Brocail Off the Market
Rumor has it that Doug Brocail has signed a contract with the Astros, which will be announced on Tuesday.
Oh, that’s right … we really don’t care.
In other news, Kerry Wood signed a one-year deal to remain with the Cubs; the presumption is that he’ll be a candidate to close, with Ryan Dempster moving back to the starting rotation. Though it might have been nice to see a pitcher with Wood’s talent on the Mets, there didn’t appear to be any interest whatsoever out of Flushing, and Wood seemed determined to return to Chi-town. That said, the Wood signing is something of a positive for the Mets, in that the Cubs now likely won’t be going after any other middle relievers on the market that might interest the Mets (i.e., Octavio Dotel, David Riske).
The latest “buzz” is that the Yankees and Twins are working on a deal involving Johan Santana. My assumption is that the Yanks would have to part with at least Philip Hughes, Ian Kennedy, and Melky Cabrera — and some pundits are guessing that Robinson Cano could be part of the package. If I’m Brian Cashman, that deal is a no-brainer — Hughes doesn’t look like the #1 ace everyone hyped him to be, and the ceilings of both he and Kennedy are questionable. Such a trade would be somewhat similar to another Twins deal that sent a Cy Young lefty to New York about twenty years ago — the Frank Viola trade to the Mets.
On July 31, 1989, the Twins sent Viola to Flushing in return for Rick Aguilera, David West, Tim Drummond, Kevin Tapani, and Jack Savage (Savage was actually a PTBNL). Back then, West was about as bright a prospect, if not brighter, than Hughes is today. Similarly, Tapani was comparable to Kennedy, and Aguilera was seen as a guy who was probably good enough to be a fourth or fifth starter on any team in MLB other than the Mets, who at the time had a 5-man rotation of Dwight Gooden, David Cone, Bobby Ojeda, Ron Darling, and Sid Fernandez (wow … those were good days for pitching in Shea!). Though the Mets toyed with Aguilera as a closer, he wasn’t supplanting 26-year-old fireballer Randy Myers anytime soon, and thus was expendable. The rest is history — Viola was 38-32 in two and a half seasons as a Met, Aguilera went on to become one of the AL’s most dominant closers and save 311 games, Tapani had a 13-year career as a solid #2 / #3 starter, and David West accomplished what can be most accurately described as “bupkis“.
I digress …
So if the Yankees do in fact pull off the deal, the Twins would suddenly have an excess of young starting pitching, which could help the Mets (can you say, Matt Garza for Lastings Milledge?). Additionally, I’d imagine that if Melky Cabrera goes north, then Andruw Jones becomes a Yankee almost immediately — does anyone else fit quite so perfectly in centerfield for them with Melky gone?
Further, if the Yanks and Twins do not come to terms, you’d have to think that either the Red Sox or the Mets are next on the waiting list. Are the Mets willing to send Mike Pelfrey, Philip Humber, Lastings Milledge, and a fourth prospect to Minnesota for Santana? I sure hope so. Problem is, I’d guess the Twins would also ask for John Maine or Oliver Perez, and/or Aaron Heilman. Unless they’re willing to add Joe Nathan and one of their young arms to the deal (Garza? Scott Baker?), I’d have to pass.
By the way, and speaking of Yankees, I haven’t heard anything on Luis Vizcaino. Wouldn’t he be a nice arm to add to the bullpen? Yes, I realize he’s been “Torre-ized”, but he might be related to Gumby and have no problem throwing another 80 games in 2008.
Completely off topic, Chris Snelling has been traded to the Philadelphia Phillies. I believe this is the 18th time he’s changed teams in the last ten months, and wonder why the Mets have been left out of the fun? I hope Omar hasn’t been banished from the “in” group.
If the Mets want to be a part of this discussion, we could send LMilz/Gomez, Ollie, Gotay, +1 humber/muniz/kunz…
Including Ollie does create another hole, and i do love him, but to get Santana, you’d have to think about it. We get to keep 1 OF and Heilman, so we lose, but nothing key to the team. Minny gets a young ace, the CF + IF they need, and a prospect. Depending on the package, high ceiling guys like Pelf, Gomez, Mulvey, Guerra, F-mart, Rustich… should be left out, or included to a lesser extent.
