smg58

Hmm... How long were you planning to be there? I'm booked for cake and ice cream on account of my nephew's birthday, but I doubt that's going to be an all-night thing and North Babylon isn't terribly far from Rockville Centre. I'll come if I can.

Not sure if it got reported in one of the other threads, but the Mets re-signed Juan Padilla to a minor-league deal. I'm glad he's getting another shot with us.

G-Fafif wrote: I'm more of a Golden Reef man myself, but the Pantry's pretty hallowed. The Golden Reef nosedived a few years ago, though. Has it gotten any better since then?

Curious deal. On one hand, Hamilton seems to have turned the corner personally and has huge upside if he stays healthy. On the other hand, after Chris Young and Adrian Gonzalez for Adam Eaton and Akinori Otsuka, you'd think the Rangers would be a bit more reluctant to part with talented young pitchers.

Edgy DC wrote: Ozzie Guillen, both of his first two years, walked only 12 times in over a 150 games played, a record that he set and equaled. He would go on to break that record with an 11 in 1991 and a 10 in 1996. How embarrassing. How hard to beat. He is now a similarly shameless manager. Which ex-Met's record did he break? Mookie Wilson?

So did Schilling have any problems with Lenny Dykstra in 1993 or Luis Gonzalez in 2001?

Vic Sage wrote: i don't know why anyone thinks signing an "innings eater" is going to block anybody from getting into a rotation with Pedro and El Duque as 2 of its mainstays. There will be plenty of opportunities for a "6th starter" this year. That's certainly true. But I'd rather pay a smaller amount for a good reliever and use Sosa in the sixth starter role, or find a Benson-type pitcher who'll sign for a year without drawing comparisons to Jose Lima and Chan Ho Park, than commit that much money and time to guys I already know will be OK at best and who themselves had Lima-like stretches as recently as 2006.

My vote is for not blocking Mike Pelfrey with established mediocrity.

DocTee wrote: GUess Wise was expendable after the Brewers added David Riske-- a guy I'd really have liked Omar to land. After Linebrink got four years, I'd have expected Riske (a better pitcher, I think) to get the same. I thought the Brewers got a good price on him. Gagne and Mota, on the other hand...

Centerfield wrote: Let's hope we get Pre-All Star Break Wise (2.87 ERA) instead of Post-All Star Break Wise (7.31 ERA). That's a fair concern, especially given the uncertain state of the rotation. Wise is good, for a limited amount of innings. I'm not sure Heilman can give us more than the 86 IP he gave us this year. There are limits to Sosa's durability, too. In his first month in the pen, he pitched 20 innings and had a 2.70 ERA. That was wonderful, but the price he paid for that was a 6.50 ERA in September. Plus he's currently our best option for sixth starter. So assuming we'll need a lot of innings out of the pen, where do we get them from?

I was kind of hoping we'd pick up somebody who's at least as good as Heilman to really solidify the pen. Wise isn't inspiring, but having him and hopefully Sanchez in place of Mota and Sele might actually be worth a few games in the standings.

I read somewhere (wish I could remember where) that the Hunter pickup leaves little to no role for Juan Rivera in the Angels' outfield. I wonder what the going rate on Rivera is, as he'd make a very good fit here.

Good analysis. Reyes really did seem to be popping too many balls up late. That should be correctable, especially with his BB/K ratio up close to 1; he made better decisions on when he swings, but the quality of swings wasn't where it needed to be.

Sorry about that. It's not always easy to tell online.

TheOldMole wrote: Too bad...there go the Mets' chances to have a 15-game winner with an ERA of under 4 on their staff. The two we had this year are both returning, and don't sell Pedro short just yet. Even with no significant major leaguers, this would have been a tough price to match simply because Carlos Gonzalez is more highly regarded than Fernando Martinez is. And Arizona dealt five guys in addition to Gonzalez. Maybe Blanton can be had for less, but there's no guarantee of that. I think you either find a bargain or load up the pen.

True, but Lenny was always my favorite Met. Sure I resigned myself years ago to the likelihood that Dykstra juiced, but I can't justify gloating over Clemens.

I wouldn't oppose offering Endy to one of the teams looking for a centerfielder. I wonder if we could get Joaquin Benoit from the Rangers for him.

The Jays land David Eckstein for one year and $4.5M. And we gave four years to Castillo? http://toronto.bluejays.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20071213&content_id=2324652&vkey=news_tor&fext=.jsp&c_id=tor

="John Cougar Lunchbucket"]Does this mean the Mets offered N.D. Chavez arbitration? I thought he was a possibility for nontendering. Yes, I think we could look into Mensch as a potential RH-hitting platoonmate for Church. It's a lot to ask of Easley IMO. Is Kiko Calero hurt? He looked like an effective reliever at one time and you don't turn down a guy named Kiko. Otsuka, if he's healthy, could be a good option. Matt Wise has decent numbers but I don't know much about him. A guy like Josh Towers might be a decent bet for a Sele-type role or minor-league contract. Mark Hendrickson would be an interesting project for Peterson. Why would you cut Chavez? He's not expensive, and with so many teams in the market for centerfielders, he's certainly not somebody you would just give away. Mench hasn't been good since he left the friendly Texas confines. I'd be interested if he comes at a discount, but he's tough to get excited about. Jason Lane might be had for a minor league deal, but like Mench he needs to figure out where his bat went. The reports on Otsuka's rehab were optimistic, and the FA market for relievers has already started to thin. I think you have to take a look at him. Calero is coming off a bad year, but there's some potential for a bounce-back.

