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In a post to Paul’s Random Stuff, Paul looks in to the 14 players from the Mets who were added to the Topps 2009 team set.
UniWatch is asking fans to vote for the Worst Uniforms of All Time, and, of course, the Mercury Mets are up for Worst Short Lived Uniform Ever.
To vote in UniWatch’s poll, click here.
Gerard Baratta of Bring Back 86 looks at three players, with bad contracts, who are intriguing, including Rangers 2B Michael Young and D’Backs OF Eric Byrnes.
In regards to Mets fans rooting for the Yankees, Adam the Brooklyn Met Fan warns, ‘Be careful what you wish for.’
Steve from Eddie Kranepool Society explains why the Mets should consider signing LHP Noah Lowry, who has not pitched since 2007.
Similarly, Ed Ryan of Mets Fever thinks the Mets should trade for Rockies 1B-3B Garret Atkins, before he is non-tendered.
Lastly, in a post for Mets Merized Online, Phil Hoops breaks down the Mets bullpen, while considering how to handle J.J. Putz.
i like the idea of Young at 2B, but i’d only take byrnes on as the 4th OFer, hes good, but the guy cant seem to go 1 week without hurting something……but if im omar im definitely looking at Young for 2B, adding him and a holliday/bay solves the offensive problems…
Despite the contract, I would trade Castillo for Young in a heartbeat, but I’m not sure Texas would.
Young has been playing SS for Texas, and they want him to move to third base to make room for prospect Elvis Andrus. So, you might get Texas to bite on a Young for Murphy trade, but not Luis Castillo.
Young is giving you .310/15 type numbers, which in Texas Murphy may be able to match (and much cheaper). So if you want to consider Murphy for Young, Texas might, but you are still stuck with Castillo, which in turns makes Young cost you 60 million over 4 years instead of 48.
As for fit, I think Young would be an ideal #2 hitter behind Jose Reyes. He’s a right-handed bat, which helps us, extremely consistent and healthy, and a better version of Orlando Hudson (offensively). He’s certainly overpaid, however, and through age 36.
I’ve said if he’s available to get young and make him a 2nd baseman for 2 years now. All the guy does is hit the same thing year in and year out. He’s Derek Jeter 2.0. He just hits 300+ with a good high 300 OBP. Steals a dozen or so bases. Hits 15-20 HR. 30+ doubles.
16 mil per season is a pretty high contract, though. Texas would have to take louis castillo’s contract back, or better yet, Oliver Perez.
Guys, with the Yankees having the chance to finish the Phillies in Filthadelphia, the ONE potentially redeeming aspect of this World Series is in play….the chance of seeing some crying Phillies fan close-ups. Everyone send some vibes in that direction tonight. SOMETHING good has to come out of this nightmare scenario!
and hopefully Santa can get some payback.
Rats, now we need a two-game collapse for the crying home fans to be in play again.
I like a deal for young also. Not sure if he is on the block but why not dig around. He is expensive but a welcome addition to the squad.
I am in favor of trading around some pieces (some major from our current squad) and being a bit more aggressive in places to upgrade the team.
Here are 3 of my current thoughts…
1) Trade Reyes, Pelfrey and Carter(1b/of AAA player from Wagner trade) to Padres for Adrien Gonzalez
2) Trade Murphy and Perez for Young (and have him play SS),
3) Sign Lackey and Randy Wolf for $29M per yr combined and Holliday for 18M
Rotation….
Santana
Lackey
Wolf
Maine
Niese
Regulars
Castillo 2b
Young ss
Wright 3b
Gonzalez 1b
Beltran cf
Holliday lf
Franoceur rf
Santos/Thole
All in this adds about $68M of new salary coming in with Gonzo at $5M, Young at $16M, Holiday at $20M, $9m for Wolf and $18M for Lackey.
We are getting rid of Reyes, Pelfrey and Perez which is $10M, $5M for Pelfrey (arb year) and $12M for Perez. Plus likely losing Delgado and Wagner and Putz which is $12M, $10.5M and $6M
All in with these moves, we are adding $68M in next year commitments but shedding $57.5M in commitments.
So this ups next yr payroll by $10M roughly. There will be other smaller contracts coming off like Cora and Reed and others but likely to add back those salaries with replacement players
I love the work you have done here, Mr Go.
With all due respect, why would anyone want
Reyes, Pelfrey, Murph or Perez?
One’s hurt, one’s unproven, one’s an unknown and one’s nuts.
He forgot to add in the extra $10 mil it will cost in alcohol and roofies to get Tex/SD to agree to those deals.
…but …but… the GM in MLB the show accepted it.
