2007: Year in Review or, The State of the Mets

The year 2007 can't really be chalked up as anything more than a huge disappointment for fans of the New York Metropolitans. Our team followed up a breakthrough season with a big step back, we enter 2008 with more questions than reliable starting pitchers, and it generally remains to be seen whether or not the sustained period of long-term success the Mets looked like they were set to enter at the beginning of 2007 will turn out to be nothing more than a sick illusion.

For all the good vibes coming out of the 2006 season, it's not as if the year 2007 got off to a particularly good start. After we lost out on Barry Zito to an unreasonably large contract offer from the San Francisco Giants - which this blogger is happy we didn't match - we spent January, February, and March hearing about how unstable our starting rotation was and how much Jimmy Rollins was going to completely own us this season.

In the end, I guess those predictions may have ended up being pretty accurate.

After a horrid spring training, though, 2007 the season did get off to a good start. We swept the Cardinals, in St. Louis. Jimmy Rollins booted an easy groundball to spark a comeback rally in our home opener. John Maine and Oliver Perez made the Cards and Braves look silly in their respective debuts. If the 2007 season had been a video game, the night we boosted our record to 4-0 would have been a good time to hit SIM and let the computer take care of the rest.

Unfortunately, autopilot doesn't work in real baseball, and after the Mets - already "bored," perhaps - hit cruise control, in real life that first Friday night in April was probably the high point of 2007.

This season, and this year, were underwhelming in just about every way. We didn't have Zito. The crowd at Shea sucked. Jose Reyes wasn't as good as he was in 2006. After we outscored the Cardinals and Braves by a combined 31-3 in those first four games and it looked like we might be in for a special season, the next 158 games were a story of failed sweeps and wasted momentum, blown opportunities and not a single winning streak longer than four games until the beginning of that fateful month of September. So far this offseason, we've heard about Dan Haren, Erik Bedard, and Johan Santana, but we never had a chance for Haren or Bedard and we'll be extremely lucky if lightning somehow strikes and we get Santana.

It's hard to know what to expect from the year 2008. On the one hand, we bring back a still-talented roster that will include Wright and Reyes, Pedro, Maine and Perez, Carlos Beltran and Billy Wagner. In a perfect world we'll have a hungry team, determined to right the wrongs of 2007, that will scratch and claw its way back to the top of the division. The fans that show up at Shea next season, 20% more expensive tickets in tow, will rabidly usher the old ballpark out in style.

On the other hand, we're crossing our fingers praying for the health of Pedro's rebuilt arm over a full season. We're nervously hedging our bets on two somewhat-unstable young pitchers to do what they did last year. We're hoping that the end of 2007 was mostly an aberration for Jose Reyes. Likewise with Carlos Delgado. This will a season of reckoning for Willie Randolph and Omar Minaya.


So we'll see. 2007 was not a good year in Mets history. We had some exciting moments, some good wins, but ultimately we couldn't sustain anything good and any positives were overshadowed in the overall narrative by the collapse.

And in the first few months of 2008, things aren't likely to look any better. The trade/free agent market probably won't yield anything better than Bartolo Colon. We'll be picked to finish either second or third in the NL East next season, and won't stop hearing about how far we've fallen in the last year.

But keep things in perspective. Remember the fact that three years ago at this time, the Mets hadn't had a winning season in 3 years. We had just ushered out the Art Howe era. We had just traded Scott Kazmir. Now, we enter a new year where we'd be defending consecutive division titles if we hadn't gift-wrapped the East for the Phillies last September. We've got some question marks, but overall, even without any more roster moves, we're at least in pretty decent shape. David Wright, David Wright, Citi Field, David Wright.

In a year where it will take 11 months for America to choose a new President, it will be close to that long before we have a sincere read on the true state of the Mets. Viva 2008!

Happy New Year

(Pictures courtesy nytimes.com, nycvp.com, flikr.com)

Ticket Prices, Transactions, T Shirts

Isn't it amazing? The season ends and we fans wait patiently for the hot stove to start heating up, only to tire very quickly when it feels like all the rumbling, grumblings, and rumors never actually come to fruition but are still reported and rehashed all the way to spring training. This year's Winter Meetings came and went, nothing happened, the Mets still don't have attractive prospects, or an ace pitcher. Bo-ring.


If you trusted new ticket prices as an indicator of offseason activity, though, you might swear that the Mets had found a way to acquire both Johan Santana and Erik Bedard in a three way trade while collectively giving up only Jorge Sosa, a personalized brick at CitiField, the choreography to a Jose Reyes home run dance, and 3 fungo bats.

I'm referring, of course, to the 20% increase in 2008 Shea Stadium ticket prices, announced by the Mets last week. Dave Howard, Mets' executive vice president of business operations, on the increase:

“We considered where we were in the marketplace. Our average ticket price is still the lowest among the nine major pro sports teams in the New York area. Our payroll is among the highest in baseball. We put our resources back into the team.”

