In 2012, Andre Ethier hit .284 with 20 home runs, 89 RBI, and 36 doubles. He also had a .351 OBP and OPS of .812.

Over the past week some rumors from ESPN’s Buster Olney have surfaced that Dodgers outfielder Andre Ethier might be available on the trading block. With the news today that the Mets and David Wright may have hit a snag in their negotiations, my mind began to churn up possible trade scenarios.

David Wright for Andre Ethier swap might benefit the Mets for a few reasons.

1. He plays right field, and the Mets desperately need a starting outfielder.

2. Ethier is locked up at a affordable 5-year deal worth $85 million. That is just $17 million a year. The deal Wright is rumored to possibly get could be in the range of $126 million over seven years. Add in his option for 2013 and the total value of his contract would be over $140 million dollars.

3. Both players will be 30 years old on opening day 2013. Ethiers contract would end when he was 35, while under Wright’s current proposed deal the Mets would be on the hook until he was 38.

4. The team could move Daniel Murphy over to third base, and put Jordany Valdespin at second base. Then they could look to sign a guy like Marco Scutaro as a stop gap until Wilmer Flores was ready to come up and play third. The Mets could then move Murphy back to second base.

5. Both Ethier and Wright are virtually equal offensively, with David getting the slight edge. Wright is a career .301 hitter, with an .883 OPS. Ethier is a career .290 hitter with an OPS of .838. They are both also gold glove award winners.

If you swapped these two players, the Mets would still have a very solid middle of the order hitter to replace David. Ethier is already signed, and plays a position we desperately need to fill. They Mets already have some in-house options for third base, while they really have nobody on the roster who can play right field. With a tight budget a move like this could be very beneficial to the Mets as they begin to prepare for this off-season.

It’s hard to tell if a deal like this would be done as a straight up trade, or if the Mets would have the upper hand and could end up getting a little more coming back in the deal. On the flip side it could be the Mets having to throw another player in because Ethier is signed and Wright is just a one season rental.  If the Mets made this trade they could would save about $50 million while getting very close to the same production.

Pedro Feliciano spent his entire career in a Mets uniform until the day he left via Free Agency following the 2010 season. At the time our well documented financial situation got in the way, and the Yankees came in and offered the lefty specialist a nice contract to join our crosstown rivals.

Well, two years and $8 million dollars later, Pedro is once again on the verge of Free Agency. He never made his Yankees debut during his two year deal, and will leave the team without ever throwing a single pitch in the Bronx.

Early in the 2011 season, Feliciano was placed on the disabled list due to soreness in his left shoulder. In late April he made a trip to see the dreaded orthopedist Dr. James Andrews who recommended a six-week strengthening program for the pitcher.

The cause of Feliciano’s trip to the disabled list was a torn capsule and rotator cuff in his left arm, requiring arthroscopic surgery to repair. After the diagnosis was confirmed the Yankees front office claimed the reason behind Feliciano’s injury was that the Mets had overused him.

Feliciano, now 36 years old, owns a career 3.31 ERA. He was never known for his velocity, routinely sitting in the mid-high 80′s. Lefty relievers can pitch well into their early 40′s, so if he could regain his health he could be a potential steal this off-season. He had 96 holds over his last five seasons with the Mets, and has a career .214 opposing batting average versus left handed hitters.

Coming off surgery and missing the last two years I’m sure Pedro will be looking to prove himself, both health and talent wise. That will most likely require no more than a league minimum or minor league commitment from a Major League Club. With Byrdak set to hit Free Agency and Edgin the only real lefty on the roster that has any experience, Pedro might be a nice low cost, high reward investment.

Pedro Feliciano was one of the best, if not the best reliever we had from 2006-2010. We have seen plenty of players return from injury to regain their form, or come close to it. I think it’s worth taking a shot on Feliciano who we know can get the job done when he’s right. If he inks a minor league deal, it doesn’t cost us anything to find out if he still has the goods.

I’m in, are you?

Pierzynski took one on the chin here, but clearly earned respect in his clubhouse

Sandy Alderson has made no secret about his intent to upgrade the Mets starting catching position. On Tuesday Ken Davidoff of the New York Post proposed Chicago’s Pierzynski as the Mets next backstop.

