SaberMets.com: Wednesday Notes

December 22, 2004

Wednesday Notes

Mets non-tender Orber Moreno: Boo! I liked Orber a lot. Wait a minute, what's this...

Mets bring back reliever Moreno: Hooray! The Mets just didn't want to go through the arbitration process with Orbie, but were smart enough to keep him around, signing him to a minor league deal. If he's healthy come Spring he should crack the Mets big league bullpen.

Dead Deal: Dodgers pull out of Unit trade: Ha-Ha!. Rumor has it that the D'Backs and Yankees are already busy trying to find another third team to be involved. If they can't, my guess is that the Yankees will just kick in however much money Arizona wants to cover Javy Vazquez' contract. The Boss needs this deal to go through, and he's not likely to let something silly like money stand in the way of landing Randy Johnson.

Wade Miller joins Red Sox staff: Doh! The Mets were mentioned as one of the teams that expressed interest in Miller, though I wish they had made more of a push for him. He will fit in nicely with the Sox. He has a career strikeouts-per-nine ratio of 7.72 and has never allowed more hits than innings pitched in any full season.

Mets to sign Galarraga: I wrote about the Big Cat last year in an entry entitled The Lost Art Of Platooning, in which I cited Galarraga as a very good right-handed platoon candidate. From 2001-2003, Galarraga hit .289/.356/.495 against left-handed pitching over 291 at-bats. I would certainly rather give someone younger a shot coming off the bench (Galarraga will be 44 in June), but Galarraga could be fairly productive if he is played in the right situations.

Moises Alou signs with Giants: The article is in Spanish, but you can tranlate it to English using Babel Fish. The translation isn't perfect, so you end up with beauties like:

The Dominican gardener Moisés Alou accepted a contract of two years and 13.6 million dollars to meet with his father Felipe in the Giants of San Francisco.

and

Alou will travel to Miami Monday to be put under the physical examination of rigor and later the Giants will present/display officially their new right gardener, added the source.

Eric | December 22, 2004 - 05:52 PM EST | TrackBack: 1
Category: Mets

Comments

Yep, just read the Alou article you mentioned. He´s no longer an option for the Mets. While I like Alou, I am almost relieved he´s not coming given his age. I hope there is some way to get a live bat out there and still allow the young guys like Diaz to get enough playing time. I am looking forward to seeing what they can do.

Posted by: Will - December 22, 2004 at 08:24 PM EST

Anyone interested in starting a "Sign Carlos Beltran" petition? The goal would be to get as many signatures as possible before Jan. 8 (which is the last day the Astros can sign him) and submit to Minaya and Wilpon. If there's any interest out there--and how could there not be?--please respond to this post or email me at ParkPage99@aol.com

Posted by: Anthony - December 25, 2004 at 04:21 PM EST

METS, SIGN CARLOS BELTRAN!!! http://www.petitiononline.com/signCFCB/petition.html

Posted by: Les Gomez - December 27, 2004 at 07:43 AM EST

The Mets shouldn't be pursuing Carlos Beltran seriously. Why? They already have a very good center fielder. Mike Cameron doesn't hit quite as well as Beltran -- though the difference (careeer OPS 843 vs. 780) is less than you might expect if your vision is colored by Beltran's big September/October this year. Neither one of them has much value if played out of position -- their defensive skills in center, for which they're paid big salaries, make it a huge waste to play them in a corner spot, where they're not much above average hitters anyway. The Mets need power-hitting, OPS-machine corner outfielders, and a bunch of them (two, at least, after moving Floyd somewhere he can DH half-time to rest his knees). Beltran out of position would be an incredibly expensive about-average right fielder (hell, he doesn't even have that much of an arm).

This is essentially the same as the reason the Yankees shouldn't have pursued Alex Rodriguez (assuming, falsely, that maximum bang for the buck was their goal) to play him at third base -- a spot where hitting comes cheaper than at shortstop.

Posted by: Anonymous - December 27, 2004 at 11:34 PM EST

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