In a must-read report for Newsday, beat reporter David Lennon asks, ‘Now what,’ and writes about what the Mets can do this season to help their chance of winning in 2010, such as, ‘No more front-office follies.’
…word up to that, as my great grandmother would say…
…by the way, Newsday, what in the world did you do to your website… it looks like it’s not loading right, except that it is… white text on a dark background… really…
…anyway, back to the Mets…
In a report for ESPN: The Magazine, Buster 
Olney looks at who will be the top free agent pitchers in this year’s off-season market, such as RHP John Lackey and LHP Jarrod Washburn.
…from what i can tell, like it or not, the Mets will have roughly $20 million to spend towards next year’s player payroll… one of the big complaints has been Omar Minaya’s lack of attention to fat, i.e., the edges, the bench guys, depth, etc… so, to go out and spend all $20 million on one of two players will mean going down the exact same road from the last few seasons…
…it’s early, but, my educated guess is the team spends on one big free agent, likely a bat, and then makes a series of trades to re-shuffle the roster…
yeah, newsday changed their site a few weeks ago…i really don’t like it…its just resembles a very amateur product. good article though.
can we just throw our hands up and run around screaming like chicken little, because thats what im feeling right now.
I’m a big proponent of pitching > offense, so I’d really like to see them pick up John Lackey. Although I know it’s not a sure thing that the Mets will get Lackey I think they have a far better chance of getting him than a big corner OF bat like Holliday or Bay. The Yankees, Red Sox and Cardinals will all be pushing hard for left fielders this offseason.
And of course, because I can’t make a post without mentioning it, if the Mets want a big power bat and don’t want to spend a ton of money, then they should back the damn truck up for Adrian Gonzalez.
LOL you love Adrian Gonzalez… So do I but I’m not confident we have the chips to get a deal done… Remember Omar killed our minor league system.
Anyhow I feel that OFFENSE gets you into the playoffs and starting pitching wins you championships. At this point I would stock up on the offense which we didnt do the last three seasons and have fallen short of the playoffs. Stack up on the offense – See if Murphy could play second base in the winter league, if not, look to trade Castillo and bring in a guy that WANTS to be here, Orlando Hudson. Next see if you could get Delgado to sign a 1 year affordable deal, and than see if you could get Holiday for a 4-5 year 75 mil dollar deal.
If you do that and bring in a deceint number 2 or 3 starter I think we will have no problem competiting for the division.
Bringing in just one pitcher during the offseason isnt going to help this team because our offense is very weak… Especially with Reyes and Beltran coming off of injuries…God knows how they will produce.
I like you idea of sign holliday and Delgado (1 year deal). If Delagdo fails or gets hurt again, then you suck it up with murph at 1B. I do not think the 1B opions next year are worth signing for 3 year contracts.
There are two things that MUST be done, IF, we want any hope of contending with the Phillies, Braves and Marlins. Omar MUST get another TOP ARM and A BAT, period, no if’s and’s or butts about it. Once that is done, we can work on some of the othe rhole we have.
Every time I start to list all the good things that Adrian Gonzalez would bring to the Mets I have to stop because I realize it would take me hours to list them all.
LMAO your funny bro…WE KNOW YOU WANT HIM! WE DO TOO haha
20 million you say? You mean half as much as we gave Brian Schneider over the past 2 years?
I’m sure Omar will make that go far…
That must mean Putz is gone since he’d ake up half the budget.
Putz is getting a 3 year extension…same with Cora…lol
Yep the same guy who is hitting .196 lol…
Enough is enough with Omar – Can we get rid of the guy??? He’s terrible.
How can you expect to compete when you expected your everyday lineup to include the following as the bottom half of your order:
Church
Castillo
Schneider
Pitcher
That is GARBAGE!
Yep the same guy who is hitting .196 lol…
Enough is enough with Omar – Can we get rid of the guy??? He’s terrible.
How can you expect to compete when you expected your everyday lineup to include the following as the bottom half of your order:
Tatis (left field)
Castillo
Schneider
Pitcher
That is GARBAGE!
that big bat better be holliday or bay…they are the only young, in there prime, big bats available……if omar gets jermaine dye……..
Wright5murph28 – Do you think that is enough offense to compete? If we add Holiday do you think the following lineup is enough? I really don’t if we keep murphy at 1st…It’s still not close to what the Phillies put out everyday
Reyes
Castillo
Wright
Holiday
Beltran
F-core
Murphy
Santos???
