i would trade for him in a heartbeat. except they might want f-mart and Ike Davis/Jenrry Mejia. but i want crawford.
Overbay... really? The Mets are going to platoon at 1st base with Overbay and Murphy. Can the season not start this year?
I love how last year I was flamed in this thread for saying the Mets should have bought low on Abreu. Although in the long run you guys had so many injuries I guess it really wouldn't have mattered. I don't think catcher is as big of a weak spot as you guys make it out. In the NL you can get away with having mediocrity at the position. Yorvit Torrealba is a guy that I think can make some sense in a platoon situation with Omir. I actually think the Overbay deal might not be as bad as thought by some because as Rich says, it frees you up to sign Orlando Hudson to play second. Getting better defense up the middle is imperative, no more dropped fly balls for Louie. However if you know your going into the season with such a pedestrian platoon at first, it's IMPERATIVE you get a power bat in the corner outfield. You can't have a weak hitting left fielder AND a platoon of Overbay and Murphy at first. I think if the Wilpons were smart they'd throw a boatload of money at Lackey. We'll see if it happens.
Sorry but I personally like Francouer, he has more power than Pagan. I also would like to remind us Met fans that as much as I dislike Omar myself, the Wilpons gave him the okay to address the needs of the team and coming into this year they needed bullpen help and he went out and signed players that he thought would help. Putz turned out to be exactly that and their big hitters went down early in the season so for us to blame this on the Wilpons and Omar I think is assinine. What I would like to see the Mets do as part of their team building philosophy is what the Bosox do, do not sign players that are over 30-32 to long term contracts. :up:
Francoeur is so damn bad. I am not convinced that his time with the Mets this season was anything but a fluke, and his on base percentage was atrocious.
I do agree about his on base percentage, but why would he have a great on base percentage? they will always pitch to him with no one around him to bring him home and they will not give him to many pitches to hit, I would like to see him in the lineup with their big hitters and see what he can do.
He's fine in the 7 or 8 spot. Everybody hates the guy based on what he did with Atlanta, but when he was with the Mets he played better on a worse team while nursing a hand injury.
I'm not talking about just his time with the Mets. He's walked 138 times in his entire Major League career. That's 706 games, 2,940 plate appearances. That is not acceptable unless you really compensate for it by being a great power hitter. And I mean great.
The problem is that on this Mets team, he can't be a 7 or 8 hitter with the talent we do have and probably will have.
You're right. Everyone hates the guy based on his 4 and a half years in Atlanta. And when he was with the Mets for under 300 ABs he did decently. So, which of those two samples do we think is closer to giving an adequate view of what kind of player he really is?
the reds are looking to unload high salaries and potential free agents. brandon phillips is in his last year $7 million this year. and Joey Votto could be had if a high salary player is attached. http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/cincinnati_reds/index.html Reds To Cut Payroll, Big Names Could Be Dealt By Mark Polishuk [November 10, 2009 at 10:20pm CST] Add the Reds to the list of teams that are slashing, rather than spending, this off-season. Fanhouse's Ed Price and Jeff Fletcher are reporting that Cincinnati is looking to cut their payroll from $71MM in 2009 to between the $65-$70MM range next season. While it may not sound like much of a reduction, Cot's Baseball Contracts lists the Reds as owing just under $66MM to just ten players for next season, leaving little room to fill out the rest of the roster. Lagging attendance figures are to blame for the Reds' financial cutbacks. Price and Fletcher noted that attendance at the Great American Ballpark dropped by more than 15 percent from 2008 to 2009. General manager Walt Jocketty was quoted in the piece as saying, "We're going to probably have less to spend this year than we have in the past...It just depends on how [ticket] sales go this offseason." If Cincinnati does make a deal, the likeliest candidates to be moved are second baseman Brandon Phillips (owed just under $7MM in 2010), and pitchers Aaron Harang ($12.5MM) and Bronson Arroyo ($12.25MM). Phillips, with his .452 slugging percentage over the last four seasons, is the most attractive candidate to other clubs given his power from the second base position and reasonable contract. Harang and Arroyo are both coming off decent years themselves, but Price and Fletcher speculate that their bigger contract numbers would require the Reds to absorb a chunk of their salaries if traded. One star player who looks to be staying in Cincinnati is closer Francisco Cordero, who Price and Fletcher say the club "would prefer to keep" despite the $25MM he's owed through 2011. A very intriguing trade chip could be young slugger Joey Votto, if the Reds wanted to make room for star prospect Yonder Alonso at first base. Another team could be convinced to take on a bad contract if it meant getting Votto, who isn't eligible for free agency until after the 2013 season.
Sign me up for Phillips (if we can move Castillo) or Votto. Hell, I'd take Arroyo if it would help get us and Votto.
Not sure if it's been mentioned here yet, but if the Mets are willing to take on Vernon Wells' absurd contract, they might be able to get Halladay at a decent trade cost. Stick Wells in left, maybe he returns to form at least a little bit, and you kill 2 birds with one stone.
