My Thoughts On Bay Signing
Upon hearing the news that the Mets signed Jason Bay yesterday a friend of mine, who coincidentally is a Phillie fan, asked me via Facebook what my thoughts of Bay as a Met are. My response was as follows:
I think the fourth year wasn’t necessary. He’s a good player and definitely adds some pop to the lineup. The Mets have finally addressed a position (LF) that’s been an issue for years (since Moises Alou declined rapidly about 4 years ago). But I heard a rumor that Francoeur’s wrist is worse than they thought it was since the season ended so Bay’… See Mores help may be balanced by the loss of Frenchy.
The biggest problem is that they have no rotation behind Santana. They have a #1 and the rest are at best #4s or less. Bay can (and hopefully will) help score more runs but they need pitching to keep their opponents from scoring more. Right now I don’t see how they’re going to accomplish that.
This was, of course, an off the cuff analysis. let me explain.
I don’t think any player should get more than 3 years with the possible exception of the greatest players in the game. Johan Santana and Alex Rodriguez are two of the few players that fit into that category.
Though I’m not a great Bay fan and would have hoped for someone better the fact is that of the players available he’s in the top 2 (along with Matt Holliday) and left field is a spot that needs to have been filled three years ago. So in that sense this is a very good signing.
My comment about Jeff Francoeur‘s thumb is not based on reliable information. It was just something I saw on Twitter. It probably doesn’t mean anything but with the could hanging over the Mets medical team it bears keeping in mind. But if Frenchy is healthy the team finally has a solid outfield.
The rest of my comment is self explanatory. The rotation is a big question mark behind Santana. There were pitchers available over the last couple of years that would have filled in the rotation nicely but Omar Minaya passed over them for some reason. Hopefully a couple of decent starters become available and find their way onto the roster because what they have now will not win any championships.
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Be Patient, A Big Move Will Come
It’s been a long offseason for Mets fans as the team has not yet made a major move. If my Twitter feed is any indication it looks like Mets fans are getting increasingly antsy as they wait for Omar Minaya to pull the trigger on a big deal. It’s times like these that I feel the need to remind people of recent history so they can put things in perspective.
Let’s look at the last several offseasons under Omar Minaya’s watch. In 2005 Minaya made a splash and automatically made the Mets a competing team with the signings of Pedro Martinez and Carlos Beltran. In 2006 he made them contenders by acquiring Carlos Delgado. 2007 season saw the acquisition of Moises Alou, a player not on the same level as the rest in this list but looked at as a big pick up at the time. The trend continued in 2008 with the Johan Santana trade and 2009 with the signing of Francisco Rodriguez.
Each year that Omar Minaya has been the Mets general manager he has made a big acquisition in the offseason and what do we have to show for it? That’s right. Nothing. The big acquisition is good for some splash. It gets your name in the headlines for a couple of days but it’s no guarantee to add wins to your record.
However, given this rack record you can be assured that Minaya will make at least one big move. Just be patient. It’s coming.
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Phils Get Halladay And I Concede the Division
I know that there’s a plan. I know that there are things going on behind the scenes that I’m not seeing. But I can’t help but think that despite trading Cliff Lee to the Seattle Mariners yesterday the Phillies got even better. That’s because the trade brought Roy Halladay over from the Toronto Blue Jays. Though the trade has not been announced officially I saw a report earlier today that said Halladay was already taking his physical with the Phillies. This has me thinking that the Mets are already out of the division race and must set their sights on the wild card. That’s a pretty scary thought considering we’re over two months away from spring training.
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21st Annual Going to Bat for B.A.T. Dinner
The Baseball Assistance Team (B.A.T.) will be holding the 21st Annual Going to Bat for B.A.T. Dinner on January 26, 2010 at the New York Marriott Marquis Hotel in Times Square and will celebrate the 80th Anniversary of the MVP Award. Some former Mets scheduled to attend are Benny Ayala, Rick Cerone, Ed Charles, John Franco, Keith Hernandez, Cleon Jones, Ed Kranepool, Terry Leach, Barry Lyons, Lee Mazzilli, Rusty Staub, Ron Swoboda, Jeff Torborg (Manager) & Pat Zachary.
