So now what?

[Frayed Knot]

Assuming that Ollie passes the physical then I'd say that the pitching staff is fairly complete outside of the usual last minute questions as to who mans the back-end jobs and who gets stored in Buffalo for first call-up duty.

So what else needs to be done?

* 2nd base - Not gonna happen I don't think.
Yeah it's far too much money and far too much time on Castillo's contract, but a healthy Luis simply coming near his career norms is at least useful and I think it's folly to assume they're going to eat $18mil. With even a decent year and an improved economy he's much more tradable/dumpable next off-season if need be.

* Catcher - again not much happening
Mainly because there's just not that much out there. Catchers don't hit much to begin with which makes the Schneid-Astro combo not THAT much worse than the norm.
Texas and maybe Arizona have some kiddie-catchers that they may be willing to deal but of course you don't know what some rookie will bring you and then there's the question about where you'll have to weaken yourself elsewhere to get them.

* So I think we're looking OF if anywhere..
With what seems like a glut of good-if-flawed veteran corners out there at Crazy Eddie prices I suspect if there are any other 'Big' moves left it'll be for one of the Dunn, Abreu, Wiggy, (dare I say) Manny group.


Or maybe they consider themselves done?

[metirish]

Minaya has talked about how he thinks the offense is set but I don't believe him or I don't want to . I think he will make a move there before long.

[Benjamin Grimm]

They might. (Consider themselves done, that is.)

Is Pudge Rodriguez still out there? Maybe they can bring him in to put pressure on Schneider. (If he comes cheaply enough, of course.)

I'm not sure that second base is a "not gonna happen." It's more like a "not gonna happen unless they find a taker for Castillo." I acknowledge that it's unlikely, but I'd like to at least think it's possible. (Mets would have to pony up some cash, of course.)

[Frayed Knot]

I'm not so sure that Pudge is even an upgrade these days.
He never did walk, has seen his power diminish as he got older and (how you say) 'smaller' in recent years, and is no longer the defensive force he once was.
Plus he was simply awful in his 2-month tour w/the Yanx to end last season.

[Guest sharpie]

I still don't understand why they don't try Murphy out at second this spring training. Yes, he got hurt in Arizona after playing there for a couple of games but so what. Get a leftfielder, try David out at second. What's the harm?

[Guest attgig]

there's no good catchers out there.
we have 18 mil sitting on 2b that nobody will take.

and we have a platoon in left with at least 3 viable options in FA market that should be able to be had for cheap.

could it stand to reason that if we upgrade in LF, then we can at least help make up for the shortcomings we have in C & 2b?

so, what's next?
http://cranepoolforum.net/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=10910

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

Pudge is done. You'd be better off coaxing Ron Hodges out of retirement than bringing him in.

About the only benefit would be seeing "New York (NL) 2009" on his Hall of Fame plaque.

[Guest Edgy DC]

I imagine they will try Murphy at second. I just think they're only modestly hopeful that any great opportunities will come from that.

Another possibility is another starting pitcher.

[Centerfield]

I wouldn't put it past them to be done...but as a fan, I'm having a hard time getting pumped up for a team that has the same lineup and the same rotation as last year's team.

I realize the bullpen may be better, but we had Wagner until the last two months.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Yeah, I'm with you.

Today's the one-year anniversary of the Johan Santana deal, and that was the day that I officially became excited for the 2008 season.

Nothing yet has me fired up for 2009. I'll be glad when the season starts, but I'm not doing a whole lot of anticipating.

[nymr83]

With Perez back in the fold I'm at least confident that this team is as good as last year's was on opening day. I want more.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

="Benjamin Grimm":2x7mx8b1]Yeah, I'm with you. Today's the one-year anniversary of the Johan Santana deal, and that was the day that I officially became excited for the 2008 season. Nothing yet has me fired up for 2009. I'll be glad when the season starts, but I'm not doing a whole lot of anticipating.[/quote:2x7mx8b1] Not saying this is any justification, but I'm thinking a season without unreal expectations is exactly what Met Nation could use.

Benjamin Grimm Feb 02 2009 02:49 PM

That's a good point. High expectations can carry a heavy weight. It's just from my own personal selfish perspective that I want something to get excited about.

Edgy DC Feb 02 2009 02:51 PM

Thanks. I'll agree. There's also wonderful things that can happen when a team fills in the blanks, but sticks to the plan even if they came up short the previous year. The main offseason acquisitions of 1985-1986 were Tim Teufel and Bob Ojeda. The main ones in 1969 were both Rule Fivers --- Jack DiLauro and Wayne Garrett! Pumping up the pen and shoring up the depth chart may not make your hair stand up, but I've seen fans oversold enough.

