Post #3: Mets offseason outlook

I find out the news, and I am filled with joy! I thought I was finally able to point out a flaw, an imperfection. You see, nothing brings me more joy than to ridicule the general managing of the hated New York Stems. However, lately there has been a problem. The man who once traded Cliff Lee, Brandon Phillips and Grady Sizemore for Bartolo Colon while GM of the hapless Expos could do no wrong as the GM of said Stems... until now! He just traded away Anna Benson and her baggage that is her husband to Baltimore for Jorge Julio months after a similar starter for reliever trade (Seo for Sanchez) and suddenly I am left staring at a gaping hole in the rotation. A hole, it would turn out, that even Jose Lima's large behind can't fill. Excellent, I exclaimed. In his haste to rid the team and city of this headache he traded away his starter even though, due to the Seo/Sanchez deal, he has now done 1 too many starter/reliever trades this season. What a glorious day.
But alas, in retrospect of that transaction, what's this in the fine print? Some minor leaguer included from Baltimore? Hmmm... But certainly he won't be great for the Mets, certainly he won't rise out of nowhere to turn this deal into a positive? Oh no! What if he is really solid down the stretch, a great pick up, and continues pitching well well (not a typo think about it) into the playoffs and even factoring into the future in the minds of Met fans? Ahh who I am I kidding.
That can't happen.
But wait.
It just did.
He was supposed to be a footnote. 90 innings, 6 wins, a 120 era+, a 1.133 whip and 1 gritty outstanding post season debut performance later (2.63 era in 3 starts, 10 hits in 13.2 innings and 13 k's, working around 11 walks) and the 25 year old righty will likely enter the 2007 season as the Mets #3 or maybe even #2 starter.
If the Mets wanted Zito on July 31st, all they had to do was say two magic words to Billy Beane. Those words are "Lastings Milledge." Beane has been quoted to say as much. Minaya thought he could win without Zito. For all intents and purposes, he was right. Zitolessness was not the reason the Mets lost this year. Beane thought he had a shot to win with Zito in 2006 rather than trade away Zito for some unready piece of the future. For all intents and purposes, he was right. Only 2 teams went further than the A's. Now he will settle for getting a draft pick (the Dodgers will sign Zito, I predict) and will proceed to rape at the draft, getting the next Zito/Swisher, etc. Along with signing the next bargain MVP candidate for $500,000 and you have the A's inexplicably competing next year despite a payroll less than what Arod will make in the next 2 and half years.
Now, Minaya is faced with an offseason filled with many possibilities, i.e many ways for him to screw up and make me happy. If he wants to keep me depressed, however, here is what he should do:
Floyd is gone and Endy Chavez is best used as a super-reserve, great 4th outfielder/pinch runner/defensive replacement/injury or day off speller, role/utility player. Green is your right fielder making 3.7 million from you (and 5.8 from Arizona) and a $2 million buyout on a $10 million dollar 2008 team option. You can look to trade him during the year if you want, if you either decided to keep Milledge and now want to give him another shot or you decide Chavez should start, or you get an outfielder back for Green, or one of zillions of other possibilities. Lo Duca will be back, and since he is naturally a great hitter with men on base I'd rather find a way to move him to 6th. I would look to acquire a big time outfielder to bat 2nd and move Lo Duca 6th. To do this I would try and trade Milledge and mid level prospects for Vernon Wells. Wells is basically a 1 year rental, and the Jays would be getting something HUGE for him, as they should, considering his ridiculously low price and ridiculously great talents. Another option is to make a super prospect package of Milledge and Pelfrey and maybe some mid-level prospects and send them off for Carl Crawford, who has 2 years remaining followed by 2 (relative bargain years) for 09 and '10. Statistically either would make an exceptional #2 hitter in this lineup, as they are both great with runners in scoring position and at driving in runs in general. They both have great speed (In fact Crawford is faster than Reyes, I have no proof for that, but my vicious animousity towards Reyes just typed that spontaneously) and play great defense, especially Wells who may be the best defensive outfielder in the game.
The remainder of their contracts look like this:
CARL CRAWFORD
07:$4M, 08:$5.25M, 09*:$8.25M club option ($2.5M buyout), 10:$10M club option
VERNON WELLS 07*:$5.6M
* = Eligible for Free Agency after that year
