Category: Trades

Mets Early 2011 – Next Few Weeks Could Impact Team For Years

NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 08: Manager Terry Collin...
Image by Getty Images via @daylife
The Mets Are Teasing Us Again?

The Mets are now 22-24. A .478 winning percentage which leaves them about 4.5 – 5.5 games out of the wild card. At this rate the Mets will end up going 77-85. They will need to reverse this record to compete for a wild card. Maybe? So even after this weekends Subway Series we just have to find between 5 & 7 wins. Somewhere. It’s do-able but who will be doing it is the even bigger question.

Some Tough Decisions for Sandy Alderson.

If your team is only 5 games out of the wild card coming into the trading deadline what do you do? Your taking a big risk by holding onto free agents to be Carlos Beltran and Jose Reyes. Trading Beltran and Reyes now may be the most logical thing to do although your telling the fan base your giving up on the year.

The loss of Reyes will be taken hard by the fans but we’ve never won with these players anyway. Now may be the time to unload them when their value is high. I wouldn’t want to be in Sandy’s shoes. Although, if it was me, I would make the tough decision to trade Reyes. I would really need to be overwhelmed with the package though, but if I could rebuild the starting pitching staff now…

My feeling is, Sandy Alderson, the former Marine, will pull the trigger on a trade for Reyes regardless of what the fans think. Reyes will never be more valuable than he is now. He brings energy to the club, is fun to watch and helps fill the seats but so does winning. I think we’ll forget Reyes pretty quickly if the Mets make a playoff run without him. Continue reading “Mets Early 2011 – Next Few Weeks Could Impact Team For Years”

Video: ESPN on Mets Jose Reyes Future

Here’s some video of Baseball Tonight’s Aaron Boone talking about the Mets future with Jose Reyes. He suggests trading Reyes for the long-term benefit of the team. Boone also goes on to suggest that the San Francisco Giants are a team that would be a great fit for Reyes.

I’ve always resisted the talk of a fire sale over the last couple of years. But I’m on board now. The long-term deals the Mets have in place are coming to a close for the most part. It’s time to start making some deals to re-stock the Mets for the future. They certainly don’t look like a team that’s going anywhere this year so they might as well try to bring in some young talent.

http://espn.go.com/videohub/player/embed.swf

Mets Trade for Chin-lung Hu

Chin-Lung Hu

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The Mets announced a minor trade today with the Dodgers to acquire infielder Chin-lung Hu for Michael Antonini. We saw a bit of Hu in 2008 when the Mets were in L.A. playing the Dodgers. At the time, Hu was playing shortstop for an injured Rafael Furcal. He got into 65 games that season and looked like your typical backup middle infielder. Good glove and can’t hit. He’s a career .191 hitter in 96 big league games. That’s been a major disappointment as Hu is a .299 career hitter in the minors over parts of seven seasons.

Hu’s presence on the roster will allow the Mets greater flexibility with Ruben Tejada. Sandy Alderson has talked about wanting Tejada to get more minor league at-bat’s this season. Hu will compete for playing time at second base with Brad Emaus, Luis Castillo, Luis Hernandez, and Justin Turner.

The contract situation for Hu is favorable as well. He only has 0.153 MLB service time and won’t be arbitration eligible until 2012. He isn’t eligible for free agency until 2016.

Michael Antonini rose to Triple-A Buffalo last season but his 4.49 ERA was disappointing. He was taken in the 18th round of the 2007 draft the first two seasons were impressive for the lefty starter. But his 5.74 ERA between Double-A and Triple-A in 2009 and his aforementioned 2010 ERA were cause for concern. He certainly wasn’t looking to be a factor at the Major League level in 2011.

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Mets have Bigger Problems than Cliff Lee

May 28, 2010- Milwaukee, WI. Miller Park..New York Mets starting pitcher Johan Santana pitched for 8 scoreless inning giving up 3 hits and striking out 5 Brewers batters..Milwaukee Brewers won over the New York Mets 2-0, taking the first game of the 3 game series against the Mets...Mike McGinnis / CSM.

http://view.picapp.com//JavaScripts/OTIjs.jsThe Mets front office has their work cut out for them. With the announcement of the Phillies signing of Cliff Lee, Mets fans everywhere cringed at the possibility of another World Series Championship to a division rival. Now the best team in the division just got a whole lot better. The Phillies will start the year with a rotation of Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, Roy Oswalt, and Cole Hamels. This is the best rotation in MLB right now.

This is painful for Mets fans. The front office has simply conceded that this year and maybe next, will be a wash. They are wasting the prime of David Wright, Jose Reyes, and Johan Santana. They are also wasting the end of the career of Jason Bay. They are tricking themselves into believing that Daniel Murphy will be a good fielder and that they will be able to spend money in the next two years for free agents.

