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This afternoon, like with the other 29 teams, Omar Minaya and his staff will arrive in Las Vegas for the MLB Winter Meetings, which begin tomorrow at the Bellagio and end on Thursday.
The team has booked nearly 50 rooms at the Bellagio and the Convention Center for roughly 50 staff members, ranging from team executives to media directors to minor league personnel.
Typically, Minaya and his immediate staff will organize from their suite at the Bellagio starting at 8 am, where they will meet with other team representatives, agents, scouts and reporters, while dispatching to other team’s suites to do the same later in the day.
Naturally, I have never been to the Meetings, nor have I been in a team suite, but I have talked with enough people to get a sense of what it’s like. I envision lots of snack food, dry-erase boards, binders, tons of notebooks, laptops and various sources of caffeine.
Meanwhile, reporters are occasionally invited up to the suite for a briefing. Otherwise, they are downstairs in the lobby, waiting for something to write about. Occasionally, an agent or team official will slide by them, stop, chat and give a quote or two, while other writers scurry for the latest insight and rumor in to what teams are doing upstairs.
Later in the night – after people take a shower and grab dinner – scouts, reporters, team employees, agents, and even fans, all mingle at the bar, which is where most rumors are born.
I will not be attending the event. I thought about going, and SNY considered sending me, but, in the end, to do what I do best, it makes far more sense 
for me to be here, in my home office, in lock down, watching and listening, texting and calling, and keeping you updated on the entire event, while linking to other reports and keeping the conversation moving.
Like last year, and the previous four years, I’ll be writing and posting and linking and blogging more or less non-stop through the 90–hour period that will be this year’s Meetings, while keeping in touch with my own sources to give you a sense of what’s happening and what it’s like to be at the Meetings, all in hopes of seeing a few transactions occur that will help make this team better.
I look forward to it, and I hope you do to.
That’s the difference between me and you, Matt. If I were in your position, I’d have been in Vegas last week! God I miss that place…
That schedule sounds like the coolest thing ever
It’s like a Major League camp.
but without the callestenics?
I dunno, some guerrila blogging – an outsiders take on the winter meeting would be pretty cool. Maybe another Matt & Ted’s Excellent adventure?….maybe next year.
I agree, but, believe me, it’s an either or scenario.
It would be either acting like every other reporter, away from the blog, doing videos, etc., OR I can be on the laptop, actually blogging, and continuing what has made this site successful and useful – as opposed to doing what would be most ‘fun.’
Believe me, there is just no way to do both.
In the end, you are a fan who hosts a fan blog, technically not a reporter, and sticking to your roots is admirable.
I concur with Coach Razor.
yeah matt keepin it old school !!!
you should be camped at the Oxygen Bar in the Bellagio
or sitting outdoors at their fantastic restaurant nibbling
a pizza for lunch laptop on Lap.
you can blog from anywhere,
and that’s where the stories are.
the buffet at the rio was second to none
I’m excited for the ball to get rolling. Looking forward to reading Matt.
Being there might not have worked. Depends where you would pick up interesting tid-bits.
If its in the casino area, they wont let you text there. Security is pretty tight.
Perhaps the bars are better.
I don’t know why Matt, but for some reason this was the best written post i have read by you. Perhaps ever. No idea why. There isn’t anything that stands out about it, it was just good concise writing. Maybe it is that I am on painkillers and I have been sick for 4 weeks now? I don’t know, but whatever it is, keep up the good work!
I can go to the Bellagio. How do I meet Omar Minaya? I want his autograph
Just read the article…mingle at the bar? Shoot I’m there!
Let us know how that goes.
Hey Metsfan—everything I read says the Winter Meetings are at the LV Hilton and the Conv Center—is Matt right, or are the Mets just staying at Bellagio and commuting? I go to Vegas a lot, and it seems strange that Omar would be at Bellagio if everyone else is at the Hilton….are other teams staying at Bellagio and commuting too (of course Bellagio blows away the Hilton…)? Would be interested in knowing….
its all in the bellagio
hey kingman whats the infatuation with ibanez man?? i thought u were more of a bc rich or carvin kinda guy lol
Ha! I have a 1970s Fender Precision with Bartolini pickups….I did have a Carvin practice amp…I bought it like 15 years ago and they still mail me catalogs!