I'm not going to bother to go through their stats, just trust me that batting between Reyes and Beltran either could be an MVP candidate. This would be better than signing Lee or Soriano because you are getting the outfielder without spending a ton of money, instead you can use just a smaller portion of that money to sign a second baseman. Plus were you to get Lee or Soriano, who would bat 6th? Wright? That's not a good idea. Delgado? Soriano/Lee? Or maybe Lo Duca, but that means you have to move a stud power hitter to #2, I guess Beltran? I'm thinking as I type this, I guess that could work, but personally I don't think either of those 2 especially at their price tags and more importantly the required YEARS commitment on their contracts make them good fits. Carlos Lee for the next 5 years? Then what happens when Glavine is gone after next year and you want a good free agent pitcher who becomes available and willing to be a Met. How will you afford him. Rather, Wells/Crawford are short term solutions making the team one of the best in baseball for the next 2 years, and if they want to stay and a deal can be worked out great, if not then they will take that money and go after someone else in the future. There is no commitment to 4 years from now unlike Lee/Soriano. Oh and stay away from the devil. I mean Gary Sheffield. Seriously don't even go there.
Around the infield, Wright Reyes and Delgado are givens. Beltran in center is a given and I'm assuming for now Green is a given. Lo Duca is a given. This leaves 1 outfield spot (resolved above) and 2nd base (resolved right here):
For the second baseman, I'm not sure who's available besides Belliard and I'm too lazy to care, but Belliard would be a great fit batting 8th, or you can even keep Valentin who sucks at fielding. I would rather the better defense since the lineup is stacked as it is and I would just stick Anderson Hernandez there personally before starting Valentin. If you want to get really greedy, trade for Crawford/Wells and then sign Soriano to play 2nd base. This wouldn't be wise however, if you were interested in using that money sometime in the next several years to buy a big time free agent starter (ex: Oswalt after 2007), which, with the age/decline of Pedro/Glavine, the Mets really should be looking towards for the long term.
With the rotation, it appears more and more that the Mets have no interest in Zito especially if they are bringing Glavine back for $14 million. Glavine is definitely not worth 14 million - the question is, is their a cheaper way to fill that need? The answer is no. Bring Glavine back. With Maine, Bannister, and Perez, and Humber in the wings, you have 3 rotation spots filled right there. Those guys are all young, you need to bring back someone who you can rely on somewhat and Glavine is that person. He is only a 1 year commitment, and you can worry about replacing him with next year's deeper free agent pool. He will be motivated to get his 300th win and to win a championship in what will surely be his final year.
The bench: Franco, Woodward and Castro will be back, Valentin or Hernandez will play 2nd unless one is signed with the other coming off the bench as well.
Back to the rotation. As I see it the givens are Glavine Maine and Perez, especially after this post season. If Bannister is healthy he is almost guaranteed a spot as well. For the other spot (or 2), you have a few options. If you didn't trade Pelfrey, he can be a guy. As can resiging El Duque who was effective (hits < innings < strikeouts). Trachsel undoubtedly will be gone. Pedro will of course be returning to give a huge boost in the middle of the season. I don't care about his health, I don't care if he has to pitch lefty and underhand. He will make it work. He is a genius on the mound, he is the greatest pitcher in baseball history at not giving up runs. Victor Zambrano will be back unless he is traded or offered and declines arbitration, the same with Dave Williams. Alay Soler is signed for 2007. If Humber is ready and there is an open spot he will debut. A hodgepodge of all these starters will make appearances in 2007 and in all likelihood will form one of the better rotations in the NL.
Finally with the Pen will shake out like this: Wagner to close, and then: Sanchez, Heilman, Bradford, Mota and Feliciano aren't eligible for free agency and so will be brought back at good prices or traded. I wouldn't be shocked if Hernandez is resigned for a 1 year deal with incentives. Oliver I expect to be gone. Heath Bell and Royce Ring will probably be factors as fillins throughout the year. A very deep and solid bullpen. Probably will be the best in the game.
Of course there are many other available bargains who can can either be starting pitchers or corner outfielders but I'm not going to mention them (at least not yet), but what I wrote is simply what I would look to do, were I Minaya with the goal of pissing off Simmy Cohen.
Alright I'll be back later in the week with the Yankees offseason outlook, something I am much more knowledgable in. Take care now, bye bye then.

