213 Miles From Shea

Out of curiosity, I went to go look at the list of players the Mets were sending into the classic, and there are a good number of Mets that will be playing. In fact, when the minor leaguers are included, one can make a team, with a pen, a rotation and a bench, out of the amount of Mets that will be playing. Here are the Major League players the Mets are sending:
     Beltran
     Cora
     Delgado
     Feliciano
     Perez
     Putz
     Reyes
     Krod
     Santana
     Schneider
     Wright
Of course the worries are always the same, including if the team will get that time to become a team with the classic going on. However, the last time the Mets made the postseason was 2006, and that year started off with the classic as well. Also, every team is sending a good amout of players. Most players are actually coming from contenders, so this should be a problem felt all the way around baseball, and shouldn't really be too much of a factor in the beginning of the season if every team is feeling it. Here is the list of the minor leaguers playing in the classic:
     Bowman
     Cuan
     Dessens
     Feliciano, Jesus
     Figueroa
     Rueles
     Tejada, Ruben
     Welch
Out of this list, there are a few that I am familar with, and I am sure you are as well. Bowman played in the fall league for the Mets did alright, but didn't really wow anyone. I don't know much about Dessens numbers but I remember reading a few articles about a few of his pitches and how he could have potentially good stuff. We all know about Figueroa. I am glad that the main prospects or young players for the Mets, like Fmart or Murphy, are not going to the Classic. I think it is really best for them to stay in camp and not only get coached, but to get evaluated to see where they will be seeing their time at this year.

With Spring Training and pitchers and catchers reporting just a few days away it now has become crunch time for big names to find homes and today an arbitration case and a “free agent” was taken care of it. For the arb case, Howard and the Phillies reached a three year agreement. They usually are on different sides, and Howard usually wins, which has led people to think about what will happen in 2011 when Howard is free go on the market. He was asking for 18 this year, and the Phillies were asking for 14 a year. They agreed today to 18 a year, for the next three years, taking Howard out of his arbritation years. I guess the Phillies here were banking on not only losing this year, but potentially having to pay more an more every year. Plus, this will allow the Phillies and Howard to avoid this awkward period year after year. Personally, I'm hoping that this deal tied up enough money with the Phils that they won't be able to get Ohman off the market for the pen, who does well against the Mets and would help the Phillies a lot.

Jones finally has a home! Well sort of. The Rangers are “set to sign him” according to Mlbtraderumors.com. The deal sounds like right now that its going to be half a million, plus a million if he makes the team. He will have to compete though with minor league and prospect talent, so the chances of Jones making the team is slim. I hope for him, especially now that he is in the American league and the Mets don't have to worry about him, that he makes it because he really has a lot of talent, it just has seemed to disapear over the last few years.

The MLB Fantasy Baseball Rankings have came out, and they have ranked 800 players. I don't take too much stock in the fantasy rankings, but its also nice to see your players recognized. One debate I hear a lot with Mets fans is who is better, Reyes or Wright? Well MLB.com also has a hard time deciding as they ranked Wright number 4 and then Reyes number 5. Here are MLB.com's top 10 players:
     1. Hanley Ramierez
     2. Pujols
     3. Arod
     4. Wright
     5. Reyes
     6. Braun
     7. Miguel Cabrera
     8. Sizemore
     9. Tex
     10. Hamilton
A great side note to point out is that the Mets and the Yankees are the only two teams in the league that have two players each in the top ten. One player doesn't make a team, but when you have more than two great players, then you have the building blocks for a great team. Here are where other Mets ended up ranking. The Rankings are in the overall ranking, then next is their ranking for their position:
     4. Wright (2)
     5. Reyes (2)
    19. Beltran (7)
    25. Santana (1)
    72. Krod (6)
    83. Delgado (16)
Some other notes: MLB.com only did an overall ranking for the top 100, with Delgado making that list at 83, shows how firstbasemen are viewed in fantasy baseball for all the way down to 16 on the list make the top 100. The Phillies had three players, and you can guess who, between 11 and 20, so the Mets and the Phillies had the same amount of players between the 1st and the 20th ranked players. JJ Putz got ranked 40 on the Relievers list, and then Heilman, yes Heilman, got ranked at 61. Maine got ranked 54 on the Starters list, followed by Perez at 56.
   

