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Yesterday, during a tour with reporters at Citi Field, Mets COO Jeff Wilpon said Omar Minaya and other GMs have been working the phones, laying groundwork for the Winter Meetings, and he expects the Hot Stove to pick up momentum sooner than later.
“Omar knows where he wants to go,” Wilpon said, “and we’re going to let him do that.”
Wilpon pointed out that, with the current state of the economy, “it’s not unexpected that we’re slow to get going.”
…the way i heard it, from a person in baseball who deals in budgets, teams have cash, but they are fearful of what the economy may do to attendance in years to come…so, while pitchers like CC Sabathia and Derek Lowe will get their money, it’s hard to gamble on a player like Bobby Abreu or Pat Burrell with a three-year contract, when fans may be unable to afford ticket prices down the road…and so, teams are really crunching numbers when trying to determine a course of action…
Mets just need to be patient. Go get Krod early and then keep a check on all of the other guys. Some of them will be left out and will be big time bargains.
well at least omar knows where he wants to go
Omar knows where he wants to go,” Wilpon said, “and we’re going to let him do that.”
This just seems like a wierd statement to me. Does this mean a big deal is in the works? If so who could it be?
I heard he wants to go to the blackjack table at the Bellagio.
Well, that is certainly a fine place to be, especially compared to Flushing in December!
Yeah, I don’t gamble … but I’d rather be there anyway. Who wouldn’t?
Ironic though … The GM’s will be in Vegas for the meetings but they don’t want to gamble. heh
I take it more to mean that the Wilpons aren’t getting in the way of Omar’s vision for the team next year.
Which makes it all the more weird to say it since they just gave the guy an extension, so they obviously were behind his vision anyway.
Yeah, I guess it’s just me being an optimist but it seems like there is more there.
its not being optimist…its called being a appologist..geez real stop making appologize for omar…we all know how bad omar is…join the club
A big trade would, however, still be a cool thing to see.
no it wouldnt as it will be the wrong trade and omar will be responsible for the worst mets team EVER!!!
It’s not a weird statement. It’s a deflection.
Explain. Again, he is talking about Omar working the phones with other GM’s and then that Omar has a plan and they are going to let him do it. Seems as though at least one trade is in the works.
He is probably working the phones with agents too. It doesn’t necessarily mean a trade over say, a free agent signing.
I imagine the Mets will do some of both.
A deflection of what?
Sounds like they’re saying we’re not Steinbrenners, we’re gonna let Omar do his job.
the way i see it Omar has taken his time evaluating all the players available and no has decided which players he wants.
Somewhere Hubie is laughing maniacally right now.
No, he is just angry and frustrated that everyone he tells about the bad economy already seems to know about it.
Kingman, reads like you are the angry one now. You and others were all in denial about the economy saying it would have no impact on baseball. Just admit you were wrong.
It still has had no major impact on baseball. Sorry. Owners are just using it as a tool to drive down price.
Just a little bit Prismo. I’m not an intellectual snob, but I have an economic background so the economics of baseball is an interesting topic for me, and I saw this coming. As I have said before, this all benefits the Mets in the short-term as the Mets revenue stream with the new stadium and SNY should be ok, while other teams are going to be hurt. I think the front office has played it very smart so far, and at the end of the day we will be able to make the acquistions we need.
Hopefully it means that Omar formulated the grand plan (big vision), which hopefully includes 2010 too.
Then he presented to the big bra-ss, and they gave him the budget parameters and effective Carte blance to execute the plan.
I love all the posts about Omar not doing anything, asleep at the switch. He probably burned out 2 blackberries since the WS ended talking to GMs and agents, and likely has tentative deals in place all over.
I still think that’s why the rumored Street/heilmann deal didn’t happen (if it was legit rumor). AH might be in play for other pieces, so that deal was back burnered?
Who knows, but I bet by the end of next week, the 2009 mets roster will look quite a bit different!
Or maybe even that Show is included in another deal and they felt it would not be wise to deal Feliciano right now.
I pray both of you guys are right…
Amen to that HOF. Getting rid of Schoeneweis would be the most wonderful early holiday treat.
