Happy Meleagris Gallopavo Day

Happy Thanksgiving and I hope everyone has a fucking swell Thanksgiving.

Met fans have a great reason to give thanks these days. Lastings Milledge is still on track to take over in right or left field later this year or in 2007, Carlos Delgado is here to help the Mets streaky and sluggish offense from last year gain some consistancy, and Bill Wagner has declared the hunt for his services a "one horse race".

"The addition of Delgado is a big move for the Mets," Wagner's agent, Bean Stringfellow, said to The Post yesterday in an e-mail.

"It further demonstrates what Omar and the Mets have said repeatedly: That they are going to do everything possible to win a championship."

Of course the obvious and exasperating thing about Delagado is that he could have come here last year and the Mets would have retained Yusmeiro Petit, but that is neither here nor there. He is a Met, it's a good thing, and he is going to help this team immensely. The Mets offered Wager a three year $30.25 million contract with a $10 million dollar vesting option if he has sixty appearances in 2008. As the cherry on top, he gets a full no trade clause in case he is worried about getting the Carlos Delgado treatment after his first year in New York. The Phillies moving Thome frees about $8 million a year, but the Mets made a big statement. A bigger statement than the Phillies possibly matching their offer. Have the Mets become the front runners if all deals are equal? They have new slugger, they are not in a bandbox, and they actually have a starting rotation. I think so. The last obstacle here is whether or not the Red Sox can match the Mets offer.

Either way, the Mets are still on the right track. Despite people getting antsy that they are going to turn into the Yankees, trade away every prospect for aging stars, and spend until their payroll far eclipses everyone else's, I say relax. Take some alium or xanax. The Mets still have Jose Reyes, David Wright, Aaron Heilman, Jae Seo, and Victor Diaz that are all bargains and big parts of this Met team. Combine that with the Mets still poised to hand an outfield position to Lastings Milledge in the not so distant future with some pretty solid ones outside of Lastings on the horizon as well.

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If this doesn't tell you how large the divide is between human beings and David Sloane, I don't know what does.

The Mets find it hard to believe Delgado would still hold a grudge a year later, if for no other reason than the $48 million he'll earn at Shea over the next three years. There's no guarantee that kind of money will be available to Delgado if he reenters the market. One Met official said Wednesday, "We consider this water under the bridge."

That is the obvious answer even if you are concerned about things because it has to work.

When asked if there was any leftover hostility between Delgado and the Mets, Sloane replied via e-mail: "We're waiting to see how the Mets want to handle it. No comment until then."

Huh? The Mets did nothing wrong last year. You handled it like a douchebag. Maybe you should just rip out one of the standard lines.

"Carlos is a consummate professional and is excited about the team they are putting together over in Queens. Whatever happened in the past will stay there and Carlos is flattered that the Mets had such an interest in him and the high regards they have for him. He wants to win and it is clear the Mets have a great chance in achieving that."

Was that so hard? To prove it is not hard, the only guy who got mud slinged in his eye took the high road.

"I'm sure everything will have a happy ending for us," was the way Ton Bernazard, Minaya's special assistant, described the Delgado trade to Puerto Rican radio station WIAC yesterday. Even if everything falls into place the next few weeks, that's no guarantee, because no happy baseball endings happen in late November.

Brian Giles will have a new address in 2006.

The likelihood of Brian Giles returning to the Padres next season took a severe hit yesterday when the club rejected a three-year proposal that the right fielder's agent said was "significantly less" than what Giles can get elsewhere.

That offer seemed pretty fair given with the ugliest man in baseball got, but it remains to be seen who really will step up to the plate and give Giles the kind of money he wants outside of the Yankees.

Ian Powell has the read of the day.

If Minaya was in place way back when, Alex Rodriguez and Vladimir Guerrero would've been dueling for MVP honors in the colors of the Mets. You really think Minaya would've let some half-baked concern about Guerrero's back wipe out a potential deal? And remember that non-courtship of A-Rod? Steve Phillips couldn't convince Wilpon to even make an offer, leaving Phillips to hold one of those phony news conferences he stages for ESPN.

Give thanks for the Mets having Omar.

Times and circumstances have changed. Minaya has made New York a two-team town again. Beltran was so sure he'd sign a free-agent contract with the Yankees, he was already considering a book deal that would center around his first year in pinstripes. Then Minaya came in and closed the book on that.