Everyone else is doing it, and look, look, we just got Matt Wise!

So despite a collapse of epic proportions and marginal improvement (depending on how you see the Milledge trade, really) to the ballclub this winter, the Mets can still justify raising prices, further forcing the average fan and middle income family to watch from home.

Metsblog has a post today pointing out that at least 12 other teams are raising ticket prices by at least 15 percent for next year. So this seems like an across-the-board type thing, which is an excellent justification for the Mets raising ticket prices for 2008 in the face of an ugly 2007.

Everyone else is doing it!

Or it's just another depressing indictment of the power of money in sports right now. Sports has become such an enterprise, ESPN such a caricature of itself, that the Mets 5-year business model says it makes sense to raise prices this year, despite the fact in a real, ethical world still guided by a sense of right and wrong it's like rubbing salt on the still-open wounds of most Mets fans.

And Major League Baseball can continue making money out the wazoo while half of it's other teams raise their ticket prices, despite the fact that in a real, ethical world guided by a sense of right and wrong baseball should have it's tail much further between its legs in the wake of an investigative report that just named more than 60 of its current and former players as users of performance-enhancing drugs while also speaking to its own culpability in this whole mess.


There is no level-headed reasoning here. Raising ticket prices on Mets fans next year just isn't right. At least we'll be ready for CitiField.

***

20%, incidentally, is also the percentage of money I took home after fellow Knicks die-hard Ivan Cash and I stood outside Madison Square Garden Wednesday night selling t-shirts with a sound, socially-conscious message for the holidays:


Admittedly, the Knicks are my third team in New York. But it's a strong third. Watching fans pour in and out of Madison Square Garden on Wednesday - to watch a horrible team - only served as a strong reaffirmation that there's nothing in New York quite like when the Knicks are good. That underdog finals run in '99 remains at the top of my list of most cherished sports memories.

So Ivan and I stood outside the Garden, voices hoarse from shouting "love the franchise, hate the coach...with a hand-crafted, original t-shirt!," among other sales pitches, all in our own for-profit attempt to build further outrage toward the mess that is the New York Knickerbockers.

Ivan designed and printed these shirts himself, and at $20 apiece we sold all 30 shirts that we brought with us. It was a pretty good night. Even fans who didn't want a hand-crafted, original t-shirt signaled their support. ABC eyewitness news, CW11 news at 10, NBC, and a freelance writer for the New York Times all asked what brought us out to the main entrance of Madison Square Garden to voice our opposition to Isiah Thomas and the Knick regime.

Bad move after bad move, no defense, sexual harrassment, a franchise in disarray, no end in sight. That's what.

Earlier Wednesday, dozens of other fans gathered outside MSG to protest the state of the Knicks and sign a giant pink slip for Isiah, which also received attention from the local network news media. So perhaps "FI-RE I-SI-AH!" is finally reaching a critical mass.

We can only hope. In the meantime, hate the coach.

(Images courtesy sayhey.files.wordpress.com, cnn.com, ivancash.com)

Sell the Farm?

If a Johan Santana-to-the-Mets deal actually ends up going down, it will probably look a little something like this:

BLOCKBUSTER TRADE

Mets get - Johan Santana
Twins get - Entire Mets farm system

Alas, the great dilemma. And upon hearing the news that other teams do actually think highly of their team's prospects - one in particular who happens to be looking to trade a 28-year old 2-time Cy Young award winner - Mets fans are tied in all sorts of knots and aren't quite sure what to think.

Yes, the Twins like our prospects. They like them so much that they're demanding at least 5, it looks like, in return for their ace pitcher. Metsblog added the following tidbit this afternoon, via Jon Heyman of Sports Illustrated:

‘The Mets offered different packages of prospects that included either outfielder Carlos Gomez or outfield prospect Fernando Martinez but not both, declining to include the one extra prospect the Twins requested to clinch the deal according to people familiar with those talks.’

With a package including only Gomez, the Twins reportedly want 4 pitchers. No word on specific players, but you can bet that the four would most likely consist of the Twins' choice between Mike Pelfrey, Philip Humber, Kevin Mulvey, Joe Smith, Aaron Heilman, and Deolis Guerra.

Essentially, it looks like we either give up both of our remaining outfield prospects, or 65% of our young pitchers of value who are anywhere near being major-league ready. It's a decision to make.

Which is why I'm not screaming at Omar Minaya for not getting this deal done. I think that if this trade is possible, it needs to be made and we need to give Johan Santana every dollar that he requests, but there's a big decision to make here that's not necessarily easy.

Imagine a core for the foreseeable future of Santana, John Maine, and Oliver Perez in the starting rotation, with David Wright, Jose Reyes, and Carlos Beltran in the everyday lineup. That's only a hair over 1/5 of a full team, but it's a pretty formidable core. That's the type of core that, filling the blanks in with people who need only be able to throw and catch, pretty much makes you good no matter what. Think this year's Boston Celtics.

And we're 5/6 of the way there. But Santana's a pretty key part of that equation.

