Bradford

Wow, this is bad news. Loss of Bradford and Mota, with unknown Sanchez, plus Wagner sucking, does not bode well for bullpen next year. I don't know how they didn't go all out for Bradford. Unless they have some super confidence in their rookie pitchers or are planning some blockbuster trade, so far this offseason Minaya's marks are low..

Baked Zito

Andrew Hintz over at MetsGeek makes the case that goofy Barry Zito will not be the worth the contract he commands. And not b/c he's goofy.

Another trade

On yahoo.com:

The Mets did add a pair of young pitchers Monday, acquiring left-handers Jason Vargas and Adam Bostick from Florida for hard-throwing prospects Henry Owens and Matt Lindstrom.

Vargas and Bostick are both 23. Owens and Lindstrom are both right-handers.

Here's some info on the incoming hurlers:

Vargas will be 24 at the start of the next season. He's started and come out of the bullpen for the Marlins. Here are his ugly numbers. But we have Peterson!

Bostick's still in the Southern League and has put up some mixed numbers in the farms.

Owens of course was the guy who destroyed double A this year until he came up to the Mets and started walking the park. Lindstrom throws 100 MPH but can't seem to separate himself at the AA level.

Mets sign Easley

According to Mets.com, 2b/IF Damon Easley has been inked to a one-year deal worth $850K. The good news? He's cheap. The bad news? He's old. The reason for signing him? Omar says he can "play all over the field."

The only pertinent piece of information? Easley sucks. He's always sucked. He's a coiled up steaming dung pile.

If the Mets want to continue to sign 30-somethings with no skills for 6-figure contracts, please contact this blogger.

Free agents

Shea Hey Kids
As I mentioned in an earlier post, the free agent market is very underwhelming yet the Mets needs are real so they must trade. Minaya seems to agree: "Minaya said the price for free agents in general and the lack of appealing options is going to force teams to look at trades to solve a few issues. With that being the case, Minaya is actively working trade possibilities to see about starting pitching."

As I also mentioned, the Mets need to move quickly because the Phillies new GM, Pat Gillick, has quite a winning track record also, and is rumored to be moving strongly on Soriano. Make no mistake, with Gillick at the helm the Phillies will be doing all they can to compete with Mets.

I still like the idea of going after Gagne (assuming he passes a medical exam). Then we have the flexibility to package some combination of Wagner, Heilman, Milledge, Valentin, and Green for either a starter, 2nd basemen, or outfielder.

It's also worth pointing out that except for Wright and Reyes (and hopefully Milledge), I doubt anyone's #s in the lineup are going to be as good or better than this year. Lo Duca had an unusually strong 2nd half compared to last 4 years. Beltran had a career year for HR, RBI, and OBP. Delgado might be able to sustain his #s for one more year, but I doubt he'll exceed them. So it would be nice to replace Floyd and get a solid hitter in 6 spot.

Mets make a trade

so sayeth Mets.com.

Johnson sounds like an interesting addition, a speedy outfielder who will be a good bench option for Willie, and could grow into something more.

Adkins has big-league experience and something Bell and Ring didn't have: a chance to be used in meaningful situations. Even in the middle innings, Bell and Ring weren't getting into any late September or October innings. Adkins has been around the block a few times, including a post-season with the '05 champion WhiteSox, and Willie likes those kind of guys.

In other bullpen roster news, the article states:

The Mets have had contact with the representatives for reliever Chad Bradford and remain optimistic an agreement will be reached, though the returns of free agents Roberto Hernandez, Guillermo Mota and Darren Oliver -- who teamed to pitch middle and late innings for the Mets in the second half last season -- appear less certain.

El Duque signed for 2 years

So says all of the internets. Orlando will be, what, 73 at the expiration of his contract?

Meanwhile, this news does not exactly quell my unease about the Glavine situation. Despite the fact that every logical argument ends with Glavine resigning with the Mets, the Duque signing gives me yet another reason to think the Mets are unsure what Tommy will decide to do.

2B filled for '07

Valentin will be back.

In other news, the Mets swung and missed on Matsoozakaka. And, as already discussed, Glavine is going FA (although discussions are certainly not done yet). Guess I might get that 5 young arms rotation yet.

