Hot Stove 2009-2010

[Frayed Knot]

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: The S-Trib's Joe Christensen says a basic framework is in place... but WCCO jumps all in and affirms that Joe Mauer's going to be a Twin until he's eligible for the presidency.

But then who's going to catch for the Yanquis during the next decade?!?!?
I thought this was all arranged.

[metirish]

Mauer must lack ambition ,can't handle the big city....Harper must be livid.

[ashie62]

Frayed Knot wrote: LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: The S-Trib's Joe Christensen says a basic framework is in place... but WCCO jumps all in and affirms that Joe Mauer's going to be a Twin until he's eligible for the presidency. But then who's going to catch for the Yanquis during the next decade?!?!? I thought this was all arranged.

Jesus Montero

[MFS62]

Garko to Seattle - one year, $550K or so.

Later

[ashie62]

Buster Olney..Yorvit Torrealba wants to negotiate with the Mets but the Mets don't have the money.

Odd...Jeff must be reading his statements again

[Guest Edgy DC]

it's not that they don't have the money, it's that they're not offering the money. Good.

[Fman99]

Notable unsigned free agents as of Feb 2.

Catchers
Paul Bako (38)
Rod Barajas (34) - Type B, offered arb
Michael Barrett (33)
Jose Molina (35)
Yorvit Torrealba (31) - Type B, not offered arb
Javier Valentin (34)

First basemen
Rich Aurilia (38)
Hank Blalock (29)
Russell Branyan (34)
Tony Clark (38)
Carlos Delgado (38) - Type B, not offered arb
Nomar Garciaparra (36)
Mike Jacobs (29)
Daryle Ward (35)
Dmitri Young (36)

Second basemen
Orlando Hudson (32) - Type A, not offered arb
Adam Kennedy (34)
Felipe Lopez (30) - Type B, not offered arb
Pablo Ozuna (35)

Shortstops
Alfredo Amezaga (32)
Chris Gomez (39)

Third basemen
Rich Aurilia (38)
Aaron Boone (37)
Joe Crede (32)
Nomar Garciaparra (36)
Adam Kennedy (34)
Pablo Ozuna (35)
Robb Quinlan (33)

Left fielders
Garret Anderson (38) - Type B, not offered arb
Marlon Anderson (36)
Emil Brown (35)
Johnny Damon (36) - Type A, not offered arb
David Dellucci (36)
Cliff Floyd (37)
Jonny Gomes (29)
Reed Johnson (33)
Greg Norton (37)
Wily Mo Pena (28)
Gary Sheffield (41)
Marcus Thames (33)

Center fielders
Alfredo Amezaga (32)
Rocco Baldelli (28)
Endy Chavez (32)
Darin Erstad (36)
Ryan Freel (34)
Reed Johnson (33)

Right fielders
Jermaine Dye (36) - Type A, not offered arb
Brian Giles (39) - Type B, not offered arb
Jonny Gomes (29)
Geoff Jenkins (35)

Designated hitters
Hank Blalock (29)
Mike Jacobs (29)
Gary Sheffield (41)
Mike Sweeney (36)

Starting pitchers
Brandon Backe (32)
Cha Seung Baek (30)
Erik Bedard (31) - Type B, not offered arb
Kris Benson (34)
Paul Byrd (39)
Bartolo Colon (37)
Adam Eaton (32)
Shawn Estes (37)
Tom Glavine (44)
Mike Hampton (37)
Livan Hernandez (35)
Jason Jennings (31)
Jason Johnson (36)
Braden Looper (35) - Type B, not offered arb
Noah Lowry (29)
Pedro Martinez (38)
Eric Milton (34)
Dustin Moseley (28)
Mark Mulder (32)
Odalis Perez (33)
Sidney Ponson (33)
Mark Prior (28)
Jason Schmidt (37)
John Smoltz (43)
Brett Tomko (37)
Chien-Ming Wang (30)
Jarrod Washburn (35)
Todd Wellemeyer (31)
Kip Wells (33)

