Would the Mets Go For Erik Bedard Instead?

Okay, okay, okay. So the recent hype has been about the Mets acquiring Johan Santana for Carlos Gomez, Mike Pelfrey, Philip Humber, Deolis Guerra, Kevin Mulvey, and 19-year-old phenom outfielder Fernando Martinez. I wouldn’t complete this deal if I was Omar Minaya. Fernando Martinez has the potential to be a star when he comes up. He just needs more time in the minors and will hopefully be around for opening day 2009. Carlos Gomez is said to be faster than Jose Reyes. Any guy that could beat Jose Reyes in a foot race is somebody I want on my team. Mike Pelfrey, after a rough 2007, may finally be ready to shine through and show us why he’s a top draft pick. Put Humber in the ‘pen as an experiment and see what happens. I want the Mets to win, but I don’t want to give up five or six prospects for one player, even if he is the premier pitcher in the league.

I know the key word when talking about anybody in our farm system is "prospect." Any player in any farm system has the potential to do very well or to do very bad and spend their career in A ball. I know Johan Santana is great now. That’s undeniable. And Johan and Pedro would make an awesome 1-2 punch. But I’m going to give up my entire farm system, I do not want to have to pay this guy $20 million a year. I know we have the money and can afford it, but that would mean that ticket prices may hike up even farther than the 20% they went up this year.

There is another option out there. We wouldn’t have to pay him $20 million a year. We wouldn’t have to give up our entire farm system. And he has two years left on his contract as opposed to getting Santana for a year. That option is Erik Bedard. Okay, so he was injured during September and he missed the rest of the regular season, but before that, Bedard was leading the AL in strikeouts (another Met prospect, Scott Kazmir won the AL strikeout title). He posted 13-5 record and had a 3.16 ERA. Pretty impressive numbers for a kid on a sub-par team. Santana went 15-13 on the year with a 3.33 ERA. If you ask me, we’re talking about two pitchers with virtually the same numbers, give or take a few on any given statistic.

The Twins are asking for way too much, if you ask me. An entire farm system and upwards of $200 million is not worth the 2008 World Series. I hope they go for Bedard; we would still have quite a 1-2 punch. And we would still have our $20 million a year from Citi Field.