Heilman/Pelfrey/Maine/Bannister/Perez anyone?

Glavine to be FA

As this article points out, Glavine has turned down his contract option for '07, and the Mets will not exercise the club option either. This will trigger a $3 Mil cash-out settlement for Glavine, who will then be a free agent and able to puruse a new contract.

Since the Mets didn't exercise their option, they must be planning on offering him a contract of less than $11 Mil for '07. Any more than that and they'd end up paying more than they would have by exercising their $14 Mil club option.

So if the Mets are planning on offering him 8 to 10 mil for next year, they may actually be indifferent about losing him to the Braves.

That's my take, anyway.

Free Agency Rumblings

From the Newark Star Ledger, the Mets are apparently opening negoitations with Mark Mulder.

And from the Post, two articles of note:

The Mets are planning to bid on Daisuke Matsuzaka, who they grade out as a major-league "ace" caliber starter. The same article says that an unnamed source outside the organization said the Mets are pursuing Zito; an unnamed source inside the organization said they grade Zito out as either a #2 or a #3 guy.

Pedro also is mentioning retirement as a possibility.

If the Mets were to bring in Zito, Mulder, Matsuzaka, and re-up Glavine, they'd be...spending lots of money. That said, I don't think you can be more confident in that group than you could with Glavine, Heilman, Pelfrey and Maine. Mulder was terrible all year and hurt. Matsuzaka is a "?" until he actually pitches in the US. And Zito eats innings, but if he doesn't come up big in the post season, as he didn't yet again in '06, what's the point? A cheap rookie can eat innings and be a playoff question mark just as easily.

Mota

Are you kidding me? This is a serious blow, what the hell was Mota thinking???

Now we've got no Pedro through at least first half of season, no Mota for 50 games, unclear Sanchez, and Heilman who wants to start (if not with Mets then he wants trade). Mets MUST re-sign Bradford and Feliciano now.

Let the games begin..

Free agency market looks to be interesting, see here.

How about going after Gagne and then being able to offer Wagner as trade bait? You could get a lot for Wagner + Milledge. How about picking up Sean Casey as additional trade bait? Or adding Jeff Weaver as a 4th or 5th starter, who we can trade mid-season next year if all of our rookies pan out.

Mets moves...

NY Post article talking about Adam Kennedy, and Heilman still insists on being a starter.

'07 Mets

Interesting Q&A here on mets.com, worth reading through. Touches on many of the points we've discussed in this blog.

Looks like it was in the Cards...

Well, part of me is glad to see Cards win. I'm sick of hearing about NL being so inferior to AL. Also, for the minimal amount it's worth, at least we lost to WS champ.

On the other hand, it kind of leaves a bad taste in my mouth that the WS champ only won 83 games, just TWO games over .500. Lowest winning percentage in WS history.

Acquisitions...

According to Post, Mets not interested in pursuing Zito, Soriano, or Manny at this point.

Roster Notes

From the NY Daily News:

-Carlos Delgado, traded to the Mets in the middle of a multi-year deal, has the right to demand a trade. He again declined to rule that out yesterday, though he may just be angling to get the Mets to guarantee a 2009 option. Delgado is owed $30.5 million over the next two seasons, though the Marlins will pay the Mets $6 million of that sum...

Asked about the importance of the Mets picking up the option, he said: "Would you like your boss to give you another year?

-Tom Glavine has until Nov. 10 to declare his intention as far as a $7.5 million player option, while the team has until Nov. 20 to exercise its $14 million option. Glavine gets a $3 million payment if both are declined, and is still free to re-sign

This article had info on how Soriano will be pursued by the Mets. It also had the following tidbits:

-Starters:

Randolph and Minaya both want Tom Glavine and Orlando Hernandez back -- badly. Glavine is a family decision while El Duque is a financial one. With Pedro Martinez sidelined at least the first half of the season, the Mets need these two to stabilize the rotation.

With age at the top of the rotation, the Mets can afford to take a flyer on potential at the back end, and there are plenty of options here. While the past three drafts have been topped by starting pitching -- Philip Humber, Mike Pelfrey and Kevin Mulvey -- the Mets have plenty of stop gaps to fill space until they are certain the highly touted arms are ready.