On the flipside, what happens if we need a 5th starter at any point this season. It's Lima time, baby!

What happens when our bullpen sucks again and Joe Smith is pitching lights out for Minnesota?

What happens when Fernando Martinez and Carlos Gomez form the core of the Twins young outfield in their new ballpark, Gomez is stealing 60 bases, F-Mart's having his breakout year, and all the currently premature Sammy Sosa/Juan Gonzalez comparisons are coming true?

The Twins are high on Gomez

Uhhh....we got Johan Santana?

It doesn't matter though. And the Celtics are actually a really good example of why this trade needs to happen, for either of the packages the Mets and Twins are mulling right now.

Boston traded like 7 young promising players over the summer for Kevin Garnett. It was obviously a sacrifice to make, but the Celtics determined it was worth it, because they would be putting a determined KG on a team with a determined Ray Allen and a determined Paul Pierce, all of them still at least somewhat in their prime. The rest of the team now looks kind of thin on paper, but the Celtics made an executive decision to put the core in place and worry about everything else later, because everything else would inevitably end up being less of a big deal than getting that strong core set. Rajon Rondo is running the point for the Celts. But what's their record?

That's right, it's 17-2, and the Celtics are going to coast to the playoffs as a top seed. What happens after that is anyone's guess, but it's pretty clear that they've built a juggernaut.

Restocking a depleted farm system isn't as hard as it used to be. Between the shorter times that players are spending in the minor leagues and the increase in attention and hype surrounding young players at all levels of a farm system, it's not hard to completely turn your farm around. Look at our own team in 2001. Alex Escobar? Within 2 years, the same system produced Jose Reyes; within 3 David Wright came up.

Look at the Yankees in '04-'05, at the height of their spend first, ask questions later phase. Within 2 years they have two promising pitching prospects, (Kennedy and Hughes) one young phenom, (Chamberlain) and a couple of outfield prospects who are probably overrated but are regarded highly.

Look at the Red Sox, who's farm was pretty barren after the first World Series title in '04. Notice how I said the first World Series title, as opposed to that second one where the youngsters played a starring role - and they also have the chips to acquire Santana if they wanted him as badly as the Mets do.

So with three first round picks this spring, a good draft gets the Mets right back on track. Add that to the potential infusion of rapidly-developing Latin talent that could come with a lot of the kids Omar's signed in the last couple of years beginning to grow up (literally). Add that to the fact that you never know when a minor-league player begins to show some strong latent skills. Add that to the fact that with a solid enough core, the chances of us really lamenting a lack of top-flight talent in triple-A for the next two years are pretty slim.

Sign Livan Hernandez to pitch out of the fifth spot in the rotation and give us innings. Find a market-value replacement for Moises Alou next year. Worry about the bullpen on a year-in, year-out basis, because that's all you can really do anyway. We can probably make this whole thing work for a couple of years until our system comes back.

And it's much easier to make the whole thing work when you've got a top-notch top 3 in your starting rotation with three top hitters in your lineup. Think Boston Celtics. If it stays on the table, this move needs to get made.

(Pics courtesy johansantana.net, nypost.com)

John Maine Likes Women's Clothing

...According the the New York Post's PageSix.com at least. It looks like Maine's having a nice offseason:

The Virginia-born ball-hurler later approached PageSix.com and asked to test-drive our frock as well. "I'm John Maine. I pitch for the Mets! I'm a hot piece of a*s!" he kept repeating. He said that he was on his way to a drag party later that night. "Come on, I'll give you $200 to try on your dress," he begged. "Just to take a picture. It'll be fun."

Apparently this all went down at the grand opening of Touch Nightclub last Thursday night - and no, according to the story Maine did not get what he wanted. But it sounds like our young starter, who usually speaks in short, generic sentences with the media, does indeed walk on the wild side every so often. It's always the quiet ones.

Does Maine not remind you a little bit of Nuke LaLoosh? (That's a Bull Durham reference, for you ignint people out there) You wonder how Maine would fare with Kevin Costner behind the plate telling him to keep his fastball down. I'm pretty sure he's a bachelor - what kind of role is Susan Sarandon playing in his life? Anyway, my point here is that like Nuke LaLoosh, Maine can sometimes lose focus on the mound and seems to at least have the part down about wearing women's clothing. Women's underwear, under his uniform possibly? Who knows.

"Whaddid I do last night?"

Mets Pitcher is a Drag (Page Six)
John Maine Loves the Little Black Dress (Deadspin)

(Image courtesy pagesix.com)

Eli Steps Up, Giants Win Key Game

Eli Manning doesn't play for the Mets. And the New York Football Giants don't play baseball.


Huge win today for Eli and my Giants though, as they top the Bears to show they're not totally imploding, again. 21-16 after 14 unanswered in the 4th quarter, key defensive stand to preserve the victory...this one kind of followed the same arc as that season-changing win over the Redskins earlier in the year. Eli didn't rebound so well in the first half from last week's debacle - he was terrible, actually, with a fumble and two interceptions, one in the end zone - but came on strong in that 4th quarter, tossing a TD and leading the go-ahead drive, all in the last 8 or so minutes of the game.

