AAOP: Realistic (I think)

by MrMetsLuvChild on Nov 13, 2009 4:14 PM EST

The Mets would be wise to go hard after John Lackey and throw the kitchen sink at Tampa Bay for Carl Crawford. However, I'm going to assume that neither of those things are possible to make this more interesting.

Internal Moves
1) Move John Maine to the bullpen. He has strikeout stuff but lacks the stamina to be an every fifth day starter. He could be a dominant setup man to K-Rod and, if that happened, would suddenly have a lot of trade value next year for teams looking for closers.

2) Give Fernando Martinez a shot. 2009 was a disaster for him but its too soon to give up. He doesn't need to be an every day starter, but there should be an opportunity for him to be on the team and play.

3) Re-sign Carlos Delgado: 1 year, 4 mil. Not ideal but it's better than committing more than one year to someone like Nick Johnson since the 1b market is totally barren. He can still provide some pop in 350-400 at bats.

Free Agency

1) Avoid Matt Holliday and Jason Bay. The Met built a pitching and defense park. Now build a pitching and defense team. Signing poor defensive sluggers who would see their numbers dip at CitiField makes no sense. The Mets woul be paying a premium price and not getting a premium product.

2) Sign Orlando Hudson: 3 years, 22.5 mil. Great defense. Good speed. Hits in the clutch. Wants to play in New York.

3) Sign Ben Sheets: 1 year, 8 mil with a vesting option for a 2nd year at 12 mil. Sheets has always been injury prone but talent wise he's the best pitcher on the market, including Lackey. It's a risk but maybe the year off helped him. The Mets desperately need a legit number 2 starter. If they're not willing to pay Lackey, Sheets could be a great bargain.

4) Sign Xavier Nady: 1 year, 4 mil. Also coming off a missed season but he was really coming into his own before he got hurt. He can share time with Martinez in the OF and spell Delgado at 1st.

5) Sign Rod Barajas: 1 year, 3 mil. I'd be silly to commit multiple years to Bengie Molina at his age. Barajas is solid and won't embarass you with either the glove or the bat. Another option is Dioner Navarro if the Rays non-tender him. Bring Josh Thole along as the backup.

Trades

1) Luis Castillo to the Dodgers for Juan Pierre. The Dodgers can platoon Castillo with Blake DeWitt allowing DeWitt to get some time at 3rd a well. They have nowhere to play Pierre. For the Mets, Pierre will cover a ton of ground in left, hit .290-.300 and wreak havoc on the basepaths. The Mets are talking about Chone Figgins, but Pierre for 2 years is a better investment than Figgins for 5.

2) Jeff Francouer to the Royals for Gil Meche. Meche is coming off a bad year and has 2/24 left on his deal so the Royals should be willing to do this. According to rumors they've always liked Francouer. Meche has made 30 or more starts 3 of the last 4 year and his success in the AL could translate to a mid-3's ERA in the NL.

So, my team would be

Lineup

1. Jose Reyes - ss - 9 mil; 2. Orlando Hudson - 2b - 7.5 mil; 3. Carlos Beltran - cf - 18 mil; 4. David Wright - 3b - 10 mil; 5. Carlos Delgado - 1b - 4 mil; 6. Xavier Nady - rf - 4 mil; 7. Rod Barajas - c - 3 mil; 8. pitcher; 9. Juan Pierre - lf - 10 mil.

Total - 65.5 mil

Bench

Josh Thole - 500k; Alex Cora - 2 mil, Fernando Tatis - 1.5 mil, Daniel Murphy - 500k, Angel Pagan - 500k, Fernando Martinez - 500k

Total - 5.5 mil

Rotation

1. Johan Santana - 23 mil; 2. Ben Sheets - 8 mil; 3. Gil Meche - 12 mil; 4. Oliver Perez - 12 mil; 5. Mike Pelfrey - 2 mil.

Total: 57 mil

Bullpen

Francisco Rodriguez - 13 mil; John Maine - 3 mil; Pedro Feliciano - 2 mil; Bobby Parnell - 500k, Brian Stokes - 500k, Sean Green - 500k.

Total: 19.5 mil

The grand total for the payroll is 147.5 million. Would this be a perfect team? No. The bottom of the lineup is a bit weak and there would be a lot riding on players returning from injuries. Still it would be a deep roster with a strong pitching staff, and it would keep the Mets from getting involved in the long term contracts they seem to fear. It would also preserve the farm for a mid-season deal.