Oliver Perez and John Maine moved faster than expected, a point driven home by Maine taking the ball for 51/3 shutout innings of Game 6 of the National League Championship Series and Perez pitching six innings of one-run ball in Game 7. Those two figure to be the frontrunners for a rotation spot, along with Dave Williams, who pitched well after his call-up, and injury-plagued Brian Bannister, who is starting over again.

Figure this deep crop to create a much more soothing option when the Mets have to dip down to the minors...

The market for a top-of-the-rotation starter is weak this season, but the Mets will be involved.

Barry Zito makes sense with pitching coach Rick Peterson already a huge supporter from their days in Oakland, but he's going to cost a lot -- maybe too much for what he's accomplished. Jason Schmidt is another possibility, but he also would not gain so much interest in a deeper pool of talent.

Daisuke Matsuzaka, who was 17-5 with a 2.13 ERA in Japan, sounds like a potential ace and who wouldn't want a purveyor of the gyroball, but the Japanese import will cost even more -- requiring a huge bid just to gain negotiating rights.

-Relievers

While closer Billy Wagner is signed on for three more seasons, the free agent list includes Guillermo Mota, Chad Bradford, Darren Oliver, Pedro Feliciano and Roberto Hernandez.

Barring a trade, Aaron Heilman will be back -- and almost certainly be back in the bullpen. Duaner Sanchez is expected to be healthy again by spring training. Heath Bell and Royce Ring got experience the past few years and are still under the organization's control.

But the Mets want to keep the free agents -- particularly Mota, who found himself again after joining the Mets, and Bradford, who was a consistent force as a set-up man. Oliver said he definitely will pitch again this coming season after finding success in New York and the Mets would like him back, too.

'07

Some early (and minimal) insight into Minaya's thinking for offseason can be found here. Nothing surprising, but clearly his approach is that they've got the nucleus players, and having numbers of pitchers available for different options is what he considers most important.

If I had to guess, we will not pursue a big-name vet pitcher at this point, he will likely look to pick up several lesser known guys and hopefully improve their #s, just like what happened with maine, mota, sanchez, etc. Then maybe he'll look to replace valentin at 2nd with a veteran hitter, so soriano fits the bill. The main thing I don't like about soriano is that we sacrifice defense, and I think having a solid infield is key in the playoffs. But the other 2B options (kennedy, belliard) don't have much offense, and it's not like sori is a disaster at 2nd base.

The Outfield

SHK writes:

Bottom line, if Wright and Green hit like we expect them to, we don't need Valentin to do much on offense. But it would be key to get someone to replace Floyd in 6 spot, to back up wright.

The organization has held on to Milledge despite having numerous opportunities to trade him for bankable players. I have to assume that means Omar's planning on giving him a shot to compete for a starting job next year.

Where does that leave us in the corner outfield positions next year?

If we're keeping Green, as SHK indicates above, here's option #1: Milledge/Chavez in LF, Beltran in CF and Green in RF. In this case, we're rolling the dice on Green returning to form and being 6 hitter who provides some protection to Wright.

Option #2: moving Green and get a get another guy--Soriano, Burrell, or someone else--to hit 6th, and putting Milledge/Chavez in RF.

Option #3: trading Milledge, making Chavez the 4th outfielder, acquiring a 6 hitter somewhere else, and letting Green stay in right and hit 7th for one more year till his contract is up.

Signings

Mets to lock up Glavine and Delgado?

A few early hot stove items

1. San Diego apparently covets Oliver Perez (according to ESPN.com). Josh Barfield anyone? I wonder what else we'd have to throw in, if anything.

2. The Phils want to move Pat Burrell and his fat contract (also according to espen). While he might not seems like a Soriano level guy, his OPS has been .880 the last couple of years, and he's been a 30 HR & 90-100 RBI guy. That's nothing to sneeze at, and a huge improvement over what we got from LF this year. I'm not saying we need to go get the guy now. Let the winter play out, see what else develops. But it's one possibility to keep warm on the back burner. Thanks to his contract, the Mets could probably get him for a bag of balls if Fred's willing to eat his salary.

