Daily Archives: January 16, 2009
Last night, SNY’s Ted Berg talked with Mets GM Omar Minaya for an interview on SNY.tv.
Here is a quick sample of their discussion, which I found most interesting – otherwise, to watch the entire four-minute interview, scroll down and click play…
Ted Berg: How do you balance the desire to put together a competitive team with the challenge of winning in the long haul?
Omar Minaya: Well, you have to do that, you have to balance that. It’s not so much about the players, it’s about the quality of the player you are giving up. You know, you have a lot of players in the system…
Ted Berg: Do you look down the road and say, ‘This is not a need now, but we’ve got to look at that for 2010, 2011?’
Omar Minaya: Yes, exactly. Like right now, what we’ve done with Robert Parnell and Jon Niese, I feel we’ve got some good young pitching, but we have some other guys who are gonna be free agents or not, so you want to be able to hold on to certain guys. When we traded for Johan Santana, we made a trade where we gave up three pitchers. And I just felt, this year, we couldn’t do that, because we had to hold off some of our starting pitcher who are better guys. It goes in cycles and where there is a surplus – you try to trade off of your surplus is what you try to do and you also have to look at years ahead, 2009, 2010, 2012. You know, we have some real good infielders right now, offensive players, position players, down at the lower levels, so that’s good to know. It goes in cycles, some years you have pitchers, but position players at the lower levels, and you kind of balance it out whenever you make trades.
Tagged Omar Minaya, SNY, Ted Berg |Yesterday, the Mets announced that single-game tickets for spring training games in Port St. Lucie, Fla., will go on sale tomorrow, 
Saturday, at 10 a.m. at Mets.com.
…by the way, it’s looking like i will be down in St. Lucie for that first home game of the spring, on Thursday, Feb. 26, in the afternoon, after which i am hoping to do a MetsBlog Get-Together at Duffy’s later that night for any readers who may be in town… so, if you’re making the trip, let me know…
Lastly, two 40-game plans and four 15-game plans for the 2009 season are also on sale now at Mets.com.
According to a press release, the team will announce the sale of single-game tickets for Citi Field in the ‘weeks ahead.’
…if you’re looking for a distraction from the cold weather outside, click here to see my photos from St. Lucie last spring…
Last night, I ran down to the SNY studio, where I was able to talk with SNY’s Gary Cohen and ask a few fan-submitted questions about his job, broadcasting and being a Mets fan.
To watch the four-minute conversation, scroll down and click play, otherwise the following is a quick transcript:
Matthew Cerrone: The first question comes from Henry in Trumbull, and, actually, I know Henry and he’s good guy, he asks: we know how owners and fans, in time, feel their entitled to a World Series, but how does that work for broadcasters – do you guys get excited about the prospect of making that big call, and feel entitled to it?
Gary Cohen: Well, in our role on TV, we don’t get to call anything in the post season… Back when I was on radio there was a little more invested in the team getting there and getting the chance to do those calls, but we don’t do that on television – we’re done when the season ends.
Matthew Cerrone: I think I asked you this a couple of years ago, but, having done this so long, how do you keep from becoming jaded or desensitized by the business aspect, working so close to the team?
Gary Cohen: I think there are a lot of things that go on through the course of the season that can make you feel jaded. But, for the three hours that the game is going on, the game is thing. That’s the thing about broadcasting baseball, you’ve got to love the game – and, to me, that supercedes anything else, positive or negative, that goes on in the other 21 hours of the day.
Matthew Cerrone: The last question, which, actually, I got from a pot of readers, all aspiring broadcasters I would think, and, basically, what is the best advice you got as a broadcaster – and what can you impart?
Gary Cohen: The best advice I ever got, from a guy named Gary Sparta, who I worked with in South Carolina, and he basically told me not to announce, but to talk. You have to be yourself and you have to talk to people the way you would have a conversation in real life, otherwise you will come off as a phoney. In terms of kids who want to broadcasters, the best thing you can do is grab a tape recorder, go to a game and talk and do it over and over and listen back, because you’ll be your own best critic and then go to it again and again and again, and that’s really the other way to learn how to do play by play.
