Merry Christmas Mets Fans!
 

The hell with getting K-Rod and J.J. Putz, they got the biggest gift that any (or at least most Mets fans) wanted, Aaron Heilman shipped out of town.



http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3761556



It seems like they definitely have a couple of guys to close out games now!

They seem to have solved the 8th and 9th innings without giving up much.

Yeah, will be nice if Johan can just get them 7 and they can still win the game. And they'll have a shot of winning if they can just get 2 innings of middle relief when Maine only makes it 5.

Losing Endy Chavez hurts the depth but I think losing Heilman is addition by subtraction. He's got tons of talent but was miscast as a middle reliever.

The NL East will be super again next year... :)

You would have to think Maine will be much better this year. I am guessing that he was having arm problems all year. It just seemed that he was having trouble striking guys out. Batters would just foul off pitch after pitch against him. He just wasn't able to get that last strike by them. That equated to very high pitch counts by the 5th inning. I would expect him being back to normal this year and go deeper into games.

I think Jeremy Reed can give them some quality starts against righties. He's struggled in the big leagues but there is still some talent there. Endy's are a dime a dozen, they can sign another if they really need it.

The problem is twofold though. He gets high pitch counts and he is really ineffective once he goes beyond 90 pitches. That's a tough combo for getting deep into games. Johan has some issues with high pitch counts but from pitches 90 to 120 he's still very effective which makes all the difference.

Having Putz gives the Mets the flexability to have a real closer pretty much all the time. Letting Putz finish the game in 4 run games and situations where krod has already pictched a few days in a row reduces the chances of blowing a lead to a minute level. Best tandem since Mariano and Wetteland. They need to address left field and 2nd base.

On another note, that kid replacing Putz is something special.

Unfortunatley for them their 2nd base situation is set for the immediate future. They have Castillio locked up for another 3 years. :eek:

I'm more worried about getting at least one more established starter. Niese and Parnell in the 4th and 5th spots in the rotation would be a disaster. 2B they are screwed at with Castillo. As overpaid as he is, he still managed a .355 OBP last year so he isn't a total disaster (like Kaz was). They can probably get by with him and Dan Murphy playing 2nd this year. Would love to see them do something in LF but if they have to go into the year with Beltran, Tatis, and Church in the OF then so be it. The payroll is around $111 million right now so they have another $30 million or so to spend. No real reason they can't get a good pitcher, a fill in veteran pitcher, and another bat in the outfield (even if it is just a righthanded hitter off the bench).

Morrow supposedly will stay in the rotation

Ibanez would be a good fit in left. There isnt much out there on the FA market for starters. maybe Jon Garland? What if they could get Pettite on a one year deal? He seems to be the odd man out with the Yankees and still hasnt said he wants to retire.

Like Ibanez but am a little worried that they could have problems against LHP. That would mean with Ibanez, Delgado, Church, Murphy, Reed, Schneider, and Marlon Anderson you have a lot of left handed bats. A right handed or switch hitting outfielder would be ideal but not sure who fits the bill in free agency. That's why I've always been interested in the Luis Castillo for Jose Guillen mutual salary dump trade.

Pettite makes sense but I've always hated the guy for some reason so hope they don't sign him.

I think Torre has made a push/plea to Pettite to join the Dodgers. Oliver Perez is still out there. Everyone is probably waiting for the dust to settle with the other big guys before they make a pitch to him. But I think he is still a guy with some upside. The problem is that Boras is going to ask for the moon for a guy that is a bit of a head case.

True but i like him more than the other options like staying put or Dunn (also lefty) or Burrell. Abreu would be interesting but he wont be cheap

The free agent crop is really so suspect this year that it seems as though nothing is getting done.

What would you do if you were the mariners? He seemed like he was better as a closer.

Burrell is a righty so would make some sense but his salary demands will have to come down to earth. He's really not that good of a player to be expecting 8 figures. The obvious right handed bat is Manny but who knows if they want to get involved with that or skimp on pitching to afford him. I could live with them just signing a right handed hitter to play against lefties like Emil Brown or Juan Rivera and playing them with Tatis and Beltran against lefties and have Church and Reed to mix in against righties. That seems more servicable than Jon Garland and Randy Wolf as 40% of your starting staff.

I would if the production was similar. The difference between top starters and closers can be seen in the contracts given to Krod and CC. Closers seemingly come from anywhere.