Ashie62 Feb 02 2009 03:49 PM

="metirish":tozkqh1v]Minaya has talked about how he thinks the offense is set but I don't believe him or I don't want to . I think he will make a move there before long.[/quote:tozkqh1v] Agreed..one nice OF bat to put in the middle of the lineup and provide nice bench depth..Beats future Buffalo Bison Cory Sullivan attgig Feb 02 2009 04:02 PM ="John Cougar Lunchbucket":2i9b1llo] ="Benjamin Grimm":2i9b1llo]Yeah, I'm with you. Today's the one-year anniversary of the Johan Santana deal, and that was the day that I officially became excited for the 2008 season. Nothing yet has me fired up for 2009. I'll be glad when the season starts, but I'm not doing a whole lot of anticipating.[/quote:2i9b1llo] Not saying this is any justification, but I'm thinking a season without unreal expectations is exactly what Met Nation could use.[/quote:2i9b1llo] lol, so let's set the bar really low, so that we won't be disappointed if we don't make the playoffs yet again? SteveJRogers Feb 02 2009 04:08 PM ="Edgy DC":r3qsrvm7]Thanks. I'll agree. There's also wonderful things that can happen when a team fills in the blanks, but sticks to the plan even if they came up short the previous year. The main offseason acquisitions of 1985-1986 were Tim Teufel and Bob Ojeda. The main ones in 1969 were both Rule Fivers --- Jack DiLauro and Wayne Garrett! Pumping up the pen and shoring up the depth chart may not make your hair stand up, but I've seen fans oversold enough.[/quote:r3qsrvm7] Are you sure there really is a plan? And I'm sorry but this is not the 1986 Mets out there, heck I'd say that isn't even the 2006 Mets out there. John Cougar Lunchbucket Feb 02 2009 07:18 PM ="attgig":3aazttg1] ="John Cougar Lunchbucket":3aazttg1] ="Benjamin Grimm":3aazttg1]Yeah, I'm with you. Today's the one-year anniversary of the Johan Santana deal, and that was the day that I officially became excited for the 2008 season. Nothing yet has me fired up for 2009. I'll be glad when the season starts, but I'm not doing a whole lot of anticipating.[/quote:3aazttg1] Not saying this is any justification, but I'm thinking a season without unreal expectations is exactly what Met Nation could use.[/quote:3aazttg1] lol, so let's set the bar really low, so that we won't be disappointed if we don't make the playoffs yet again?[/quote:3aazttg1] Oh, sorry. SIGN MANNY NOW!!!! FREEDDY COUPONS!!!!1 Edgy DC Feb 03 2009 07:25 AM ="SteveJRogers":5fnaustv]Are you sure there really is a plan?[/quote:5fnaustv] Yes. ="SteveJRogers":5fnaustv]And I'm sorry but this is not the 1986 Mets out there, heck I'd say that isn't even the 2006 Mets out there.[/quote:5fnaustv] They aren't out there at all yet. And when they do go out there, they'll be the 2009 Mets and nobody else. What are you sorry about? Centerfield Feb 03 2009 07:14 PM You'll get nothing and like it. Says Omar at today's press conference, according to Metsblog. Or something like that. Omar says no more major moves this offseason. metirish Feb 03 2009 07:37 PM Edited 1 time(s), most recently on Feb 04 2009 09:38 AM Here's the video of that Damn it's worth watching , around the two minute mark things get interesting. bmfc1 Feb 03 2009 08:17 PM Mets management seems to operate with a plan of "if all goes well, we'll win." We know, sadly, that not everything goes well. After '07, the feeling was that if they had one more good starter, they would have won, so they got Johan. After last year, the feeling was that if the bullpen was better, they would have won, so they got Felix and J.J. In both cases, they didn't change much else. I agree that this team is better than the last one because of the vast improvement to the bullpen, but they haven't factored in any unexpected problems. There are no guarantees that anybody, not even David Wright, will put up the same numbers as last year. Does managment think that Manny, or even Nady, would give the team too much hitting? In '07, we saw Dave Williams and Brian Lawrence start key games at the end of the season. In '08, we saw Luis Ayala pitch the end of key games at the end of the season. This is because of a lack of depth that leaves management scrambling for reinforcements at critical times. Wouldn't Ty Wigginton have been a good insurance policy for injuries at any number of positions? Wouldn't Kevin Millar have been a good insurance policy for a slumping Carlos Delgado? Management does a lot--the third highest payroll in the game--but they don't go as far as they should. Perhaps, in the best case scenario, they'll be right. I hope so. Edgy DC Feb 04 2009 07:37 AM It's not like everything else went right last year and the Mets are counting on such fortune to repeat itself. They had a spectacular run of injuries in the corner outfield positions that they survivied better than anybody could have expected. Nobody should have anticipated more than a third of a season from Alou, but one after another they fell --- Alou, Pagan, Alou again, Anderson, Churchie, Nixon, Anderson again --- all the best ones for disturbingly long stays. The idea here seems to be that the Mets are correcting one problem and expecting everything else to go as right as last year, but ignoring the likelihood of many of these things gravitating downward toward the mean. But this doesn't credit how many things went wrong and could/should improve by gravitating toward the mean. A lot of work goes into building the system and I'm perfectly OK with them plugging in answers from there. We demand decisive aggressive action with replacing players like Castillo, but we have to acknowledge that the persistence of players like Castillo is the result of decisive aggressive action. That sort of emotional management has a domino effect that led to the 1994 Mets just as surely as it led to the 2004 Mets. willpie Feb 04 2009 09:33 AM I'm not saying it's rational, the best possible plan, or even an especially good plan, but I'd kill to get Nady on this team. Clubhouse presence, fan favorite, RH bat, can play 1st--that's a lot of pluses. Frayed Knot Feb 04 2009 09:44 AM The Yanx would trade him (either him or Swisher). The question then becomes what you're willing to give up. They gave up several promising (although hardly guaranteed) prospects to snag him last summer. smg58 Feb 04 2009 09:57 AM I agree that Nady would help the team. But if you pass on Wigginton (who's all those things you mentioned, plus a better outfielder, can play more positions, is more or less the same hitter, is getting less money over two years than Nady is over one, and wouldn't have cost players), I don't see how you justify getting Nady instead. John Cougar Lunchbucket Feb 04 2009 10:13 AM Omar amid saying the Mets were done and ready to go to war etc etc suggested they'd be looking for right-handed pinch hitters thru spring training, so youneverknow Benjamin Grimm Feb 05 2009 09:07 AM ="Newsday.com"] Mets now targeting righthanded hitter for bench BY KEN DAVIDOFF ken.davidoff@newsday.com 9:53 PM EST, February 4, 2009 The Mets, their major offseason goals achieved, will next target a righthanded hitter for their bench, a person familiar with the situation said yesterday. Some Mets officials like free agent Rich Aurilia, who has ties to both New York and general manager Omar Minaya. As of yesterday, however, the Mets had yet to reach out to Aurilia's agent, Barry Axelrod, according to Axelrod. Aurilia, 37, was born in Brooklyn and played for Xaverian High School there and then St. John's. When the Rangers selected him in the 24th round of the 1992 amateur draft, Minaya was part of Texas' front office. A former All-Star shortstop, Aurilia played in 83 games as the Giants' first baseman, 63 as their third baseman and one at second base in 2008. He put up a .332 on-base percentage and .413 slugging percentage. Against lefthanded pitching, those numbers ballooned to .377 and .526. Axelrod said that the Phillies and Giants have pursued Aurilia the most aggressively. Other available, veteran righty bats on the free-agent market include Nomar Garciaparra, Kevin Millar, former Met Jay Payton, Jose Vidro (a switch hitter) and, if the Mets are feeling masochistic, Moises Alou. The Mets have some interest in picking through the free-agent crop of lefty relievers -- Joe Beimel, Will Ohman and Ron Villone are among those still available -- but they believe they have viable non-roster options in Casey Fossum and Tom Martin. As first reported by The New York Post, the Mets are interested in trading catcher Ramon Castro and the $2.5 million owed him for 2009 and replacing him with Robinson Cancel. The Brewers discussed Castro internally -- Milwaukee general manager Doug Melvin consulted his new bench coach, former Mets manager Willie Randolph -- and opted against such a deal. John Cougar Lunchbucket Feb 05 2009 09:12 AM How about that? Willie sez no to Castro -- not man enough. Is Davidoff too dumb to know that Keilty ought to be in that RH bench-bat conversation also? I wouldn;t mind bringing in a guy like Aurelia to provide some competition. DocTee Feb 05 2009 09:15 AM FWIW, Aurilia is an awesome person...involved in lots of charitable causes in the Bay Area and is a beloved here as if he were a "true Yanqui" in Da Bronx. Edgy DC Feb 05 2009 09:18 AM I don't think Davidoff is ignoring that, so much as looking at the fish still out there, knowing that the Mets are still fishing for righty bats. I don't know if Aurilia is still a viable infielder, but he could bring relative versatility along with his righthanded bat, whereas Kielty could bring relative youth and beauty. DocTee Feb 05 2009 09:49 AM If it's beauty you want, Aurilia's your (wo)man: [url:hqe2z5js]http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://graphics.ink19.com/magazine/interviews/raquel.jpeg&imgrefurl=http://www.ink19.com/issues/september2006/interviews/raquelAurilia.html&usg=__6M3HaNMFvmuGhhEDIKh1GM0hlTo=&h=264&w=175&sz=11&hl=en&start=4&um=1&tbnid=Rfe5plkM1PpwpM:&tbnh=112&tbnw=74&prev=/images%3Fq%3Drich%2Baurilia%2Bwife%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1T4HPIA_enUS312%26sa%3DN[/url:hqe2z5js] Vic Sage Feb 05 2009 10:09 AM current bench (assuming a 7-man pen, and a 5-man bench): 1) castro (rh) - C 2) Tatis (rh)- corner IF/OF [platooning with Murphy (lh)] 3) Alex Cora (lh) - MI 4) Marlon Anderson (lh) - IF/OF 5) Jeremy Reed (lh) - Of - Cory Sullivan (lh) - OF - B.Kielty (rh) - Of I would like to see Kielty take Anderson's job, and have Anderson duke it out with Reed and Sullivan for the LHed PH/OF slot. Of course, if Aurillia can still play MI, he'd be a more valuable asset, giving the bench more flexibility. smg58 Feb 05 2009 11:10 AM Aurilia won't kill you with the glove, not that he's particularly good at a position at this point in his career. He could spell Delgado against some lefties, but he would leave Church with no righthanded backup.

[Benjamin Grimm]

That's a good point. High expectations can carry a heavy weight.

It's just from my own personal selfish perspective that I want something to get excited about.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Thanks. I'll agree.

There's also wonderful things that can happen when a team fills in the blanks, but sticks to the plan even if they came up short the previous year. The main offseason acquisitions of 1985-1986 were Tim Teufel and Bob Ojeda. The main ones in 1969 were both Rule Fivers --- Jack DiLauro and Wayne Garrett!

Pumping up the pen and shoring up the depth chart may not make your hair stand up, but I've seen fans oversold enough.

[ashie62]

="metirish":tozkqh1v]Minaya has talked about how he thinks the offense is set but I don't believe him or I don't want to . I think he will make a move there before long.[/quote:tozkqh1v] Agreed..one nice OF bat to put in the middle of the lineup and provide nice bench depth..Beats future Buffalo Bison Cory Sullivan

