Lieber Not

The Mets have recently been linked to Pitcher John Lieber. The only question I ask is why. Lieber is 37 years old but looks 50. Last season he only started 12 games due to injury and went 3-6 with a solid 4.73 era. In 2006 he was even worse; 9-11 with a 4.83 era but at least he started 27 games. So why would the Mets want him. I guess they want "experience" or "veteran leadership", but this ex-phillie is no better than humber, pelfrey, and probably even mulvey. So give one of these kids a chance and hopefully the Mets do not waste their time and money on the John Lieber.

Milledge and Burnitz?

Jeromy Burnitz was the Mets first-round draft pick in 1990; he reached Triple-A in 1992 and hit .243. And then hit .227 the next season, and .239 after that. The Mets gave up on him and traded him to Cleveland. He spent almost the entire 1995 season in Triple-A yet again.

In 1996, he was 27 years old and hit 16 career home runs in the majors. Eleven seasons later, he finished with 315 home runs, four 100-RBI seasons and an All-Star Game appearance.

You might not see the similarities between him and Lastings Milledge. Milledge has been hyped for years as the next big thing while Burnitz struggled all throughout his minor league career. Milledge and Burnitz were both first round draft picks with a lot of potential. Milledge quickly excelled unlike Burnitz.

The Mets traded Burnitz who ultimately had a solid career. The Mets traded Milledge who had almost endless potential without giving him a shot. Both players were traded in silly deals and like Burnitz, Milledge will end up having a good career and a better one than Burnitz.

Fun Fact

Last season the Mets started out 21-12. In the next 54 games they went 27-27. The Mets seemingly had a pretty bad season having a loosing record for the majority of it.

Too much excitement for Mulvey

Over at The Star Ledger they profile Mets pitching prospect Kevin Mulvey. "After a slow start, he closed with victories in five of his last seven decisions for the B-Mets. He finished with an 11-10 record and a 3.32 ERA for a last-place team that ended the season 20 games under .500. Along the way, he was selected to pitch in The Futures Game in San Francisco. Mulvey throws all four of his pitches fastball, slider, curve, changeup -- for strikes, as evidenced by his strikeout-to-walk ratio (110-43) in 151 2/3 innings of work last season with Binghamton. Mulvey allowed just four home runs last season."

I have said it many times but I am not very high on Kevin Mulvey. He is projected to be either a 3 or 4 starter. He started off last season pitching pretty poorly. Scouts were saying he had many flaws and he often had very flat pitches. All I am saying is do not get to excited about Mulvey just yet. He has pitched pretty well in the Minors but things happen and he could end up just dissapointing us and becoming a long reliver. So keep an eye out for Mulvey but dont get overly excited about him.

Anti-Blanton

The Mets did not trade for Dan Haren, and they are looking less and less likely to trade for Johan Santana or Erik Bedard. The name Joe Blanton keeps coming up as a possible player for the Mets to trade for.

Blanton was 14–10 with a 3.95 era, 140 strikeouts, 40 walks, in 34 starts last season. In 2006 Blanton went 16-12 but had a 4.82 era with just 107 strikeouts, 58 walks, in 32 games (31 starts). In 2005 Blanton had a lower era of 3.53 but only went 12-12 with 116 strikeouts, and 67 walks in 33 games.

I have a decent amount of problems with Joe Blanton. His career era is 4.10 and he has only had a sub 4 era this year with 3.95 and 2005 with a 3.53. In 2004 he had a 5.63 era and in 2006 he had a 4.82 era. Blanton does not get many strikeouts and gives up a decent amount of walks. He set a career high in K’s this year with 140 and career low of 40. Blanton also has allowed more hits than innings pitched the last two seasons and combing that with a low amount of strikeouts and high amount of walks does not make Blanton a good candidate for the Mets. Blanton has terrible splits as he has a 2.69 era at home but a 5.11 era on the road. Lefties also bat .298 against him.

The Mets would want Blanton to be their ace, but the 27 year old is not capable of that. If the Mets would have to give up Carlos Gomez, Kevin Mulvey, Aaron Heilman, and possibly more for Blanton I feel it would be a bad trade. The stats don’t lie; Blanton is not an ace and would not be one for the New York Mets.

