What Are The Odds Beltran Gets 500 AB Or Young Makes 25 Starts This Season?

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• theonlymaskman March 13, 2011 at 12:03 pm

  There is no way to comment on any of the first 3 statements. All those comments relate to the physical condition of specific players and as fans we have no insight into that other than hope. As far as the last comment, I disagree with the 5% assessment on having a ML 2B playing for the Mets this season. My resposnse is 100% likelihood that the Mets will have a ML 2B. Let’s not forget that Castillo and Murphy are both ML’ers, even if they are lesser competitive ones, they are still capable of playing in the majors in some capacity.
  • Met Maniac March 13, 2011 at 12:12 pm

    Castillo and Murphy are only major league second baseman because of your watered down outlook or definition. Neither would be second basemen on the Braves or Yankees or Phillies barring injuries. On the Mets they are major leaguers, on those other teams they would be AAA fodder or simply cut.
    • Met Maniac March 13, 2011 at 12:18 pm

      That like saying a Kevin Pucetas is a major leaguer simply because he’s on the Royals 25 man roster. Or that Bruce Boisclair was a major leaguer for the Mets during his heyday with the team. Do you understand what my point is?
      • theonlymaskman March 13, 2011 at 11:59 pm

        Nope. They’re major leaguer’s on many team out there. Maybe just not top quality team, but then the Mets are not in the category of top quality teams at this time.
• Met Maniac March 13, 2011 at 12:09 pm

  I find it amusing how first Terry Collins reacts to his second baseman battle with dead silence and toe tapping when asked yesterday, and now Sherman also calculates the fact we have no major league ready second baseman with near certainty. Of course I’ve only been saying the same thing all along much to the dismay of some others here. Sherman is actually spot on with his other analysis, in fact I dont think any Met fan would put the odds of Young and Capuano higher than 10%, sane Mets fan that is. What we needed most this offseason from sandy Alderson was a second baseman to replace Castillo and two starters to fill out the rotation. The rest of his job was so easy a monkey could have done it, and that was to simply find some bench jockeys. My Report card for Alderson’s first offseason? A big fat F for failure.
  • XtreemIcon March 13, 2011 at 12:17 pm

    I hate to think about what you’d grade Minaya, who couldn’t get a fourth and fifth starter, a competitive bench and a second baseman in six YEARS. Unless you count the two months after the ’07 trade for Castillo. He was still pretty good then.
    • Met Maniac March 13, 2011 at 12:19 pm

      I thought Jon Niese and Dillon Gee and R.A. Dickey were better than most of the 4th and 5th starters in the league last season. What games were you watching?
      • Met Maniac March 13, 2011 at 12:24 pm

        That said I thought Alderson was a little ahead of hinself giving Dickey a 2 year deal with a 2013 option after one very good, but only good season of his career. Similar to what Minaya did with Castillo only castillo was a five time all star and three time gold glove award winner with world series ring.
        • XtreemIcon March 13, 2011 at 12:31 pm

          I agree. I would have given Dickey a very nice, one year deal to avoid arbitration. I would have overpaid to do so. I sigguested five million for this season.
        • michael March 13, 2011 at 12:37 pm

          I think Dickey got what he deserved. Do we have any other pitcher that will give you 33 starts and pitch consistently into the 8th inning? In June, when he is one of the top inning eaters in the national league, the conversation will not be about gas left in the tank in September. Yesterday, he pitched 5 innings and didnt pitch well. During the season, if he has performances like that, and he will, we wont be counting pitches.
          • XtreemIcon March 13, 2011 at 12:39 pm

            That’s true, as well. I didn’t hate the Dickey deal, I just thought it was a liitle early to be rewarding him. Remember, he’s ben a pro for a long time and just finally had himself a good season.
        • Mr North Jersey March 13, 2011 at 1:00 pm

          “That said I thought Alderson was a little ahead of hinself giving Dickey a 2 year deal with a 2013 option after one very good, but only good season of his career.”

          I respectfully disagree with your opinion. Let me say why.

