Quick Slant: NYM Offseason

A lot of questions arise in New York as players like Bengie Molina, Joel Pineiro, Doug Davis, etc have found homes that are not in the tri-state area. It's not as though the Mets have done nothing. They've brought in a slew of backup catchers, which is actually an improvement on last year's collection of backup catchers, and they brought Jason Bay in to play left field. It is certainly fair to ask, however, about where they now stand now.

It's a question I answer differently then most for a very clear reason. I have a lot more faith in the trio of Mike Pelfrey, John Maine and Oliver Perez than others do. The Mets come into the season with basically the same rotation as last season, when they were picked to go to the World Series by multiple accredited sports institutions. Now, last season, they were terrible. But really, when you look at it, whether there be factors beyond injuries that contributed to the poor baseball, I believe that you can throw the season away. So we sit here, in a similar spot to where we sat last year. Except that John Maine and Oliver Perez are healthy. Now, I have no medical degree and I have yet to examine Maine and Perez, but from all I can understand, the players are at a much better place than they were last season. Perez hid an injury after the WBC and John Maine was never really Healthy. He is as healthy now as he has been in 2 years, and 2 years ago people were beginning to think he could be a #2 starter in this league, APT included. He was the Mets top starter going into the 2006 playoff season, in which they were not far off from winning a World Series. As far as Oliver Perez goes, he is not a great Major League pitcher right now. I could not agree more with that statement. But as bad as the contract seems, the Mets are only paying him a couple million dollars more than what Randy Wolf got this off-season. And if you ask me if I think Oliver Perez can pitch $2.5M better than Randy Wolf, I will answer "yes" every time. I think that he will come into this season healthy and under entirely less pressure than last season and it will result in a solid season. I think that if Maine stays healthy he will emerge as, at least a very good #3 and that Pelfrey, who will be under far less pressure with Maine and Ollie around, will continue his growth.

So what should the Mets do? I dismiss the Gary Matthews Jr move today as fairly moot. I don't think it does anything positive or negative. I think the Mets should take the chance on spending for Ben Sheets for 1 year. Because if he can pitch the way he is capable of pitching, he is a #1A starter. He would give the Mets double-barrel aces and push Pelfrey, Maine and Perez down to slots in the rotation that take them from satisfactory/good to exemplary.

As far as the line-up goes, I think that Carlos Delgado needs to come back if he is in good health. The Mets have some good hitters in their line-up, but what they lack is that hitter that scares you. They don't have that hitter that makes pitchers nervous just looking at him. Sure, a pitcher (especially a lefty) knows he can strike Carlos Delgado out. But he also knows that one wrong move and he could lose the ball into orbit. Delgado just has that air about him, and can create that fear. And that "fear" can severely improve the rest of the order. So do I think it's worth the deficiency in range (he is actually quite good around the bag) to have that bat in your line-up, ABSOLUTELY. Especially a met line-up that has transitioned from overly left-handed to overly right-handed. Other then Delgado, my personal recommendation would be to find a way to get Felipe Lopez as your second baseman, although I realize that the Luis Castillo situation is tough. So, perhaps you see if Castillo can get you to July and make a move for someone at 2nd, while only having to pay 3 months of salary.


APT