Tagged SNY |Yesterday, at his blog for 1050 ESPN Radio, 
Andrew Marchand said agent Freddy Garcia will sign with either the Mets, Yankees, Rangers or White Sox by the end of next week.
However, today, Joe Crowley of the Chicago Sun-Times believes, because they recently signed Bartolo Colon, Garcia is no longer an option for the White Sox.
“The Padres have agreed to terms on a one-year, $850,000 deal with David Eckstein to play second base,” reports Tom Krasovic of the San Diego Union-Tribune.
…minaya told me during an interview last October that he tried to sign eckstein last off-season – but, when things didn’t work out, the team signed Luis Castillo… so, i think it’s safe to assume minaya must have had a conversation with eckstein this time around, even if it was short lived…
…in the end, whether the Mets were interested or not, i imagine eckstein preferred san diego because he will be their starting second baseman – as opposed to coming to Queens, where he’ll be a back-up waiting for castillo to hurt himself again…
…the thing is, the Padres signed eckstein to be a starting second baseman – repeat, starting second baseman – and are paying him $850,000…yet, the Mets paid $2 million for Alex Cora to be a back-up… now, how does 
that math make sense…
Speaking of infielders…
In a report for FoxSports.com, Ken Rosenthal says free-agent infielder Edgardo Alfonzo is intriguing clubs with his performance in the Venezuelan Winter League.
According to Rosenthal, “He also lost weight, and could make a worthwhile investment on a minor-league deal, starting at Class AAA and working back to the majors.”
“The Dodgers formally released Andruw Jones,” according to the Los Angeles Times, making him a free agent once he inevitably clears waivers.
Mark Bowman of MLB.com believes that if Jones intends on returning to the Braves, he will have to accept a minor-league deal.
Meanwhile, according to Bowman, “Jones has told friends that he believes the Reds and Mets could make a push to acquire him.”
In a report for Yahoo! Sports, Tim Brown writes, “The Mets might take a shot at Jones.”
…might… maybe… i don’t know… i mean, i guess if we’re talking a minor-league deal, then anything is possible, for any one… but, i see no way the Mets, or any team for that matter, guarantee this guy a spot on a roster…
…also, as for rumors of the Mets looking in to jones while he was still on the Dodgers, prior to renegotiating his contract, from what i understand, it wasn’t so much that Omar Minaya was interested in jones, it’s that he was angling to swap jones’s terrible contract for Luis Castillo’s…
By the way…
In Brown’s report, he quotes Scott Boras as saying in an e-mail, “Baseball markets are like breakfast [juice vs. pancakes]… They have varying degrees of fluidity. This is an Aunt Jemima market, but we know everyone needs a good breakfast to be a winner.”
… hello, hello, Rick Peterson, is that you…
Last night, on Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report, host Steven Colbert discussed the Mets 2009 Citi Field Inaugural Patch, noting:
“The design beautifully echos both a baseball diamond (the blue), where a World Series game might be played, and the section of the stands (in orange) where the Mets players would watch that World Series game.”
…when other fans and media are so eager to make fun of the Mets, and seem to get so much enjoyment out of it, the team really, really needs to be more careful when making these sorts of decisions…what’s worse, we, as fans, have to deal with that same mockery coming from other baseball fans… ugh…
To watch the entire clip from Colbert, click here.
…this hurts, but it is what it is…
The Flushing Fotografer, a reader of MetsBlog.com, sent in the following images of Shea Stadium, taken last week:
…man, that is just painful… absolutely painful…
For these and other photos, click here.
Tagged Shea Stadium |In a report for FoxSports.com, Ken Rosenthal says rival executives list the following problems for Oliver Perez:
“He had the lowest groundball percentage in the National League last season… His walk rate was the third highest in the league after Barry Zito and Ian Snell… And he has yet to pitch 200 innings in a season.”