Good Move

The best thing the Mets have done this season so far is not signing Carlos Silva. Sliva ended up signing a $48 million, four-year contract with the Seattle Mariners. In 259 games, 125 starts, Silva is 55-46 with a 4.31 era, 395 strikeouts, 171 walks, and has allowed 117 home runs. He gave up 20 homeruns in 33 starts in 2007, 38 homeruns in 31 starts in 2006, and 25 homeruns in 27 starts in 2005. Silva is also a much better pitcher at home than on the road, 3.42 at home and 5.03 on the road. He gives up a ton of home runs and even if the Mets do not do anything at least they will not be in contract with a bum pitcher for the next four years.

Smith on Christmas

MLB.com recently interviewed Joe Smith. It was a light interview about what he does during the holiday season and how he has a crush on Carrie Underwood.

GM Award

The Binghamton Mets are proud to announce that General Manager Scott Brown has been awarded the Sterling Executive of the Year Award, which is given each year to the top executive in the New York Mets’ minor league system. Brown previously received the honor in 2005 when it was known as the J. Frank Cashen Award, and received this year’s edition last week at the Baseball Winter Meetings in Nashville, Tennessee.

Prospect Report

Jonathan Mayo at MLB.com belives the Mets Prospects are not measuring up. Mayo thinks Carlos Gomez, Deolis Guerra, Brett Harper, and Kevin Mulvey will be the Organizational players of the year. Carlos Gomez, Kevin Mulvey, Carlos Muniz, and Joe Smith have all climbed the ladder. Correy Coles, Deolis Guerra, Phillip Humber, and Bobby Parnell have all kept their footing. Matt Durkin, Fernando Martinez, and Francisco Pena have all slipped a rung. Nick Evans, Emmanuel Garcia, Daniel Murphy, and Jon Niese are all on the radar.

Rule 5 draft picks

In last weeks Rule 5 draft the Mets selected right handers Steve Register and Garry Bakker. Register the Double-A Texas League in saves (37) last season. He had a 1-3 record and a 4.03 ERA in 61 games and 58 innings, allowing 63 hits and 16 walks. He struck out 48. His three-year record as a starter was 19-28, while his ERA in 69 starts was 4.73. Bakker had a 2-7 record and a 3.67 ERA in 31 games (11 starts) for Winston-Salem (Class A) of the Carolina League last season. In 83 1/3 innings, he allowed 79 hits and 45 walks and struck out 64. Bakker has a 13-16 record with 11 saves and a 4.60 ERA in 123 games in four years in the Minor Leagues.

Winter Meetings Failure

The winter meetings have officially come to an end. The Mets did not make a trade or sign a free agent. If the Mets do not trade for a front line starter and instead pick up a free agent I believe the team will be worse than last year. The pitching will be worse, offense will be worse, but defense will be a little better. This isn’t football, defense does not win championships. The winter meetings were a failure for the Mets. They went in needing a front line starter and did not come out with one. Omar needs to get something done and put a better team on the field than last year if they want to win the NL East.

Win now Omar

By trading away Lastings Milledge the Mets decided that they want to win now. They gave up a young 22 year old with major potential for an aging catcher and a career backup. In my opinion the Mets have no excuse for not making a trade for a premier pitcher this off-season.

The Mets could not wait on Milledge because they wanted to win now. If the Mets end up with a crappy pitching staff this year and do not make the playoffs wouldn’t have been better to have just kept Lastings Milledge and actually let him play in the Majors and develop. The time to trade away the farm is now. The Mets need to get that big name starter to win. The Mets want to win now so prospects that are in AA will only help the Mets in a couple years not next season. Omar decided he cannot wait to win so now he must do everything to make that happen by trading away all the young talent.

Next Year Santana

The Red Sox are currently the front runner to trade for Johan Santana. The Mets were reported as being back into the mix for a possible option for a trade. Santana would be much better in the National League and I feel he would be a good fit with the Mets. If the Mets did end up trading for him, it would kind of feel like it did when the Mets signed Pedro Martinez a few years ago. The Mets would have a much better pitching staff then last year with a real ace.

The good news if the Mets do not trade for Santana nor does any team is he will be a free agent next season. Santana said the Mets are one of the top ideal teams he would like to play for. The Mets would be able to spend that money on him because their contract with Pedro Martinez would have ended. The Mets could re-sign Pedro for less money; maybe not resign, but either way they would have money to spend on a top line starter. So if no one trades for Santana look for the Mets to be one of the strongest bidders.

