10-30-12 – Sandy In Vegas, The ‘War Room’, Renewing Contracts, FA Eligible Mets, Miquel Olivo

Sandy Alderson, Fred Wilpon, and Terry Collins travelled to Las Vegas for a press conference with the local Vegas press. Not a bad place to be when there is a hurricane at home. All the sound bites were the usual blah, blah… everybody loves everybody… until Zack Wheeler gives up three home runs in the first inning.

The return of ‘The War Room’ got off to a good start. My hopes is this will become an all-day thread discussion about the question being asked, in particular, and the Mets, in general. 11 comments isn’t bad for a site that was shut down a few weeks ago. If you have any suggestions as to questions that should be asked, send them to: macksmets@gmail.com.

The deadlines for renewing David Wright and RA Dickey’s contracts are this week. Wright’s is a $16mil option by tomorrow and Dickey’s is a $5mil option on Friday. These will happen regardless of any long term deal signed with either players. The amounts are already locked into the budget and any new deals would involve monies for the year 2014 and beyond. You will all have both of these back for 2013 but that’s all anyone can promise right now.

New York Mets players that become FA eligible to bid on beginning at 12:01am, Saturday – Tim Byrdak (1mil), Ronny Cedeno ($1.15mil), Scott Hairston $1.1mil), Ramon Ramirez ($2.65mil), Jon Rauch ($3.5mil), Kelly Shoppach ($1.35mil), Chris Young ($1mil)… this represents a potential $11.75mil per year more available in 2014 while still keeping your payroll budget “around $100mil…)...

projected arbtration numbers for eligible Mets:
Mike Pelfrey $5.7mil... Andres Torres $3.2mil... Daniel Murphy $3mil... Ike Davis $2.8mil... Bobby Parnell $1.5mil... Josh Thole $1.2mil... Manny Acosta $1.1mil

AFL results... CF Darrell Ceciliani was moved to leadoff and went 2-4, 2-R, 2-RBI, raising his AFL BA to .231. Cesar Puello DH'd (1-2, 1-R, .250), P Chase Huchington (1.0-IP, 0-R, 10.13) got his first hold, and P Greg Peavey continues to impress as a reliever (1.0-IP, 0-R, 1.13)

Another slow Mets day. Reports are that they have turned their backs on resigning catcher Kelly Shoppach, and have turned their attention to Miquel Olivo. Olivo had a horrible 2012 for Seattle (.222/.239/.381), but he did have 31 home runs platooning over two seasons. He is third in the league in producing the most home runs as a catcher since 2006 (Brian McCann, Mike Napoli). Lastly, he would be a huge defensive upgrade defensively to Shoppach. He’s a lifetime .241 hitter (11-seasons) so this is what you get if you sign him.