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11.17.2006

Screw you, Tom Glavine!

Even though I began to see him more and more as a Met and less and less as a Tomahawk Chopper over the past two years, Ken Rosenthal's recent column (at FoxSports.com) has caused me to change my mind a little about the venerable lefty.

I'm sick of his crap, his shtick, his whatever he's doing. It's unacceptable. Does it remind you of another lefty in the winter of 2004? He needed a bit too much time to think about whether or not he wanted to be a Met. And now, with Al Leiter throwing cutters in the Yankees broadcast booth, Tom Glavine is repeating the same old thing.

And maybe, it's a little bit different than Leiter. Leiter harangued Omar Minaya, on some level because he figured that his friendship with the Wilpons would give him precedence in decision-making over the new GM. Maybe it did with the Scott Kazmir trade, but Leiter's act was done the moment Minaya showed up in town.

Even though Leiter probably told Carlos Delgado not to play for the Mets, over a short span of two years Delgado mashed nearly 40 home runs wearing the orange and blue. Leiter, as I mentioned beforehand, is wearing a suit, taking in Michael Kay's spit rather than the aroma of a ballfield.

This brings me back to Glavine, who is using this whole "I have to hear what my family says" as a negotiation ploy. It's actually fairly simple. Glavine is hellbent on having the matter unresolved by the time the Mets have to choose whether or not to exercise their 1 year, $14MM ($16 MM if he's an All-Star) option on Glavine. And you know why that is, right?

If Glavine leverages the Mets into making a panic move, which he is trying to do with his shtick now, he will be able to extract far more money from that option than he will be able to on the open market. If he returns to Atlanta, which may actually be where he wants to pitch, Glavine's not going to get much more than 8 million for this year- if he's lucky.

Does anyone honestly believe that Glavine isn't trying to trick the Mets into exercising that option? I'm not saying such action is uncommon in the market place, but it is foolish to pass it off as Glavine being an earnest family man. The idea for him is to just load our heads with the idea that he's going to the Braves- so much so that we delude ourselves into keeping him at an unreasonable price.

This matter will become far more odd once Tuesday's option deadline passes and Glavine becomes a free agent. Ladies and gentlemen, we apparently brought this on ourselves.

So, who gives a crap? Let Glavine walk. Omar and Co. are in no mood to be extorted, and, accordingly, Glavine cannot behave like he is presently.

We'll keep ya posted...

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11.15.2006

Transaction Reactions: November 14-15


So the Mets today acquired "Not That" Ben Johnson and Jon Adkins in exchange for two relievers, both who were the source of many useful vile puns.

I'm a little surprised by this move, to say the least, given that Minaya went looking for an outfielder who's very much Lastings Milledge-lite. The case for Johnson is made about his athleticism, and it's probably better doing that than waxing poetic about his .236/.324/.441 career line, spanning parts of the last two seasons with the Padres.

Johnson's track record, even as a hitter, though, is far from mediocre. In 472 AAA PA in 2005, Johnson mashed 25 HR. The case against him is mostly that he really hasn't shown that power in the big leagues, despite having parts of two seasons to show off his ability in San Diego.

And yes, he has come a long way since his time as a Canadian sprinter testing positive for stanazolol during the 1988 Summer Olympics. Glad I got that one out of the way.

I'm inclined to think that Johnson, despite his offensive transgressions, was probably the big piece of this deal, as opposed to Adkins, who was marginal this season for San Diego, but is considerably older than Johnson.

Adkins (who has that athletic look to him, no?) has pitched a bit for the White Sox, including a season in 2004 where he served up a whopping 13 HR in 62 innings of work, which translates to 1.88 HR/9, a number even worse than Steve Trachsel's rate this season.

Nevertheless, Adkins had something resembling a full season of work this year, and pitched okay. He did allow more than a hit per inning and his walk to strikeout rate (20:30) was Trachselesque. Adkins' WHIP, though, was a somewhat promising 1.38, which shows a stark improvement from his 2004 and 2005.

Bell and Ring aren't huge losses. Both of them had showed potential, and although the luster had somewhat faded from Heath Bell's star, I would have liked for Ring to be a part of the '07 pen. The breakout season of Pedro Feliciano, though, made Ring #2 on the team's LOOGY depth-chart.

It's also worth noting that both Bell and Ring are from the Southern California area, with the latter living in La Mesa.

On the whole, I'm not sure what to think of this trade. It conjures up memories of the Seo/Hammer for Sanchez/Schmoll trade, except that Minaya is dealing players of qualities less known than those of Seo and acquiring those with lower ceilings than Sanchez.

The biggest question, though, is about what this trade means for the Mets' outfield. Johnson is a right-handed bat who has traditionally played his best while in right field. Accordingly, there's a good chance that Minaya is using this move to try and build an elaborate OF platoon situation for 2007. A Chavez/Milledge platoon in LF and Green/Johnson platoon in RF seems very feasible come opening night in the STL.

