Noble Mets Priority: Hitter, #2, Catcher, Setup
Posted by trs86 on 9:59am, Monday November 9th 2009
In a post to his blog Marty Noble again affirms that based on his sources the Mets off-season priority list starts with Holliday or Bay.
Mets’ offseason wheels in motion
Then they will look to upgrade their rotation most likely through signing a guy like Wolf and perhaps a trade. According to Noble the Mets are interested in the following group: “Holliday, Bay, Lackey, Marquis, Wolf, Cameron, Hudson, Glaus and two catchers who are eligible to file — Bengie Molina and Rod Barajas”
Noble also gives a few scenarios the Mets may look into. According to Noble the Mets would rather use the FA market to solve their biggest needs but if that falls through they have discussed the following:
- “Pursue Cameron to play left field, thereby improving the outfield defense and adding some power.”
- “Include Luis Castillo in a trade package and hope to fill a need with what they receive in return and then sign Hudson to play second base.”
- “Sign Glaus, a right-handed power hitter, to a conditional contract and have him available to share first base with Murphy and provide power off the bench.”
- “Sign Wolf and package a starter on the Mets’ roster — not Johan Santana, of course — to acquire a No. 2 starter or a slugging outfielder.”
Funny but in all of this the least of the names to consider is the one I find interesting. Troy Glaus could be a very nice pickup for a RH partner with Murphy and a guy that if healthy could really help the offense.
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Prediction: Marty Noble will say a lot of dumb sh*t over the courtse of the 2009 offseason and the 2010 season.
What amazes me is he does not say things like “The Mets MAY….”
It’s more like “The Mets WILL”
interesting bullets.
It is a valid discussion though to say (since they have budgetary constraints) that could go horizontal or vertical.
IOW, get 1 “big” bat, and stay the same at 2-3 other positions. Or, spned the money on mutliple players/upgrades.
don’t dump on me, these are just names for reference. feel free to insert your own.
option A: Holliday, santos, castillo, murphy
option B: Pagan, Barajas or molina, Lopez or palanco, Laroche.
Basically, are you comfortable enough with the order to say adding 1 very expensive bat is enough, or will you get more bang for the buck (runs) out of spreading the wealth and upgrading at 3-4 positions?
of course, they can get Holliday + barajas, but that still leaves the other positions.
and, this was just looking a offense. Same debate as to whether to put money into Offense or pitching.
I’m inclined toward his final suggestion, sign Wolf then trade for a # 2 pitcher. I know I sound like a broken record but I think the gigantic void in talent/reasonably expected production between Johan Santana and whoever follows him in the rotation is in need of filling, and I don’t think Wolf alone does that.
And at the risk of repeating myself also, I agree.
I’m disappointed to be reading on all these blogs the Mets #1 priority seems to be LF. They’re not saying the Mets are NOT looking to improve the rotation, but no one is indicating - yet - we’re looking at the better options behind Johan….
Agreed that it’s interesting. Perhaps they see a better chance on the trading market for a pitcher or are to concerned with health issues and price to go 5 years on Lackey. Maybe if those years go down they jump back in on Lackey.
Maybe they view Holliday as the only impact bat on the market where as there are other options to Lackey? We all know that after either one on the FA market things slide quickly. I have went back and forth all off-season but in my mind you try for Holliday or Lackey on your terms getting one of them and then wait and see what happens with Agonz or Halladay.
And while we are at it can I say I also agree that the Mets #1 priority being LF is a disappointment to me.
I am hoping that the Mets are just trying to divert as much attention away from signing a big pitcher so to allow them to look like they have many other choices thus putting them in a better position to negotiate.
This might be considered to be giving them too much credit also I suppose.
Well, let be honest too…the mets need power BAD!! It seems going into every offseason, we have more holes to fill lol. These are two big ones taht i do not have alot of faith in omar filling. I am sure he can plug one up adequetly(spl) but getting a front line #2 via trade…slim at best.
But do the Mets truly “need power BAD?”
I’m not so sure. Lots of teams win lots of games without a lineup of mashers.
I think what the Mets need to do is re-think how to win baseball games, and in the process de-emphasize the HR as a way of doing that.
Last year the Mets got 12 HR from C, 16 from 1B, 3 from 2B, 5 from SS, 11 from 3B, 12 from LF, 17 from CF and 13 from RF.
Some of those totals will increase simply by injured players returning, and the rest can be somewhat offset through better pitching and defense.
Can the team use more power? Absolutely, but I don’t think they need to make it a fixation.
I think it is true the Mets lack a true power hitter but if we are going to build a team to fit our strengths a power hitter falls well short of our priorities.
Face It after Santana we have a shyt load of question marks.
Ollie
Maine
Pelfrey
Can any of these guys step up in 2010 to give us that 1-2 punch to go along with Santana?
Everyone here knows the Mets historically have been a team built around pitching 1st and with 81 games in Citi Fields in 2010 we need to exploit that even more.
I’d love to see how the Sid Fernandez of 86 would fare in this park where flyballs go to die in the outfield.
It’s like a sliding scale on one end you have Pitching,Defense, and Speed and on the other end you have HR Power the more you slide the scale either way the less you need of the other. The X-Factor being that the scale instead of starting at the half way point it starts slanted in favor of Pitching,Defense and Speed.
The Mets need to take advantage of Home Field advantage.
Yeah, I agree but again his point also states that it would be by trading a current starter. Who has value besides Pelfrey?
Hudson? Puff-Puff-Give!
I’m actually surprised to hear they are considering moving a SPer, though if it nets a #2, as Jerry says, “you’d have to take a look at it”.