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One of the hardest working men in baseball writing world weighs in with his off-season grades.
Off-season grade so far: C+. The Delgado addition was excellent, and Wagner will help in the near term. Not such high marks for the Cameron and Lo Duca deals. With the short-sighted trade of Seo a done deal, it becomes even more vital for the Mets to install Aaron Heilman in the rotation for good.
Was he overly hard? I don't think so.
Not sure if I linked to this the other day, but I remember reading chunks of it posted somewhere. Here in the comments or somewhere else. I have no idea where it was, but it's a great article by Tim Marchman.
This week's trade of starter Jae Seo and a D-grade prospect for Dodgers reliever Duaner Sanchez and another D-grade prospect is just another in what is now a fairly lengthy list of minor stupid moves, none of which are enough in by themselves to get agitated about, but which are in their totality troubling.
Exactly. You can't get your panties in a bundle about the Seo or Cammy deal, but when you add them all up, you don't get equal value. Far from it. If you missed it, check it out. Thanks to Woodrow for pointing it out.
In relation to that, there were some fantastical observations made by MikeinSpain and Matt the other day.
One difference between Omar and Billy Beane is that Omar zeroes in on the players he wants to get, while Billy focuses in on the players he wants to get AND the players he's willing to give up. Omar and the Mets have to learn how to value and evaluate their own players in a more efficient way.
That said, this move is way better than the Baez rumors. Sanchez is young, was good last year and is under contract.
MikeinSpain | 01.04.06 - 12:19 pm | #
...and..
It's true that this deal isn't as bad as the Nady deal, but my frustration is really mounting with Omar's habit of overpaying.
If I was a rival GM, I would want to be doing business with Omar all day long. How are we going to get value when every GM knows that Omar will overpay for any desired player
Matt | 01.04.06 - 4:05 pm | #
These are in line with an article I wrote for Metsgeek.com a bit back about Omar jumping at moves and making them with seemingly no long term plan. Instant gratification. It is not so much that this move is bad, but yet another one that he did not extract value. I am by far not against the move, and this one is arguable as to who got the edge depending on who you like better, but as Mike stated above, the best of the best GMs work with some more caution. Omar knows his players he wants and goes after them, but where he differs with a Billy Beane or Brian Sabean, he'll give up more than you would in an optimal situation. As much as I do not like Mike and the Mad Dog, their biggest criticism of Omar was the ability to do the smaller moves. We know he can sign the big fish, but it is the smaller moves that define the good GMs.
Some GMs will not get ripped off often. Everyone makes a bad move or two and I'm not classifying these moves with Cameron, LoDuca, and Seo as particularly bad, but they certainly add up a net loss when you look at what was given up, what was out there, etc. Omar was kind of sleeping at the wheel in terms of middle relief. Yes, the market value was set high, but things could have worked out better to this point. Omar needed a some first base insurance, so he overpaid for Nady. Then they got Delgado making Diaz and Nady redundant. At least Nady will be the backup first basemen, right? Not so much. Julio Franco was brought in for that. He got LoDuca without even seeing the arbitration date pass. Then Seo was dealt when he could not get Baez for Seo instead of looking at Tavarez or shopping around a bit longer or letting a market develop for his players. I still stand by saying that his aggressiveness has been a blessing, but it has also been detrimental in some cases. You have to hope that over the years these types of deals do not lead to the Mets being knee deep in shit.
I get it. Sometimes these deals need to be done for fine tuning, but you get the feeling Omar will overpay just to fine tune things that do not necessarily need to fine tuned. Hopefully he stands pat and lets this team see what it can do with maybe one other bullpen arm inked. The good news is the Mets have come a long way, but it is time for him to take a page out of the book of Billy Beane and taking harder stances and looking for more frugal trades. Maybe being the GM of the Mets means people will always try and rip you off. Maybe everyone will always try and take advantage of the big market teams, but there are GMs out there that will give up fair value for players, we just know none of them have even been in Tampa Bay....ever.
And with Yusmeiro Petit and Gaby Hernandez dealt to Florida in separate deals, Bannister finds himself alone at the top of a thin heap.
"It's kind of funny because I never considered myself a top prospect," said Bannister, whom the Mets chose in the seventh round of the 2003 draft out of the University of Southern California.
Yes, life was good for Bannister since the LoDuca deal, but he's no longer the Mets top pitching prospect. Good news for everyone.
One source with knowledge of the negotiations, however, indicated Pelfrey received a contract similar to but richer than that of Jeff Niemann, the former Rice pitcher whom the Devil Rays signed as the No. 4 overall pick in 2004. The source indicated Pelfrey received a signing bonus of around $3.5 million (Niemann’s was $3.2 million) with a contract guaranteeing Pelfrey $5.3 million. The difference is Pelfrey’s deal is payable over four years, rather than five. Pelfrey could earn up to a maximum of $6.6 million if he’s on the Mets’ 25-man roster in 2007, 2008 and 2009.
For the second year in a row, the Mets hand out a Major League contract. While it does not matter since Humber will be on the 60-day anyway, it is a bad thing to do year after year. Regardless, the Mets system is dramatically better than it was yesterday.
"Keppinger's name came up several times in discussions, and we definitely considered him," Minaya said. "But in truth we never got that far because. ... "
Because what?
"Well, because he got hurt," Minaya said.
On a steamy afternoon in mid-June, with a major league call-up perhaps a day or two away, Keppinger was spiked a few inches below his left knee in a contentious incident that left him with a fractured knee and an uncertain future.
If for some reason he never makes the bigs, he will go back and read that time and time again as he turns into a raging alcoholic at the corner of the bar telling everyone how close he was to getting his shot.
In the I coulda been a contenda category, part II...
"I'm a living testimony of what happens to someone who had a great deal of talent and made a lot of wrong choices in his life," he said without hesitation.
Poor Straw.
posted by michael o. at 10:50 AM
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