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Comments

Holliday

is fine in the outfield, worth 5.7 Runs this year in UZR and 9 last year
Nady is career -10 UZR in the outfield

"We're investigating the investigative procedure of the investigation of Tony Bernazard"---Omar Minaya (he really didn't say it but he would"

by firejerrynow on Nov 13, 2009 4:21 PM EST reply actions

yeah i think you're falling into the fallacy that Holliday is a bad defender because of that one overly televised play

Also signing Hudson feels to me like making the Louis Castillo deal all over again. I like the idea of Pierre for the outfield, he can cover a lot of ground and hits fairly well. I don’t know if its the best plan to put F! out there in a bench role. He needs consistent at bats if he’s going to have a chance to reach his potential. Giving him spot starts and PH appearances won’t help him adjust to major league pitching enough in my book. Frenchy for Meche would be an interesting swap, although the Sheets, Meche, Ollie trio is a bit of a crapshoot since they;re all huge question marks every year.

by KeithsMoustache on Nov 13, 2009 4:36 PM EST reply actions

To be fair

Castillo has a degenerative knee condition that the Mets conveniently ignored. Hudson might be injury prone but he’s still relatively healthy. I wouldn’t sign Hudson for more than 1 year—and would prefer Polanco or Lopez, but it’s still a lot better than the Castillo signing.

by DoghouseBlues on Nov 13, 2009 7:22 PM EST up reply actions

its not the injuries that concern me

its his negative UZR, i think poor defense at second base crippled this team last year, and 2 of the last 3 years Hudson has posted a negative UZR/150. The injuries are icing on the cake for me. Bad middle infield defense hurts pitching across the board, and especially groundballers like Pelfrey or Mejia should he make the majors while Hudson is still around. Hudson is a below average fielder with good OBP and very little pop. This is too similar to Castillo for my tastes.

by KeithsMoustache on Nov 14, 2009 12:08 AM EST up reply actions

I love the Pierre trade and the Maine idea

But that Hudson deal is Castilli all over again.

Gas prices today are a lot like a pitcher's ERA. Anything under 3 is amazing, under 4 is pretty good and anything 5 and up is something you want to avoid.

by Bobby Baseball on Nov 13, 2009 4:39 PM EST reply actions

I don't know...

Resigning Delgado is a very risky move. In the limited time he had in 2009, he hit 4 HR in 24 games, or something like that, and if I recall correctly, three of those four were in Citi Field, so the “intimidation factor” never did much to him. The problem is seeing if, after his hip surgery, he still has the ability to do that physically.

I, personally, don’t believe for one second that the Dodgers would trade Castillo for Pierre, even if we ate all of Castillo’s contract. He’s their version of Endy Chavez, only better.

And, there’s so many better players out there available via FA or trade than Nady. For whatever reason, too many fans became enamored with him based on his first-half 2006 production. In 2006 and 2007 (I don’t remember about subsequent years), his production significantly tailed off in the second half of the season. And, he’s coming off of injuries with the Yankees and everything…

"Blinding ignorance does mislead us. O! Wretched mortals, open your eyes!"

by Brooklyn Dodgers Mets Fan on Nov 13, 2009 5:44 PM EST reply actions

I don't think Pierre's better than Endy in anyway

And I think they might do the deal, supposedly they were interested in it last year.

by Gina on Nov 13, 2009 11:21 PM EST up reply actions

This is a pretty high risk plan.

You kind of lost me when you advocated staying away from Holliday due to his defense but then wanted Nady.

"We're just as bad as the old Mets, but this time nobody's laughing"
-Dallas Green

by Stephen Schmidt on Nov 13, 2009 6:03 PM EST reply actions

So realistic it hurts

I think this is solid. I would rather have Bedard over Sheets. We do not know what Sheets would be like once he returns. The guy took a whole year off, so he is more of an unknown.

Hudson on a three year deal Castillo all over again.

by Coolpapabell on Nov 13, 2009 10:21 PM EST reply actions

If we can't sign Holliday or Cameron and can't trade for Crawford...

I want us to trade for David DeJesus. Guy’s put WARs around 3 for 3 straight years, and he plays for the one team where I like our chances in a trade.

"I dunno. I never smoked any Astroturf"
-Tug McGraw

by squid92 on Nov 14, 2009 10:38 AM EST reply actions

Let's see...

I like Maine to the bullpen.
You can’t just give F-Mart a shot, even though his arbitration clock has started, unless he proves he is ready either (somehow) in ST or at AAA to start the year. He has been really good at different stops, but he has been injured a lot and stunk up here last year. True his ceiling hasn’t dropped like his value has but why keep rushing him. And you want him on the bench?
I don’t want Delgado too much, though I do believe he will hit next year. I am assuming that 4 mil is a base salary and there are a lot of incentives. No matter what our catcher is going to be slow and old, and Delgado is going to be slow and old and crappy on D. I don’t hate him or Johnson, just don’t see the need when we got min salary options in Murphy, Evans and Carter already and could find a few more.
Ben Sheets should be someone else’s concern, I am tired of hoping for players to come back from the DL.
O-Dog ain’t great defense.
Xavier Nady has had two Tommy John surgeries now, risky.
Josh Thole shouldn’t be backing up, he should be honing his defense in AAA or AA.
Rod Barajas is a solid backup catcher who will embarass you if you plan to use him as a starter all year.
Juan Pierre can’t reach home plate on a throw from the short stop position and is the same hitter as Castillo except only a lefty. Just doesn’t seem like he would add a lot except 3 mil per year, and we would never bat him ninth, sorry.
Gil Meche will cost more than Francoeur, but could be good for us.
Cora and Tatis got to go, there are cheaper options who would play the same level so we could spend elsewhere.
You don’t expect us to be able to land Lackey, Holliday or Bay?

by astromets on Nov 14, 2009 8:09 PM EST reply actions