The off season can be a tough animal theme wise. During the season there’s always the game and the issue of the day.
Who knows what’s on your mind at this time of the year?
The playoffs? Free agency? Any trades you’d like to see happen? Or, are you still upset about the end of the season?
Whatever, share them here. Look at Loose Threads as the offseason version of Mets Chat Room. Take care. Will be talking with you.
25 Comments
How many days til P&C report??
Is Rickey gone?
Yes I’m still upset about the end of the season. But I guess in retrospect we should have seen it coming since we were only playing .500 ball since the end of May. The bullpen was the main culprit leading one to question some of Omar’s moves during the off season such as getting rid of Bell,Ring, Lindstrom and Owens and not resigning Bradford or Oliver and bring in Sele, Showenweiss, Adkins and resigning Mota, especially after the Steroids suspension. Swapping Bannister for Burgos wasn’t the greatest move in the world. After getting hit around a few times, Burgos went onto the D/L with season ending surgery and Bannister went on to pitch well for KC and earn consideration for rookie of the year. He sure would have been a more appealing option than Brian Lawrence or Vargas when we needed a fifth starter especially since nobody could be sure whether Pelfrey would succeed or not at the MLB level. Over Willie’s objections, Omar fired Down and brought in Henderson, supposedly to help Reyes. It might be just coincidence, but from that point on,Reyes season went in the tank. Even when our two catchers went down with injuries, Omar’s influence was felt. We had to rely on Mike Di Felice because Omar failed to protect Flores in the rule 5 draft. I think the major reason for this season’s collapse is on Omar.
We have had the whole season to forshadow the collapse at the end. We had the collapse happen for a whole month. If you are surprised , shocked, blindsided by the collapse you were not paying attention.
It has been coming all season.
It happened. Move on.
Now, are there any good pitchers to be had? That is what we should be looking at as I am sure Omar is already. Also we could use another OF. Milledge, contrary to all his supporters here, is a backup at this point in his career. Our LF requires a backup so Endy and Lastings already have a position.
We need a RF and we need a #1/#2 pitcher preferably with a live fastball but someone who can and will go 9 or 10 if necessary.
Everything else is filler. Even the pen. As I said elsewhere, if the pitchers could actually pitch we would not obsess about our weak pen.
Hi John =
I think the big news in the peripheral baseball world after the World Series will be the release of the Mitchell Report about steroid use in sports. Apparently, those listed have already been informed by their teams who got a conference call from the Mitchell staff.
Do you have any further informations and what is your take on this?
chucky: On Bell & Lindstrom I will agree. Willie did not like Bell so who know how he would have used him. Did you know that Owens had rotator cuff surgery in early Sept and probably will not pitch for most of next year. Ring was not any good for the Padres or the Braves so please forget about him. On Bradford Omar miss read the market and should be blamed. Even though Bradford’s year was so so.
On Oliver the year before he spent the year in the minors and was ready to quit baseball. In 2006 he had a career best WHIP and the Angels gave him a 2 year deal, he had an ok year with the Angels and was mostly used as a one out lefty. I guess in retrospect he would have been a better deal than Show, but middle relief is a crap shoot at best sometimes you have to be lucky.
BTW lets not mention the name Mota at all this winter. I get sick when I hear his name.
Any idea what next years schedule looks like? Inter league play?
Bradford had a so-so year? Uh, his ERA+ is 134, which is better than what Smith, Sosa, Sele, Mota and Schoeneweis all did this year. It’s just 4 points higher than Feliciano’s ERA+. If Bradford had been brought back, I’m sure the Mets make the playoffs even with a collapse at the end of the year.
Oliver used mostly as a LOOGY? That’s simply not true. In only 3 out of his last 33 appearances this year was he used for less than an inning. He was used mostly as a setup man.
I think it’s clear that the bullpen took a huge step back in 2007, and that relievers such as Bradford and Oliver were sorely missed and irreplaceable.
To Dave: yeah it did happen and we have to move on. But the organization are fools if they don’t learn from it. Very bad talent evaluation. Someone’s head should have rolled for some of those moves, whether it be scout, F.O. executive whatever…and eventually it should be Omar if he doesn’t get his act together as he is ultimately accountable for all moves that are made.
To: Scott. I’ve heard that said before,” middle relief is a crap shoot” but if he had something that worked well in 2006, why mess with it? If it ain’t broke. Don’t fix it.
will always be disappointed, JD. but the writing was on the wall with this team.
what’s still a total shock is the regression of Jose Reyes. This team needs a lot of work.. but the first major repair has to be centered on fixing our shortstop.
Jon what are some good pitchers out there who would help fill out the rotation?
I was wrong on how Oliver was used but his WHIPi n 2006 was 1.123 at age 35 the best of his career. Previous best was 1.38 in 1999. In 2007 for Angels his WHIP was 1.259 second best of his career. In retrospect the Mets should have given him the 2 year deal that the Angels did. The Angels also gave middle man Justin Speier 4yrs at 18 million. Omar misread where the market was going.