attgig Feb 02 2009 04:02 PM

="John Cougar Lunchbucket":2i9b1llo] ="Benjamin Grimm":2i9b1llo]Yeah, I'm with you. Today's the one-year anniversary of the Johan Santana deal, and that was the day that I officially became excited for the 2008 season. Nothing yet has me fired up for 2009. I'll be glad when the season starts, but I'm not doing a whole lot of anticipating.[/quote:2i9b1llo] Not saying this is any justification, but I'm thinking a season without unreal expectations is exactly what Met Nation could use.[/quote:2i9b1llo] lol, so let's set the bar really low, so that we won't be disappointed if we don't make the playoffs yet again? SteveJRogers Feb 02 2009 04:08 PM ="Edgy DC":r3qsrvm7]Thanks. I'll agree. There's also wonderful things that can happen when a team fills in the blanks, but sticks to the plan even if they came up short the previous year. The main offseason acquisitions of 1985-1986 were Tim Teufel and Bob Ojeda. The main ones in 1969 were both Rule Fivers --- Jack DiLauro and Wayne Garrett! Pumping up the pen and shoring up the depth chart may not make your hair stand up, but I've seen fans oversold enough.[/quote:r3qsrvm7] Are you sure there really is a plan? And I'm sorry but this is not the 1986 Mets out there, heck I'd say that isn't even the 2006 Mets out there. John Cougar Lunchbucket Feb 02 2009 07:18 PM ="attgig":3aazttg1] ="John Cougar Lunchbucket":3aazttg1] ="Benjamin Grimm":3aazttg1]Yeah, I'm with you. Today's the one-year anniversary of the Johan Santana deal, and that was the day that I officially became excited for the 2008 season. Nothing yet has me fired up for 2009. I'll be glad when the season starts, but I'm not doing a whole lot of anticipating.[/quote:3aazttg1] Not saying this is any justification, but I'm thinking a season without unreal expectations is exactly what Met Nation could use.[/quote:3aazttg1] lol, so let's set the bar really low, so that we won't be disappointed if we don't make the playoffs yet again?[/quote:3aazttg1] Oh, sorry. SIGN MANNY NOW!!!! FREEDDY COUPONS!!!!1 Edgy DC Feb 03 2009 07:25 AM ="SteveJRogers":5fnaustv]Are you sure there really is a plan?[/quote:5fnaustv] Yes. ="SteveJRogers":5fnaustv]And I'm sorry but this is not the 1986 Mets out there, heck I'd say that isn't even the 2006 Mets out there.[/quote:5fnaustv] They aren't out there at all yet. And when they do go out there, they'll be the 2009 Mets and nobody else. What are you sorry about? Centerfield Feb 03 2009 07:14 PM You'll get nothing and like it. Says Omar at today's press conference, according to Metsblog. Or something like that. Omar says no more major moves this offseason. metirish Feb 03 2009 07:37 PM Edited 1 time(s), most recently on Feb 04 2009 09:38 AM Here's the video of that Damn it's worth watching , around the two minute mark things get interesting. bmfc1 Feb 03 2009 08:17 PM Mets management seems to operate with a plan of "if all goes well, we'll win." We know, sadly, that not everything goes well. After '07, the feeling was that if they had one more good starter, they would have won, so they got Johan. After last year, the feeling was that if the bullpen was better, they would have won, so they got Felix and J.J. In both cases, they didn't change much else. I agree that this team is better than the last one because of the vast improvement to the bullpen, but they haven't factored in any unexpected problems. There are no guarantees that anybody, not even David Wright, will put up the same numbers as last year. Does managment think that Manny, or even Nady, would give the team too much hitting? In '07, we saw Dave Williams and Brian Lawrence start key games at the end of the season. In '08, we saw Luis Ayala pitch the end of key games at the end of the season. This is because of a lack of depth that leaves management scrambling for reinforcements at critical times. Wouldn't Ty Wigginton have been a good insurance policy for injuries at any number of positions? Wouldn't Kevin Millar have been a good insurance policy for a slumping Carlos Delgado? Management does a lot--the third highest payroll in the game--but they don't go as far as they should. Perhaps, in the best case scenario, they'll be right. I hope so. Edgy DC Feb 04 2009 07:37 AM It's not like everything else went right last year and the Mets are counting on such fortune to repeat itself. They had a spectacular run of injuries in the corner outfield positions that they survivied better than anybody could have expected. Nobody should have anticipated more than a third of a season from Alou, but one after another they fell --- Alou, Pagan, Alou again, Anderson, Churchie, Nixon, Anderson again --- all the best ones for disturbingly long stays. The idea here seems to be that the Mets are correcting one problem and expecting everything else to go as right as last year, but ignoring the likelihood of many of these things gravitating downward toward the mean. But this doesn't credit how many things went wrong and could/should improve by gravitating toward the mean. A lot of work goes into building the system and I'm perfectly OK with them plugging in answers from there. We demand decisive aggressive action with replacing players like Castillo, but we have to acknowledge that the persistence of players like Castillo is the result of decisive aggressive action. That sort of emotional management has a domino effect that led to the 1994 Mets just as surely as it led to the 2004 Mets. willpie Feb 04 2009 09:33 AM I'm not saying it's rational, the best possible plan, or even an especially good plan, but I'd kill to get Nady on this team. Clubhouse presence, fan favorite, RH bat, can play 1st--that's a lot of pluses. Frayed Knot Feb 04 2009 09:44 AM The Yanx would trade him (either him or Swisher). The question then becomes what you're willing to give up. They gave up several promising (although hardly guaranteed) prospects to snag him last summer. smg58 Feb 04 2009 09:57 AM I agree that Nady would help the team. But if you pass on Wigginton (who's all those things you mentioned, plus a better outfielder, can play more positions, is more or less the same hitter, is getting less money over two years than Nady is over one, and wouldn't have cost players), I don't see how you justify getting Nady instead. John Cougar Lunchbucket Feb 04 2009 10:13 AM Omar amid saying the Mets were done and ready to go to war etc etc suggested they'd be looking for right-handed pinch hitters thru spring training, so youneverknow Benjamin Grimm Feb 05 2009 09:07 AM ="Newsday.com"] Mets now targeting righthanded hitter for bench BY KEN DAVIDOFF ken.davidoff@newsday.com 9:53 PM EST, February 4, 2009 The Mets, their major offseason goals achieved, will next target a righthanded hitter for their bench, a person familiar with the situation said yesterday. Some Mets officials like free agent Rich Aurilia, who has ties to both New York and general manager Omar Minaya. As of yesterday, however, the Mets had yet to reach out to Aurilia's agent, Barry Axelrod, according to Axelrod. Aurilia, 37, was born in Brooklyn and played for Xaverian High School there and then St. John's. When the Rangers selected him in the 24th round of the 1992 amateur draft, Minaya was part of Texas' front office. A former All-Star shortstop, Aurilia played in 83 games as the Giants' first baseman, 63 as their third baseman and one at second base in 2008. He put up a .332 on-base percentage and .413 slugging percentage. Against lefthanded pitching, those numbers ballooned to .377 and .526. Axelrod said that the Phillies and Giants have pursued Aurilia the most aggressively. Other available, veteran righty bats on the free-agent market include Nomar Garciaparra, Kevin Millar, former Met Jay Payton, Jose Vidro (a switch hitter) and, if the Mets are feeling masochistic, Moises Alou. The Mets have some interest in picking through the free-agent crop of lefty relievers -- Joe Beimel, Will Ohman and Ron Villone are among those still available -- but they believe they have viable non-roster options in Casey Fossum and Tom Martin. As first reported by The New York Post, the Mets are interested in trading catcher Ramon Castro and the $2.5 million owed him for 2009 and replacing him with Robinson Cancel. The Brewers discussed Castro internally -- Milwaukee general manager Doug Melvin consulted his new bench coach, former Mets manager Willie Randolph -- and opted against such a deal. John Cougar Lunchbucket Feb 05 2009 09:12 AM How about that? Willie sez no to Castro -- not man enough. Is Davidoff too dumb to know that Keilty ought to be in that RH bench-bat conversation also? I wouldn;t mind bringing in a guy like Aurelia to provide some competition. DocTee Feb 05 2009 09:15 AM FWIW, Aurilia is an awesome person...involved in lots of charitable causes in the Bay Area and is a beloved here as if he were a "true Yanqui" in Da Bronx. Edgy DC Feb 05 2009 09:18 AM I don't think Davidoff is ignoring that, so much as looking at the fish still out there, knowing that the Mets are still fishing for righty bats. I don't know if Aurilia is still a viable infielder, but he could bring relative versatility along with his righthanded bat, whereas Kielty could bring relative youth and beauty. DocTee Feb 05 2009 09:49 AM If it's beauty you want, Aurilia's your (wo)man: [url:hqe2z5js]http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://graphics.ink19.com/magazine/interviews/raquel.jpeg&imgrefurl=http://www.ink19.com/issues/september2006/interviews/raquelAurilia.html&usg=__6M3HaNMFvmuGhhEDIKh1GM0hlTo=&h=264&w=175&sz=11&hl=en&start=4&um=1&tbnid=Rfe5plkM1PpwpM:&tbnh=112&tbnw=74&prev=/images%3Fq%3Drich%2Baurilia%2Bwife%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1T4HPIA_enUS312%26sa%3DN[/url:hqe2z5js] Vic Sage Feb 05 2009 10:09 AM current bench (assuming a 7-man pen, and a 5-man bench): 1) castro (rh) - C 2) Tatis (rh)- corner IF/OF [platooning with Murphy (lh)] 3) Alex Cora (lh) - MI 4) Marlon Anderson (lh) - IF/OF 5) Jeremy Reed (lh) - Of - Cory Sullivan (lh) - OF - B.Kielty (rh) - Of I would like to see Kielty take Anderson's job, and have Anderson duke it out with Reed and Sullivan for the LHed PH/OF slot. Of course, if Aurillia can still play MI, he'd be a more valuable asset, giving the bench more flexibility. smg58 Feb 05 2009 11:10 AM Aurilia won't kill you with the glove, not that he's particularly good at a position at this point in his career. He could spell Delgado against some lefties, but he would leave Church with no righthanded backup.

