Mets Interested In Dye, Relief Help

According to Mark Gonzales of the Chicago Tribune, the Mets have interest in White Sox right fielder Jermaine Dye.  The Mets had also been monitoring Mark Buehrle, but he's officially off the market now.   Gonzales seems to indicate that the Buehrle extension will lessen the Mets' interest in Dye.  Dye's been awful this season, perhaps limited by his strained quad. 

Gonzales's source also mentioned that Omar Minaya is hunting for bullpen help.  A few days ago David Lennon noted that the Mets have an eye on Hector Carrasco.  The 37 year-old should be traded somewhere by Friday.

As far as more effective available relievers, Peter Gammons rattled off the usual names in a recent blog entry (Akinori Otsuka, Eric Gagne, Octavio Dotel, Salomon Torres, Brad Lidge, Dan Wheeler, and Chad Qualls).  Matthew Cerrone of MetsBlog considers Otsuka the perfect fit, though the price could be Lastings Milledge.  Another name in Gammons' list, Brad Lidge, may be unavailable based on Ken Rosenthal's info.  Gammons mentioned one intriguing pitcher that'd certainly be worthy of surrendering Milledge: Zack Greinke.  Seems crazy that the Royals would give him up, but he'll be a hot commodity if they do shop him.

Comments

[TheWrightStuff]

Omar was talking to Williams at the futures game maybe they were discussing trades..... has Grieke pitched well cause I remember last year he got rocked.

[tinathemetsgrl]

Omar: Save the pen!!

Hector Carrasco is crap this year, Zack Greinke, how good is he this year? Akinori Otsuka would be another good one.

Personally the main I'd love the Mets to get Damorso Marte. Is he even available? What would it take to get him?

Psh..and I all i want is Darren Oliver back.

I did see Kenny and Omar at the game together, hopefully they're not talking about trading the White Sox pen, even tho I'd really like Dye w/ the Mets.

[darkstar1661]

Uhh, guys... Zack Greinke didn't play last year... Well, he may have gotten a game or two in, but he couldn't have had 10IP total ~ he was under mental distress. :p
That being said, yeah he is one I would love to add to my club. If his mind is right, he really should be one of the best in the game ~ too bad that's a big IF.

Otherwise, yeah the Mets need to try something in the pen! They really have only had 3 bullpen guys worth a darn and esp with the lineup ins funk they need to make sure they give up as few runs as possible.

[firesticks]

uh yea Greinke is nasty. Easy upper 90's out of the pen with sick curve.

But, Dayton Moore could very well as for more than Milledge, and probably would ask for more. Second, he cares way to much about clubhouse chemistry for a guy like Milledge. And last, I very highly doubt Greinke is dealt unless Dayton can steal the farm from some team...

[BaLLooNNoT]

While the cost would be about even with Milledge to KC, I doubt they'd want him.They already have a glut of OFers as it is. (unless they can spin him off to someone else) I'd assume they'd want Pelfrey/Humber and another prospect.

[SBE]

Moore can't care TOO much about clubhouse chemistry if he attempted to complete a trade for Milton Bradley.

Also, while on the surface it appears KC has a glut of OFs, how many have the upside that Milledge offers? I'd say he is on par with DeJesus and Teahen right now, and his ceiling is probably higher than both.

[tinathemetsgrl]

buster olney was talking on first take and mentioned the mets getting jose contreras to add to the rotation, do you guys agree or think the rotation is good enough?? (once pedro is back, if he's back healthy & all that good stuff, sosa will probably move to the pen)

[jza1218]

Re: Milton Bradley

All assumption, but I think that clubhouse chemistry wasn't a concern because Moore probably wanted to spin him off for a profit at the trading deadline. Because the A's DFA'd him, they could get him at a discount and move him for more within the month. The oblique injury soured them on the deal because it'd be harder to deal damaged goods so they nixed it.

And re: the KC OF prospects, MANY of them have high upsides. Billy Butler and Chris Lubanski in particular as well as DeJesus and Teahan convince me that they really have no need for another OF when they have glaring needs elsewhere.

If Ryan Shealy doesn't turn it around, he's probably going to be replaced as well as finding someone to man 2B and SS for the long haul. Who here thinks that Tony Pena Jr really has it in him to be a starting SS? Not me...

[Baseballfan79]

No Midseason report and thoughts so far from you Roto? :)

Interested to hear your thoughts on the season so far and how you think it all will play out. Perhaps a pointing out of a few folks that people are going under noticed by the general baseball populace.

As for KC I dont see anyway they move Zach. Milledge's value is within a CF position but they dont need a CFer they have a very under-rated one in Dejesus.

Milledge at a Corner spot doesnt have the offensive potential to make him viable. Unless they get him just to flip him to someone like fla, CWS, etc etc for a young starter.

[beauhoopman]

I think the Sox will move Garland with the hopes of landing a couple of prospects now. Garland is a Cal. native, and is under contract for another 2 years, would the Dodgers give up Kemp?

[bobhamelin]

I don't think KC will move Zack simply because I think they found his niche. Zack had mental issues over frustration of not pitching every day. He was put in a MR role and has been money since once he adjusted.

As a starter, he would throw 91-94 as he had to pace himself through 6 innings. As a short reliever, he can pitch almost every day which makes him happy, and he can come out and pitch fury. He averages about 97 and hit 100 in St. Louis. He's been the cog to fall in place for KC to have one of the most dominating pens in years I can remember.

A trade of him COULD happen though as Greinke is one of Allard Baird's draftee's and Dayton has a tendency to ship those guys out.

Could that trade happen? Depends on where Dayton feels improvements are needed. Would it happen? I doubt it, as I think Dayton has found his closer of the future.

