11-16-12 – RA Dickey, Brant Rustich, Outfield, No-Trade Clause

-Congrats to RA Dickey, who may not be a Met by the end of the week. None of these rumors go away until new contracts are signed or trades are made. There will never be a bigger day for Dickey. I hope he enjoys it.

The Met community continues to speculate whether or not Dickey will now be traded. I’ve gone back and forth on this one and changed my opinion over and over.

I deal with the future Mets. Other sites write about the parent team. My job gets a lot easier if the players in Queens are more talented than they have been in the past.

The simple fact here is that the organization needs outfielders and a catcher, and, they are pitcher rich. You can write all day about every player at every level playing in the outfield right now, but not one of them currently project as an all-star level outfielder. Sorry folks, that’s the truth.

There are two kinds of players that make for great deals. One, like Matt Harvey and Zack Wheeler, are high ceiling prospects. The other, like David Wright and RA Dickey, are stars off of top seasons.

My hopes are that the future Mets dominate on the mound so it is in my best interest for Dickey to remain. The job of getting to the playoffs gets a lot easier if a guy like this can give you 15+ wins over the next 3-4 years.   I simply want five top pitchers in the rotation, followed by five more banging on the door. All that creates is other teams calling you up trying to get you to trade some of these guys to them.

Can you imagine how many times the Toronto GM’s phone is ringing every day now that he has three legitimate catchers on his 25-man?

This is how it works. What happens when Zack Wheeler is ready and Dillon Gee is holding down the SP5 with a below 4 ERA? And what if Darin Gorski goes lights out in Vegas, Collin McHugh duplicates his 2012 season in AAA and Rafael Montero wins his first 10 games for Binghamton?

But, here’s the rub.

You have to score runs too.

A 1-5 lineup of Tejada-Murphy-Wright-Davis-Duda just isn’t enough to make the playoffs. I don’t care how well your rotation pitches… this lineup is not going to produce enough wins against the rest of the National League… except maybe the Florida Blue Jays.

I’m asked pretty often to speculate should be on this team and, frankly, that’s a waste of time. I have no idea who wants to trade who. I do know that the most important thing is they find themselves a very talented center fielder to build the rest of the outfield around.

They are out there. And, you can get them for either of two kinds of great players that make for a great deal; however, the Mets are not going to trade either Harvey or Wheeler. This leaves Dickey and his $5mil 2013 salary.

The Mets can survive without Dickey in 2013, but they will never compete for a playoff spot without an improved outfield. You still have Santana, Niese, Harvey, and Gee, and either McHugh or Jeremy Hefner can hold down the fort until Wheeler is promoted.

It’s the Mets call and it’s not worth my time to speculate about it any further than this until something is executed.

-I’m very excited to announce that ex-New York Met pitcher, Brant Rustich, has joined Mack’s Mets as a writer. Brant was a 2^nd round draft pick (2007) out of UCLA and spent four years in the organization (7-6, 3.00, 1.18). Sadly, due to genetic pain in his throwing hand, he had to retire prematurely. Now, he lives back in California and he raises snakes, but we’ll let him explain that one. Please welcome a great pitcher back! 

-Bob Nightengale‏ - @BNightengale -  Agents say they would never consider sending franchise player to the Marlins again without a no-trade clause http://usat.ly/T3oWn1  …

           - this is a natural reaction to what has happened in Miami. This guy is never going to be able to get away with this again because he simply isn’t going to get any superstars to sign a long term contract without a no-trade clause. Baseball really needs to get rid of owners like this, but the agents have the control right now. Turn them into a dead last team averaging less than 10K attendance a night, and this guy will sell.

                                      Hot Stove

LAA signs OF J.B. Shuck – 2012-AAA: .298, .726-OPS

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