213 Miles From Shea

So far the outfield market is looking pretty thin from a free agency perspective. There are a collection of high ticket players that the Mets will have to stay away from, the cheaper pieces right now are all old, and the rest are arbitration eligible so it is difficult to predict who will actually land on the market itself.

The Diamondbacks are apparently over burdened by outfielders, says the rumor mill over the last few days, and may look to move either Jason Kubel or Gerardo Parra, two very different players.

Jason Kubel fits the mold the Mets looking for: a power hitter. In his 8th season, at the age of 30, he broke into the 30 homer club for the first time. With last year being an off year due to AB’s (366), he has hit 12, 21, and 28 homers going back in time. He also hit a career number in strikeouts this year as well (151) and had a down year in the batting average department (.253, .268 lifetime).

Gerardo Parra, by contrast, does not hit for a lot of power, but has moderate speed and a better batting average. In his fourth major league season at the age of 25, he hit .273 overall (7 points below his career average) with 21 doubles, 2 triples, 7 homers over 105 hits. His slugging is rather low, but he does get on base and he is 5 years younger than Kubel.

It seems fairly obvious that the Mets and Diamondbacks will be linked in a lot of rumors this offseason based on the surplus and needs between the teams, but it not clear yet if the Mets will indulge in a trade and if they do, which player do they go for.

In conclusion, Kubel is a player currently in his prime age wise who hits for power and strikeouts. Parra is a player currently heading towards his prime age wise who hits for average and has a low slugging percentage.

213 Miles from Shea is proud of our affiliation to the Baseball Bloggers Alliance and as per tradition, each year members nominate players and managers for their performance during the baseball season. The kicker is that since this is a Mets site, I can only vote for the National League, which makes sense because I wouldn’t really be qualified to make decisions about the American League. So here are your National League nominees from 213MFS:

Connie Mack Award (Manager of the Year): Freddie Gonzalez
This was probably the toughest vote in the National League because for the most part, the teams with a lot of talent won their divisions and made it into the playoffs. If the Mets still competitive deeper in the year, than Collins should be the winner (and may still have a Dark Horse shot). Freddie gets it because he got his players to move beyond last year’s epic collapse and back into the playoffs this year, even if it was for just one game.

Willie Mays Award (Rookie of the Year): Bryce Harper
Harper sort of had this award wrapped up before he stepped on the field this year. He performed exactly how we all thought he would (ie, literal All-Star) and he deserves the Rookie of the Year Award.

Goose Gossage Award (Best Reliever): Craig Kimbrel
Talk about a closer. 42 saves, tied for third best in the Majors, and 1.01 ERA. In addition, he has 16.7 strikeouts per nine innings.

Walter Johnson Award (Cy Young): R.A. Dickey
Dickey is more than just an amazing story, he’s the best pitcher in baseball right now. He had one terrible month this year, and despite that he leads the league in strikeouts, complete games, shut outs and almost leading the league in wins and ERA. He was one of the few bright spots on the Mets this year and always gave the Mets a chance to win, which is what you want out of your Cy Young.

Stan Musial Award (MVP): Buster Posey
This was tough, statistically Posey is really close to Braun, who also had a tremendous year. I’m not letting Braun’s steroid incident from last year impact my decision about MVP this year. I have two qualifications for MVP. The team must be completely different without that player and the team should be competitive, possibly playoffs. Braun almost has both of these, you can make the argument that the Brewers were competitive until the end. Posey ultimately gets the award because when the offense of the Giants started to fall apart, he stepped up, filled in at that role and put the team way ahead in the division.