Did you know? There are 2 players in the .295+ AVG, .395+ OBP, 500+ Doubles, 250+ Homers club not listed right here: Stan Musial, Barry Bonds, Rogers Hornsby, Lou Gehrig, Ted Williams, Babe Ruth. $10 to anyone who can name those 2. Leave your name and answer in the comments on facebook or blogspot.

Post #2: Chef saga continues

I realize how long the previous post is, just bare with me I'm a beginner here! Anyways, my friend Robert Glass IM-ed me the following article: http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2639001 and I feel so strongly about it I just had to follow up on the previous post I made.
After the Yankees got Abreu in the middle of the season, Sheffield, the biggest phony, low life, club house cancer in sports who's initials aren't T.O., lied to everyone and said that for the sake of the team he will gladly move to 1B. There is no direct quote to the media because it's only sources who said he said it to Torre but here's the closest I can come to one, it's from http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/sports/columnists/rick_hurd/15211849.htm ("around the horn" section)

Gary Sheffield, on the disabled list since June 13 after surgery to repair a tendon and ligament in his left wrist, greeted newly acquired outfielder Bobby Abreu with a hug, then said it was futile for the media to anticipate his reaction to a trade that essentially leaves him without an outfield spot. Said Sheffield: "Y'all think you know what I'm going to do. ... Nobody knows. That's the mystique of me."
Sheffield may be on his best behavior because his $13 million option for 2007 hasn't been picked up, and there's not a huge market for 37-year-old outfielders seeking that kind of cash.
Sheffield told manager Joe Torre he'd be willing to play first base or DH when he returns from the DL, and he's already working with hitting coach Don Mattingly -- a pretty good first baseman in his day -- on footwork drills.

P-H-O-N-Why? You will soon see.
Not looking for credit here, but at the time I just called it a ploy to make himself look good entering the free agent market. I don't consider myself a genius for making such a bold prediction, it's rather obvious for anyone who has witnessed this retard's antics.

Back to reality (oh there goes gravity,) suddenly, when news came out that the Yankees were not going to allow him to test the free agent market and instead would pick up his option, the scumbag who once said “ you might as well not bother trading for me, cause you're gonna have a very unhappy player. You gonna inconvenience me, I'm gonna inconvenience every situation there .” (I got that quote from here: http://www.contentmart.com/ContentMart/content.asp?LinkID=28291&CatID=173&content=1 which was actually just a reference from an article about one of his many "misquoted" mishaps he's had as a Yankee), the loser who once purposely dropped fly balls as an outfielder in Milwalkee and desecrated the Dodger clubhouse with his constant whining and unhappiness (I mean after all why should someone making upwards of 10 million dollars a year to play a boy's game for a living be happy? ), suddenly this jackass comes out and says (quotes from article from first link in this post):
"This will not work, this will not work at all," Sheffield told the newspaper. "I don't want to play first base a year for them. I will not do that."
and
"I don't know what they're [Yankees] going to do," Sheffield said. "Maybe they picked it up just to trade me. If they do that, if I just [go] to a team for one year, there's going to be a problem."

I will not entertain for 1 second, except to write this line, that Cashman seriously considers Sheffield a viable first base option.
Leave it to this buttpipe to do his best to sabotage Cashman's obvious plan of trading him by anouncing that he will be unhappy (and we all know what that means) with his new team. Great, just great. Thank you for ruining by Thursday morning , you overpaid, overrated cancer.

Did you know? There are only 2 members of the 300 (HR) 300 (SB) 100 (3B) club: Willie Mays and -brace yourself- Steve Finley. The other 4 members of the 300 (HR) 300 (SB) club are Barry Bonds, Bobby Bonds, Andre Dawson and Reggie Sanders. Andre Dawson just missed the aforemention 300-300-100 club (98 triples).

Post #1: Chef cooking over the hot stove

As is to be expected since I just started, there is a lot of exciting stuff I want to get to, including but not limited to the state of the up and coming Mets rotation, thoughts on the current post season and world series (game 4 was rained out tonight, dammit), the 2007 Florida Marlins, the Yankees long term plan, Arod, and much more.
I decided to start with Sheffield (http://www.baseball-reference.com/s/sheffga01.shtml) though, because this is an issue making headlines today. When the Yankees got Abreu from the Phillies it officially ended Sheffield’s future as a Yankee past 2006. With Matsui and Damon locked up until 2009 and Abreu in right for 2007 and likely 2008, not to mention Melky who is by all acounts here for the long haul, there is already an odd man out as it is --- as one of those guys will have to DH with Giambi (becoming a 21 million dollar liability before our very eyes for 2007) forced to play (a bad but surprisingly improving) first base.
Sheffield, the oddest man of them all, therefore has no place and the Yankees won’t pick up his 13 million dollar option (about 4 million of which is deferred, meaning he gets it but much later on and in small increments.) If they don’t pick up his option, they get a draft pick (either type A or type B, it will be interesting to see what Elias ranks him, whether they base it purely on the last season's stats or take his whole career into account) from the team that does sign him.
However, another option, which I first saw discussed on a message board, is to pick up his option and then try and trade him. This was the topic of the Bill Madden column in today’s Daily News: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/story/465012p-391288c.html. I have several thoughts about this possibility swirling in my head after reading that, the first 2 points are obvious no brainers:

