Mets Likely To Pass On K-Rod?

I see K-Rod getting many bids, but the Mets not being the highest bidder. I see him staying an Angel. Luis Ayala is pretty much staying a Met, just as a set-up guy or a stopgap for Bobby Parnell. Much better for the Mets to focus on resigning Oliver Perez (of course he tests FA, then Mets are highest bidder).

Cardinals should keep Chris Perez as closer and target a lefty setup guy.

I think that the closers that are traded this offseason will fetch some pretty nice bounties with the artificial inflation of the closer market.

I don't think the Cardinals will go after K-Rod...they'll most likely keep Perez at closer.

as a phillie fan, I rather not see the mets do any improvements but it will happen... And I'm jealous of the mets payroll, but I actually would like to see kunz getting the role. I believe he is the future in that position, but hopefully he have a lot of blown saves against the phillies :)

I find myself keep going back and forth on this....

I think it comes down to the question of if a pitcher can be worth 15 million dollars when you only expect him to pitch maybe 70 innings in a season? Or if the money is better invested elsewhere, such as the Rotation or the Offense.

I also think it's naive to believe that just signing K-Rod and doing nothing else will fix the Mets bullpen. More often the lead is blown trying to get it to the closer then otherwise. Ayala has actually done a reasonable job in the closers role despite pitching hurt.

The Mets need a minimum of 2 or 3 new pitchers in their bullpen for the 2009 season in my mind. If we can fill those in-house with people like Bobby Parnell and Eddie Kunz then more power to the Mets. Although I have to wonder if they really feel these kids are ready, then why not give them a larger role in the bullpen right now? Parnell pitched his first inning today, and Kunz wasn't even recalled this September.

I can't get on the Mets Offense too much when they are 2nd in the NL in scoring. For the most part the Offense has done the job, and if the Mets are seriously considering moving Daniel Murphy to 2B the Offense should only get better on it's own as that's eliminating 1 of the 2 black holes in the lineup (2B, C).

The bullpen on the other hand has been a major problem, they're 10th in ERA in the NL, and have blown the lead 27 times, 11 of which came in the 9th Inning. Sure, a few tack on runs here and there would have helped, but that is still a stunning number of blown leads. You cut those blown leads even by a third and this team is on pace for 100 wins.

With that said though, the Mets are probably better off bringing back Ayala, working the trade market or Free Agency for a potential set-up man or two, and going with the kids to fill out the bullpen then they are investing 75 million in K-Rod.

K-Rod won't make the Mets bullpen great. K-Rod with Ayala setting up (both resigned) would be decent. The young guys won't develop unless they get more high pressure situations to work through. They should be the cornerstone of the pen. And, Santana + K-Rod on the same team is just asking for trouble. The Mets are a huge market team, but that doesn't justify idiotic contracts (don't the Mets have enough of those in Johan, Luis Castillo, Beltran to an extent, Alou, etc.). Unless Omar plans to pull out all the stops and add some set up men (can Show PLEASE), K-Rod won't drastically improve the pen, at least not at that price tag.

nrmax- The Mets aren't that bad at situational hitting. That's like common fan knock #1 for almost every team. I'll admit I don't follow the Mets closely, but I've watched quite a few games.

I don't think you can categorize either the beltran or santana signings as stupid. Beltran clearly gets paid beyond his production, but is also one of the best center fielders in baseball. To add a player of that caliber in free agency, you have to pay big, and I think Beltran has worked out just fine. What other center fielders could they have signed in that time that have produced better numbers?

I'd make the same argument for santana...sure he has a huge contract, but he is one of the 5 best pitchers in baseball. He's been great for the mets, even if he doesn't have wins to show for it.

Alou didn't work out, but his deal was esentially two 1 year deals under market value. If he was healthy, great..If not then the team can dump him at years end. It has turned out to be a bad deal, but it's not as bad as the castillo deal by any stretch.