And stick, you are SO right….it is a joke, the idea that Omar is doing nothing. I have a feeling we will be happy at this offseason’s additions.
I would hope so Stick and TRS.
Omar’s been working Boras since October. He’ll throw extra money at Ollie if Tex signs for 7 years/170.
Idon’t know about you guys, but that statement could be a sign of two things for us mets fan this year:
1) Omar will surprise us all by gettin a big time starting pitcher and/or offensive player (TEX or MANNY)
Or
2)2009 will be a long season for us due to the incompetence of one (to me) of the worst GM in all baseball..
When he does make that big trade, like he did with Santana (and Delgado and Duque to a lesser extent), will you come back and eat your words?
Did Omar “know whhat he wanted to do last year?”
Getting us NOBODY at the trade deadline when it was certain that maine and Wagner weren’t going to be the player they were?
He got us ayala..
he probably could have traded Murphy and Niese to Colorado and got Fuentes after wagner went down but you can’t trade your top prospects for Fuentes
Didn’t Wagner go down after the trade deadline?
the mets need first and foremost players with winning attitudes. Who on the mets current roster has won anything before??
if the Mets are willing to spend alot of money they have to sign Manny. He’s still one of the top hitters in the game and even at age 36 he’s shown 0 signs of slowing down. .300 30 HR 100 RBI is a lock with .320 38 HR 130 RBI not really out of reach
he is the best hitter available (in the short term) and he’s exactly what we need in every aspect of the game. sure he’ll do some stupid things but when the game is on the line, besides Jeter i can’t think of anyone i’d rather have up at the plate than Manny Ramirez..
3 years 66 mil is well worth it
Reyes
Beltran
Manny
Delgado
Wright
Church
Murphy (gotta play him at 2B and live with the poor defense)
Schneider/Fatstro
if Chruch plays like he did before the injury and Murphy plays like he did last year that is the most feared lineup in baseball
now all the Mets would have to do is sign Lowe for the 2 spot at 3 years 50 mil with an option, sign K-Rod at 3 years 45 mil or 4 years if 3 cant be done. trade heilman and change for street. minor trade or 2 for the bullpen and some depth players and thats a WS bound team
I can live with Manny IF we trade Delgado and go with Murphy/Evans at 1B. That clears up another 12 million to be spend on pitching. Thus with your deal Many only cost us 10 million this year. I would still much rather have Tex but that’s fine. Delgado and Heilman maybe could net us Sonnanstine for our #5 spot. Then sign Wolf or resign Ollie.
Manny +22
Delgado and prospect -14
Sonnanstine .5 million
Ollie +12
Krod +12
other bullpen pieces +8
That spends 42 million which is what I counted that we had available this offseason from the begining.
i would like Teixiera too but do you really think the Mets are going to invest over 100 million for him???
No but I would much rather invest 160 million for 8 years on a young Tex than to invest 80 million on Manny.
the real?
wouldn’t you rather get edwin jackson?.. i like his stuff.. what u think?
personally id rather spend the extra money and keep Delgado as Evans/Murphy and Castillo is nowhere near as good as Murphy/Castillo and Delgado.
sure Sonnenstine would be a great #4-5 starter but Delgado over Evans is a much bigger upgrade than Sonnenstine over Marquis or Pedro especially with Niese in AAA
While I agree, we just don’t have the cash to go get another 10-12 million dollar starter, sign Manny and remake the pen. To me if we upgrade the offense with a big name player, Delgado has to go. It makes the most sense if he has to go to bring in a young #4-5.
And no, I would much rather have Sonnanstine. Yes Jackson throws harder but Sonnanstine is much more polished.
Omar will never play Murphy at 2B (although I wouldn’t mind)
NOTE TO WILPON: If the economy gets bad, lower the ticket prices.
“Mets COO Jeff Wilpon said Omar Minaya and other GMs have been working the phones, laying groundwork for the Winter Meetings”
Translation: Omar has lined up the female talent for him and Jeffy at the meetings.
Geez, I remember someone on here posting the same thing 3 months ago, and he was laughed at for it.
Who could that have been?
