One Down....Zito to Go

I magically deleted most of my post from today. I am not re-writing it, but feel free to discuss baseball.

The sum of it all...

Glavine back = Good.
Mets need to get Zito and they are the best fit out of anyone.
The D-back are smart for chasing Mulder and his 2.00 career G/F ratio and that is who the Rangers should be looking at.

Omar did good here...

The Mets offered salary arbitration yesterday to Guillermo Mota and Roberto Hernández, which means the team would receive compensation if either pitcher decided to sign elsewhere.

Makes 100% sense to me and it already paid off dividends. If true, the Mets just added another sandwich pick and another second or third rounder.

Peavy's name has not come up in trade discussions with the Red Sox for Manny.

The Cubs are serious about Lilly and if they nab Lilly, that would knocked them out of the Barry sweepstakes.

Duaner gets the green light to pitch and that is huge. They Mets might be able to figure out if he will return to form making Heilman a bit more expendable.

Friday's Discussion

Funny item of the day: Barry Zito meets with the Rangers! We know that Barry would never go there. He is flyball pitcher and flyball pitchers do not fare will in hitter's parks for obvious reasons. Barry would do badly in Chicago and badly in Texas. Kevin Millwood is a groundball pitcher and fit in well with the Rangers in being the type of pitcher they need. Barry? Not so much. They need a sinkerballer or a guy with nasty stuff that can overpower batters. Boras is just doing his usual song and dance but we know that Tom Hicks can get a bit nuts with his money, but Chan Ho Park is still fresh in his mind. By no means am I suggesting Barry would meet the same fate, but he certainly is not a great fit for them.

Anywho....the real item of the day. Manny, Manny, Manny. When we think of Manny Ramirez, we think of offense. When we think of offense, we do not think about the San Diego Padres. The Padres want Manny and the Red Sox like Heilman. The Mets have Milledge, Heilman, Maine, Oliver Perez, and Bannister they can certainly dangle as trade bait. Omar could certainly make something happen involving a package of those players in order to bring back Peavy. After all, if the Padres want Manny, they will have to pay. It looks like there is some interest there from a few teams. Would it be prudent to trade Heilman after the Mets bullpen will be overhauled and no one knows what they will get out of Dirty? If it brings back a bonafide ace, yes, yes, and yes.

The Mets bullpen will have Wagner, Dirty, Feliciano, maybe Williams in there, Mota fifty games in most likely, and Adkins with guys like Joe Smith, Phil Humber, Jason Vargas, and Standridge who could factor into the picture. Shit, if the Mets bring in Zito and trade for Peavy, they willl have enough arms to move Maine into the bullpen. Omar will bring in a ton of guys to fight for a spot as well and with Peterson's knack for turning bad relievers into good ones, it is a chance worth taking. The real question is could it actually be done? Could Peavy head to the Mets with Manny heading to the Padres with a package headed by Heilman and Milledge to the Red Sox? The Red Sox wanted that pair before for Manny and we all know they do like Heilman even more now. Maybe something else could go down involving other players, but it would be hard for me to believe that there would be no interest. All three teams have players that someone wants.

* * *

The Glavine saga continues.

The Orioles added Scott Williamson on top of every other reliever they've brought in. Really amazing. You think they are trying to fix their bullpen? It is safe to say they have and most likely have the best bullpen in the universe now.

Sexy Time!

Yes, the Mets lost Chad Bradford. That is something I never thought would have happened. That does not necessarily mean the Mets bullpen will be bad, but they certainly will not be as deep in '07 as they were in '06, but you never know who is going to step up. Omar pulled off something special with the pen last year and there are a lot of arms in house that can help make that happen like Adkins, Vargas, and D. Williams. The bright side of things is that the Mets get a sandwich pick for the Orioles taking Bradford before December 1st since he is a type A free agent. The Orioles 1st round pick was protected from being stolen since they sucked sufficiently enough to have a top fifteen pick, but the Orioles also signed Danys Baez who is a higher type A free agent in terms of pecking order so the Orioles 2nd round pick goes to the Braves. I do believe the Mets add a 3rd rounder in this case, but who cares about 3rd rounders. Small consolation yes, but the Mets lost their 1st round pick when they signed Alou so this gives them a 1st rounder.

* * *

With the Yankees snagging the rights to Igawa for a staggering $26+ million amount and the Dodgers reportedly not interested in Barry with Wolf on board, who are the Mets fighting? In an off-season that is absolutely out of control, could Barry Zito actually not cash in? He would certainly make enough money to feed his family and would probably get $60 million at the minimum, but things are not working out the way Zito has planned. The Padres still have money to spend and the Cubbies are looming, but the Mets are the best fit.

Dayn Perry gets it.

The best (and there's only one ...)

1. Moises Alou, OF, Mets, one year, $8.5M

In this overheated market — and when you're the deep-pocketed Mets — a one-year, $8.5-million pact is basically free. Alou has poor fielding range these days, and he's gimpy. However, he can still rake (.304 AVG/.371 OBP/.548 SLG over the last three seasons). The Mets badly need better production from the outfield corners, and they also badly need help against left-handed pitching. Alou betters them — by a lot — on both counts. This deal is further evidence that Omar Minaya has developed into one of the smartest GMs in the game today.

Glub..glub..the Kool-Aid tastes good!

It is borderline comical how Glavine is waiting for an offer that is not coming.

Always good to hear nice things about Pedro's rehab.