battles?

[duan]

sorry for starting rotation, I actually mean pitching staff as a whole.

[ashie62]

Lennon tweetybirding the Mets may have an interest in newly released MFY Chad Gaudin..

I see him as an innings eater with a 1.51 comp. We shall see I guess

[TransMonk]

I see him as comparable to every other starter or starting candidate we have not named Johan.

[Valadius]

If they would just bite the bullet and release Perez, this would be a whole different ballgame.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

If they would just bite the bullet and release Perez, this would be a whole different ballgame.[/quote:3mtlbzxk]

Yes, a game of stupidball.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Even if the team feels the pressing need to keep Nieve at all costs-- and I'm not sure I get that-- you still don't discard cheap, average starting pitching talent (NellyFigs).

Wouldn't you describe Nieve the same way --- and just as claimable if the Mets try and sneak him into Buffalo?

[Guest Edgy DC]

I think keeping as many options on the table as possilbe is the key, and I don't make decisions that I'm not forced to, which means I carry Figueroa, I carry Nieve, and I keep Niese in reserve until someone fails or gets hurt, because somebody almost certainly will, and life will be wonderful if nobody does.

[Guest attgig]

usually, when a club is at this point, they'll release the veteran to give them a chance to latch onto another club out of spring training. Not as something they HAVE to do, but just out of professional courtesy. Now, I understand figgy isn't the prototypical 'veteran', given his service time, but given his age, I'd think they'd give him this courtesy...

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Speaking of courtesy releases... Hisa Takahashi's contract has some quirks to it (some unwritten), as elucidated by Joel Sherman:

On March 20 the Mets released Hisanori Takahashi. No worries Mets� fans, it was just a technicality. The Mets and Takahashi had a contract understanding that if he reached the majors that he would be paid $1 million with $2 million possible in performance bonuses.

But MLB rules for first-time contracts to players not on the 40-man roster are very restrictive. For example, those players cannot receive bonuses based on performance. So what the Mets did with the blessing of the Commissioners Office and with a handshake agreement with Takahashi�s agent, Peter Greenberg, was to waive Takahashi and then instantly re-sign him to what now becomes his second contract, which strips away most restrictions. The Mets did the same thing last year with another Greenberg client from Japan, Ken Takahashi.

Parties spoken to about this issue feel MLB and the union may work to change the language of their rules so that experienced players from Japan such as Takahashi do not fall under the same rules as, say, a second-round draft pick or a teenage amateur from Venezuela.

One other item that Takahashi had formalized from an agreement that could not be honored from his first deal to now part of his second deal is the right to become a free agent after the season if the Mets cannot come to terms on a future contract relatively quickly after the season.

One item that is not written in any contract, but is an understanding between Takahashi and the Mets is that if he is not on the 25-man roster by mid-May and has a chance to go elsewhere and pitch in the majors then the Mets will release him from his obligation to let him go to another team.

[ashie62]

"An understanding" Let's hope the issue of a verbal contracts doesn't come up in Oral Arguments

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Curious and curiouser. (They must love his intensity.)

[metirish]

Curious and curiouser. (They must love his intensity.)

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Berg makes a great point* regarding the relative major-league-iness of the three bench candidates... sadly, it doesn't take a lot of mental squinting to see a number of the key FO decision-makers thinking along these sorts of lines.

Also, my opinion of Lennon is starting to curdle a bit.

*When doesn't he, though, really?