No Bedard or Haren

The more I hear the radio and newspaper articles the less I believe the Mets will trade for either Dan Haren or Erik Bedard. I have stopped believing the Mets would trade for Haren after the Milledge deal. Billy Beane is the General Manager of Oakland and does this to us every year. He has a front line guy that we’re interested but we never trade for that player because he always asks for too much. I think that it is time as Mets fans that we realize their will never be a deal with Oakland as long as Billy Beane is around.

Last night, I was extremely confident that Erik Bedard would be traded today. I thought the Mets had a real shot at him if they just offered Pelfrey instead of Humber in the reported deal that would send Gomez, Heilman, and Humber to the Orioles. The quick fix to make the deal work would be to just switch Pelfrey with Humber or add Mulvey into the deal. I also thought the Dodgers were going to make an extremely strong bid after loosing out on Miguel Cabrera but apparently they do not want to trade their young guys who they believe will provide an important role next season. Bedard does not need to be traded this year as his contract goes till 2009. He could be traded next year and most likely get more.

The Mets will ultimately miss out on Bedard and Haren. Omar better do some good searching if he wants our pitching staff to be successful next year.

Prospects Not to Trade

The Winter Meetings are in full swing. The Marlins have already traded Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis to the Tiger. Other than that there really have not been any deals thus far. Tomorrow is the last day of this years Winter Meetings. Going into this years winter meetings I was certain the Mets were going to make a trade. Here is who I believe the Mets must not trade:

Do not trade both Fernando Martinez and Carlos Gomez. If both F-Mart and Gomez were to be traded for a front line pitcher, than Omar just traded away all are outfield prospects. We already lost Milledge so we definitely can not loose Milledge, Gomez, and Martinez this off-season. Instead package either one of those players with Church.

Try to keep Mike Pelfrey. It will be hard to do this but he is our best pitching prospect. Instead package together Humber and Mulvey. First pitching prospect to go should be Humber; he gets injured too much and will end up being a back of the rotation pitcher. I would not be that angry if Pelfrey went and Mulvey stayed but I have never really like Mulvey and feel his pitches are too flat.

Keep Deolis Guerra. Guerra is essentially the pitching version of Fernando Martinez he is 18 years old and played his entire season in the hitter friendly Florida State League. He was 2-6 with a 4.01 era, 66 strikeouts, 25 walks, and opponents hit .240 off him in 21 games (20 starts) for Upper A St. Lucie. In 2006 he had a 2.20 era for Low A Hagerstown.

Other than the things I have just mentioned the Mets should trade the farm to get Santana, Bedard, Haren, etc. I do not want to just pick up Livan Hernandez or much worse, Carlos Silva, which will definitely not get us to the world series and maybe not even a playoff. If the Mets want to win in 2008, a trade must be made.

Carp Makes AFL Prospect Team

The Arizona Fall League announced its 2007 Top Prospects Team. It was Selected by Fall League managers, coaches, and administrators, the Top Prospects Team identifies the players who distinguished themselves throughout the league's six-week schedule against other top prospects from every organization in Major League Baseball. Voters were asked to consider Fall League performance and major league projectability.

Mike Carp was the only Mets Prospect to make this list. He was one of the two first basemans selected. "Mike Carp (Scottsdale Scorpions/New York Mets) - Tied for third in the league in doubles (9) ... hit .243 in 29 games ... 16 RBI tied for eighth in the league." All I have to say is how? He hit .243 and had 0 home runs... trade chip?

Comparing Pitchers

28 year old Johan Santana was 15-13 with a 3.33 era, 235 strikeouts, and 52 walks in 33 games, 219 innings pitched in 2007. In 2006, Johan was 19-6 with a 2.77 era, 245 strikeouts, and 47 walks in 34 games, 233.2 innings pitched. Santana's best season to date was 2004 when he went 20-6 with a 2.61 era, 265 strikeouts, and 54 walks in 34 games, 228 innings pitched. He has a career record of 93-44 with a 3.22 era.

