Age Analysis

The 40-man roster is starting to take shape and below is rough of idea of how it will look on opening day. Strickland, Moreno, or Roberts could be on it and I took Jeff Duncan off because he'll presumably be knocked off when they need to make some space. When the average age of a team is calculated, it is done off of the entire 40-man roster. With the below figures, the Mets average age is about .6 years younger than their 2004 squad. At least they are moving in the right direction.

Player	2004	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011
Mike Cameron	32	33
Carlos Beltran	28	29	30	31	32	33	34
CliffFloyd	32	33
Doug Mientkiewicz	30
Kazuo Matsui	29	30
Jose Reyes	22	23	24	25
David Wright	22	23	24	25	26
Mike Piazza	36
Eric Valent	28	29	30	31	32
Andres Galaraga	44
Miguel Cairo	31
Joe McEwing	32
Jason Phillips	28	29	30	31
Tom Glavine	39	40
Pedro Martinez	33	34	35	36
Kris Benson	30	31	32
Steve Trachsel	34	35
Victor Zambrano	29	30	31
Braden Looper	30
Koo Dae-Sung	35
Felix Heredia	30
Heath Bell	27
Alay Soler	25
Philip Humber	22	23	24	25	26
Ambiorix Concepcion	22
Aaron Heilman	26
Bob Keppel	23
Jae Wong Seo	28
Mike Jacobs	24
Criag Brazell	25
Danny Garcia	25
Angel Pagan	24
Wayne Lydon	24
Matt Lindstrom	25
Bartolome Fortunata	30
Matt Ginter	27
Victor Diaz	23
Jeff Keppinger	25
Aarom Baldiris	22
Mike Dejean	34
Average Age	28.40	29.67	28.70	29.14	39	33	34

After I spent all this time doing this table, I asked myself why I did. It really serves no purpose and adds no value to anyone's knowledge of the team. But since I made it, I figured I would post it anyway. I hope someone gets something out of it. I know I didn't.

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In case you missed some quotes from this article and you do not read The Eddie Kranepool Society, here you go:

Red Sox execs were thrilled and relieved that the Yankees passed on Beltran. Though Randy Johnson's a true ace, a Boston exec termed him "risky" and said of Beltran, "Over the next seven years, maybe nobody will produce more."

and

Ian Bladergroen -- or Blade, as he's known -- was a loss for the Mets, who sent him to Boston for Mientkiewicz. Said one Mets exec, "We may regret this in three years."

The Cubs are confident that they can add some production to soften the blow of losing Sammy Sosa.

Whether it's Ordonez, free agent Jeromy Burnitz or a trade for the Mets' Cliff Floyd, the Cubs feel they can pick up the production slack left by Sosa's departure. That remains to be seen, but the Cubs believe they ultimately are adding by subtracting Sosa, who didn't want to be back after ripping manager Dusty Baker at the end of last season.

Johan Santana rejected the three year, $25 million offer from the Twinkies.

The Tigers are looking like they are giving Magglio a contract offer for four or five years at $11 million dollars per year even though no other team has made an offer besides them that we know of. Lynn Henning seems to think the Tigers will be able to put some clause in the contract that satisfies their concerns about his health.

Q. Why are there no other heavy bidders?
A. Clearly, Ordonez's knee has made teams nervous. But the Tigers aren't known for being reckless in these situations, so why they're able to craft contract language that satisfies their concerns, and why other teams don't seem as motivated or as equipped to do the same, is curious.