Pitcher
dude thats not as bad as ur making it…the phillies #s are skewed because of there park…francouer was when he came up twice the player werth was, and hes showing it again too, werth is only good because of the park…if u had holliday beltran francoeur….i think holliday is better then ibanez, and 8 years younger…and beltran/francoeur > victorino/werth…..the only spots the phils would be guarenteed to have the mets beat is 1B/2B unless mets can get a guy like derosa and close the gap on utley
1st base and 2nd base they blow us away and you are looking at almost 80 home runs from both positions…Our entire lineup wont hit 80 home runs.
Well, it is all a matter of what Francouer gives us. As that line-up stands, I think its good enough to compete and it at the very least makes us Wild Card favorites.
I really do feel that 2010 will be a just get to the play-offs and 2011 is when we make a run a for a 2006 repeat. By then, Familia, will be in AAA and we would know what we have with Mejia and Holt. F-Mart should be ready, as well as Ike Davis.
By 2006 repeat do you mean choke and lose to an 83 win team in the playoffs?
No I mean dominate the regular season.
dude…choke? They lost to the eventual world series champions. Some teams get hot,…..thats why its about making the playoffs.
We won 96 games during the regular season and blew the division away and than lose to a wild card team that won 83 games. We were SOOOOO much more talented then them.. We did choke… Look what our “core” did during that series offensively …including Delgado
Well Lorenzo, I gotta be honest, I would take that over being 12 games back. I really did not know how well it was until pondering this line up everyday.
hahaha that is def true.
Derosa at his age, skill level and price tag is not worth it. If he wasn’t from New Jersey, no one would want him.
Second, I hate it when people reflexively throw out someone’s ballpark as the only reason they’re good, like with Dunn or someone on the Phillies. Werth has more homers on the road than at home since joining the Phillies. And his OBP is about 80 points higher than Francoeur’s.
Offer the Phillies Frenchy for Werth and let me know if you can finish getting the question out before they hang up on you.
Werth is a good player…it took him time, but he’s having a great year.
And no ballpark can contain Adam Dunn.
sadly, that could be our best possible outcome.
I dont even think we’ll be able to get bay or holliday here in the first place…but i dont think we should stick with Delgado. It just seems like we’d be gambling again with him…we really need to get away from aging players on the downsides of their career with no idea if they’ll be healthy and/or productive. I’d rather take the lumps of playing a youngin’ then playing a 37, 38 year old. at least the youngin will grow from it and be around the following season while delgado would be gone anyways and we’d have this discussion again next season. we gotta start playing not just for 2010, but for 2011 as well…we need to progress the organization not just stop-gap it.
I would gamble with Delgado for 1 more season if he took a pay cut.. I mean, who else can hit 35-38 home runs at Citifield on our team besides him? There isn’t any first baseman available via free agency either that could hit that many at our ball park.
Totally agree on the Newsday site and actually thought that article was pretty weak.
Where’s the insight? “No more front-office follies”? Really? That’s the best we can do? How about a look at potential free agents or what Mets might do with own FAs?
Mets seem to be in a bad spot. Not much out there this offseason, any young players who might really contribute are at least a year away, Phillies show no sign of slowing down and still have as good if not better farm system than Mets.
unfortunately, the two players available that could put the mets offense over the top are probably too expensive together….holliday and derosa….holliday in LF, derosa at 2B….both right-handed, which is good in citi…..then u can keep murphy at 1B and hope he keeps developing…i think omar can move castillos contract, he might have to eat alot of it, but if u can gain 25% of the contract back, thats some more money to use on holliday and derosa….i know its prob not likely to get derosa if u get holliday….but….
Reyes
Murphy
Wright
Holliday
Beltran
Francoeur
Derosa
Catcher
Yea…i think thats better then all of the NL teams….but as i said, i feel they will have only enough to get 1 bat unless they move a contract like castillo and gain some salary relief
You guys are all forgetting that our pitching after Santana is AWFUL!!!!!!!
great point. even if the lineup works itself out (and if everyone’s healthy, it should score enough runs) and the bullpen is solid, there are 4 question marks at best in the rotation.
Great point.
Santana
Palfrey
Ollie
?? May be Niese
??
By the way, what is up with John Maine…I have not heard much about him.
I know this is forever from now but the 2011 offseason will be most interesting for the Mets. Reyes, Beltran, Castillo, Francouer, Ollie, Maine and possibly K-Rod (if his option doesn’t vest) all come off the books at the same time. That’s $60-70 million coming off the books all at once.