No 1 Player is worth selling the farm. It may look good for the year, until the next hole opens, and we have prospects to trade or to step in.
We shall see what happens. Im more of a Bedard fan, but Ill take anything! Ive been scarred by the likes of Lima, Lawrence, Park… do think Darling can make a comeback?
I’m also of th mentality that the Twins have to be REALLY high on Gomez to take him for one of the Garza/Baker/Slowey trio. I mean, if a team really is rebuilding, they have to know how important good, young, cheap pitching is compared to a questionable outfielder who has yet to develop power. Especially when there are so many other OF prospects from around baseball that would be more worthy of giving up one of those pitchers for (Matt Kemp, Carlos Quentin, Franklin Gutierrez, Ryan Raburn just to name a few).
1. Signing Carlos Silva to a 4 yr, $48-mil contract, or
2. Trading Milledge/Humber to A’s for Blanton
Anyway in Summary.
I’m shying away from Santana. The Viola deal recollection has soured me greatly. For me any deal is Milz, Fmart OR Gomez/ +Humby OR Pelfrey.
Throw in one or two lower level pieces (Muniz).
2. Isu: A deal with Minn makes sense. They lost Torii and now feature Jason Tyner in the OF. The Mets have 3 premium young OF talents,, they have arms. I for one can see Millz eventually having a career along the lines of Hunter or Jermaine Dye. Minn also covets speed and i think that might be the lure that has them looking at Gomez more.
I’m on the Silva sauce.
Silva 3, Blanton 0. I guess I would have to agree. Blanton’s younger (albeit only by a year), has better K numbers, and will likely be less expensive, at least for the short-term. But Oakland’s asking price always seems to be high, so it’s probably safer to go with just-as-proven a commodity as Silva without giving up anything we can use to get a REAL big-time starter.
i dont know about the Pitts GM,but Im curious to see the price for Snell or Gorzellany. They may be interested in swinging a trade with us. Not sure what their status in CF is[that guy last year might get DFA’s according to MLBTR]. Rumor has it that they like Pelf and Humber.
Those 2 guys would be studs in our rotation. Maybe a package of Lmilz/Gomez, Pelf/humber, + gotay would do it? possibly even bring back a RP?
Ive seen the rumors, but he is one GM we havent heard much from yet.
I love Slowey too, but Garza is a nasty power pitcher that would be nice.
We may be able to get Blanton for LMilz + AA, which is nice. And next year, we look to sign someone. That may be our best option.
I still feel that most of Gomez, F-Mart, Mulvey, Guerra, + Rustich should be protected because they look like they are going to be legit for ’09. They all have that raw talent/athleticism component, and according to scout, are very hard workers that can/will excel at all pro levels. Humber, Pelf, LMilz, Gotay, and, to a lesser extent, Heilman, have all been exposed in one way or another, and the Mets seem reluctant to use them as anything other than trade bait.
Here’s a question…in an interview[i saw on a blog], an A’s assistant said that
haren has the highest price [3-4 good prospect, followed by blanton [2-3 prospects], then Harden [possibly 1]. Since the Mets have a good rotation already, YES, i did say good [most teams would be happy with pedro,maine, OP, duque, and Pelf/humber/vargas.
???Should we roll the dice on Harden, possibly + a RP, for Lmilz? WHEN healthy, he is as good of a #1 out there. Im almost tempted to say yes, as long as we have the foresight to also sign colon or chacone, or trade for Lee or a backend SP.
Harden, Pedro, Maine, OP, El Duque, still having lee/colon/chacone, humber, pelf, vargas, + bostick if/when someone gets hurt. But thats nasty!!!!!!!!!!!
-or-
????Should we take a different gamble, and trade a few low value prospects to the Cubs for Mark Prior, then turn to the A’s and trade for Blanton with LMilz + AA. yes, it will empty out the low end prospects, but we do get a #1, if he’s healthy, in prior, and a solid #3 in blanton.
I would be happy with a rotation of
Prior, Pedro, Maine, Blanton, OP with Duque, Pelf, Humber, Vargas, + bostick in case someone gets hurt in BP/AAA
and we still have Heilman, gomez and the rest…
any ideas?