[Guest attgig]

="John Cougar Lunchbucket":2i9b1llo] ="Benjamin Grimm":2i9b1llo]Yeah, I'm with you. Today's the one-year anniversary of the Johan Santana deal, and that was the day that I officially became excited for the 2008 season. Nothing yet has me fired up for 2009. I'll be glad when the season starts, but I'm not doing a whole lot of anticipating.[/quote:2i9b1llo] Not saying this is any justification, but I'm thinking a season without unreal expectations is exactly what Met Nation could use.[/quote:2i9b1llo] lol, so let's set the bar really low, so that we won't be disappointed if we don't make the playoffs yet again? SteveJRogers Feb 02 2009 04:08 PM ="Edgy DC":r3qsrvm7]Thanks. I'll agree. There's also wonderful things that can happen when a team fills in the blanks, but sticks to the plan even if they came up short the previous year. The main offseason acquisitions of 1985-1986 were Tim Teufel and Bob Ojeda. The main ones in 1969 were both Rule Fivers --- Jack DiLauro and Wayne Garrett! Pumping up the pen and shoring up the depth chart may not make your hair stand up, but I've seen fans oversold enough.[/quote:r3qsrvm7] Are you sure there really is a plan? And I'm sorry but this is not the 1986 Mets out there, heck I'd say that isn't even the 2006 Mets out there. John Cougar Lunchbucket Feb 02 2009 07:18 PM ="attgig":3aazttg1] ="John Cougar Lunchbucket":3aazttg1] ="Benjamin Grimm":3aazttg1]Yeah, I'm with you. Today's the one-year anniversary of the Johan Santana deal, and that was the day that I officially became excited for the 2008 season. Nothing yet has me fired up for 2009. I'll be glad when the season starts, but I'm not doing a whole lot of anticipating.[/quote:3aazttg1] Not saying this is any justification, but I'm thinking a season without unreal expectations is exactly what Met Nation could use.[/quote:3aazttg1] lol, so let's set the bar really low, so that we won't be disappointed if we don't make the playoffs yet again?[/quote:3aazttg1] Oh, sorry. SIGN MANNY NOW!!!! FREEDDY COUPONS!!!!1 Edgy DC Feb 03 2009 07:25 AM ="SteveJRogers":5fnaustv]Are you sure there really is a plan?[/quote:5fnaustv] Yes. ="SteveJRogers":5fnaustv]And I'm sorry but this is not the 1986 Mets out there, heck I'd say that isn't even the 2006 Mets out there.[/quote:5fnaustv] They aren't out there at all yet. And when they do go out there, they'll be the 2009 Mets and nobody else. What are you sorry about? Centerfield Feb 03 2009 07:14 PM You'll get nothing and like it. Says Omar at today's press conference, according to Metsblog. Or something like that. Omar says no more major moves this offseason. metirish Feb 03 2009 07:37 PM Edited 1 time(s), most recently on Feb 04 2009 09:38 AM Here's the video of that Damn it's worth watching , around the two minute mark things get interesting. bmfc1 Feb 03 2009 08:17 PM Mets management seems to operate with a plan of "if all goes well, we'll win." We know, sadly, that not everything goes well. After '07, the feeling was that if they had one more good starter, they would have won, so they got Johan. After last year, the feeling was that if the bullpen was better, they would have won, so they got Felix and J.J. In both cases, they didn't change much else. I agree that this team is better than the last one because of the vast improvement to the bullpen, but they haven't factored in any unexpected problems. There are no guarantees that anybody, not even David Wright, will put up the same numbers as last year. Does managment think that Manny, or even Nady, would give the team too much hitting? In '07, we saw Dave Williams and Brian Lawrence start key games at the end of the season. In '08, we saw Luis Ayala pitch the end of key games at the end of the season. This is because of a lack of depth that leaves management scrambling for reinforcements at critical times. Wouldn't Ty Wigginton have been a good insurance policy for injuries at any number of positions? Wouldn't Kevin Millar have been a good insurance policy for a slumping Carlos Delgado? Management does a lot--the third highest payroll in the game--but they don't go as far as they should. Perhaps, in the best case scenario, they'll be right. I hope so. Edgy DC Feb 04 2009 07:37 AM It's not like everything else went right last year and the Mets are counting on such fortune to repeat itself. They had a spectacular run of injuries in the corner outfield positions that they survivied better than anybody could have expected. Nobody should have anticipated more than a third of a season from Alou, but one after another they fell --- Alou, Pagan, Alou again, Anderson, Churchie, Nixon, Anderson again --- all the best ones for disturbingly long stays. The idea here seems to be that the Mets are correcting one problem and expecting everything else to go as right as last year, but ignoring the likelihood of many of these things gravitating downward toward the mean. But this doesn't credit how many things went wrong and could/should improve by gravitating toward the mean. A lot of work goes into building the system and I'm perfectly OK with them plugging in answers from there. We demand decisive aggressive action with replacing players like Castillo, but we have to acknowledge that the persistence of players like Castillo is the result of decisive aggressive action. That sort of emotional management has a domino effect that led to the 1994 Mets just as surely as it led to the 2004 Mets. willpie Feb 04 2009 09:33 AM I'm not saying it's rational, the best possible plan, or even an especially good plan, but I'd kill to get Nady on this team. Clubhouse presence, fan favorite, RH bat, can play 1st--that's a lot of pluses. Frayed Knot Feb 04 2009 09:44 AM The Yanx would trade him (either him or Swisher). The question then becomes what you're willing to give up. They gave up several promising (although hardly guaranteed) prospects to snag him last summer. smg58 Feb 04 2009 09:57 AM I agree that Nady would help the team. But if you pass on Wigginton (who's all those things you mentioned, plus a better outfielder, can play more positions, is more or less the same hitter, is getting less money over two years than Nady is over one, and wouldn't have cost players), I don't see how you justify getting Nady instead. John Cougar Lunchbucket Feb 04 2009 10:13 AM Omar amid saying the Mets were done and ready to go to war etc etc suggested they'd be looking for right-handed pinch hitters thru spring training, so youneverknow Benjamin Grimm Feb 05 2009 09:07 AM ="Newsday.com"] Mets now targeting righthanded hitter for bench BY KEN DAVIDOFF ken.davidoff@newsday.com 9:53 PM EST, February 4, 2009 The Mets, their major offseason goals achieved, will next target a righthanded hitter for their bench, a person familiar with the situation said yesterday. Some Mets officials like free agent Rich Aurilia, who has ties to both New York and general manager Omar Minaya. As of yesterday, however, the Mets had yet to reach out to Aurilia's agent, Barry Axelrod, according to Axelrod. Aurilia, 37, was born in Brooklyn and played for Xaverian High School there and then St. John's. When the Rangers selected him in the 24th round of the 1992 amateur draft, Minaya was part of Texas' front office. A former All-Star shortstop, Aurilia played in 83 games as the Giants' first baseman, 63 as their third baseman and one at second base in 2008. He put up a .332 on-base percentage and .413 slugging percentage. Against lefthanded pitching, those numbers ballooned to .377 and .526. Axelrod said that the Phillies and Giants have pursued Aurilia the most aggressively. Other available, veteran righty bats on the free-agent market include Nomar Garciaparra, Kevin Millar, former Met Jay Payton, Jose Vidro (a switch hitter) and, if the Mets are feeling masochistic, Moises Alou. The Mets have some interest in picking through the free-agent crop of lefty relievers -- Joe Beimel, Will Ohman and Ron Villone are among those still available -- but they believe they have viable non-roster options in Casey Fossum and Tom Martin. As first reported by The New York Post, the Mets are interested in trading catcher Ramon Castro and the $2.5 million owed him for 2009 and replacing him with Robinson Cancel. The Brewers discussed Castro internally -- Milwaukee general manager Doug Melvin consulted his new bench coach, former Mets manager Willie Randolph -- and opted against such a deal. John Cougar Lunchbucket Feb 05 2009 09:12 AM How about that? Willie sez no to Castro -- not man enough. Is Davidoff too dumb to know that Keilty ought to be in that RH bench-bat conversation also? I wouldn;t mind bringing in a guy like Aurelia to provide some competition. DocTee Feb 05 2009 09:15 AM FWIW, Aurilia is an awesome person...involved in lots of charitable causes in the Bay Area and is a beloved here as if he were a "true Yanqui" in Da Bronx. Edgy DC Feb 05 2009 09:18 AM I don't think Davidoff is ignoring that, so much as looking at the fish still out there, knowing that the Mets are still fishing for righty bats. I don't know if Aurilia is still a viable infielder, but he could bring relative versatility along with his righthanded bat, whereas Kielty could bring relative youth and beauty. DocTee Feb 05 2009 09:49 AM If it's beauty you want, Aurilia's your (wo)man: [url:hqe2z5js]http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://graphics.ink19.com/magazine/interviews/raquel.jpeg&imgrefurl=http://www.ink19.com/issues/september2006/interviews/raquelAurilia.html&usg=__6M3HaNMFvmuGhhEDIKh1GM0hlTo=&h=264&w=175&sz=11&hl=en&start=4&um=1&tbnid=Rfe5plkM1PpwpM:&tbnh=112&tbnw=74&prev=/images%3Fq%3Drich%2Baurilia%2Bwife%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1T4HPIA_enUS312%26sa%3DN[/url:hqe2z5js] Vic Sage Feb 05 2009 10:09 AM current bench (assuming a 7-man pen, and a 5-man bench): 1) castro (rh) - C 2) Tatis (rh)- corner IF/OF [platooning with Murphy (lh)] 3) Alex Cora (lh) - MI 4) Marlon Anderson (lh) - IF/OF 5) Jeremy Reed (lh) - Of - Cory Sullivan (lh) - OF - B.Kielty (rh) - Of I would like to see Kielty take Anderson's job, and have Anderson duke it out with Reed and Sullivan for the LHed PH/OF slot. Of course, if Aurillia can still play MI, he'd be a more valuable asset, giving the bench more flexibility. smg58 Feb 05 2009 11:10 AM Aurilia won't kill you with the glove, not that he's particularly good at a position at this point in his career. He could spell Delgado against some lefties, but he would leave Church with no righthanded backup.

