Friday Morning Applesauce: No More Getting Iggy With It, Could Somebody Actually Want Omar?

by Stephen Schmidt on Oct 21, 2011 10:05 AM EDT in Applesauce

The Mets made a personnel move yesterday, officially releasing Ryota Igarashi. The move was strictly a formality as his contract called for him to be released if the team and player didn't agree on a new deal. I actually liked the thought process behind the deal at the time, I just wish he had been a little more Hisanori and a little less Ken in terms of his production.

The experts in the Adam Rubin lobby don't feel the Mets will be in a position to compete next year with a payroll in the $100-$110 million range. I'm not fully in agreement, but clearly we're going to need above average production from Johan Santana if we want to hang around the pennant race next year. I hate to cross my fingers and hope for a return to good form, but in this case there's probably nothing to be done about it.

Former Mets GM Omar Minaya interviewed yesterday for the vacancy in the Angels front office. Given Minaya's less than stellar track record and his love for former Expos and aging names in his time here I sincerely hope that he lands in LA. Sandy Alderson and company would have a field day with him.

Patrick Flood took a look at Jason Bay and how much Citi Field may have affected his disappearing power. It seems to be more Bay than anything else.

Ron Darling appeared in a new Mastercard commercial during the World Series. Absolutely fantastic Ron.

Joel Sherman takes a look at the Mets upcoming winter. No surprise at all that his article quickly gravitates into a very Jose-centric piece.

Around MLB

That World Series thing continued yesterday evening, and in typical fashion this year it was another excellent game. Texas pulled off a ninth inning rally to win 2-1 and tie the series at one apiece. Just 24 hours after singing LaRussa's praises the MSM was noting how his decision "backfired". I guess it's not possible to make the right decision and fail to get a result anymore.

Yesterday BtB had an interesting note about Nelson Cruz and his HR/AB percentage. Today they took that a little further. I love graphs...

The Astros potential new owner is trying to get a bit of a discount for moving his team to the AL going forward. Astros fans should be looking at a discount in their ticket prices as well if they are forced to suffer through DH games.

Minor League Ball has its preliminary discussion up for the recently demolished Phillies farm system if you want to follow along. I doubt their prospects will receive the same types of praise as Sickels had for the Braves last week.

The White Sox pitching situation could be interesting to watch this winter. One thing seems pretty certain: Kenny Williams will definitely make some moves.

Finally, Eno takes a look at the corner outfielder market over at FanGraphs. This is an area I'd be very surprised to see the Mets making a move in this offseason, but it's worth checking out anyway.

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Comments

Rubin stating the obvious.

It’s not the amount of payroll. It’s all about the talent – or lack thereof – that payroll comprises.

OT: Davidoff posting his top 5 list of WS going back to ‘78, which I’m assuming is the first year he started paying attention.
His number one:
‘1986 . There have been other series in the past 34 years that have featured better games, in total. But there’s only one Game 6. That 10th-inning rally was so remarkable that it elevates the entire series to the top spot.’

by MetsFan4Decades on Oct 21, 2011 10:32 AM EDT reply actions

Davidoff is one of the few good ones.

In terms of people who cover baseball from a national perspective.

What Would Matt Szczur Do?
Fact on Villanova Sports

by Hoyadestroya85 on Oct 21, 2011 12:11 PM EDT up reply actions

Omar

Please Angels, hire him! Once that happens, please Omar take Bay.

by CCE718 on Oct 21, 2011 10:50 AM EDT reply actions

I hope Omar does get the job

It would be immensly amusing to see how he goes about building or ruining that team.

Dear friends, please temporarily stop your footsteps To our website Walk
around A look at Maybe you’ll find happiness in your sight shopping heaven and earth You’ll find our price is more suitable for you.

by Coolpapabell on Oct 21, 2011 10:52 AM EDT up reply actions

Well

The ruining has already started on that team with contracts like Wells and Hunter. Not to mention trading Napoli because supposedly Jeff Mathis was the better option (by the way, Jeff Mathis is now a non tender candidate).

Yeah, they have some good prospects and younger players, but he’s kind of inheriting a situation he just finished causing with the Mets.

by MetsCity on Oct 21, 2011 10:55 AM EDT up reply actions

Yes Yes he will be inheriting the situation he created in NY

Doesn’t that seem fitting?

by Coolpapabell on Oct 21, 2011 11:04 AM EDT up reply actions

Jason Bay for Mike Trout please

by Evan_S on Oct 21, 2011 12:32 PM EDT up reply actions

you play roto fantasy ball Evan?

