The only way this team is going to improve is if they are willing to eat the mistakes made over the last few years. I don't know if it can be done but they need to figure out a way to dump Beltran. The guy looked done last year and he has no heart of fire. He has a full no trade clause but if it can be done even if it means eating some of his contract he needs to be shipped. I'd still like to see them somehow get Cliff Lee because Johan has given me no confidence that he can stay healthy over the course of a full season. We need to beat Philly with pitching and Lee would be a great start. The thing is I don't think the Mets are as far off the pace as people think. This team lost way too many games in which guys like Dickey, Niese and Santana pitched well enough to get wins. I think Santana at one point only won 6 out of 13 games in which he gave up a run or less. That's ridiculous. I'd still like to see the Mets bring in another CI. If they can somehow move Beltran I'd like to see them bring in Dunn to play right and allow Pagan to be the full time CF, quite honestly even if they don't move Beltran I wanna see them bring him in. Knock him all you want but the guy is a legit power hitter. 35 + HRs 8 years in a row speaks for itself.
I think Alderson is going to look at 2011 as a rebuilding season. If he can't trade Ollie, Beltran or Perez he will see if the Wilpons will just eat the contracts on Ollie and Castillo to get them away from the team. I would expect that Alderson is going to put in place an organization wide belief in using stats versus scouts reports as the primary decision maker in transactions. Players like Reyes may not be in his long term plan. He's already trying to get Paul Depodasta and JP Riccardi to join him. He's going to build through the draft, international free agency and cheap free agent signings. It's going to be a slow boring process where the Mets are not on the back pages for good or bad but eventually they will have a very talented competitive team.
The shortstop position is probably the thinnest in baseball. FWIW, I don't think Reyes is a leadoff hitter. He's fast, and he gets on base, but he doesn't have a leadoff approach, and at this age, he's unlikely to develop one. That said, he rates above average offensively at shortstop and average defensively, and that's in a down year on both fronts for him. If he gets back to normal, he's a top five shortstop in the NL. Beyond that, Ruben Tejada is not, nor is anyone on the Mets, and there's not much in free agency. Add that to the fact that Reyes is one of three position players the Mets have ever DEVELOPED AND RETAINED, and trading him is even sillier. If you want to trade someone...think about Mike Pelfrey. He's a league average pitcher dependent on good infield defense and prone to mental lapses, with modest k rates. Someone will overpay you for him. -X-
His track record shows.... not much. I'll never understand the love affair with a guy who has accomplished close to nothing during his years as a MLB manager.
Meh... you're right he is, but we might as well consider Davey Johnson as our best option if that's the way we're thinking.
Yessssssss. For the first time in recent memory, I actually feel like I'll have confidence in the front office. I wouldn't actively pursue trades for Reyes or Wright - they already have enough needs without having to fill in giant gaps on the left side of the infield.
The only name players the Mets should look to move are Beltran (who nobody wants at 18 million a year) and Perez who nobody wants at what they are paying him. The only teams I can think of that even remotely might be interested in Beltran would be Dodgers or White Sox and maybe Boston. Outside of that good luck. I think we're stuck with him.
Only way Beltran gets traded for anything more than a used condom is if Minaya goes to the Dodgers!! My idea for Reyes was to try to get two good players for a player who is good but overrated by Mets fans and many analysts. I would rather keep a core of Wright / Reyes / Davis / Thole but sometimes you have to give up one to bring in something that strengthens elsewhere. Not sure who would be interested but its the offseason and its the time for ridiculous ideas!
ill be happy to start the year with basically the same roster as last year as long as castillo and perez are gone.beltran may surprise us.im hoping for it.
In my opinion you don't trade away players that fill important positions on the field, 3rd base and SS to get pitching, you keep the talented players you have especially at those positions where they are hard to fill to begin with. First you try to get rid of Castillo and Perez, even if you have to eat the contract, (easier said than done) fill those positions with players that are not going to be high priced players, at this point the Mets can use Tejada at second, this will give them the infield of Wright, Reyes, Tejada and Ike. The outfiled is going to be a little trickier, but Pagan, Beltran and possible free agent might do the trick. I'm all for change guy's but lets not forget this team was 9 games over .500 before the All Star break, they went down hill when Beltran and Castillo were inserted into the line up and the experiment with Reyes hitting third in the line up was implemented. I thought Jerry would keep the line up the same as before the break even though those guys came back and he would gradually work them back in, instead he disrupted the whole chemistry of the line up he had and they never got it back. I say let's keep what we have in the infield, with Tejada being the only change and keep what we have in the outfield, fill the right field spot with a free agent if available, and see where it goes from there.
Thanks for pointing that out to me, I did forget about him because he was invisible the first part of the year and then he got hurt, my bad. In that case I would leave the outfield as is, Bay, Pagan, and Beltran.....yes I would put Pagan in Center and Beltran in right as he is a little older now and tends to get nicked up a little more.
Is this lineup really that bad? I'm not sure it's World Series caliber, but if healthy and if the pitching is upgrade I think it's good enough for wildcard contention. SS Reyes CF Pagan 3B Wright LF Bay RF Beltran 1B Davis C Thole 2B Castillo
Wishlist: Reyes SS Pagan CF Crawford LF Wright 3B Bay RF Davis 1B Thole C Tejada 2B Rotation: Lee Santana Dickey Pelfrey Niese Realize this isn't really probably. We'll hafta swallow a lot of money getting rid of Ollie, Castillo, and Beltran. Wouldn't leave money for Craw+Lee signings, even IF they wanted to come to Citi.
One move I'd like to see that could definitely happen is signing Orlando Hudson to a short term deal. 1 year with an option for 2 while we groom someone. His numbers aren't amazing but he is player not afraid to roll his sleeves up and get dirty. Someone like that on this team would help tons imo. Plus he is openly a fan of the Mets organization. Somehow I would like to see them fuck K-Rod in the K-Ass. Don't let him get to the 55 games closed and turn that $17 mil option into a 25 cent piece of contract paper."Groom" Parnell to be a closer, thus taking away chances from K-Rod. Either way I expect this off season to be really quiet for the Mets and I have no problem with that as long as we are headed in the right direction, which it seems we are.
The time to sign the O-Dog was about 2 years ago when he was practically begging the Mets to sign him, yet Minaya decided not to because we were still contractually obligated to Castillo.
Finally the team will go from having a statistical analysis department consisting of one of Riccos interns browsing fangraps to some of the people who developed the methods themselves and will bring in professional tools and people. No more rushing prospects for no reason or telling guys to slap singles to the opposite field to compensate for the parks dimensions. Alderson will flip the whole org upside down, in a good way. He will modernize the Mets front office and and put into practice his proven system in an environment where he has more resources then he's ever had before. It's going to be sick when he starts drafting and developing players. Players brought up to get on base and not give up outs. Nobody is trading Reyes. He's coming off two down years and injuries. His value is at it's lowest. He's on a reasonable contract and if he's playing well you can extend him. Same thing with Beltran. If he's playing well at the deadline then you see if you can deal him. Worst he walks at the end of the year as a type A FA and the Mets get decent draft picks. He's not getting into a bidding war with the Yankees over Lee. Let them pay 30million a year for his age 32-37 production. The team isn't one pitcher away anyways. Same thing for Crawford, especially since the Mets don't need an outfielder at the moment. Pagan/Beltran are fine at CF. Bay isn't going anywhere and the two best prospects in the system (F-Mark and Captain Kirk) are corner outfielders. Bobby V wouldn't work with Alderson. He has his own philosophies and he thinks they're the right ones and he's not going to shape his vision to fit the rest of the org. He'd demand the opposite.
