Minaya and his lieutenants circled pitchers such as Doug Davis and Jon Garland, and believed Joel Pineiro actually had graduated into being a quality starter. Now say on that Nov. 1 date we would have made educated guesses on what each of those four players would receive in free agency. I bet even if we were conservative, we would have predicted more than one year at $4.5 million for Molina, one year at $5.25 million for Davis, one year at $5.3 million for Garland, and two years at $16 million for Pineiro. - : link
Jon Heyman of SI.com says 34 year old LHP Hisanori Takahashi could decide among the Mets, Dodgers, Red Sox, Giants, Pirates and Padres soon.Last month, Jerry Crasnick of ESPN.com said Takahashi could be viewed as an alternative to Jarrod Washburn or Noah Lowry. …i would envision Takahashi as a possible bullpen arm with any team he signs with…he supposedly has a good screwball which, if it’s true, would be beneficial against the big lefties in the Phillies lineup…he also could compliment Pedro Feliciano as a second lefty out of the bullpen…Last year, Takahashi appeared in 25 games for the Yomiuri Giants and in 144 innings he went 10-6 with a 2.94 ERA with 126 strikeouts.- link
Now we get to the negative side of Castillo. Defense. His defense has taken a nose dive in recent years, unfortunately coinciding with when he became a New York Met. The stats will not illustrate this point at all, as his fielding percentage was quite good. I am also not talking about that Yankee game disaster either. He was torched enough for that by everyone that there is no need to expand on the topic any further. It is in the range that he displays, whether it be to his left or his right that is most troubling. He has clearly lost a significant first step when breaking on a ground ball. This is a man who was once one of the best defenders in the league for many years. We all know it as Met fans, seeing him on the Florida Marlins for ten years. He seemed to rob us on a nightly basis back then. He is no longer that player, nor is he close. What he is now is an average defender who will be portrayed as well beneath that level by Met fans for that Yankee game gaffe. - link
So, let me get this straight. The Mets need starting pitching, and could have had Erik Bedard on a one-year deal for a base salary of $1.5 million plus incentives. Granted, Bedard is an injury risk and may be more comfortable in Seattle than he would have been in New York. And who knows what conversations Omar Minaya had with Bedard’s agent, but it’s hard to understand why the Mets would not have at least had a couple of talks over the phone about Bedard’s availability. - link
Escogido had homeruns from Fernando Martinez, Juan Francisco and Kevin Barker to trounce Hermosillo 7-2 and knock them out of the playoffs. For Martinez and Barker it was the second homerun each in the Series. Juan Francisco finished the game with three RBIs. Heath Phillips pitched seven strong innings to get the win, giving up only three hits and striking out seven. Luis Garcia, who for the second year in a row led the Mexican winter league in homeruns, went deep for the first time for Mexico in the first inning to give them a 2-0 lead. Phillips was able to shut down Mexico for the next six innings to allow the Dominican Republic to batter Walter Silva for six runs on eight hits in four plus innings. Joel Peralta continues to have an awesome winter with an inning of scoreless work.
In the second game, Puerto Rico avenged their loss to Venezuela with a 7-1 trouncing. The host team Venezuela’s only victory of the series so far has been the win over Puerto Rico. Thier last two games were 3-2 losses to the Dominican Republic and Mexico, knocking them out of the playoffs in front of the home town crowd. Danny Valencia and Jesus Feliciano each hit solo homeruns in the fifth inning to put Puerto Rico over the top. Efrain Nieves and Juan Padilla (from Puerto Rico) pitched five innings of shutout relief to give Puerto Rico the victory - link
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