Met Related Post

Well, there is not much Met news these days as they are being pretty quiet. After Willie got that boost of confidence from the front office, things have been hush hush with the exception of a Rudy Jamarillo rumor which seems to be just that at this point.

Where do the Mets go from here? Well, the big problem is there is not much they can do to improve their team this off-season with what is on the market. It is actually even more of a skimpy crop than last year, which is scary to even think about. It is so bad, the Mets would actually have to think about bringing Glavine back with the unknowns on their team.

The Mets really have one thing to concentrate on this off-season and that is pitching. More offense is nice, but I think Delgado will contribute more in '08, Castillo seems destined to be back, they might actually be ready to give Lastings a chance, Alou is a no brainer to bring back, and there are lackluster catching choices. What else is there aside from pitching for them?

Then you look and see the rotation has 3 for 4 slots already taken with Pelfrey and Humber in the mix and there is not much worth doing there. Steven Trachsel? No thanks. Kris Benson? Not so much. The Paul Byrds of the world would be utilitarian for sure, but not worth throwing our youth aside for another year. Sure Omar might be able to get creative this off-season, but the Mets farm system is dangerously close to being barren. Any big deals would likely liquidate half of the impact talent that is close to the bigs and possibly set the Mets back long term.

The only big area that the Mets have an opportunity to make some inroads on the market is in the bullpen. Jeremy Affeldt is a guy that I have liked for years now. He is a hard throwing left hander that just seemed to have problems putting it all together. He had a nice season for my new favorite team and would be a welcome addition to the Mets as a guy who can start or head to the bullpen. The Mets can have him fight it out in the spring or just send him into the bullpen to see if he can be transformed into a dependable set-up man.

Then there are some decent guys like David Riske, Scott Linebrink, etc. and some unknown Japanese guys that might work as well. I do think Omar can add some quality arms, but nothing really spectacular and at least Affeldt has upside. On top of that, it is imperative that either Humber or Pelfrey gets to be in the bullpen mix from day one so they can start putting their young arms to use. Omar has one focus this off-season and he should try and not get to cute like he did last off-season which backfired on him in magnificent fashion. Also, it would be nice if the Mets could hold onto their first round pick this year so they can add a high impact player into a farm system that direly needs it.

* * *

Speaking of draft picks, Tampa will pick first for the third time in six years.

After this season is over, Mitchell might name names and an ex-Met trainer is going to have played a big part in it.

Baseball investigator George Mitchell has received an extensive paper trail documenting performance-enhancing drugs sent to players by former New York Mets clubhouse attendant Kirk Radomski, a person familiar with the probe said Monday.

What is crazy about all this is that the Player's Union has brought this on themselves. They have probably caused some serious damage to the game by not agreeing to random blood testing.

"You would have thought by this time this wouldn't be, but they've put us to the sword again," said Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.). "We want them to police themselves the way they're supposed to. We want them to obey the law."

When all of this first came down, instead of protecting the 'privacy' of the players, they could have taken a hard line stance and all this would have gone away. The government would have been satisfied and baseball probably could have gotten away with having some big names named, which is probably going to happen.

"There are two simple steps that could close the gaping loophole in Major League Baseball's drug testing policy," Waxman said in a statement. "Baseball could either begin random blood testing or it could store current urine samples so that they could be available when testing methods are improved. Storing samples would be an effective deterrent and would make players think twice about using HGH."

The Government has no incentive to not tell all, but baseball did have incentive to keep things quiet. Imagine if steroids was more widespread than originally thought? It was already believed to be rather widespread and this could spread it to living legends and other players who were not previously implicated in this steroids mess.

This all could have been avoided, but methinks this is going to get ugly. Baseball is riding high right now with record attendence and it would truly be a shame for public opinion to worsen and have people driven away from the game.

Adam Dun is back and that certainly re-crowds the Cincinnati outfield. They finally were looking like they had things freed up a bit, but they brought back Dunn. Not that I don't agree with it, but they better be looking to trade off Griffey or Hamilton. If they think Hamilton's first season in the bigs was a fluke, then they should deal him while he has some worth. If they really think he is the real deal, Griffey needs to finally be dealt for something useful and so they can save some cash.

A-Rod vs. Boras....

The main topic for Rodriguez to decide on is if he will opt out of the final three years of his contract and leave $91 million on the table. He has until 10 days following the World Series to opt out and become a free agent; Boras said last week a 12-year deal worth $360 million isn't out of the question. The Yankees have said if Rodriguez opts out, they won't chase him as a free agent since they would lose the $23.1 million over the next three years the Rangers are paying on Rodriguez's contract. However, that could change.

You have to think that A-Rod wants to stay a Yankee and does not want to compromise that. Afterall, he will still get mega-bucks after this contract is up and he already has more money than he can ever spend. However, you do not have Scott Boras as your agent if you are not trying to maximize your money at any cost which leads me to believe A-Rod will be surely opting out and we will all see if Cashman is willing to back up his big talk.

I still think they would be involved as long as they get to save face a bit which is predicated upon not many teams getting involved into the bidding. However, A-Rod's production is going to be tempting to other teams no matter what they are saying now and the Yankees know they simply cannot replace that in any fashion this off-season.