Here’s some video from ESPN of Johan Santana throwing off the mound for the first time since his elbow surgery in September. With Ben Sheets and Jon Garland going off the market today, the Mets need a healthy Santana more than ever.
Category: Roster
Mets Links: Matthews, Offseason Review, Wilpons
http://cdn.pis.picapp.com/IamProd/PicAppPIS/JavaScript/PisV4.js
I read a great post by Matthew Artus at Always Amazin’ about the Gary Matthews, Jr. trade. It’s become somewhat comical that the offseason hot stove activity has turned into such a frenzy for mainstream media and bloggers alike. Every team is interested in every free agent at some point if you keep reading for long enough. And every pending deal gets up prepared for a blockbuster that almost never happens. Such is the case with the Matthews deal. The Mets acquired a fifth outfielder for a middle relief pitcher. That’s it.
Tim Brown of Yahoo Sports does his offseason review of the Mets entitled “The Mets are getting little traction”. What?!? The Mets already had $100 million in payroll committed to 2010 when the offseason started, meaning they already had most of the “star” players that they needed. They got Jason Bay to fill the hole in left field and the middle of the lineup. The offseason still has five more weeks to go and there are still several capable starting pitchers without contracts. Things don’t seem that bleak to me.
Greg Prince of Faith and Fear in Flushing writes a great piece about the Mets ownership history and current situation with Jeff Wilpon at the helm. It’s a must-read post about how we got where we are today with this team. Considering the fan backlash against the owners in recent years, like the one capably written on this site, the post by Prince is very timely.
Mets Should Add John Smoltz For 2010
- Image via Wikipedia
Editor’s Note: This is a guest post by Nick Migliore. Nick is a big-time Mets fan and frequent commenter here and on other Mets fan sites. It’s great to have him making a contribution that should add some diversity to the perspective on the Mets from other posts that are on this site. You can follow Nick on Twitter.
First and foremost, I’m glad to be part of The Mets Report! Thanks again to Dave Doyle for the opportunity to write for this site. I’m a huge Mets fan, and to give you a heads up about my writings, I tend to rely on more in-depth stats than just the standard ERA, win-loss records, batting average, etc. I hope everyone enjoys my contributions. If you have any questions or comments feel free to drop a comment below and I will do my best to reply.
***
Now, on topic: John Smoltz. Yes, he pitched to a 6.35 ERA and a lousy 3-8 record last year. Yes, he was extremely hittable (95 hits in 78 IP), and yes, he’s 42 years old and will turn 43 about a month and a half into the season. But I really think this guy can help the Mets in 2010. Why? I’ll try my best to explain. Continue reading “Mets Should Add John Smoltz For 2010”
Mets Links: Hall of Fame, Mini Camp, Starting Pitcher
Image by Getty Images via Daylife
The biggest news this week is that the Mets finally announced the election of Doc Gooden, Darryl Strawberry, Frank Cashen, and Davey Johnson into the team Hall of Fame. They’ll go in on August 1 and that’s a date to mark on your calendar to be at Citi Field. It still burns me up that the team seemed to forget about the Hall of Fame, not electing anyone since 2002. You can see the entire list here. How is Johnny Franco not in the Hall?
On the same note, Remembering Shea has a good list of the nine greatest Mets, the next nine to go into the Hall, and the next nine to have their numbers retired. It’s a great post. Take a few minutes to read it. The lists are great but I’m not as high on Jerry Koosman. I’d move him down a few spots, but other than that the lists are spot on.
The Mets are holding a voluntary mini-camp in Port St. Lucie starting on Monday. It’ll be really interesting to see who shows up to that. There should be an announcement within the next day or so about which players will be there. If Oliver Perez doesn’t show up, I’ll be livid. Nobody needs the extra work more than he does.
Continue reading “Mets Links: Hall of Fame, Mini Camp, Starting Pitcher”
Mets Lose Bengie Molina, Fans Rejoice
http://cdn.pis.picapp.com/IamProd/PicAppPIS/JavaScript/PisV4.js
If you could draw up a player that doesn’t fit the Mets team and their new stadium, that player would be Bengie Molina. As part of my full disclosure, I’ll tell you that I can’t stand Yadier Molina. Sure, it goes back years now to 2006. But it’s hard for me to picture in my mind a Met player with “Molina” on the back of his jersey.
Bengie ended up signing a 1-year/$4.5 million deal to go back to the Giants and I couldn’t be happier. I wrote that I’d like to see the Mets go into the season with a Santos/Thole platoon behind the plate. The biggest reason was because the list of free agent catchers this year is so weak. That won’t happen because Henry Blanco will be on the roster. But I can live with that.
Molina has some nice offensive stats but a 35 year-old, overweight catcher is just what the Mets don’t need right now. That’s not the profile of the type of player that the Mets should be committing their financial resources to. The Mets would be much better served to put a little more money into a starting pitcher than they had planned, and work on upgrading at first base.
Mets Links: Beltran, Minaya, Stearns, SpongeTech
http://cdn.pis.picapp.com/IamProd/PicAppPIS/JavaScript/PisV4.js
I was just talking to someone the other day about how early January can be kind of slow for happenings with the Mets. I thought the biggest news might be the team signing a free agent pitcher or Bengie Molina. Then that old Mets dysfunction reared its ugly head again late this week when Carlos Beltran had unauthorized knee surgery.
There have been a few other lesser stories going on as well this week. Here are the links:
- NY Times– Omar Minaya says that the Mets don’t have a problem with Beltran and he’s smoothed over the issues with him. Yeah, sure.
- NY Post– The Mets are suing SpongeTech for bouncing checks and failing to make payments since October on their advertising contract for Citi Field
- NY Post– A good article about John Stearns and what he’s up to now
Mets 2010 Arbitration List, Maine Agrees To Contract
http://cdn.pis.picapp.com/IamProd/PicAppPIS/JavaScript/PisV4.js
The Mets had six players file for arbitration today and John Maine was the first player to agree to a new contract. Maine will return to the Mets on a one-year/$3.3 million deal plus bonuses that could go to $225,000 based on the number of starts that he makes.
The other players are: Pedro Feliciano, Jeff Francoeur, Sean Green, and Angel Pagan.
I thought it was time to move on from Maine and non-tender him. I don’t think anyone would have thought that Maine deserved a raise coming off his 15 start 7-6 season last year. But he will be getting a raise from his $2.6 million 2009 salary. It’s funny how baseball contracts work sometimes. Or maybe the Mets are just that desperate for starting pitching.
There are some huge names on the arbitration list this year including Tim Lincecum and Felix Hernandez. It should be really interesting to see where they end up.
The Mets players in arbitration had 2009 salaries of:
- Feliciano- $1.615 million
- Francoeur- $3.375 million
- Green- $0.471 million
- Pagan- $0.575 million
The Mets Report 