I regrettably do have to confide in you guys, though, that I'm not terribly in favor of this move. Bell and Ring are expendable, sure, but Adkins will not break camp with the big club and Johnson won't do more than be an upgrade over Ricky Ledee/Eli Marrero.

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Other moves:

-The Mets re-signed RHSP Orlando "Hell Duckie" (maybe my Spanish is off there) Hernandez, for 2 years and $12MM.

It's difficult to remember whether or not I like this move. On one hand, El Duque was the Mets' most consistent starter down the stretch in 2006, but on another note, he is probably a card carrying member of the CAARP (that's Cuban AARP), which you enter into by your 93rd birthday.

In all seriousness, he is very old and has not logged many innings since the late 90s with the Yankees. I can't say that I see this move working out well for the Metropolitans. However, $12MM over two years is probably cheaper than getting Daisuke Matsuzaka to throw out the first pitch at a charity softball game.

-The Mets claimed RHRP Jason Standridge off waivers from the Reds.
I have really no reason to object to this move, so I won't. Risk-free, but don't expect Standridge to finally live up to his first-round pick status as a Met. If you want to get some history, though, on this former quarterback, check out this article on Adam Rubin's blog.

-The Red Sox paid $51.1 million to have lunch with Scott Boras in vain hopes of setting up a sushi stand at Fenway Park.

This move really doesn't make any sense to me, but I will pat myself on the back for saying that the Matsuzaka bid would be won by the Red Sox when the rest of the world said he would be a Ranger or a Yankee. Ignore the fact that I said it would be $12 million. I just don't understand- the Red Sox pack Fenway every night and already have the second-best worldwide brand awareness, behind some team in the Bronx. Stupid.

-The Cubs signed everyone who has ever played the game of baseball before.

Maybe it was actually just UTIL Mark DeRosa (for 3 years, $13MM) and C Henry Blanco (for 2 years), but I thought I might see some other action in the market.

-The Yankees re-signed RHSP Mike Mussina.

Oh, well.

-The Devil Rays won the posting bid for 3B Akinori Iwamura.

Iwamura suddenly requested to be trampled by Godzilla.

-And somebody who will spend next season in the Yankees' broadcast booth won Manager of the Year.

Excuse me while I vomit. Wait, so it wasn't Michael Kay?
I don't understand how Girardi won it, given the fact that he was undoubtedly handed a very talented but untested team and won about half of his games. I could do that. Watch me.

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How about the Rangers last night? Marcy Hossa, you made my day. Henrik's also really coming around, which should be music to the ears of every Ranger fan.

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A little note on the future of this blog:
-I'm going to work on redesigning the layout over Thanksgiving weekend, but I will be at my keyboard with whatever goes on regarding the Mets, Jets or Rangers.

Thanks much for your continued patronage.

Crosstown Rivals is sponsored by JustGreatTickets.com, your home for Chicago White Sox Tickets.

11.13.2006

Some News

Well, that was an interesting weekend.

-The New York Jetropolitans defeated the New England Expatriates this weekend, pushing the Jetsies to one game behind the Pats in the AFC East, while snapping their streak of 60 games without consecutive losses.

-According to multiple papers, we will not be Stache-less this year, and possibly in 2008, as Jose Valentin has closed on a one-year deal with a vesting option. This should put a stop to whatever rumors circulate around this position, as Julio Lugo, Adam Kennedy, Alfonso Soriano, and Mark Loretta will inevitably staying away from Flushing.

-CitiField? Eh. I think the best part of this story is that our sister blog Hot Foot broke the news about the stadium simply by having ties on the construction site. It makes you wonder what the function of the Mass Media is.

-Mets 3B Coach Manny Acta will be introduced on Tuesday as the new manager of the Washington Nationals. On the whole, it's pretty funny that the Expos franchise dumped him after their 2004 season, and now, after a face-lift, they want him back.

-The Cubs re-signed the best free agent on the market, giving 5 years and $73MM to their star third baseman Aramis Ramirez. They also picked up two perennial intriguing options by re-upping righties Wade Miller and Kerry Wood to incentive-laden contracts.

-The Yankees were wheeling and dealing, pulling off a Sheff-to-the-Tigers deal, landing them talented (but elbow injury prone) righty pitching prospect Humberto Sanchez, and then nabbing righty reliever Chris Britton while dumping Jaret Wright's contract and some of the money attached with it on the Orioles.

-Finally, the baseball winter meetings are set to occur this week, with a lot of intriguing options on the trade market. Lastings Milledge's name will be mentioned in about 400 trade rumors, so pay close attention. I'll be here to break it down for you.

-And, hopefully, we will find out whether Buster Olney's made-up reporting (covered well recently by Mike's Mets) is at all close to the truth. Maybe, just maybe, Daisuke will be signed before I next write you.

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