Hot Stove League

[Guest Edgy DC]

SteveJRogers wrote: ="Elster88"]Shit, I woulda taken him at 1 year, 3 mil. Eh, not sure if the reward would have been greater than the risk. Oh sure he could turn everything around and actually be Ryan/Clemens-esque, but the way things have been around here lately, do we need the probable headache when it turns out to be a disaster? We aren't the MFY who can absorb mistakes you know

I'm not sure how much of this is a joke, but I disagree with most of it.

[stevejrogers]

metirish wrote: ] We aren't the MFY who can absorb mistakes you know Sure the Mets can and have ,Howe,Cedano ,Bonilla...the list goes on, the Mets are not the Royals Steve...

MFY absorb mistakes and still manage to win

We have mistakes and it cost us dearly. All of the aforementioned cost us. The Yankees make mistakes, it doesn't really cost them in the long run because they can send them to Baltimore or Detroit or whatever.

We get stuck, thats how we got into that particular mess after 2000

[Elster88]

My head is slowly exploding.

[stevejrogers]

Have we not learned anything from some of the flyers we've taken over the years? Mo Vaughn?

[metirish]

IIRC the insurance company ended up paying for Mo.....

[Guest Edgy DC]

Steve, Yankee-envy is silly.

We came within a hit of reaching the World Series. The Yankees bowed in a quick, finger-pointing first round.

At least two expensive mistakes explode into my mind that the Mets bit the bullet on this season. (1) Matsui, which they dealt with by dealing him for an iffy backup and eating a chunk of his salary; and (2) panic-dealing Nady, with a gimpy Floyd at the other corner outfield spot, which they dealt with by picking up Green.

]MFY absorb mistakes and still manage to win

Mets won more. Forget the Yankees.

[metsmarathon]

mo vaughn wasn't a flier. it was a poorly researched, ill executed major investment.

we took a flier on jose valentin this year. a small investment in wood would've been akin to that, not to mo vaughn.

[smg58]

Wood is a moot point. We never had an opportunity to negotiate with him. I didn't think the offer was out of line with his worth, given the injuries and the fact that he's resigned to being a reliever at this point. $3M would be a lot to guarantee to an injury-prone setup guy.

[metirish]

I wonder if this is true,from a Klapisch article.

] And then there's organizational momentum: In terms of attracting free agents, the Mets believe they're now a match for any team, including the Yankees. "We're hot. It's hot to be a Met, we've got a good thing going on here," said one club official. "A couple of years ago, we couldn't get Henry Blanco to come here, and that was even after we offered him more money than anyone else. He still said no. That's all changed."

If it's true then things certainly have changed.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Blanco. That's pretty funny.

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

They're probably a match for any team, except sometimes the Yankees, and except when the player has a New York phobia.

I do think, though, that many players (except for those whose dads or grandpas worshipped Mickey Mantle) would judge the two New York teams equally. Deciding factors might be practical things like the presence or absence of the DH, team strength at a particular position, or friendship with a particular teammate or coach instead of nonsense reasons like aura, mystique and the "guarantee" of getting into a World Series.

And in a few years the stadium where Ruth, Gehrig, and DiMaggio played will be gone, (it's really been gone since 1973) so the Yankees won't have that anymore either, although I think they'll still claim that they do.

[metirish]

I suppose we got Castro instead of him...his sponsor on baseball reference has this to say....

] still the active leader in lowest batting average for hitters with 1,000 or more career at bats.

[Guest patona314]

New rumor: Soriano signs w/the bosox (7yr $105M). The bosox then turn around and deal manny to the amazin's for heilman and milledge. wow...

[Frayed Knot]

Does "new rumor" mean the same as "voices inside my head" ... or is there actually a grain of basis for that wild-assed speculation?

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

That trailing "wow" leads me to believe the source was external to his head.

Whether it was a reliable source or not remains to be seen.

[Guest OlerudOwned]

That seems like a lot of extra work when you can just sign Soriano instead.

[Frayed Knot]

Perhaps voices inside [u:c2d00d5e8a]someone's[/u:c2d00d5e8a] head would have been a better question.

IOW, did someone who actually sniffs out this sort of stuff for a living report it or is its source more from the internet trolling, talk-show calling, fan end of things?

Not that I believe for a second that it'll happen in either case, but at least if it's from a legit source I'll be forced to consider it as a remote option.

[DocTee]

Windy City deal: Cubs send David Aardsma and minor leaguer to ChiSox for Lefty Neal Cotts...Aardsma is not bad.

[Frayed Knot]

I fnothing else, Aardsma will forever be the guy who knocked Hank Aaron out of the leadoff spot in the Baseball Encyclopedia

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

Did he get any death threats because of that?

[Guest patona314]

Frayed Knot wrote: Does "new rumor" mean the same as "voices inside my head" ... or is there actually a grain of basis for that wild-assed speculation?

http://www.metsblog.com/

look for the blog posted at 10:55 AM

[Frayed Knot]

That doesn't even qualify as a rumor.
It's a blogger repeating Olney's speculation that now might be a good time to deal Manny and then speculating on where he might go and what kind of package might get him there.

That's not even a rumor of a rumor.

[Guest patona314]

="Frayed Knot"]That doesn't even qualify as a rumor. It's a blogger repeating Olney's speculation that now might be a good time to deal Manny and then speculating on where he might go and what kind of package might get him there. That's not even a rumor of a rumor.

it's called having fun talking about baseball when baseball is not being played

[Guest Edgy DC]

Frayed Knot, under a different name used to batter peeps for asking if a rumor was "true" back in the day. Now he's demanding that they qualify.

In fairness, though, citing sources is a good practice.

[metirish]

Boston.com is speculating Drew will get 4 years $56 million..crazy or what...Theo Epstein spoke with the Mets yesterday,about what the article does not know...Omar on Lugo..same article...

] Meanwhile, the Sox definitely appear to be the clear front-runners for shortstop Julio Lugo. "Julio Lugo is one of the best shortstops in the game," said Mets GM Omar Minaya. "I really believe Julio is an excellent defensive shortstop, let alone the fact that he can really hit. Don't sell him short defensively. I know teams are looking at him as a second baseman or whatever, but he's a major league shortstop."

[Frayed Knot]

]it's called having fun talking about baseball when baseball is not being played

I understand that, but there's also a big difference between random thoughts and the implication that it's an idea actively being considered.

[Guest OlerudOwned]

metirish wrote: Boston.com is speculating Drew will get 4 years $56 million..crazy or what...Theo Epstein spoke with the Mets yesterday,about what the article does not know...Omar on Lugo..same article... ] Meanwhile, the Sox definitely appear to be the clear front-runners for shortstop Julio Lugo. "Julio Lugo is one of the best shortstops in the game," said Mets GM Omar Minaya. "I really believe Julio is an excellent defensive shortstop, let alone the fact that he can really hit. Don't sell him short defensively. I know teams are looking at him as a second baseman or whatever, but he's a major league shortstop."

Well Omar, I don't think it's the defense that people are going to sell him short on. He's really not all that good a hitter.

[DocTee]

MLB.com reporting that the Orioles are interested in reuniting Leo Mazzone with Tim Hudson...among those going to Atlanta would be starter Hayden Penn...would this open the door for Glavine's return to the team that Ted built?

[DocTee]

Six player swap: D-backs and Brewers...Johnny Estrada to Milwaukee for Doug Davis.

[MFS62]

The radio report I heard zipped through the other players involved. None of the names rang an immediate bell. Anyone else in that trade we might have heard of?

Later