Bradford’s ERA was good 3.34 2007 but his WIP was 1.438 compared to 2006 when his ERA was 2.90 & his WHIP was 1.161
In 2007 he gave up 18 more hits in 3 more innings work. Thats horrible. He must have let a lot of inherited runners score. Maybe someone knows the answer. You need to look at WHIP as well as ERA to get a true indicator of pitchers.
I just looked back at it because my asshole statistics teacher (who is a Yankee fan) was using the Mets’ “collapse” and :”how unlikely it was” as an example in class. He asked the class if anyone knew how many games in a row they lost, if there are any baseball fans (like that is something easily remembered), and I said 5 maybe 6, but he insisted it was 9. So he goes on about how unlikely it was while I mutter, not loud enough for him to hear apparantly, how unlikely it wsa that the Yankees lost 3 out of 4. I guess he was just bitter and frustrated about that, but I guess I am bitter about him doing it, too, but was having a bad day anyway, so it upset me. ANYWAY…I looked back at September and realized that the Mets went 14-14, so I apologize for saying around the end of the season that the Mets had three losing Septembers under Willie. But of course, this was essentially a losing one, even though not technically as represented by their standalone record.
P.S. I hope you feel empathy for my story, especially those of you who were talking about how you work with Phils and Yanks fans who rubbed it in your face at the end of the regular season, but got their just due at the end of the LDS round.
And I’m amazed at what the Rockies have been able to do, especially without as much pressure on them since they haven’t had any must-win games yet in the playoffs. It’s like smoke versus mirrors in this year’s NLCS,
The Rockies amaze me because they’ve done it on a 54 million dollar budget, less than half of the Mets.No big bucks free agents like Beltran,Wagner,Glavine or Martinez or high profile players acquired through trades like Delgado. The only highly paid player is Helton, who is homegrown. I hadn’t seen them play that much during the regular season. The defense and young pitching both in the starting rotation and bullpen have been very impressive also. Apparently they’ve done a good job of scouting and drafting particularly in Latin America and able to fill the gaps with minor trades like Kaz and Torreabla.
Don’t get all excited about the Rockies. Chances are next year they will be a 500 or slightly better team. They are playing WAY over their heads right now. If Ariona had better hitters, these games would have been much closer. So they are not the organization that we should emulate. That said, I in NO way want to become the Yankees of old, spending money like it was water and having a huge payroll. Some people say “It’s the Wilpons money and they owe us.” but I would rather see the young kids playing with energy mixed with veterans and their experience. If this ISN’T going to be the way that Willie runs the club, then let him leave when his contract is up.
To Spiderpig: The Mets DID NOT have a nine-game losing streak. The Mets had two five-game losing streaks. The first was Sept. 14-18 (Philly 3, Washington 2) and the second was Sept. 24-28 (Washington 3, St. Louis 1, Florida 1).-JD
Pam: You’re the first to ask. Date hasn’t been set yet, but it is usually Feb. 14 or 15.-JD
To Benny: Omar said most of the coaches are likely to return. My guess is Rickey will not be among them.-JD
Dave: No question a large part of the bullpen was overwork caused by the starters not giving much length. The pen pitched 511 1/3 innings while the starters worked 940 2/3. That’s a little more than three innings a game. You’d like to shave about 100 innings off that.-JD
RR: Schedule hasn’t been released yet, but word is they are playing AL West.-JD
Granted the Rockies are playing over their heads and I doubt they repeat next year, but I would still would consider them as a contender next year. I think it is a lesson in how to build a team though. After they got burned on the Hampton deal as well as a few others a few years ago, they seem to have abandoned the quick fix approach and did a good job of building from within.
Chucky,
I proposed the solution in my previous email – quality starting pitching. Not sure if we can get any this offseason and the internal candidates are very green.
The big Z was off the market b4 it started. Don’t know what other quality starter is available.
If we trade it will cost a lot.
Dave
“You need to look at WHIP as well as ERA to get a true indicator of pitchers.”
You also need to look at park factors, league factors (DH), and strength of competition. The lineups in the AL East are pretty stacked. These three factors alone could help account for a significant number of extra baserunners for Bradford in 2007. Regradless, bottom line is that Bradford once again had a good year. He was effective, just as he’s been virtually every single year in the past. This idea that bullpens are a crapshoot has only partial truth to it. With resources and good judgment, you can easily get an effective bullpen almost every year. The Mets certainly have the resources. Most important, I truly believe the Mets would have won the division even with a late season collapse had they had Bradford. Whether they would have gotten past the red-hot Rockies is another matter. Those Rockies are truly amazing.
spider: You have a lousy stats teacher. If he wanted to make a point about how unlikely a collapse is, he should have used the ‘04 Yankees or the ‘64 Phillies.