[stevejrogers]

="Edgy DC":r3qsrvm7]Thanks. I'll agree. There's also wonderful things that can happen when a team fills in the blanks, but sticks to the plan even if they came up short the previous year. The main offseason acquisitions of 1985-1986 were Tim Teufel and Bob Ojeda. The main ones in 1969 were both Rule Fivers --- Jack DiLauro and Wayne Garrett! Pumping up the pen and shoring up the depth chart may not make your hair stand up, but I've seen fans oversold enough.[/quote:r3qsrvm7] Are you sure there really is a plan? And I'm sorry but this is not the 1986 Mets out there, heck I'd say that isn't even the 2006 Mets out there.

John Cougar Lunchbucket Feb 02 2009 07:18 PM

="attgig":3aazttg1] ="John Cougar Lunchbucket":3aazttg1] ="Benjamin Grimm":3aazttg1]Yeah, I'm with you. Today's the one-year anniversary of the Johan Santana deal, and that was the day that I officially became excited for the 2008 season. Nothing yet has me fired up for 2009. I'll be glad when the season starts, but I'm not doing a whole lot of anticipating.[/quote:3aazttg1] Not saying this is any justification, but I'm thinking a season without unreal expectations is exactly what Met Nation could use.[/quote:3aazttg1] lol, so let's set the bar really low, so that we won't be disappointed if we don't make the playoffs yet again?[/quote:3aazttg1] Oh, sorry. SIGN MANNY NOW!!!! FREEDDY COUPONS!!!!1 Edgy DC Feb 03 2009 07:25 AM ="SteveJRogers":5fnaustv]Are you sure there really is a plan?[/quote:5fnaustv] Yes. ="SteveJRogers":5fnaustv]And I'm sorry but this is not the 1986 Mets out there, heck I'd say that isn't even the 2006 Mets out there.[/quote:5fnaustv] They aren't out there at all yet. And when they do go out there, they'll be the 2009 Mets and nobody else. What are you sorry about? Centerfield Feb 03 2009 07:14 PM You'll get nothing and like it. Says Omar at today's press conference, according to Metsblog. Or something like that. Omar says no more major moves this offseason. metirish Feb 03 2009 07:37 PM Edited 1 time(s), most recently on Feb 04 2009 09:38 AM Here's the video of that Damn it's worth watching , around the two minute mark things get interesting. bmfc1 Feb 03 2009 08:17 PM Mets management seems to operate with a plan of "if all goes well, we'll win." We know, sadly, that not everything goes well. After '07, the feeling was that if they had one more good starter, they would have won, so they got Johan. After last year, the feeling was that if the bullpen was better, they would have won, so they got Felix and J.J. In both cases, they didn't change much else. I agree that this team is better than the last one because of the vast improvement to the bullpen, but they haven't factored in any unexpected problems. There are no guarantees that anybody, not even David Wright, will put up the same numbers as last year. Does managment think that Manny, or even Nady, would give the team too much hitting? In '07, we saw Dave Williams and Brian Lawrence start key games at the end of the season. In '08, we saw Luis Ayala pitch the end of key games at the end of the season. This is because of a lack of depth that leaves management scrambling for reinforcements at critical times. Wouldn't Ty Wigginton have been a good insurance policy for injuries at any number of positions? Wouldn't Kevin Millar have been a good insurance policy for a slumping Carlos Delgado? Management does a lot--the third highest payroll in the game--but they don't go as far as they should. Perhaps, in the best case scenario, they'll be right. I hope so. Edgy DC Feb 04 2009 07:37 AM It's not like everything else went right last year and the Mets are counting on such fortune to repeat itself. They had a spectacular run of injuries in the corner outfield positions that they survivied better than anybody could have expected. Nobody should have anticipated more than a third of a season from Alou, but one after another they fell --- Alou, Pagan, Alou again, Anderson, Churchie, Nixon, Anderson again --- all the best ones for disturbingly long stays. The idea here seems to be that the Mets are correcting one problem and expecting everything else to go as right as last year, but ignoring the likelihood of many of these things gravitating downward toward the mean. But this doesn't credit how many things went wrong and could/should improve by gravitating toward the mean. A lot of work goes into building the system and I'm perfectly OK with them plugging in answers from there. We demand decisive aggressive action with replacing players like Castillo, but we have to acknowledge that the persistence of players like Castillo is the result of decisive aggressive action. That sort of emotional management has a domino effect that led to the 1994 Mets just as surely as it led to the 2004 Mets. willpie Feb 04 2009 09:33 AM I'm not saying it's rational, the best possible plan, or even an especially good plan, but I'd kill to get Nady on this team. Clubhouse presence, fan favorite, RH bat, can play 1st--that's a lot of pluses. Frayed Knot Feb 04 2009 09:44 AM The Yanx would trade him (either him or Swisher). The question then becomes what you're willing to give up. They gave up several promising (although hardly guaranteed) prospects to snag him last summer. smg58 Feb 04 2009 09:57 AM I agree that Nady would help the team. But if you pass on Wigginton (who's all those things you mentioned, plus a better outfielder, can play more positions, is more or less the same hitter, is getting less money over two years than Nady is over one, and wouldn't have cost players), I don't see how you justify getting Nady instead. John Cougar Lunchbucket Feb 04 2009 10:13 AM Omar amid saying the Mets were done and ready to go to war etc etc suggested they'd be looking for right-handed pinch hitters thru spring training, so youneverknow Benjamin Grimm Feb 05 2009 09:07 AM ="Newsday.com"] Mets now targeting righthanded hitter for bench BY KEN DAVIDOFF ken.davidoff@newsday.com 9:53 PM EST, February 4, 2009 The Mets, their major offseason goals achieved, will next target a righthanded hitter for their bench, a person familiar with the situation said yesterday. Some Mets officials like free agent Rich Aurilia, who has ties to both New York and general manager Omar Minaya. As of yesterday, however, the Mets had yet to reach out to Aurilia's agent, Barry Axelrod, according to Axelrod. Aurilia, 37, was born in Brooklyn and played for Xaverian High School there and then St. John's. When the Rangers selected him in the 24th round of the 1992 amateur draft, Minaya was part of Texas' front office. A former All-Star shortstop, Aurilia played in 83 games as the Giants' first baseman, 63 as their third baseman and one at second base in 2008. He put up a .332 on-base percentage and .413 slugging percentage. Against lefthanded pitching, those numbers ballooned to .377 and .526. Axelrod said that the Phillies and Giants have pursued Aurilia the most aggressively. Other available, veteran righty bats on the free-agent market include Nomar Garciaparra, Kevin Millar, former Met Jay Payton, Jose Vidro (a switch hitter) and, if the Mets are feeling masochistic, Moises Alou. The Mets have some interest in picking through the free-agent crop of lefty relievers -- Joe Beimel, Will Ohman and Ron Villone are among those still available -- but they believe they have viable non-roster options in Casey Fossum and Tom Martin. As first reported by The New York Post, the Mets are interested in trading catcher Ramon Castro and the $2.5 million owed him for 2009 and replacing him with Robinson Cancel. The Brewers discussed Castro internally -- Milwaukee general manager Doug Melvin consulted his new bench coach, former Mets manager Willie Randolph -- and opted against such a deal. John Cougar Lunchbucket Feb 05 2009 09:12 AM How about that? Willie sez no to Castro -- not man enough. Is Davidoff too dumb to know that Keilty ought to be in that RH bench-bat conversation also? I wouldn;t mind bringing in a guy like Aurelia to provide some competition. DocTee Feb 05 2009 09:15 AM FWIW, Aurilia is an awesome person...involved in lots of charitable causes in the Bay Area and is a beloved here as if he were a "true Yanqui" in Da Bronx. Edgy DC Feb 05 2009 09:18 AM I don't think Davidoff is ignoring that, so much as looking at the fish still out there, knowing that the Mets are still fishing for righty bats. I don't know if Aurilia is still a viable infielder, but he could bring relative versatility along with his righthanded bat, whereas Kielty could bring relative youth and beauty. DocTee Feb 05 2009 09:49 AM If it's beauty you want, Aurilia's your (wo)man: [url:hqe2z5js]http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://graphics.ink19.com/magazine/interviews/raquel.jpeg&imgrefurl=http://www.ink19.com/issues/september2006/interviews/raquelAurilia.html&usg=__6M3HaNMFvmuGhhEDIKh1GM0hlTo=&h=264&w=175&sz=11&hl=en&start=4&um=1&tbnid=Rfe5plkM1PpwpM:&tbnh=112&tbnw=74&prev=/images%3Fq%3Drich%2Baurilia%2Bwife%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1T4HPIA_enUS312%26sa%3DN[/url:hqe2z5js] Vic Sage Feb 05 2009 10:09 AM current bench (assuming a 7-man pen, and a 5-man bench): 1) castro (rh) - C 2) Tatis (rh)- corner IF/OF [platooning with Murphy (lh)] 3) Alex Cora (lh) - MI 4) Marlon Anderson (lh) - IF/OF 5) Jeremy Reed (lh) - Of - Cory Sullivan (lh) - OF - B.Kielty (rh) - Of I would like to see Kielty take Anderson's job, and have Anderson duke it out with Reed and Sullivan for the LHed PH/OF slot. Of course, if Aurillia can still play MI, he'd be a more valuable asset, giving the bench more flexibility. smg58 Feb 05 2009 11:10 AM Aurilia won't kill you with the glove, not that he's particularly good at a position at this point in his career. He could spell Delgado against some lefties, but he would leave Church with no righthanded backup.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

