Monday, January 10, 2005
M-E-T-S METS! METS! METS!
Essentially the Mets have made 4 swaps this off-season:
Willie Randolph for Art Howe. While Willie Randolph has no managerial experience, it's a better idea to have a manager who has shown potential but hasn't had a chance to prove it, than a guy who has experience but has not gotten the job done. Very good move.
Felix Heredia for Mike Stanton. I just don't get this one. Bad. Very bad.
Pedro Martinez for Al Leiter. OK it should probably say Al Leiter and lots of money, but on the field this is what the swap is for the 2005 Mets. Pedro's worth in 2007 and 2008 may be questionable, but for 2005 this is a huge upgrade. Very good move short term, not sure about long term.
Carlos Beltran for Richard Hidalgo. For an extra $12 million, you get a younger player with more power, speed, and glove skills, with higher upside and who is nearing superstar status. The only thing that, for the moment, brings the upgrade down slightly is that moving Cameron to a corner outfield position diminishes his value somewhat.
Win shares says that these latter 3 moves are worth about 7 wins (because the Heredia move actually is a step backward). Let's say Howe's bungling cost the Mets another 2 wins. That pretty much makes the Mets a .500 team.
So what do they need to do to turn .500 into playoff contention? It's easy:
- A full season of David Wright has to be worth a couple of wins.
- Moving Kaz over to 2nd should also improve the team.
- Clearly, the Mets need two solid bullpen arms (who doesn't?). If nothing else, they need to do this to make sure that Heredia doesn't pitch as much as Stanton did last year.
- It would be great, but not an absolute necessity, to get a corner outfielder or a better first baseman. At this point, the bullpen needs to be priority #1, and the extra offense could be infused midseason when the Mets are willing to take on another salary.
I have a feeling that the Mets aren't done. But going out and getting the #1 available free agent pitcher, and the #1 available free agent position player goes a long way to showing that this team plans on contending in 2005. Mets fans have no reason to stop smiling all week, don't worry about the bullpen until next week.
Willie Randolph for Art Howe. While Willie Randolph has no managerial experience, it's a better idea to have a manager who has shown potential but hasn't had a chance to prove it, than a guy who has experience but has not gotten the job done. Very good move.
Felix Heredia for Mike Stanton. I just don't get this one. Bad. Very bad.
Pedro Martinez for Al Leiter. OK it should probably say Al Leiter and lots of money, but on the field this is what the swap is for the 2005 Mets. Pedro's worth in 2007 and 2008 may be questionable, but for 2005 this is a huge upgrade. Very good move short term, not sure about long term.
Carlos Beltran for Richard Hidalgo. For an extra $12 million, you get a younger player with more power, speed, and glove skills, with higher upside and who is nearing superstar status. The only thing that, for the moment, brings the upgrade down slightly is that moving Cameron to a corner outfield position diminishes his value somewhat.
Win shares says that these latter 3 moves are worth about 7 wins (because the Heredia move actually is a step backward). Let's say Howe's bungling cost the Mets another 2 wins. That pretty much makes the Mets a .500 team.
So what do they need to do to turn .500 into playoff contention? It's easy:
- A full season of David Wright has to be worth a couple of wins.
- Moving Kaz over to 2nd should also improve the team.
- Clearly, the Mets need two solid bullpen arms (who doesn't?). If nothing else, they need to do this to make sure that Heredia doesn't pitch as much as Stanton did last year.
- It would be great, but not an absolute necessity, to get a corner outfielder or a better first baseman. At this point, the bullpen needs to be priority #1, and the extra offense could be infused midseason when the Mets are willing to take on another salary.
I have a feeling that the Mets aren't done. But going out and getting the #1 available free agent pitcher, and the #1 available free agent position player goes a long way to showing that this team plans on contending in 2005. Mets fans have no reason to stop smiling all week, don't worry about the bullpen until next week.
# posted by Darlucky @ 1:09 PM 
