2ND BASE

[Vic Sage]

The Padres just traded Josh Barfield for 2 prospects. If Barfield was on the block, should we have offered milledge? Barfield is exactly the kind of young, fast, powerful, cheap, good defensive 2bman I'd love to have.

Too bad we missed out on him. Back to the options:

1) Soriano - Philly wants him for LF. He'll likely get too many years and too much $$ to be worth acquiring. I still hope we'll take a shot at him. 5yr/$75m. If he goes for more, so be it.

2) Garciaparra - probably will re-sign with LA, but, despite health concerns, is the kind of bat i'd love to have at 2b. 3 yr/$27m, ($33m with incentives).

3) Durham - coming off a great year, but injuries still an issue.(3 yr/$25m)

4) Valentin, Aurilia, Loretta, Kennedy, DeRosa, Lugo, Belliard, T.Walker - Mediocrities, one and all. A Valentin/Aurilia platoon might work.

5) Anderson Hernandez, Gotay - minor leaguers with no bat.

Other Options?

[Guest Edgy DC]

Um, Matsui?

[Guest patona314]

5) Anderson Hernandez, Gotay - minor leaguers with (maybe) no bat.

sticking to my guns on this one, spend the $$$ elsewhere.

Pitching and Defense wins pennants.

[Guest OlerudOwned]

Pitching and defense were great in Game 7 but I don't see a pennant to show for it.

Gimmie a bat.

[Guest patona314]

OlerudOwned wrote: Pitching and defense were great in Game 7 but I don't see a pennant to show for it. Gimmie a bat.

I'm pretty sure you'll get your bats, theyll just be be playing LF and RF. My personal opinion is that Green is History.

[metirish]

You think Omar will look to move Green?, he's owed $12M IIRC,Mets would have to eat a big chunk of that to trade him I would think.

[Guest patona314]

metirish wrote: You think Omar will look to move Green?, he's owed $12M IIRC,Mets would have to eat a big chunk of that to trade him I would think.

D-Backs are paying 6M of the 12M. The mets could pick up 3M and some team will get an average RF w/some pop for 3M

[RealityChuck]

Green has a full no-trade clause. He was willing to waive it to play in the postseason, but it's another issue entirely if the Mets try to trade him anywhere else.

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

I think Green will be back.

And I'd HATE to see Anderson Hernandez get the 2B job. The Mets have a whole winter to get somebody better than that. And I'm sure that they will.

[Guest patona314]

RealityChuck wrote: Green has a full no-trade clause. He was willing to waive it to play in the postseason, but it's another issue entirely if the Mets try to trade him anywhere else.

I forgot about that....

[A Boy Named Seo]

]2) Garciaparra - probably will re-sign with LA, but, despite health concerns, is the kind of bat i'd love to have at 2b. 3 yr/$27m, ($33m with incentives).

Nomar barely made it through one year in LA at first base. I don't think there's any way he could play in the middle of the infield again and not have his legs explode. I don't think he's a real option (especially for 3 years) and bet he ends up somewhere else with a similar 1-year/$10 mil deal like he got last year. I think the Dodgers are ready to go with James Loney and would be be surprised if he would up back there either.

[Frayed Knot]

- I could see giving Garciaparra or Durham shots - but not with 3-year deals. Too risky.

- The Mets, btw, are "talking to" Valentin according to several published reports. A good move IMO so long as it's not the sole option.

- Anderson Hernadez hasn't come close to showing that he can hit well enough to hold down a full-time ML job. NO ONE is that good a fielder.

- Adam Kennedy is only 31, but he sure has declined in the last few years. Not sure what to make of him.

[smg58]

Hernandez needs another year at AAA before I could consider him again. He'd have to prove at least that he could hit decently over a full season there.

I think Milledge has more upside than Barfield, but sure I'd have liked to have known Barfield was available. Then again, the Padres seemed determined to find a third baseman, and we only have one and he's not going anywhere.

Something tells me 5 years and $75M won't be enough to get Soriano.

Nomar at second? I'm not sure the rewards outweigh the risks. He only had two more HR's than Valentin last year. You might wind up overpaying for the name.

How good is Durham with the glove at this point? Nothing wrong with his bat, but age, health, and defense would make me balk at three years. Two years and I'm interested, though.

[Guest patona314]

"Something tells me 5 years and $75M won't be enough to get Soriano. "

I'm hearing 5 years - $100M and not a penny under.

[metirish]

] I'm hearing 5 years - $100M and not a penny under.

Must be going to Texas then....

[Frayed Knot]

]I'm hearing 5 years - $100M and not a penny under.

Not a chance he gets that.
No one has touched $20mil/per since the A-Rod, Manny deals during the dot-com era spending boom of 2000-01 -- and both teams came to quickly regret those expenditures even though the players played as well as could be expected. And even the teams who came close to the 20-mark with players (Thome w/Philly, Delgado w/Toronto, Giambi w/NYY, etc.) wanted/still want out of those deals while they were still going on.