"Fantasy, reality, science Fiction. Which is which? Who can tell?"

by feslenraster on Oct 21, 2011 5:49 PM EDT up reply actions

Thank goodness

The Rangers won last night. The Cards success in the post-season seems like its upsetting the general order of things.

I don’t want a crappy team to win the World Series again.

by Coolpapabell on Oct 21, 2011 10:51 AM EDT reply actions

Sherman

That article is a joke. What evidence does he have to assume the Mets only offer 4 years to Reyes? Who thinks a 4 year deal even gets the conversation started? He’s a tool. I’m also tired, of the same song about how the Mets haven’t won anything with Reyes and Wright. Well, the Rockies haven’t won anything with Tulowitzki, the Brewers haven’t won anything with Braun, etc. Maybe the Rays should trade Longoria since they couldn’t win the WS that year.

by MetsCity on Oct 21, 2011 10:52 AM EDT reply actions

People don’t realize that it woudl be a loharder to win without them in the next five years.

by Coolpapabell on Oct 21, 2011 10:55 AM EDT up reply actions

name dropping

he drops the ‘i spoke with executives’ thing to grant legimacy to what’s basically just his repeating the opinions/rumors of the popular talking points about Reyes.

These executives, by virtue of being the ones that are leaking information, are not the ones in the know. It’s win-win. They feel self-important because someone’s going to over-inflate their opinion, and Sherman gets to say whatever he wants and claim it’s the Mets opinion.

-Ceetar, the Optimistic Mets Fan

by Ceetar on Oct 21, 2011 10:57 AM EDT up reply actions

I think the Mets will offer Jose more than 4 years, but the AAV won't be enough.

I think he signs with the Giants. That’s pretty much the best case scenario in my mind.

And that alone makes me think the Mets would be very hesitant to trade Wright… unless the package coming back was insane.

Oh pissing blimey there's jam coming out of the walls!

by TWilliAM on Oct 21, 2011 11:09 AM EDT up reply actions

I'd be shocked if he left the Mets.

by Evan_S on Oct 21, 2011 12:36 PM EDT up reply actions

I'd riot

one does not simply walk into mordor...unless winter is coming

by Gina on Oct 21, 2011 4:05 PM EDT up reply actions 4 recs

One Gina, one riot.

by Curtis3331 on Oct 21, 2011 11:12 PM EDT up reply actions

Rec'd for the signature

Simply the two best fantasy epics ever.

by Evan_S on Oct 22, 2011 4:22 AM EDT up reply actions

Same

by Joamiq on Oct 22, 2011 7:31 PM EDT up reply actions

I'll be stunned if he stays

I hope to be stunned.

Sandy will not overpay. Someone else will. As anonymous as Sherman’s sources are, that’s pretty much what I’ve been predicting all along, and it makes sense. (Of course, the notion that a New York team cannot go toe to toe with a mildly less than rational Washington or Miami to keep one of its iconic players is pathetic, but such is life with the Wilpons.) Get ready for some serious lean time.

by tmu on Oct 21, 2011 5:10 PM EDT up reply actions

I predict Jose will resign for about 4/$50M

with option years for a 5th and 6th.

"Fantasy, reality, science Fiction. Which is which? Who can tell?"

by feslenraster on Oct 21, 2011 5:49 PM EDT up reply actions

I want to live in your universe.

Please?

by Curtis3331 on Oct 21, 2011 11:13 PM EDT up reply actions

except you didn't hear my second plans: VESTS

I kid I kid. …yeah tis wishful thinking I know

"Fantasy, reality, science Fiction. Which is which? Who can tell?"

by feslenraster on Oct 22, 2011 11:52 AM EDT up reply actions

Money ball II

Sandy: Come on Omar. Do you know how many All-Star games Bay, Wells and Hunter have between them. Now imagine that in your outfield.

Omar: Hmmm…that is very tempting.

by Coolpapabell on Oct 21, 2011 11:03 AM EDT reply actions 3 recs

that outfield is barf inducing

Also with Minaya’s predilection for signing players of Hispanic backgrounds, perhaps he trades for Soriano or Rios for the 4th OF/DH spot? Fuck it, here’s the all bad-contract team for players still in MLB:

OF: Bay/Wells/Soriano/Rios/Rowand/Crawford/Werth/Hunter (Plethora of choices)
3B: Arod
SS: Jeter
2B: Figgins
1B: Howard
P: Zambrano/Zito/J Santana/Lackey
C: Mauer
DH: Dunn

The artful muppet formerly known as KrmtDfrog.
Please read my sardonic wit and over-blown sense of self over at headkicklegend.com

by Cory Braiterman on Oct 21, 2011 11:30 AM EDT up reply actions

Someone - can't rememer who -

did an article earlier this week on the top 10 worst contracts still out there in MLB.
I think you pretty much touched on most. Although Bay didn’t make the list, neither did Johan and I don’t remember seeing Figgins either.

