Cafardo's Latest: Players Out Of Options

David Pauley is with the O's now, but still out of options!

Gaudin is with the Cubbies, formerly with the A's.

Andy Marte might land with the Twins or Giants...

Oh god Nick Cafardo. Why did you have to go mentioning Delmon Young? This thread is going to turn into a cesspool.

I really don't think Kotterras is more than marginally worse than Varitek. But this has been discussed ad nauseum.

NRMax, I don't know about you, but if the Mets don't sign Manny, and miss the playoffs again this year, it's going to get ugly. It may take me years to start caring about this team again the way I do now. It's such a slap in the face the way Jeff and Omar are playing this off, trying to con the fans into thinking we don't need Manny.

He is the epitome of everything we need. Clutch hitting. RIGHT-HANDED clutch hitting. Someone to take pressure off of David Wright. Someone who is battle-tested and has won championships in a huge baseball city. And for Jeff to say to the fans "oh, Manny? Well Omar never even asked me about him!", personally, is disgraceful and insulting to Mets fans who know better.

Jay, I think you went a little too far. Obviously, the biggest problem with your beloved Mets last year was their horrendous bullpen. They certainly addressed that. As for clutch hitting, you have David Wright, as you mentioned, Delgado (rag on him all you want, but didn't he have a few big hits last year?)and Beltran. Not bad. I don't think it's quite the slap in the face you believe it is. Imagine if your favorite team's big bopper in the lineup hit all of 16 jacks in '08. That's what I'm dealing with...

Jay, I think he wants to keep it on a down-low, simply because if it were to get out he was interested, Manny's price might go even higher. We all know how Boras is. He'll play teams off one another. Who knows, maybe Omar's playing it behind the scenes, keep Manny's price low.

Anyways, if Niemann was to become available, via trade or waivers, I think every team would jump at that chance to get him. He does have homerun problems, but in a stadium with a vast outfield, like RFK Stadium or Petco Park, he'd look pretty good.

"Not bad. I don't think it's quite the slap in the face you believe it is. Imagine if your favorite team's big bopper in the lineup hit all of 16 jacks in '08. That's what I'm dealing with..."

Or if your (AL) team had the second worst offense in the majors, behind only the San Diego Padres.

This is rant-ish, but damn, the Bay Area needs to hold on to some good hitters long term.

Jason,

Evan Roberts made what I believe to be an excellent point on WFAN the other day, and that is that the Mets have been totally *reactive* this off-season.

They fixed the bullpen because that was the obvious sore spot. But other than that they've basically assumed that everything that happened in 2008 will be the same in 2009. They have not looked into the future or anticipated any possible needs or problems at all, beyond the bullpen that cost us 30 games last year.

I'm not saying it's insulting for the Mets not to *sign* Manny. (Although ask me again in July and I might say it is.) What I mean is that it's insulting for Jeff to flat-out lie to the fans by saying Omar has no interest when we all know for a fact Omar has drooled over Manny for at least 4 years.

Jason F.- I hope the Giants get Manny for that exact reason though.

hahaha thats a new one "124 meaningless rbi's" I wish more jays had those kind of meaningless rbi's.

Cubs have more than just Gaudin and Hill;

http://www.thecubreporter.com/cubs-40-man-roster

Wuertz,Cotts, Gaudin, Hill, Guzman, Brad Sndyer as well. And David Patton is a Rule 5 pick-up.

Wuertz, Cotts and Guzman are all highly, highly likely to make it onto the ML roster as part of Chicago's bullpen. Those three, Marmol, Gregg, Vizcaino, and maybe Samardzija.

The Jays could probably find good use with Matt Murton to give time off vs. LHP for Lind and Snider. I sense a classic Beane-JP trade coming, your crap for mine. If the As need relief help the Jays have plenty.

Mitch, there's no such thing as a meaningless RBI. 124 RBI's are 124 RBI's.

David Aardsma is out of options also, might be why Boston virtually gave him away in the trade to Seattle.

"Wuertz, Cotts and Guzman are all highly, highly likely to make it onto the ML roster as part of Chicago's bullpen. Those three, Marmol, Gregg, Vizcaino, and maybe Samardzija."

What about Gaudin?

I think he's a better pitcher than Gregg.

“Wuertz,Cotts, Gaudin, Hill, Guzman, Brad Sndyer as well. And David Patton is a Rule 5 pick-up.”

Add Koyie Hill to the list as well.

