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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Dear Omar,

As I wrote the other day, Mets fans want to see Oliver Perez or Ben Sheets in this rotation next year. Unless you pull off a trade, any other pitcher is not acceptable in the number 2 slot.

You have said yourself that you are focused almost exclusively on the Mets rotation. So any competent person would understand that to mean that you would be pursuing the number 2 starter that the rotation badly needs. Instead you're wasting time on guys like Freddy Garcia, Casey Fossum, Rob Mackowiak, and Cory Sullivan among other career minor league players. Are the Buffalo Bisons looking for a new GM? I think you'd be perfect for the job.

Please explain to me how any of these guys is a more important priority than Perez or Sheets? Is it more important to sign a guy who may pitch upwards or 30 games for the New York Mets, or a guy who will struggle to keep from being cut from a minor league team?

I will repeat this to you one more time... you already messed up with Lowe... sign Perez or Sheets or pack your things and don't let the door hit you on the way out.

With love,

Mets fans everywhere Read More...

to view the results from last weeks poll, click here Read More...

Oliver Perez and Ben Sheets are probably the only two starting pitchers left in the current free agent market that Mets fans can realistically live with in our rotation for next season. Honestly, if Omar finds a way to begin 2009 without one of these two guys, we might as well just fire him right now.

Of course we'll likely only end up with one of them, so the question becomes who would you rather have? This is the case for Ben Sheets.

First off, when he's on the field, Ben Sheets is arguably one of the most dominant and consistent pitchers in baseball. He's had an ERA under 4 each of the past 5 seasons, he has great command over his pitches, he has an amazing strikeout to walk ratio (better than Johan Santana's last year), he pitched five complete games in 2008, which coincidentally was as many as the Mets entire pitching staff had. Plus he's been an all star each of the past two seasons.

The combination of Santana and Sheets would give the Mets one of the best 1-2 punches, and overall one of the best rotations in all of baseball. Imagine a 3 game series with the Phillies where the Mets can throw out Santana, Sheets, and Pelfrey... that's a thing of beauty.

Of course, Sheets does come with some baggage which cannot be ignored, he has had his share of injuries the last few seasons. I'm not terribly worried about these injuries with Sheets, and here's why. Sheet's injuries have been relatively unrelated to one another. He had a finger injury, a shoulder injury, and now an elbow injury, none of which have caused him to miss a prolonged period of time. He pitched a full season in 2008, and had 24 starts in 2007. So although hes had a few short stints on the DL, it's not like he's re-injuring his shoulder over and over, or had major surgery which kept him out for 18 months.

In fact, the injury issue plays better for the Mets. With Sheets, the Mets wont have to offer a 4 or 5 year deal worth 12-15 million per season like they would have to with Perez. They could presumably sign Sheets to a two year deal worth 12-15 million with a vesting option for a third year.

As for Perez, I still don't buy into the idea that he'll break out the next few years into an ace pitcher, it seems like they've been saying that about him for a few years, and it hasn't really happened. He has some serious control issues, and he struggles to pitch more than 5 innings half the times he goes out there. We cannot afford to give Perez a 4 or 5 year deal with all the control questions surrounding him.

I think Ben Sheets in the better choice, he's got the better track record, and he's probably got more upside than Perez as well. Read More...