Category: Trades

NY Times: Mets Should Trade For Halladay And Wells

Vernon Wells

Image by Keith Allison via Flickr

A couple of writers that I’ve never heard of at the NY Times are touting the idea of the Mets trading for Roy Halladay and Vernon Wells. I hope that Elena Gustines and Jay Schreiber are only temporarily filling in for Ben Shipgel on the Bats blog there. We need the voice of reason back.

The writers touch on the idea of multiple needs on the Mets (and forgot to mention the Mets need a first baseman that can hit). They also only touch on the fact that trading for Halladay and Wells adds $36 million to the Mets payroll next year, which is the total amount that the Mets are likely to add based on the salaries that are coming off the books.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t mind the idea of bringing in Halladay and Wells. The problem that Gustines and Schreiber don’t address is how complicated it’s going to be to reconfigure the roster to address the existing shortcomings at catcher and first base within the $140 million payroll.

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Audio: Heyman On Hot Stove November 21, 2009

Roy Halladay

Image by Keith Allison via Flickr

Here’s the audio from WFAN’s Saturday morning show with Evan Roberts. SI’s Jon Heyman calls in to talk about:

 Jon Heyman audio on WFAN

As far as I’m concerned, Halladay shouldn’t even be on the Mets radar until they resolve some of the problems with their position players. As Heyman says, it’s unlikely that the Mets want two starting pitchers making #1 starter money. It’s not the right allocation of resources unless Halladay falls into their lap.

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New York Mets 2009 Offseason: All About The Bats

Matt Holliday of the Colorado Rockies hits aga...

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After the 2008 season ended, the Mets went looking for pitching. More specifically, they were looking for bullpen help coming off 29 blown saves. Mets GM Omar Minaya made no secret about the fact that he was looking at pitching, pitching, and more pitching. He came away with a solidly revamped bullpen led by Francisco Rodriguez, J.J. Putz, and Sean Green.

Unfortunately, we ended up with Daniel Murphy manning left field and no depth among the position players. Minaya let the rest of the team go for the sake of solidifying the bullpen and re-signing Oliver Perez. It showed when the Mets suffered an abnormally long injury list and there were no replacements waiting in the wings, minor leagues or otherwise.

Although there are some serious question marks on the pitching staff, this offseason needs to be all about generating some offense. The 2009 Mets finished 25th in the majors with 671 runs. Teams like Kansas City and Washington scored more runs than the Mets. They were dead last in the big’s with only 95 team home runs. Sure, the new stadium played a part in that. But there’s no excuse for the team with the highest payroll in the National League to finish in dead last in all of MLB.

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Mets 2010 Starting Pitchers- Question Marks Everywhere

IMG_0217

Image by ddoyle1112 via Flickr

There’s only one certainty when it comes to the Mets starting pitchers for 2010: Johan Santana. As long as he’s healthy, there’s no reason to think he won’t be one of the best pitchers in baseball. He’s had some minor injury problems but I don’t expect to see any decline in his performance. After Santana, the situation gets very murky, very quickly. This is about to get ugly, so Mets fans hold onto your hats.

Mike Pelfrey– In 31 starts Pelfrey finished the season at 10-12 with a 5.03 ERA. 2009 was a serious regression for him from his 2008 line of 32 starts 13-11 and 3.72 ERA. Pelfrey had some disgusting performances like June 4th in Pittsburgh giving up 8 runs in 3.2 innings and giving up 9 runs in 4.1 innings in Atlanta on July 17th. There were other ugly games but you get the idea. Often Pelfrey looked uncomfortable and frustrated, but who wouldn’t be while pitching poorly? He had a bad year but the Mets have too much invested in him for him not to be back in the rotation. He’ll be there. You can bank on it. But I doubt that he’ll be considered the #2 starter. He should be demoted in the rotation. I’ll be surprised if he doesn’t have a bounce-back year in 2010.

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Video: Mets 2010 Left Field- A Trade Awaits

Here’s an interview I did with Kerel Cooper of On The Black. We talked about the Mets left field situation for next year. Watch the video and let me know your thoughts in the comments below.

http://blip.tv/play/gvchgaW2dAI

 

Thanks to Kerel Cooper for the invitation and check out his Mets video blog at On The Black.

Mets 2010 First Base- The Daniel Murphy Conundrum

NEW YORK - JULY 08: Daniel Murphy #28 of the ...

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

I haven’t written much recently for a variety of reasons. For those of you that know me, I recently started a new job and haven’t had as much free time to devote to the Mets. In addition, you may have noticed that the 2009 version of the Mets are awful. If not, I don’t know where you’ve been. The brand new stadium is near empty. Mets interns are running around the upper deck handing out free upgrade tickets to the Ebbets Club seats so they don’t look so barren on television. It’s a sad state of affairs this September in Metsville.

My attention is turning to other things now that the painful, ugly season is winding down. One of the thing that I’m turning my attention to besides the start of the NFL season this week is what the 2010 Mets will look like.

In this edition I’m thinking about the first base situation for next season. There are several assumptions this will based upon that will be debatable. And I’d like to hear your thoughts on these in the comment section. First, Carlos Delgado won’t be back next season. He’s old, he’s hurt, and his contract is over. Good riddance. Second, the Mets can’t survive another season with Daniel Murphy’s meager offense at first base. A first baseman hitting .259 with 9 HR’s and 53 RBI’s in September doesn’t work unless you’re the Pirates. Third, the Mets have about $40 million in contracts coming off the books this offseason. That means there’s plenty to spend if the payroll is static.

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Audio: Minaya Addresses Wagner, Santana, Putz, Perez

FLUSHING, NY - FEBRUARY 06: (L to R) New York ...
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Here’s the conference call with reporters to address the surgery that Johan Santana will have. Omar Minaya also gets into the Billy Wagner trade to the Red Sox, J.J. Putz‘ next rehab appearance being delayed, and Oliver Perez coming back to New York to have his knee examined.

As usual, Minaya stumbles and bumbles his way through the call. It’s bizarre that he doesn’t even remember that Santana had elbow problems during spring training that almost caused him to miss opening day. It’s also odd that Minaya hasn’t spoken to Santana yet about the injury and impending surgery.

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