It almost seems like you can reduce an Eli Manning season to a simple breakdown of three different types of performances:

• There's the total stinker, which he's usually good for about 2 or 3 of. Last week falls into this category, along with the 2005 game against the Vikings where he also threw 4 picks. The December performance against Philly last year, where at the end of an already rough game, on a critical drive in the 4th quarter he threw one of his signature gets-blindsided-and-tosses-up-a-pathetic-floater-of-a-pass interceptions, watched it get returned for an Eagles touchdown, then followed it up with the dopiest of dopey Eli faces, falls into this category. Watch out, because one of these games might just come in the Wild Card playoff at home against the Carolina Panthers - and no we can't let that one go yet, actually, because even when young Eli plays well he still looks like at any moment he could turn into the quarterback that completely embarrassed himself and the Giants franchise on that cool January day. These games, obviously, are extremely frustrating - often unwatchable, actually - but can sometimes be offset by

• The really really good performance, in complete contrast to the total stinker, where he looks like, you know, the genuinely elite NFL quarterback #1 draft picks are supposed to turn into. He takes control of a game, looks a little like Peyton, and throws four touchdowns. The Dallas game on opening night this year would fall into this category, in addition to the Atlanta game in October on Monday night. 1 to 3 of these games each season give Giants fans hope that their team didn't totally screw them in the '04 draft, but more often than not Eli Manning just looks like
  

• Ordinary Eli. He'll be so-so, probably won't win or lose you the game, but might have a chance to win it for you with a 4th quarter surge. He can also totally suck for three quarters before the 4th quarter surge comes around, which bumps his performance up from total stinker to ordinary Eli - see today's game. He seems to have a knack for these random 4th quarter surges, which is certainly a quality you look for in your quarterback, but at the same it's never something you can count on. Often times the way he looks on the field is indistinguishable during these games from the way he looks during the total stinker, but the results are somehow different. The Denver game that he won on that lucky pass to Toomer a couple years back falls into this category. So does the one in Seattle later in the same season where he threw the tying score and set up the game-winning field goal three times but Jay Feely had some trouble ridding his throat of whatever it was he kept choking on. On the losing end, we saw ordinary Eli during the second Dallas game this year, the Dallas loss last year, and the wild-card playoff loss against Philly last year. You can never really predict how a Giants game will turn out during an ordinary Eli performance, as it will almost always depend on how the other parts of the team either prop Eli up or bring him down. One way or the other it never seems to look like he's totally in his element during those sudden 4th quarter bursts, and if he succeeds it's usually on some sort of lucky break, like the Toomer catch two years ago.
  

And there you have it. The Eli Ratio, taken in the same order as the list of common Eli performances (total stinker:really really good game:ordinary Eli) I just generated, has in Eli's brief career hovered around 2:3:11 or so over the course of a season. It's a crapshoot as to how the playoffs will pan out, but you can count on Eli probably being good enough for a decent team around him to win 10 games year in and year out, last year notwithstanding. You figure if the ratio ever moves to about 2:5:9 or even 2:4:10 the Giants might be able to beat the reinvigorated Dallas Cowboys. 1:5:10 or even 1:4:11 could conceivably get them through to an NFC championship game, but until the middle number increases significantly and the first number goes away all together it will be hard to predict with confidence how Eli will be able to carry his regular season numbers into the playoffs and respond to January football. Thus we can't really get a read on when, if ever, Eli Manning is ready to lead the Giants to a Super Bowl. We'll just have to wait and see.

Eli Manning has to become Phil Simms before he can even think about becoming Peyton

It's always interesting to look at Eli, though, because his arrival has kind of coincided with the emergence of Wright/Reyes, and the resurgence of the Mets. Fortunes have kind of coincided as well - Eli, and by association the Giants, have showed enough promise, but crapped out in crunch time in each of the last two seasons. Just like the Mets! Jose Reyes played the baseball version of Eli Manning down the stretch this season.

Wright and Reyes are different players though, as Wright contends for MVP awards and Jose's given us at least some evidence to suggest that September '07 was an unfortunate fluke. With Eli, you're just not sure if he's ever going to make it over that hump. It could really go either way.

I cheer for Eli, but in just about anything except football I think I'd take Wright or Reyes just about any day, across the board. Eli looks like kind of a sissy, so I'd rather let either one of Wright/Reyes have my back in a fight. Eli doesn't really look like he has much game, so I'd probably prefer to go out with Wright or Reyes. You can tell D Wright has that corny-white-boy-turned-Cliff Floyd's-bachelor-prodigy thing working for him - kind of like Sinbad and the President's son in "First Kid" - and Jose's skills in that realm seem to speak for themselves. But Eli? The McLovin of the Giants, maybe...


