213 Miles From Shea

It was known that the Marlins were trying to add another pitcher, and they made that a reality tonight. Earlier this week it was thought that the Marlins would do this either by signing for Saunders or by going after Garza. In reality, they acquired Zambrano in a trade.

If the trade goes through, still depending on Carlos waiving his no trade clause, the Cubs will get Chris Volstad and will also pay 15 million of his owed 18 million.

In terms of long term development, the Marlins getting Zambrano instead of Matt Garza is much better for every other team in the division, as the last thing the Mets, Phillies, Nationals, and Braves want is the Marlins to get a developing pitcher. I do wonder if the Marlins didn’t have the pieces to acquire Garza. The Marlins used to have a lot of talent in the minors, but the high tier prospects have now become their untradeable young core, and there have been some whispers that the Marlins farm system isn’t too appealing to opposing GM”s.

Volstad was a pitcher who struggled and Zambrano is a pitcher who is struggling, who could go through a revival under manager Ozzie Guillien. Zambrano makes the Marlins rotation stronger since he is the 5th pitcher in that rotation, and who would complain about that? It’s worth a shot and the Marlins will need some surprises to upset the Phillies.

For the Mets, on the short term side, it is harder to have hope for this team. We still have one of the more surprising offenses in the division but now our rotation is even weaker in comparison to the other teams. That paired with our generally weak pen at the moment could make for a long season in a division that is now talent heavy.

Baseball is very different than every other major sporting league in that multiple season rebuilding really takes multiple seasons. It is very rare for draft picks to come up and play immediately like in the NFL and since rosters are large, it is very difficult to buy a few players for a long term impact, like in the NBA. Compounding with the length of time it takes players to enter the league, baseball is the sport where players stay the longest. Long term success is generally built around a few strong players that can stick with a team and enter their prime together.

The Phillies showed that a complete build around strong players can lead to long term success as they have run the league from 2007 and probably through at least this coming season. If you remember, they started to show life at the end of 2006, and will development, were able to break the Mets chance of forming back to back championships in 2007. Before the Phillies, the Braves used a strong system to take care of the division for a record setting time.

The Phillies are still a powerhouse, but there time will be ending soon as they start to age and be held back by long term contracts. For the Mets, right now, this is acceptable. There is not a strong possibility of the Mets making a run at the division for the next two seasons, but 2014 could be promising.

The next hurdle for the Mets would be the Braves, who are developing a strong core, but there is another, more impressive team developing a really strong core, that could lead to a power shift in the division, and that team would be the Washington Nationals. Their rotation has three strong pitchers in Strasburg, Gonzalez and Zimmermann. The bullpen is anchored by Clippard and Storen. On top of the pitching, are the strong position players, that are also young: Zimmerman, Espinosa, Rasmos and the eventual promotion of Harper. Plus, Morse had a surprising season and they still have Jason Werth on the roster.

Here’s the difference between the Nationals and a team like the Marlins. The Marlins were a good team, that added pieces and became a strong team this offseason. The pieces they added though have injury, age and monetary risk attached. Taking one chance is one thing, but three is a lot of chances (look at the Mets for an example of that). The Nationals are in a position right now that they could add only one piece, and they will be ok, that person could be Prince Fielder.

If the Nationals added Fielder, or even if they don’t, they are a team that I’m afraid about, especially in 2014 when the Mets look to be competitive again. One player that is very intriguing is Espinosa, who smacked 21 homers last season. The Nationals have the potential to develop into a very strong team and because they are doing it with youth, with very few players yet to enter their prime. They could do this for the long haul.

If there is a silver lining in this. The Mets could follow the same formula with the crop of stars that are deep in the farm system. However putting a guarantee to that statement would be immature.

The last major free agent to yet to be signed is Prince Fielder. There has been a lot of talk recently about the length of Fielders contract, and how a lot of teams may not have the money or the desire to sign the first basemen for that long. Publicly, the Nationals have stated that unless something extraordinary happens, LaRoche is their first basemen next season. Something extraordinary could be signing Fielder, who a Player on the Nationals said that the team is in on the market for Fielder.

Fielder to the Nationals makes sense because the two areas Washington is the weakest is at 1B and in CF. The team could use someone strong in the lineup to pump it up. The Nationals won’t make a CF move this year, because of all of the free agent CF that will be on the market next year. The second reason Fielder makes sense is judging by the names the Nationals were involved with earlier this offseason, they could afford Fielder and a CF next season as well.

Fielder to the Nationals doesn’t make sense later in his career, Fielder could become a defensive liability. A long term deal looks more attractive when the idea of being a DH is thrown into the mix.

Other teams that could pursue Fielder include the Mariners, Orioles and Cubs.  The Cubs were once considered to be strong suitors for Fielder but have backed off as they are going into a rebuilding mode (however maybe not entirely). The Mariners were very interested in Fielder at the start of the winter and the Orioles are interested in Prince but his price is way too high right now.

For the Mets, if Fielder does go to the Nationals, this is just bad news. The Phillies are already stocked for next season, the Braves look to be solid again, the Marlins have a bunch of new pieces and the Nationals will have a couple of new pieces to go with their emerging talent. Fielder to the Nationals might be the straw that breaks the optimistic horse’s back. For example, this would be the straw that could really hurt my optimism for next year.

I saw this video earlier today, and could totally see myself doing this. I’m already a Troll Teacher, so I know I would probably end up being a Troll Dad when I have children. Anyway the intersection of being a parent with a sense of humor and raising children in a two team household is the following:

Yep. I would totally do that. Happy Holidays.

I was in a Modell’s in Kearny, NJ last week when something caught my eye:

If that slogan sounds familiar to you, then you remember the 2006 slogan! That was the year of, “the team, the time, the New York Mets”. For some reason this store had a boatload of these flags. I thought about buying one but then decided there was about 3.56 million other things better I could spend 5 bucks on.

The Athletics continued to dismantle their establishment yesterday by trading Andrew Bailey and Ryan Sweeney to the Red Sox for Reddick, Head and Alancantara. This trade has extreme importance for the Red Sox who have been in trouble in the last few months. They had a historic collapse, which led to a new manager and GM. During that time, they lost their All-Star closer to the Phillies in free agency.

Where money failed to maintain a player, the Red Sox ended up getting a young, star closer who could contribute the Red Sox for many seasons. However the Ryan Sweeney portion of the trade is interesting as well. Sweeney has been linked to the Red Sox before, is young and could easily compete for an OF spot.

The Athletics received some big names as well, but what this trade shows what we all knew about Oakland. They are starting to rebuild again. This year they have already traded Gio Gonzalez, now Andrew Bailey and Ryan Sweeney. What is different about this rebuilding is they are trading players Before they hit their prime. This is a really interesting strategy because they are commanding high prices for all of their pieces. This means in 2014, 2015 or whatever, we will see how this strategy worked for the Athletics, who will probably be the San Jose Athletics at that point.

This also sets up an interesting situation for the rest of the winter. Two of the top closers on the market, Cordera and Madson, are still without home. The Red Sox may have been the last team that could handle Madsons’s contract demands. The other way to look at this is that maybe with the Bailey trade over, teams may want to make a move on these remaining closers. Honestly, I don’t know.