No Ibanez guitars for me….just an occasional left-fielder….
i got a aria pro 2 eplorer body style and a geddy lee signature jazz b@ss i miss my mockingbird and my iceman btw u got a myspace page? and damnwhy a man crush on ibanez howz about rauch at least he looks like a grunge rocker ibanez looks like a guy from mana lol
What’s wrong with Mana? Their songs are great and their concerts kick a$$.
my wife loves em i think the drummer is good and they cover zepplin well – just a little to ballady for me case
Your wife has good taste. When I want to be inspired, I listen to Mana.
i enjoy them too but i’m not intimidated get my meaning? very good band – i like their music ( i prefer jaguares or la ley or puya sometimes) but they are one of the better latin rock bands out there
Have fun getting arrested
lol when i was there in june – big police pressence – it was when that nfl playerr got mugged
Damn, I must have just missed you! I was in Vegas July 1–4th and am going again in 2 weeks right before Christmas….
i stayed at the monte carlo the funny thing is i was gonna get inked at hart and huntington and i saw kisss was playing at the palms and i said to myself “oh theat gene ” lol
Why would I get arrested for being in a bar when I’m of age?
for possibly goin into an area that might be restricted for u – at least i think thats what he’s implying btw vegas i loved dicks last resort at the excalibur – or was that the mandalay bay??
Well I’m not that dumb lol, I wouldn’t try and force myself into anything. I do wanna check it out though while they’re there. I mean all the GM’s staying at the same casino? I don’t think they’ll bottle themselves up for the whole week. I’m sure they’ll roam the casino a bit towards the end of each day
And yeah, it’s at the Excalibur
yeah i went there it reminded me of the crazy country club from the good old days in bklyn
u have a better shot at getting penn and tellers signnatures – great guys – awesome show !!
‘I’ll be writing and posting and linking and blogging more or less non-stop through the 90–hour period that will be this year’s Meetings’
And I’ll be right here during that same 90 hour period reading every word. This remains the best site I’ve come across for up to the minute Met news and rumors.
Great job, Matt.
lol same here ill have to keep my cell phone constantly on a charger lol
MLBTradeRumors is pretty good too…. most rumors posted on blogs originate from that place
Actually most rumors originate from guys like Jon Heyman, Buster Olney, and Ken Rosenthal.
MLBTR just posts links to their articles.
and i copy the articles and post em here lol
Most rumors originate from GMs and agents and players actually..you know, when they start talking. ;-)
yeah like a bunch of yentas
Thanks stellar for playing the semantics game and pointing out the obvious. Your reply to my comment was pointless.
my wife thinks i’m crazy when i tell her that the winter meetings are an exciting part of being a fan. come to think of it…she thinks i’m crazy for rooting for this team still after the last 2 years…
What’s crazy about rooting for the best team in all of Baseball!
the Phillies?
How does it feel to win two championships in 125 years?
as good as it is for us to win 2 in 47 lol
He doesn’t root for the best team in baseball. He roots for the Mets.
low blow rod my wife looks at me and shakes her head sadly – last year on the day santana was delt i mustve refreshed the pc and my phone (thank goodness for 3g teechnology) over a thousand times lol
It wasn’t a low blow. The team hasn’t won in 22 years, This fantasy is what keeps the Mets second all the time.
eternal optimist i see
“When the skies are brighter canary yellow
I forget ev’ry cloud I’ve ever seen,
So they called me a cockeyed optimist
Immature and incurably green.
I have heard people rant and rave and bellow
That we’re done and we might as well be dead,
But I’m only a cockeyed optimist
And I can’t get it into my head.”
Can’t wait for these meetings to happen so I will have more wins next year and +1 Cy Young!
Last year was nuts I expect this year to be even nuttier. I will not be jumping to any conclusions and will just wait to see what happens. I won’t be disappointed if nothing happens during the meetings. Nothing did last year except for a bunch of rumors and speculation. This could go on through January so let’s not go crazy.
That being said, I do expect the team to do the follwoing:
1. sign K-Rod
2. trade for either Street or Putz
3. sign Cordero or someone similar with closer experience
4. sign one pitcher for less than $12M
5. trade for one pitcher to compete with Niese for the #5 spot or sign a guy like Johnson, Penny, Pedro or Garcia
6. sign a OF for less than $8M to compete with Tatis and Murphy (maybe Rivera)
In addition, I hope the team does the following:
1. Sign Tex, but if not then Dunn and trade Delgado
2. Trade Heilman, Show, Sanchez, and Feliciano (Aside from needing to completely revamp the bullpen, these guys will get huge salary increases because of the innings pitched last year)
3. Trade or DFA Anderson
4. Sign Lopez, Punto or Grudzy to back up Castillo
5. Trade for a C prospect
Good Luck and Let’s Go Mets!
