Courtesy Adam Rubin's Blog: Pitchers for next week :)

For Monday's intrasquad game at Tradition Field: Jorge Sosa, Jason Vargas, Willie Collazo, Pedro Feliciano, Ambiorix Burgos, Steve Schmoll, Jorge Vasquez, Lino Urdaneta, Joe Smith, Eddie Camacho.

Tuesday's intrasquad game: John Maine, Philip Humber, Scott Schoeneweis, Adam Bostick, Clint Nageotte, Kevin Mulvey

Wednesday's Grapefruit League opener vs. Detroit (SNY, 1:10 p.m.): Oliver Perez, Alay Soler, Billy Wagner, Aaron Heilman, Jon Adkins, Joe Smith.

Thursday's Grapefruit :eague game vs. St. Louis (SNY, 1:10 p.m.): Tom Glavine, Jorge Sosa, Pedro Feliciano, Ambiorix Burgos, Steve Schmoll.

Friday at St. Louis (1:05 p.m.): Chan Ho Park, Aaron Sele, Scott Schoeneweis.

Comparing the 2000 Offseason to the 2006 Offseason

Comparing the 2000 Offseason to the 2006 Offseason

You know, alot of people have done that, complaining that Freddy "Coupon" is back, etc, hyperbole...these fans need to stop thinking so short term. Gain a little perspective, please.
The 2000 team, for all it accomplished, overachieved tremendously. And it was an old core.

The 2000 infield was comprised of: 26 year old Edgardo Alfonzo (2b), 34 year old Todd Zeile (1b), 31 year old Mike Piazza (c), 33 year old Robin Ventura (3b), and basically a 4 or 5 man platoon at shortstop after Rey Ordonez got hurt.

The 2000 outfield was 31 year old Derek Bell, 27 year old Jay Payton, 28 year old Benny Agbayani, 35 year old Darryl Hamilton and 41 year old Rickey Henderson.

There is NO FUTURE there to build on. None. Fonzie hit .324/.425/.542, and he was the youngest regular at 26. In fact, the youngest players to get ABs that year were 23 year old outfielders Timo Perez and Jason Tyner. Combined, they got 90 at bats that year. 49 for Timo, 41 for Jason.

The pitching staff was anchored by a pair of very good, ace lefties in Al Leiter and Mike Hampton. Hampton was 27, Leiter, however, was 34. Glendon Rusch, Rick Reed and Bobby Jones round out the starting 5. Ages: 25, 35, 30.

The bullpen was anchored by a pair of solid setup men in Crazy Turk Wendell (who thinks we need to teach Ollie how to do the rosen bag thing. And for that matter, get Ollie a shark tooth necklace, STAT!), and John Franco. And we all know who the closer was, I'm not going to lower myself to name him (coughs BLOWNITEZ!).

So there is your 2000 team. Youngest players to make a big contribution? 25 year old Glendon Rusch, and 26 year old Edgardo Alfonzo. 94 wins, WS berth, 4-1 loss to the Yankees, but each game was close, and winnable. Team status: remarkably flawed for a team which won 102 games. Needs? Ace to replace departing Mike Hampton, shortstop to replace Mike Bordick.

On the market: One Alex Rodriguez, arguably, the best player in baseball, coming off a .316/.420/.606 season with 34 2b, 41 HR and 132 RBI. The Mets? Need a shortstop. The Mets? DON'T TALK TO ALEX RODRIGUEZ AT ALL, even after he indicated (I remember because I was incensed we didn't sign him) he would take 10/180 to come play for his favorite team, leaving $72 mil on the table. The Mets? Signed Kevin Appier and Steve Trachsel, two back of the rotation starters, and no shortstop named Alex. On the market for pitching? Mike Mussina, coming off a very good 11-15, 3.79 era season in the horror show that is Camden Yards for pitching. Yeah, Mike was 31, but we could've given him a deal similiar to the one the Yankees did, 6 years and $88.5 mil. Instead, we gave Trachsel and Appier a combined 8 years and 49 mil.

OK, that's done. The past. Conclusion: the 2000 team was heavily flawed. It overachieved tremendously getting to the 2000 World Series, and was losing it's ace to free agency. Hampton made it clear he wasn't resigning with us. Rather then replacing an ace with an ace (Mussina), we replaced him with, at best, two 3 starters. Instead of heading into 2001 with the best player in baseball on our team, we entered 01 with Rey Ordonez. Wonderful. Good job, Wilpon. Way to put the team over the top. Oh, and the coup de gras, the 2000 payroll? $80 mil. The 2006 payroll? $101 mil.

Prior to 2000, what had the Mets done? 1998, 99: Al Leiter, Bobby Bonilla (yippee for that one, idiots), Dennis Cook, the closer who's name doesn't deserve mention (BLOWNITEZ), Roger Cedeno, Robin Ventura, Rickey Henderson, Orel Hershiser, the other pitcher who deserves to not be named (THROW A FUCKING STRIKE, ASSHOLE!). After the 99 season, we lost John Olerud (replaced with Todd Zeile), Orel Hershiser (replaced with Mike Hampton), Roger Cedeno (traded for Hampton), Octavio Dotel (traded for Hampton). But still had a really low payroll, for NY standards.