B.A.T. is a 501 c 3 charitable organization that assists members of the “baseball family†in need. Members of the baseball family include more than just top tier talent that was paod top dollar while playing. It includes former major leaguers, minor leaguers, umpires, scouts, managers, coaches, athletic trainers, Negro league players, front office employees, players from the Women’s Professional Baseball League and their spouses.
For more information click here.
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Mets Sign Forever A Phillie Coste
Yesterday the Mets signed former Phillies and Astros catcher Chris Coste. The signing gives the Mets a veteran catcher to help out while Omir Santos and Josh Thole continue to develop.
As always I want the players the Mets sign to excel (with the possible exception of the second time they signed Bobby Bonilla). It doesn’t matter to me where the player came from or where he’s going. While in a Mets uniform I’ll be rooting for him. When I heard the Mets signed Coste I immediately applied the same philosophy to this signing.
But then Coste went ahead and said the following while taking with a Philadelphia reporter after he signed with the Mets:
I will always be a Phillie
I understand what he’s saying. He’s saying that he will always be thankful for the opportunity the Phillies gave him. How they gave him a change to succeed after bouncing around the minors for so long. How their faith in him will always keep the organization close to his heart.
I get it. But most New York fans won’t. The fans and media in New York are terribly tough. A statement like this will not help Coste ingratiate himself to them. If they remember this statement next season they will give him hell for it.
I honestly hope they don’t remember so that Coste can just get on with playing and not have to worry about outside pressures. I can forgive him for the statement. Can you?
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Nice To Have Cora Back But What’s With This Contract?
The Mets resigned free agent infielder Alex Cora yesterday. The deal calls for Cora to be paid $2 million for the 2010 season. I like this deal on the surface but when you break it down it looks pretty bad.
- $2 million for a backup. Cora is a backup middle infielder whose recent experience has proven cannot hold up as a starter. I know that $2 million won’t exactly break the Mets back as far as payroll goes but there are better options available for less money. For example, Omar Vizquel got $1,375,000 from the White Sox. OK, it’s relatively small money in a game where the average player makes about $3 million a year but it shows bad judgment.
- Incentives. Built into the contract are incentives for having started 80, 90, 100 and 110 games. I could understand these incentives for having played in these numbers of games. But starting? As a backup he’s really got no control over how many games he starts but with the injury problems the Mets had last year incentives for games started by a backup don’t sit well with me. Besides, what happened to incentives being earned and not rewarded based on teammates injuries?
- Vesting options. If Cora starts 80 games next season a $2 million option for 2011 will become guaranteed. In other words, if Jose Reyes needs to take some extra days off to rest his repaired leg and Luis Castillo shows that last years .302 average in 142 games was an aberration, two things Cora has absolutely no control over, Cora will automatically benefit.
I like Cora and I don’t mean to rip him. I like his attitude and hope that this years team benefits from it.
I’m also sure management has taken these things into account as well. I mean, these are incentives and options that, if all goes to plan, should never come to pass so what’s the harm in putting it in the contract?
But as a fan it just doesn’t sit well with me. Offering more money to a marginal player and the possibility of guaranteed money for an extra year if other players get hurt just doesn’t seem right. Let’s just hope Omar Minaya knows what he’s doing here. His job depends on it.
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Mets Preparing For Big Changes?
Lost in all the hoopla of game 1 of the World series was some news out of Mets camp. These are only rumors at this point but are expected to be announced as fact right after the series.
The juicier story was reported by Jon Heyman of si.com. Heyman reports that the Mets have talked VP of scouting Sandy Johnson out of retirement. Apparently the Mets went through great efforts to keep Johnson working and some are thinking that this is part of the contingency planning for in case the team decides to fire general manager Omar Minaya.
Other reports link former San Diego Padres general manager Kevin Towers to the Mets as a prospective assistant GM. I also read somewhere that former Toronto Blue Jays general manager J.P. Ricciardi has also been linked to the Mets.
