213 Miles From Shea

Hawkins has reached a 1-year deal with the Rockies for 2.5 million (Source. Source.)

The contract comes with a 2.25 million option and a 250 K buyout.

The word right now is Hawkins will be the closer in Colorado. As of now there is no word if the Mets offered a contract but I find it hard to believe the money in this case was the issue, my gut right now says its the closer part. The Mets have a closer in Parnell and Vic Black is looking towards the closer road. In addition, the Mets have Familia and Mejia that could at some point push themselves in that position.

Hawkins is stronger in the bullpen then Black/Familia/Mejia next season and he’ll be missed as he became a rock in the back end of the rotation. It doesn’t destroy the Mets off-season, but it makes it more necessary that the Mets make a major positive move.

It’s looking more and more like the Mets will have to overpay for starting pitching with track record this off-season.

The two big pitching contracts this off-season have both come from San Francisco with a 2-year, 35 million dollar deal with Lincecum and a 2-year, 23 million dollar deal with Hudson. Teams like Atlanta were looking to offer him an amount lower than the 9 million he got last season. Tim had a great season last year but he also broke his ankle.

This means other pitchers could easily be looking at more money and more years. Before this signing I thought that Roy Halladay would have to settle for a one year deal but this deal throws in doubt.

The Mets were never in the market for pitchers like Nolasco or Ervin Santana but they are in the market for Arroyo. A two year deal for Hudson pushes the likely hood that it will take 3-4 years to get Arroyo (and if its three years, it would be overpaid). This does mean that if the Mets would trade Niese or Gee, the price for them rises considerably, but the Mets already need a starter.

I’m still curious to see what the Mets first move will be.

Nick Carfardo’s report today in the Boston Globe gave another piece of clarity to Jose Bautista trade market. According to Carfardo the Blue Jays are looking for two starting pitchers and they are willing to move Bautista and Encarncion to make that happen.

As it goes for the Mets, if Harvey was healthy, moving a starter wouldn’t be a problem. However, the Mets find themselves down a starter and moving one would be difficult. As it goes for the Mets and problems. I am in the camp that if it took Jon Niese for Bautista or Montero/Gee with Ike Davis for Encarncion/Bautista, I still think I would pull the trigger. It also goes without saying that just Niese for Bautista or Montero/Gee with Davis won’t be enough. If something like this were to happen, there would need to be some eating of salary on the Mets end and additional lower prospects with high ceilings but are far away from the majors (which happens to be what the Mets are full of). At the end of the day, the Jays are looking for pitching and they also need to retool their farm system, which is something the Mets could help with.

There were multiple reports today about the Mets could be timid in the free agent market as other teams are going to be aggressive on salaries. If that is the case, the Mets will need to be more creative in trades and how they reorganize the pieces they have (which is similar to the reports from the start of the GM Meeting).

For the Mets this off-season is looking more and more like which piece falls into place first. Who ever is acquired or moved at the start will dictate all of the following moves, which is probably why Sandy Alderson is targeting 16 players.

Sandy Alderson had a conversation with Mike Francesa today where he revealed there are 16 players on the board that he is looking at this season (Source). Seven players are free agents and Nine players would be via trade. I didn’t hear the interview but I assume this means he isn’t looking at adding all 16 (that would be insane and impossible) but he sees that he 16 options for moves to fill in the holes on the roster.

What I’m about to say is biased by how much I want to see change, but this makes me feel good. I’ll of course feel better once something materializes, but its nice to hear that the work has been laid out to get some moves done. Also, I’m curious to hear who these players are. I’d assume that Aoki and Fowler are probably on the list of 9 based on various reports we’ve heard so far this winter.

The other interesting tidbit from his interview is in regards to Syndergaard and Montero (Source). Syndergaard sounds untouchable, which is predicted but maybe Montero is more untouchable then I originally thought (or he’s trying to build more value for Montero). Montero is slightly ahead of Synergaard in terms of heading to Queens and Sandy expects both to come through at some point next year. That’s and exciting thought of having a rotation in 2014 of Wheeler, Syndergaard, Montero and Niese (and then Gee? Free Agent signing?) and even more exciting to think about 2015 of Harvey, Wheeler, Niese, Montero and Syndergaard. Crazy exciting.

A couple of days have passed since the incorrect rumor involving the Phillies trading Brown for Bautista and now there is a rumor about the Phillies trying to trade Ryan Howard for David Price. Early this morning (like really early, like sun is not up early) my twitter and facebook were buzzing with this rumor. Even at 5 AM, this seemed like a major stretch, so lets search the source of the rumor.

Does this rumor have any weight?

No. At least not that we know of.

The rumor originates from a Sports Radio show and was brought to forefront by Jason Collette:

Please don’t have any carbonated beverage in your mouth when you listen to this http://t.co/hjLil2OGAm

— jasoncollette (@jasoncollette) November 14, 2013

So I’m going to be clear here, this rumor has close to zero weight. The source in the video link heard from a “friend in Philly” which is the making of a bad rumor. (However, of course anything is possible, but I still don’t believe this rumor).

If you see any sites trying to perpetuate this rumor as true, just ignore them. Unless it turns out to be true. In that case I’ll be enjoying a green sky with flying pigs.

Earlier today, Wilpon hinted that something is about to happen that they are meeting with teams and agents something should happen by later tonight (Source, Metsblog). This of course can mean a lot of things since he didn’t say what he would say later tonight, just that there would be an announcement. Technically it could be that the Mets will be changing their colors to Fire Truck Red and Purple because that would be an announcement. I’m hoping that its something regarding a player move since fans are ready for something positive.

