Hot Stove 2009-2010

[Guest Edgy DC]

Oh, and the Sox, who lost Alex Gonzalez to the Blue Jays last week have signed Marco(s) Scutaro. Good luck, suckers.

That's the Alex Gonzalez who started his career in Florida, not the Alex Gonzalez who started his career in Toronto, so Toronto will now have had both. That other one disappeared after 2006. But I'd be lying if I said I didn't have to look them up to make sure. (The one who started his career in Florida is from Venezuela, and the one who started his career in Toronto is from Florida, so that should, um, help.)

Have any two players who ever shared a name ever been so similar?

[Frayed Knot]

I think Mike Silva speaks some truth here:

Aside from the seemingly required "never when it counts" statement about a closer that is.

The Polanco signing struck me as a bit odd. Not that he's not a decent player, but the outgoing Feliz played as a good a 3B as anyone (prolly should have a GG or two) and is only older by a few months. Philly gains a little bit of OBA with Polanco (based on recent seasons) but not more power as he moves to a position which usually asks for more power and where he hasn't played in several years.
Seems like a neutral move at best while giving up the known quantity and fit for one with not a lot of upside.

[Guest Edgy DC]

While committing more $$, yeah.

The thing about the Braves is that buying a bullpen is supposed to be the stupid cowardly choice of rich pansies like the Mets who don't have the stones to build one. The Braves had already built one and then they went out and bought one anyhow.

[metirish]

While Mets fans complain about Alex Cora (a move I am indifferent about), Chris Coste (not something I care about), and Henry Blanco (a move I like) they may have missed some of the moves the competition made this week. The Braves replaced Mike Gonzalez and Rafael Soriano with Billy Wagner and Takashi Saito.

Nothing was missed , don't know where you're hanging out Mike.


I didn't realize Saito is 40 , mkaes that signing not so good for the money.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Well, he says some may have missed them. More importantly, they may have missed the opportunity to take a good look at those moves and ask themselves what was going on. I'm curious. It can be argued that, in both cases, they gave up some cost effectiveness for cost certainty.

Maybe Feliz is cheaper and probably a better bet for the $$ this year, but maybe Polanco locks in third base for $6 million over three years, and Feliz wasn't interested in that sort of extension, and Phillie needed to get the books closed as much as possible on those years as they look ahead to how they are possibly going to retain a core of Utley, Howard, Victorino, Rollins and maybe Lee and maybe Hamels if they can get over their hatred of the guy.

[metirish]

Did Feliz get benched for the playoffs? , something went on there IIRC.

[Frayed Knot]

metirish wrote: Did Feliz get benched for the playoffs? , something went on there IIRC.

No. You may be thinking about O. Hudson at 2B w/the Dodgers.
Feliz has played 3B virtually every day since they signed him from the Giants 2 years ago. That was a very unheralded signing that worked out real well for them especially for his defense and reliability. It's part of the reason I'm surprised they opted to change.

[Benjamin Grimm]

This probably takes the Phillies out of the running for Chone Figgins, no?

I'm starting to have doubts that the Mets will replace Castillo with a free agent. (It looked like they were leaning that way a few weeks ago, but things have appeared quiet on that front.) If the Mets do turn their attention back to 2B, this eliminates a major competitor for Figgins' services.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

The scuttlebutt seems to be that Figgins is headed Seattle's way. Zduriencik and the gang have also been mentioned semi-seriously in the same sentence as Bay-- they can afford the defensive hit with all-world Gutierrez in CF-- and Harden (a Canuck thing?).

Since they don't tend to get name-dropped as a strict price-raiser-- unlike the big-marketeers-- could this mean that Seattle takes a bigger bite of the FA pie than most had thought?

[ashie62]

Figgins look like a Mariner for 35 Million..quite a few FA's coming around..Only Mets related rumor on Rotoworld. NY Times reports Omar's number one priority at the winter meetings next week is trading Castillo.

[Guest attgig]

good article about scutaro back when he was a met... bobby vs steve (linked by mlbtraderumors.)

http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/extras/extra_bases/2009/12/these_are_bette.html

[Guest attgig]

Edgy DC wrote: Have any two players who ever shared a name ever been so similar?

bobby jones & bobby m jones?

[DocTee]

Jayson Stark reporting talks of a three-way:

Milon Bradley to TB, Pat Burrell to the Mets, and Luis Castillo to the Cubs, with the Mets then inking Orlando Hudson.

