With the startling news that the Mets were last in the amount paid out in bonuses to draftees in June, its easy to imagine that moving Billy Wagner will be a financial decision. Will it be that they just let waivers expire and the claiming team just take Wagner and his remaining salary and commitments? No talent in return? Another Alex Rios?

If they end up not moving Wagner, it will be a signal that they may want to keep him. Knowing that Wagner will be on the club next year is an early slotting of salary to a total that by all reports will come down significantly.

What did or did not happen with Gary Sheffield is puzzling when compared to Billy Wagner’s situation. On one hand, its clear that a plan to attempt to move Wagner has been in place for some time. The organization has been on the same page all along. Why put Sheffield on waivers at all if you have no idea what plans you have for him? It must be that the Mets do not have a blueprint for the future because of questions about what will be happening with its top people.

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There’s no way anyone could have predicted the Mets were going to have so many injuries. Dumb luck is what I told Joe McDonald last week in an interview. And I still think that way as any club can go through a rash of injuries.

We just saw Gary Sheffield pull up after hitting a ball in the gap. He’s 40 and its a day game after a night game. Plus he was likley to be playing at less than 100% as it was.

The injury to Jon Niese looks the most serious. Anyone could tell that. There’s a chance it could be a Grade 3 tear and that will be it for Niese’s season.

At this point, like most fans, I’d just bite the bullett and start bringing up some of the prospects to see if they can play. Niese will obviously go to the DL. The club cannot have two field players in Luis Castillo and Gary Sheffield on a day-to-day status.

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Was it being called out by damn near everyone that prompted this surge? No matter, they’ve played to their potential and should be commended.

Lets hope Jonathan Niese pitches well enough to stay in the rotation and that the remarkable Ken Takahashi continues to make his strong contribution to the bullpen, as it will be good to have another lefty in the pen.

The line-up and depth are beginning to be a strength as players whom come off the bench are seen as regulars by the other club. Usually two of the quartet of Daniel Murphy, Fernando Tatis, Gary Sheffield and Ryan begin the game on the bench. As they are considered to be 3 thru 6 hitters in an everyday lineup and not just pinch hitters opposing managers have less favorable matchups against their bullpen.

I look forward to more games like today’s where the club uses needs to use two pitchers, instead of its customary 3 or 4 out of the pen on games they win.

Brian Stokes has only allowed one unearned run in 11 outings this season. Along with Takahashi, the duo allows the struggling Sean Green and, when he returns, Oliver Perez to get it together.

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Maybe.

But what did everyone expect? When executives became obsessed with wearing out starters, teams began carrying more pitchers on there staffs. During the late 80′s it wasn’t unusual for staffs to be carrying nine pitchers for periods, with the norm being ten. Then the number became eleven or twelve. And now its not surprising to see teams carrying 13 pitchers on 25 man rosters.

The game has changed subtly in the last 20 years. We’ve seen the complete game become rare. Not only is it not allowed in the minor leagues, guidelines are in place which limit pitch counts early in the season to 75, forcing managers to use more relievers. The policy is carrying over to the major league level as unintentional ceilings are embedded into a starters training early in career. Hence the five inning quality start in the minds of many.

In golf, it might be similar to the conditioning that goes into playing 18 holes. If young golfers were conditioned to go 12 holes, it would be quite a shock to go the extra three holes.

But this seems to be the way that baseball has chosen to go in protecting its best young pitchers with limits. Monetary investments in talent have advanced, and the precaution is understandable.

Nonetheless, for Mets starters 100 pitches are going to have to get more than 15 outs. Better command and more first pitch strikes please. Getting only five innings means the club will have to use 4 relievers, with JJ Putz and Francisco Rodriguez being limited to an inning.

Last night playing a run down, Jerry Manuel opted to attempt to get a run or more by forcing the Marlins to pitch to Gary Sheffield with a runner in scoring position or Jose Reyes with 2 on. It was the smart thing to do at this point in the game and season. It was a vary good time to use the power the Mets had on the bench.

Maine pitched well and only faced 18 hitters in five innings. I’ll take that every time. His pitch count – eighty three was solid as well. With the lead or playing at home, Maine might have stayed for another 4 or 5 outs which would have gotten the club into the 7th. Its the kind of start that they will look for from Livan Hernandez tonight.

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Nick Evans in all fairness made the club in spring training, but in a numbers oriented move the OF/1B was moved down to make room for the signing of Gary Sheffield. The question that remains is what the Mets will do when Livan Hernandez is needed as that fifth starter.

Matt Cerrone speculated today that the club could opt to move Darren O’Day out. I agree that this could be a smart play. The two games this weekend at Citi Field had to change quite a bit.

The new ballpark is big and likely to be bigger than anyone suspected. The gaps are much deeper than anticipated and ball that get to the wall may become triples more often than anyone would have liked. The high walls in the outfield seem to deaded the ball and there’s a difficult well to play in RF. You saw an accomplished major league outfielder in Ryan Church have trouble with it. Marlon Anderson showed that he won’t be very good at home in CF. It makes Jeremy Reed much more valuable that expected. Sheffield and Daniel Murphy could prove to be liablilities in the OF when the Mets play at home.

If Sheffield hits, he’ll stay. And if he does, he might replaced after his 3rd time at-bat by Church or Reed. Hopefully Murphy will be able to hold his own in the OF. If not, the Mets could find themselves with a team that does not match their own home stadium.

The Mets have a fly ball pitching staff and it will be a disaster if they find out they don’t have a fly ball outfield.

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Answer: Maybe

News this morning that the Mets were intrigued with signing Sheffield is welcome news. The Mets have long had an interest in Sheffield since he used to visit his uncle, Dwight Gooden, in the Mets clubhouse. Joe McIlvaine had seen Sheffield play as a youngster and knew that he was exteremely talented.

But Sheffield has not produced at previous career levels either during the past two seasons or during the spring. He’s been used primarily as a DH, playing only 18 games in the OF.

At any rate, the Mets are likely to be looking hard at this and Sheffield is equally as likely to be interested in playing for the Mets.
For a club who already looked pretty good on paper, the addition of a slugger of Sheffield’s status immediately improves the club. He creates competition for playing time and comes at a discount. Sheffield has some options and will probably looking for some garuntees for a future contract.

The Mets would have to cut loose someone to get him. Is this a good idea? The name being thrown out there is Marlon Anderson’s. Anderson also plays the infield and provides depth and 2B. Sheffield actually is better compared to Fernando Tatis, whom had a far better spring and 2008 season than Sheffield.

It will be interesting to see what they do.

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Apparently this is underway. There’s indications that it will revolve around Ramirez’ refusals to play. This is not new tactic by an unhappy ypawberrlayer. Think Gary Sheffield and Darryl Strawberry.

So what does Selig propose to do about it? Are MLB to start punishing players who conduct themselves this way when they are under garunteed contracts. We’ll see.

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