3. What do we do with Glavine? When I think forward to '07, I'm guessing we're going to go with something similar to what the Tigers had this year: one vet and a bunch of live arms. Is Glavine the vet? Or do we shell out for Zito? Or go with Schmidt? Or trade for some other front line starter? But there's really only one spot for a vet. After that, you have Maine, Heilman, Pelfrey, Humber, Oliver Perez, Bannister and Mulvey competing for four slots in April. When Pedro comes back mid-season, one of the young guys would get bumped to the pen. The Mets would only need one of the young pitchers to turn into a legitimate #3 and the playoff rotation would be solid.

And if Maine, Pelfrey and Humber got a full season under their belt, would you really be shocked if the three of them were pitching on an equal--or even higher--level than Pedro and Zito/Schmidt/Glavine come October? I wouldn't. Sure they wouldn't be as crafty as the vets, but as they say in hoops, "you can't teach youth." Or is it, "you can't teach velocity?" I can't remember.

Some more constructive notes

from the excellent blog over at Metsgeek.com:

Thanks Omar, Willie and the Mets for a great season. As much as this hurts right now, when I look back at what my expectations were back in April I would have to say the season was a success overall. If you knew the following facts BEFORE the season started, how would you have predicted the outcome:

1) Pedro will miss 1/3 of the season and be useless in September.
2) Jose Lima, Jeremi Gonzalez, Alay Soler, Dave Williams and Oliver Perez would all find their way into the rotation.
3) Jose Valentin will start the majority of games at 2B.
4) Cliff Floyd will revert to his old self and Endy Chavez will play a lot of RF.

If Miss Cleo had come to me with this in April, I might have cancelled my Extra Innings subscription ;-)

POS

What a waste. How the F does the team which DOMINATED the NL all season lose to the team with the WORST RECORD in the playoffs? A team we were 4-2 against this season, that we were FOURTEEN games better than? A team that you SHUT DOWN the only offensive threat - Pujols - to .248 and 1 RBI??? Your offense and bullpen blow and are overrated, that's how.

Ironically starting pitching was good enough, great in spots, to win this series. It was our supposedly HUGE offense and bullpen that were going to carry us. Well, they carried us all right, straight into the shitter.

Wagner, as I've maintained all season, is overrated and sucks. I don't trust him with the game on the line, EVER.

Heilman and Mota can't pitch more than one inning each.

How do the Mets not score in the bottom of the inning after Chavez makes the greatest catch ever? How do you not draw on that momentum and score? Green, Valentin, and Chavez are too much of an easy out in a pressure situation. But really that's not their job - where's the 1-5 in the lineup? For Reyes to not reach base ONCE last night is a massive regression - he showed no patience at the plate. Lo Duca has to find a way to get on base even when no one is on ahead of him. I'll save some special words for Beltran below. Wright sucked all series. ALL series, every game he sucked.

This team cannot hit a breaking ball to save their lives. Sure, they're as deadly as anyone when being served a steady diet of fastballs, or when a pitcher makes a mistake and leaves it over the fat part of the plate. But the minute they face breaking stuff, they wilt. LEARN HOW TO HIT SINGLES. Not every at bat has to be going for the long ball. Live by the HR, die by the HR. And that's exactly what they did this series.

And for Beltran to end the whole season LOOKING at strike 3. What a dandy.

Aaron Heilman is a Mean Man

That is all

The Duke of Flushing

This is why the guy is the team leader. From espn.com:

In the first, Maine bounced his seventh pitch, allowed singles to Scott Spiezio and Albert Pujols, then walked Juan Encarnacion. As grumbles emanated, Maine thought back to what his catcher, Paul Lo Duca, had said in a visit to the mound.

"He gave me a little speech," Maine said. "It was what I needed. It's secret, so no one is going to know except us two."

That much invective, huh?

"Not R-rated," Maine said.

"The old college ‘Go get ‘em,' " Lo Duca said.

Get 'em Maine did. He cruised through the second inning, worked out of two walks in the third by striking out Encarnacion, shook off another walk in the fourth, finished the fifth by striking out Pujols on a slider and left with one on and one out in the sixth, his straggler retired on a Rolen double-play ball, his final line.

