Mex17

Ah-Seop Son: http://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.cgi?id=son---000ah- Can he play Centerfield? How far do you think the drop-off would be from Korea to the bigs? Shinjo and Kaz Matsui memories make me skeptical.

The reason why I left Upton off that list is that he did not really fit the criteria that I described. If you want Upton, I think you would: a) have to pay a bit more, and commit in your mind that Granderson can go back to CF full-time. Certainly a discussion worth having (and please do if you want), but separate from the above.

This is really a topic for another thread, but my personal opinion on Cespedes is that it's time to put the foot on the gas pedal with this team, which to me means that you write the check for that final piece that you got to be the centerpiece in the lineup whose presence changed the entire course of the season. That aside, I looked at who else is out there with the following criteria in mind. . . -At a reasonable age (meaning preferably a few years under 30 or not too much above. . .there is one exception to this on my list which you will see) -Is able to share CF with Lagares in a platoon situation or make Lagares a quality bench/depth player (and Nieuwenhuis an option to be stored in Las Vegas as opposed to the major league bench). -Albeit not a superstar/"carry the lineup on his back"-type, is certainly able to be a quality piece to the puzzle offensively. -Can be had for a reasonable amount in terms of $$$ and years (which is to say not dirt cheap or simply a one-year deal, but not a Cespedes sized commitment either). These are the players that I came up with. Peruse, comment, and rank at your pleasure. Gerardo Parra: http://espn.go.com/mlb/player/stats/_/id/29807/gerardo-parra Alejandro DeAza: http://espn.go.com/mlb/player/stats/_/id/28728/alejandro-de-aza Dexter Fowler: http://espn.go.com/mlb/player/splits/_/id/29252/type/batting3/dexter-fowler Austin Jackson: http://espn.go.com/mlb/player/stats/_/id/29453/austin-jackson Denard Span: http://espn.go.com/mlb/player/stats/_/id/29087/denard-span Ryan Sweeney: http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/sweenry01.shtml Will Venable: http://espn.go.com/mlb/player/stats/_/id/29224/type/fielding/will-venable

I always seem to be looking at the next step with stuff like this. . . Seriously though, can Cuddyer have a market as a $6 million or so DH for someone next year if the Mets agree to kick in half the money he is owed? 50% of Cuddyer off the books plus Colon and Murphy also going away could pay for Cespedes and maybe some of the other recent acquisitions as well. Considering how things go, I would say that we could also find a use for Clippard and Johnson in 2016. Hopefully gate revenue over the rest of the season plays a positive part as well. . .

Is there anything being these new faces on the broadcast team other than simply giving the A-listers some time off before the games get real? I have to admit that though this Alexa is better eye candy compared to Gelbs.

What I really wanted to title this thread was "Depth at second base, clearing salary, and making up for losing a first round pick". Unfortunately, character limitation prevented me from doing so. Whatever. . . Anyway, assuming that the next move will be a trade for a shortstop using pitching as bait (forget Tulo. . .too expensive and injury prone. I say either Syndergaard or Wheeler for Castro or Gee or Montero for Alexei Ramirez), then you can very comfortably leave second base to Flores and Herrera to compete for. You can save quite a bit of dough by moving Murphy and I would have to think that he would be worth one or several prospects that can make up for losing the 15th overall pick. Do those two things, on top of this Cuddyer signing, and we are pretty much in business.

Who said anything about NOW!!!!???? All of these are winter moves, IMO. For the here and now, I say stand pat, try to make up these five games (that they are under .500) in the last two months that are left, get some momentum going, hopefully get some significant uptick in the gate, build up the value of all of their assets that they could use in a deal, and go forward from there.

I am putting up four ideas, all of which IMO are fair and possible. Choose and discuss.

Frayed Knot wrote: But back to the original question -- The main question with Murphy, as discussed, is not what his salary will be next year but whether you want to invest in him long term. With regard to Murphy, I absolutely believe that, going forward, his greatest asset to the Mets is as a trade chip. His value at probably at it's peak right now and he is only going to get more expensive as the next few years go by. Alternatively, Flores has only had sporadic ABs at the major league level, but has in totality played close to a full season in AAA (543 ABs) and has produced (.315 average, .354 OBP, .519 SLG, .874 OPS, 20 HRs, 41 doubles, 5 triples, 111 RBI). It's time for him to get his shot. Behind Flores, Dilson Herrera has been having a very good year in the minors as well (he was just promoted to AA and is picking up where he left off after going .307/.355/.410/.765 at St. Lucie. . .and he can supposedly field the position as well). So, with not just one but two potential lower-cost replacements in the pipeline, where is the justification in throwing more money into Murphy (especially when you can flip him now at most likely a pretty good return)???