I guess things did turn out well for Fogell in the end. I'm sure Eli does just fine for himself. If he's half as adept at using bad pick-up lines to talk to girls as he is at using trite cliches to talk to the media, do you have a map? I just keep getting lost in your eyes... probably works out a decent amount of the time for him.

And that's not to say I wouldn't party with Eli Manning, if given the chance.

Eli Manning walks into a crowded kitchen at Amani Toomer's house party. He slides in between Brandon Jacobs and Plaxico Burress, who look annoyed and suck their teeth as Eli passes and moves for the cooler. "Who wants to watch the E-Mann take a funnel..."

But I digress. Ordinary Eli helped the Giants pull out a very important win today. We're 8-4, and back in control of the NFC wild card playoff picture.

And we'll wait with bated breath to see which Eli shows up next week in a key divisional game at Philly. Be rootin' for ya, kiddo...

Eli Bounces Back, Lifts Giants Past Bears (msnbc.com)

(Pics courtesy msnbc.com, louisvillesports.org, rwdmag.com)

Day Two, Still Angry

Ryan Church and Brian Schneider aren't going to be horrible players to have on our team next season.


When that's the best thing you can say about a trade on day two, it probably wasn't too great.

We won't hate Church, or Schneider. RY Chizzle (nope) will figure in a few rallies, get a big hit or two, make a couple nice plays in the outfield, and we'll warm up to him. He'll look stoned most of the time, with his "laid back California demeanor," making it a certainty that he and John Maine will be fast friends. Schneider will be an effective platoon-partner with Ramon Castro, and while getting the majority of starts may just show the world that it is possible for a Mets catcher to throw out more than 25% of would-be base stealers.

You know what? I think I'm kind of going to like these new players. They'll each have a nice little 2 or 3 year run in Queens, which is convenient, because by then Lastings Milledge should be just about entering his prime and showing the Mets how badly they got fleeced long-term with this deal.

This isn't as horrendous as Kazmir/Zambrano, as some fans are suggesting, because in all likelihood Ryan Church and Brian Schneider aren't going to totally suck for parts of roughly a season before running off the field in unbearable pain.


What irks me more than anything else about this trade, though, is how uncreative Omar Minaya was in making it. It's being billed by it's proponents and the Mets' PR department (roughly the same crowd on this one) as a move granting the Mets "additional roster flexibility," a real need-filler.

But, and I pointed this out yesterday, Omar Minaya couldn't have demanded a Jon Rauch in this deal? Really? We just traded our former top prospect and we couldn't have squeezed even Ray King out of it?

Oh yeah, that's right, we got Brian Stokes and his 7.whatever ERA from those pesky Rays. Bullpen problems: solved.

If this move had included a middle reliever, I might just be in support of it. Former top prospect with diminished value who will probably turn around and exceed unrealistically low expectations for three solid, mid-level major leaguers who address immediate needs on our team? Not bad, creative. Omar's trying to make things happen.

But instead Omar just made things happen by letting Jim Bowden take him out to dinner and a movie and never call him again.

****

Scene: Two office settings, one in Washington, DC, one on a Mets team private jet, en route to New York from the Domincan Republic, where Omar Minaya has just spent the past 2 weeks watching 17-year olds learn to hit curveballs. Minaya calls up old friend Jim Bowden, who's been salivating for weeks at the chance to steal Lastings Milledge from the Mets in exchange for two players the Nationals have determined they can live without. Jim's expecting Omar's call. The phone begins to ring in Bowden's office.

"This is Jim Bowden."

"Hi Jim, it's Omar."

"Omar! My man! The Big O! The Minayanator! What can I do for ya?"

"Well, I was wondering if perhaps you might be ready to do that deal we talked about..."

"Ahh, you're finally ready to pull the trigger on Milledge, eh? L Millz, as the kids are calling him these days. Knew you'd come around eventually. He'll fit right in in DC. Now, who did you want?"

"Well, I know we talked about Church and Schneider, but I wanted to ask if it might be possible to include a middle reliever. Rauch, maybe? Ray King? I know you're not going to give us Chad Cordero, sorry for asking last time. But anyone you might be able to offer would be greatly appreciated. It's just that we really need bullpen help and, and, we're a little thin in that department, and Duaner Sanchez is kind of lazy so he's no sure thing and, and...you know what I'm sayin'?"

"Yeah, of course Omar. I know what you're saying. And I'd love to help you out. I just don't know if that's possible right now. We do want Milledge, but I'm not sure if we're willing to part with anything else. Quite frankly, you're lucky I even threw Church into that offer. But I know how much you like him and all..."

"Well, when do you think you'll know? Billy Wagner's angry. I need to do something quickly."

"Let me get back to you Omar. I have to talk it over with Jesus Flores - sorry. And Manny Acta - okay, I'll stop. Can I give you a call back later today?"

"You know Jim, I'd really like to do this right now. Give me Schneider and Church and it's cool."

"You sure Omar? I don't want to take advantage of you or anything..."

