Saturday, January 5, 2008

Spiritual Awakening?

IMAGE: PLANET EXPRESS FROM FLICKR

So I was watching some Hockey highlights on FSN late night/early morning (Go Isles, BTW), and I noticed in passing the words "Mets Acquire" on the bottom line. I said nothing, but my jaw tightened up and my heart started racing ever so slightly as I grabbed the MacBook to go searching. Alas, this sudden acquisition was merely Angel Pagan, former Met farmhand (and maiden voyage Brooklyn Cyclone) and a .264 hitter in 148 AB's last season in ChiTown. He is , in essence, a poor man's Endy Chavez at this point, with perhaps the potential to develop into a regular man's Endy Chavez sans Game 7 heroics.

Upon reading about the deal, I called one of my more involved Met fan friends, who I knew was out at a bar and therefore not in range of media, and told him simply, "we got him." His reaction really made me feel bad, I mean deeply, deeply sorry, as his slight drunkenness allowed him to take the full leap into momentarily believing that my statement meant that either Johan Santana was a Met, or that my wife, now less than a week short of her due date, had given birth to our first child. But it was only Angel Pagan.

I'm starting to believe that Santana will be dealt the moment my kid is born. Not to put the two events on the same level in the grand scheme of my life, but both sagas at this point have left me with the same mantra: Come on!

Yes, we have purchased a Mets baby cap and onesie.

The fallout of this Pagan deal is potentially big and potentially negligible.
A) Omar wanted to add another 4th/5th OF type in case of the outfield injury bug that liked to hit if 2/3 of your outfield is Beltran and Alou. The deal is for depth, plain and simple.
B) Omar is going to deal Gomez and/or F-Mart and/or Endy for Johan or another top-flite SP, and has acquired Pagan to fill in the spot(s) left empty by such a deal.
C) The Twins have an irrational love for Angel Pagan.

Of those three options, C is clearly not the case, but I hope B is.

At this point, I just want to get Johan. Period. Only two situations, to me, justify not doing it. The first one being if the Yankees break completely and include everything the Twins want, and the second one being if the Red Sox do the same. In either case, there's really no offer the Mets could make to match, but any other way you spin it, they should get a deal done. Give 'em any of the studs, honestly I don't care. Here's the recipe:
Add of 2-3 of the following: Gomez, F-Mart, Pelf, Humber, Mulvey, Heilman
Add one "ML ready Outfielder" (a twins need): Endy Chavez
Add one ML 2B (something the twins lack): Ruben Gotay
Call Bill Smith
Let deal bake for 7 years/150 mil

If this happens, the Mets add the ace of all aces, hold on to every major player on this team, and have either in-house or FA options to replace minor pegs that have been lost. Just do it. Put it in the books.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thats a cruel joke

and all this talk about the mets dealing both Gomez and F-mart I dunno

I really like F-mart I hope we get Johan AND get to keep F-mart

-The Kid

Anonymous said...

For some reason, Metsblog won't let me post anymore, but I just wanted to say that Johan is a form of John, not James.

So it doesn't quite fit.

Congrats on the kid!