With the Mets on the decline, I really hope that someone is taking a close look at their financial future. They have money tied up in players next year for over $120 million dollars. In 2012, they already have over $60 million dollars allocated to players but this does not include the impending signings of Ike Davis, Angel Pagan, R.A. Dicky, Jose Reyes, Mike Pelfrey, Jon Niese, Bobby Parnell, or Josh Thole. While I do not think they will sign all of those players in 2012, the signings of even half of those players might push the 2012 dollars over $100 million and it still would not include any big free agent signings. Continue reading “Mets have Bigger Problems than Cliff Lee”

Mets Won’t Be Active At Winter Meetings

NEW YORK - OCTOBER 29: Sandy Alderson answers...
Image by Getty Images via @daylife

This week Sandy Alderson has been trying to get the fans excited about the prospects of activity at the MLB Winter Meetings this week. I don’t know about you but it’s not working on me. I know the reality of the Mets situation. They have $5 million or less to spend on free agents within the 2011 budget. That’s not good enough to bring back Cliff Lee, Carl Crawford, Jayson Werth, or any other player remotely as skilled as they are.

Frankly, I would more excited if the Mets were able to dump Luis Castillo or Oliver Perez on another team. That’s the best possible scenario. And that’s a pretty sad state of the team.

Alderson was talking pretty tough to reporters this week when he said:

“I can guarantee you, we’ll come back with some good players,” Alderson said. “I can’t guarantee how high-profile they will be. Or how many. If nothing else, we’ll pick in the Rule 5 draft, just to say we brought a player back.”

We’re smart enough to understand the reality though. Alderson is trying to find a low-budget starting pitcher like Chris Young or Jeff Francis. They’re guys coming off injuries or severely under-performing seasons looking for a short-term deal until they can get back to a more “normal” performance level.

The Mets are also looking to add some bullpen help with the recent losses of Raul Valdes, Pedro Feliciano, Sean Green, and Hisanori Takahashi. Middle relievers signing doesn’t generally get the fan base out in mass to buy tickets.

There is the outside chance that Jose Reyes could get traded. The one team that I think would be a good trading partner for Reyes is the Reds. I don’t think the Reds want to start 2011 with Paul Janish as their plan for the season at shortstop. They won the Central Division with 91 games and are bringing pretty much everyone of value back again except Orlando Cabrera. By the way, Brandon Phillips is making the exact same salary as Reyes in 2011, the last year of his contract with the Reds. Although the Reds do have a club option for 2012 at $12 million. Keep that in mind.

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Mets 2011 Hot Stove – Trade Bait

New York Mets shortstop Jose Reyes (L) and center fielder Angel Pagan celebrate their 4-0 win over the New York Yankees in their MLB inter-league baseball game at Yankee Stadium in New York, June 18, 2010. REUTERS/Ray Stubblebine (UNITED STATES - Tags: SPORT BASEBALL IMAGES OF THE DAY)

http://view.picapp.com//JavaScripts/OTIjs.jsThe Mets are strapped with a high payroll and a lot of baggage. Sandy Alderson feels the proper course is to wait out certain expiring contracts. Therefore, the Mets will look to get creative this hot stove. This will require signing some lower priced free agents to be brought in to compete to win jobs. It will take low risk-high reward players possibly coming off down or injured seasons. It may take a trade or two to import some exciting new talent and shake things up. Here is what you can expect to hear from analysts during the upcoming hot stove.

Possible Trade Bait:

Jose Reyes SS

Profile

The catalyst for almost half a decade has been a popular topic of trade conversation. Reyes is coming off a few injury plagued down seasons, and could become a free agent after the 2011 season. It will take a boatload for a team to convince Sandy to deal the explosive shortstop. Shortstops who hit and field as well as Jose make him a commodity. When he is healthy he can spark an offense and infuriate pitchers. Continue reading “Mets 2011 Hot Stove – Trade Bait”

What are 2011 Mets Biggest Needs?

July 10, 2010 - Flushing, N.Y, United States of America - 10 July, 2010: New York Mets first baseman Ike Davis.

http://view.picapp.com//JavaScripts/OTIjs.jsThe New York Mets begin to look toward the off-season. There are injuries mounting and disappointments all around. We can only imagine what it must feel like to continue going to work knowing that it means nothing. How can they even pretend to act excited or even mildly interested in the game? Players must be looking at each other wondering who will be with the team next year and who won’t. And so begins the long, slow, excruciatingly painful, end to the season.

Mets fans will now be exposed to some of the young players in the farm system. I do not want to use the term “talent” because I have very little respect for the Mets farm system. We will begin to see players you have never heard of and might never hear of again. There will be a glut of pitching changes throughout the games to allow the youngsters some “in-game experience,” and we will slowly start thinking about football season again.

So what will the Mets do to fix this awful run of disappointing seasons? Well, we can all assume there will be a high priced player or two joining the club. There will be lots of promises of young talent and mending limbs. There will be whispers of big moves and possible trades that will never happen. There will be high hopes and a frenzied fan base waiting for that one miracle season. Continue reading “What are 2011 Mets Biggest Needs?”