They did sum it up saying most long term big $$ contracts don’t work out – with Jeter’s first 10 year contract being the exception. They didn’t have Jeter’s current 3 year contract on the 10 worst list either.

by MetsFan4Decades on Oct 21, 2011 11:59 AM EDT up reply actions

if Bay isn't one of the worst contracts out there

then someone must have just signed Yuni Betancourt to a long term deal 10 times over. Bay’s deal is a dumpster fire. Figgins is getting like 10 mil or something per and he’s hitting near the Vernon Wells line.

The artful muppet formerly known as KrmtDfrog.
Please read my sardonic wit and over-blown sense of self over at headkicklegend.com

by Cory Braiterman on Oct 21, 2011 1:11 PM EDT up reply actions

That was the Patrick Flood article linked to in the main article above.

There have been three total articles in the series so far, and he’s promising more. Figgins (and A-Rod and Jeter) wasn’t mentioned because he hasn’t done infielders yet, just outfielders and starting pitchers. Bay didn’t make the list for worst outfield contracts because he cut that one off at seven, vs. ten for starting pitchers. And having read the list, believe me, Bay doesn’t belong on it.

by Curtis3331 on Oct 21, 2011 11:20 PM EDT up reply actions

Ugh. I hate Omar, but please prove this:

Also with Minaya’s predilection for signing players of Hispanic backgrounds

by Evan_S on Oct 21, 2011 12:38 PM EDT up reply actions 1 recs

Yeah I wanted to call this out

but I just could not bring myself to try. I have spent to much of my time trying to argue against that, for considering its Omar, makes it doubley tiresome.

by Coolpapabell on Oct 21, 2011 1:49 PM EDT up reply actions

I believe

he was about 10% over the average in terms of latin players over the course of his term in both scouting. Nothing absurd, but still a margin

The artful muppet formerly known as KrmtDfrog.
Please read my sardonic wit and over-blown sense of self over at headkicklegend.com

by Cory Braiterman on Oct 21, 2011 3:24 PM EDT up reply actions

source? and some context?

10% over the average doesn’t tell you anything without some sort of range and/or variance statistics. How many other teams were ten percent over the average or more. And how did they come up with the average was it just free agents or all contracted players? Does market adjustment count, as in if you take big market teams free agent contracts in general you’ll probably find their all well over the average no matter what demographic you look at, since the whole idea of using a big market to an advantage is that you can price out the rest of the league without hurting your profits. Plus, at least in terms of free agents, you’d have to individually look at the free agent pools. (i.e if there are 3 latin outfielders, one is awesome and the other 2 suck, obviously the one that’s awesome is going to get a much bigger contract.) And given rareness of above average players I imagine that, combined with the ability of big market teams to give out bigger contracts in general, would play a huge rule.

Really I think once you accounted for market/total payroll size, and demographic of talent at each position any difference would probably become statistically insignificant (and that’s assuming 10% is statistically significant to begin with without any context)

one does not simply walk into mordor...unless winter is coming

by Gina on Oct 21, 2011 4:13 PM EDT up reply actions

for starters

AA’s own James Kaniandiahuiforgethisname did an article a couple years ago debunking the myth, but also noting that it was over average. I’m not going to make a whole federal case over it, because who really f’ing cares, it’s not really that important to begin with, but it was there.

The artful muppet formerly known as KrmtDfrog.
Please read my sardonic wit and over-blown sense of self over at headkicklegend.com

by Cory Braiterman on Oct 21, 2011 4:45 PM EDT up reply actions

It's all in negro y blanco

Are you serious? Do you really need “proof” on Minaya’s preference for Hispanic players? Hmmm, let’s see….he paid 50 mil for Pedro Martinez, end results: 4 yrs (actually missing 1+ seasons – 42 starts), 79 starts, 32W-23L,; he then signed Carlos Beltran who did absolutely nothing his 1st year, never came close to performing to the tune of 120 mil, and spent 2 of the 7 years on the DL, Moises Alou 18 mil, El Duque’ 18 mil, Livan Hernandez 6 mil, Carlos Delgado 56 mil over 4 yrs, he missed 160 games, so essentially paid 18.6 mil/yr…..NOT good. He signed Oliver Perez for 3 yr 36 mil, Castillo for 4 yrs 25 mil, traded Roger Bannister for Burgos who pitched a month, required surgery and never played another game….Bottomline, if there was a marquee Hispanic, Minaya made sure he signed him and over-paid for him………but if you’re still not convinced, try on this trade….as the Expos GM Minaya traded away Cliff Lee, Grady Sizemore, and Brandon Phillips for Bartolo Colon KNOWING the Expos could never afford to resign him at the end on the season, essentially “renting” Colon for all that NON HISPANIC talent.