You are abosultey right. Mauer, Roy Halladay, and Carl Crawford and Adam Dunn will be among the free agents as well.
The mets need a big bat and at least another starter. Once thats out the way, they can concentrate on a 2nd bat. So, Holliday and washburn then get another bat. who that is, beats me? They could also choose not to get washburn and trade for a pitcher and a bat. there arent any real bats out their for 1B except for Laroche and nick Johnson and I am not sure how much of an upgrade it is from Murph.
The gap between good & bad pitching is far bigger than the gap between good & bad hitting, so I would make Lackey the #1 target.
Santana – Lackey – Pelfrey – Perez is a good start to a rotation, with Niese, Parnell, Nieve and assorted scrub pickups filling in 5-6-7. If Lackey won’t come, rather than Haren or Washburn, I’d try for Randy Wolf (2 yrs/$15mm should do it) and try to trade Pelf + a minor league arm for a #2. Santana-X-Wolf-Perez isn’t as good, though…
F-Rod, a 1-year signing at setup, Green, Feliciano, Stokes, Figgy, Kunz and other scrub arms for the pen.
I’d love to see O-Dog in NY, but I don’t think it’ll happen. He has seemed very happy here in LA this year, and if the Dodgers want to keep him and pay market, he’ll probably stay. He’ll probably get the full $8m incentive package this year, so I think it’ll take 3 yrs @ $9mm to get him. But if we get him & Lackey, that’s (over) the budget (and we still need to replace Schneider, and we would be eating some Castillo money probably).
Adding Hudson would give us Reyes-F-Mart/Pagan (LF)-Hudson-Wright-Beltran(maybe)-Francouer-Murphy (or Evans)-Catcher. It’s weak on power, but should play well in CitiField.
For the bench, I would try to keep A-Hearn (cheaper than Cora), Sullivan (cheaper than Reed – but both if Beltran’s out) & Santos, and add a backup 1B who could play 2x/week if needed. Buh-bye to Schneider & DP Tatis.
If everyone stays healthy, that’s a 88-92 win team — thanks mostly to winning 22-24 of Johan’s 32 starts (and playing just over .500 the rest of the time).
How do we only have 20 million to spend? Delgado (16), Wagner (13), Putz (6), Schneider (5), Redding (2), Cora (2?)= thats about 44 million coming off the books. I understand there will be raises but thats a 15% jump in payroll in just raises alone that doesnt sound right. Either way these owners needs to up the payroll I know that sounds ridiculous but 20 million if that is the real number is not enough to fix the problems of this team. People will not be buying as many tickets next season unless they know they will get a product worth the price. Alot of fans are very angry with the money they threw away on this team this year and it will take more than 20 million dollars to get those fans back especially since Omar can waste 20 million like nothing (castillo + ollie = 18 mill, scary)
First, your numbers are wrong.
According to Cot’s, Delgado is at $12mm (he didn’t vest for $16mm this year – he’s on the cheaper club option), Wagner is $10.5 and Putz is $5. So, only about $37mm is coming off the books.
The Mets have $9.75 million in comitted raises for just 4 players: Santana ($1mm), F-Rod ($3mm), Wright ($2.5mm) and Reyes ($3.25mm).
Finally, if they’re saying they have a $20mm budget, why do you believe it? Why would anyone leak “real” info to the media so that even the agents who are dumber than Boras can use it?
Also, Pelfrey’s contract has expired, and Francouer, Maine, Feliciano, Pagan, Sullivan, and maybe Stokes & A-Hearn are arb-eligible. All those raises will probably add up to $5-10mm.
I’d assume that they’re going with a flat payroll. That would give them $27mm between new signings and arbitration raises. That’s probably where the $20mm number comes from — using the midpoint on raises for the arb-eligible group.
look whatever the numbers are, 20 million dollars for NEW players is not enough to fix this team.
I agree – it’s not enough to fix it in 1 year. But expecting a 1-year fix is unreasonable too.
Trying to win every year, regardless of your current talent & the status of your system, is what created the Yankees of the late 1980s.