Heyman earlier today broke down the market for Ike Davis (Source). So far the suitors include the Astros, Orioles, Rays, Brewers and Rockies.

The Rockies are interesting here. There have been connections in the past between Fowler in the Mets, and Fowler seems to be publicly the only player the Rockies are willing to discuss. I’d imagine though if the Mets are going to move Davis, and looks like they will, they will ask for either Tulo or CarGo from the Rockies.

Davis for Fowler, maybe one to one straight up, only works if the Mets sign a power bat via free agency or do another trade. However if Fowler is picked up, this will hurt the shortstop search because Fowler projects closer to the profile (offensively) the Mets are looking from Shortstop.

Lets see what happens…

Edit: Hosing the Fire. If you read this earlier you could probably sniff out my deep undertones of not believing the one source. A more reliable Jon Heyman has weighed in.

Dumbest radio request of day: to come on to talk about false rumor of bautista for brown trade. It’s false! How’s that?

— Jon Heyman (@JonHeymanCBS) November 13, 2013

Original Post:

I woke up this morning twitter on fire a rumor that the Phillies are in serious talks to get Bautista from the Blue Jays.  A deal would include Dom. Brown and others.

#phillies GM Ruben Amaro deep in serious talks w #bluejays to acquire OF Jose Batista. Can also play 3rd. Phils would deal OF Dom Brown plus — Howard Eskin (@howardeskin) November 13, 2013

This rumor from a Phillies reporter spread quickly. All articles about this possible trade, at least of 5:30 AM, are rooted from here. For example Bleacher Report, Canoe and theScore, all with different opinions on the weight of the rumor are based soley off of Eskin’s work.

Personally I will be a little surprised if Brown is the main centerpiece of the deal because it seems like the Blue Jays really need pitching (unless if the Blue Jays feel they can trade another piece of their team for pitching). Brown fits the profile of an MLB ready player, but I seriously doubt a deal can get done without a pitcher moving as well (and I’ll admit, I don’t know the Phillies system well enough to figure out who that young pitcher is).

To some degree, when it comes to the Blue Jays, my gut disagrees that pitching is what they are really looking for in a trade. My gut says that they are looking for a move that is going to retool their farm system that was demolished last season to give the team multiple ways to move this off season and some depth for next year. While that gut prediction works well for the Phillies and the trade rumor from last night, it also still holds well for the Mets that could put together a Duda/Davis with Montero and someone else deal for Bautista.

I’m curious to see how this shakes out today.

My opinion about this jersey are consistent with my opinion on all of the iterations of the Stars and Stripes hats, the camo MLB hats and the USMC hats and jerseys.

I’ve been writing for the last 3 or 4 years on this site about the conflation of patriotism (including the military) and sports and why the trend is disingenuous to the causes it has been reported to support.

The opening to this article at Uni – Watch from earlier this year does a good job at almost poetically explaining my frustration. If you can’t open the link, it shows a picture of a Dominican player for a Canadian baseball team wearing a jersey that celebrates the American military.

Before I continue, I have to explain that I’m not anti-military or anti-American. Part of the problem of debating the merits of Military uniforms in sports is the person making the point against the uniforms always has to confirm that he or she is still pro-military or pro-American (which is another issue altogether that these ideas of pro-military and pro-American go together, that someone can have a view point that separates military goals from military members from American goals from American Politician goals, but this isn’t a political website).

It remains inconclusive that if sales from these Jerseys go to support the military. Even if they do, how much? Why do they have to be worn so much? How do they actually honor the military by dressing up as soldiers glorifying war? Are the Mets actually doing something to help the military or is this another form slacktivism, like updating your facebook status on Veterans day to thank veterans rather than actually doing something actively and productively accomplish the goal.

On a more political side, or maybe more personal side, its now like we are rooting for the military when the Mets play on Monday nights. War isn’t a game. It’s war. There are no analogies. Baseball players don’t go to battle on the baseball field. They don’t wear armor, they don’t have weapons. War is war and sports are sports. All major sports in America, in my personal opinion, need to stop conflating these two.

I’m thankful for the soldiers that serve and I’m glad that the Mets will be honoring them during the games this year. I don’t see the necessity of extending this to the uniforms especially when the Mets are not allowed to wear FDNY/NYPD hats on 9/11 because they aren’t sanctioned by the league and produced by an official uniform provider.

The GM/Owners meetings historically are not meant for trading and free agent signings but that trend has changed over the last few years (or, I’ll admit, maybe I’ve started to pay more attention over the last few years and it just seems that way). Anyway there are a few Mets related stories starting to surface for the upcoming week.

The smaller story involves Boras. Both MLBTradeRumors and Metsblog are both reporting that the Mets will meet with Boras with regards to Choo and Drew. It is still widely expected that the Mets will not be major players for Choo and it is widely expected that the Mets will be interested in Drew but are also interested in Peralta.

The real story will come out of trade talks. Alderson will be gauging the market for interest in Ike Davis (and others) to see what he can get in return for a trade. If you were to comb over the internet you’d see the rumors, mostly pundit based and then blogger repeated, you’d see the trade market routes look like:

• Davis to the Brewers for Aoki
• Trading with the Dodgers for either Ethier, Kemp or Crawford
• Trading starting pitching and others (Davis?) to the Blue Jays for Bautista (and others?)
• (Not reported anywhere but I needed something crazy for the end of this article) If the Cards can work out something for Troy Tulo from the Rockies, could the Mets work out something for CarGo? Three Way Trade?