Hmmmm. He’s back with a furry. When Krod, CC and Tex take pay cuts because of the economy then you let me know.
Besides don’t you think the owners would use the economy as an excuse to TRY and lower contract demands?
K-Rod has already had to back off his initial demands, although that is partially due to the lack of market for closers. Tex and cc are going to get their money though. We all know that.
Krod’s situation has nothing to do with the economy. It has everything to do with the fact that the other big money teams don’t need a closer.
I would not say nothing, but I would agree the lack of a market for closers has had more of an effect on his situation than the economy. A guy like John Garland will be affected though. He’ll be lucky to get a two year deal.
I disagree again. Who out there even if the economy was great, would give Krod a 5 year deal besides the Mets?
As for Garland, the fact that he will not cost a pick will end up making him more attractive and he will still get something like 3/30. Not because of the economy but because he is not that good and teams are not wanting to make the Carlos Silva mistake. Not to mention that Silva’s year he was one of the few FA pitchers on the market. Garland has many other competitors just like him, such as Wolf.
Actually Hubie, my laughing was at your idea that you were the only one who knew the economy was bad, and that we need to be educated about it by you. WE ALL KNOW.
The other laughter was because you seem to think that a bad economy means baseball attendance will dramatically fall and the Mets will not be able to afford things. The worse the economy gets, the STRONGER the Mets’ position will be vis-a-vis the rest of baseball, as they have a much larger and wealthier population base in this area, and they own their own TV network, which guarantees a lot more income than just about any other franchise. If we enter a depression, the difference between the Mets’ financial position and the Pirates or Brewers or Royals or Astros or most other teams will INCREASE.
But it is nice that you continue to comically act as though you just discovered fire or something.
I just had a flashback of Tom Hanks on a deserted island.
LOL! I love that movie….imagine what it would be like to not know what the Mets did for four years…..no Johan, no Omar, no Metsblog….even Hubie would agree that Tom Hanks would not have been affected by the economy on that island….
Kingman, its funny how defensive you are now. I was in the extreme minority of fans on here saying the economy would impact baseball and was mocked and criticized for my comments. To deny that is just being ignorant.
the economy only really affects the bad teams. The Jets, Giants, Rangers and even the Knicks sell out every game. and the fans are still spending 50 bucks on food and drinks per game
No Hubie, you are mocked for lecturing adult baseball fans about something we ALL KNOW. We get that the economy is bad. Really, we do.
Enjoy your moment here. Even though you still may turn out to be wrong about how it affects baseball.
Kingman, you are wrong here. Most posters on here were mocking me for stating the economy would have an impact. Before you post another silly comment, go abck and look at what was posted in September and October.
I am still mocking you :) . But anyway, while it will have some effect on the lower tier players and maybe some effect on the lower tier teams, over all it’s impact on baseball will still be minimal.
Well, my comments were stating that history (thus far) shows that baseball, sports, and entertainment in general do better than the economy as a whole during hard economic times. And that the Mets would be in a good position to overcome it, moreso than other teams.
And my other point was thinking that it seemed as though you thought you were bringing news by saying the economy was bad when we all know.
I am going to apologize for starting this again and bow out, as everyone doesn’t need to hear us say the same things again.
Sorry.
Kingman, I actually agree with you here. The mets are clearly in better position in the short term. They do need to be careful though doling out long term contracts (beyond 3 years) as we really don’t know the long term impact at this time.
Cool; let us agree, respect each other and talk baseball and not the economy. I will if you will…..
Fine, but unfortunately, the two intertwine a lot right now.
Still disagree with that last point. The only thing you might not see is the sleeper team. But this will still be a very active offseason and record contracts will be given out mostly by big market teams. How is that any different from normal?
Record contracts will be given to a few guys. CC, Tex, Manny.
Its the middle teir guys who are gonna get Left. Guys like Kevin Mench getting 2mill from Japan.
A guy who under “normal” circumstances would get a 3 or 3 yr deal worth about 10 mill wont get that deal anymore.
I don’t think that’s a big deal with Mench. It was rumored he might go there last year when there was not a true market for him.
trs86
the thing is the Mets are going to have to spend more than 42 million this offseason if they want to win.
face it Perez is unreliable, we dont know if Pelfrey can repeat, who knows about Maine and Niese probably isnt ready.