A.J. had a career year in his age 35 season. The fiery veteran topped his high in home runs with 27 jacks, and tied his high water mark of 77 RBI. This season was most likely an aberration in the power department as his 18 doubles were down from 29 in each of the two previous seasons. It looks like some of the doubles he would normally hit found their way over the fence in 2012.

If we were to sign him there is no way you could expect 27 home runs again. A.J’s typical season is anywhere from 10-15 home runs, with 50-65 RBI and about 30 doubles. His numbers would probably drop in Citi Field as well, but either way his production would be a major upgrade over Josh Thole.

I could see A.J. hitting .275 with 10 home runs, 60 RBI and 25 doubles next season. He would likely command a decent salary, due to his position and coming off of the year he just had. He signed a 2-year deal worth $8 million in 2011, so I could see a similar deal in the cards over two years this off-season for Pierzynski. That might be a little over budget for us, but it definitely upgrades a very weak position and gives us some much needed grit and veteran leadership.

There is a possibility that the Mets could look to trade Mike Pelfrey. Yes, Pelfrey has struggled to begin the season, but that does not mean that he does not mean that he has lost that much trade value.

Last year, Pelfrey went 15-9 with a 3.66 ERA. However, it has become obvious through Pelfrey’s time in the Majors that he is not the number one or two starter that the Mets were expecting him to develop into.

Pelfrey has struggled this early on this season as he has gone 1-2 with a 7.23 ERA. Some of his issues can be chalked up to bad luck. He has a .356 BABIP this year, well above his career average of .310. In addition, he only has only left 58.8% of runners on base, which is off from his career average of 70.6%. The third thing that has caused Pelfrey’s struggles is the fact that he is only inducing ground balls 40.4% of the time. Compare this with his career average of 49% and it is easy to see some of the reasons for his struggles. If you take a deeper look at the numbers and look at Pelfrey’s 4.69 FIP, it is obvious that Pelfrey has been unlucky this year.

With that being said, Pelfrey is still nothing more than a good number three or number four starter. He is currently the number one pitcher on the Mets staff as a result of the injury to Johan Santana. This should be a sign of concern for the Mets since it is clear that Pelfrey should not be the rotation’s ace.

The team appears likely to enter a rebuilding stage after this year. They will need good, talented young players that can develop with the team. They way to acquire these players is through trades.

With the Mets likely to be sellers at the trade deadline, they will be looking to move pieces that have some value. If he can regain the form that he has shown in the past, then Pelfrey certainly has a decent amount of trade value.

Pelfrey is just 27 years old and will not be eligible for free agency until 2014. At the trade deadline, there will certainly be teams that are looking for help for the middle or back end of their rotation. Mike Pelfrey could be the answer for one of these teams. Pelfrey will not bring the Mets back an elite prospect, but he could net them one top 100 prospect in addition to another decent prospect or two.

If and when the rebuilding process starts, the Mets need to take a long, deep look at who can provide them with substantial value in the future. Jose Reyes and David Wright are players that can. Mike Pelfrey is a big question mark. As a result of this, he should be traded out of New York to bring back players who can help the team moving forward.

The deal was announced today in a joint statement by the Marlins, the players union and Major League Baseball. Beyond the statement made, the parties did not comment on the matter. It is currently unclear how much the Marlins’ payroll might increase.

The agreement runs through 2012, when the Marlins’ new ballpark is scheduled to open.

“In response to our concerns that revenue sharing proceeds have not been used as required, the Marlins have assured the union and the commissioner’s office that they plan to use such proceeds to increase player payroll annually as they move toward the opening of their new ballpark,” said Michael Weiner, executive director of the players’ association.

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According to Mark Miller from Yahoo! Sports, the Los Angeles Dodgers are close to a two-year deal with outfielder Matt Kemp.

You can be sure that the Dodgers want to lock up Kemp for a reasonable amount of time. He won both a Silver Slugger and a Gold Glove award after he batted .297 with 26 homeruns and 101 runs batted in. The 25-year-old Kemp is likely to be signed by the beginning of next week.

“The negotiations are going smoothly,” says Kemp’s agent.

Meanwhile, the Dodgers are apparently competing with the New York Mets for free agent pitcher Joel Pineiro, who I reported about earlier in the week. Although, sources say that the Dodgers have a backup plan of bringing back Vincente Padilla if they can not acquire Pineiro.

