Collazo: “Get Kazmir-Get Championshipsâ€
Kevin Collazo of Take the 7 Train posted regarding yesterday’s story that the Tampa Bay Devil Rays may deal Mets fans favorite son Scott Kazmir. The headline says it all: “Get Kazmir-Get Championshipsâ€.
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Mats Fans on Facebook
There’s a new Facebook application for Mets fans. If you are a Facebook user check it out.
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Mattingly, Bowa Join Torre
As previously rumored Don Mattingly is joining Joe Torre’s coaching staff in Los Angeles. Larry Bowa, who had previously been rumored to be taking a position in Seattle, will also be part of the Dodgers coaching staff.
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Kazmir May Be Available
For all of those Mets fans still not over the Scott Kazmir trade. According to a Joel Sherman report in today’s New York Post the Tampa Bay Devil Rays may be willing to talk about trading the former Mets stud pitching prospect. I’ve gotten over the whole trade but when you hear a guy who has gone 33–26 with a 3.53 ERA while striking out 576 hitters through 537 innings over 3 years on a losing team becomes available you begin to think of how much better those numbers would look on a better team. Then you begin to get giddy about the idea. And next thing you know you’re trading the world for him. He would definitely be a good get and the Mets could certainly use a started of this level but let’s not get too excited too fast.
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Mets Free Agent Update
Adam Rubin reports in today’s New York Daily News that the Mets are close to re-signing Marlon Anderson. I’ll be curious to see the terms of this deal (mostly the length) because Anderson left the Mets on his last stint with the club over a disagreement on length. He wanted two years, the Mets offered one.
Meanwhile Ken Rosenthal of FoxSports.com is reporting that the Mets may have some competition for Luis Castillo‘s services. Rosenthal says the Houston Astros plan on making a push for Castillo as they look to replace Craig Biggio.
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Barry Bonds, a Baseball and the Hall of Fame
Barry Bonds has finally spoken about the Hall of Fame and the ball that was home run no. 756. The ball was bought by designer Marc Ecko who set up a website for people to vote on what he should do with it. The choice that won the vote was for the ball to be branded with an asterisk and sent to the Hall of Fame.
The AP reported yesterday that Bonds said he would boycott the Hall of Fame if the asterisk baseball is put on display.
I don’t think you can put an asterisk in the game of baseball, and I don’t think that the Hall of Fame can accept an asterisk. You cannot give people the freedom, the right to alter history. You can’t do it. There’s no such thing as an asterisk in baseball.
That didn’t stop the record books from displaying an asterisk on the single season home run record held by Roger Maris all those years. (That record was 61*.)
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ARod to Frisco? Toledo?
The AP is reporting that San Francisco Giants general manager Brian Sabean plans to “kick the tires” as far as signing Alex Rodriguez goes but that a signing would be a ‘reach’. The timing of ARod coming to San Fran would certainly be good. As the Barry Bonds era ends in the Bay area the Giants are in the market for a new star.
Meanwhile officials for the Toledo Mud Hens, the Detroit Tigers AAA affiliate, are taking a Hank Steinbrenner quote seriously. The AP is reported yesterday that hank’s comment, “Does he want to go into the Hall of Fame as a Yankee, or a Toledo Mud Hen?”, resulted in the Mud Hens making an offer to the future hall of famer. The team offered a contract proposal that includes a bonus for hitting 75 home runs next year and leading them to 10 straight International League titles. The deal was presented with a Hall of Fame plaque of Rodriguez wearing a Mud Hens hat.
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Torre & Girardi Officially Employed
Joe Torre is now officially the manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Torre was signed to a 3 year contract worth $13 million.
Meanwhile in New York Joe Girardi was officially introduced as the Yankees manager. In the New York Post this morning Joel Sherman takes Girardi to task for his negotiations for the Yankees job. Apparently Girardi used the Dodgers opening as leverage for upping the Yankees offer for the job he refers to as his dream job. Sherman says that if it was his dream job he would have taken the Yanks initial offer (the same $5.5 million offered to Torre) and not tried to negotiate them up to $7.8 million.
I have to disagree with Sherman on this one. Whenever you are offered a job you negotiate the best benefits you can get. In this case the benefit being negotiated was salary. Every future managerial contract he gets from the Yankees will be based on this one. If the team wins 100 games a year at $7.8 million then his next contract would have to reflect the success against the salary. in other words it would have to be for more money than the first contract. If he accepts $5.5 million then the next could be less then the $7.8 million he got now. But at $7.8 million the next contract would have to be in the area of $10 million.
Also, negotiations are a big game of chicken. In this case the Yankees flinched first and gave the $7.8 million Girardi says he was offered by the Dodgers. But what if the Yankees hadn’t flinched and stuck to a $5.5 million offer? would Girardi have taken it or gone to L.A.? We’ll never know.
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Orioles Let Benson Go
An interesting development came out of Baltimore today when the Orioles declined the option on Kris Benson‘s contract after the righthander spent the whole 2007 season on the disabled list. The move makes Benson a free agent. With the Mets needing pitching help you’d have to think they’d take a look at Benson and discuss the possibility of a return to the Mets. That is as long as his wife Anna didn’t totally wear out their welcome on Benson’s previous stint with the team. It certainly looked like she was slamming doors on hew way out.
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Tracking the Mets Free Agents
I created a new page on the blog I call the Mets Free Agent Tracker. This page tracks all of the Mets players from 2007 who have filed for free agency. Check it out by clicking the link in the bar at the top of tis colum or by clicking here.
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