If the mets are truly commited to guys like stokes, kunz, smith, and parnell, I'd like to see them go get k-rod. Those 4 guys are all cost controlled for the next several year, and the mets definately have the money. They have one year left on show's deal, and I'd love to see them dump sanchez. I think we'll see some bounce back from heilman next year regardless if he's traded. All told though, that's not the most expensive bullpen.

I'd make the santana deal any day of the week as well. I think everybody agree's that kunz or parnell isn't the answer right now, which is why the k-rod signing makes sense. I doubt he gets more than 4 years from any team, Having him from age 27-30 doesn't sound all that bad to me. That allows you to leave guys like kunz and parnell in AAA (looks like it will be buffalo), to get seasoned some more. That also allows parnell to stay as a starter for now to keep developing his secondary stuff.

TruDru22- I would take Ben Sheets and/or AJ Burnett over K-Rod anyday. Even if Ben Sheets is healthy for only half the contract, he will give you about as many innings as K-Rod will staying healthy all four years.

Sign set-up men, not closers. Ayala as closer, but have the 7th-8th innings solidified.

Why should Ayala be closer?

The guy I'm curious about is Al Reyes. If he can even be as good as he was in Tampa earlier this year, he'll be an upgrade to the bullpen.

Yeah yeah yeah the Mets have the 2nd highest runs scored in the league and 3 guys with over 100 RBI, blah blah blah. Their offense is not good. I bet a lot of you think David Wright had a good year. Maybe by normal standards he has, but this season has been by far, unequivocally his worst season as a pro. It is not up for debate. David turned from a great hitter, into a decent slugger. He no longer drives the ball the other way, ever. He tries to pull everything, and hits into tons of big double plays, and he is an easy strikeout if you throw a couple of halfway decent sliders low and away. Delgado has been great right now, but he was horrible for half the season, and for all the wins he has gotten the Mets lately, he probably cost them just as many games in april-june. The MVP idea for Carlos is simply laughable. Beltran has been pretty consistent all year, but the power has just come in the last 6 weeks, and they were not getting that power from other sources when he wasn't providing it. This team, offensively, will put up a huge number of runs during the course of a year. They are that talented. But situationally, they are just dreadful. So over 162 games, they will prove that they are a very talented team, but when it comes down to games they have to win, or a given game, or given series, they can't win a bunch of 3-2 games. If they are hot at that moment, they can certainly sweep a big series, but it usually will be a bunch of 9-3 type games, when their offense is clicking and they throttle teams. But they can't win games like the Angels, get a guy on, get him over, get him in. They have no clue how to play that type of baseball, which is why if they aren't clicking going into the playofs (if they even make it, which I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't, not even a little bit), they will not win. Just like the cardinal series in 06. The Mets had a team that was on a completely different level then the Cardinal team that year. But everytime they had a big runner on 3rd base with 0 or 1 outs, the Mets would strand him there because they don't know any better. Even during their stretch of success this season, they would get up 2 or 3-0 early, and not score another run all game. This went on for over a month. This is a very, very flawed offense, that has to rely on their raw talent to beat people, and not on their ability to hit in a given situation. So if the Mets are hot, they can potentially roll through the playoffs and win the world series. But if they aren't clicking as a unit, they will have a very early october exit. If they even make it.

And my final rant, then I am done (I think). What is the deal with everybody hating on Beltran and his contract? What is he making, 17 mil a year? The guy is a .275/.375/.500 type of player. Hitting is the weakest part of his game also. Sure, they guy is wildly hot and cold, which could be annoying, but when Alfonso Soriano is making as much as Beltran, to play LF and provide similar offense with not close to the production in other parts of the game, or when A-Rod is making 30 million, or when Tex is going to be making over 20 million, why shouldnt a CF with pop, great speed, great baserunning abilities, a top tier defender, with a good eye, and the ability to carry a team through the playoffs (Houston, 04) get paid as much as Beltran did? To me, Wright gets all the credit and all of the attention, but Beltran is the better player and for me, he is a top 10 player in this league without a doubt. Met fans were complaining about Beltran all year. My response would be, the guy is still a top tier everything else centerfielder. Even in June or July of this year, when he was struggling with the bat, there were only 2 guys out producing him offensively in CF, in the NL. Nate McClouth, and Rick Ankiel. So Beltran, in a down year, provides gold glove defense, 25 stolen bases, a .375 OBP, his offense in a down year was better then almost any other NL centerfielder. Now that Beltran has turned it up, he is out producing pretty much every other CF in the NL, and most in the AL, and he is still giving you the gold glove defense, 25-30 home run pop, 25-30 stolen bases, a big on base percentage, what else do people wan't from him? He is worth 17 million to me anyday. Especially when a guy like Tex will get 22 mil, or something in that ballpark.

