If Omar stated the following, what do you think would happen.

” We are going to take a step back and find out if our kids are able to do the job, the free agent market has no one we feel will be an upgrade and any trade will hurt both the short term and long term future of the Mets.”

I think he would be ripped by the media , the talk shows and the vocal fan base. People would demand he be fired, he would be called incompetent and the Mets would be called cheap and back to their old small market mentality.

You would have to agree Omar’s biggest problem is that he is trying to serve two masters. The business side which demands enough success for SNY to make money and to sell tickets. These guys simply do not want to understand that sometimes you need to take a step back ( use the kids ) to make the team better. Omar has to deal with this everyday.

Not all kids come up to the majors the way Wright did. Most need more time. Baseball is not football, the draft does not bring immediate rewards. A little patience could reap great rewards, but I get the feeling most Met fans do not want to hear this.

I said Some talent.

He does have some good stuff. But he has very poor control-hits alot of bats.

The point was that it is par for the course for Mets FO. This guy is good enough to demand a 4yr/10 per but he is not nearly the best (like Santana).

So, and in the Mets FO speak, “let’s get him and fix him”. And we get a bargain in the process.

And yes it does speak to Pelfrey/Humber somewhat. It also speaks to Pedro/Duq as being brittle too.

All in all, a bad move (if it happens).

From another web site….the organization’s .442 winning percentage was 30th among 30 organizations. OUCH!!

Now winning isn’t always the best way to measure progress in the Minors, but that finish is not a positive sign, especially when it includes poor showings for the Dominican and Venezuelan Summer League teams—areas in which the Mets have been very aggressive in signing the top talent.

I’m am so glad glad Silva signed somewhere so I don’t have to read the we need Silva posts ever again.

It’s believed the Mets have made an offer to Lohse for four years, but it’s not known if it is for the $10 million Per he is seeking. YUCK!

Phils backed out b/c they were only willing to go 3 yrs.

This is typical Coupon mentality. Get a guy who has some talent but b/c he is not top notch it won’t cost top $. And then our genious staff can fix him. What a bargain!

If the Mets were going to get one of these weak FA I was hoping for Livan H b/c it might have only been 1 yr. 4 yrs of LOHSE? He’ll be bood out of the stadium by June.

Best you can say is this is addition by subtraction b/c he is not on Phils. On the other hand it could be addition by subtraction for Phils b/c he is on the MUTS!

Silva signs w/Mariners. YES! This means they are out of Santana bidding. I still hold out slim hope for Johan.

If he came to Mets, he would only be someone who Might help later in season.

If you have done ok this yr (more than 75k) you might have had to pay AMT.

Fortunately, Congress just passed an AMT patch to raise the amount of income that is exempt when calculating AMT.

So unless you have done really well (>200K), you probably won’t have to pay AMT. I just got back 3-4K from those jacka$$es.

Astros are the more likely spot for Prior.

They are rumored to be willing to give him 2 yrs.

Plus, if he is on your team you probably have to guarantee him a roster spot even though he is not expected to be ready until at least mid-yr.

Pelfrey in the pen would be a waste. He needs to go back to AAA and work on his control and off-speed stuff.

Padilla was let go. Unless they sign him to a minor league deal he won’t be back.

Sosa seems likely to be the swing man.

There might be alot of guys but I would not catergorize it as alot to work with.

It is an ok bunch if….if Sanchez is healthy and effective.

But we probably do need numbers b/c these guys arms are gonna fall off with the iffy SP (Pedro, El Duque old and brittle; Maine and Perez only one decent yr under belt; and no known 5th starter)

It would seem he is on the team.

El Duque is gonna start unless they pick somebody up which seems unlikely.

The Coupons won’t pay a guy 6M to be in the pen (for a full season) unless he is the closer.

There is a lot to work with here. My best guess right now would be the four guys at the top, unless Heilman is traded or becomes a starter here (HA!), plus Sanchez, Sosa, and Register, since he was a Rule 5 pick. Next in line would be Wise and Hernandez if he moves from the rotation. I really don’t know right now.

I also heard on SNY rumors about Prior. Maybe just changing teams could be the magic elixir, but I think not. If we can get him cheaply for one year, I think it’s worth the risk.

I guess this could be considered addition by subtraction (subtraction from the Phils). Otherwise, I don’t like the idea of giving this guy 4 yrs at probably 10+/yr.

I thik Scoop nails it on the BP/SP thing. That is exactly why we need to upgrade the SP. But that does not look to be in the cards for us.

Position players – We have to hope that Wright gets more consistent, Reyes does not start the season the way he ended and that Delgado improves from last year. I do not know much about our new RF which along with C is the big unkown for me offensively. I think we also are weaker depth wise in the OF. Endy is there but not much else.

Bottom line so far I think it is a wash the current team vs last year talent wise. Which considering how we did is a concern.

Dave

If the Mets are any better than .500 it is only b/c the rest of the NL East has gone down in talent.

Last yr the Mets did very poorly against the East, well against the Central and ok against the West.

I can see some improvement against the East b/c of loss of talent, especially in Fla and some in Atl. But the West will be better. And the Mets did play .500 BB for 4 mos. That is not an abiration.

BOTTOM LINE

There are too many ifs, ands, buts, maybes on this team to state with any certainty that they are better than .500

Alot of positives have to happen and few negatives can occur. But to me the negatives are more likely b/c they involve old players who have been prone to injury.

1 Wright superstar in making but how much can his numbers improve. He might reach 40 HRs and add another 10-20 RBIs but there is a limit you know.
2. Delgado. Its mere speculation on all our parts. Did he have bad year because of surgery? Maybe? How about the broken wrist or hand he got last week of season. Will that ruin 2008? Maybe, as a non juicer he’s ust going thru the aging process. We forget that before the roid generation players slowed down in the 30’s not the 40s.
2. Pedro is healthy? How do you know? How does anyone know. He pitched one month and was babied. We had to go to 6 man rotation. His arm can handle 200 innings? Does he need us to have a 5th starter. Oh 7th because El Duque just says hes hurt sometimes.

3. Left Filed is a disaster in the making again. Only sub ready for bigs is Endy and we all know how quickly his games deteriorates when he plays a lot. Plus there’s no good spot for him in lineup. Can’t bat 2nd now and Schneider is an 8 hole minus type of guy. Alou as a key guy will ruin the offense again when he goes down for half a season.

4 This Ryan Church love affair is based on his name which causes prayer and hope. A 29 year old who could never get even 500 abs with the Nats is a sad story for Queens.

5. Wise is better than Mota. You still have a 5 man pen and you don’t know if there was a reason Wise collapsed the last 2 months. If he has Steve Blass disease after hitting the guy, he’ll be worse than Mota. Thinking the pen is fixed now is not even something to respond to. The pen is still in a big hole.

6. The only question about the rotation is is Pedro OK. your kidding us right? Can he last a year? How many times does El Duque need to stop pitching. Where do you find 5th starter and where do you find replacmeent for El Duque for 10-15 starts. What makes you think Omar/Willie will leave kids alone. They’ve screwed with all our kids since they took over. Oh tell me you want Livan to come here…..

5. Scoop has it pretty accurate. 81-81 is what they were last 4 months. They may not be that good tight now.