Firstly, with regard to fans playing accountant, my view is simply that is the reality that we deal with now. Players cost money, teams have to pay up to get the better ones, and you have to do it in a way that maximizes efficiency given whatever constructs you are dealing with economically (which is a Pandora's Box with regard to what those are and what they should be with regard to the Mets. . .I'll leave that to a future post or separate thread). It's just part of the game now. With regard to Murphy, I absolutely believe that, going forward, his greatest asset to the Mets is as a trade chip. His value at probably at it's peak right now and he is only going to get more expensive as the next few years go by. Alternatively, Flores has only had sporadic ABs at the major league level, but has in totality played close to a full season in AAA (543 ABs) and has produced (.315 average, .354 OBP, .519 SLG, .874 OPS, 20 HRs, 41 doubles, 5 triples, 111 RBI). It's time for him to get his shot. Behind Flores, Dilson Herrera has been having a very good year in the minors as well (he was just promoted to AA and is picking up where he left off after going .307/.355/.410/.765 at St. Lucie. . .and he can supposedly field the position as well). So, with not just one but two potential lower-cost replacements in the pipeline, where is the justification in throwing more money into Murphy (especially when you can flip him now at most likely a pretty good return)??? Colon is trade-bait too. Assuming health, the 2015 rotation without him shakes out like this: Harvey Gee Niece Wheeler deGrom/Montero/Syndergaard That's seven guys at reasonable-to-low cost without having to spend the $11 million that Colon is owed for next season. And, with Colon pitching well, my guess is that you get a decent return for him as well from a team in the race who needs another starter. So, if you move Murphy and Colon and add their 2014 salaries ($5.7 million for Murphy and $9 million for Colon) to the $7.25 million that is already coming off with the expiration of Chris Young's one year contract, you get a total of $21.95 to spend. If you want to non-tender Tejada (the only one out of that group who I would consider. . .he had redeemed himself a bit to the point where you can say he would be a serviceable backup but you can probably get the same out of Quintanilla or Tovar), then you can add his 2014 $1.1 million to the tally for a total of $23.05 million. So what can the Mets spend that on? I would say that it is a virtual certainty that they NEED to import a veteran, major league quality, starting shortstop with some life in his bat for 2015. Judging on the deals that Peralta and Drew (prorated) got, that costs somewhere between $14-$16 million per year. Fortunately, there are a few, in addition to Drew, that are going to be available as free agents (JJ Hardy, Jed Lowrie, Asdrubal Cabrera just to name a few. . .Hanley Ramirez as well but he might be a little more expensive). So, for the sake of argument, average that out to $15 million and theoretically give it to, say, Hardy (my personal choice and not such a bad one at that if you look at the past three full years where he has roughly been around 25 HR's, 30 doubles, 70-to-80 RBI, and a .240 to .270 batting average). They will also need another corner outfielder with pop to replace the failed Chris Young. Luckily, another one of those just defected from Cuba in the name of Yasmani Tomas. You might say that this is an unproven commodity and that he will need to be properly scouted, and you would be correct in pointing that out. But I would counter that the trend has been that these Cuban hitters have been pretty effective coming out of the gate more or less (I provide Puig, Cespedes, and Jose Abreu as examples). Cespedes and Abreu have, respectively, made $6.5 million and $7 million in the first year of their major league contracts (Puig only made $2 million, so I threw that out as an anomaly since it would have thrown the mean off). Even if you factor in an arguably 20% markup from Abreu's $7 million for Tomas if it gets to a bidding war now that the league has seen how immediate the results can be coming from Cuban defectors, you are still talking about around $8.5 million, which is still a bargain compared to what you would have to pay for an older, more established major league slugger like Nelson Cruz coming off a productive year. Add $15 million (for Hardy) and $8.5 million (for Tomas) together and you get $23.5 million. . .pretty darn close to the $23.05 million that you would save from excising Chris Young, Murphy, Colon, and Tejada!!!! The Mets can do that, potentially boost their offense significantly, and potentially not lose a thing if Flores hits and the young pitching holds up!!! The X-factor (internally. . .not counting other teams competing for the same players and the free will of the players themselves) to all this is what they need to spend to retain who they already have and want to keep. I know from Cot's that Granderson is getting a $3 million raise and Niece is getting a $2 million. I cannot yet tell what bumps the other arb eligibles are going to get, so that is why I asked my initial question.