="attgig":3aazttg1] ="John Cougar Lunchbucket":3aazttg1] ="Benjamin Grimm":3aazttg1]Yeah, I'm with you. Today's the one-year anniversary of the Johan Santana deal, and that was the day that I officially became excited for the 2008 season. Nothing yet has me fired up for 2009. I'll be glad when the season starts, but I'm not doing a whole lot of anticipating.[/quote:3aazttg1] Not saying this is any justification, but I'm thinking a season without unreal expectations is exactly what Met Nation could use.[/quote:3aazttg1] lol, so let's set the bar really low, so that we won't be disappointed if we don't make the playoffs yet again?[/quote:3aazttg1] Oh, sorry. SIGN MANNY NOW!!!! FREEDDY COUPONS!!!!1 Edgy DC Feb 03 2009 07:25 AM ="SteveJRogers":5fnaustv]Are you sure there really is a plan?[/quote:5fnaustv] Yes. ="SteveJRogers":5fnaustv]And I'm sorry but this is not the 1986 Mets out there, heck I'd say that isn't even the 2006 Mets out there.[/quote:5fnaustv] They aren't out there at all yet. And when they do go out there, they'll be the 2009 Mets and nobody else. What are you sorry about? Centerfield Feb 03 2009 07:14 PM You'll get nothing and like it. Says Omar at today's press conference, according to Metsblog. Or something like that. Omar says no more major moves this offseason. metirish Feb 03 2009 07:37 PM Edited 1 time(s), most recently on Feb 04 2009 09:38 AM Here's the video of that Damn it's worth watching , around the two minute mark things get interesting. bmfc1 Feb 03 2009 08:17 PM Mets management seems to operate with a plan of "if all goes well, we'll win." We know, sadly, that not everything goes well. After '07, the feeling was that if they had one more good starter, they would have won, so they got Johan. After last year, the feeling was that if the bullpen was better, they would have won, so they got Felix and J.J. In both cases, they didn't change much else. I agree that this team is better than the last one because of the vast improvement to the bullpen, but they haven't factored in any unexpected problems. There are no guarantees that anybody, not even David Wright, will put up the same numbers as last year. Does managment think that Manny, or even Nady, would give the team too much hitting? In '07, we saw Dave Williams and Brian Lawrence start key games at the end of the season. In '08, we saw Luis Ayala pitch the end of key games at the end of the season. This is because of a lack of depth that leaves management scrambling for reinforcements at critical times. Wouldn't Ty Wigginton have been a good insurance policy for injuries at any number of positions? Wouldn't Kevin Millar have been a good insurance policy for a slumping Carlos Delgado? Management does a lot--the third highest payroll in the game--but they don't go as far as they should. Perhaps, in the best case scenario, they'll be right. I hope so. Edgy DC Feb 04 2009 07:37 AM It's not like everything else went right last year and the Mets are counting on such fortune to repeat itself. They had a spectacular run of injuries in the corner outfield positions that they survivied better than anybody could have expected. Nobody should have anticipated more than a third of a season from Alou, but one after another they fell --- Alou, Pagan, Alou again, Anderson, Churchie, Nixon, Anderson again --- all the best ones for disturbingly long stays. The idea here seems to be that the Mets are correcting one problem and expecting everything else to go as right as last year, but ignoring the likelihood of many of these things gravitating downward toward the mean. But this doesn't credit how many things went wrong and could/should improve by gravitating toward the mean. A lot of work goes into building the system and I'm perfectly OK with them plugging in answers from there. We demand decisive aggressive action with replacing players like Castillo, but we have to acknowledge that the persistence of players like Castillo is the result of decisive aggressive action. That sort of emotional management has a domino effect that led to the 1994 Mets just as surely as it led to the 2004 Mets. willpie Feb 04 2009 09:33 AM I'm not saying it's rational, the best possible plan, or even an especially good plan, but I'd kill to get Nady on this team. Clubhouse presence, fan favorite, RH bat, can play 1st--that's a lot of pluses. Frayed Knot Feb 04 2009 09:44 AM The Yanx would trade him (either him or Swisher). The question then becomes what you're willing to give up. They gave up several promising (although hardly guaranteed) prospects to snag him last summer. smg58 Feb 04 2009 09:57 AM I agree that Nady would help the team. But if you pass on Wigginton (who's all those things you mentioned, plus a better outfielder, can play more positions, is more or less the same hitter, is getting less money over two years than Nady is over one, and wouldn't have cost players), I don't see how you justify getting Nady instead. John Cougar Lunchbucket Feb 04 2009 10:13 AM Omar amid saying the Mets were done and ready to go to war etc etc suggested they'd be looking for right-handed pinch hitters thru spring training, so youneverknow Benjamin Grimm Feb 05 2009 09:07 AM ="Newsday.com"] Mets now targeting righthanded hitter for bench BY KEN DAVIDOFF ken.davidoff@newsday.com 9:53 PM EST, February 4, 2009 The Mets, their major offseason goals achieved, will next target a righthanded hitter for their bench, a person familiar with the situation said yesterday. Some Mets officials like free agent Rich Aurilia, who has ties to both New York and general manager Omar Minaya. As of yesterday, however, the Mets had yet to reach out to Aurilia's agent, Barry Axelrod, according to Axelrod. Aurilia, 37, was born in Brooklyn and played for Xaverian High School there and then St. John's. When the Rangers selected him in the 24th round of the 1992 amateur draft, Minaya was part of Texas' front office. A former All-Star shortstop, Aurilia played in 83 games as the Giants' first baseman, 63 as their third baseman and one at second base in 2008. He put up a .332 on-base percentage and .413 slugging percentage. Against lefthanded pitching, those numbers ballooned to .377 and .526. Axelrod said that the Phillies and Giants have pursued Aurilia the most aggressively. Other available, veteran righty bats on the free-agent market include Nomar Garciaparra, Kevin Millar, former Met Jay Payton, Jose Vidro (a switch hitter) and, if the Mets are feeling masochistic, Moises Alou. The Mets have some interest in picking through the free-agent crop of lefty relievers -- Joe Beimel, Will Ohman and Ron Villone are among those still available -- but they believe they have viable non-roster options in Casey Fossum and Tom Martin. As first reported by The New York Post, the Mets are interested in trading catcher Ramon Castro and the $2.5 million owed him for 2009 and replacing him with Robinson Cancel. The Brewers discussed Castro internally -- Milwaukee general manager Doug Melvin consulted his new bench coach, former Mets manager Willie Randolph -- and opted against such a deal. John Cougar Lunchbucket Feb 05 2009 09:12 AM How about that? Willie sez no to Castro -- not man enough. Is Davidoff too dumb to know that Keilty ought to be in that RH bench-bat conversation also? I wouldn;t mind bringing in a guy like Aurelia to provide some competition. DocTee Feb 05 2009 09:15 AM FWIW, Aurilia is an awesome person...involved in lots of charitable causes in the Bay Area and is a beloved here as if he were a "true Yanqui" in Da Bronx. Edgy DC Feb 05 2009 09:18 AM I don't think Davidoff is ignoring that, so much as looking at the fish still out there, knowing that the Mets are still fishing for righty bats. I don't know if Aurilia is still a viable infielder, but he could bring relative versatility along with his righthanded bat, whereas Kielty could bring relative youth and beauty. DocTee Feb 05 2009 09:49 AM If it's beauty you want, Aurilia's your (wo)man: [url:hqe2z5js]http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://graphics.ink19.com/magazine/interviews/raquel.jpeg&imgrefurl=http://www.ink19.com/issues/september2006/interviews/raquelAurilia.html&usg=__6M3HaNMFvmuGhhEDIKh1GM0hlTo=&h=264&w=175&sz=11&hl=en&start=4&um=1&tbnid=Rfe5plkM1PpwpM:&tbnh=112&tbnw=74&prev=/images%3Fq%3Drich%2Baurilia%2Bwife%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1T4HPIA_enUS312%26sa%3DN[/url:hqe2z5js] Vic Sage Feb 05 2009 10:09 AM current bench (assuming a 7-man pen, and a 5-man bench): 1) castro (rh) - C 2) Tatis (rh)- corner IF/OF [platooning with Murphy (lh)] 3) Alex Cora (lh) - MI 4) Marlon Anderson (lh) - IF/OF 5) Jeremy Reed (lh) - Of - Cory Sullivan (lh) - OF - B.Kielty (rh) - Of I would like to see Kielty take Anderson's job, and have Anderson duke it out with Reed and Sullivan for the LHed PH/OF slot. Of course, if Aurillia can still play MI, he'd be a more valuable asset, giving the bench more flexibility. smg58 Feb 05 2009 11:10 AM Aurilia won't kill you with the glove, not that he's particularly good at a position at this point in his career. He could spell Delgado against some lefties, but he would leave Church with no righthanded backup.