At the moment it looks like the Dodgers will miss out on Pineiro due to the pending divorce of team owner Frank McCourt which is still causing major financial issues for the club.

Had the deal of went through here is how things would have panned out:

New York Mets Trade: Luis Castillo
Tampa Bay Rays Trade: Pat Burrell
Chicago Cubs Trade: Milton Bradley
Los Angeles Angels Trade: Gary Matthews Jr.

New York Mets Receive: Gary Matthews Jr.
Tampa Bay Rays Receive: Milton Bradley
Chicago Cubs Receive: Luis Castillo
Los Angeles Angels Receive (Presumably): Pat Burrell

However, as Stark points out the deal fell threw for an unknown reason. I’m merely speculating here, but when dealing with such large and huge contracts it probably came down to money.

Last season with the Angels, Matthews hit .250 with only four home runs and 50 RBIs in 316 at-bats. Those numbers are rather unimpressive to say the least and to be honest I think the Mets are better off holding onto Castillo.

Keep hearing #Marlins are very willing to trade Josh Johnson right now for the right package.

It immediately evolves into a blog from MLBTR that reads: “Marlins Looking To Deal Josh Johnson”

I immediately responded with a tweet of my own.

Marlins Looking To Deal Josh Johnson? Ya gotta love Twitter. It beats the Joke of the Day calender I got last Xmas. Sorry Perrotto, not buying it.

Less than 3 minutes after my tweet, long time Marlins beat writer and MLB reporter for the Marlins website, Joe Frisaro, quickly responded:

#Marlins There is going to be plenty of speculation about Josh Johnson being trade bait. From what I’m hearing, don’t buy into it.

Thank you Mr. Frisaro.

(Sorry for the cheesy Photoshop image, it was a rush job.)

I love Twitter, but if I had to pick just one fault, it’s that it has evolved into a source of many outlandish claims and unsubstantiated rumors.

Legitimate rumors that were once backed with at least a small sampling of investigative reporting, have now been reduced to a one-sentence blurb.

Mostly it’s just bits of a conversation someone had at the local sports bar with some of their inebriated friends who are suddenly now referred to as “sources”. Luckily, it doesn’t require that much skill in separating the wheat from the chaff; all it takes is a little common sense.

Why would the Florida Marlins trade one of baseball’s best young righthanded starters when he is still under team control for two more years? The truth is that they are actually negotiating on a long term deal, a fact that was confirmed by a team source not long ago.

As I said in an earlier post at the start of the Hot Stove season, I’m taking on the role of policing the rumor mill and calling out those whose rumors fail to pass the sniff test.

What gets me is how so many fans can easily believe a rumor that a pitcher like Josh Johnson is trade bait, all while considering that their own team’s infinitely less talented prospects are untouchable and shouldn’t be traded.

It ain’t rocket science.

Us Mets fans will have it bad again this off season as sports pundits like Jon Heyman, Ken Rosenthal, and others are gearing up to go toe to toe and provide thousands of bloggers with plenty of content to occupy our time during the long off season. Many of them will be sure to mention the Mets in many of their tweets, blurbs and blog posts simply because of how engaged we are as Mets fans, and because we like to react or overreact to any new information, regardless if it’s a legitimate rumor or just idle speculation.

Last weekend, Jon Heyman wrote that the Mets had no interest in Milton Bradley (Neither do I), and yet in another post Ken Rosenthal wrote the Mets already contacted the Cubs regarding Bradley. Obviously the Mets must have had some interest if they actually took the time to call. Or did Rosenthal get it wrong and the Mets never made any such call?

Yesterday we had Jon Heyman writing that the Mets have no interest in John Lackey, but just days earlier Lackey was reportedly the Mets top off season target if you were to believe the reports on ESPN.

Last week it was reported that Matt Holliday might be too rich for the Mets taste and that they may look at a less expensive Jason Bay instead, and less than a day later we read that the Mets are “all in” on Holliday and have no interest in Bay.

It’s pretty confusing, isn’t it?

The need to produce content at a furious pace is clearly in play and just about anyone will say anything in the name of the almighty “hit” or “page view”.