Me likey

[metsmarathon]

i feel like i'd rather trade castillo straight up for bradley. burrell is a butcher in the field, and played like crap last year, right? isn't bradley a better player overall, albeit a worser person?

[Frayed Knot]

Me don't likey.
I neither want Burrell nor am all that hot about getting rid of Castillo.



Burrell is a one-dimensional DH on the down-side who's a clear salary dump situation at this point ($9 mil)
Bradley is an angry malcontent who's owed even more money and for more time ($9 + $12)
Castillo, though limited, plays a middle IF position and is still useful w/the bat and only somewhat overpaid (2 x $6)

I don't get what's in it for us.

[nymr83]

Frayed Knot wrote: Me don't likey. I neither want Burrell nor am all that hot about getting rid of Castillo. Burrell is a one-dimensional DH on the down-side who's a clear salary dump situation at this point ($9 mil) Bradley is an angry malcontent who's owed even more money and for more time ($9 + $12) Castillo, though limited, plays a middle IF position and is still useful w/the bat and only somewhat overpaid (2 x $6) I don't get what's in it for us.

paying burrell less than castillo overall and freeing up 2nd base for Hudson, who i gues will come waaaaaaaay cheaper than any of the outfielders the mets dont want to spring for

[Guest Swan Swan H]

metsmarathon wrote: i feel like i'd rather trade castillo straight up for bradley. burrell is a butcher in the field, and played like crap last year, right? isn't bradley a better player overall, albeit a worser person?

Bradley is a better player than many major leaguers, and a worser person than each and every. He would instantly replace Tony Fernandez as my least favorite Met ever should he ever don the cream-colored pinstripes. Fortunately, not even the most speculative speculation has had him heading to Queens. I think that if the Mets wanted him the Bradley-Castillo deal would have been consummated already.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

i feel like i'd rather trade castillo straight up for bradley. burrell is a butcher in the field, and played like crap last year, right? isn't bradley a better player overall, albeit a worser person? Bradley is a better player than many major leaguers, and a worser person than each and every. He would instantly replace Tony Fernandez as my least favorite Met ever should he ever don the cream-colored pinstripes. Fortunately, not even the most speculative speculation has had him heading to Queens. I think that if the Mets wanted him the Bradley-Castillo deal would have been consummated already.

From Joe Posnanski's column naming him the NL's "Least Valuable Player" of the past year:

... A scout once told me that Bradley is the only high school player he ever scouted who hit a home run and did not have a single teammate come out to congratulate him.

But hey-- y'all rooted for Kong and Bonilla and Hebner and Fernandez and Coleman, no?

[Guest Swan Swan H]

From Joe Posnanski's column naming him the NL's "Least Valuable Player" of the past year: A scout once told me that Bradley is the only high school player he ever scouted who hit a home run and did not have a single teammate come out to congratulate him . But hey-- y'all rooted for Kong and Bonilla and Hebner and Fernandez and Coleman, no?

The hardest Mets for me to root for were Tony Fernandez, who gave less than zero effort as a Met, then became instantly rejuvenated upon his escape from Queens, and Tom Herr, who was the personification of the mid-80s Cardinals to me. I may be guilty of donning the blue-and-orange feet pajamas, but those two guys still looked like the devil through my glass o' Kool-Aid.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Ahem!

STOP DISSING KINGMAN THIS INSTANT!

Thank you.

[Frayed Knot]

paying burrell less than castillo overall and freeing up 2nd base for Hudson, who i gues will come waaaaaaaay cheaper than any of the outfielders the mets dont want to spring for

I don't care if Burrell costs less overall than Castillo - especially since it's 50% more for this year alone - because he would add little to this team, plus it just perpetuates the bad contracts for worse cycle that's best broken in other ways. I'd rather they either hang on to Castillo (2009 was a lot closer to his career norm than was 2008) or deal him for something more useful while eating part of the money.
I also don't buy into the idea that because they're not going to get a real outfielder anyway it's best just take on a shitty one if it gets them a partial upgrade at 2B - only to run into the same dilemma a year from now.

[metirish]

I can't think of a worse addition to this team than Burrell(MB?), maybe I should say a more wrong addition.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Omar hits the red carpet ... of Indianapolis.

There's a steak house there called St. Elmo's which is to good steak what "St. Elmo's Fire" is to bad movies. Pure beefy goodness.

