I like Young as a low risk above average reward pitcher. Hes been a good pitcher before but had his best year when Alderson was with his organization. That may or may not be a coincidence but why not find out? I'll take the sandwich pick for Feliciano as a type B FA. He has more appearances then anyone the last 4 years and while he is very valuable vs Howard/Utley hes in his mid 30's, looking for a multi year deal at around 3-4M Per and hes just not worth that as someone who should really be limited to being a LH specialist. Additionally with only 5M or so supposedly available to be spent this will give us closer to 8-9M to spend that I think we can better allocate. I know Alderson doesn't want to be a small market mentality in a big market because that will not fly but I get the impression year one is going to be to clean up this mess as much as anything and emphasize player development. Thats a good thing in my opinion. Sucks that Murphy is hurt though. I still think he will be our opening day 2B. I think they will skip on Hudson yet again unless he comes cheaply. Good deal. The Kid was always great as a Met. Best of luck with your move dude.
http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/los-angeles-dodgers-nl-west-aggressive-offseason-moves-120210 Mets are pursuing Jeff Francis in addition to Chris Young. These are the types of gambles the Mets should be taking on a limited budget this offseason. He and Young are guys you can get for one year, incentive laden deals. Francis came back throwing just as hard as he was throwing pre-surgery. As per Fangraphs: 2006: 86.0 2007: 86.6 2010: 87.2 He's a Fastball-Curveball-Changeup pitcher..... Maybe Niese could teach him his cutter. Pirates are likely to non-tender Lastings Milledge. As per Adam Rubin via Twitter the Mets are unlikely to tender Sean Green: AdamRubinESPN Hearing Sean Green is going to be out with the Mets. 55 seconds ago Favorite Retweet Reply Takahashi has signed a two year deal with Anaheim. John maine is likely to be non-tendered since it would guarantee him no less then a 20 decrease in salary off the 3.3M he made last year and he is in line for more then a 20% decrease in salary. Add chris Carter to the list of non-tenders I dont know about you guys but I could live with a rotation of: Pelfrey Young Dickey Francis Niese Until Santana gets back. At least those guys, if healthy could eat some innings. Stick Perez in the pen if he has to be here as a lefty specialist. Stick Pat Misch in the pen in Feliciano's role. Id love to work Brandon Webb in to the rotation as well somewhere
The Mets are going to turn Jenrry Mejia back into a starter Mejia the Joba of the Mets system.....hmmm
He never should have been put in the bullpen in the first place. It was a dumb move by guys (Omar and Manuel) who knew they weren't going to last the year trying to catch lightning in a bottle.
UPDATE: Mets agree to a one-year contract with Ronny Paulino UPDATE: Mets sign D.J. Carrasco to a two-year contract
The Last Chip of The Puzzle Mets acquire shortstop Chin-lung Hu from Dodgers We are going all the way, no stopping us now!
Mets sign Chris Capuano and Taylor Buchholz http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/01/03/mets-sign-chris-capuano-and-taylor-buchholz/ I don't know if I should laugh or cry. I guess the new theory is lets throw some crap against the wall and see what sticks.
Mets sign Chris Young to a 1 years deal. Good move. Nothing to lose and hopefully he can become a solid pitcher again.
He should be fine in that spacious park. However, I wouldn't be surprised to see him land on the 60 day DL tomorrow.
Low risk high reward. Not bad at all. For a franchise desperate for innings the Mets should probably consider Kevin millwood on a 1 year deal as well. Santana is able to start throwing but who knows when he will start. Right now the rotation is slated to be: Pelfrey, Young, Dickey, Niese, and either Capuano or Gee. Might want to try and get another guy capable of going 6 every time out.
Scott Hairston has agreed to a minor-league contract with the Mets, according to Ted Berg of SportsNet New York (and later confirmed by Adam Rubin of ESPNNewYork.com). Back to Back solid signings that could pay dividends....wait, who are these Mets?
Hearing that Johan Santanna may miss 2011 with a bad shoulder? Tough break for the Mets before the season even starts.
The franchise is a complete disaster right now even if Santana can pitch half a year. They really need to total make over starting from the top down. The best thing for the franchise, the MLB and the fans is to get the Wilpons to sell the team and let Alderson and company be able to work with a big market budget (since rumors are that payroll will be cut from 140 million to around 70-80 million next year). Omar really hurt the franchise giving out a bunch of just bad contracts, luckily for the Mets most of them are off the books after this year and the Bay and Santana contracts are the only really bad longer term deals they will have so the FO has a lot of money and also work ahead of them in trying to build the team and also the farm system since that's a little bare. If I were in charge of the Mets I'd be looking to deal Jose Reyes the minute I get a good package offered to me. That would be my first task.