I know the scuttlebutt has it that there's going to be all kids of money thrown around this winter but Soriano isn't a complete enough player to command that kind of scratch. And, yes, Manny wasn't either, but Soriano on his best day isn't the hitter that Manny is.

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

He picked a good year to go 40-40. It's translated to some pretty lucrative rumors, but I can't see him actually getting $20 million per year.

[Elster88]

Why waste time explaining why someone is not going to get a 5 year deal at 20 per when the phrase is "I'm hearing". 95% of the published hot-stove stuff is crap, there's no point in giving any credence to someone just posting a statement like that with no backup or sources.

[Frayed Knot]

Elster88 wrote: Why waste time explaining why someone is not going to get a 5 year deal at 20 per when the phrase is "I'm hearing".

I like to be thorough

] 95% of the published hot-stove stuff is crap, there's no point in giving any credence to someone just posting a statement like that with no backup or sources.

It challenges the person w/the original post to either come up with some sources or realize that unbacked statements don't have a long shelf-life around here.

[Elster88]

Yeah, I'm just grumpy. I should go post a picture of something pretty.

[Guest patona314]

Frayed Knot wrote: ="Elster88"]Why waste time explaining why someone is not going to get a 5 year deal at 20 per when the phrase is "I'm hearing". I like to be thorough ] 95% of the published hot-stove stuff is crap, there's no point in giving any credence to someone just posting a statement like that with no backup or sources. It challenges the person w/the original post to either come up with some sources or realize that unbacked statements don't have a long shelf-life around here.

it's the boras trump card trying to beat the beltran contract. mr. beltran is the last player to get more than he deserved (for non-pitchers). boras is going to get close to that as possible (7yr 119M ) to this type of contract, though it is idiotic to sign, it still gets signed. so... boras tells whoever wants to sign soriano that for 5 yrs you must pay more... 5 yrs of misery is less than 7... which means $20M.

i hope he doesn't get it

[metirish]

But Boras is not his agent,least he wasn't last week.

His agent is Diego Bentz.

[Frayed Knot]

"it's the boras trump card trying to beat the beltran contract. mr. beltran is the last player to get more than he deserved (for non-pitchers). boras is going to get close to that as possible (7yr 119M ) to this type of contract,"

Boras don't enter into this cuz he's not the agent.
And even if he was, Beltran was a 28 y/o CFer when he signed. Soriano is 31 and a corner player with MUCH worse OBP skills. Saying he wants a comparable deal doesn't mean someone has to agree to it.


" though it is idiotic to sign, it still gets signed ... boras tells whoever wants to sign soriano that for 5 yrs you must pay more... 5 yrs of misery is less than 7... which means $20M."

Sez who? -- you're going to have to come up with better logic than that.
Agents make claims and throw out asking prices all the time that are never met. I think it was w/Millwood a couple years ago where Boras claimed he had "several standings offers" for something like 5 x $15mil ... before they wound up accepting a 1 year deal for around $10
This will be a negotiation, not a one-way dictation.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Yeah it was Millwood.

I don't know where we get that Beltran was the "last player to get more than he deserved."

They deserve exactly what their contracts say they deserve.

[RealityChuck]

The nature of baseball contracts is similar to the nature of auctions. Auctions are used to raise money because they generally raise more money for the seller than any other type of sale (especially for rare items).

Bidders tend to overbid on what they want, and there's usually someone out there willing to pay too much.

[Elster88]

Let's get ARod to play second.

[metsmarathon]

mike piazza is available.

i know, i know - i've long favored his use as a shortstop, but with reyes entrenched there, maybe he could shift over a spot on the infield.

[Guest patona314]

Piazza as a 2nd baseman...hmm..... if he doesn't work out can we bring in Will Ferrell? It'll make a great movie.

[MFS62]

metsmarathon wrote: mike piazza is available. i know, i know - i've long favored his use as a shortstop, but with reyes entrenched there, maybe he could shift over a spot on the infield.

Piazza at second would probably at least equal the defensive skills that Todd Walker has been accused of exhibiting as a regular second baseman throughout his career.

In fact, if you watched Chuck Hiller play second as some of us did, Piazza might actually be an improvement.

Brilliant idea!

LOL!

Later

[Zvon]

The Mets have expressed interest in free agent Mark De Rosa.

De Rosa turns 32 in Feb.
He batted .296 with 13 homers for Texas last season, playing 26 games at 2nd base. (He played 60 games in RF).

He has played 114 games at 2nd base during his career.
He commited one error at 2nd in 2006 and eight errors at 2nd during his career.
____________________________________________________
The only thing I like about this is the guy plays 2nd base and RF.