Poll Results: Mets 2010 Worst Contract

Oliver Perez 18 votes 58%
Omar Minaya 7 votes 23%
Carlos Beltran 3 votes 10%
Entire Team 1 vote 3%
Jerry Manuel 1 vote 3%
Luis Castillo 1 vote 3%

 

It’s not a huge surprise that Perez ran away with this poll. The faux knee injury last year and his “rehab” stint in the minors was a terrible omen for the rest of his 3-year/$36 million contract.

I have to say that I thought that Castillo would garner more votes. And Beltran is looking like he may be a waste of $18.5 million this year if he doesn’t come back healthy enough to make an impact this year.

You can see the original poll post and let me know in the comments here if you didn’t get a chance to vote. Who do you think is the biggest waste of money for the Mets this year?

Mets Trade For Gary Matthews, Jr.

MLB: Angels v Rangers July 5, 2007

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The news came in today that Brian Stokes was sent to the Angels for Gary Matthews, Jr. Not only that but the Angels are paying $21.5 million of the $23 million left on his contract (over two years). Now that’s a team that really wanted to get rid of a player. When I first heard that the Mets got Matthews, I assumed that Luis Castillo was going to the Angels. I’m still shocked that the Mets couldn’t dump Castillo on the Angels in return for Matthews.

This trade shouldn’t make that much of a difference in the 2010 season. If it does, the Mets are in trouble. That means that Carlos Beltran didn’t recover from knee surgery and return in May as planned. And Matthews ends up getting more playing time than anyone could have anticipated. He’ll still have to fight off Angel Pagan for playing time in center while Beltran is out. I like Pagan’s chances in the match up.

Continue reading “Mets Trade For Gary Matthews, Jr.”

Mets 2010- Five Positive Story Lines

Colorado Rockies vs New York Mets at Citi Field in New York

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After writing this site for a few years now and reading a lot of mainstream media and blogs about the Mets, I find that it’s easy to focus on the negative aspects of the team. It’s especially easy coming off a disastrous 2009 season opening Citi Field with a “thud”. As a matter of fact, the whole organization was dismal. So much so, that Jeff Wilpon had to tour the minor league cities apologizing for the ugly teams they fielded.

With that being said, I’d like to focus on some positive stories going into 2010. It’s not all bad when you have the highest payroll in the league. You always have a chance even if the people running the organization are subpar, as is the case with the Mets. Money can overcome a lot of obstacles. I feel really bad for the Pirates and Royals fans that know they have no shot before the season even starts. Although things don’t look great for the Mets yet, we do have a shot.

Here are my five positive story lines for the season.

Continue reading “Mets 2010- Five Positive Story Lines”

Mets Links: Hall of Fame, Mini Camp, Starting Pitcher

NEW YORK - SEPTEMBER 26: (L-R) Former members...

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”

Poll: Mets 2010 Worst Contract

Home Gold Selling Parties Gain In Popularity As Price Of Gold Remains High

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The Mets have a few really bad contracts on the books right now. But I’m curious to find out who you think is the absolute worst. I have my own ideas about that. And I’ll go ahead and vote in this one too.

You can base this on any criteria that you like. It could be the worst production, too many injuries, too much money, a combination of them all. Whatever you like. Basically, I’d like to know who you think the Mets are throwing the most money away on.

Vote in the poll below.

Mets Lose Bengie Molina, Fans Rejoice

San Francisco Giants Photo Day

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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.

Continue reading “Mets Lose Bengie Molina, Fans Rejoice”

Mets Links: Beltran, Minaya, Stearns, SpongeTech

Mets vs. Rockies

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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