…i have no idea what the Mets intend to do, but signing holliday would not surprise me… holliday is going to ask for a seven-year deal, probably worth around $18 million per season, i.e., the same deal signed by Mark Teixeira last winter… in the end, though, because of the market place, i bet he has to settle for five years, and more like $16 million per season, which i could see the Mets dishing out, considering Carlos Beltran is a free agent in two seasons… again, i don’t know if the Mets will do this, and i am not even sold on whether they should, but he’s bound to be linked in rumor to the Mets all off season… i mean, if ever there was an off-season to do this, i.e., needing power, with an open spot in left field, and the expectation and claim that the team will spend money, this is it…
Holliday hit .286 with 34 extra base hits in 93 games for Oakland this season, then hit .353 with 31 extra base hits, 13 HR and 55 RBI in just 63 games after being traded to the Cardinals.
In his report, Heyman also ranks the eight playoff teams, while reporting on the coaching situation in Miami and Atlanta, among other topics from MLB, all of which you can read here.
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I’m going to stand by my claim that the Mets will not pay any one player more than 10 million per year. But in the event we do sign Holliday…
Reyes
Castillo
Holliday
Beltran
Wright
Francouer
Murphy/Carter
Santos/Thole
Bench: Cora, Pagan, Evans(we nedd rh punch off the bench)
Please just say no to Tatis
All of a sudden, it seems like we’ll have trouble against righties…
Can’t go with Evans off the bench. Unless the Mets get off to horrible start, Manuel will likely be here all year, and he doesn’t like Evans.
of course we would all love Holliday, but my fear is that is they did pull off signing him that they would not be able to afford pitching. Plus if you listen to OMar and Jeff’s comments on Fransesca’s show they are leaning towards making sensible trades rather than tie up more money in FAs. To me that means that they are going to pull all their attention to getting the peices ready to obtain Roy Halliday. Then they would sign a mediocre LF and stick with Murphy at 1B- just a prediction.
Even the Braves never repeated WS wins, I can;t beleive that the Phillies will be the first NL team to do it since the BIG RED MACHINE in the 70’s. I can’t root for the Phillies, Cards, Yanks or Sox, I am leanng toward the Dodgers. With my utter contemt for the Yanks I would love to see Joe Torre take the Dodgers to a WS win, just , to spite the Yanks. Infact it would be even better if the Dodgers beat the Yanks to win it all :} I can dream.
Agreed. I would prefer a Dodgers, Angels, Rockies, or Twins win, in that order.
I wouldn’t really care if the Sox won.
I can’t root for the Cards, not since ‘06.
My nightmare scenario is this: Yankees vs. Phillies, WS Game 7, 13th inning, tie game. Both teams agree to call the game and split the WS win because, “Hey, you know what? We’re BOTH awesome!”
I would probably shoot myself.
Signing Holliday gives the Mets a long term solution to LF and the middle of their order. It makes perfect sense for the Mets to sign him. And those contracts are backloaded which means his 2010 payroll hit won’t be as big.
If it were up to me signing Matt Holliday should be priority #1 for the Mets this off season in terms of player moves.
You could sign Ruth and Gehrig, but with the starting pitching we have, you won’t win more than 80 games. We need guys who can keep the bullpen in their lawn chairs until the 7th inning
True dat. But LF is one of the two big holes the Mets have (the other being a #2 starting pitcher). Holliday would definitely fill that LF hole – and at 5 years at $16M per, he would be a steal frankly (though I suspect in the end he will cost slightly more as the Card should be able to afford that).
If they get Holliday, they can trade for a starter and then worry about the smaller holes (C primarily then tweak the bullpen and the bench).
But if we upgraded the starting pitching, we still wouldn’t win more than 80 games because nobody would be capable of hitting anything other than a single.
That’s not entirely true. They might be question marks, but they might be good. Pelfrey will probably take a step up next year, and if Maine and Perez stay healthy and Warthen makes himself worthwhile and figures out how to screw Ollie’s head on.. Still need another pitcher, but it doesn’t have to be Halladay or the overpriced Lackey.
They definitely need a legit #2 starting pitcher and it shouldn’t be Pelfrey. I think part of Pelfrey’s problem is he puts too much pressure on himself (and the organization put pressure on him by hyping him up). A real #2 pitcher bumps Pelfrey down in the rotation taking some pressure off him and giving him some breathing room to develop. Same goes for Ollie and Maine.
I completely agree on the starting pitcher. The problem is this is a weak FA market especially on pitchers. There really aren’t any must have guys on the FA market IMO.
The Mets went to nearly game 7 of the 1999 NLCS with the following rotation:
Al Leiter (on TWO bum knees), Rick Reed, Kenny Rogers and Masoto Yoshii were the starting pitchers for the Mets in the playoffs.
In 2006 we were in game 7 with Tom Glavine, Steve Trachsel and two total wild cards in John Maine and Oliver Perez.
A team can win with mediocre pitching and the Mets god willing will have a very healthy John Santana and then a more seasonsed and learned Mike Pelfrey. They should absolutely be on the lookout to improve their starting pitching, but it is not as dire as you make it.
You could also argue that, had Pedro and El Duque been healthy, the 2006 NLCS would never have gotten to game 7.
As your examples show, mediocre pitching can only get you so far.