The Mets and Feliciano agreed on a one year deal today slightly below the midpoint from the two sides. This agreement means that the Mets will not have to have an arbitration hearing with Feliciano and actually with no players this year. This is a very good thing. I am not a fan of having to go through the arbritation hearing process because it really does expose breaks between the front office and the players. Two big free agent signings this year, both had to go to arbritation las year (Krod and Fuentes). What it comes down to is the team basically saying that a player is not worth that amount.

While generally that is true, in some cases it is. (as a disclaimer, I am not a fan of any large salary that any baseball player makes, but I also know that the larger salaries are part of sports and sports culture at this point). For example, when Howard got 10 million in that case, he was worth it.

A team has to be very careful going through with these cases because they could really damage ties with players that they may want to keep. Going with this statement, I don't how much of these feelings of resentment come from fans like me and the media just trying to make sense of what it is liek to go though with these cases. We are not part of baseball, the front office, or the players, so we really dont know what is going on, but its a thought.

I have been having computer issues for the last two weeks, and they have finally be resolved, so I can go back to regular posting. In this absence, unlike my previous one this past month, something actually happened as the Mets signed Oliver Perez to a three year deal with that fourth year option. The Mets spent around 36 to 44 on the deal, which could have been the amount they could have spent to get Lowe. Knowing this, I am still not opposite about the Mets keeping Perez, which is weird, because I thought I would really be upset with this move. What it comes down to though is a combination of age, rival expericence, and a pitchers ballpark.

Perez is young, a lot younger than Lowe. So it goes without any real expert analysis that signing him to a 4 year deal would make sense over signing Lowe to one on strictly an age issue. On the rival issue, for some reason he can pull out all of the stops when playing the Phillies, which makes him a force in the NL East, and probably a needed a component of this team. These two arguments are nice, but they do not gurantee different results from the previous years. What will make Perez better this year than last year?

The answer to that is simply Citi Field. The the designers, when trying to make a pitchers park, went a little crazy and the result was a field where either every part was actually deeper (despite the dimensions) or in the slightly, and I mean slightly, more shallow parts, there is an 18 foot wall. Perez can't stop the bleeding when it starts, and it usually starts with a hit here or there and then a big homer. That would be a thing of the past because not many homers are going to be hit in Citi Field. As long as he has good fielding behind him, and the Mets are a historically good defense squad, then his numbers will look much better this year (he's a flyout pitcher, thats the main argument here). As a side note argument, we are also hoping that Maine does better this year, because if he does, then Perez could be the number 3 starter, or maybe 4 behind Pelfrey as well. There will be ways of taking the pressure off.

Today is the two year anniversary of this website and I really wanted to take some time and thank all of you who read this site and listen to what I have to say. Two years ago, on January 31, 2007 I had a vision to create a Mets site that was heavy on numbers and analysis, while I have changed a lot over that time (now that I know how to actually write, I don't have to hide behind numbers as much and I can present better written articles). At this point last year I had about 300 articles written (I think somewhere around 330). Now there are over 740 articles on the website, and average of slightly more than one a day.

The views have really gone up as well. So far, according to sitemeter, there have been over 7800 views in the past two years, not including the 6000 views the site had before switching to sitemeter.

The biggestg change of the past year though has been Mets Merized Online. In May, I was approached by the owner of the Mets Merized to take the game preview articles that I write here, and post them over there. By doing that, the amount of traffic I have been getting on this website has really taken off, and I thank Joe so much for the opportunity to write on Mets Merized Online.

For the next upcoming year, I plan to keep doing what I do, writing every day, increase traffic, give out previews, start reviews, introduce players and now cover the WBC. Also, my goal is by this time next year to have an overall average of 2 articles a day over three years, so I better get typing.

