The Tease Continues

The crack staff reports that the official offer for Johan Santana is as follows:

Carlos Gomez

Fernando Martinez

Kevin Mulvey

Mike Pelfrey

Phil Humber

Hector Pellot

Deolis Guerra

Mike Carp

Ryan Church

Johnny Estrada

Brian Bohanon

The Savannah Sand Gnats

John Maine's impersonator

The cat from the tarp

Roger Cedeno

Timo Perez

Chad Pennington

Peter Forsberg

Al Yeganeh's recipe for Seafood Gumbo

The publishing rights to "Metography"

A partridge in one of New York's finest pear trees

Kirk Radomski's black book

Five Junior's Cheesecakes and a Red Velvet Cake from Cake Man Raven

Jon Heyman reports that Boston can top that offer if they include Clay Buchholz.

Hello? McFly?

"We don’t feel like we have to do a deal for a pitcher..." -Omar Minaya

Sure, 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.

The Uniforms Change, The Nightmares Remain The Same

Don't worry teach, I still have nightmares about what might have happened throughout the season if the Mets could have only gotten more than three hits off of Tyler Clippard back in his major league debut on May 20th. Well, I have nightmares about a lot of games in '07, but this was the game that started it all (and I threw out my back to boot.) And now, he'll be on all of our minds more as the Washington Nationals are continuing their hunting and gathering for past, present, and future Met killers, as they've traded for Clippard.

We're overdue for some good news. Is today the day? Forgive me if I don't hold my breath.

Highway To Hell

Now I don't want to think the worst of people, but this passage from Ken Rosenthal has me a little concerned.

Mets general manager Omar Minaya always takes a high-energy approach, but it would be understandable if he was even more motivated this off-season.

The pressure on him is growing. Minaya, signed through 2009, has been thwarted in his attempts to land a contract extension, according to major league sources.

His job, in the wake of the Mets' late-season collapse, is less secure than it was a year ago, when the team was coming off an appearance in the NL Championship Series.

His recent trade of outfielder Lastings Milledge, 22, for catcher Brian Schneider, 31, and outfielder Ryan Church, 29, reflected the Mets' desire to satisfy short-term goals.

For all those that said that you would have rather kept Lastings Milledge if his stock was indeed as low as insiders tell us it was (and I'm in that camp), you may have your answer as to why Minaya decided to get what he can now...to keep the wolves away from his door. But come on, you'd have to be a real cynic to think that Omar would put his own interests in front of the team's interests, wouldn't you?

(Editor's note: I am a cynic.)

Naah, Omar hasn't put his interests ahead of the team's interests...not at all. But at this point, his own interests and the team's interests may be riding side by side on a cross-country trip to hell. Or at least to Nashville.

We'll know a hell of a lot more at the end of the week, won't we? Here's my quick preview of the winter meetings:

Erik Bedard=good.
Dan Haren=good.
Bartolo Colon or Livan Hernandez=I stick my head in the oven.

Strength Of Schedule

The Mets will open spring training on February 26th against the University of Michigan.

The club hopes that this scheduling, along with losses by Missouri and West Virginia, will make them BCS eligible in 2008.

Appalachian State was not available for comment.

Mr. Baseball

So Mike Piazza says he'd be interested in Japan if nobody in the major leagues signed him.

Enjoy those dumplings.