Closers
Kevin Gregg (32) - Type A, not offered arb
Mike MacDougal (33)

Right-handed relievers
Joaquin Benoit (32)
Chad Bradford (35)
Kiko Calero (35) - Type B, not offered arb
Eric Gagne (34)
Edgar Gonzalez (27)
Tom Gordon (42)
Jason Isringhausen (37)
Jorge Julio (31)
Guillermo Mota (36) - Type B, not offered arb
Chan Ho Park (37) - Type B, not offered arb
Tomo Ohka (34)
Troy Percival (40)
Duaner Sanchez (30)
Rudy Seanez (41)
Russ Springer (41) - Type B, not offered arb
Julian Tavarez (37)
Luis Vizcaino (35)
David Weathers (40) - Type B, not offered arb
Jeff Weaver (33)
Jamey Wright (35)

Left-handed relievers
John Bale (36)
Joe Beimel (32) - Type B, not offered arb
Alan Embree (40)
Ron Mahay (39)
Will Ohman (31) - Type B, not offered arb
Glendon Rusch (35)
Scott Schoeneweis (36)
Ron Villone (40)
Jamie Walker (38)

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

The list of right-handed relievers looks like a list of our failed bullpen hopes for much of the last decade.

Right-handed relievers
Joaquin Benoit (32)
Chad Bradford (35)
Kiko Calero (35) - Type B, not offered arb
Eric Gagne (34)
Edgar Gonzalez (27)
Tom Gordon (42)
Jason Isringhausen (37)
Jorge Julio (31)
Guillermo Mota (36) - Type B, not offered arb
Chan Ho Park (37) - Type B, not offered arb
Tomo Ohka (34)
Troy Percival (40)
Duaner Sanchez (30)
Rudy Seanez (41)
Russ Springer (41) - Type B, not offered arb
Julian Tavarez (37)
Luis Vizcaino (35)
David Weathers (40) - Type B, not offered arb
Jeff Weaver (33)
Jamey Wright (35)

[smg58]

Reed Johnson goes to the Dodgers for $800k. Should I mention that he's a better player than Matthews?

[batmagadanleadoff]

The S-Trib's Joe Christensen says a basic framework is in place... but WCCO jumps all in and affirms that Joe Mauer's going to be a Twin until he's eligible for the presidency. Yes, but can we still trade for him?

This would be unexpected. The Twins are one of baseball's three or four poorest teams: they have less money to work with than Billy Beane's Oakland A's. One would expect that Mauer would go the way of Santana and Carew.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

smg58 wrote: Reed Johnson goes to the Dodgers for $800k. Should I mention that he's a better player than Matthews?

Amezaga, too. Baldelli as well. And... well... I'm okay with Endy, too.

Basically, if a guy plays center field in the majors, he's better than Matthews.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Jeremy Reed, come on down.

[Guest Vince Coleman Firecracker]

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: Basically, if a guy plays in the majors, he's better than Matthews.

Fixed.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

The Mets bring back 31-year-old 1B-OF/TTO guy extraordinaire Val Passucci on a minor-league deal. Was never sure why he never, EVER got called up the first time around-- he's raked AAA for a while now.

Anyway, Buffalo is going to have one kick-ass softball team. And

are jealous.

[Guest Edgy DC]

My first clue that Manuel wasn't as on top of everything as I hoped was when he was asked during a Pascucci tear whether there were any thoughts about calling him up, and he confessed ignorance of the guy.

I'm all for honesty, and I realize a manager has to focus on the horses in his own barn, but you'd think he'd be calling Oberkfell once or twice a week for reports on who's hot and who's not at AAA.

Valentine, to be fair, also always seemed to take a little while to get familiar with the skills of a callup if he hadn't seen the guy at camp.

[metirish]

Well ,what do we know. I'd have thought talking to the AAA manager a few times a week would be part of managing the big club.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Maybe he does, but if he was, the subject of Pascucci never came up at a time the guy was slugging .600.

The Mets seem deeply committed to giving Buffalo a show this season.