tex4mets.wordpress.com
lots of stuff there, but some additional stuff, I can see trading Feliciano, but I think keeping Show around wouldn’t be so bad. If you have him just face lefties (which would happen if we actually had other arms in our pen that could get guys out) he’s a valueable piece to have. I also think Sanchez is the kind of guy you keep with the idea that you’re counting on him to be no more than a mop up guy in the bullpen, a 6th inning or one hitter guy, and see if he can turn it around and gain back some of that velocity.
darkstyar u think we should give brandon knight another shot – he was ok down the stretch
he’s an interesting arm, maybe he could be our long man in the pen? I don’t see giving him any shot to be our #5, but long man is a possibility.
i saw him at his debuet against the cards ( one of many games heilman blew for us) the one that went 15 innings – he was roughed up early but rebounded nicely – or was that stokes lol
It doesn’t make any sense to trade Feliciano and Schow, especially if we’re not bringing in any left handed relievers. Really if the closer/set up men we bring in are right handed we might need to keep both of them.
Also 5 is pretty much a pipe dream.
am i a bad guy for wanting johnson over pedro?
No I think a lot of people want that.
thanks gina – u made me feel better about myself :)
johnson is simply the better pitcher, and scarily enough, might be more reliable than Pedro. And that’s coming from me and I”m a HUGE pedro martinez fan. But furthermore, I don’t see johnson wanting any part of NY again, no way, no how, so you might as well forget about it.
yeah i love pedro – but i feel he is shot unfotunately
I agree darkstar. I don’t think he even wants to come back to the east coast.
o thought i heard pedro say he’d love to finish his career here?
we’re talking about johnson
oh sorry – little hard to follow but i think johnson will go where the money is and uf we are the only team offering – i don’t think he’d retire rather than play for us
I don’t think there’s any chance we’re the only team who will offer him a contract.
i heard possibly the tigers but he might be too expensive for them
According to espn.com, the Mets will offer Kerry Wood, KRod, and Fuentes all contracts and who ever accepts first will be their closer….
WHY???
i don’t like that tatic = it comes across as penny anty and can turn off our potential closer
Thats what i mean… Its stupid its like a lottery lol… They shouldnt do that anyone with brains knows that stupid…
theres gotta be a method to omars madness – but if i remember right he tried that with molina and that other catcher in 06 and it blew up in our faces – thats why we traded for loduca
Because Omar the GM has Jeffy ashis boss who knows nothing and treats people like dirt so he thinks he’ll get a great deal, and what we’ll get is a guy who isn’t satisfied and will poison the system instead of a guy happy to be here.
honestly i dont think much is gunna happen during the meetings…i think alot will happen but not too much yet
Huh?
was stat in stengeleese?
haha that is exactly what that seemed to be
meaning i dont think that much is going to happen with the mets this week… am i speaking english?? i think the mets will do alot things this offseason but its not all gunna happen during the meetings…i think they will make 1 or two moves but thats it.
no comrede de stengeleese lol but seriously – u r right maybe 2 or 3 deals gets done – but thats ok cuz they set the groundwork for the weeks and months after the meetings
Please Omar, don’t blow this for me, I need people who can hold the lead I give this team. I do what I do here and no one helps me.
are you saying “no mas” johan? lol
You know what i just noticed? ALL THE METS NEED IS SOME BULLPEN GUYS AND A PITCHER! THATS IT! THEIR OFFENSE WAS FINE, STARTING PITCHING WAS FINE, HECK DEFENSE WAS FINE… BUT IF WE JUST FIX OUR BULLPEN AND AN EXTRA STARTER WE’RE FINE!
just figuring that out are we? j/k truth is if boras has no real suitors for manny he might come crawling to us – the thought of that brings a wry smile to my face
Matt, you’re the Man! I’m quite impressed with your attitude and commitment and it hasn’t even started yet. This post has got me totally psyched and I look quite forward to your coverage, which I have a sneaking suspicion will be more fruitful than developments on the Mets’ end. Omar, prove me wrong!
same here – i can’t be negative now – ill have to wait til after the meetings just in case we get armando back because we burned our bridges with the top flighjt closers lol – damn im shuddering to think if armando (castillio’s brother from another mutha) being our closer again :P
just got this from mlbtr
The Mets are desperately trying to unload Luis Castillo so they can make a run at Orlando Hudson. They’re having no luck though, even in trying to swap him for another bad contract. The Rangers rejected a swap of Castillo for Vicente Padilla
u can’t say omar ain’t tryin !! right??
