SantanAAAHHHH!

Rumors continue to circulate that the Mets are serious contenders in the Johan Santana sweepstakes.  Earlier reports had stated that the Mets would need to include Jose Reyes in any deal for Santana, but multiple sources confirm that the Twins and Mets are continuing to talk with the understanding that Reyes is unavailable. The current offer is a four man package centering around Carlos Gomez.

I would speculate that the other four in that deal might be Mike Pelfrey, Kevin Mulvey and Aaron Heilman. Philip Humber and Fernando Martinez could also be involved, but Humber is apparently not highly valued by other clubs, and I don’t believe that the Mets would include both of their young centerfielders in one deal.

I believe that the Twins are reluctant to send away a former cy young for a collection of prospects and my gut feeling is that this deal does not get done. That said, if Omar was able to pull off this trade without losing either of our young established starters (Maine and Perez) or our top prospect (Fernando Martinez), I would be extremely pleased. The main stream media has made it clear that Santana would agree to a contract extension before any trade is completed, an important fact which allows teams to pursue him without fear that he will opt for free agency after only one season with his new team.

The Mets desperately need Santana. The rotation lacks a true ace and Omar’s offseason following last year’s debacle has been less than overwhelming. The Mets are raising ticket prices and moving into Citi Field in 2009. Teaming Santana with Maine and Perez would give the Mets a potent Top 3 that would make them instant contenders in the weak National League. I believe that Omar has to be extremely aggressive in pursuing Santana. Including 5 or 6 prospects should not be out of the question. Omar’s ability to complete this deal will define the Mets offseason and possibly the next several years.

A Wise Decision?

The Mets have signed former Milwaukee reliever Matt Wise to a one year contract worth a reported 1.2 million dollars. Wise appeared in 56 games and finished the year with three wins, two losses and 4.19 ERA. Wise had an extremely respectable year until an unfortunate incident involving a baseball, Matt Wise, and Cincinnati Red Pedro Lopez’s jaw. Following the beanball, Wise finished the year with an ERA almost reaching eleven. 

If you want to look at it from the glass half full perspective,  before the aforementioned issue, Wise had a really good year. If you look at the glass half empty, Wise could be in the midst of a complete nervous breakdown that may result in him wearing clown makeup and crying a lot on the team bus. I’m obviously happy that Mota is gone, (what kind of Met fan wouldn’t be happy about that?) and maybe we could find lightning in a bottle with Wise for considerably cheaper than he may be worth, or we could wind up with a raving lunatic. I’d say the jury is still out on this one and we’ll have to wait to see who Matt Wise really is. 

Chris (concurring):  I have always felt that putting together a solid bullpen is largely luck. Relievers are wildly inconsistent from year to year. That said, I feel cautiously optimistic about our bullpen going into next season. I support this signing.

Where Now?

Where do the Mets turn now?  Omar Minaya has made it clear that the primary area of need this offseason is the team’s starting pitching.  Unfortunately, Omar has been unable to pull the trigger on any deal, free agent or otherwise, to improve the rotation.  The free agent market has very little to offer.  The Mets may be interested in either Livan Hernandez and Freddy Garcia, but neither would be better than a number 3 starter.  Dan Haren has already been traded to Arizona and there are no indications that the Mets have any chance at acquiring Erik Bedard.  There have been mixed signals as to the Mets ability (or lack thereof) to trade for Johan Santana*.

I have been generally impressed by Omar since he took over as the Mets GM.  Signing Pedro Martinez and Carlos Beltran gave the Mets instant credibility 3 years ago.  Kris Benson was traded for John Maine and Orlando Hernandez (originally Jorge Julio who was sent to Arizona in the El Duque trade).  Unfortunately, Omar’s hand has gone cold.  Trading away Brian Bannister too early and holding on to Lastings Milledge too long (or not long enough depending on your school of thought) has hurt the Mets dearly.  Omar also traded away Heath Bell and Royce Ring, leaving the Mets bullpen very thin in 2007. 

Omar has been given every chance to succeed with the Mets.  He came to an organization flush with young talent (Wright, Reyes) and a willingness to spend money.  The blame for the Mets stumbles down the stretch in 2007 should be squarely with the players, but Omar is not blameless.  The Mets are worse than they were 1 year ago.  The Mets are now an old team with an ugly history.  The time for Omar to make a deal is now. 

*I have previously written a post as to reasons why the Mets should not acquire Johan Santana.  That post was based on the assumption that Santana would not sign an extension without testing the free agent waters.  That assumptions seems to have been false, so I will update my opinion.  I feel that the Mets should make every reasonable effort to acquire Santana.  What is reasonable? That’s another story for another post.

Running in Place

This title of this post is meant to serve as an assessment of the Mets, as well as an explanation for the recent state of this blog.  We’ll start with the blog, which is probably easier to explain.  The unfortunate lack of new content recently can be attributed to several things.  First and foremost though was the preoccupation of yours truly with law school exams.  The exams are now over, along with the first year of law school, so significantly more time can be spent blogging away about those Amazin’ Mets.  I anticipate  several weeks of uninterrupted new content as the Mets roster begins to take shape.

Speaking of the Mets, progress has been slow recently for Omar.  The Mets still have not acquired a starting pitcher; Dan Haren was traded from the Oakland Athletics to the Arizona Diamondbacks, Erik Bedard seems to be a good bet to start the season in Baltimore, and the Mets chances at Santana seems shaky at best. Some sources cite the Mets refusal to include Reyes as a significant obstacle, while some around the Mets organization remain hopeful that Santana could be in a Mets uniform this season, particularly with the Yankees and Red Sox cooling on the prospect of trading top prospects and paying Johan a hefty sum of money.

Was Milledge Worth Dealing?

 

First off, let me say that this is my first post on PIITB and I should have been writing more but I am probably the laziest of the three writers, but that doesn’t take away from my desire to discuss, argue, and comment on New York Mets Baseball. 

After hearing of the Milledge deal, which sent Lastings to the Nationals for OF Ryan Church and C Brian Schneider, I didn’t really know how to react. At first, like a majority of Met fans, I was a little confused on why we would trade away probably our most proven young guys for an older OF with a possible upside, and an OLDER catcher with no stick. Sure, Schneid, gives us the defensive upgrade that we needed, now pairing with Baby Eater #11, but why deal L-Mills when we could have used him to pick up the BIGGER piece to our off-season puzzle in obtaining a staff ace?

After thinking more about it, listening to some of the guys on the radio, some of the callers, I developed my theory behind Omar’s deal, and I believe he will regret this trade, a trade in my eyes, that may be just as bad as the Kazmir trade.By Minaya dealing Lastings, its obvious now that we cannot use him to obtain a Haren, an Oswalt, or a Bedard, and now we are either going to have to trade away more i.e., Humber AND Pelfrey as opposed to just one or the other. Also, we are going to have to include our NEW top prospect (now that Milledge is gone), in Gomez, and I don’t want to do that.

A variety of sources say that the young Fernando Martinez is poised to be the next big name for the Mets, and THAT may even trigger other GM’s to look to obtain Martinez over Gomez.If we end up grabbing one of these washed up middle of the rotation guys like a Livan Hernandez or a Carlos Silva, I don’t really see us making any sort of impact that we hoped to this off-season. I feel that the Mets love being mentioned in trade talks with big names, but never pull the trigger because we do not have the necesary pieces to deal, and now that we just dealt on of those pieces, it looks like Omar is going to be running around looking for things in his home to give away in a trade for a big name pitcher which we need more than ANOTHER OF and a defensive catcher. But look at it this way Omar, at least you know Ryan Church will play on all Jewish holidays.