Sammy Sosa a Met?

Sammy Sosa was mentioned as a possible point of interest in the Mets pre-game yesterday. I did not hear it, but my friend says it happened. Now we all know that Omar Minaya was responsible for bringing Sosa to Texas back in the day. I think everyone knows what type of colossal mistake this would be. No one needs me to repeat it, but I will anyway. Sammy turns 36 in November and is due $17 million in 2005 and $18 million in 2006 with a $4.5 million dollar buyout. So in reality, the Mets will be paying $21.5 million dollars for one year of service since they will most definitely be not picking up any option. I can only assume this is coming from the same people that think there is a chance Bobby Valentine will be manager of the New York Mets in 2005.

Sammy Sosa's four year progression:

2001 .328/.437/.737
2002 .288/.399/.594
2003 .279/.358/.553
2004 .251/.347/.510

The Cubs would like nothing more than to rid themselves of Samuel Peralta Sosa. Hell, they'd trade him straight up for Prentice Redman or some corked batting practice bats. If there is any shred of truth to this, which I cannot imagine there is, I'm just not sure how anyone could ever take this current Met front office seriously (not that the actually do now).

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The Mets lost 4-2 to the Expos last night. Benson pitched OK. He did nothing to scare the Mets off from resigning him but did not end on jaw dropping outing. He did top 200 innings for the first time since 2000, when he threw 217.2 innings. Tyler Yates’ scoreless inning streak was ended last night as he came in relief of Pedro Feliciano. Jose Reyes picked up two doubles last night and the Mets only had six hits overall. Victor Diaz went 0-4 but did not strike out.

One good thing about the end of the Met baseball season is the fact that I do not have to listen to Fran Healy talk about Major League Baseball creating divisions in Japan. Really, does the guy have any more material? Does he have anything interesting to say? If I was Ted Robinson or Ralf Kiner, I'd pop him in the mouth.

Art Howe said 44-year old John Franco, who pitched two innings in all of September, will "definitely" pitch Sunday in the season finale. That sucks. I'll be at the game and have to endure him throwing batting practice to Expos hitters.

From Newsday:

Jaramillo, whose contract is up, turned down a four-year, $2-million offer to remain in Texas, and he would be considered for the job of Mets hitting coach, if not manager. Cora, too, could fill a spot on the new coaching staff, which will be gutted aside from pitching coach Rick Peterson.

From NJ.com:

Minaya will interview Texas hitting instructor Rudy Jaramillo for either manager or hitting coach, and White Sox third base coach Joey Cora, too. Former Blue Jays manager Carlos Tosca already had an interview scheduled with Duquette for next week, but he is not considered high on Minaya's list.

Speculation that Rudy Jaramillo and Joey Cora may be part of the Mets coaching staff in some capacity continues to circulate.

"We're going to hire the best baseball man," Minaya said, "to win as many games as possible."

Sounds basic enough right? Too bad the Mets have failed to do that recently. In my opinion, hiring intelligent baseball people will unequivocally result in more wins. I feel that just by having Howe as the manager he single handedly cost the Mets games. Good managers and coaches can squeeze more wins out of team and some just cost the team wins. The front office change has happened, I feel like Minaya is going to do good job with the coaching staff, and aside from the Sosa rumor above, I how no doubt he'll improve the team this off season and pick up the right player personnel. Maybe I'm putting too much faith in him, but I like what I'm hearing so far in terms of coaching. I'm not a fan for Valentine coming back, but I really don't think he is despite the fact they have a meeting scheduled with him next week.

Glavine on the team's status:

"I want to sit down and find out what the plans are for the off-season and what's going on," Glavine said before last night's game. "I believe the organization is going to make the necessary changes to get better for next year. But if that's not the case, I want to know that."

Is he wearing thin on anyone else?

The Cubbies fell flat on their faces yet again. They now need to win their last two games and have both Houston and San Francisco to lose both of their remaining games to move into a three way tie for the Wild Card. Coming into the Met Series, they had swept the Pirates and had won 12 out of 15 overall. The Mets took that series by swiping the last two games and the Cubs have only won once in the last five games. You cannot spell choke with the Cubbies 'C'.

Oakland now has to win the last two games of the season against the Angels to make the playoffs. Mulder continued to pitch poorly in the second half of the season and failed to make it past two innings. The Angels have to take one game from the A's to take the division and have to do it against Zito and Hudson, neither of which have pitched well in the second half either.

El Duque got shelled by the Blue Jays after eight days of rest. He got pushed back because of dead arm and the Yankees have more starting rotation questions. $180,000,000 dollars and to this second, the Yankees have no idea who is going to pitch after Mussina does in game one. Mussina is 12 - 9 this year with a 4.59 ERA, .276 BAA, and a 1.32 WHIP. If he is being dubbed the ace, the Yanks may not make it out of the first round.