El Duque and Pedro are more likely to start 30 games than Prior is to start 10. He's a lottery ticket at this point. I don't think I could offer more than a minor-league deal. Jason Lane might also be worth a minor-league deal to see if he has anything left. Akinori Otsuka's rehab is supposedly going well, so the Mets could do a lot worse than give him a look.

The Phillies will find him hard to replace.

Of course. I think a reasonably accurate estimate of how many people were juicing in the 90's -- and, more importantly, how many are doing it now -- would be beneficial, but digging up the dirt on some of the guilty players from ten years ago strikes me as pointless and counterproductive.

Not only is an incomplete list of names unfair and potentially misleading, but there's also a chance that some of players who do get named don't actually belong there. I'm not sure what positive thing is supposed to be accomplished by this exercise.

]So what happened, exactly? The question has stumped everyone at Shea. The pitching collapsed. A couple of hitters could have played better, sure, but the team averaged six runs a game the last three weeks. ]The GM says, "We won 88 games. That's not a terrible season." I agree with nymr's response, although replacing the pitchers who were were awful with guys who are simply competent (and perhaps allowing Pelfrey the chance to make it to the "simply competent" level) could get the team back into the 90's. ]Still, there are enough scars that Minaya was scouring the winter meetings looking for a blockbuster deal. The Mets' pursuit of Johan Santana has been noted everywhere -- of all the left-hander's suitors, the Mets have the most desperate need for him -- but so far, Minaya doesn't have the chips to tempt the Twins. Not if he's keeping David Wright and Jose Reyes off the table. Not if Carlos Beltran is staying put, and not if Lastings Milledge has already been dealt. Don't even suggest Wright. ]It's not that the Mets aren't trying: They've opened the vault of minor league prospects for the Twins to choose from -- Carlos Gomez and Fernando Martinez are both available, although not necessarily in the same package -- but the problem is Minaya likes his young stars more than anyone else does. The Mets are competing with teams that have more highly regarded prospects than Martinez. It's as simple as that. ]There are no free-agent checks for Minaya to write, no rabbits the GM can pull out of a hat, which is hardly good news for Mets fans. The FA market is thin. I'd define a rabbit out of the hat as somebody like John Maine or Oliver Perez, not a big name like Santana or Haren. I'll wager the rabbits are there to be found. ]"Right now, you have to pick the Phillies [to win the East], because they're the champs," Minaya conceded recently. "But I still like our club. If I have to go into the season with what we have right now, I'm OK with that." The bullpen still sucks, Omar. And our best option for rightfield against left-handed pitching is Damion Easley. ]Minaya's peers don't necessarily believe that. Everyone thinks he'll do something, anything to keep from relying on the surgically-repaired Pedro Martinez as the ace. Pedro was his defining moment as a GM. I wouldn't doubt Minaya's seriousness if he gives Pedro the vote of confidence. ]But Minaya's decision to send Milledge to the Nationals may have cost the Mets whatever chance they had of making a megadeal for Santana or Dan Haren without including Reyes. The Twins, Orioles, and A's all want a top defensive centerfielder, and they had doubts about Milledge filling that need. Klapisch would know that if he was paying attention. Now why that wouldn't be a perfectly acceptable reason to KEEP Milledge... ]The Mets' response is that Church, even at 29 and having already peaked, is a legitimate threat against right-handers And for his other 200 AB's... ]He'll play better outfield defense, and is more mature than Milledge. The National soured on him in CF because they didn't like his defense. And Milledge just might improve some with experience. ]Schneider, meanwhile, trumps Paul Lo Duca behind the plate. He does? ]For the short term, Minaya is probably right when he says, "This is a good trade for the team. It might not be popular, but these players are going to help us." Minaya had better be right. ]There's also cautious optimism about the return of Duaner Sanchez as the eighth-inning set-up man, a move that could allow the Mets to deal Aaron Heilman. OK, so let me get this straight. Heilman gave us 86 quality innings last year, and the pen was still unacceptably bad on the whole. The POSSIBLE return of a guy who missed all of last year would make Heilman expendable? ] Still, there's no mistaking the lingering wound this offseason, from Glavine's defection to the Braves, Silly me, I thought that was a good thing. ] to the failed attempts to land Santana, to the uncertainty surrounding Reyes after his vanishing act in the final six games of the season. Replace "six games" with "four months," and somebody just might accuse you of actually following the team you are writing about. ]Of all the players the Mets are counting on, it's Reyes who'll most greatly influence the franchise's course in 2008. Not Pedro, not Beltran, not even Wright can match Reyes' game-changing skills. Reyes may be more visually appealing, but Wright is, has been, and will likely continue to be a much better hitter. ] The shortstop's combination of speed, defense and gap power made him one of the five best players in the National League at certain times, yet he batted .156 (5-for-32) while the Mets were being caught and passed by the Phillies. Jose is a very good player, and the talent to be a great player, but he's not one of the five best in the NL. Putting him in that category before he earns it accomplishes nothing but setting up people for disappointment. ]One major league executive believes Reyes is paying the price for his headfirst slides as his stolen-base total keeps skyrocketing. Just like it tragically shortened the careers of Pete Rose and Rickey Henderson. ]A strained relationship with Willie Randolph didn't help, either. Reyes started distancing himself soon after the manager removed him from a game in July for failing to run out a ground ball. Now, says Minaya, "It's Willie's job" to rehabilitate Reyes' spirit. So Willie should have rewarded him for not running the ball out? ]Randolph was nearly dismissed after the collapse Did anybody here get that impression?

Paulie's a Washington National: http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3149188 So, Lastings Milledge and one year of Paulie, or Ryan Church and two years of Brian Schneider? Hmm...