Now, fast forward to 2006. The Mets make it to Game 7 of the NLCS down 2 pitchers, and are in a position, with OLIVER PEREZ starting, to win the game. The offense goes AWOL. Pitching was not a problem. Ages? Reyes and Wright 23 years old, Lastings Milledge 21, John Maine, Oliver Perez, 25. Much much more youthful then the 2000 team, that's for sure. Aaron Heilman, Duaner Sanchez, 27 and 26.

Past two seasons, what have the Mets done? 2004, 2005: Carlos Beltran, Pedro Martinez, Carlos Delgado, Billy Wagner, Paul Lo Duca, Duaner Sanchez (lost Jae Seo), Orlando Hernandez + John Maine (lost Kris Benson), Oliver Perez + 2 draft picks (lost Xavier Nady).

Point being? The 2000 team was flawed and needed significant upgrades, especially with what we'd lost (Hampton + Olerud). The 2006 team was not flawed, but really unlucky. Unless you want to deplete the farm system (2002, 2003 anyone?) for aces (Yeah, Milledge, Pelfrey and Gomez might land you CZam, and Humber, Heilman, FMart, Guerra might land you Dontrelle, but then where are you?), there wasn't much to do this offseason. Zito at 126 mil? No thanks. Soriano for 138 mil? No thanks.

Farm system: What top prospects did we have coming into 2001?

18. Alex Escobar
63. Pat Strange
64. Brian Cole

Farm system: What top prospects do we have coming into 2007?

Mike Pelfrey
Phillip Humber
Carlos Gomez
Lastings Milledge
Fernando Martinez
Deolis Guerra

6 legit top 100 prospects (Milledge misses out by 16 ABs from offically qualifying).

Bottom line: The 2006 Mets didn't need the total facelift the 2000 team did. So this offseason doesn't compare at all to the 2000 offseason. End of story.

Thanks for hanging with me on this one. It's much longer then my norm, I know.

From the NY Daily News Blog section:

Here's what GM Omar Minaya said today about each:

On Gomez:

What strikes you about him?

"You’re talking about a player that has great physical ability. He’s got speed. He’s got an arm. He’s got youth. He’s aggressive. He plays the game in a style that I like to think the Mets are about – we’re about stealing bases and aggressive baseball."

Do you see him as a leadoff hitter?

"I don’t know. I couldn’t tell you he’s going to be that. Just because he has speed, that doesn’t mean he’s a leadoff hitter. He has power potential, too. He can be so many different things because of his ability. As long as he’s in the lineup, I don’t care where he hits."

On Martinez:

Is the fact he's doing it at 18 more impressive?

"You’re talking about a kid that would be a senior in high school right now. Maybe even a junior. To be able to do what he’s doing – his hitting ability, just how he handles himself as a person, maturity, he’s a special player."

Will he start in Double-A?

"We’ll see how he goes. He’ll try to make the Double-A team. We weren’t afraid to challenge him last year. We won’t be afraid to challenge him this year."

Will he and Gomez mostly play center field in the minors this year, or would you move them to the corners in preparation for their likely role in the majors?

"It doesn’t matter. They might rotate. They might play center field. We did that with Juan Gonzalez and Sammy Sosa. They played center field and then we switched them around."

First 7 Met draft picks

As of right now, the Mets are slotted to pick: 42nd, 47th, 79th, 95th, 101st, 125th and 154th, through the first 4 rounds. Picks 42 and 47 are supplemental first rounders, picks 79 and 95 are second rounders, and picks 101 and 125 are 3rd rounders.

Excellent Burgos article "A New Met Defies Age and Pressure in the Bullpen"

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla., Feb. 18 — Ambiorix Burgos’s transition to the Mets began with a change in hairstyle. Gone is the clean-cut look he fashioned last season in Kansas City, ditched in favor of straggly curls that resemble fireworks exploding from his head.

Reliever Ambiorix Burgos has "a huge, huge amount of untapped potential," the Mets’ pitching coach, Rick Peterson, said.

“It’s a new look for a new team,” Burgos said, with his teammate Juan Padilla serving as interpreter.

It is less outrageous than the reverse Mohawk — bare up the middle, bushy along the sides — he wore for a day in 2005. Even if he tightens up the ’do to conform to Manager Willie Randolph’s dress code, he will still maintain a conspicuous presence in the clubhouse, and that is not a bad thing.

Not much is conventional about Burgos: not his coiffure, not his first name (which is pronounced Am-bee-orix) and certainly not his crackling fastball. When the Royals came calling at the winter meetings for a starting pitcher, General Manager Omar Minaya singled out Burgos as the player he wanted in return and gladly surrendered Brian Bannister. Finding a 22-year-old with experience closing at the major league level happens as often as, well, finding someone named Ambiorix.