Also Fontenot, Heilman and Theroit should be added since they would have to clear waivers to have their options used. Asciano should probably be included as well, as he would have to be sent down within the next 2 weeks or he too would have to be exposed to waivers, and Marshall will see this situation come opening day. The team would of course be able to revoke these particular waivers, but if any of these players are waived with the purpose of using an option, you would think it was because of other 25-man issues.

Granted, it is almost a given that Heilman, Theriot, Fontenot and Marshall will be with the club all year; but they also have to. I can’t imagine any of those four going unclaimed, meaning we would not be able to get them to the minors if we tried. All of it making for some rather difficult situations.

And the problems. Let’s say a five of Zambrano, Harden, Dempster, Lilly and Marshall. If going with 12 pitchers, that means only 7 of the following are to be with our organization come opening day - the rest needing to be traded ASAP, or they get released

Marmol, Gregg, Vizcaino, Wuertz, Cotts, Heilman, Guzman, Gaudin, Asciano, R.Hill, Patton

Say goodbye to 4 of these names – 5 if Samardzija is to be in the majors.

Niemann seems to have great stuff he might not make the stacked Rays rotation or bullpen.He could be a great find for a team that needs pitching.

I agree that Gaudin probably ought to make the bullpen, but I'm not so sure.

Obviously Gregg and Vizcaino are locks to make the roster, and so I think in the end it comes down to Gaudin vs. Samardzija, assuming Marshall is the fifth starter.

I think there is a decent possibility that Shark ends up back in the minors, to furthur develop as a starter, looking towards 2010 when Harden is gone.

Wow and I totally forgot about Heilman..

Well. Honestly I'm not sure how the Cubs put together this bullpen.

I'd want to go Marmol, Gregg, Vizcaino, Gaudin, Heilman, Cotts and Guzman, considering I think that Guzman and Heilman have huge upside.

I still cringe thinking about that Ceda/Gregg trade. Unless we somehow get a first round pick for Gregg after this season, then that trade can't possibly be good. Ceda will likely be as good if not better than Gregg within two years.

I have zero idea what Hendry was thinking, I think he clearly bought into the "Closer" label with Gregg.

"I still cringe thinking about that Ceda/Gregg trade. Unless we somehow get a first round pick for Gregg after this season, then that trade can't possibly be good. Ceda will likely be as good if not better than Gregg within two years. "

Hendry would never offer Gregg arbitration; he WILL accept unless there is a drastic market change. I just don't see it.

Where's The Big Hurt Frank Thomas going to go? As for Tony Gwynn Jr send him to San Diego. Towers might go Peavy straight up for him.

Where can I find the list of the 227 players that are out of options?

That was a rare bad draft pick by the Rays. But who could blame them? Niemann went like 17-0 with Rice in 2003 with an era of 1.70! He is not bad, but not worth a first round pick. To compare, these players were selected in the same draft-blake Dewitt, Taylor Tankersly, Phil Hughes, Stephen Drew, Billy Butler, Jered Weaver, Jeremy Sowers, Yovani Gallardo, Dustin Pedrioa, Hunter Pence and Kurt Suzuki just to name a few.

I agree with Melonis; figure it will be Hill, Patton, Guzman, Ascanio and Wuertz to be gone unless Wuertz takes Samardzija’s spot. Losing Patton and Ascanio doesn’t hurt much, but Hill and Guzman might come back to bite us.

And yes, can’t believe this is the situation Hendry has put us in – what is going on with his obsession over mediocre RP this year? Didn’t he realize we had an abundance of players we had to do something with already?

To Rob G, realize the revocable wavers, and detailed that in my post. But don’t agree with your thinking everyone will allow these players to pass; there would be no benefit in helping us with the horrible roster problems we have created. It would be fairly obvious if we were to have someone like Marshall on optional waivers just to keep a player like Hill or Guzman from having to be lost – putting in a claim on Sean would mean Bobby or Angel get the boot.

Fairly confident Andy Marte is a player who was not able to pass through last year. Pretty sure we probably tried it with Cedeno as well. We would almost never hear about such a transaction though, don’t you think? They probably don’t even tell the player unless he clears – they don’t tell them after the trade deadline when the process is most used.

Niemann would be in the top 3 among SP prospects on about 10 clubs. Definitely not a bad draft pick by the Rays, knowing how few first round draft picks actually pan out to be anything. If he's a mid rotation starter, even if its not with the Rays, he was a good pick.

Bobby Hill! Haven't thought about him in a while!