Yeah, but they had mediocre pitching all year that year. Trachsel pitched to a 4.97 ERA, Victor Zambrano pitched badly and got injured, Alay Soler pitched to a 6 ERA, Pedro wasn’t good and had calf issues, Oliver Perez came over and was horrible. Yet they still ran away with the division. That shows that mediocre starting pitching can sometimes be enough if the accompanying offense is strong and has clutch hitting.
I’m not so sure about that. Pedro was 5-0 before he went down at the end of June; El Duque was 9-5 with a 3.72 ERA; Maine had a 3.60 ERA and was steadily improving the second half of the year; and Glavine was 15-7 with a 3.82 ERA.
But that was 2006 and now the Phillies have Lee and Hamels, the Braves have Jurrjens and Hanson, etc. While I agree the Mets should not overpay for another pitcher (especially with 2010 offseason looking like a rare buyer’s market for decent pitchers), I would be nervous if they were content to go to war with the rotation as it stands.
Yes and we can disagree on Mike Pelfrey perhaps, but healthy Santana is at worst Tom Glavine’s equal, at his best he is a dominant ace. To me Pelfrey next season will be better than any pitcher the Mets fielded in their 1999, 2000 or 2006 playoff roster with the exception of Tom Glavine.
Again, not saying they should not add pitching depth, but they have two guys, when healthy that I believe will be often pitching into the 7th inning next year.
If Pelfrey can figure out how to get out of his own way, I would agree with you.
Not sure if Warthen is the man to help him figure that out though.
Why even discuss this? The Wilpons will never have the intestinal fortitude to sign Holliday for that much money.
When signing free agents, the Wilpons are more likely to disappoint than succeed.
You mean like when they signed Piazza, Beltran, Wagner, Pedro, Santana (quasi FA) and K-Rod?
The problem with the Wilpons is not one of money, it’s one of strategery.
The Wilpons problem isnt with signing big FA which they have a track record of its allowing their GMs to spend big money on awful players (vaughn, appier, castillo, perez, alou etc)
Smells like the Cards will lock Holliday up, and let other people walk to ensure it.
For $16M/5, they can definitely sign him. That’s why I think Bora$ can get the Mets to ante up some more (plus they will trot out the old “NY taxes are so high” chestnut for sure).
They will also trot out “you can hit behind Albert for the next 5 years”
Aside from hitting behind ARod and Texiera, there aren’t to many other places I’d rather be.
I’d much rather sit in front of Alber Pujols.
I’m not sure I understand that one entirely.
For starters, it’s usually better to hit in front of a big time offensive monster than behind one. Nothing is worse than being the guy they always pitch around Pujols to get to. It’s fine when you are hitting, but rough when you aren’t … just ask a lot of the people who tried to hit behind Bonds.
Having said that, hitting IN FRONT of Pujols would be a great place to be. If I were going to be hitting behind people, I would want them to be super high OBP guys that run like the Dickens and can score from first on a flare single =)
I’m not sure hitting between Carlos Beltran and David Wright with Jose Reyes up front is all that bad of an option to be honest with you, speaking objectively.
As Holliday, the only things I would worry about coming to the Mets would be:
1) Will they be any good?
2) What’s it like playing in NYC?
3) Do I want my family raised in NYC?
My personal answers to these questions would be:
1) 50/50
2) Rough
3) No
Sorry to be a killjoy on that one, but that’s how I feel. I live up in CT and although I enjoy visiting NYC, I wouldn’t want to raise a family there at all. I also think playing in NYC is mostly negative, where only terminal success is acceptable (and any failures are magnified and humiliating).
Hopefully his answers would be:
1) With me they will be better
2) Exciting
3) Yes
I didnt know it was in their contract to raise their family in the city. You can live in Westchester, Norther NJ, CT, Long Island (reyes, beltran, and santana live in my town and supposedly krod is moving into one of the gated communities as well). I mean I know the school systems arent as good as say colorado but there are much worse places to raise a family than the suburbs of NYC.
Zeile,
I’m in Syo and heard that’s where Beltran lives — are you in Syo too?
Craig
I could be wrong, but I think Holliday’s take home pay will be more than yours (or mine or most anybody in here).
If you’re making $16+ million/year, living in NYC becomes much easier. Plus he could live in CT l(ike Glavine did) or NJ or Westchester
Does anyone know the contract status of Carpenter/Wainwright? I’ll look it up, but especially with Wainwright, that’s another guy the Cards are going to have to lock up to a big deal at some point.
It would send a real bad message to Pujols if they don’t sign Holliday, but where are they getting the money to pay for Pujols, Holliday, Wainwright, Carpenter and LaRussa’s alcohol budget?
That’s why Pujols came out and said he won’t sign an extension and will wait until his free agency year to decide if he wants to stay with the cards or not.
He wants to make sure that they will be in contention for the rest of his career. So there is a VERY outside chance that he hits the free agent market in 2011 I believe his contract is up.
wow can you even imagine what his demands will be if he actually does hit free agency. Actually I hope he never hits FA because I dont want to know the Mets excuse for not signing the best hitter over the last decade and one of the best players ever.
Lord. Pujols will be 31 in 2011. He could easily as for $25M per year for 5 years.
His FA would make the whole “sign Manny” brouhaha that happened last offseason look like a minor tiff in comparison
oh no, not another million (11) manny march
i.e.- you could backload any long-term FA contract so that the dollar impact wouldn´t hit until all that money came off the books.
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