It's highly unlikely the Cards will keep Perez as closer next year just because he needs to develop more, especially his fastball considering its too straight, which is why he started giving up the long ball after several appearances. He isn't ready for a full season yet.

DLadd - unfortunately, I don't think he's going to learn any more at Memphis.

The fastball is less of a problem, IMO, than having a pitch to set it up.

Once he's got hitters worried about his slider, that heater will become much more effective.

Regardless of whether Perez is closing or not - I still don't see them going ape for KRod.

I'd prefer to see them go after Fuentes - and they can run a platoon of Perez and Fuentes in the ninth, depending on situation.

Also, as you saw with David Ortiz and many other Red Sox hitters, just watching Manny in the cages will make any player better. His swing is I'd say hands down the smoothest, yet most powerful stroke in baseball. A-Rod has a nice swing too when he gets into a ball, but theres something so graceful about how manny swings a bat. It looks like the bat is weightless. His fundamentals on swinging a bat are perfect to model.

Listen the Mets must make a big decision for the 2009 season.

from 06-08 we have filled the roster with hopefuls and patch players.

If it was up to me

Pedro: gone
Castillo: gone

the tricky part is if you resign perez from the 9-15 mil he will get.

try to sign texeira for 20 mil plus.

resign Delgado FOR ONE YEAR i believe his option is 12 mil, 4 mil we have top pay guaranteed.

do we try to sign K-rod

do we go for C.C.

I do not know the money available, but it is a ton.

Beltran and Santana are the only people making Money on this team.

I feel we should re sign Perez and go for C.C.

we would have the best rotation in baseball

Santana, C.C. , Perez, Pelfrey, Maine/Niese/Parnell

Perhaps we move Maine to the Pen

I know this sounds far fetched but it is not.

do you pay 12 mil for Perez and 12 mil for Delgado and 15 for K-rod9 WHich all may happen

OR Do you pay 25 mil for C.C., 12 for Delgado

and let Maine go to the Pen and let Niese/Parnell/Stokes/trash heap take the 4th and 5th spot.

Do you Sign Perez alone and continue to be above average at best?

LIMET, So you want to sign Teixeira and Delgado? Brilliant. I bet most people probably stopped reading your post at that point. You also want to sign CC (which for some weird reason, I actually agree with, I would gladly give him Santana money and feel much more comfortable with him then I do with Johan, I don't know why), which there is almost a zero percent chance of, move Maine to the pen (horrible idea, high bb's, lots of HR's, a horrible combo for the pen so I don't see why people keep suggesting it), and have 4 LHP in the rotation?

You have no idea what you are talking about, this is not PS2. Again wit the Met fans with the Yankee fan attitude.

"I want Holliday and CC and Perez and Teixeira and Delgado and K-Rod and if not Omar should be fired!"

There are no internal options. I love the authority with which these guys talk. These are the same people who were quite adamant that the Mets were not going to land Santana, for any number of reasons, they didn't match up, they wouldn't give x-amount of years. This nonsense isn't worth listening to. This team has a glaring need for bullpen help and K-Rod is one of the best relievers. If the money is there (and it is) there's no reason to believe that the Mets wouldn't be interested despite what speculative "journalists" have to say about it. And by the way, CC sucked in the playoffs last year. He's overweight, and I could see him aging quite rapidly, so a long term contract (which is what he will require) makes zero sense. Not interested.