Im so angry right now at this 20 million dollar number. This is why this team has such a high payroll yet nothing to show for it. 20 million wont solve their problems and thus give them another 140+ payroll that falls short. I cant say the Wilpons are cheap but they just don’t have that killer instinct they need to just know now is the time to raise the payroll a bit win back the fans and most importantly WIN SOME FREAKING GAMES! so they can sell tickets to ebbets field.
its all speculation, people are just assuming the wilpons wont spend
I know and it doesnt help that CERRONE keeps mentioning in every post… “if you like it or not the Wilpons only have $20mil to spend”… Give me a break Matt we dont know that for sure… Maybe they only spend $5 mil who knows!
Teams needs to get creative. We don’t need one guys to hit 35 HR’s, we need a team of 15 – 20.
Get creative. Work a deal for Crawford and put him in LF. If F-Mart has to go, so be it.
Every loves A-Gone now, but what about when he was blocked by Texiera in Texas? Try to find someone else like that.
Extend Putz and move him as well.
Sign Lackey and trade for more pitching.
Sign solid players with good baseball instincts for depth and bench. Move Castillo (get O-Dog if you can) and aging players for what you can.
Crawford
O-Dog/Castillo
Reyes
Wright
Beltran
Franceour
Murphy/newer version of A-Gone
Santos/Thole
Santana
Lackey
Traded for started
OP/Maine
Niese/Met farmhand
Make a commitment and tell the fans the plan.
Good pitching and defense – young, fast, exciting.
Your 2010 Mets.
Can’t believe I left out Pelfrey.
Him slotted as #3/#4 depending who else we can trade for, Or sending him for a #1b is fine by me.
i dont think your plan has any chance of happening, its a pretty good one, but i dont see how that happens….omar is probably going to have to sign a bat or 2, then trade for a good SPer, unless hes willing to outbid for lackey, or sign cheaper options with injury risks… harden, webb?
reason i say that is because ur asking to trade for a star LFer who will cost alot, trade for a good SPer, find a way to trade castillo, then hope o-dawg is available and sign him…..i think its more likely that omar just signs bay/holliday for LF and goes from there, i know im probably very few who would like this, but harden and possibly webb will be free agents, and while they both are injury prone(specifically harden) signing webb for a solid deal could be a big pickup…if he gets back to how he was…
I like the Webb idea if we can work out one of those incentive deals, everyone wins.
I know the plan is different and difficult, but I think it’s something that would rally the fanbase. Youth we can watch grow with solid, exciting NL baseball.
Chicks may love the long ball, but most season ticket holders are men, and I’d argue steals and triples and plays at the plate are much more exciting.
So the million dollar question is, what starting pitcher can we actually trade for with the chips we have?
Kazmir would be an idea, but he eats into a good chunk of our budget. Might as well get Lackey for that amount and keep the prospects.
I would not count on Oliie or Maine again to be honest. Maine is either trade bait or bullpen bound. I’m done with this guy always getting hurt and throwing 100 pitches by the 5th inning when he’s not hurt.
I know we’re paying Ollie $12 mil for 2 more years, but we have to pay him no matter what so why jeapordize the team with his 6 walks every 5 innings?
I’d consider making him an expensive long man in the bullpen. Then go get a # 2 starter like Lackey. At worst case we get 2 starters from a group of Lackey, Penny, Wolf, Garland,
and others.
- JOHAN
- LACKEY
- PELFREY
- PENNY
- NIESE
That would be a much improved rotation.
Lackey is a must. Much like Sabathia was a must for the Yankees last year. I know Holliday looked bad in Oakland but the guy was new to the league and on a terrible team. These are two big contracts that almost need to be signed to help this team. Then you still need a back end starter (garland/wolf, id prefer garland since the guy is DURABLE) and some bench guys. If those moves are made I think we can live with another season of luis castillo providing that cora is his oft-used back up and our big guys stay healthy.
To make the moves you’re suggesting will cost more than $30 mil which, with the raises that will be due to under contract players, will require the Wilpons to increase the budget for next year. I just don’t see it happening. More realistically, we’re looking at either Holliday or Lackey, not both, with a few smaller 1 yr. deals at $5 mil or less filling other holes.
Im aware. That is what it will cost to be a winner. Its sad bc youre right about the increase in budget. The Wilpons would rather have a 140 million dollar 500 team than a 160 million dollar winner. I just dont understand, I dont see how they wont make back that extra 20 million with this team in the playoffs.
Exactly Zeile! Thats why some people think the Wilpons are cheap… They dont go the extra mile to put the team over the top. I cant imagine that an extra $20 million to the payroll and almost guaranteed competitive baseball will really hurt the Wilpons financially. They would make more money I would think! I guess they are just bad baseball owners.