Might the Mets pursue A-rod? I think there is an outside possibility, due to the following reason. The Mets desperately need pitching, yet it seems hard to envision a way that the Mets could pick up any top pitchers this offseason. With no good free agents, and a thin farm system for the Mets to use as trade bait, I'm not sure they will be able to land the top pitchers they need. So, it is possible that as an alternative they might go the way of the Yankees: all offense. If you pick up A-rod and move Wright to first, you can dump Delgado and also improve infield defense.
I must reiterate my earlier position though, the Mets should not pursue A-rod at the salary #s they're talking about. Unless Boras is willing to significantly drop A-rod's salary to $20 M/year or less, he's not worth it with his pathetic post-season stats.
3 comments:
#1 need is still pitching, and if Santana can be obtained via a sign-and-trade, the Mets better not pursue any other FA until that's been locked up. The budget can then be assessed from that point forward.
After Santana, it's hard to imagine any player having a bigger impact than A-Rod. If you're dumping Glavine, LoDuca, and Green's salaries, you can probably eat A-Rod's numbers. Plus A-Rod is probably one of the only players in the league who you know is going to add to the top line of the I/S right off the bat. I'd be pretty charged up if we got him.
Olney says the Mets would likely move Wright to 2B if A-Rod was acquired.
How about a lineup of:
Reyes
Milledge
Wright
A Rod
Beltran
Alou
Delgado
Castro
That could do some damage.
Pitching definitely still clear top #1 priority, as you can see from Sox's dominance of CRockies and all others.
Interesting that Mets would move Wright to 2B.. I guess part of the reason may be that 2B is our most glaring deficiency in present and future talent. However, I think this would be a disaster. Wright is not good as a 3B, he would be even worse at 2B. Not only b/c of errors, but I doubt he could turn the DP as easily as we need to rely on to get out of jams. I'd say stick him at first where his defense is about as irrelevant as it can get.
Lineup above could (with heavy emphasis on could) cause some damage, but again I'd have two concerns. One, without an appropriate mental approach to at-bats, having all the talent in the world is wasted. The Sox were so successful at the plate b/c of extreme discipline, typified by Ramirez and Youk. They almost never swing at pitches out of the zone, and if something is close but not what they are looking for, they are excellent at fouling it off to stay alive. Mets are much more free-swinging with seemingly little regard to the present situation or a larger game plan. So I'm not sure throwing more talent at the lineup helps the problem, if the problem is one of approach. Two, A-rod would clearly tear NL pitching a new one in regular season and post stratospheric numbers, but I'm still not sold on a guy who disappears in October when you need him most. I think a fresh start for him (i.e., get out of NY) will probably be what is needed to break his post-season mental barrier.
I agree that being in NY is probably not a great fit, unless he's just sold on sticking it to Yankee fans. He's obviously p.o.'d that he puts up the best numbers in the world but is still considered a sore on Jeter's arse.
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