Ew. I want nothing to do with Hudson.
and u want everything to do with castillio ( our version of the fat toad hideki irabu) ?
lol c’mon lighten up, at least we’ll get to see hudson on BT’s web gems every night :)
and see castillio on dick clarks bloopers bleepers and fat beyond their prime second basemen lol
lmao…harsh…
sometimes the truth hurts
I don’t like Castillo. but Hudson would just end up being a more expensive version of Castillo.
You get your “facts” from a site named “rumors” and we are suposed to believe your factual rumored information?
Say its true, why doesn’t Omar and Jeffy cancel some of tose 50 rooms so they can pay players?
be gone with u ya troll go back to the boondocks of the city of animal husbandry ( philadelphia) where the men are men and the sheep are nervous !!
LOL! At least he named himself after one of the very worst players in Met history…..btw that comment about Castillo on Dick Clark was frigin hilarious….
thanks kingman – btw u got a myspace page?
No, no myspace page…..I was thinking of starting one though to get back in touch with a bunch of Seattle people…I will let you know when I set it up….
Do you and/or your band have one??
yeah im under shortarms the band is under shango
btw this just in darren oliver accepted arbitration by the angels
nooooooo :(
sorry pelf – something tells me that omar wouldn’t of made a big push for him regardless
yeah i had that feeling too. maybe Oliver is too old for us now. I miss Chad Bradford…but at least we have Smith :)
was oliver related to al oliver??
i have no idea :o
No, his dad was Bob Oliver, a pretty good first baseman for the Royals and Angels in the early 70s….
i thought possibly laurence oliver !!
I just read a report stating that the Mets are desperate to trade Luis Castillo so they can sign Orlando Hudson to replace him. This is according to Ken Rosenthal at fox sports. Now that’s some interesting news. I hope it happens
uh hernandez look up alil bit – already posted that
My bad….too many comments to sort through….lol
ill let u slide this time
Ok, surely by now someone should have reported what Omar and the Wilpons had for lunch and where they made dinner reservations.
anyone think the wilpons had the shellfish lol
Metsblog should’ve gone CIA style on the Winter Meetings. I’m talkin bout bugging rooms and infiltrating the hotel staff. Too much?
That’s great! Like in Ocean’s 11…they could just get a few electronic experts behind the scenes, bribe a few employees, and have cctv in Omar’s room and watch what everyone else is planning!
Yup, and then Matt could’ve cited an unnamed source when announcing that Omar just signed Mark Teixeira next to a picture of them shaking hands over drinks (a mojito) :)
i thought it was supposed to be a caiperhina
And then, Matt hacks into Omar’s cctv cameras, and we get a feed from Tex’s room, and it shows his laptop, and the site he is at is:
tex4mets.wordpress.com
: )
Ha, best post ever! 100 points for da kingman :)
lol i thought we’d see him with a liberace looking giggalo
Just what we need…Omargate…
Omargate! This is really too funny!
“iiii am not a crook!! ju know what i’m sayin!!” :P
Matt,
I just want to thank you indvance for doing what only one Met fan has had the ability to do for us fans!
Godspeed!
somebody posted that darren oliver accepted arbitration. what was the source on that?
that was me gland got it from mlbtr
heres the post
Ken Rosenthal is reporting that Darren Oliver will likely accept the Angels’ offer of arbitration.
OIiver, 38, made $2MM last season, posting a 2.88 ERA and a nice 3:1 K:BB ratio through 72 IP for the Halos. Opposing lefties hit just .229 against him. He’ll almost certainly receive a raise for the 2009 season.
It really is incredible the second career he has had…I saw him pitch for the Rangers in Seattle when he was a starter in 2000-2001, and he was HORRID.
In 2000 and 2001, his ERAs were 7.42 and 6.02!!
i know – kinda like pat maholms with us
it seems like that is not a done deal, just speculation. a rumor post from one site, posted on another, then described on a third
I’m not saying it’s not going to happen, i just think that’s how these rumors start…someone posts something, it gets reposted and then it spirals out of control. Kind of like the speculation on trading Castillo for Vasquez or Byrnes. Someone posted it as a rumor and people kept running with it as if it were some impending trade.
MLB Trade rumors is a great site. They update constantly. When Matt thinks their posts are relevant he posts them himself. I wonder if there is etiquette about the whole copying other blogs stuff and posting it in here. Tim’s site needs traffic just as much as Matt’s does, no?
I have a feeling something big’s gonna happen tomorrow…
Jeff W is going to win a Megabucks slot jackpot after Fred gives him a roll of quarters to play with, and all our troubles will be over.
lol i thought he was gonna to go to hart and huntington to get jw & tom glavine best friends forever inked on his shoulder lol
t wont be tomorrow maybe wensday thursday
gotta run guy the old lady is pestering me