“If you put him in the draft, with his natural talent, he’d be a No. 1 pick,” said Rick Peterson, the Mets’ pitching coach. “He has a huge, huge amount of untapped potential, and it’s our responsibility to turn that into performance.”

Aside from Billy Wagner, the Mets do not have many pitchers who can regularly get hitters to swing and miss. Guillermo Mota can with his fastball, and when his changeup is on, so can Aaron Heilman. But Burgos is capable of blowing the ball past batters with staggering frequency, and at 6 feet 3 inches and 235 pounds, he possesses the husky build and overwhelming array of pitches reminiscent of another wildly talented but unpredictable Dominican closer, Armando Benítez. The trick now is to harness that ability.

“You find a lot of relievers who don’t figure it out until they’re 25,” Minaya said. “Burgos saved 18 games last season. That’s all that I needed to see.”

The Royals were so aware of Burgos’s live arm that they rushed him through their system. After spending 2004 in Class A, Burgos was converted to a reliever the following spring training. His ability was better suited for one or two innings than six or seven. He lasted 12 games at Class AA, skipped Class AAA and made his major league debut in April 2005, a few days after his 21st birthday.

“It felt like I spent seven days in Double-A,” Burgos said. “It was kind of surprising.”

That season, he went 3-5 with a 3.98 earned run average in 59 relief appearances and said he adjusted easily to the pressure of pitching in the major leagues. After all, he had pitched in front of more people for Toros del Este, his Dominican winter ball team, than at Kansas City’s Kauffman Stadium.

No team destined for October could afford to turn over the ninth inning to a 21-year-old, but last year an awful Kansas City team had nothing to lose once Mike MacDougal was injured in spring training. As the youngest closer in baseball, Burgos converted 18 of 30 save opportunities, enduring his share of hideous meltdowns and ignominious moments, like the game-winning three-run homer he gave up to Derek Jeter in the Yankees home opener. But he also pitched well at times, converting six consecutive save chances in June and having a 1.42 E.R.A. in July. And, again, have you seen that arm?

According to Minaya, team scouts have clocked Burgos’s fastball at 103 miles an hour, and last season he threw five pitches at 100 or faster, which was fifth among American League pitchers. And yet, the fastball may not even be his best pitch. It certainly is not his favorite one.

That distinction belongs to a diving splitter that, when right, could be as good as John Smoltz’s. The difference is, Smoltz can pretty much throw it wherever he wants at any point in the count. Burgos? Not yet. He loves it so much, though, that he tends to favor throwing it more than his fastball, and that led to trouble last season.

Only two days into camp, Burgos and the Mets know what to expect from each other. Burgos wants to improve his control and tinker with his slider. The Mets want him to gain consistency with his secondary pitches, develop his splitter into a strikeout pitch and work on pitching with the same motion each time.

“Everything else will come after that,” Peterson said. “You’re not trying to win stuffed animals, you’re trying to make quality pitches.”

All in due time, Peterson said. In the meantime, Burgos is finding his way around a new league and a new team. He is friendly with the nonroster pitcher Jorge Vázquez, who is from the same town, Nagua, in the Dominican Republic, and knows Jose Reyes, too. They know Burgos, however, by a different name — a different name for a different sort of pitcher.

“Everyone calls me Ambi,” Burgos said. “My 2-month-old son is Ambiorix. I’m Ambiorix the first.”

Marcos Carvajal scouting report

Carvajal throws a fastball between 93-95 mph, and can dial it up to the 98-100 range. His secondary offerings include a plus change around 84-86, and a slurve in the 78-82 range.

I think he'll open in the AAA bullpen, along with Ambiorix Burgos.

On an aside, I really really would've liked to get Andy Sisco, also formerly of the Royals. And Bazardo ;) I'm all about younger high upside players. Especially ones which other organizations have ruined and are selling at deep discounts.

As per Rotoworld, the Mets claim Marcos Carvajal off waivers...

Carvajal is a bigger loss for the Rays than either of the two prospects the team actually traded for Jae-Kuk Ryu. The 22-year-old had a 3.86 ERA and a 69/39 K/BB ratio in 72 1/3 IP for Double-A Montgomery last season and a 2.19 ERA in 37 innings in Venezuela over the winter. While he hasn't made as much progress as hoped since spending 2005 in the majors with the Rockies as a Rule 5 pick, he still could be a fine short reliever in time. The Mets will have him begin the year in Double- or Triple-A.

-------------------------

Now if only Omar had also gotten us Yorman Bazardo, we'd be extremely happy. As it stands, Carvajal is a younger more viable replacement for Matt Lindstrom, just as Ambiorix Burgos was for Henry Owens.

This is another terrific under the radar move which may come back to pay huge dividends for the Mets.