Derek Lowe, Manny and K-Rod give us stability. we know what all 3 are going to do for the Mets. Sure Lowe wont be as productive by the end of his contract but by the time his contract is up. Niese, Parnell, Holt etc. should all be in the big leagues so if Derek Lowe can give us an era under 4 in his last year as our #4 starter then thats fine
i’d rather pay extra for the sure thing then take a 30 million dollar gamble on the other untested options
I don’t think we have to break the bank and have 180 million dollar payroll to win. I guess we will have to disagree. Besides if you think the only way the Mets are going to win is to spend 60 million then you might as well turn of the computer and not even bother because it’s not going to happen.
Not to mention the fact that JUST signing those 3 does not make us a perfect team. Better yes but we still would have problems in the pen and the rest of the rotation. Not to mention catcher and 2B.
I don’t think you have to have that kind of payroll to win. But I think with the way our team has been built, little to nothing in the farm system that’s going to be available any time soon or can be used as pieces in trades, and a lot of older players, that’s the only way we’re going to be able to win without taking a year off or something to attempt to rebuild. If they want to stay contending next year and in 2010 they’re going to have to break the bank. Otherwise we’re going to have to take a step back first and then try and contend.
yes but Brian Schneider is a fine catcher, he isnt a good hitter but he is certainly not a liability of any sort. just get a pinch hitter ready when he comes up in a big spot.
if murphy moves to 2B the defense will be bad but his bat will make up for it.
if not then we have a 2 of the best pinch hitters in Murphy and Tatis on the bench
I know it’s not the mets specifically saying this but maybe they should have thought about attendance and whether fans could afford to go to games before they built the stadium with 10,000 less seats? I guess thats what happens when teams care more about big corporation money than their own fans and the big corporations start to fall apart.
Well luckily there are some rather cheap ways to make this team much better.
1- Trade for one of tampa’s young sps Sonnanstine or Jackson. Heilman, Evans and Kunz may do it.
2- Sign K-Rod. I know he’ll be expensive ( i think 3 years 40mil with a 4th year option), but you could make it up in 1 home playoff game, which k-rod could very well bring
3- Trade prospects and relief outcasts like Show or Feliciano to Colorado for Street. Hes cheap, young, and good.
4- I would go after orlando hudson but if they’re really being stingy, hold on to Castilo but get a solid backup middle infielder to be ready to play.
5- Wait for SP market to develop and wait out a SP like Garland or Sheets who might be left out high and dry with this economy, steal them for cheap.
This makes the pitching drastically better, cheaper and younger too. Not much in the way of offense, which i myself would not like but I dont think the team is worrying about all too much. The thing is, I expect like i think omar does for Wright and Reyes to continue to get better. Which obviously is an offensive upgrade. I think they expect murphy to continue to hit the crap out of the ball, only for a whole season. And i think they are hoping Church gets back into beginning of the season form. If all, or even some, of those things happen. The offense is improved without even changing things. And with the Wilpons guarding their wallets theyre probably leaning towards that idea. With that said I’d still love the idea of an Orlando Hudson batting second. But we’ll see what happens
Why not aggressively pursue Burnett? Braves just made him a 5 year offer. The Mets are supposedly a “big market” team and should act like it for once. If Braves get Vazquez, Burnett, kiss the division goodbye. If the Mets think they can just go out and sign Brian Fuentes and call it and offseason, they’ll finish 3rd.
b/c Burnett isnt that good and he’s injured half the time anway
I’d stay far far away from burnett. He had his best year in a walk year, shocking. All the other times hes injured. Never proved to be a big time pitcher. 5 years could be cataclysmic
What about signing Manny, trading Delgado for Andy Sonnanstine or Edwin Jackson and putting Murphy/Evans at first. Its basically the same thing as just keeping Murphy/Evans at left and Delgado at first. Except this would enable us to trade for a young pitcher and still keep a big bat in the middle of the lineup
I agree, a culture change is necessary, and this is what have should have been done LAST year. It starts with moving Delgado.