Well, I think they should play out the string this season with who they have, really they have very little choice otherwise as it is not as if their farm system is loaded, so they have very little to lose by giving it a shot. Do agree though Omar M really messed this franchise up with some bad contracts to injured or mildly productive players.
I think they should look to trade anyone not named Wright, Davis, Meija, Pelfrey and Niese. Everyone else, if I were the GM, I'd be looking to trade if the price is right. I would try my very best to trade Reyes as soon as possible only because with each calendar day that goes by his trade value will lessen and there's always a risk he injuries himself running to 1st base or on a steal attempt. There would definitely be a market for Reyes. Again I'm not saying you just give him away but I think it would be smart for them to trade him instead of just keeping him and hoping they could get a first rounder and sandwich pick for him (remember if a bottom 15 team signs Reyes or a top 15 team signs Reyes and another Type A FA that's ranked higher than him the Mets would only get a sandwich pick and 2nd rounder). The team isn't good right now and are looking at a 4th place finish this year. As for Omar, I've never been a fan of his, I just don't think he's a very good GM. I think some of the contracts he has given out were just flat out dumb. The only contract I give him a pass on Beltran but the Perez, Castillo, K-Rod, Alou, Bay and even Pedro Martinez were just bad decisions which have really set the franchise back and has lead to a lot of negative ill will. I think his handling of the Willie Randolph firing and his media incident with Adam Rubin were strange as was the whole mess with Tony Bernazard. I think he's a terrible public speaker and while some people think that's just nitpicking I think that's part of a job as GM. His defenders will point out the Santana trade, which was a good one by him but he made more bad trades. Bottom line is his moves set the franchise back and he's the face of the downward shift the franchise has been in for the last few years.
The mets already said that report was false. Alderson said he's ahead of schedule and they feel early July is about when he will return
I loved it when Vin Scully used to say, "Hu is on first." Hey Greg.... we took Castillo off of your hands so your infield just got 50% better with the loss of Mr. Dropped Popup. You also got better by dumping Ollie and his $12 million.....man talk about flushing money down the toilet.
Bay seems likely to miss the first week on the DL (retroactive to March 24) with a strained rib muscle. Lucas Duda and Willie Harris would probably share time in the even that Bay misses any time Beltran likely to start 5 of the teams first 7 games...seems ready to go. Of course he is, its a contract year. Brad Eamus has won the 2B with a great spring. Kid hit 290ish and OBP around 400. Solid numbers. Looks like Alderson may have a find here. Nick Evans has cleared waivers, along with Luis Hernandez and Pat Misch and is going to AAA. Phillies have released Slapstillo.
Lineup for tomorrow's opener... Reyes- SS Harris - LF Wright - 3B Beltran - RF Pagan - CF Davis - 1B Eamus - 2B Thole - C Pelfrey is pitching. Baseball is back. LET'S GO METS!!!
Looking forward to this year, I think we will surprise some people, no I don't think we make the playoffs, but will be better than people think. As for our division, the Braves win it.
As it is its an 82-85 win team in my opinion. If we can add a frontline pitcher no reason they cant challenge for a wild card.
Beltran sitting today as Collins only wants to use him 5 of the teams first 7 games. After watching the game last night, I think Niese very well could end up being the ace of this staff. He struggled down the stretch last year but hes better within the division then Pelfrey and more consistent as well.
Murphy starting at 2nd too. Very heavy left handed lineup. I agree Boik, Niese seems to be the best pitcher in the rotation, but Pelf needs to step up. I'm not too worried though because the Marlins seem to have his number.
Phillies and Mets play a 3-game series at the CBP. Phillies can have their first 4-0 start since 1915. Good luck Boik and Greg.
Went to the game tonight (last night technically). A lot of fun, but it was FREEZING in the upper deck. Thankfully they gave away Mets ski caps. It was a really nice win. Capuano I thought was decent for his first start, Beltran hit 2 bombs and Ike Davis continues to be a RBI machine with the big 2-run triple to give the Mets the lead. Bullpen continues to be shaky, but they held on for the win.
