Month: January 2009

Miller: NL Teams Are Pinching Pennies In 2009

Orlando_Hudson The U.S. and world economies have been in a free fall for months now. Major League Baseball free agents seem to be suffering as much as anyone. Okay, not as much as anyone but they’re certainly not getting the deals that they expected when they became free agents. I’m surprised that more high-level free agents aren’t taking short term deals so they can hit the market again when the economy is better. That’s what I would do.

Scott Miller from CBS Sports wrote a nice piece this week about the National League teams and their desire to, effectively, get something for nothing. Notably, the D-Backs have been turned down by Randy Johnson and Jon Garland already. And they signed Felipe Lopez on the cheap to replace Orlando Hudson.

The Washington Nationals have needs in just about every roster spot. They’re waiting in the wings for some of the best remaining free agents like Adam Dunn and Hudson.

The Mets are noted for getting Francisco Rodriguez for far less than anyone expected him to sign for this off-season. And trading for J.J. Putz to avoid paying out for another big free agent reliever, not to mention low-balling Derek Lowe.

Flickr photo courtesy of SD_Dirk

Mets 2009 Spring Training Tickets

David Wright Spring TrainingTickets are now on sale for all games at Port St. Lucie at the Mets official site. You can get tickets for all 20 exhibition games except the two games against the Red Sox at Citi Field on April 3rd and 4th. No date has been announced yet for those games. They also have some 3, 5, and 7 night packages available for sale too.

Flickr photo courtesy of alpineinc

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Mets Minaya Still Has Holes To Fill

We’re about three and a half weeks before pitchers and catchers report to Port St. Lucie. And we still have one big hole in the pitching rotation. Derek Lowe is gone, and gone to a division rival in Atlanta. There have been several quotes in the media that Omar Minaya isn’t going to move forward to fill voids in the Mets roster until the pitching situation is settled.

Omar_MinayaThe bullpen needs have been addressed, and in a big way. Francisco Rodriguez and J.J. Putz are fantastic additions to the team. That’s great… But holding up the rest of the roster for a starting pitcher doesn’t make sense anymore.

There has been speculation that the Bernard Madoff- Ponzi scheme has affected the Mets ability to sign free agents this year. By now, we’ve all heard that Mets owner Fred Wilpon was victimized by Madoff to the tune of as much as nine figures. There are other writers that claim that the Madoff scheme has nothing to do with the Mets losing Derek Lowe. The truth is probably somewhere in between.

The point here is that Oliver Perez, Randy Wolf, Ben Sheets, and Jon Garland are still out there and won’t require a significant financial commitment for the Mets. I could understand waiting to see if the Mets could sign Derek Lowe, he would require a major financial commitment and would affect the Mets’ ability to sign other free agents.

We still need to look at adding an outfielder. I like Fernando Tatis and Daniel Murphy. I should say that I liked seeing them last season in small doses. It’s questionable, in my mind, how things will turn out with them playing every day in left field. Minaya should really take a look at an outfielder with experience playing every day like Garret Anderson, Jay Payton, Ken Griffey Jr., Adam Dunn, and Bobby Abreu.

The other problem that needs to be dealt with is the fact that the Mets have two backup catchers in Brian Schneider and Ramon Castro. I like them both as backups but neither is suited to play every day for various reasons. Schneider is an automatic out and Castro is an injury waiting to a happen. Unfortunately, there aren’t many options for an every day catcher on the free agent market now. Names like Pudge, Varitek, and other 30-something players dominate the remaining free agents. So a trade might be the only way to get a starting catcher to Queens.

These important issues with the Mets roster shouldn’t be left on hold waiting for a back of the rotation pitcher to sign a free agent contract. It doesn’t make any sense to me to leave other business left unattended while Minaya dances with Scott Boras and Oliver Perez. Minaya needs to be able to multi-task and we’re not seeing that right now.

Mets Minor Leaguer Gets Drug Suspension

Relief pitcher Junior Guerra tested positive for Nandralone according to multiple media reports. He’s 24 years old and is coming off an excellent 2008 season in which he pitched to a 1-1 record with a 2.12 ERA at four minor league locations.

He’s currently on the Triple-A Buffalo roster, but now he’s out for the first 50 games of the season. It’s a shame that his season will be cut nearly in half because of this.