Is there any way to reasonably surmise what types of raises everyone is due to get for 2015? I would like to have an idea of how much more expensive the people that we already have are going to be next season. The players that we are talking about specifically are: -Murphy -Gee -Parnell -E. Young -Duda -Tejada

Zvon wrote: I certainly would like to see right center back to where it serves Wrights opp field power. And if I was owner, that would be reason enough. That. And that ridiculous cavernous notch in rightfield taken away so that lefthanded sluggers have half a chance. But no, me and you are just being silly, aren't we? There is nothing wrong at all!!

I think that they can make a few more easy changes. If I did it right, it should be attached below. Let me know your thoughts.

http://nypost.com/2014/05/18/katz-wanted-to-sell-majority-control-of-mets-with-wilpons/ This one leads me to think that a change in ownership might very well be inevitable. Let's assume for the moment that the Wilpon side of the family cannot sustain control of the team without being supported by the Katz side. Even if Fred convinces Saul to stay in until they both pass away or get too old, who is to say that Jeff can do the same with his cousins? Even if they are close (and they may not be) we are talking about a huge financial commitment and according to this little article the Katz kidz have even less interest in sustaining this than Papa Saul does. Or it may be inevitable by the time it gets to that anyway. I think that it is still very possible that a new commissioner might not necessarily have the same attitude towards protecting this ownership that Selig does. Just look at the recent example in the NBA. . .Stern looked the other way for decades when it came to Sterling, Silver did not share that attitude nor did he continue that policy (granted, the circumstances between the Wilpons and Sterling could not be more different).

Frayed Knot wrote: Do keep in mind that the "considers the team to be a family heirloom" line from the above article is that of the writer and not a direct Wilpon-ian quote. It's been common knowledge for some time.

If last night taught us anything it is that Matsuzaka and Mejia need to switch roles. One blew up after the third time around the order (for the second game in a row) and the other could not get ready fast enough to come in and limit the damage. I wanted Mejia to be a starter as much as anyone else. I thought that he was totally mishandled by Manuel and Minaya when he was too young and too raw. That was then, this is now. There are too many other options for the rotation (Matsuzaka, Lannan, deGrom, Montero, Syndergaard) and the back end of the pen needs a live arm. Maybe Mejia can be the closer?

. . .that is, if they stay at or slightly above .500 for, say, the next month or so, then I think that Hanrahan and Drew will be on the roster before the All-Star Break. Consistent positive performance will provide the justification to make those moves.

Frayed Knot wrote: ) which pretty much negates any reason to pick for immediate positional need. We can quibble over what a "top pick" means and over what a fair return for Ike will be, but, given the stadium that the Mets play in, I would argue that the need for line drive hitters and outfielders who can cover ground will be pretty persistent going forward.

Edgy MD wrote: Wait, where are we getting "significant player"? The only reference to "significant" I've seen is that he's expected by one or more parties to be "more significant" than Thornton. This could describe any member of a --- sorry, Thorny --- rather vast field of players. Let's not set the Mets up to fail, here.

Frayed Knot wrote: Matt Cerrone at MetsBlog chimes in with "the buzz from Citi Field is that the player coming from the Pirates is likely a player they drafted with a top pick last June" -- Go nuts folks -- which does make sense in that it would prevent the choice from being named (at least officially) until early June. If true that would likely mean a higher ceiling player than most if not all of the above, but also a longer lag time (first three picks were all from HS) and a bigger swing-and-miss potential. I do not think that "significant player" or "top pick" would describe someone who was picked outside of the first round or who is outside of mlb.com's top 100 prospect list. And, with d'Arnaud and Plawecki already in the fold, I also do not think that Alderson is looking for another catching prospect such as Reese McGuire. I do however think that he would be looking for another outfield prospect, especially one with line drive type power and enough speed to cover a lot of ground in the CitiField outfield (two qualities that seem to describe this Austin Meadows kid based on what I am reading). I think that we have identified our man.

. . .or Glasnow, who is currently on the 7-day DL. Maybe that is the reason why he cannot be named yet.

I think the PTBNL candidates are: -Jordy Mercer -Nick Kingham -Josh Bell -Alen Hanson Discuss. . .

Kevin Gregg and Joel Hanrahan, where art thou?

The pre and post game shows sound a little flat to me. No frills. Hopefully it is a work in progress.