Zee-Toe

[Guest Edgy DC]

Current odds for the first opening day starter at CitiField

Pedro Martinez: 9-2.
Barry Zito: 7-1
Tom Glavine: 19-2.
Mike Pelfrey: 11-1
Phil Humber 15-1
Dontrelle Willis: 15-1
John Maine: 20-1
Oliver Perez: 30-1
Mark Mulder: 33-1
Bobby Parnell: 35-1
Aaron Heilman: 40-1
Roy Halliday: 50-1

[Guest Edgy DC]

New odds!

Pedro Martinez: 9-2.
Mike Pelfrey: 10-1
Dontrelle Willis: 10-1
Phil Humber 12-1
Tom Glavine: 19-1
John Maine: 20-1
Mark Mulder: 22-1
Deolis Guerra: 25-1
Oliver Perez: 28-1
Kevin Mulvey: 30-1
Bobby Parnell: 30-1
Roy Oswalt: 30-1
Jonathan Niese: 35-1
Aaron Heilman: 36-1
Roy Halliday: 40-1
Barry Zito: 60-1

[Centerfield]

Ok. Now I believe him.

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

Edgy DC wrote: New odds! Pedro Martinez: 9-2. Mike Pelfrey: 10-1 Dontrelle Willis: 10-1 Phil Humber 12-1 Tom Glavine: 19-1 John Maine: 20-1 Mark Mulder: 22-1 Deolis Guerra: 25-1 Oliver Perez: 28-1 Kevin Mulvey: 30-1 Bobby Parnell: 30-1 Roy Oswalt: 30-1 Jonathan Niese: 35-1 Aaron Heilman: 36-1 Roy Halliday: 40-1 Barry Zito: 60-1

You're giving good odds for Pedro Martinez signing a second contract with the Mets. Given his iffy health, and the fact that his current contract expires in 2008 I'd give Pedro steeper odds on being that starter.

I'll put my money on Pelfrey or Humber, but I hope it's Dontrelle.

[Guest cleonjones11]

Jose Lima even money

[Guest Edgy DC]

I'll take that one. How much?

[nymr83]

can i get sone action against Lima too?

[metsmarathon]

ditto.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Reports all over the country are about how Scott Boras (1) took the owners for a ride again, (2) like he always does, (3) with phantom counter-offers.

1) He only took one for a ride.

2) It's not like he got Matsuzaka his full payday.

3) We really don't know what the Mets were offering.

[Guest Edgy DC]

To be fair, as I review these columns, a lot of them are pickups of a single AP column.

[nymr83]

Well I think Matsuzaka ended up with as much as you could expect for a guy who could only talk to one team.
He definetaly took the Giants for a ride on Zito, I hadn't even heard talk of 7 years until the deal was anounced.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Sure, but my point was that teams can out-leverage players also, even those represented by Scott Boras.

Who is Gil Meche's agent, anyway?

Answer: Casey Close.

[nymr83]

I didn't know who Meche's agent was, but if i'm a mediocre pitcher i want him to be mine. Boras seems to get good players more than they deserve... but getting 55 million for a Gil Meche is miraculous.

[Guest Edgy DC]

My feeling is just that Boras isn't really the story here. I'm sure he does well by his clients, but it's hard to believe salaries wouldn't be similarly escalating if he wasn't involved.

He wasn't Meche's agent. Nor was he Gary Matthews, Jr.'s. Yet they both got paydays that are perhaps more out of whack than Zito's and they got them before Zito got his.

[nymr83]

I wasn't saying Boras was the story here, Meche's deal has me rolling my eyes alot more than anything else. Giving Zito extra years may prove to be a foolish decision (i think it will) but at least you're getting the pitcher you needed for the beginning of the contract, the Giants apparently felt it was worth risking the extra years, but what incentive is there to give all those years and all that money to Gil Meche? if Meche turned down my 2 or 3 year offer I'd tell him to look elsewhere, there were 10-15 pitchers better than him available this offseason and thats being generous to him.

[Guest Edgy DC]

And I'm not saying you're saying that. Only that's the angle that was taken in these worldwide reports.

Many originating from the AP guy, however.

[nymr83]

]Only in small groups. It's idiotic to say that a guy who won 16 games is twice the pitcher as a guy who won 8 in a particular season, but in big samples such as we're discussing here, wins become significant indicators of success

No, they don't. They become indicators of longevity when looking at a career and maybe of good health when looking at a player over afew seasons, but they still don't do anything to indicate the quality of performance.

[metirish]

Glavine on Zito -

] "I think our organization was smart in not spending the money on [barry] Zito," Glavine said, referring to the seven-year, $126-million deal that the Giants gave Zito. "I think that we were smart in not pursuing some of the rumored trades and giving up some of the guys that we were rumored to be giving up. In the end, they did all of the right things, and we're going to go into spring training in a situation where there's going to be a lot of competition. And that's not a bad thing."

[Guest iramets]

You don't often hear straight party-line bullshit like that nowadays. "I think they did all the right things" is, in particuplar, a golden oldie not heard since Stalin's last five-year plan. And yeah, having a lot of competetition for open jobs isn't a bad thing, nor is having five Cy Young winners with ten-year contracts either. It's all good. If the Mets are doing it, Tommy's all for it.

[nymr83]

I read that in The Post this morning, I was pretty suprised to hear that out of Glavine who is or at least was a union rep for his team.