"Really Jim, it's okay. The fans are going to love me. They love everything I do."

"Okay, man. It's your job..."

****

And that's how the Mets got Brian Schneider and Ryan Church. Two average major leaguers in exchange for a former top prospect who's still got a high ceiling despite some manufactured "character issues."

Really? We couldn't have gotten Jon Rauch? Really?

(Pictures courtesy media.philly.com, cantstopthebleeding.com)

Mets Trade L Millz, Matt Gets Angry

A brief quiz:

The Mets today traded 22-year old outfielder and former first round pick Lastings Milledge. The trade involved one of the following four teams:

a) The Oakland A's, keepers of Dan Haren
b) The Minnesota Twins, keepers of Johan Santana
c) The Baltimore Orioles, keepers of Erik Bedard
d) The Washington Nationals, who have acquired Milledge in exchange for...

Brian Schneider and Ryan Church? Not exactly the ace we were looking for.

Ryan Church: Just what the doctor ordered

And by that I mean, our General Manager just made a very shrewd deal that, while "helping to make us better offensively and defensively," (Omar's words) involved sending a 22-year old top young player away to a division rival in exchange for an above average outfielder pushing 30 and a "big on defensive" catcher who can't hit.

Paging Mike DiFelice...you couldn't have kindly reminded Omar Minaya that getting such a catcher wouldn't cost one of our premier trading chips?

Paging Lastings Milledge...it's really a bummer that the chance you'll be given to prove you too can hit .270 over a full season will be granted with a team not named the Mets.

I'm no fan of "win-now" moves, to begin with. I think that winning now and taking the future into account can almost always be compatible. And if you do make a win-now move, it better be for Manny Ramirez, or Barry Zito circa 2006, or Dan Haren last winter, (yeah, we probably could have made that move a year ago) or any of the other players Lastings Milledge's name has been tossed around in connection with. This was a win-now move, and we got, well, Brian Schneider and Ryan Church, for a player who could have produced at an acceptable level this year, and who could have quickly turned into another young anchor for these Mets within the next few years. Now we can watch him turn into a young anchor for the Nats, paying us back 19 times every year alongside Ryan Zimmerman, Nook Logan and the rest of the gang as they move into a new ballpark of their own.

The more optimistic fan right now will suggest that we not view this trade in a vacuum; "Omar's got somethin' up his sleeve! Let him work his magic!"

I will suggest that we stop viewing our General Manager as some bizarre magician wizard person, all-knowing and ready to spin Ryan Church around as the answer to our need for an ace. We don't have that ace right now. We have Ryan Church. When you trade one of your top young players for a couple of so-so 30-year olds, the trade should be viewed in a vacuum unless something better happens. If it does, I'll give credit where credit is due.

The luster's worn off, Omar Minaya. This move just makes no sense. If this was all Lastings Milledge, formerly one of the most coveted young players in the game, could get you right now, in November 2007, why wasn't it worth it to just let him play next season? For the third time, he couldn't have put up Ryan Church-like numbers? If nothing else, he couldn't have played himself into being as a more valuable trading chip for next July? For the third time, Brian Schneider and Ryan Church? You couldn't have demanded a middle reliever out of that deal?

I'm just trying to take away any positives I can find right now. Marty Noble seems to like the trade, which has only made finding a justification for it that much harder.

Right now, there's not a whole lot else to say. Peace up, young Lastings.

R.I.P.

(Photos courtesy mets.com, thecrockedpot.com)

Don't Let The Door Hit You On The Way Out

That's right - I'm talking to you, Tom McCarthy. You were 2006 and 2007's radio play-by-play guy for the Mets, and you're now going back to Philadelphia to call Phillies games again. Peace out, kid. Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

The name Tom McCarthy certainly didn't mean anything to me when in late 2005 the Mets announced the replacement they had selected for Gary Cohen, who at the time was preparing for his first season in the Mets TV booth during what was then going to be SNY's inaugural season. For all the heartbreak, the Mets - Fran Healy and Ted Robinson excluded - have at least always had good broadcasters, so I figured that the team had done it's homework and found an acceptable replacement for Gary Cohen, also known as the God of all things play-by-play.

Tom McCarthy even looks like a knock-off version of this guy

Tom McCarthy was okay. Nothing more, nothing less, just okay. He kind of sounded like Gary Cohen, except crappier. His home run call was particularly crappy. All in all he was like a poor man's Gary Cohen, with a Michael Kay home run call.

All the while the Mets TV broadcasts, a weak point in the FSNY/MSG/Matt Laughlin days, have in the past two years been as good as, if not better than, anyone else in the business. Gary, Ron, and Keith have become somewhat of a trademark, and as I've mentioned previously on this blog the Mets are fortunate to have put together such a great TV announcing team.