Regardless of the Towers and Ricciardi rumors it seems that the Mets are preparing themselves for the possibility of replacing Minaya. I don’t think that will happen in the offseason (if they would fire him in the offseason it would have happened already) but it certainly looks like they’re losing faith and want to prepare for the possibility of a change at the general manager’s position (possibly during the 2010 season) if Minaya’s offseason moves don’t work out.
The second bit of news was reported by Minaya’s good buddy Adam Rubin in his article in today’s edition of the New York Daily News. Rubin reports the hiring of Chip Hale as third base coach. Hale had served as third base coach of the Arizona Diamondbacks the last few years before being fired as a scapegoat for the D-Backs bad performance this year. But the more important revelation came later in the article.
A couple of weeks a go the Mets shook up their coaching staff by relieving bench coach Sandy Alomar Sr. and first base coach Luis Alicea of their positions with the club. It was also announced that third base coach Razor Shines will no longer coach third but will remain on the coaching staff. After these moves were made it was thought by most people in the know that Shines would be the new bench coach. But Rubin says that the Mets may be talking to former D-Back manager Bob Melvin about the bench coach position. Rubin says another source told him that the team is considering other names from outside the organization as well.
So while ownership appears to be preparing for a general manager change it also appears they are preparing for a possible field manager change as well by possibly hiring a bench coach with managerial experience. Is it possible that by this time next year we’ll see a change at both positions? It certainly looks like that’s what’s being prepared for.
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The Post Welcomes The Frillies
I don’t normally like this kind of gamesmanship or journalism but the New York Post sported a front page today where they referred to the the Phillies as the Frillies and a Photoshoped picture of Shane Victorino in a skirt. A treat for any Mets fan (always) and any Yankees fan (this week).
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My Take on the Nightmare World Series
When the Yankees beat the Angels last night it set up a World Series that is a nightmare for most Mets fans: a Yankees/Phillies World Series. And it also begs the question of which team Mets fans will be rooting for. My answer? The Yankees.
Being a Mets fan and a fan of the National League type of game my usual allegiance in the World Series goes to the National League team unless (a) that team is either in the Mets division or another bitter rival or (b) the Yankees are in the series. That goes double for this year when the NL team is both in the Mets division AND a bitter rival.
From what I’ve read around the web on various blogs the main reason why those Mets fans who are rooting for the Phillies are rooting for them is because they don’t want to deal with the Yankees fans holding yet another World Championship over their heads. They don’t want a parade in their city for another team. To me that’s the wrong reason to choose who you’re rooting for.
I’ve never been one of those people who thinks that just because you’re a fan of one team in a multi-team market you can’t root for the other team. This may make me an atypical New York fan but I never saw what either team had to gain or lose by the outcome of the other team’s games unless they were playing each other or another team in the other teams division. Maybe that’s why Yankee fans don’t bother me much when they gloat. When they do I usually explain this philosophy and the gloating turns into a more productive discussion of the games themselves or other related subjects.
Though I am rooting for the Yankees I actually feel that the best take for a Mets fan on this series is what Matthew Cerrone wrote on MetsBlog this morning. In a post on this subject Cerrone wrote “it’s not that I am rooting for the Yankees, it’s that I’m rooting for the Phillies to fail”. The attitude here is not so much to root for the Yankees but to root against the Phillies. To me that makes a boatload of sense for the beleaguered Mets fan.
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Mets May Be Sued Over Madoff Profit
Remember last winter when Jeff Wilpon said that Sterling Equities’ accounts with Bernie Madoff wouldn’t affect team operations? Remember how we all scoffed at the remark? Turns out Jeff was right!
According to a report on Bloomberg Sterling Equities actually made money from Madoff. Apparently the Mets widthdrew $570.5 million from their Madoff account after an initial investment of $522.7 million for a profit of $47.8 million.
The team, however, will probably be sued for this profit by a group claiming that the profit was illegitimate. Since Madoff falsified account statements to show profits that didn’t really exist (because he was stealing the money) the group claims that investors are only entitled to the amount of their initial investment and not any profits (since there technically wasn’t any profit).
I see their argument and actually agree with it. However in the Mets case haven’t they already suffered enough loss this year? The Oliver Perez signing alone cost them $36 million. And all those medical bills.
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