I thought we had moved passed the trade Reyes thing? It’s silly, next why would anybody want Chris Carter, isn’t he like 26 and been in the triple-a forever, I understand the argument that he was in the sox system and possibly blocked by other players but he still has shown nothing.
Next, why would ANYBODY with a head on their shoulders want Perez? Seriously, he has like negative value at this point and he’s being paid 12 million dollars. No way he gets traded without us eating a huge portion of his contract and that defeats the purpose, because it seems to be you deduct his salary in your payroll.
Once again, i am cringing at your lineup with Young at SS, honestly. I feel kind of sick looking at it
Also, I can’t see how we can depend on Santos/Thole for our starting catcher, does that mean Santos is the starting catcher? Or a rookie catcher who still needs fine-tuning?
Maybe i should have said buckle up before reading the rest of the article.
As to the value of the players I am talking about trading…
1) Reyes still has enormous value. You can make an argument that your not sure he is healthy right now but I can make an argument that he played 160 games for 4 years with no recurring issues til this year. He is a game changer for us and the baseball world knows it and covets him….period.
2) Pelfrey is a known commodity at this point. Not sure what the arbitration value of his worth is but….he is a .500 pitcher with decent stuff that is still young enough to improve. What was Wolf or Marquis or Garland worth? Are those guys tradeable in any year?
3) I agree with the comments about Carter and Murphy. But I felt with us taking a bad contract in Young from the Rangers, and them taking a lousy contract for OP for us 2yrs and $24M, we should be generous and provide more. LEts be honest, we are doing the Rangers more a favor here by taking young than they are doing us a favor by sending him. Not because of his baseball talent but because of the years and dollars owed him still 4yrs and $64M for good player. Lets see an avg SS/2b type with good hitting instincts and some power for all world 2b numbers As bad as OP has been, the contract he has is nothing compared to the Young contract. Murphy is more of a throw in to make them feel better and we do not need him. Murphy in texas would be 85 – 90% of what Michael young is…except at a less valuable position defensively.
Its time to shake it up. This team needs a new feel and I am for giving up Reyes to bring in a top talent back
And with that lineup..who cares about catcher
Two mistakes in this article.
1) Young isn’t a 2B, hasn’t been one since Soriano came over in the A-Rod trade with the Yankees five years ago. He was a SS after that and played most of ‘09 at 3b. The Mets have a fellow named Wright at that position.
2) Young has an expensive contract, not a bad one. He’s a career .300+ hitter, had a streak of six years with 200+ hits and hits for power. True, he’s owed a lot of money but he’s only 32 and has a decent shot at 2500 hits and maybe 3000.
Okay well I’ll give you props for trying to figure a creative solution, but still, Perez has very very low value and it’s not just the contract, the contract would suck no matter what but he has had a terrible year and he is off of surgery, his value is so low right now it’s not even funny.
Second, why do you want to trade reyes? If you want gonzo, you can trade away some major prospects for him who are virtually unproven at the big league level. If they want Ike Davis I’d ship him off and if they want F-mart I’d ship him off. I would much rather keep an amazing shortstop, who is amazing defensively at a position where defense is important, rather than keep an unproven minor leaguer. I know that keeping the farm intact is important so I wouldn’t trade away the farm but I’d try to see what it would take and include one of my big prospects (Fmart or Davis) and possibly Neise.
Third – do you feel okay relying on Neise for the fifth starter? I don’t think we can rely on him when he too is comming off an injury plus a surgery.
All 3 points you make are valid. I dont know if OP has any value at all. I know he has almost no value to us Mets fans. It is a question mark for sure to assume Niese can handle being the number 5 and without question trading Reyes is a risk and big one.
I guess I am in the camp of maintaining the youth as our future or potential future replacements at key positions. Ike Davis, F Mart, W flores, J Marte, J Familia, B Holt, Mejia…guys we know are starting to climb to the top. We need replacements in the near term for Beltran, for starting pitching help, for Francoeur possibly for Castillo etc.
I would love to find a gem or two from our system that become the next Reyes and Wright for us. Perhaps if we hold on to a few and develop them at the right pace, we can pull out a few real MLrs and possibly a star or two.
I just feel like we are constantly shopping for things the system has not produced because we trade away our minor league talent for ML talent. M Carp, P Humber, AJ Burnett, S Kazmir, J Bay, L Milledge, etc etc etc. Not all are all stars and some are not even ML players but we traded them all for talented major leaguers. I’d rather we find suitable trades with our major league talent for other major league talent and preserve as much of the farm as possible. To me…trading an all star like Reyes for and all star like Gonzales makes some sense