Dan Haren was 15-9 with a 3.07 era, 192 strikeouts, and 55 walks in 34 starts, 222.2 innings pitched in 2007. In 2006, Haren was 14-13 with a 4.12 era, 163 strikeouts, and 53 walks in 34 starts, 217 innings pitched. Last year, the 27 year old Haren had a 2.82 home era but a 3.34 era on the road. He has a career record of 49-44 with a 3.82 era.

Erik Bedard was 13-5 last season for the Orioles with a 3.16 era, 221 strikeouts, and 57 walks in 28 games 182 innings pitched. Bedard was injured for the last month and half of the season. In 2006, Bedard was 15-11 with a 3.76 era, 171 strikeouts, 69 walks, in 33 starts, 196.1 innings pitched. The 28 year old has had a lower era in every season thus far with a career record of 40-34 with a 3.83 era.

Dontrelle Willis had his worst season to date last year going 10-15 with a 5.17 era, 146 strikeouts, and 47 walks in 35 games, 205.1 innnings pitched. Dontrelle's best season was in 2005 when he was 22-10 with a 2.63 era, 170 strikeouts, 55 walks, 7 complete games, and 5 shutouts in 24 starts 236.1 innings pitched. The 25 year old has a career record of 68-54 with a 3.78 era.

Santana is out of reach and the Mets will not be able to trade for him. I would rather see the Mets trade for Bedard out of Willis and Haren. I have followed bedard for a while and wanted him to come to the Mets. I belive the Mets have the best chance of trading for Willis or Bedard and belive they will not trade for Haren because Billy Beane doesnt love the Mets prospects right now. If the stadium deal is not reached for the Marlins, then Willis will be the cheapiest to trade for. Hey, maybe the Mets will somehow trade for Willis and Bedard.

Gotay to outfield?

The Mets outfield has not gotten any better and possibly worse then last year. The Mets do not have Shawn Green anymore, and they just traded away Lastings Milledge. The Mets re-signed Moises Alou and traded for Ryan Church. I am almost certain that the Mets will be trading Carlos Gomez in deal for what better be a pitcher. The starting outfield would consist of Alou in left, Beltran in center, and Church in right. Alou has played in fewer games every year since 2004 and will roughly play in 80 this upcoming season. Beltran played in 144 games last season and 151 the year in 2006; he’ll play around 145 games next season. Church played 144 games last season but just 71 in 2006 and 102 in 2005. Endy Chavez would be the 4th outfielder and it looks like he will be getting a ton of playing time, my guess is he will play 2-6 games a week. On their depth chart right now there are no other outfielders. Damion Easley can play outfield occasionally but that is all the Mets have in outfielders.

Luis Castillo was re-signed to a 4 year deal. This means Ruben Gotay will be his backup and ride a lot of bench. I believe it would be a smarter move to convert Gotay into an outfielder. He could get a lot of playing time and he is a pretty good hitter. Alfonso Soriano recently made the switch from second base to outfield so why can’t Ruben Gotay do it. I do not want to waste Gotay’s bat for just pinch hitting and the rare start. I would rather see him play outfield a couple of days a week.

Alou will be injured half the season, which mean Endy will start almost every game he is out. Easley could play but he might get injured again as he is pretty old and was out for almost the second half of the season last year. Gotay has potential; if he is not traded don’t waste his talent. Let’s see if he can play the outfield. If Manny Ramirez, Adam Dunn, and Pat Burrell can do it why cant a more athletic Gotay.

Milledge trade may end up haunting Mets

Over at Fox Sports Joel Sherman writes about how the Milledge trade may end up haunting Mets.

"The Mets better be right about Lastings Milledge. They better know that he will max out, at best, as a good player and not a star because he has character issues — not just immaturity — and those character issues are going to blunt his full talent from blossoming. The last time the Mets projected such worries about a first-round draft choice they traded Scott Kazmir to Tampa Bay, an ill-fated deal that has them pursuing a prime-age ace even now. In fact, the Mets sound now about Church as they did about Victor Zambrano at the time of the Kazmir deal — as if they have the magic to tap abilities not shown previously. For Church, that means hitting lefties and being a base stealer. The Mets privately believe Church by himself might be better than Milledge."

The Nationals starting catcher right now will be Jesus Flores who was taken by the Nats from the Mets in last year in the Rule 5 draft pick. Thankes for putting him on the 40 man roster Omar.