          Dickey was asking for in his final year of arbitration $4.7M the Mets had countered with #3.35M. In the end he wound up getting $2.25M but with the signing bonus it really is #3.25M.

          I don’t have to tell you that the Mets wound up getting him for 100K less in 2011 than what they initially offered.

          Now add to that that the Mets for the cost of #3.35M have him for one more year. When you consider his age at 36 that sounds risky but the risk is minimal financially at $3.35M in my opinion.

          Add to that that Dickey being a knuckleball pitcher has good company when looking back at prior knuckleball pitchers that in their late 30′s pitched effectively.

          “Tim Wakefield has won 94 games for the Red Sox since turning 36. Charlie Hough won 132 games after his 36th birthday. Phil Niekro won 188.”

          The Mets may end up gettin Dickey at a bargain and if Dickey does turn out to pitch well next year the Mets have a incentive where they can pick up Dickey for a 3rd year at $5M.

          If Dickey is a flop it only cost them $3.35M for next year.

          Comparing that to what Minaya did with Castillo where he locked Castillo knowing when he did about his leg problems and bidding against himself to a 4 year $25M contract paying him $6M a yr for the next 4 years and unable to get anyone to take his contract over the last 2 years.

          I’d say there is very little similarities in my opinion.
          • Mr North Jersey March 13, 2011 at 1:02 pm

            In case anyone wishes to know what I used as sources of information here are the links.

            mlbcontracts.blogspot.com/2004/12/new-york-mets.html

            mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20110128&content_id=16529136&vkey=news_mlb&c_id=mlb

            amazinavenue.com/2011/1/29/1963027/mets-sign-r-a-dickey-to-two-year-extension
            • iz March 13, 2011 at 7:11 pm

              It would be better if you devoted yourself to getting a job and supporting your family.
              • Mr North Jersey March 13, 2011 at 9:25 pm

                With the reality of the huge loss of life this last couple of days with what has happened in Japan and with this morning’s post about the passing of one of MMO’s authors.

                One would think that would put things in perspective with some of the silliness that goes on around here at times.

                Then here you are to show that some people just don’t get it and probably never will.

                The great thing is that you are but a small minority and most of the MMO community does see the bigger picture.

                I would ask you to respect Joe D’s request and try to be respectable.

                The top of the page has the comment guidelines in case you need to refresh how to conduct yourself.

                I wouldn’t want to see you fall into moderation by any moderators just cause of something you said.
              • t agee March 13, 2011 at 9:45 pm

                It would be MUCH better if you devoted yourself to acquiring a bit of class Jackass. Wait till it happens to you IF you ever get one to begin with.
          • XtreemIcon March 13, 2011 at 1:13 pm

            I was under the impression next year was worth $4.55 mil for Dickey. He had a $7.8 mil guaranteed contract, but only $2.25 this year, plus the bonus.
            • Mr North Jersey March 13, 2011 at 1:29 pm

              You are correct Xtreem. It is $4.25M in 2012 not $3.35M.

              Their is a 3K buyout of the 3rd yer that then gives you the $4.55M.
            • Mr North Jersey March 13, 2011 at 1:33 pm

              At $4.55M in 2012 rather than $3.35M which i mistakenly added I still would not change what i said regarding the Dickey signing due to the $1.2M difference.
          • Des March 13, 2011 at 2:57 pm

            “Comparing that to what Minaya did with Castillo where he locked Castillo knowing when he did about his leg problems and bidding against himself to a 4 year $25M contract….”

            MNU, the Mets were bidding against the Astros for Luis’ services. They offered Luis three years. Omar used the four year deal as a tie-breaker. It was.

            Whether Luis is now able to meaningfully play a lot of games in Year 4 is a separate issue.

            The Astros wound up signing Kaz Matsui, whom we had already passed on. Kaz made more than $5 Mil yearly for his three Astros years. There were no other choices starting in 2008.
            • Mr North Jersey March 13, 2011 at 3:19 pm

              You are correct Des.