[Guest Edgy DC]

="SteveJRogers":5fnaustv]Are you sure there really is a plan?[/quote:5fnaustv] Yes. ="SteveJRogers":5fnaustv]And I'm sorry but this is not the 1986 Mets out there, heck I'd say that isn't even the 2006 Mets out there.[/quote:5fnaustv] They aren't out there at all yet. And when they do go out there, they'll be the 2009 Mets and nobody else. What are you sorry about? Centerfield Feb 03 2009 07:14 PM You'll get nothing and like it. Says Omar at today's press conference, according to Metsblog. Or something like that. Omar says no more major moves this offseason. metirish Feb 03 2009 07:37 PM Edited 1 time(s), most recently on Feb 04 2009 09:38 AM Here's the video of that Damn it's worth watching , around the two minute mark things get interesting. bmfc1 Feb 03 2009 08:17 PM Mets management seems to operate with a plan of "if all goes well, we'll win." We know, sadly, that not everything goes well. After '07, the feeling was that if they had one more good starter, they would have won, so they got Johan. After last year, the feeling was that if the bullpen was better, they would have won, so they got Felix and J.J. In both cases, they didn't change much else. I agree that this team is better than the last one because of the vast improvement to the bullpen, but they haven't factored in any unexpected problems. There are no guarantees that anybody, not even David Wright, will put up the same numbers as last year. Does managment think that Manny, or even Nady, would give the team too much hitting? In '07, we saw Dave Williams and Brian Lawrence start key games at the end of the season. In '08, we saw Luis Ayala pitch the end of key games at the end of the season. This is because of a lack of depth that leaves management scrambling for reinforcements at critical times. Wouldn't Ty Wigginton have been a good insurance policy for injuries at any number of positions? Wouldn't Kevin Millar have been a good insurance policy for a slumping Carlos Delgado? Management does a lot--the third highest payroll in the game--but they don't go as far as they should. Perhaps, in the best case scenario, they'll be right. I hope so. Edgy DC Feb 04 2009 07:37 AM It's not like everything else went right last year and the Mets are counting on such fortune to repeat itself. They had a spectacular run of injuries in the corner outfield positions that they survivied better than anybody could have expected. Nobody should have anticipated more than a third of a season from Alou, but one after another they fell --- Alou, Pagan, Alou again, Anderson, Churchie, Nixon, Anderson again --- all the best ones for disturbingly long stays. The idea here seems to be that the Mets are correcting one problem and expecting everything else to go as right as last year, but ignoring the likelihood of many of these things gravitating downward toward the mean. But this doesn't credit how many things went wrong and could/should improve by gravitating toward the mean. A lot of work goes into building the system and I'm perfectly OK with them plugging in answers from there. We demand decisive aggressive action with replacing players like Castillo, but we have to acknowledge that the persistence of players like Castillo is the result of decisive aggressive action. That sort of emotional management has a domino effect that led to the 1994 Mets just as surely as it led to the 2004 Mets. willpie Feb 04 2009 09:33 AM I'm not saying it's rational, the best possible plan, or even an especially good plan, but I'd kill to get Nady on this team. Clubhouse presence, fan favorite, RH bat, can play 1st--that's a lot of pluses. Frayed Knot Feb 04 2009 09:44 AM The Yanx would trade him (either him or Swisher). The question then becomes what you're willing to give up. They gave up several promising (although hardly guaranteed) prospects to snag him last summer. smg58 Feb 04 2009 09:57 AM I agree that Nady would help the team. But if you pass on Wigginton (who's all those things you mentioned, plus a better outfielder, can play more positions, is more or less the same hitter, is getting less money over two years than Nady is over one, and wouldn't have cost players), I don't see how you justify getting Nady instead. John Cougar Lunchbucket Feb 04 2009 10:13 AM Omar amid saying the Mets were done and ready to go to war etc etc suggested they'd be looking for right-handed pinch hitters thru spring training, so youneverknow Benjamin Grimm Feb 05 2009 09:07 AM ="Newsday.com"] Mets now targeting righthanded hitter for bench BY KEN DAVIDOFF ken.davidoff@newsday.com 9:53 PM EST, February 4, 2009 The Mets, their major offseason goals achieved, will next target a righthanded hitter for their bench, a person familiar with the situation said yesterday. Some Mets officials like free agent Rich Aurilia, who has ties to both New York and general manager Omar Minaya. As of yesterday, however, the Mets had yet to reach out to Aurilia's agent, Barry Axelrod, according to Axelrod. Aurilia, 37, was born in Brooklyn and played for Xaverian High School there and then St. John's. When the Rangers selected him in the 24th round of the 1992 amateur draft, Minaya was part of Texas' front office. A former All-Star shortstop, Aurilia played in 83 games as the Giants' first baseman, 63 as their third baseman and one at second base in 2008. He put up a .332 on-base percentage and .413 slugging percentage. Against lefthanded pitching, those numbers ballooned to .377 and .526. Axelrod said that the Phillies and Giants have pursued Aurilia the most aggressively. Other available, veteran righty bats on the free-agent market include Nomar Garciaparra, Kevin Millar, former Met Jay Payton, Jose Vidro (a switch hitter) and, if the Mets are feeling masochistic, Moises Alou. The Mets have some interest in picking through the free-agent crop of lefty relievers -- Joe Beimel, Will Ohman and Ron Villone are among those still available -- but they believe they have viable non-roster options in Casey Fossum and Tom Martin. As first reported by The New York Post, the Mets are interested in trading catcher Ramon Castro and the $2.5 million owed him for 2009 and replacing him with Robinson Cancel. The Brewers discussed Castro internally -- Milwaukee general manager Doug Melvin consulted his new bench coach, former Mets manager Willie Randolph -- and opted against such a deal. John Cougar Lunchbucket Feb 05 2009 09:12 AM How about that? Willie sez no to Castro -- not man enough. Is Davidoff too dumb to know that Keilty ought to be in that RH bench-bat conversation also? I wouldn;t mind bringing in a guy like Aurelia to provide some competition. DocTee Feb 05 2009 09:15 AM FWIW, Aurilia is an awesome person...involved in lots of charitable causes in the Bay Area and is a beloved here as if he were a "true Yanqui" in Da Bronx. Edgy DC Feb 05 2009 09:18 AM I don't think Davidoff is ignoring that, so much as looking at the fish still out there, knowing that the Mets are still fishing for righty bats. I don't know if Aurilia is still a viable infielder, but he could bring relative versatility along with his righthanded bat, whereas Kielty could bring relative youth and beauty. DocTee Feb 05 2009 09:49 AM If it's beauty you want, Aurilia's your (wo)man: [url:hqe2z5js]http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://graphics.ink19.com/magazine/interviews/raquel.jpeg&imgrefurl=http://www.ink19.com/issues/september2006/interviews/raquelAurilia.html&usg=__6M3HaNMFvmuGhhEDIKh1GM0hlTo=&h=264&w=175&sz=11&hl=en&start=4&um=1&tbnid=Rfe5plkM1PpwpM:&tbnh=112&tbnw=74&prev=/images%3Fq%3Drich%2Baurilia%2Bwife%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1T4HPIA_enUS312%26sa%3DN[/url:hqe2z5js] Vic Sage Feb 05 2009 10:09 AM current bench (assuming a 7-man pen, and a 5-man bench): 1) castro (rh) - C 2) Tatis (rh)- corner IF/OF [platooning with Murphy (lh)] 3) Alex Cora (lh) - MI 4) Marlon Anderson (lh) - IF/OF 5) Jeremy Reed (lh) - Of - Cory Sullivan (lh) - OF - B.Kielty (rh) - Of I would like to see Kielty take Anderson's job, and have Anderson duke it out with Reed and Sullivan for the LHed PH/OF slot. Of course, if Aurillia can still play MI, he'd be a more valuable asset, giving the bench more flexibility. smg58 Feb 05 2009 11:10 AM Aurilia won't kill you with the glove, not that he's particularly good at a position at this point in his career. He could spell Delgado against some lefties, but he would leave Church with no righthanded backup.

