There is a lot of Doom and Gloom with Mets fans at the moment, with John Lackey headed to Beantown and the Phillies having a happy Halladay, in all honest Met fans need to take a deep breath and be HAPPY that these moves happened.


Its tough to see a prize like Roy Halladay go to a hated rival, but the phillies did not gain anything with this move. In fact they traded off several prospects AND their top pitcher to make what is at best a lateral move. Roy Halladay is a dominating pitcher, he is also 33 years old and is set to make more than 20 million a year to play in philadelphia, but surprise, Cliff Lee was phenomenal last year for the Phils, is younger, would have signed for less AND wouldn't have cost their team any of their future players. Be happy those morons out in Philly screwed up this badly.

Now on to Lackey, Lackey is staying in the AL, which is a good thing for Mets fans, and the METS didnt overspend on an aging pitcher with declining numbers! why so upset? Rejoice the mets didn't lock up a downward trending player who in 2 years will be worth a fraction of his cost.

The mets can still make some smart moves that could pay off just as well if not better than what the phillies and red sox did.
Step One: Replace Daniel Murphy at First Base.
As I've alluded to in earlier posts, Adam LaRoche is the answer, if not him perhaps Hank Blalock would be a cheaper option.
Step Two: Sign 2-3 Mid-level Starting Pitchers
A lot of talk is made about Tony LaRussa and Dave Duncan being geniuses, but they really aren't in fact they fail to rehabilitate most of their veteran starters and tend to send a lot of young promising pitchers to the operating table. What the Cardinals' Front office does so well is they identify promising, talented veteran pitchers who are way under their market value, sign a few of them and when one or two pans out they look like geniuses. This is why signing a Jason Marquis, a Joel Pineiro, and/or a Brett Myers (or even Ben Sheets depending on his contract demands) is the right move.
Step Three: Get a Warm Body with a Decent Glove
Matt Holliday would be ideal, but if we miss out on the sweepstakes, don't throw in the towel, there are a few cheap, short term options with the hope of going after Carl Crawford next year. Randy Winn could be an excellent addition to the Mets' outfield, Rick Ankiel would be a cheap option with an excellent arm and a good glove roaming the outfield, Yes Mr Ankiel is coming off a bad year, but he'll be awful cheap and has shown 25-30 HR power in the major leagues. Other cheap options include Brian Giles, who has perhaps the best eye in baseball and would certainly sign a 1 year deal, and lets not rule out either Xavier Nady or Austin Kearns, who with all that talent just has to break out sometime.

So rejoice Mets' fans, our outlook should be positive we didn't get Snookie'd like Boston and Philly did.
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In this off season, the NY Mets face a challenge that they haven't had to deal with for 4 long years, this challenge? Finding an everyday first baseman. The answer is plain and simple Adam LaRoche.

Problem 1. First Base Defense: Last year, despite the myth propagated by some even on this blog, Daniel Murphy was a horrendous fielding first baseman. Daniel Murphy had the lowest fielding % of any first baseman (with 70+ GP) in all of Major League Baseball last season. Murphy's error total of 10, places him in a 5 way tie for 4th most errors of any first baseman in all of baseball...except Murphy had at about at least 20 less starts than any other double digit error first bagger.
Whats the best cure for bad defense? a solid above average defender, Adam LaRoche fits that bill perfectly. Last Season Adam LaRoche committed only 2 errors in 148 games, tying him for 2nd best in all of MLB.
Problem 2. Power Hitting: In 2009, the New York Mets experienced one of the worst power outages in MLB slugging only .394, tied for fourth worst in the MLB. While some of our power issues can be blamed on injuries, and even less of them on a larger stadium (Citi Field sure had a lot of HR's hit out of it last season...just not by the Metropolitians). Both of those issues can be addressed by Adam LaRoche.
Adam Laroche is a career .491 slugger, and one who showed an ability to hit for power very well in his visits to Citi Field last season as shown by his hitting .315 with 2 home runs and a .538 slugging % in 9 games at Citi Field. On the injury front, LaRoche has played less than 140 games only twice in his career, once his rookie season, and once in 2008 where he finished with 136. LaRoche is extremely durable, is not considered an injury risk and he will only be 30 years old for the 2010 season.
Problem 3. Late Season Collapses: As we as Met fans all know in 2007 and 2008 the Mets experienced problems winning games in late August and September, this problem cannot be fixed entirely by Adam LaRoche, but the number I am about to post surely will show how he can help out.
.933

That my fellow Met fans is Adam LaRoche's career August and September OPS. When it comes to post All-Star break numbers, you hear lots of talk about the Manny Ramirez's of the league, but Adam LaRoche has a career slugging % of .546, he's well known for tearing apart offenses in the second half and he may well be just the spark plug the Mets need in September to get over their late season hangups.
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