First Post of '08

I hope everyone had a good time over New Year's. I had a swellicious, scandalous, and rapacious one. Unfortunately, I have to wait a year to do it again.

Now back to the snoozefest that we call the baseball off-season. Some random items:

When there is little else to do during these dark days of baseball, you can look ahead. Mentioned within the piece is Oliver Perez. We talked about him and John Maine in the beginning of last season and the impending free agency Oliver Perez. Deals on guys like Vincente Padilla, Jason Marquis, and Jeff Suppan are painting a very clear picture.

Oliver Perez will get paid and Scott Boras will make sure of that. It would be nice if the Mets could get him inked to a nice four year $44 million extension, but that will not happen. Not unless Perez loves New York a whole lot and we all know you do not hire Scott Boras to get you signed with a team in a town that you love.

However, despite a solid year last season, Perez is still someone that not many people count on. Even with an '08 that rivals his '07, there will still be many doubters, but it will not matter. He is young and he is lefty. He will get a giant contract and one has to wonder if that contract will be from the Mets.

I think it is worth the risk for Mets to ink him during Spring Training if they could at something less than what he can get on the open market. Perez's incentive will be security and the Mets might continue to have a 'bargain' on their hands. Odds are he sniffs free agency though since not many players get to be in their prime and a free agent.

Just some more food for though, the Mets have three starters slated to hit the open market next off-season with only John Maine having any sort of big league experience set to be around. I cannot state plainly enough how imperative it is to get Mike Pelfrey or Philip Humber some meaningful innings this year to see if they can take that next step because two of Humber, Pelfrey, and Mulvey might be a bigger part of the '09 rotation than the Mets would like.

By way of Rob Never, Vegas Watch takes a scary look into the Hall of Fame voters reasoning skills.

"During a visit to Yankee Stadium in the late 1970s, I wanted to talk to Goose but was told he was cruel and gruff to reporters. I sheepishly introduced myself and said I was from Colorado, his home state, and he talked pleasantly for 30 minutes. We've been good friends since. I would vote for him even if he wasn't deserving."

Not much analysis needed here, beyond this. At least others were seemingly trying. Did you really expect someone else in this spot?

Amazing stuff. It is a shame that the thing that is supposed to pay the ultimate respect to the best players of the game we love so much is a heaping pile of shit.

Boring days also seem to insight crazy talk. Would Yu Darvish get posted? Not unless someone would make it worth it for the Ham Fighters to give up a lot of years of Japan's best player and pay a $100 million posting fee, which would be totally insane. The Daisuke posting fee of $51 million was borderline insane and at no point can I come up with some logic that allows Darvish to be worth an insane posting fee and the money it would take to convince him to sign. If the posting fee runs higher than Daisuke's and the team that inks him gets him for six years, what would he cost annually? The posting fee and his salary would run his cost for six years of service higher than what Johan Santana is looking for over seven years. Pure insanity.

That's it. Nothing going on whatsoever in baseball.