              “Castillo has several other suitors, including the Astros”

              http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/mets/2007/11/17/2007-11-17_mets_eye_david_eckstein-2.html

              My memory of that off season incorrectly is for whatever reason of Castillo not having any interested suitors at the time of the signing.

              Thanks for the correction.

              So Minaya in the end did not really bid against himself.
            • t agee March 13, 2011 at 3:28 pm

              Des there were no other choices in 2008 but there were other choices BEFORE 2008. This is where the Wilpon has really failed the Met fan through the years.

              Just one example out of many is this one.

              In 2003 we could have drafted Aaron Hill or Stephen Drew in the first round. We didn’t because they were seeking over slot bonuses.

              In 2003 2nd round we had no pick due to our not having a LFer and signing Cliff Floyd.

              In 2004 Boston selected Dustin Pedroia 2nd round #65 getting a player who fell to them because of slotting “recommendations.” We selected yet another pitcher at # 44 – 2nd round 3rd pick, Matthew Durkin who washed out as usual.

              Having just given Kaz Matsui a 3 year deal it would have been an ideal time to begin planning for his eventual departure by drafting a player who could be one of many vying for that job.

              Maybe Durkin was the best liked prospect by our scouting staff, maybe he washed out due to nothing that could have been forseen. Who knows, but if your plan for 2B is always to just wait and see who happens to be a free agent every year what do you expect is going to happen? Then the argument in defense of a bad free agent signing becomes “well who else were we going to get to play 2B.” as if that’s any kind of a good reason for us getting poor defense and the leagues worst offense from a guy making 6 M a year.

              The fact is you have to anticipate your future needs and seek to have the solution before the need arises.

              In my opinion the Met Fan has been completely sold down the river by the Wilpon because Bud Selig’s self serving slotting guidelines are much more important to the Wilpon than building a competitive team year in and year out.
      • XtreemIcon March 13, 2011 at 12:30 pm

        I was watching the games where Maine and perez were 3-4, Gee only pitched five games in September and Dickey didn’t even make the opening day rotation, as good as he was after his callup. So don’t go crazy over how surprising the last resorts were, because they were last resorts.
    • Met Maniac March 13, 2011 at 12:21 pm

      Castillo was also good in 2009, and led all NL 2B in OBP. I thought you liked that stat? SMH
      • XtreemIcon March 13, 2011 at 12:27 pm

        He was good in 2009, but that was after being terible in 2008 AFTER signing a four year deal at 32 AFTER surgeries on BOTH knees. The Castillo deal is akin to Alderson signing Young for four years, then next year surprising people and winning 14 games. And being farly terrible otherwise. Alderson gets killed for signing Young and Capuano for one year real cheap, knowing he’s got money and a better free agent class next season, but it’s cool that Omar signed Castillo to a rich, four-year deal. Awesome.
      • t agee March 13, 2011 at 3:35 pm

        His range deteriorated, his offense with men on base limited to sac bunting and walking due to the high likelyhood of grounding into a double play. He was also in a line up without much else there which made it harder but his offense was punchless and the idea of playing someone with limited range at 2B next to a first basemen that couldn’t move is just inexplicably poor thinking.
  • Marla Hooch March 13, 2011 at 2:35 pm

    Mr. Maniac

    You do realize that what Sherman (who has been a Yankees beat writer up until this year), writing for a tabloid is basing all this on very little but his “feelings”, which in turn, just because YOU’ve been saying the same thing, doesn’t make it TRUE, makes it just more hateraid before the season even unfolds.

    Alderson gets a F for failure before the season even starts. Glad the likes of you don’t hire anyone for this organization.
• michael March 13, 2011 at 12:33 pm

  I dont give alot of credence to the prognostications of sportswriters. Not only was Texas and SF in the World Series but the Padres won 90 games and Cincy was a surprise team. I also dont give much credence to anonymous scouts. I remember Joel Sherman writing early last year that the more Angel Pagan plays, the more he gets exposed. His thoughts or an “anonymous scout”?