This article seems to resonate what everyone is saying about ownership. I too feel as though you have to have intelligent, savvy, goal directed front office with a common goal of replenishing the farm system, recruiting and developing talent, and being aggressive with dollars to attract the HIGH quality stars. Having said this, it is apparent that the Wilpons, Manaya, and Immanual are, to be polite..... dysfuntional...... We unfortunately will not see a team we can be proud root for until this is completely turned around....I AM NOT BEING A DARKSIDER..... sometimes ya just gotta call 'em like you see 'em........ This article lends credence to my toughts... http://http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/mets/2009/11/11/2009-11-11_harper_mets.html After dismal 2009, New York Mets must make splash with free agents Matt Holliday and John Lackey JOHN HARPER Wednesday, November 11th 2009, 4:00 AM It was a little more than a month ago that Jeff Wilpon told everyone how committed Mets ownership is to rectifying a disastrous season by putting a "championship-caliber" ballclub back on the field as quickly as possible. But is he willing to spend what it takes to back up that kind of talk? There doesn't seem to be any other way to make it happen quickly. For that matter, considering the Yankees and Phillies proved to be the two best teams in baseball in 2009, the Mets need to spend big just to make themselves relevant again. Even if all their injured players come back healthy next season, the Mets aren't even a lock to finish third in the NL East, ahead of the on-the-rise Braves and Marlins, never mind first ahead of the Phillies. Their lack of pitching and power is such that they need a free-agent daily double of John Lackey and Matt Holliday to even think about fulfilling that championship-caliber criteria. Holliday alone wouldn't even make much of a dent. The pitching staff is in such tatters behind Johan Santana that getting a top pitcher is equally vital. Figure the Mets would have to lay out a guaranteed $250 million or so to outbid other clubs and secure the top two free agents on the market. Hey, it worked for the Yankees last winter, at a cost of $423.5 million for the top three. The problem is the Mets don't seem to have any such intentions. Word filtering out from the organization is that they are not willing to pay what it will take to get such players, that they are more likely to go after second-tier free agents. In that case, you have to ask why. The Mets aren't the Yankees, I get that, and they did have the highest payroll in the National League last season, but there's a huge difference between competitive and "championship caliber." If they had a farm system brimming with top prospects, they could justify spending conservatively, waiting for the talent to blossom, but other than Fernando Martinez and Jon Niese, each of whom has much to prove after joining the injury parade last season, the Mets' top prospects are at least two years away from the majors. That also makes the Mets seem like longshots to pull off a trade for Roy Halladay, who appears likely to be dealt this winter. According to baseball sources, new Blue Jays GM Alex Anthopoulos is telling people he's looking for quality over quantity, specifically a can't-miss type prospect in any package for Halladay. Do the Mets have anyone who qualifies? Twenty-year-old Jenrry Mejia is now considered their top pitching prospect, but nobody has ever called him a can't-miss. Shortstop Wilmer Flores apparently has huge potential, but he's only 18, hardly the type of player to be a centerpiece in a deal of that magnitude. If Omar Minaya can somehow make a deal for Halladay, he could go from the hot seat to GM of the Year. It just doesn't seem feasible. No, money is the Mets' chance for salvation, as they look to make good on a lot of misery the last three seasons, the 2009 train wreck and the back-to-back collapses before that. The question last year was whether the Mets had any money, when it seemed Fred Wilpon took a huge hit in the Bernie Madoff scam. But the latest reports on that front had the Mets actually making money on the whole deal, and who knows if that's true, but at the very least it doesn't seem to be an issue as it applies to the Mets' payroll. In that case, as rotten as their first season at Citi Field turned out to be, they surely made money on all those higher-priced tickets they sold at the new stadium. It's not as if the payroll jumped proportionately last year. And let's not forget that $500 million, or $25 million a year, the Mets are getting for the naming rights to their ballpark. That alone would go a long way toward landing Lackey and Holliday. Throw in the $30 million in player salaries coming off the books after last season, and it's hard to say the Mets can't afford to make a big splash this winter. In fact, if they don't, it would be a lot harder for them to explain why they did not. jharper@nydailynews.com Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/mets/2009/11/11/2009-11-11_harper_mets.html#ixzz0WUEVqZSi
I don't know what you guys would have to do and if it would take you out of the Roy Halladay sweepstakes...but if you guys could take on Arroyo and get Votto in the deal that'd be a fucking steal unless you totally give up the farm. That kids a stud.
i'd love votto. who would we give up though?? just want to reiterate that it's ADAMANT that we fix our rotation. I want 2 guys outta this group: Garland, Pineiro, Harden, and Penny. If we get 2 out of these 4 as opposed to Lackey, I'd be satisfied.
Votto is going nowhere... And what makes you think Wells could "return to form"? The way he has played the last 3 years is his "form".