by pmlmotorsports on Oct 22, 2011 5:00 AM EDT up reply actions

Omar should never have traded Sir Roger Bannister

Running a mile in under 4 minutes is a very rare skill.

by DaveNJ on Oct 22, 2011 9:04 AM EDT up reply actions 4 recs

Okay, I just tried to rec that, and it gave a flag instead?

Nothing to see here. Move along. (rec fail!)

by Curtis3331 on Oct 22, 2011 10:05 AM EDT up reply actions

well, he DID trade A Bannister

regretably

"Fantasy, reality, science Fiction. Which is which? Who can tell?"

by feslenraster on Oct 22, 2011 11:52 AM EDT up reply actions

Plus he could have doubled as team doctor/trainer.

What's the score, boys?
What did Bugs Bunny do?
What's with the Carrot League baseball today?

by StorkFan on Oct 23, 2011 9:03 PM EDT up reply actions

Omar was a buffoon

But you can’t #BlameBeltran for this one.

Mets, Jets, Islanders, Knicks.
GO RANGERS! Get Endy a ring!

by piazza62 on Oct 22, 2011 11:53 PM EDT up reply actions 1 recs

Beltran is a future Hall of Famer due in large part to his excellence with the Mets. And he was worth like ~130 mill according to FanGraphs.

Pedro was a risk but excellent when healthy, and kind of had a freak injury. Also, as was Beltran, the best player available at his position when signed.
Delgado was one of the four good offensive players we had from 06-08, injuries happen.
Alou was overpaid and cost us a draft pick, but he was a high risk high reward signing, a phenomenal hitter.
Did he really give El Duque $18 million? And wasn’t Livan signed for like $1 million?
He overpaid for Perez and Castillo, he also overpaid for Jason Bay.

And you obviously have no idea what was going on when Omar made that trade as the Expos GM. It was a bad trade, but there is context to consider.

by Evan_S on Oct 23, 2011 12:31 AM EDT up reply actions 2 recs

Thanks for playing though!

by Evan_S on Oct 23, 2011 12:31 AM EDT up reply actions 1 recs

Delgado was pretty damn bad for a year and a half

I believe his ’07 season was by far his worst season. He was fucking horrible in the first half of ’08 and then had a monster second half. Pedro was awesome in ’05 and very good in the first half of ’06, and pretty much never was good again. He sure killed the team in ’08 espicially down the stretch. It really pissed me off to see him pitch well for the Phils in ’09.

by graves9 on Oct 23, 2011 7:12 PM EDT up reply actions

Giving a 40+ year old El Duque a two year deal coming off a injury was fucking retarded

Omar had one of the worst off seasons in Mets history after the ’06 season.

by graves9 on Oct 23, 2011 7:15 PM EDT up reply actions

Don't feed the troll, folks.

Chamption of the R.A. Dickey Face contest and "Cromulent Photoshopper Extraordinaire" of Amazin' Avenue!
You might know me as mistermet.

by Steve Schreiber on Oct 23, 2011 5:07 PM EDT up reply actions

Hmm, strange.

Your issue with Ambiorix Burgos seems to be that he didn’t pitch enough, while mine is that he’s a fucking psychopath with indictments in 2 countries.

"And that's why anybody who invested with Lenny Dykstra should really call that number. Lawyers are standing by."

by BobbyV_Incognito on Oct 24, 2011 12:54 PM EDT up reply actions

Too early to call Crawford a bad contract

He’s overpaid, but he can still be a decent deal.

by Evan_S on Oct 21, 2011 12:41 PM EDT up reply actions

this, overpaid and bad contract are different things

you can overpay a player and have it still be a smart or even good signing.

one does not simply walk into mordor...unless winter is coming

by Gina on Oct 21, 2011 4:13 PM EDT up reply actions

if Crawford performs like this last year

that will be one of the worst deals they’ve ever done. sub-.700 OPS, <20 SB, dip in power numbers in a hitters park… And it’s probably only going to get worse with age. Especially given the results, that doesn’t look like it’s a smart or good signing.

The artful muppet formerly known as KrmtDfrog.
Please read my sardonic wit and over-blown sense of self over at headkicklegend.com

by Cory Braiterman on Oct 21, 2011 4:47 PM EDT up reply actions