Hot Stove 2009-2010

[nymr83]

i wouldnt have minded Garland for a year at that price.

[metirish]

Heyman says O Hudson is down to two teams. Nationals & another

[stevejrogers]

pleasebemets, pleasebemets, pleasebemets!

[Guest Rockin' Doc]

With Ben Sheets going to Oakland and Jon Garland going to the Padres, the list of possible starters to possibly bolster the Mets rotation is growing exceedingly slim. The Mets really need to add a solid starting pitcher to the roster, in my opinion. There are few bodies left. Washburn, Wang, Smoltz, Pedro or Looper are about all that I see left other than a risky, possible reclaimation project of Jason Schmidt.

Slim pickings.

[MFS62]

Omar couldn't get laid if he walked into a cathouse with thousand dollar bills hanging out of his pockets.
It's beginning to look recently (i.e. - post Bay) like no major free agent wants to be part of this team if they have any other options.

So Omar may have to go the trade route to improve the club.


Later

[metirish]

Come on man , that's just silly. Ben Sheets for $10 million...no thanks.......

[Guest Edgy DC]

MFS62 wrote: Omar couldn't get laid if he walked into a cathouse with thousand dollar bills hanging out of his pockets.

That's old, cheap, and ridiculous.

MFS62 wrote: It's beginning to look recently (i.e. - post Bay) like no major free agent wants to be part of this team if they have any other options.

No, it's not. And the "post-Bay" qualifier is risible.

[metirish]

From Newsday

The Mets, aware of the going rates for Sheets and Garland, never made an official offer to either pitcher

[Benjamin Grimm]

So we'll end up with John Smoltz. And if he turns out to be unavailable, maybe the Mets will try to lure Bob Feller out of retirement.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

MFS62 wrote: Omar couldn't get laid if he walked into a cathouse with thousand dollar bills hanging out of his pockets. It's beginning to look recently (i.e. - post Bay) like no major free agent wants to be part of this team if they have any other options. So Omar may have to go the trade route to improve the club. Later

Seriously, can we get over this kind of discourse here? Take it to your members-only forum.

[MFS62]

I have been an ardent fan of the team since its inception.
But I cannot be Max, blindly overlooking what Nora Desmond has become.
If all you want is happy happy, so it will have to be.

Later

[Guest Edgy DC]

Yeah, because that's what I fucking said.

[MFS62]

OK, but let's get back to the theme of this thread, the Free Agent market.
This is what I should have posted:
With a lot of free agents signing elsewhere recently, Omar may have to go the trade route to improve the club.

Later

[TransMonk]

Thome's a Twin

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ap-twins-thome&prov=ap&type=lgns

[Vic Sage]

stupid move by ChiSox, letting Thome go to the team against whom they will be competing for a division title. Despite his accelerated decrepitude, Thome was probably the best hitter on Sox last year.

And is there any word on Bedard?

[duan]

seriously if we'd signed Ben Sheets to a one year deal for 10 million plus 2 million in incentives people would have gone "Oh look at Omar overpaying for another injured pitcher because he's do desperate to save his job by making a big splash".

Ben Sheets at that money is a significant risk and the upside, while obvious, is not necessarily going to be at great value. Even if Sheets has a good season, 12 million is a lot to pay when you've no further rights to him after this year.

[Benjamin Grimm]

If Sheets wins 15 or more games with Oakland this year, Omar is going to get roasted. And if he goes 2-5 with a 6.00 ERA, nobody will remember that he might have been a Met.

[Guest Edgy DC]

And that's why he's put in a little perspective goes a long way.

Folks forget he was criticized for not signing Carlos Silva. Carlos Silva!

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Rosenthal has at the Omar Pinata:

He, too, mentions the budgetless, top-heavy operating style (and in doing so becomes the only national writer since Olney to write about it). It may be inductive reasoning to divine any process from this offseason's results... but this offseason's results do seem like something that would be the end result of this sort of process-- a work structure that, mind you, might preclude any number of potentially good post-Omar GM fits from accepting a job here.

The Mets, multiple industry sources say, do not function like most clubs. Their unique style would be fine if they were building championship teams. Instead, they�re coming off a 70-win season and losing out on free agent after free agent -- except for one, left fielder Jason Bay, who seemingly lacked a better option. Ownership, rather than giving Minaya a set budget, weighs the finances of each acquisition separately, forcing the team to run down its priority list one move at a time. The paint-by-numbers approach, which inhibits multitasking and creativity, would work against any GM... ...The Mets� inability to sign Pineiro perhaps best summed up the paralysis that often afflicts their organization. Pineiro identified the Mets as his No. 1 choice, but instead signed a two-year, $16 million contract with the Angels. He got tired of waiting for the Mets to sort through their other pursuits, tired of waiting for them to raise their initial offer, sources say. As negotiations intensified, the Mets were prepared to match and perhaps top the Angels� offer for Pineiro. But by the time they turned aggressive, it was too late.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Ownership, rather than giving Minaya a set budget, weighs the finances of each acquisition separately, forcing the team to run down its priority list one move at a time. The paint-by-numbers approach, which inhibits multitasking and creativity, would work against any GM...

I don't see the cause and effect here. Why would it be easier to multi-task if you have a strict budget? The Mets could have put out offers simultaneously to Bay and Lackey, for example, and if one signed before the other, the slower guy could (possibly) get his offer revoked.

And the Mets were only able to sign Bay because "he lacked a better offer"???

Isn't that pretty much always the case? If a player has a more appealing* offer from another team, wouldn't he pretty much always accept it?

*By more appealing, I don't necessarily mean "higher." An offer can also be preferable based on the team's competitiveness or its geography.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: I don't see the cause and effect here. Why would it be easier to multi-task if you have a strict budget? The Mets could have put out offers simultaneously to Bay and Lackey, for example, and if one signed before the other, the slower guy could (possibly) get his offer revoked.

Not if each offer (and/or counter-offer) has to be pre-approved. You'd be a lot more hesitant-- and less able-- to give firm, comparable offers. You'd be perpetually fishing, really.

And yeah, his depiction of the Bay business is kinda sophist-icated.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Thome's a Twin http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ap-twins-thome&prov=ap&type=lgns

Hmm. Interesting.

Does this make Jason Kubel available?

[ashie62]

The thread is free agent signings..Other than non-roster invitees the Mets are done

Santana, Pelfrey, Maine,Perez, Niese

Santos, Castillo, Reyes,Wright Bay, Matthews-Beltran-Francouer

team could finish from 1st to 4th..

Time has passed current management by.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Tim "Fatbeard" Redding to the Rockies on a mnrlg deal

http://www.denverpost.com/ci_14279464

[TransMonk]

Better them than us.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

So say all of us. (I'm guessing.)

[Benjamin Grimm]

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: So say all of us. (I'm guessing.)

We say that NOW, but may feel differently when the Mets end up signing somebody worse.

[metirish]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: So say all of us. (I'm guessing.) We say that NOW, but may feel differently when the Mets end up signing somebody worse.

If at any point in the season I'm missing Redding then I fear things are worse than I suspect.

[TransMonk]

Randy Winn: New York Yankee

http://bases.nbcsports.com/2010/01/report-the-yankees-sign-randy-winn.html.php

[metirish]

Headlines Tomorrow

Cashman signs Winn, Minaya no one again