But the WFAN/Mets relationship is perhaps as significant as that of any radio station/baseball team combo. 660 am WFAN is THE flagship station for New York sports, where WCBS 880 is just another corporate news station, doing games for the corporate Yankees. And it's carried Mets games for the entirety of its 20-year existence. Lets Go Mets! F-A-N! (doo doo doo) Anyone who's ever listened to a Mets game on the radio knows what I'm talking about. Plus they play "Meet the Mets" at the beginning of every broadcast. Mets extra.


Mets baseball on the FAN, most always preceded or followed by the sweet voice of Met fan Steve Somers, has always been a first class production. And for the most part, the broadcasts have always had first class commentators calling the game. Bob Murphy. Bob Murphy and Gary Cohen. Gary Cohen and Eddie Coleman. Gary Cohen and Howie Rose. Howie Rose and Eddie Coleman. Howie Rose and Tom McCarthy? It was just kind of a downer.

Plus Tom McCarthy is a total Phillies fan. He did their games, plus the pre and post-game shows, for the 5 seasons preceding his arrival in the Shea broadcast booth, and now he's going back there, under his own volition. He issued the following statement with regard to his most recent career move:

“I’m excited to be back in Philadelphia. I enjoyed my two years with WFAN and the Mets. Both are first-class, as are the Phillies. I’m looking forward to returning and can’t wait for spring training to get here.” (metsblog, via Phillies team press release)

Personally, I'm of the school of thought that team announcers should be partisan. Incredibly partisan. I want the people calling Mets games for the Mets TV network and the Mets radio network to be passionate Mets fans. Now, it's different for a Joe Buck, or a Tim McCarver, where the former is a Cardinals fan, the latter still has an axe to grind with the Mets, and the two of them make up Fox's - and in turn baseball's - premier announcing duo. National television announcers should at least not be blatantly slanted.

But Bob Murphy (RIP), Gary Cohen, Howie Rose - these guys all love(d) the Mets. They're not unreasonable, and they're fair in their commentary - unlike John Sterling, or anyone else who's ever called a Yankee game - but at the same time you can hear that extra note of excitement in their voice when something good is happening for the Mets. And when any one game gets out of hand you can usually catch a few old Mets fan-related anecdotes from these guys about their longstanding allegiance to the orange and blue.

Some commenter on metsblog said Tom McCarthy grew up a Mets fan. BS. If that were the case he would not have had the stones to turn around and do Phillies games for 5 years before finally getting his Mets gig. I understand that broadcasting jobs are hard to come by, but I would consider that an irreconcilable difference.

The point is that Tom McCarthy shouldn't have been with the Mets, and the Mets shouldn't have gone for Tom McCarthy. He did a decent job, but he certainly wasn't good enough for the Mets to have given a former Phillies broadcaster, who at the very least had just compromised his Mets fanhood for the previous 5 years, their top radio broadcasting spot.

So peace out, Tom. Take your generic video-game voice with you back down to Philly and enjoy yourself. Hopefully the Mets and WFAN can find a first class replacement for a second class announcer.

(Pictures courtesy mets.com, sports.gearlive.com)

Omar Minaya Makes Lemonade

This hot stove season, young as it may be, has already been frustrating for us Mets fans.

I think that may just come with the territory of cheering for a team that, traditionally down on it's luck, blew a 7 game lead in the last month of a season in which they were supposed to go to the World Series, but what do I know? I'm only speculating here.

My point is that we want to see something. We're irrational. We want results - now. Where's Johan Santana? Weren't we supposed to get A Rod? And Miguel Cabrera? Why didn't we trade for Brad Lidge?

And we forget that the free agent signing period is only 8 days old, and that the World Series has only been over for three weeks, and we're hard on Omar Minaya because we all placed varying degrees of blame on him for the debacle that was 2007, and he almost gave Yorvit Torrealba 15 million dollars, and he treated Paul Lo Duca like crap.

And we forget that it's not as simple as just "getting" Johan, or Eric Bedard, or Scott Kazmir. We forget that signing A Rod might not have been the best idea (I still think giving a 32 year-old a 10-year contract is unwise. While the treatment of Paul Lo Duca has certainly been shameful, in making Paulie Walnuts a martyr we conveniently ignore the fact that a 36-year old catcher made an initial contract demand of 3 years and upwards of $20 million. He can say all he wants how badly he wanted to stay, but a reasonable deal for Paul Lo Duca would have taken an awful lot of downward negotiation to actually work out. The man was slimed, but from a baseball standpoint it might have made good sense in the end to say "thanks for the memories, Paulie."

After the Torrealba deal did fall through, though, we were left in a bit of a catching quandary, to say the least. Despite the signings of Ramon Castro and Luis Castillo, taking care of two of our immediate priorities, we still had a need that had to be filled and could have potentially detracted from the all-important search for pitching. Who wants Michael Barrett? Jason Kendall? Gerald Laird? Whoopee! Ramon Hernandez and Bengie Molina are going to be hard to pry away from their respective teams, methinks.

So instead Omar made a very shrewd deal, getting another serviceable, mid-range talent catcher in Johnny Estrada (who we didn't have to sign for 3 years and $15 million, and who can be non-tendered in December if something better comes along) for...

