smg58

The Yankees needed to bunt more that inning.

The Rockies were willing to pay half of Michael Young's salary in the spring, and probably now wish they were more generous. Perhaps they'd be more amenable this time around. They also offered Eric Young Jr. as bait. Young still has upside, and could fill any one of a number of roles. Worth at least looking into. Taking Lackey or Zito would be taking worse contracts. But I'd consider dealing Bay for Zambrano or Dice-K if the numbers work.

batmagadanleadoff wrote: Ryan Braun had no reasonable expectation that Jose Reyes would play the Mets� entire last game. I was under the impression that most people with a slight lead in the batting race going into the last day don't play at all if the game has no playoff implications.

Shoppach's batting average has been abysmal the past few seasons. He could not have afforded losing home runs to CitiField. So how was Moore allowed to pitch? There's supposed to be a rule about needing to be on the roster before September 1, but there's always a loophole when you want one. That being said, Maddon deserves credit for bucking the conventional "wisdom" that says you need experience in a spot like that.

Considering I was in 11th place at the All-Star Break, I can't really complain about where I finished. What I learned: In a league this deep, don't give up on a guy before his team does. I thought four months was enough time to give James Loney to show some life, but I was mistaken. And don't get me started on Javier Vazquez. You can draft an elite catcher early, but you can't replace his bat if he gets hurt. Call-ups are a safer source of cheap steals (thank you Eric Young and Dee Gordon) than power numbers (Anthony Rizzo, was it something I said?).

On to the 13th in Atlanta, as the Braves are shut down by De Fratus. Who?

The Braves can't get to some guy named Schwimer, and they and the Phils have another inning. Extras in TB as well. Can't say there's no drama.

And Rivera stays in the dugout. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that somebody will complain about that in Boston.

So MM, have you popped the champagne yet?

I think that he would have been gone in July if Alderson didn't think he could sign him. Whether that ultimately means anything or not is an open question, but I'd bet a small amount that he stays.

Frayed Knot wrote: And how about Howe's last two years in Oakland: 102 & 103 wins and then essentially let go. No wonder Art/Phillip was so grouchy in the movie. It's not like the A's improved in his absence, although I think/hope the loss of Alderson had more to do with Beane's subsequent inability to put together a winner than the loss of Howe. Speaking of Beane not putting a winning team together in a long time, wouldn't it be funny if he gets fired while the movie is still hot in the box office?

For all the hype, people were shocked when the Mariners bid $13M just for negotiating rights. They wound up paying $32M total (including the bid) for Ichiro's first four seasons. That same offseason, the Mets signed Kevin Appier for four years and $42M.

I was disappointed by Capuano, who wasn't any better than Pelfrey this year, and I think Pelfrey is a better bet to improve (though not a sure thing by a long shot). Given what we'll have at AAA in 2012 and the fact that both pitchers are capable of losing value rather than gaining it next year, I'd have a hard time justifying multiple guaranteed years to either.

He's had enough good years to justify his 2012 salary. Keeping him or trading him depends on other moves the Mets make. They would need to add another starter before he would be expendable. If the Mets make the right bullpen upgrades, they could live with a rotation of Santana, Dickey, Niese, Pelfrey, and Gee.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: I've been kinda disheartened to see how destablizing the Rodriguez departure turned out to be but Byrdak hasn't seemed to have been affected. I'm not sure the trade destabilized the pen so much as exposed it. Izzy had a limited amount of gas in the tank, Parnell and Beato are still works in progress, and guys like Carrasco and Igarashi just aren't any good. Edgy DC wrote: Let's just hope he doesn't take, with Byrdak, the same bullet he dodged from the Feliciano case. If it's something like a year and $1.5M, it's not that big of a bullet. He's already taken a bigger bullet with Carrasco, but even that isn't crippling.

One less bullpen spot to fill. Assuming long relief can be filled cheaply (Schwinden perhaps?), that's two left. And they need to be of the high-end variety.

