Noble On Kazmir

Marty Noble at Mets.com answers a question about the Mets looking into acquiring Scott Kazmir from the Rays:

Why not trade for Scott Kazmir? He would be a low-budget improvement to the rotation without giving up all of the future. -- Joe F., Apalachin, N.Y.

Why would a team want to trade a proven ace of its staff? It's not like Omar Minaya could just give the Rays a shout and say, "We're ready to take Kazmir off your hands because you want to help us."

I'm certain you'd be surprised how few clubs are in a hurry to help the Mets make a big trade. Kazmir would be a nice acquisition. But it's highly unlikely the Mets could deal for another club's primary starting pitcher without creating a void on their roster -- even if that club wanted to deal.

Will The Milledge Trade Come Back to Haunt Us?

The first post at my brand new blog: www.metsbullpen.com which is going to be a Shea Nation Network blog.

When Omar Minaya came to the New York Mets, I wiped the sweat off my forehead, and told myself: thank god, hopefully we will never have the Scott Kazmir trade anymore. Well, I might have gone too far ahead of myself. Omar Minaya may have just made a mistake that will come back to haunt the New York Mets.

When I first saw that Lastings Milledge, who was one of the top prospects in baseball last year, was traded to the Washington Nationals, for 2 mediocre players, two players popped up in my head: Scott Kazmir and Victor Zambrano. Obviously, this was not a good sign, as many Mets fans have feared that the already 1 time all-star, Scott Kazmir, who was traded to the Devil Rays a few gloomy years ago, may be a curse to the Mets in the future.

The trade was wrong. Getting Brian Schneider and Ryan Chuch in exchange for arguably the most exciting prospect the Mets have had since Scott Kazmir, was just idiotic. Why? Well, we had 2 catchers already, 2 that I was very pleased with. Milledge was set to start in right field most likely to begin the 2008 season, so replacing him with Church really gave absolutely no improvement to the team. So why in the world would Omar make this move?

Hopefully, this trade is setting up for a new one. Why do I think this? I don’t think Omar is this idiotic. Yes, he has made some stupid moves in the past year, trading Bannister to the Royals, trading Matt Lindstrom and Henry Owens to the Marlins, but, those trades did not seem absolutely pathetic at the time. This trade does. Which brings me to believe teams were more interested in Ryan Church than Lastings Milledge, which may make sense, as some teams would not like to take in a player with such an attitude and strange and controversial background as Milledge.

My second conclusion to this trade is that Minaya wanted to dump Milledge, because of what I said above- his attitude, and all the controversial things he has already brought to the Mets in his very young career. Personally, even though he had a bad attitude, I really had no problem with it, because, to me, all that matters is how the player performs. However, a GM such as Minaya, who I see as a very tough guy, who doesn’t take any bull, may not want the future of the Mets to be a bunch of thugs like Lastings Milledge. I can see why he would do that, but I still don’t agree with it.

So, yes, in my opinion, Lastings Milledge will be a very special player some day, as I saw during the 2007 season, and this trade will come back to haunt the Mets. Lastings Milledge is a special player. And I really looked forward to him playing for the Mets. But what is done is done, and hopefully this will not come back to haunt the Mets.

Rays To Test Market For Kazmir

Joel Sherman at The New York Post writes about the Devil Rays and howthey intend to test the Market for Scott Kazmir:

The trade market opens in earnest today with the start of the annual GM Meetings. Already, executives are talking about the potential for stars as big as Minnesota ace Johan Santana and Florida slugger Miguel Cabrera becoming available.

But it might just start there. An executive familiar with Tampa's thinking said if the offers for Santana grow to a substantial level, then the Rays would test to see what they could get for Scott Kazmir.