Gobble Mother Fucking Gobble

I wake up on such a glorious day of gluttonies only to read this article.

This was blockbuster news because previously, during the same time period in which the Yankees had lost to the midges, passed their ownership torch from George to Boy George, fired one guy named Joe, hired another and entered into negotiations with three big-ticket free agents, the only activity in Mets camp was the removal of a bunion from El Duque's foot. At least they think it was a bunion. The guy's so old, it might have been a vestigial toe.

Um, except those big ticket free agents were already on the team so that does not exactly count. I love the people who say the Yankees had the best off-season so far by simply retaining the same players who they had last year. If you have a team that did not make it out of the first round of the playoffs, did nothing to improve themselves, and might lose Andy Pettite, why all the praise?

Is Estrada A-Rodesque? I think we can all answer that question. Obviously he is not, but with a huge catching vacancy and a dearth of talent, Omar's move was solid. It gives him leverage to negotiate for the catcher he really wants and can simply non-tender him later, but has a very good insurance plan to platoon with Castro. Throw on top of that the fact Willie no longer can irrationally use Mota as his go to guy anymore as he was jettisoned off and this team is in a much better place than before trade, which is the sign of a good move, no?

Outside of possibly still targeting another catcher, the offense is set and stands to be much better than last year with a full year of Milledge (if he is even still around come opening day) and hopefully 120 games of Alou. Then you look to the bullpen and if The Duque is tossed out there like he should be, the Mets are shaping up to have a pretty good bullpen and they still should be able to bring in one of the many capable arms out there on the free agent market.

Then they received another first round pick for Glavine, which is pretty damn important, and are still eyeing one starting pitcher. The one thing here is that I do not want Omar to get an ace at all costs and no, I do not think Blanton is an ace. There have been many rumors of what it will take to get Haren or Santana over here, but every deal is just too hard to judge.

I like Beane as a trading partner as he seems to be fair most of the time so I am confident Beane will not try and act like other GMs. Too many simply fail to improve their team because instead of making a fair deal, they simply go for the rip off and nothing else even if it means failing to the do the right thing for their team. However, that is why Orioles will always be the Orioles and remain as the dregs of the AL East while everyone else gets better.

Omar should only improve the rotation if the price is right. He should not be in the mindset that he needs to get an ace at all costs. Of course, an ace would be nice, but you truly need to balance out the future and I would be fine with picking up Carlos Silva or Hiroki Kuroda. I think their rotation would be deep enough, if unspectacular, and should be able to do a fine job. The Mets have a solid top three and could have a solid end of the rotation. Give me a solid five and future rather than an ace and a solid four and a barren system.

If the Mets did happen to dish out Milledge for a starter, I would be fine adding Fukudome into the mix. The idea is the Mets have plenty of options at this point and the off-season is not about doing as many things as you can early, but making good moves. I expect Omar will do the right thing and I am not nervous at this point. There are plenty of names still out there on the free agent market and plenty of names out there than can be acquired through a trade. I fully expect the Mets to be better than they were in 2007 and I hope no one is getting antsy yet. Things are looking just fine in Met-land and the Mets have money and they have options.

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Wow. Who saw this coming? Hunter on the Angels is a pretty good move by them, but they still needed to add more offense. It should be noted though, his average annual pay is more than Beltran's, which is nuts. Beltran's contract looks great when you look at what has gone on the last two off-seasons. Also, if they can add Miguel Tejada at this point, they would have to be prohibitive favorites to win the entire thing.

Four years and $19 million for Linebrink? Insane.