"Johnny, to me, is not scared," Lo Duca said. "He wants to be out there, and I just wanted to let him know that [we], as a team, want him out there. We feel, and I told him, 'Just do your job, and we're going to win this ballgame for you.' I think we saw the maturation of a kid that's going to be a good pitcher, and you'll see him for a long time. He grew a lot tonight, and this is a step forward for his career."

It's all down to this...

Looks like Fredo's call of Mets in 7 might be right. I was a bit optimistic in calling for Mets in 5, although if they had held on to win game 2, who knows...

I like the call to start perez (out of the available options, that is!) Reason is that IF he pitches well, and we win, it saves darren oliver for WS game 1 if needed (and who knows what we get out of el duque). Worst case if perez is off, pull him ASAP and go right to darren who you were planning to burn anyway.

Wow!

What can you say about the effort by Maine, Reyes, and Lo Duca with the whole season on the line? Amazin! Reyes 3-4 with 2 R and 1 RBI. 1 HUGE RBI, a leadoff HR to settle down Maine and the whole team. Then Maine settling into an unhittable rhythm. And finally Lo Duca with a HUGE hit following another big Reyes hit.

Well, not exactly finally. Finally is reserved for Billy "My Man" wagner who has now taken that title away from Otis "my man" smith. Wagner has pitched in 6 games this postseason. In 3 of those 6 he was good. But in the other 3 atrocious does not even begin to describe it. 2 inexcusable runs last night. 3 the other night. This guy seems to have poor pitch selection and just plain poor pitches right now. He needs to figure this out, because Mets can't always bank on giving him a 4 run cushion. He has really been poor so far.

Trax out

According to Newsday, Trax won't start again this series.

That leaves Darren Oliver and Oliver Perez (3 days rest) as possibles for game 7. Oliver Twist is unavailable.

Metties

Calling Glavine "the goat" (ESPN and NYPost) is exactly what I disagree with - you can't blame him for yesterday's game, as discussed (or should I say "disgust"??) in my earlier post.

Wow, Glavine's not perfect. Shocking. Especially when ump is calling tight (and later in the game totally F'in arbitrary) strike zone. Glavine needs a wide strike zone to dominate. But 3 runs is not much, especially when we are facing Jeff "8-14 5.76 ERA" Weaver. Mets built this team around offense, not pitching. We knew that in regular season and postseason. This team lives and dies by the HR.

I'd like to see them play smarter, with different game plans depending on who the pitching matchup is. For example, with Glavine on the mound last night the Mets could reasonably expect to win with 4-5 runs. So maybe go for small ball, instead of trying to always have the big inning. Maybe have Lo Duca bunt in first inning with Reyes on. Or if not, at least in later innings in a close, low-scoring game, let's switch our approach at the plate. Try to manufacture runs, rather than relying on HRs.

Problems with this series, in no particular order:
1. Wagner 3-run 9th.
2. Trachsel.
3. Wright constantly hitting out of an 0-2 or 1-2 count. Every one of his appearances is: strike 1 looking outside corner, strike 2 swinging inside corner, ball 1, foul, fly ball out. He really needs to move closer to plate and adjust his mental approach.
4. Reyes regressing back towards last season, and not having patience to draw walks.
5. Trachsel.
6. Not counting pile-on runs in game 4, limited production from 5-9 slots.
7. Trachsel.

Mets are choking up for same reason as Yankees - not even considering possibility of small ball, but instead always looking for big inning. This is fine if we have a lead or a big inning type of situation (runners on 2nd and 3rd, 0 or 1 outs, etc.) But so far in this series, our highly vaunted offense has put up: 2, 6, 0, 12, and 2 runs. In 3 out of 5 games we've scored a whopping total of 4 runs.

Glavine

While I hope that Glavine has a solid game tonight, and expect no worse than 3 runs over 5 innings, I also hope that Mets aren't mentally expecting or banking on another Glavine shutout gem. Hopefully in their minds he'll be good but not great, so that if he isn't perfect, they don't get unnerved by it. Rather, they calmly play through the way they usually do and score more runs.