Last night, on SNY’s Mets Hot Stove, Mets GM Omar Minaya had the following to say, when asked if Perez was his number one target from the current free-agent pitcher’s market:
“Well, I’m not going to disclose to you who is my number one target (laughs)… It’s a tricky situation because the agent, Scott Boras, controlled both Derek Lowe and Perez, so we decided to negotiate with Derek first, but we could have easily negotiated with Perez first…
“Perez might be the best option for us… We feel good with him, his a good teammate, you don’t know what to expect with him sometimes, pitching, or even hitting (laughs), but he’s fun, he’s your prototypical lefty… That being said, there are other guys out there… However, we are negotiating, we have been talking with Scott Boras about Oliver since the GM Meetings, slowly talking about him and it’s built up.”
To watch all of Minaya’s discussion about Perez and the starting pitcher’s market, courtesy of SNY, click here.
Yesterday, on WFAN, Mike Francesa said Perez could end up signing Minaya’s reported three-year, $30 million offer, according to a ‘field reporter.’
…personally, i feel there is little-to-no-chance of perez and boras accepting a low-ball, three-year, $30 million offer in mid-January… frankly, it would not surprise me to see perez end up signing just a one-year deal, like Kyle Lohse did, with a team like the Rangers, Dodgers or Cardinals, who could overpay on the dollars, while knowing it is only a short-term situation… then, perez can take his campaign to the road again next off-season, like lohse, who ended up signing a four-year deal the following winter… or, the Mets will have to wait on boras to create a market for perez, and who knows how that will end up…
…in other words, if it’s a four-year deal they’re talking about, i think the Mets are perez’s only real option, which reduces the money he’ll be offered… however, if it’s a one-year deal that’s in play, suddenly boras will have more teams to leverage against the Mets, which could raise perez’s salary for the year…
Nevertheless, Rosenthal adds, “Pedro Martinez also remains on Minaya’s radar, as does free-agent Ben Sheets, pending a review of his medical records.”
Tagged Oliver Perez, Omar Minaya, Pedro Martinez, Randy Wolf |Last night on SNY’s Mets Hot Stove, Mets GM Omar Minaya was asked if he could bring in a player, like Adam Dunn, Bobby Abreu or Manny Ramirez, on a one-year deal, and said:
“Yes, I could possibly bring in a player. But, what I don’t want to do invest the capital I have on an offensive situation when I have not yet taken care of the pitching situation… When my pitching situation is taken care of,
then, then we’ll review that and see what’s out there and can we bring in a guy on that one-year situation, expecting possibly Fernando Martinez in 2010… But, what I don’t want to go is get ahead of myself and invest in areas until my pitching is taken care of.”
Minaya did note how left-handed dominant his batting order is, adding, “So, it has to be the right guy to fit in there and it has to be a guy who wants to come in for one year, and, as we speak, there are not a lot of guys who want to come in for one year.”
However, he added, he is comfortable starting the season with Daniel Murphy and Fernando Tatis in left field.
Asked specifically about Manny Ramirez, and whether he has recommended signing him to ownership, Minaya said:
“Manny Ramirez is a great player… But, the reality is, we have been focused on pitching… If you don’t have the foundation with starting pitching, I just don’t believe you win championships… So, we have to address our starting pitching and our bullpen first… Like anything else, you put your team together, like all GMs, you have a game plan, but the bottom line is you have to focus on pitching.”
To watch Minaya’s full discussion about the outfield market, courtesy of SNY, click here.
…interestingly, i am not hearing minaya saying, flatly, no, he will not consider manny or dunn, etc… instead, what i hear him saying in this interview is, ‘ I have a game plan, I have a budget like most GMs, and I’m trying to stick to it – and so I am focused on pitching, and when that is over I will reassess my available finances and take a look at the hitter’s market.’…which, frankly, is what people have been writing and saying all off season…