We won't be seeing this next year

Guillermo Mota! That's right, I didn't misspeak and mean to say Carlos Gomez. Or Phil Humber, or Kevin Mulvey. Guillermo Mota - the late lead-blowing former steroid user and weakest link from last year's atrocious bullpen. Not a top prospect. Not anything remotely valuable. Omar traded Guillermo Mota, and swindled the Brewers into giving us an acceptable, switch-hitting catching option to platoon with Ramon Castro when they could have held firm and parted with nothing more than a bag of balls, which quite frankly many Mets fans probably would have been okay with.

Yeah, we all want an ace. We want to see marked improvement in our Metsies before '08 begins. But give it time. You don't think our GM with a zeal for flair and pulling off the big deal isn't trying to make that happen, if not for the sake of the team, then certainly for his own self-preservation?

We often lose sight of the fact that we no longer have a complete moron as our GM. We forget that having a GM who understands the value of not making a move just for the sake of making a move is a very good thing, and a fresh departure from years past. In our own passion for winning, and outrage at the way this season ended, we forget how lucky we are for a change to have some very good, or at least remotely able, minds at the top of our organization.

Omar was able to bend the book on conventional wisdom, and dealt from a weakness to fill a need - that is brilliant, and so un-Steve Phillips it's got to put a smile on your face.

The jury's still out on just how good a hot stove season this will end up being, but give credit where credit is due. You're pretty happy right now. This small move was enormously encouraging.

(Photos courtesy images.orblogs.com, thefeed.blogs.com)

Yorvit Torre-Not Gonna Play For the Mets Next Year

The Mets flirted with Yorvit Torrealba, took him out for a second date, asked him to marry them, and were all set to walk down the aisle, while jealous and heartbroken ex-girlfriend Paul Lo Duca sat on the sidelines, watching it all unfold in front of his sad, tear-soaked face. Ramon Castro was the bridesmaid, and there was a good chance he might just get in on a little bit of the post-wedding reception, no-longer-premarital action.

It was a match made in heaven...well, not really

But before Yorvit could make it to the altar, the Mets entertained some serious second thoughts. They wanted true love. They feared a short-lived, tumultuous marriage, even though they longed for someone to grow old with. They took a gander towards the wedding party and saw Yorvit's mother, who time had not been kind to.

In the end, they just couldn't go through with it. Before you could say ".250 career hitter," they were out of there.

Outside the world of metaphors, the Mets did get cold feet with regard to Yorvit Torrealba this weekend, and the free agent catcher will not be playing in Queens for 3 years and $14.4 million of the Wilpon family fortune. As I indicated at the end of my last post, while I still favored bringing back Lo Duca, I had come to terms with the deal, and even supported it a little bit. Metsblog dug up more positive commentary from Rockies fans toward the end of last week about the uniquely-named backstop, and a little Torrealba/Castro platoon was looking okay. The support, though, never left the "I'm cool with this because it's going to happen either way and I'm going to convince myself it's okay because there's nothing I can do about it" realm.

So I'm not too disappointed - my emotions, to be sure, are not in as poor shape as the Mets catching situation. What do we do now? Paulie may have really wanted us, but you've got to think he's a little too proud to let us go crawling back to him at this point.

Because apparently every single Mets failure over the last 2 years was completely the fault of Paul Lo Duca. Metstradamus sums this up pretty well, so there's no need to say the same thing twice, but Lo Duca is being made a total scapegoat. It's clear that he was never Omar Minaya's first choice, and apparently he didn't come around enough to Salsa music over the course of the last two years to make Omar, Tony Bernazard and co. view him in a more positive light.


Look, I like Omar Minaya, but he absolutely wins d-bag of the month of November for this one. Say you're not interested in bringing back Paul Lo Duca because he's a 36 year old catcher and could break down over the life of his new deal. Come up with some other excuse. Or just do as your grandmother always said and don't say anything, if you don't have anything nice to say. But instead the Met front office just threw Lo Duca under the bus so they could to justify giving a career .250 hitter three years and $15 million.

And now, because Torrealba failed a physical, or was part of the Mitchell investigation, or whatever, we have no catcher. And we don't even deserve a 36 year old catcher who could break down over the life of his next contract, and won't get him, although it now really looks like he's the best option at this point.

Because we need to use our trading chips for pitching, and the free agent market is now officially void of viable regular catching options. My vote is to let Ramon Castro, who's deal didn't collapse - if you will - start and pray it works. Find him a decent backup and hope he and Castro outperform the Alberto Castillo/Tim Spehr pre-Mike Piazza platoon from 1998.

We're going on three years since the start of the Pedro/Beltran era, two since Billy Wagner and Carlos Delgado joined the party. New Yorkers have short memories and an even smaller degree of collective patience. Go get some good pitching, Omar, and prove you're still worth anything.

(Pics courtesy angrychicken.typepad.com, superbweddings.com)