Thank You again for reading this website. Lets Go Mets
-Elliot

Following the Mets the last few years, it is easy to spot out the weakness that both Santana and Perez share (for Santana its his only weakness, for Perez its one of a bunch) and that is the homerun ball. (As a side note, the other big weakness for Perez is his inability to stop the bleeding). That is why I am interested to see how their numbers will look at home this year. About a month ago, I was reading on another site, and if I can find the article, I will link to it later, that Citi is not going to play like Shea at all because at almost every part of the ballpark, the outfield wall, in reality, is deeper than Shea. In other words, in designing a pitcher's park, the Mets might have gone over board. The biggest example of this is the left field wall where not only is it very tall, but its also almost the same distance out ther that Shea was.

What this means is that homer totals will dip way down, and both Santana and Perez tend to be flyout pitchers (for Santana, take that with a grain of salt because he is also a strikeout pitcher). This means that the two of them, at home, could really have a legitamate home field advantage. This is also another reason why the Mets should not be going after Manny who cannot really field. The Mets are going to have so much real estate in the OF that they will need the defense out there to be strong to prevent fast players from turning singles into doubles, doubles into triples and so on.

Going on this homer dead zone topic more, this is the other reason not to sign Manny because the Mets are going to need more contact hitters. This ballpark looks to play old time, small ball baseball. Personally, I am glad about that because Reyes is fast, Wright gets a lot of doubles, and Beltran plays simiarly. This is also why we need to get rid of Castillo, because speed will really be important this year.

Reports are starting to surface that the Mets are still interested in Pedro. Thats fine but where does he fit? Before getting to his struggles last year, the Mets currently have one starting rotation spot open, which they are hoping to fill with Perez, and that seems like it will happen, then if that doesn't, it will be filled by Wolf. In fact, the only situation I see Pedro getting that spot over Perez and Wolf is if they sign Manny, then have to sign Pedro…which would cause earthquakes around the world by the collective Mets fan groan.

So lets say the Mets do sign Perez, and then sign Pedro, where does he go? Well he can't get in the rotation unless in Spring he beats out Redding and Niese, which is a far shot. And I really can't see him in the pen, because he would have to be a long inning man. That really seems the only place where he could go. He could go to the minors, but why would he do that. I think what I am trying to get is that I don't understand bringing Pedro back at all. I really think it is time to retire and to start coaching. If the Mets signed Pedro as a pitching coach in the minors, that could be the best thing ever. Back in the day, his curveball and his changeup were the best in the business (can you imagine Pedro teaching Niese about his backdoor curveball).

I will be the first to admit that my position on Manny has flipped so many times this offseason, that I might as well become a politician. I think the root of the problem is that what Manny brings to the table, what he offers the team looks so good and at the same time looks so bad. His numbers are incredible. He can hit in the clutch. He is going to the Hall of Fame and he still possibly has a good amount of years in him. He is not a team player. He is ridiculous. His fielding is terrible. He loves attention and needs attention.

Jerry wants him. Omar might not. Half the Mets fan base wants him. Half the fan base does not. The Dodgers want him. Boras wants money. If he takes 4 years to get no way, if he signs with another team for one year than why didn't that happen with the Mets.

This is exactly like a situation when you want something and you know its bad for you, but you will enjoy it. We want those numbers in our lineup. We want the protection for our hitters, we want to beat up our opponents. We also want a team to play like a team and to get rid of Castillo, because if we get Manny that would mean no Hudson for sure. Citifield is going to play like a canyon, Manny's numbers won't be that good and his defense could really end up hurting the team severely. And taking in all of this, there is no legitimate reason to believe that the Mets will really make a move on Manny right now.

The Baseball Offseason, there is nothing quite like it.

I am back from my little leave, and will start posting normally again tomorrow.

Looking back on the headlines from the last 2 weeks or so, its interesting to see that really, not much has changed since I have been out of the country. The Mets didn't really fill the next rotation spot, other than signing a dark-horse candidate in Freddy Garcia. More analysis to come later.