Mets Closer Plan Starts With Free Agents

I don't understand. Okay, the bullpen needs to be completely redone becuase it is just plain bad. Trade show.,felic.(maybe),heilman, sanchez and get Krod. Okay Krod will be closing but why not pursue another reliever that could close out the 8th and have a shutdown duo with jenks. Also why not only acquire jenks,krod and go fora biemel or someone of his calibar. Have 3 guys that you can rely on,period and not just hope things will be all smiles after Krod being the closer. The Mets have about a good 45 million+ to spend this offseason. I say get Krod(cost about 13 million a year),Jenks(controlled for 3 years,aka could trade him after 2 if he blows out the NL,and another reliver for maybe(around 5-6 million) so that is about 22 million spent on the bullpen. Theres still money to sign hopefully resign Perez for 14 million a year and a maybe go for a 2-3 year contract on sheets(would be a killer rotation)but if not sheets, Neise will be just fine. And if your not signing sheets why not sign Hudson to play second and murphy will take LF. All problems solved within budget.

The guy the Sox will want for Jenks is Daniel Murphy. Along with probably one of Niese or Bobby Parnell, and Eddie Kunz (can contribute now).

The Sox aren't rebuilding. They need players who will fill voids NOW (mainly 3B/CF). Murphy at 3B fills one. F-Mart is a few years down the line and won't fill a void until then.

Id give the sox to choose within parnell,kunz,carp,f-mart or anyone else but niese,murphy.

You need to watch some baseball than ice. Jenks throws 95-96 and doesnt need a ton of strikeouts because he gets so many groundouts on his curveball and cutter. Not many people remember, but Jenks was a starter and can throw 5 pitches. He just knows his heat and hammer work best.

In my opinion Jenks is better but K-rod is no scrub. I would rather have Jenks but the Mets need to adress some other posistions as well (Left Field) that will likely need to be done via trade so it might make more sense to keep the prospects, sign K-rod, and then trade for a left fielder (Jermaine Dye maybe?).

I would also look at possibly acquiring Houston Street as well. He's a solid reliever who could thrive as the 8th inning man. I heard the Rockies like Heilman so a deal based around him could get that done.

Then I would sign Lowe and possibly even Randy Wolf or maybe make a trade for Jermaine Dye and take on Vasquez's contract as well seeing as the White Sox are interested in moving both of them.

"You need to watch some baseball than ice. Jenks throws 95-96 and doesnt need a ton of strikeouts because he gets so many groundouts on his curveball and cutter."

Agreed. Over the past few years Jenks has become a pitcher as opposed to the "thrower" he was when he first showed up. Yes, he pitches to more contact now, but he has still shown that he can throw the 95-97 mph when he has to. Bottom line is the guy is damn good and gets the job done regaqrdless of his K rates.

Just to let you NON-Mets fans know, I went to 12 games last year, and saw the 9th inning bullpen blow 3 different leads. If you had a closer come in and close out 2 of those games, you would have been the Wild Card, with an option of winning the world series and 30 Million dollars for it.

Spend the Money on the bullpen, and deal with lower end #5 starter.

Johan, Maine, Pelphrey, Niese and Wolf/Pavano...sign a Japanese FA and they should be set .

Please stop with the whole
1) pick up Street for the 8th and K-Rod for the 9th;
2) pick up BOTH Fuentes and K-Rod;
3) pick up Jenks for the 8th and K-Rod for the 9th;
4) pick up K-Rod, trade for Putz, then sign Beimel and Cruz for middle relief
etc.

The Mets will NOT pick up two closers to pitch for them next year for two separate innings along with two Type-A middle relievers and some 3 year/$12 million guys for the 6th inning. This is a ridiculous proposal. Aside from the fact that Billy Wagner is on the books for $10 million next year, the Mets have other holes to fill. They can't just stockpile closers due to salary restrictions, draft pick consequences with free agents, etc. Expect for them to possibly pick up a traditional closer along with more underappreciated guys to get fresh faces for middle relief.

''Just to let you NON-Mets fans know, I went to 12 games last year, and saw the 9th inning bullpen blow 3 different leads. If you had a closer come in and close out 2 of those games, you would have been the Wild Card, with an option of winning the world series and 30 Million dollars for it.''

Ditto. I remember three off the top with my head, along with the most nauseating one of all in Game 162.

I love the idea of having Niese being placed in the role as the #5 starter along with signing Odalis Perez as insurance in the likely event that someone gets injured. I would let the kid roll with a starting rotation spot instead of trading him for a fix at closer. I can't imagine signing free agent starters at this point with all of the big money they have been getting the last few years. The Mets could also pick up a Kyle Lohse-type just by sitting out for a little while a lot of teams are jumping all-in on overpaying some of these guys.

Interesting states from metsprospecthub.blogspot.com

Miguel Cabrera, age 19, A+: .274/.333/.421/.754
David Wright, age 19, A: .266/.367/.401/.768
Fernando Martinez, age 19, AA: .287/.340/.432/.772

Also,
John Sickles of minorleagueball.com has recently returned from a trip to the AFL. Sickles, however, did not have a chance to get a first hand look at Murphy because Murphy was sidelined with his forearm injury, but, Sickles had a chance to talk to some scouts about Murphy's defense, and the reports weren't encouraging for us Murphy fans.

From Sickles himself:
"People I talked with said his glove was not going to work at second base."

Now take that for what it's worth, I mean, Murphy is still learning 2B, and hasn't had enough time to get comfortable with the position.. But it seems like these particular scouts didn't see enough out of Murphy to think he could handle 2B.

no, no, no, ice. dont look at stats. watch the games. we are not talking screaming ground balls. we are talking bottom of the bat grounders that three hop to the shortstop and are easy outs. His main problem is throwing too many curveballs after the count is 0-2 and 1-2, then he sometimes leaves one up. He gave up 1 hr all year. 1. I think K/9 is overdone if you can get outs. He does make things interesting with baserunners, but if you want to talk about that, you already know K-Rod plays with fire every game.

Unless the Mets sign Hudson, or I recently heard Orlando Cabrera's name mentioned, to play 2B, I think Murphy will see some time at 2B during this season. Maybe 10% of the games, maybe more. If Castillo's health prevents him from playing a good 2B, then Murphy essentially can do all of the thing Castillo can. All of the talks about the offense make for good discussion, but we won't really know what the upgrade options are until the pitching situation is resolved. The Mets NEED at least 1 starter and a new bullpen. We will see how much money is left over to see where they can upgrade offensively/defensively.

sweetswingingbw,

KW traded McCarthy because he was able to get a "similar" pitcher but left handed in Danks, Texas just didn't think he was ready yet, and they wanted someone who was ready for the MLB, they also got 2 other pitchers. Garcia I believe was hurt before traded, but the Phillies wanted proven, and they no longer were high on Floyd. Garland's ERA didn't jump almost to 5, it was almost 5 almost every single year he's been in the majors. He isn't as good as some make him out to be, he's basically Vazquez. How about Kip Wells or Josh Fogg? those guys haven't been hurt that I know of since they were traded.

SFG55, you can't be serious. Wright for TIM LINCECUM straight up is fair. I'd say Cain and Brian Wilson, or Cain, Pablo Sandoval, John Bowker, and two more prospects.