Do, or do not. There is no try.

In Mr. Met We Trust




What a perfect time for some Yoda wisdom. This past week felt more like a month and it finally took a lot of Met money, but Omar and the Mets finally got their man. Someone forgot to send Omar the memo that the Mets are supposed to roll over and play the sorry team they have been over the past few years. Someone forgot to send Omar the memo that his moves were reserved for the Yankees and not the Junior Varsity team. Someone forgot to send Omar the memo that no big names wanted to come to New York and play for the Mets. Someone forgot to send Omar the memo that Fred Wilpon would not have big enough cajones to put enough money in front of Beltran's face to get him in Shea. Someone forgot to send him the memo that Carlos Beltran would not play for the downtrodden New York Mets and he might as well start getting fitted for his pinstripes.

I have nothing but love for Jim Duquette and I wish him the best in the future, but if he is the GM right now the Mets do not have Pedro Martinez. They may not have Carlos Beltran either, although you could argue both points that he too could have dumped a lot of money on the table and got them anyway. The reason I say he may not have them is simply because Omar is the one who got Fred to do things that are not very signature of the way he worked in the past. He got Fred to get to that $100 million amount for a contract and got the two best free agents on the market by dishing out around $173 million on two contracts and Omar may not done just yet.

No one thought Pedro would be a Met and people said there was no chance Beltran would be a Met. It is a good thing that Omar is using his new found resources, his courting skills, his ethnicity, and his relentlessness to get what wants. A lot of people were down on him after the winter meetings and I am included in the bunch. As of Saturday night I still did not think Beltran was Queens bound. You would be hard pressed to find an unhappy Met fan at this moment in time. Put aside the obvious fact that anyone who gave Beltran that much money was overpaying because it was necessary. Every Met fan is now wondering what next? Things that were once thought impossible or a long shot are now realities in Shea. Omar's goal was to make a splash and I do believe that signing a future Hall of Famer in Pedro Martinez and a five-tool, switch-hitting, 27 year old Carlos Beltran would qualify as a splash.

It is really hard not to be optimistic about the Mets future when they have three key components under 30 years old with Reyes, Wright, and Beltran together for at least another four years and probably longer. Today is good day for the Mets and their fans.

If the Mets paid $120 million over seven years like speculated, the Mets will be at $102,520,000 for their 2005 payroll so far assuming that the money is evenly divided over seven years.

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Omar got another arm.

Mets sign lefty. The Mets got some bullpen help when they signed Korean lefthander Koo Dae-sung to a one-year contract with a club option for 2006. Koo, 35, had previously been linked to the Yankees, but the team was irked when his agent announced a deal prematurely.

Sounds fine to me.

"Dae Sung is a versatile pitcher who can start or pitch out of the bullpen," general manager Omar Minaya said. "I was in Sydney for the Olympics in 2000 when he beat Japan to win the Bronze Medal for Korea. He's a veteran pitcher who can help our staff in a variety of ways."

The Mets were in need of a long man at this point if they were not going to use Ginter of Heilman so this move seems like a good one without knowing if this guy can really pitch at all.

According to Bob Klapisch's article:

According to one major league executive, the Yankees will now become players in this cash orgy, and are certain to outbid the Mets and Cubs. That's no small undertaking, considering the Mets fattened their offer Saturday to seven years, $120 million and even included a vesting option for an eighth season.

How could so many people have been wrong about the Yankees lurking in the shadows?