[bmfc1]

Omar's doing a great job of improving Buffalo. They won't be as bad as they were last year. Too bad he can't improve two teams at once.

[duan]

from memory, valentine was always very good at getting the best out relatively unheralded guys up from AAA, either by luck or by design.

Benny, Timo, Mevlin Mora are the most obvious examples, but there's probably a few more.

[Guest Edgy DC]

He certainly got a lot out of them --- though Benny was a guy he had in AAA. I just mean there were cases of trial by fire --- an infielder thrown into the outfield without a clue here, or there a pinchrunner who may have been young with healthy legs, but not a good baserunner.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

bmfc1 wrote: Omar's doing a great job of improving Buffalo. They won't be as bad as they were last year. Too bad he can't improve two teams at once.

I know you're just trying to be snarky here but do you really think the 10 Mets will be worse than last year?

[Vic Sage]

worse? heck no. Even Baseball Prospectus has the Mets improving by a whole 9 games in 2010! (projecting 79-83, 4th place), so we might almost be a .500 team at this point.

[MFS62]

With the signing of Val Pascucci, the Buffalo Mets will have 7 players with 1B experience on their squad. Catalanotto may be ML bench or nothing but there still seems to be a AAA overload at 1B/OF. And that�s with Ike Davis and Lucas Duda pushing from behind at BNG.

Evans, Nick (1B-OF-3B)
Val Pascucci (OF-1B)
Frank Catalanotto (1B-2B-3B-LF-RF)
Chris Coste (C-1B)
Mike Cervenak (3B-1B)
Mike Hessman (1B-3B, LF-RF)
Marshall Hubbard (1B)

Since the Buffalo team will only be able to use the DH when playing AL teams on the road, this seems like an overload.
The contest for a spot during ST should be interesting. If anything, I'd like to see Ike Davis win the full time spot.

Later

Should this be broken out into a thread about the projected minor league rosters?

[Ceetar]

Is Evans really 3B-1B (OF)? One of the few benefits of Tatis is his 'versatility' but 2B/SS is irrelevant as we've got Cora, so if Evans can cover the others, I'd much rather see him..

[Guest Edgy DC]

The fact that they all have experience there is an asset to the Mets who might have a firstbase need. The fact that they all play elsewhere is a second asset that keeps it from being any sort of crunch.

I'd imagine the majority of minor-league veterans will have seen some time at first by the time they hit 25.

Is Evans really 3B-1B (OF)?

He has 27 games of experience at third in the minors, 21 when he was 18. He's a firstbaseman/outfielder, and he's nobody's idea of a solution at the latter.

[MFS62]

Edgy DC wrote: ... The fact that they all play elsewhere is a second asset that keeps it from being any sort of crunch. I'd imagine the majority of minor-league veterans will have seen some time at first by the time they hit 25.

Good points.

Later

[bmfc1]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: bmfc1 wrote: Omar's doing a great job of improving Buffalo. They won't be as bad as they were last year. Too bad he can't improve two teams at once. I know you're just trying to be snarky here but do you really think the 10 Mets will be worse than last year?

They might be better if everyone is healthy but I don't think that, other than J-Bay, Omar has done a single thing to improve the team. The starters are the same, the catchers are the same, Castillo is still there, everything is the same except for the set-up guys but we don't know if they will be better.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

So he did improve the team is what you're saying.

[bmfc1]

You're baiting me, counselor. No, he didn't do squat. There are/were 2 players that could have helped the team that wanted to play for the Mets but he didn't sign them: Hudson and Marquis. Piniero was ready to sign but Omar crapped around. Getting 2 of those 3 would have constituted an improvement. Bay is a great addition but it's nullified by the Beltran injury . So my point still stands: Omar did not improve the Mets. The "5th starter" will be Nieve, Neise, Misch or Figueroa. Is that an improvement? At best, they are a .500 team.

Do you, JCL, think that the Mets are improved--other than by health (hopefully)?

Edited February 3, 2010 by Guest

[metirish]

They may well suck and they may well not be much better than last season but I just can't go into the season thinking that my team is done for already.

Come on you Mets