In the last 24-hours we went from the speculation that Carlos Beltran could be traded as was reported in the Boston Herald, to another writer from the same newspaper saying that he knows for a fact the Mets will not trade Beltran. That little exchange spawned about three dozen posts on the subject of trading Beltran, including one right here at Mets Merized. In the end, all of us Mets bloggers managed to keep our readers entertained even though the chance that the Mets would trade Beltran was slim to none.

The Hot Stove Season is a lot of fun, but it can get rather confusing very quickly, especially if you forget that 99.5% of what you read is purely speculative with very little if any fact attached to it. You have sports writers who care more about getting the scoop instead of the facts. They inundate the web with a non-stop stream of hints and allegations, with each one trying to outdo the other as if they were in some sort of a competition. There is no such thing as a slow news day on the web where baseball rumors are concerned. Unfortunately, most of those rumors are not rumors at all, but just some gibberish that is intended to elicit a reaction.

It’s too bad we can’t go back and create a database of all theses so-called rumors and see how many of them actually came to fruition. That way we can say “wow look at this guy, he’s batting .315″ or “that guy blows, his OBP is .289!”

I bet most of them are hitting below the Mendoza line…

Seriously though, wouldn’t it be great if we could hold the rumor-mongers to a higher level of accuracy and responsibility?

While technology has advanced the productivity of almost every industry in this country, accurate reporting in the news and sports industry continues to sink to new lows every day. And when they screw up royally, they can always blame it on their unnamed sources. Sources by the way are another growing problem. All of a sudden everybody’s got them, heck even I got six of them (four in my front pocket and two in my back). But that’s a topic that deserves a post and a couple of thousand words of its own. Maybe I’ll hit that subject tomorrow.

Fortunately, we still have our eyes, ears and intellect to help us sift through all the noise. So, now that you understand what’s in play, you can go ahead and have fun debating the incessant speculations and outpourings that we’ll be flooded with in the next few months. Just remember to take it all with a grain of salt.

Consider most of the so-called rumors more for their entertainment value, rather than an actual prelude to an imminent trade or signing.

Of course there are legitimate trade rumors too. They can usually be identified by the names, quotes, dates, details and facts that are attached to them. My rule of thumb is that the more information you get, the more likelihood that there is some validity to it.

When you see something like this: “Mets apparently leaning towards Jason Giambi”, don’t freak out.

Instead look for something that reads like this: “I just got off the phone with Omar Minaya, who told me that he has a 3:00 PM meeting scheduled with Scott Boras in New York, regarding his client Matt Holliday.”

The first quote is someone just throwing something out there, the second one is chock full of details and assuming it’s from a reliable source, it’s a legitimate rumor.

Those of you who can spot the difference will get a better idea of what the Mets may actually be up to this winter.

Enjoy the off season!

So while Mets fan talk has been centered around whether or not they can keep pace with the Phillies or with whoever is leading the wild card race (the Cardinals right now), or our rapidly growing disabled list, or possible trade rumors, I’d like to offer a diversion: What will happen first in Mets’ history—a player leading the league in batting for a single season, or one of our pitchers throwing a no-hitter?

Neither has happened yet, but the idea for this column crossed my mind when an announcer brought up the fact that third baseman David Wright is currently the National League’s leading hitter (.365 as of today), and that no Mets’ player has ever led the league in batting for an entire season.  And as we’re all painfully aware, we’ve only experienced no-hitters from the batting side.  (I think as a kid I cried both when San Diego’s Leron Lee broke up one of Tom Seaver’s many no-hit bids, and when the Giants’ Ed Halicki no-hit the Mets). 

I have to say that, for as freaky as it is that the Florida Marlins have four no-hitters in less than 17 seasons of existence, and the Mets have zero in almost 50 years, I think it will happen for a Mets pitcher before someone leads the league in batting.  There now, I hope I didn’t curse it.  Further, I see Johan Santana as the guy to take us fans to that uncharted promised land (yeah, I know, not after these last two outings, but he’s still Johan Freaking Santana).  No offense to David Wright, but he’s a .314 career hitter who, despite his ridiculous lack of power (he’s on pace for ELEVEN homers), is having a career batting season.  I hope he keeps it up, but I just don’t see him leading the league this year or any other season. 

What do you all think?