"We don’t feel like we have to do a deal for a pitcher..." -Omar MinayaSure, that's what he says. And if you're a fan hearing that, you're probably tearing your hair out right now. But believe this: As Omar Minaya looks repeatedly at the picture in his jacket of all the aces posing on his front door fading away because he's increasingly coming to the point where he can't acquire any of them, you can bet that he's running around the Opryland Hotel performing his best guitar solos to try to get these GM's to hand over their aces.
The problem is that it is harder than it seems. Dontrelle Willis has faded from the picture completely as he's gone to Detroit along with Miguel Cabrera for the Tigers entire minor league system. Johan Santana is pretty much out of the picture himself, Dan Haren is being pursued hard by the Diamondbacks for some good prospects, and Erik Bedard is being chased hard by the Dodgers, as they may have offered Matt Kemp and Jonathan Broxton for him. Now Omar's first guitar solo is reportedly in the form of an offer Aaron Heilman, Carlos Gomez, and Phil Humber...which would be a steal if that happened (Steve Phillips reports that, so the grains of salt come free with that information). But do you see the O's going for that instead of Kemp and Broxton?
"Officials of two clubs that have been in contact with the Mets used the same expression -- "in trouble" -- to describe their efforts to deal for a starting pitcher."
Well now that doesn't sound promising. Now we'll find out just how regarded the Mets prospects are with this Gomez offer. I for one will be surprised (albeit pleasantly) if the O's take the Gomez deal instead of the deal for a power hitter like Kemp and a power pitcher like Broxton (although stranger things have happened, like when Peter Angelos decided at the last minute not to trade Miguel Cabrera and cost the Mets Roy Oswalt.)(Editor's update: Gee what a surprise, the Orioles turned the deal down.)
Get strummin', Omar.
7 comments:
I dont see why they dont throw Oliver Perez into this. Bedard would be an upgrade over him and then you sign Silva to take Perez's place in the middle of the rotation.
that is a terrible idea. what does bedard get you over perez? 2 more wins, maybe? the whole point of the mets getting an ace is to add to maine/perez, and thus make their rotation more complete.
it would be one thing if the mets were swimming in starting pitching and someone was expendable. but they're not, and that sort of add/subtract move won't fly. we need to add. no subtraction. except from our farm system, which we might as well just give to the orioles and see if maybe that can pry away bedard.
It's possible that Omar is deliberately offering bogusly one-sided deals to show the fans that he's "doing something. This would be a smart move, since the worst that could happen is that nobody takes any deal and the Mets keep their prospects, which is the best course of action anyway, and the best that could happen is that some mark takes the one-sided deal and we actually get Bedard for Humber and Gomez. This kind of shrewd politics is something Omar seems to be food at.
I'm pretty sure that the racist Wilpons forced Omar's hand with the Milledge deal, so the jury is actually still out on Minaya. If I'm right, and Omar is doing as well as he can to be sensible in the face of a vicious and ignorant media and insane fan base, then he deserves praise.
On the other hand, the fact that they offered a four year deal to the most overrated player in the league is strong evidence that Omar is being sincere in his stupidity.
There is no real need for an ace in this system, and the Mets prospects are all severely undervalued by the rest of the league, so they are in no position to trade for one. Fernando Martinez seems like the real deal, and I'm in no mood to trade away a good candidate to be the next the next David Wright.
They already threw away their best shot at getting better in the shortish term with Lastings Milledge. With Millz, there was a good shot at a solid RF for years to come. With these new dudes, mediocrity is assured.
My prediction is that Livan Hernandez will be signed soon and maybe Dotel. 4th place--here we come!!!
Metman - you are too pessimistic. Fourth place? If Pedro Martinez has a solid year, and if Moises does what he did last year (maybe even with less injury days off), and Perez and Maine continue to improve, and Ryan Church delivers on the promise that Omar seems to think he has, and Schneider is strong defensively and has a bounce-back year offensively, the Mets may just be able to steal third place.
If anyone thinks the team as currently constituted is going places, they've lost their marbles. We've now endured two seasons in which our pitching has done us in. And this year, we can't fall back on the "division is weak anyway" excuse. The Phils and Braves are strong. And the Nats are no slouch either.
If they can't get a number 1 starter, they'd better add some serious pieces to that bullpen. If Omar fails on both counts (starter and bullpen), barring some amazing surprises from Pelfrey and Humber, MD is right - we're looking at a third or fourth place team.
Our starting pitching was actually quite capable. It was mismanagement of the bullpen that did us in, as well as the underperformance of Carlos Delgado and Tom Glavine at the end of the season. Having weak hitters like Green (who's clone we traded for) LoDuca, and Castillo (who we resigned outright didn't help.
I'd say our best strategy is to go with Phillip Humber and Pelf. They can't be much worse than a Livan Hernandez, and we're not getting Bedard. Pedeo should be an ugrade over Glavine, Maine should continue to improve. Getting a Livan Hernandez for $10M would be a huge waste of money.
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