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The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

The Good: The Mets will announce today that they have removed the interim title from Jim Duquette, naming him as their tenth General Manager. It was only a matter of time before this was made official, as The Duke proved his worth by ably ridding the Mets of albatrosses like Jeromy Burnitz, Roberto Alomar, and Armando Benitez. Not only did he manage to bring the Mets under the $117 million luxury tax threshold, but he acquired some live arms and decent prospects in the process.

The Bad: The New York Post reports today that the Mets would "definitely" be interested in pursuing Mike "All-Glove" Cameron. Post columnist Michael Morrissey goes so far as to say that, in light of the Mariners' current front office disarray, the Mets would have the unique opportunity to "pounce on Cameron, a 30-year-old fan favorite and Gold Glove winner who has made Mariners fans forget the Ken Griffey Jr. era." The Mets "pouncing" on Cameron would be much the way a soldier would "pounce" on a live grenade to save his platoon. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one. Cameron's agent/spin doctor says that his client's non-prowess with the stick is not a result of the spaciousness of Safeco Field, but rather the stadium's "glare", the cause of which is not specified. "They had trouble with it for years and brought NASA in there to find a solution." I see.

The Ugly: Okay, here's where it gets dicey. As Michael of Michael's Mets Ramblings also points out, the Mets, according to an article in today's Star Ledger, will make Kaz Matsui one of their primary off-season targets. That's fine. His stats project reasonably well and, in the right deal, wouldn't be a bad acquisition, considering that the Mets wouldn't have to forfeit any of their draft picks (they pick 3rd overall in each round) to sign him. He's a shortstop, but that's okay because the Mets will try to move him to 2B. Right? RIGHT?!?! According to the article, Matsui is not very open to changing positions, so the Mets think tank is apparently considering moving The Golden Child to 2B, citing that he is "athletic enough to make the switch". I agree with Michael that the only player you even think about relocating Jose Reyes for is All-Star/Raker/Baseball God Alex Rodriguez. I probably wouldn't even move him for Nomah.

The Bad and Ugly is speculative at this point, relying on "sources" and such, but they don't give me warm fuzzies about the impending off-season shuffle. In addition to the Good, the other ray of light is that Luis Castillo's miserable-save-for-one-at-bat World Series performance has apparently soured many Mets execs on the light-hitting second-baseman. For me, his inability to get the ball out of the infield and inept base-stealing did the trick.