Metstradamus, Landon Powell, Ike Davis, Daniel Murphy

3B Nick Giarraputo signs with the Chicago White Sox.

John Coppinger has always been one of my favorite Mets writers. He’s been around since the beginning of blogdom and I consider him a real time writer, not just some loudmouth with a laptop. Here’s an example of what he posted today http://www.metstradamusblog.com/2013-articles/january/who-s-source-out-source.html:

Why the hell didn't I figure this out before? The Mets are going to outsource right field so that Andrew Brown can watch cat videos on youtube! All this while some guy from an eastern hemisphere company will come in, hit .340, and nobody will notice because ... well hell, the media has shown that they can't figure out that a fake dead girlfriend doesn't really exist. It'll take at least until August to figure out that Mike Baxter is platooning with some guy making $50,000, who will get impeccable performance reviews from every mid-season report card column and blog in the land!

Make sure you read this guy once a week. He doesn’t post as often as most of us and he sure as hell isn’t trying to make any money doing this shit. He’s just a good person, a great writer, and worth every minute spent with him.

I saw that the Mets added AAAA catcher Landon Powell to their minor league camp. I can only guess, but it seems to me that they have conceded that Travis d’Arnaud will begin the 2013 season in Las Vegas. This would leave John Buck and Anthony Recker to hold the fort down in Queens until d’Arnaud is ready. That being, d’Arnaud would overnight become the starter in Las Vegas and the Mets must feel there would be no reason to promote a read Juan Centeno to a team he would not have a chance to play for. I still find as additional catcher a stretch, since there are also two other catchers (Blake Forsythe and Kai Gronauer) that could easily play a backup role in Vegas.

Either way, the two guys you want to play every day… somewhere… is d’Arnaud and Centeno. This is your potential superstar and potential trade bait. A great team has depth at most of their position and can do what the Nats are doing right now when they pull off a three-team deal for the return of A.J. Cole. The Mets will never solve their lack of a decent outfield until they have too many great players at another position. That’s how you balance off your talent and get to the playoffs.

The arbitration numbers came out on 1B Ike Davis. Davis filed $3.7mil while the Mets countered with $2.825. What’s with the “25”? You couldn’t round that off to $2.9? I can’t think of a better time to work out a 3-5 year deal with Davis a la Jon Niese. That is, if Davis would fall for it. You build great teams by contracting the nucleus of your core players. The problem with the Mets is the fact that they don’t have that many great players and, the ones they do have, are just beginning the arbitration process. Bobby Parnell has already signed a one year deal, and Daniel Murphy is filing with Davis. Next up, a year from now, are Dillon Gee, Ruben Tejada, Justin Turner, and Mike Baxter. As I said, this might be a good time to reevaluate at least the long term plans for Tejada.

Arbitration figures also came out for Daniel Murphy. He wants $3.4mil while the Mets countered with $2.55. I basically have no problems with Murphy playing second because I think that are bigger fish to fry over the next couple of years. I also think the Mets organization is deep right now in potential middle infielders To start with, recent draft picks Phillip Evans and Gavin Cecchini will both ETA around 2015 and there’s a good chance at least one of them has the chance of moving over to second. In addition, Latin hotshot Ahmed Rosario will be right behind them, probably at short. (I’m doing my everything I can to not bring up the name of Reese Havens). And lastly, Ruben Tejada may actually play a better second than short. The point I’m trying to make is, other than SPs, the one area in this organization that has depth is the middle infield. If there’s a better version of a Daniel Murphy out there, it just might already be wearing a Mets uniform.