Bill Madden On The Mets.

[nyboricua021]

Benson for Jorge Julio and John Maine-

"From strictly a baseball standpoint, this doesn't look like a good deal for the Mets, even if it does rid them of a public relations nightmare in Anna Benson and save them about $5 million."

"For it to be a good deal too many things have to go right: (1) Julio has to shed his image as a head-case with explosive but straight stuff, and become a dependable No. 1 setup man (or at least as dependable as Aaron Heilman was last year); (2) Heilman has to become a consistently effective starter; and (3) the starting rotation needs to stay healthy."

"While it would be hard to argue Minaya hasn't improved the Mets significantly this winter with the free agent signing of Billy Wagner and the acquisitions of Carlos Delgado and Paul LoDuca for far-away prospects, his overall trading record is dubious. As in the Benson deal, it seems Minaya could have gotten bigger returns for Jae Seo and Mike Cameron."

"As for the 29-year-old Seo, his 8-2, 2.59 record and 3-1 strikeouts-to-walks ratio gave evidence of a starting pitcher about to really bloom. And again, Minaya must hope Duaner Sanchez, the setup man he got in return, turns in consistent seventh and eighth inning shut-the-door relief."

I believe Minaya has taken some risks with the acquisitions of Jorge Julio and Sanchez. If these players do not step up to their roles and struggle, Minaya will be bombed shelled throughout New York.

http://s13.invisionfree.com/Amazin_Mets

[kramer_47]

Bill Madden is the best sportswriter in New York city, I look forward to his Sunday column, and he tells it like it is. Last year the Yankees thought they had 6-7 starters and look what happened to them because of injury. We were in the same boat until the genius traded away 20-25 wins in Seo and Benson to get back 4 suspects for our already overloaded bullpen. These 2 trades don't make sense just like the Mike Cameron trade didn't make sense. I would feel a whole lot more confident if these 3 trades weren't made, now we have a team that can hit and we need them with our suspect pitching staff. A few other moves that Omar made that he didn't need to make was letting 32 year old Marlon Anderson go because he wanted 2 years at 1.1 million a year, he had a very good year for us last year, then he signs Julio Franco 48years old who can play only one position for the same money. He then brings in Valentin who is on a downhill slide for 5 years and strikes out every 3-4 at bats and consistantly hits for a very low average to be our other utility guy. Lets hope that Beltran can be what we thought he would be when we signed him, the numbers he put up last year were very below average, I just hope he can play in NYC. The owners are spending the money on free agents but the general manager can ruin a team through bad trades, just look at the Dodgers, and Omar likes to trade. I hope these trades and new signees aren't as bad as they look right now.