Frayed Knot wrote: That sounds like a very nice prospect. He is behind Cincy's other catching prospect Devin Mesoraco both in terms of readiness (Mesoraco was called up two weeks ago although he's only a few months older) and probably in overall ceiling as well so it makes sense that they may look to move him [Grandal]. At the same time it also makes sense that they'd ask a lot for him and they certainly aren't in the position where they HAVE TO move him and particularly not now. There are some red flags with Grandal. 97 Ks in 374 ABs, mostly in high A and AA, does not bode well for a high batting average moving forward. He also has only hit 14 home runs, so his value is not in his power, and an .835 OPS at AA doesn't make him the next Johnny Bench. He's not next year's catcher, and he's not that close to Mesoraco (.855 OPS at AAA, only 5 months older). None of this makes him a bad prospect -- he does draw tons of walks and hits his share of doubles -- but he's not an elite one yet. Is he worth a look? Sure, but there's sure to be an auction for him if the Reds put him on the block, and he's not the kind of guy you go all in for.

Ceetar wrote: Ashie62 wrote: How about Ike Davis at 1B for 162 games? How about 173 games? Be realistic. It might take 5 games to win the World Series. But yeah, a full year of Ike would be nice.

1. The walls are fine. The Mets' problem is that they can't hit home runs anywhere. 2. In an ideal world, Bay's recent uptick will enable the Mets to get something more than nothing for him. If somebody else sees him as more than a bench player, we should give them a call. Otherwise, since he doesn't deserve the ABs it will take for his option to vest, it should be easy to make sure he doesn't get those ABs. 3. I see Thole as a backup catcher on a good team, and I agree that a good young catcher would be a nice pickup. I'd expect that the Reds would want major-league help, though.

Edgy DC wrote: I don't want him closing games either, but I'm certain he's going to be real good sooner or later. Maybe that won't be worth the bumps along the way. Maybe it won't even be that long. But he will be a real weapon for somebody. Having a triple-digit heater doesn't make you automatically anything, but it means you need less of other stuff than some other guys. We'll see. He's not going anywhere before the end of the season. Parnell isn't going anywhere this offseason either -- the Mets have four open spots in the pen by my reckoning as it is, so why add one more? Acosta shouldn't go anywhere either, though, for the same reason. My personal feeling is that if you were willing to give Parnell the shot to close in the first place, you should give him the shot to fight his way through some initial adversity. But I'm certainly not disputing that Acosta is pitching better right now, and I'd feel differently if we were contending. Parnell obviously has upside, as a 100+ fastball and an effective offspeed pitch would be a devastating combination. The effective offspeed pitch hasn't arrived yet, but Parnell is still young and cheap. (Spending the first half of 2010 in Buffalo keeps him from being arb eligible, so one good thing came out of the Mejia in the pen experiment.) The Mets are trying to see if the 2012 closer is already wearing a Mets uniform. I think the answer is no, but I totally understand trying to find out for sure. The answer will obviously affect how we spend our resources in the offseason.

Since he joined the Marlins, Jose Lopez has looked like the guy who hit 25 HRs and drove in 96 two years ago. He could be somebody to look at in the FA market this offseason.

I can understand why Parnell's getting the extended look in the closer role right now, but a lot can and will happen between now and next April. The Mets need to add three quality arms to the pen, at least, and the right guy might make a discussion between Parnell and Acosta moot. I don't understand the logic of going with the high-K guy if somebody else is demonstrably better. That being said, I don't think Acosta has earned the right to be called "demonstrably better" than Parnell just yet, even though he's generally been better lately.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: You know, maybe they would be better off trading Bay for a pitcher with an awful contract. A pitcher who will get $30 million or so over the next two years and will give you 100 bad innings per year. It's still wasted money, but at least it would free up an outfield spot. (This move only makes sense if there's a good enough outfielder ready to fill that spot.) Depends on how you feel about F-Mart or Nick Evans (or a platoon of them), or what you think Pelfrey could bring back in a trade. I'd take Zambrano for Bay, simply because 2013 is the ETA for a lot of pitching talent and we'd have no bad commitments at that point. But I think the fact that Pagan has been a better hitter than Bay by a comfortable margin, struggles and all, before you even consider what this would do to the Mets' defense, is more than enough reason not to take the Bay in center rumor too seriously.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: I keep closing my eyes to picture a Murphy-Bay-Duda outfield, but all I see in my mind is a Hieronymus Bosch painting, or Kathy Bates' hot tub scene in About Schmidt, or a gigantic diaper filled with "recycled" blue-and-orange curry. This.

He needs work. 53 strikeouts in 188 AA at bats is not good, regardless of his other numbers.