State of the Union - Mets baseball

The winter meetings just ended, and the Mets biggest move was picking up former Rockies prospect Steven Register and acquiring Ryan Church and Brian Schneider. Everyone knows Omar Minaya went in looking for young ace starter but couldn't find a GM willing to take a combination of our best prospects. The Milledge trade shocked me at first but then I thought about it for a few days. Yeah,there was a time we could have gotten Milledge for Manny or Zito. But he just hasn't developed and matured the way we had hoped. I'm really confident Church will put up .270 20hr 80rbi 15 steals and provide us with solid defense. The biggest question mark is why did we trade for another catcher? Obviously one of the three Castro, Estrada, Schneider have to go but am hoping we keep Castro and Schneider. They are both good defenders who know how to call a good game and handle a pitching staff well, especially Schneider. I'm not big on Estrada, he had one All star season. Has anybody looked at his on base percentage for the past 3 years?? .296, .328, .303, while is defense is below average. (Schneider is much better defensively) So, for a win now club getting two solid veteran players isn't that bad (at least neither of them will be giving out high fives to fans after home runs). They will bring some of their grit and leadership skills we desperately lacked in the second half of the season. .
Currently this is how the Mets starting lineup shakes out:

SP1 Pedro Martinez.
SP2 Orlando Hernandez
SP3 John Maine
Sp4 Oliver Perez
SP5 Mike Pelfrey
Setup: Aaron Heilman, Pedro Feliciano, Duaner Sanchez (injured 07'), Joe Smith, Scott Schoenewies, Ambiorix Burgos(injured most 07').
Closer: Billy Wagner

Line up: SS Jose Reyes
2B Luis Castillo
3B David Wright
CF Carlos Beltran
LF Moises Alou
1B Carlos Delgado
RF Ryan Church
C Johnny Estrada/Brian Schneider
Bench: Ramon Castro, Endy Chavez, Carlos Gomez, Marlon Anderson, Ruben Gotay, Damien Easley, Anderson Hernandez.

Top Prospects: Carlos Gomez, Fernando Martinez, Mike Pelfrey, Philip Humber, Kevin Mulvey, Deolis Guerra.


This roster is only good enough to win 85-90 games, hardly enough to take the NL east. The 2007 champion Phillies upgraded with picking up Brad Lidge who has the potential to be lights out once again (pre Pujols home run). I would have to say the Phillies at this point have to be considered slight favorites. (Jimmy Rollins might not be crazy predicting 100 wins for the upcoming year). With the braves always being in the mix in what will be a 3 horse race, the Mets might be vying for a Wild Card spot. What can be done in the next 4 months to strengthen a team who is just coming off the worst collapse in team history?

1. Starting Pitching. Acquire a true number one pitcher. Lets face it we do not have the super prospects GM Bill Smith is looking for . A package involving a combination of Gomez, Heilman, Pelfrey, Humber, Martinez is not going to do it unless u add Jose Reyes. So you can cross out Johan Santana. Erik Bedard and Dan Haren have the same asking price, forget about them too. I believe the Mets 2 best options are going after Oakland's Joe Blanton or Toronto's A.J Burnett ( even though he has trouble staying healthy). If all else fails free agent pitchers Hideki Kuroda, Livan Hernandez, John Leiber and maybe even Bartolo Colon could add a little depth to the back end of the rotation while eating up some innings. I rather take a gamble with one of those guys than overpaying for Silva or Lohse.

2. Bullpen. I cant believe I'm saying this, but I wish Chad Bradford was with us in 2007. Duaner Sanchez is a real wild card. Who knows how he'll come back after shoulder surgery. As we all know reliable 7th and 8th inning relievers are hard to find. Published reports have mets interested in Octavio Dotel and Ron Mahay, who would both fit in pretty nicely for us. With the addition of one more dependable arm along with Heilman,Sanchez and Feliciano setting up for Wagner the mets will have a solid pen.

3. Lineup. The mets lineup has great speed and depth. We are pretty much set here with the trades for Church and Schneider and the resigning of Luis Castillo, who at 32 gave a 4 year contract.(I would have done 2 max) He has no power and isn't quite as good with the glove anymore, but he still has a very high obp and can steal 20-30 bases next season. If Delgado can bounce back and hit .260 35 100 it'll make this lineup one of the best in the national league once again.

Mets nation must be supremely disappointed at the lack of activity but remember.. still 4 months till opening day 2008.