Anyway, Rubin with a quick Q&A

December 6, 2009 9:28 PM Omar hits Indy � By Adam Rubin Omar Minaya arrived at the Winter Meetings at 9 p.m. on Sunday night and gave a brief interview on his way to his hotel room. Here's what he said ... What�s your feeling coming into the meetings? Do you have the expectation of getting a lot of things done? "You�ve done some work to get to the meetings. Sometimes you get things done that were unexpected, like we did last year, that was unexpected. The free-agent stuff, that seems to be going a little slower this year than in past years. But, you know, once you bring people together things tend to happen. Like most years, a lot of work has been done as far as talking to most of the GMs. There have been some trade potentials out there. I know I talked to a couple of GMs and hopefully we�re going to get together and further along the discussions. It�s almost a domino effect. Once a free agent or two gets signed, then it becomes a domino effect�both for the trades and the signings." Do you have any sense whether you�ll get something done while you�re here? "We have potential trades that in conversation with the other GMs could happen here. At the same time, in conversation with the agents, you�re getting more and more offers out there now on some of the �better� free agents. Does it happen here? Does it happen a week from here? I don�t know. I will tell you there�s more conversation going on both fronts, which leads me to believe either a trade or a free agent could be signed some time." Have you prioritized what areas to target first? "You have an idea what you want to get done as far as a priority. We do have a wish list of what we have to fill in the order we�d like to fill them. But a lot of times it just doesn�t happen that way." Why is face-to-face more effective? "That�s a good question. A lot of times you ask yourself that��Why is it when you come together in an age when we communicate so much with emails, we communicate by phone?� But the dynamics of coming together gets things done." Is there pressure on you to pull the trigger on something and satisfy the fans? �There�s no doubt because of last year�I don�t want to say you feel pressure to do something�but there�s no doubt we have to find a way to improve our club if possible. I remember coming here last year and we were trying to get Frankie Rodriguez. We knew that. And we focused on that. Coming into the Meetings we had meetings with the agent and we felt that we could get things done and address that last year. This year, it�s not as clear as it was last year. Last year we needed a closer and we ended up getting two closers. This year we have more parts that we have to fill in. Are we going to be able to fill all of them in here? I don�t know that. But as far as the pressure, I don�t feel like I have to do something. When you start putting pressure on yourself that you have to do something, it�s not good. But it makes sense we have to try to address those needs." The free-agent market has been described as �lean.� How would you label it? "We�ve had better free-agent markets in past years." How does that impact you? "You know what? You have to identify what you want and have to do the best you can to go get it. Now the question is, �Are the pieces that you want, are they ready to be done at the cost you feel should be on that player?�" Are teams more willing to trade because of the lean free-agent market? "I think this year, because of the market, there are teams that are willing to at least make an attempt to fill their needs via trade if possible. More so than in past years. At least the dialogue. There�s a lot of conversations. It�s a market that you have a couple of guys that are premium guys. But once you get beyond those guys, a lot of the other guys that are available are pretty much the same." Can you afford to wait for next year�s free-agent market, which will be considerably better? "First of all, when we get our guys healthy, we have a core group of guys. Getting our guys healthy, getting our guys on the field�it�s maybe a piece or two or three or whatever it is. It�s not that we have to do a total revamp. It�s not that we have to fill in a whole bunch of guys. And that being said, I�m of the belief that it�s 162 games. Whether you do things in the winter, or you do things in-season, at the end of the day we do have to improve our club. But if the players are not there in the free-agent market, you just can�t force it, you know?" Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/mets/2009/12/omar-hits-indy.html#comments#ixzz0YyB7lU2s

[Frayed Knot]

I spent about a day and a half in Indianapolis on business a bunch of years back and remember eating a lot of food while I was there including some big hairy steaks ... but I don't remember which place(s).

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

The meetings are in Indianapolis this year?

I don't know whether to be happy Omar et. al. will be concentrating on business or to be worried that they'll end up making trades out of boredom.

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

Judging by the fact that Rubin's interview was conducted as he walked to his hotel room, and the fact that Omar said absolutely nothing in a lot of words makes me think their relationship hasn't improved since the summer...

[Guest Edgy DC]

I'm just glad they're talking and both of them are able to do their jobs. They're probably each happy they still have them.

I'd be more surprised if Omar had actually said something.

[metirish]

In the Snooze today they say that there is talk of the Mets removing the second layer of padding on the wall in center field, essentially making the outfield wall a uniform 8 feet high in the middle of the park.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I saw that too. Are they referring to that tab that sticks up in front of the apple?

[MFS62]

I'm wondering whether Omar is playing that "when we get players healthy" card to justify not making any major deals.

Later