade for vasquez, then we have a solid rotation, but also solidify the bullpen, then we’ll be in great shape.. also, GET RID OF CASTILLO!!! with all that being said LET’S GO METS!!!!!!!
Agree and disagree on 2006. Partly we had a great bullpen because the starters were consistant. Isn’t that the year that Trax had 15 wins? If you can have a consistant 1-5 then you are set.
THE REAL:
that year we didn’t have “consistent” starting rotation as you said, no one pitcher pitch 200 inning, trax won 15 games due to having the highest run support in the ml.. we had a great bullpen, sanchez and heilmann were lights out set up guys and wagner was amazing as well.. is true but if you have a good offense more times than not you will win.. therefore if we don’t trade delgado go after manny if we don’t sign a good pitcher or resolve our bullpen issues..
Why not go after Tex all in instead of an old Manny?
i would welcome that too, but pitching i our #1 priority and it should be, if we have all our starting pitching and bullpen set up and is late december most likely manny will be a free agent and tex not, so if anything we have to trade delgado now to open a bid on tex and we don’t seem to will becoz omar has a man crush on delgado… i see us waiting becoz depiste all the rumors i see us ending up with manny.. that’s why he’s lowering the price on k-rod…
As a GM, Omar’s job is to win games and put fannies in the seats. There is no guarantee of winning games, but with Manny, the fannies will definitely be in the seats. I would go just to watch this guy hit. Look what his presence in the lineup did for LA. Imagine what it would do for our offense.
they won’t have enough seats for extra fannys next year as it is.
Can we please follow the stories?
Boras “emphatically disputed the notion that he wants a Barry Zito-like contract for Lowe” to Ken Rosenthal yesterday. He ’s realistic enough to know he’s not getting that kind of deal.
5 years sounds more like it, but he won’t get more than 4, if you ask me. I just hope those 4 come from the Mets. I voted for giving him 3 years, but if you have to go to 4, so be it.
In some other news …. rotoworld.com is reporting that K-Rod’s agent has received K-Rod’s medical reports and has given them to the Mets who are in the process of reviewing them.
Wouldn’t it be funny if Fuentes’ agent substituted Victor Zambrano’s medical records (from 2006) in an efford to sabatoge the Mets’ courtship of K-Rod?
lowe also brought up the titanic while speaking to his yacht-building contractor last summer.
i wouldn’t bring up the name zito during my negotiations for a long term contract.
it’s reported that while watching boogie nights, lowe turned to his agent and said, “just like that one.”
Well I guess our economy is doing better.
Man if the yanks are going own the market on starting pitching, we might have to sign Ben sheets. I think because Lowe is 35, he is asking way too much. Do you guys think we can sign bothe ollie and sheets or is that just a pipe dream.
I think we can do it, so long as the Sheets deal is reasonable. I hear insurance companies won’t go higher than 3 years on a deal for a pitcher. So, if we can get it insured, why not go 3 years on Sheets?
However, I can totally see a team like the Royals (who seem to be trying to get better actually) taking a shot on him. Why not? If he stays healthy for a year and they are terrible again (odds are), they can flip him for prospects at the deadline in year 2. I can see them coming in with 3 yrs, $39mil. After all, they gave Gil Meche $10Mil/season.
Why are all you people freaking out about our starting rotation….the phillies won this year with a garbage rotation …we had better starters than they did all year…johan…pelfrey…maine is a solid base…niese will come up….we need a #2 which is more than feasible…..it was our BULLPEN that gave up like 29 saves last year I believe.?? the Phillies gave up 0
Omar get ME
k-rod
biemel or cruz
“rad” chad cordero.
and let’s chain heilman …sanchez and scotty to shea before the final recking ball comes through
fun discussions.
I don’t mention teix much, figuring Omar won’t do it, but like TRS said, it helps the mets in many ways.
and while expensive, it should not impact the rebuild of the pitching staff. Especially if they avoid the nonsense of 5 year/17 million per deals for average guys like Lowe.
Get Teix. Sign a closer (k rod or fuentes) at a good price (market forces). Sign sheets (3 years if needed). add some other BP arms (gonna do this anyway). Get a 5th starter if possible (wolf or Johnson, want a lefty), otherwise have a comptition in ST.
With Teix on board, you only need to fill in LF and 2B (as-suming the catchers stay put, otherwise minor deal for one of them).
Well, they have evans/tatis/murphy/castillo already, so it isn’t pressing to do anything at those postions. Nice if you can, but not required.
So, say you go with murphy/tatis in LF and Castillo at 2B:
reyes S
murphy l
wright R
Teix S
Beltran S
Church L
C (platoon) L/R
Slappy. S
balanced line up. And really strong 1-6. Snag someone like molina, or replace slappy with a 2B that can hit, and it becomes fearsome. Also plenty of defense.
Santana, Sheets, maine, pelfry and (johnson/wolf/vazquez) is also a nice rotation, and not adding that much salary.
guys face it….we are NOT getting tex at 1st….we need BULLPEN BULLPE BULLPEN…..then a #2 and hopefully we snag a #5…it is a buyers market for pitching this year and hopefully we do some damage there….i HATE castillo as much as the next guys but all that money for hudson isn’t worth it….I also feel confident that omar will yank a LF before spring training ….hopefully a righty though
i would love it if he started to do anything though…this is getting boring
Comments on this entry are closed.