smg58

Zvon wrote: Smg58 - Im confused - I thought you were looking for starting pitching and outfielders. The trading block also says Rivera is available for trade. Does that mean your giving up on saves or just dont want Mariano in your pen? PS- I rejected your trade offer. But Crede's still available for the right price. I'm looking for better guys than I think Mussina is. Rivera is dealable (for the right price) because even with the ifs (IF Gagne and Foulke stay reasonably healthy and IF Bobby Jenks pitches in April like he has in March and opens the door for Cotts), my pen is in better shape without Rivera than third base and the bottom of my lineup currently are. I'd still prefer to deal Gagne, though. And at least a couple of teams have potential problems at catcher... Hermida will play full time, Payton might not get as many AB's as last year. Crede isn't enough of an upgrade over Boone to justify giving up somebody I might miss. I saw Crede as insurance in case Youkilis and Aurillia only start against lefties, but not more than that. Barring a more tempting player being offered to me, I'm willing to start the year with Boone in that role. By the way, does anybody know when they plan to add Brian Bannister to the pool of players?

No argument from me. The deal would have to be spectacularly lopsided, or I'd need a reason to think somebody was deliberately sacrificing himself for somebody else's benefit.

metirish wrote: Sorry for turning down I-Rod for Jason Lane, perhaps if Ivan was still bulked up on 'roids I'd take him. Would you take the cancer instead?

That's what trading is for, I guess. I didn't really need three catchers.

Is now a good time to point out that Todd Walker had a higher OPS than Soriano the last two seasons? And it's not like he's any worse of a fielder. Nor would anybody suggest Milledge as a fair exchange.

I do think Keppinger has outperformed Hernandez so far, and probably wouldn't benefet as much from more seasoning, but we'll see what happens. Soriano... they'd have to take Matsui and only one other player, presumably an outfielder. (Matsui, assuming he gets off the DL, would actually be an upgrade for them at SS.) I may have considered throwing in Bannister at one point, but absolutely not now.

Pena has more upside than Arroyo, but his all-or-nothing approach might not work as well outside of Great American Park (his .707 road OPS last year is not encouraging). Arroyo steps right in as the 2nd or 3rd best starter among the sorry lot in Cincinnati. He's not great, but he doesn't have to be to upgrade that rotation. The Reds have an excess of second baseman with Freel, Aurillia, and Womack (who, for reasons which defy an easy explanation, they're evidently serious about giving playing time to), and the Mets have an extra right-handed bat in either Diaz or Nady. I'd like to see more of Keppinger before I pulled the trigger on anything, but I'd keep the phone lines open.

Thanks.

I think you'd have to move it to December or January next time. I get the feeling this meant a lot more to the non-ML players than it did to the major leaguers. Unless you're talking about somebody like Seo, who's still looking for job security at this level. (And if he doesn't get it now, you'd really have to wonder what he has to do. "Sure he was unhittable in the WBC, but look at how fat that wedding picture makes him look...")

If I'm not going to be around to participate in the draft directly, what do I need to do (besides set my rankings, which I've done) to make sure the computer drafts automatically for me?

I was under the impression that the spot was Heilman's to lose, and he hasn't done anything to lose it yet. That being said, I hope Bannister gets a fair chance to make the majors in a Mets uniform this year or next.

That's some scary stuff. I guess all we can do is hope for the best.

I never figured out exactly who it was that gave up on Hernandez. At worst, Hernandez gave the impression that he might benefit from more seasoning. But yes, it's way too early to say whether yesterday's good hiting performance was indicative of anything.

LoDuca had a great year throwing out baserunners in 03 (41%), but he threw out 28% in 04 and 25% in 05. I'm not sure the "strong arm" description still applies. If the downward trend continues he won't be that much of an upgrade. As far as how he handles pitchers, let's see if there's a noticeable improvement in how the pitchers who were here last year perform. Before that, we have no real evidence to pass any judgement.

Those of you doing the autodraft might want to take Brian Lawrence if the Nationals out of their rankings, as he is out until the All-Star break.

The problem is that we'd be resigning the first two spots of the lineup to players who make too many outs -- "productive" or otherwise. If you make the argument, as I would, that some combination of Beltran, Wright, Floyd, and Delgado should be 2-5, then I think that does leave Reyes as the best leadoff option. His OBP is poor, but LoDuca, Matsui, and Diaz aren't a whole lot better in that regard and speed does count for something. But if you go with Reyes, I think it's that much more important to place somebody second who will get on base. If you add LoDuca's productive outs to his hits and walks, you still get a number far less than you'd get from Wright. I'd prefer to bat Beltran second and Wright lower because Wright is the better hitter, but I'd need some assurance that Beltran will get on base more often than he did last year. I'd also prefer to sandwich Wright between Delgado and Floyd because I think you make the other manager's late-game pitching decisions easier when you put your best lefties together, but I couldn't tell you how much difference that really makes.

Nady's not a good defensive outfielder, either. And the fact that Diaz has options should be irrelevant if he's the better player. On paper, they're close to even. I'd put their median expectations at roughly the same spot (Diaz maybe an OPS of .800, Nady .780), but Diaz has a larger margin of error. Nady gives them a defensive sub at first, but that's really the biggest difference between the two. I guess I'd go with the guy who has the better spring, or perhaps base it on whether I think Diaz is moving forward or backward from his rookie year. Keep in mind that the Franco signing means that either the Mets go with 11 pitchers or one of these two doesn't make the team.

I could only guarantee being there in person on a Monday or Thursday night, but I'm OK with going on autopilot otherwise.

Bench of 6 works for me. I'm not sure I'd like no DL at all, but no more than two given the league size.

We'll have to see if not getting Soriano or Hernandez turn out to be dodged bullets. As for "Chef," I wouldn't have traded Cameron for him last summer, but given the choice between getting either him or Nady... It's tough to remember what deals didn't happen very far back. I do think missing out on re-signing Hampton should count. Gonzalez certainly does, as does Griffey. Sosa is pretty obvious. I shudder to think what they'd have done with Wright if they signed Nakamura. Nobody's mentioned A-Rod yet?

He's a zero-risk reclamation project, so why not? My guess is there's still some upside there, but it may take more than spring training to get it back. If he's willing to spend time in Norfolk and possibly shift to the bullpen, I could see him contributing after the All-Star break.

If the staff has another good season and Minaya drops him, then Minaya could be certified as an idiot as well.

Like I've said before, the pitching staff has outperformed my expectations for two years, so I see no reason to be critical of Peterson. The fact (is it even a fact, or just a reported rumor?) that he said he could get more out of Zambrano than anybody had seen to that point doesn't mean the Kazmir trade was his decision, and I don't see why people blame him for every questionable trade involving a pitcher. As for next year, if the staff has another good season the Wilpons would certify themselves as idiots if they let him go.

I hope Royce Ring gets the chance, too. And I have no idea where or when Alay Soler will fit in. I'll refrain from passing judgement on Willie's handling of the situation until April, when I've seen how the situation pans out.

We may want to think about an auto-draft (i.e., each owner ranks the players and the computer selects their top available choice each round). I don't know if we could find a time that works for everybody, and 20 owners drafting 20+ players apiece will take quite a long time.