[bobhamelin]

oh jza1218..i forgot to mention you in my post about TPJ. When he was traded for, he was looked at to be an upgrade over Angel Berroa who was absolutely horrid on the field and with the bat. Dayton made a trade for this TPJ kid, for his glove as it was felt he was an upgrade.

His glove has saved us SO many runs, and since the Royals didn't expect much offensive production from him, the fact he is hitting .291 right now is quite shocking. And this is in his first year of seeing REAL major league pitching. As he learns to control his bat better, he will definately be a fixture in the KC infield for a few years. Ozzie Smith and Ozzie Guillen taught the kid to play SS, and he learned well..and this is only his first real season..he is essentially a rookie.

[jza1218]

Bobhamelin,

I understand that Pena was brought in to basically replace Berroa, but I think it's plain to see that offensively, he is a black hole. Regardless of his batting .281, he still has an OBP UNDER .300 and I just don't think his defense is good enough to overcome that.

On another team that is strong enough offensively, you could sacrifice some offense for a defensive upgrade, but the Royals aren't at that level yet and can't count on their players to steadily provide run support in order to overcome that deficiency.

For comparison's sake, pending free agent Juan Uribe has been contributing similar numbers offensively (less BA but similar OBP) and defensively (in fact Uribe has better ZR and RF) while committing five less errors. So it's not like Pena is some wunderkind that is unique in his abilities.

He's easily replaceable and simply because he's better than Angel Berroa, shouldn't mean that he's the long-term answer at short.

[DentalPlan]

I've never seen Greinke throw "easy upper 90s." What parallel universe is this? I've seen him pitch a lot, actually rather a lot considering I don't see that many Royals' games.

I call bull on "easy upper 90s."

[firesticks]

You should probably watch more often then. Greinke throws an easy 97 out of the pen. Has hit 100 multiple times as well.

[DentalPlan]

I have watched a lot like I said. You're wrong. There's a number of comments, posts, articles, and so forth out there about Greinke's stuff. Nothing about "easy 97" and nothing about 100 mph.

Baseball America's writeups on Greinke never talked about a 97-100 mph fastball. I've watched him a number of times and I've never seen it. If Greinke had a 97-100 mph fastball, with his curveball and control, he would've been the #1 prospect in baseball every year. But he didn't and he doesn't.

Can't we get someone who knows what they're talking about weighing in here? Greinke doesn't throw 100. Period. End of story.

[firesticks]

LOL. Your wrong. Again. He does. I watch every stinkin Royals game (and have for years). Why did BA never write about his "97-100 mph fastball"? Because he just recently started throwing that hard. He's no longer a "prospect".

Let's make it easy for you to understand. As a starter, Greinke threw 90-93 with his fastball. Good enough to get by. Zack moves to the bullpen this year. His velocity jumps. He's hitting 97 and 98 with regularity.

I don't care whether you want to believe it or not. Anyone who has seen Zack out of the pen in the last two months knows what I'm talking about.

[jza1218]

DentalPlan,

You should really pay more attention

http://kansascity.royals.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070705&content_id=2068884&vkey=news_kc&fext=.jsp&c_id=kc

"The right-hander, who suffered through personal problems over the past few years, is dominating hitters with a 97-100 mph fastball and a good curveball. Bell said Greinke has "Verlander" stuff, a reference to Tigers ace and no-hit man Justin Verlander."

[nrmax88]

I cant wait until baseball starts again and Milledge is tearing it up and all the stupid morons in here who talk shyt about milledge(because they read some bullshyt article about how he is a badd clubhouse guy or makes rap songs or whatever) have to stick their foot in their mouth. If milledge was going to be gone, he would be gone already. The people who post here act like they know the guy personally. He also gets compared a lot to milton bradley. Well, watching oakland play last year, it seems like he got along with the players fine, especially Swisher. If Milledge turns out to be a less oftened version of Bradley, thats fine by me. I also seem to remember Bradley pretty much single handedly taking minnesota out in the first round.

[nrmax88]

less often injured version of bradley*

[nrmax88]

"buster olney was talking on first take and mentioned the mets getting jose contreras to add to the rotation, do you guys agree or think the rotation is good enough?? (once pedro is back, if he's back healthy & all that good stuff, sosa will probably move to the pen)"

I think the pitching is pretty good and we could get by with what we have once pedro comes back, but we also could upgrade if we wanted to. That said, Contreras is not an upgrade over any starter they have, and he is owed like 25 mil from now til the end of his contract, which is friggin disgusting. Again, PLEASE OMAR STAY AWAY FROM JOSE!

[nrmax88]

"As for KC I dont see anyway they move Zach. Milledge's value is within a CF position but they dont need a CFer they have a very under-rated one in Dejesus.

Milledge at a Corner spot doesnt have the offensive potential to make him viable. Unless they get him just to flip him to someone like fla, CWS, etc etc for a young starter."

You seem to have this stupid idea that Milledge only has value in his glove or something, like he is some defensive wizard who cant hit. Well, once again, you are wrong, no point in arguing, you will see soon how wrong you were, and how wrong you have been about Milledge for like 2 years because of only reading about him, never actually watching him. But hey, you have always been ignorant on the subject of Milledge so why stop now? You are the one who would rather have Alfredo Amazega in center then Milledge, good luck with that, let me know how it works out.

[nrmax88]

firsticks u needa shut up acting all high and mighty about your royals. You came on here during the winter talking about how you were going to compete and Gil Meche was a great signing KC is turning it around blah blah blah. Your telling people that Grienke hits 100 easily when last year you were calling people idiots and saying Burgos tops out at 95 or whatever. Burgos throws harder then Grienke, I am sure of it.