[Centerfield]

You'll get nothing and like it.

Says Omar at today's press conference, according to Metsblog.

Or something like that. Omar says no more major moves this offseason.

[metirish]

Here's the video of that




Damn it's worth watching , around the two minute mark things get interesting.

Edited February 3, 2009 by Guest

[bmfc1]

Mets management seems to operate with a plan of "if all goes well, we'll win." We know, sadly, that not everything goes well. After '07, the feeling was that if they had one more good starter, they would have won, so they got Johan. After last year, the feeling was that if the bullpen was better, they would have won, so they got Felix and J.J. In both cases, they didn't change much else. I agree that this team is better than the last one because of the vast improvement to the bullpen, but they haven't factored in any unexpected problems. There are no guarantees that anybody, not even David Wright, will put up the same numbers as last year. Does managment think that Manny, or even Nady, would give the team too much hitting?

In '07, we saw Dave Williams and Brian Lawrence start key games at the end of the season. In '08, we saw Luis Ayala pitch the end of key games at the end of the season. This is because of a lack of depth that leaves management scrambling for reinforcements at critical times. Wouldn't Ty Wigginton have been a good insurance policy for injuries at any number of positions? Wouldn't Kevin Millar have been a good insurance policy for a slumping Carlos Delgado?

Management does a lot--the third highest payroll in the game--but they don't go as far as they should. Perhaps, in the best case scenario, they'll be right. I hope so.

[Guest Edgy DC]

It's not like everything else went right last year and the Mets are counting on such fortune to repeat itself. They had a spectacular run of injuries in the corner outfield positions that they survivied better than anybody could have expected.

Nobody should have anticipated more than a third of a season from Alou, but one after another they fell --- Alou, Pagan, Alou again, Anderson, Churchie, Nixon, Anderson again --- all the best ones for disturbingly long stays.

The idea here seems to be that the Mets are correcting one problem and expecting everything else to go as right as last year, but ignoring the likelihood of many of these things gravitating downward toward the mean.

But this doesn't credit how many things went wrong and could/should improve by gravitating toward the mean.

A lot of work goes into building the system and I'm perfectly OK with them plugging in answers from there.

We demand decisive aggressive action with replacing players like Castillo, but we have to acknowledge that the persistence of players like Castillo is the result of decisive aggressive action. That sort of emotional management has a domino effect that led to the 1994 Mets just as surely as it led to the 2004 Mets.

[willpie]

I'm not saying it's rational, the best possible plan, or even an especially good plan, but I'd kill to get Nady on this team.
Clubhouse presence, fan favorite, RH bat, can play 1st--that's a lot of pluses.

[Frayed Knot]

The Yanx would trade him (either him or Swisher).
The question then becomes what you're willing to give up.
They gave up several promising (although hardly guaranteed) prospects to snag him last summer.

[smg58]

I agree that Nady would help the team. But if you pass on Wigginton (who's all those things you mentioned, plus a better outfielder, can play more positions, is more or less the same hitter, is getting less money over two years than Nady is over one, and wouldn't have cost players), I don't see how you justify getting Nady instead.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Omar amid saying the Mets were done and ready to go to war etc etc suggested they'd be looking for right-handed pinch hitters thru spring training, so youneverknow

[Benjamin Grimm]

="Newsday.com"] Mets now targeting righthanded hitter for bench BY KEN DAVIDOFF ken.davidoff@newsday.com 9:53 PM EST, February 4, 2009 The Mets, their major offseason goals achieved, will next target a righthanded hitter for their bench, a person familiar with the situation said yesterday. Some Mets officials like free agent Rich Aurilia, who has ties to both New York and general manager Omar Minaya. As of yesterday, however, the Mets had yet to reach out to Aurilia's agent, Barry Axelrod, according to Axelrod. Aurilia, 37, was born in Brooklyn and played for Xaverian High School there and then St. John's. When the Rangers selected him in the 24th round of the 1992 amateur draft, Minaya was part of Texas' front office. A former All-Star shortstop, Aurilia played in 83 games as the Giants' first baseman, 63 as their third baseman and one at second base in 2008. He put up a .332 on-base percentage and .413 slugging percentage. Against lefthanded pitching, those numbers ballooned to .377 and .526. Axelrod said that the Phillies and Giants have pursued Aurilia the most aggressively. Other available, veteran righty bats on the free-agent market include Nomar Garciaparra, Kevin Millar, former Met Jay Payton, Jose Vidro (a switch hitter) and, if the Mets are feeling masochistic, Moises Alou. The Mets have some interest in picking through the free-agent crop of lefty relievers -- Joe Beimel, Will Ohman and Ron Villone are among those still available -- but they believe they have viable non-roster options in Casey Fossum and Tom Martin. As first reported by The New York Post, the Mets are interested in trading catcher Ramon Castro and the $2.5 million owed him for 2009 and replacing him with Robinson Cancel. The Brewers discussed Castro internally -- Milwaukee general manager Doug Melvin consulted his new bench coach, former Mets manager Willie Randolph -- and opted against such a deal.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

How about that? Willie sez no to Castro -- not man enough.

Is Davidoff too dumb to know that Keilty ought to be in that RH bench-bat conversation also?

I wouldn;t mind bringing in a guy like Aurelia to provide some competition.

[DocTee]

FWIW, Aurilia is an awesome person...involved in lots of charitable causes in the Bay Area and is a beloved here as if he were a "true Yanqui" in Da Bronx.