smg58

Theriot's relatively weak arm plays better at second than short, but he's not awful. I'm sure he wants assurance of a starting job, though. I'd be interested in Kuo at a lottery ticket price.

Joe Saunders joins the ranks of the free agents. The Diamondbacks recent acquisition of Trevor Cahill from Oakland made him disposable.

Acosta earned his million or so. There are worse relievers making more money. The Tigers are dropping Will Rhymes, who's not even arb-eligible. The 2010 version would be an asset at second base.

I know they've talked about trying Beato out as a starter, but he had not been effective in that role in the Orioles system. I have no problem with him earning his spot on the major league staff, but I do think he's better than Herrera or the other options. Carrasco is worth less than his contract, which means he's close to undealable. You might as well hope he can return to his previous form. Otherwise, releasing him would depend on whether he'd accept a demotion and whether he's worth keeping as minor league depth.

I get the sense that other GMs see a "buy low" opportunity on Murphy -- he's not a safe bet at second, he has too much company at first, and the Mets are swearing on any religious book you hand to them that Wright is not on the table. I can't say I blame anybody for asking, but so far the offers have been pennies on the dollar for a capable third baseman with a .792 career OPS who's still not arb-eligible. My biggest fear is that Murphy will wind up succeeding somewhere else, while the Mets have a 5th outfielder to show for him and then still trade Wright in July.

I'm hoping the conversation went something along the lines of "Would you take Gwynn for Murphy?", followed by a terse "fuck no."

http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/7338271/ryan-braun-milwaukee-brewers-tests-positive-performance-enhancing-drug A stunner, to say the least. You have to think the Brewers will attempt to void his contract now, too.

I'm guessing the no-trade clause mattered some, especially since they were already far past the amount of money he'd ever be able to spend.

Edgy DC wrote: Currently kicking ass with Los Gigantes del Cibao in winterball, but the walks are still coming. He'd probably be maddening to try and carry for a full year on a big-league roster at this point. Unless you're the Astros, who would have needed to sign Reyes, Buehrle, Wilson, and Pujols just be as good as the Mets, and therefore have absolutely nothing to lose giving him a full year.

Considering that Buehrle got nearly the same annual salary, this is a coup for the Angels.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: This is worse, for them, than losing Reyes is for us. By a LOT. True, Reyes was not the greatest player in the history of our organization.

An absurd amount of money and years for a player who, while still great, is already starting to decline. The Angels already had a huge logjam at OF/1B/DH, although Hunter and Abreu will be gone in a year.

Their fire sale next year at this time should be fun.

Ike would be the absolute last guy on the team I'd consider parting with. The return would have to be amazing to benefit the Mets, either in the short term or the long term, and I don't foresee selling high on a guy coming off an injury.

Unfortunately I agree with Valadius. But having seven guys in the pen who are at least capable, even if none of them are exceptional, will be a significant improvement over the last two months of this past season.

Franciso has trouble getting to 50 innings in a season and won't give you an ERA less than 3.50. Meh.

Torres has been a bit more consistent on defense, but his best doesn't match Pagan's best in that regard. Torres had an excellent 2010 with the bat, but he strikes out far too often and it's possible the league simply figured out how to pitch to him. I'm not expecting much. Ramirez is the best of the three arms the Mets brought in last night, though.

I could be enticed into giving Young another incentive-laden look.

The rumor mill is currently focusing on Rauch, who at this stage in his career is not an upgrade over what we currently have.

I like Jose Lopez as a 2B option. He started getting his power stroke back late last year, he would be a defensive upgrade over our current options, he's only 28, and he was one of the best players at the position as recently as 2009. I don't think you'll improve over Pelfrey or Pagan at a comparable salary. It shouldn't be too hard to find decent bullpen help, though. I'd be more inclined to sign prospective reserves to minor-league deals and have them compete with people like Valdespin and F-Mart for roster spots than guarantee money to this year's Alex Cora. (Especially if that person is Alex Cora.)

Edgy DC wrote: It's a confounding job, building a baseball team. Pagan was perhaps the most outstanding Mets in 2010, and that performance for $5 millon would be a laughable bargain. But the Mets have no reason to expect a return to that level. Do they have a right to expect some bounceback however? Was any of it real? Was the defense an illusion? Would/should a team have non-tendered Tommie Agee after 1968? A performance halfway between 2010 and 2011 would be a laughable bargain at $5M.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: Um... decent contact skills, half-decent power, good-not-great speed, iffy plate discipline/walk skills, and a glove that plays in center but is better in a corner: isn't this essentially an import Kirk Neuwenhuis? Yes. He'll be 26 when the season starts, too. I'm not sure where the potential to be vastly better than Pagan comes from, since I don't see his upside matching Pagan's 09 or 10. The proposed deal makes far more sense from the Tigers' perspective than from ours.

I don't see much point in keeping Wright. The difference between him and Murphy at third is much smaller than the difference in their salaries, and how long they'd be under team control. Short-term PR should not be as important as long-term best interests. Bourjos is one of the game's best defensive outfielders, and his bat is at least decent. Conger has some upside, too. I'd make that deal if it were offered, especially if we free up the full salary. We could fill a few pitching holes well with that.

Regarding the Megdal article: I was under the impression that the Wilpons never hid their intentions of keeping the 2012 payroll around $100M. That number was thrown around often enough this year. It still leaves the Mets with about $15M to spend, so we'll see what comes of it. The Mets lost money for a variety of reasons. A lousy economy and a losing team are a bad combination, especially when combined with ticket prices that don't take the state of the economy or the team into account. Spending over $40M on three players who didn't play an inning of major league ball between them didn't help, either, although you can make the argument that Johan was bad luck more than bad management. Having said that, there are legitimate baseball reasons to pass on Reyes at that price. We had no right to expect either Reyes to offer us a discount, or the Mets to go in extra to hold on to somebody because he was "one of our own." The sport doesn't reward sentimentality. Perhaps we'll sign somebody else who gives us reasons to like him as much as we liked Reyes. Moving on...

The latest rumored offer from the Marlins is six years and $111M. If true, I'd be out lawsuit or not. I'd look at pitchers instead.