• let me make it clear that as long as what you get back is better than a draft pick and there is no additional financial liability then there is obviously no reason not to do it.
• it is important for Cashman not to get burned on an unofficial handshake type of deal where terms were agreed upon on a Sheffield deal only to have the other team back out at the end. The Yankees have no room for Sheffield and should only pick up his option if a deal is 100% in place.
• now the Yankees can control where Sheffield winds up. I personally was never worried about him going to Boston, considering 1. how he’s declining as a hitter (2003-2006 OPS: 1.023, .927, .891, .806) 2. the outfield defense he and manny will form in the corners will be atrocious, especially considering how tough right field is in Fenway and Sheffield's old legs and 3. most importantly, they will have to commit to him for 2 or 3 years for more than he is worth and that is money that could have been better spent on something much more important and something that would have suited the Red Sox needs much better. (hint: starts with a “p”). So basically, him going to Boston I would have viewed as a POSITIVE for the Yankees.
• since Soriano and Lee are the only slugging corner outfielders on the market, there may be interest from teams like the Cubs, Angels and Astros. The Angels and Astros in particular because i view them as being only a Sheffield away from becoming division favorites. However... :
• I really don't expect much in return for Sheffield considering his injury status, his decliningness, his attitude, and his paycheck (for a smaller market team.) Sure he is still a masher and at 13/1 year is a good deal and small commitment but there is no way he is in the same ball park as Abreu who, for only a few more million garnered Gillick and the Phillies practically nothing from the Yankees, and they threw in Lidle (r.i.p) as well! If Cashman gets something like Prior (us delusional yankee fans immediately think Prior upon reading this Madden article, but Hendry would have to drunk and high at the same time to entertain such a trade) for Sheffield months after Gillick got nothing for Abreu, Gillick should be fired. Now you may say: but Simmy, didn't Abreu have a full no trade clause which made it harder for Gillick to deal him? The answer is, Abreu was willing to waive that for ANY TEAM, even Kansas City or Toronto (the Canadian teams, well now that expos are in Washington I guess its "team", always seem to be in stars' No Trade Clauses, probably because as they would say on South Park, Canada sucks ass) as long as he had his 2008 option for 16 million (he is definately worth it) picked up. The fact that Lidle was involved and still all Gillick got was Henry, the Yankees toolsy young shortstop high ceiling #1 draft pick out of high school dude who are a dime a dozen and struggled in low A ball, and a couple of AAAA players, is flat out theft by Cashman, and it would be ridiculous if he can turn Sheffield into something useful.
• the last thing I think about when I read that article was that since a few million was deferred teams will be much more willing to take on the contract, who cares about paying a few hundred thousand a year for 15 years in a row starting from 10 years from now, or whatever the exact details are? It's much better than 13 million cash up front, and teams will view him as really only costing 9 or 10 million.

Very exciting development!

My prediction? I forsee the yankees picking up Sheffield's option and trading him for a useful major league player, probably a reliever with good stuff coming off of a good year, or a nice prospect and the other team paying the whole or most of the contract. I am anticipating such a great move from him because of Cashman's (who hasn't made ONE bad decision since gaining full power last offseason unless you want to count the debatable 4 year deal to Matsui) sheer genius (until proven otherwise - I am always willing to flip a 180 like a dog and hate him after one miserable deal, Heaven forbid).
As for life without Sheffield? Quieter! Plus, Matsui will probably DH with Melky in left, Damon in center and Abreu in right and Giambi at first full time. Because injuries happen, the Yankees will probably add a first baseman/role player type who can spell those outfielders or fill in for an injury, by either playing outfield or playing first base and letting Giambi DH, improving the defense. I do not believe the Yankees are satisfied with Wilson or Phillips.
OK that's all for now. Wow long post.

Did you know? Craig Biggio is the only player in baseball history with at least 600 doubles, 250 homeruns and 400 stolen bases.

Welcome to Simmyball

damricon23 (10:41:00 PM): ive gotten around 3 emails from u since the yankees were eliminated about the yankees put it in a blog

And so it began. Right off the bat, pun intended, let me just tell you I have absolutely no plan or commitment to how often I will update this blog, it's just something that will happen. If you want someone who really knows his stuff about baseball and posts funny, interesting updates almost daily, check out aarongleeman.com.
Basically, it will be my thoughts on baseball with a heavy, heeeeeavy emphasis on the Yankees and Mets, but again, we will see as we go along. Who knows what I may decide to write!
Simmyball draws heavily from money ball, as I buy into many sabrmetric concepts and am always open minded and intrigued by new baseball related ideas. But there are certain points where I'm more three nights in august oriented, it depends on what makes sense to me. I am absolutely obssessed with stats and records in general, as meaningless or obscure as they might be, so to tell you to expect a ton of that would be an understatement.
Ok I may check back very very soon maybe even later tonight with my first real post but again: no promises! COMMENTS ARE AND WILL ALWAYS BE VERY ENCOURAGED! When arguments come up, that's when progress is made and we will all benefit so comment away (in general!) OK Bye now.