I saw parts of the game and Cappy looked ok. If he continues to give us 6IP/1BB/8K/4ER from a #5 starter we will be ok. Thats not terrible. K-Rod is awful though. Guy is walking batters with a 4 run lead for no reason. New nickname should be Blow-Rod. And one thing that is starting to bother me...everyone in the media always kills the Mets farm system...but then where the hell are all the good players coming from because everyone we sign either gets hurt or sucks so the core of our team has to have been developed from somewhere.
People in the media kill the Mets farm system because in the past the FO never went above slot in the draft (which is insane since they're a big market team), have drafted poorly to boot and a lot of their top prospects haven't ever panned out (which you can say that for every system) and the Mets haven't produced a superstar level player in since Wright & Reyes. The Mets home grown core is Wright, Reyes, Davis, Niese, Pelfrey and Thloe. Only Wright and Reyes are superstars. I like Davis, Pelfrey and Niese but I don't think they're anything too special, not saying they're not good or useful players but they're not superstars, and the jury is still out on Thloe. Meanwhile Fernando Martinez has yet to stay healthy for a single minor league system so he's lost a lot of development time, Mejia is still a work in progress, Rubin Tejeda looks like a back up infielder, Lastings Milledge never panned out, none of the guys the Mets traded for Santana ever amounted to anything. So it's been a long time since the Mets really had a big time player come up through their system. A lot of the criticism is unfair but there are good points, especially with the Mets sticking to the slot in the draft, for a big market team they should be putting big money into the draft, something not only big market teams like Boston but Kansas City and Pittsburgh have been doing recently.
I think you are dead wrong about Ike Davis not being a superstar. I see him being a Justin Morneau type, with maybe a slightly lesser batting average (and hopefully less serious injuries). Ike's only been a full time position player for a few years and his power and defense is already astounding. He should have won a gold glove last year based on his metrics if it was truly a defensive award which is all the more impressive when you consider the fact that Ike has only been a full time first baseman less then 3 years (much of his college and early minor league days were spent pitching and playing LF). I can agree on the not going overslot part but while the Mets may not produce superstars, they are producing good major league players. Aside from the obvious in Wright and Reyes 6 years ago already on the current roster alone you have: Davis Niese Pelfrey Thole Parnell Duda (who will be a starter eventually) Pagan (originally a met, Nats got him in the rule 5 a few years ago) Murphy Including Wright and Reyes that is a total of 10 out of the 25 man roster. Most teams do not have 40% homegrown players. We may not produce enough stars but they are doing ok subsidizing the stars they arent producing. They need to focus a bit more on the pitching end but its a pretty significant chunk of the team that was developed from the farm system. Martinez is still only 21 or 22 and still has star potential. Milledge was two regimes ago. That Minaya never traded him for anything great may have been a mistake but that was like 5 years ago. Mejia is only 21; while he needs to work on his secondary pitches he will be a major league starter. I wouldnt write Tejada off yet. Again hes only 21 and he may yet hit more then his weight...and if my backup 2b/SS can field like him thats still a very useful player.
I just don't see Davis being a big power guy. I think he's more of a John Olerud type which is a good everyday MLB player but just not a superstar. That's not a knock on Davis though because Olerud was a very good player. He's an excellent defensive 1B though definitely. As for producing 'good' major league players, not sure how you could include Thloe, Parnell, Duda and Murphy in a list like that. You're just going with quantity over quality. None of those guys have done anything in the major leagues yet to be classified as good players yet. Martinez's stock has really fallen big time because of all his injuries, yes he's still young and talented but the guy hasn't had a single year when he's been injured and missed time. Right now he's injury prone until he can prove otherwise. I'd say their farm system in the past few years has been ok, middle of the pack compared to the other 29 teams. I do think the media likes to pick on them more than other teams though, I will agree with that one.
We'll see what happens with Ike. I think he will be a legit 30 HR/100 RBI guy who may cap out at like 35 a year which isnt shabby. I dont see him as an elite power guy but he hits well with runners in scoring position so I could see him as a very good RBI guy. Thole isnt a star but hes a quality starter as a catcher. He should be a 280-290 hitter who hasnt improved immensely defensively over the last 2 offseasons. Parnell is still a decent reliever. He still needs secondary pitches but hes not awful. Duda played very well the last few weeks last year. He was sent down today as Bay is close to returning but he will be a starter with plus power. And Murphy has shown he can hit MLB pitching. IMO he will emerge as a Mark DeRosa type utility guy. Are they all stars? No. But they are quality pieces that you could win with.
