CC's been great but has  had rough Aprils                .but JJ Putz was an absolute steal Photo by AP                                                                      Photo by AP

Wow! Bang!  In comes K-Rod

Whoosh!  In comes J.J. Putz, out goes Heilman.

<>Sitting here listening to Darryl Strawberry talking on the FAN with Francesa about his years with the ’86 World Champions New York Mets, and still basking in the knowledge that we’ll have some real relievers next year, what could be better? 

Uh-oh, now he’s re-living his Yankees Days.  Geez, even that’s OK now.  Now that Omar and the Mets have done such a sterling job of operationalizing their priorities.  The Yanks pay 61 mill for C.C and we get K-Rod for beans, relatively speaking, of course.

<>Then we get JJ Putz from Seattle, one of the premier relievers in the league for at least a few years now for Aaron Heilman and Endy Chavez.  Some minor league players were also involved, but the crux of the deal is Putz for Chavez, Heilman and Joe Smith, who actually will wind up with the Indians.  A lefthanded pitcher named Jason Vargas, who was hurt for all of last year, was also included in the deal. 

The Mets also get a pretty fair right-handed middle-inning reliever named Sean Green, who may be better than anyone the Mets now have in that role.  A utility outfielder named Jeremy Reed completes the 12-player mass juggle.  The Mets are probably ten to 15 games better than they were last year, and that may be conservative if everyone stays healthy.

<>I don’t like some aspects of the huge trade, such as letting Joe Smith go.  He was a tough pitcher in certain spots last year, and you had an overall good feeling about him.  Sure, he may have messed up some, they all did, but not in the spots that Heilman did.  Oh God, don’t make me re-live that all over again! 

I understand they’ll be talking to Pedro again.  While I don’t think they’ll work anything out with Mr. Martinez, I do relish the thought, just for fun rather than effectiveness necessarily. 

<>And I hope they’ll get the crazy left-hander back too, Oliver Perez.  If they can retain him for less than they can get for a free agent starter of the same quality, why not keep him?  He’s at his best in big games, and more than ever, it looks as if the Mets may have some of those in 2009. 

Just accomplishing this much would yield a starting rotation of Johan Santana, Oliver Perez, John Maine, Mike Pelfrey and Pedro Martinez.  Another lefthander with possibilities named Jonathon Niese makes for a pretty fair rotation.  Compare it to that of the World Champ Phillies.

<>Maine and Pelfrey should be better than last year.  So should Pedro, for that matter.  If Santana can hold his form, what a year it could be.  I’m sure crazy Ollie would provide some unwanted adventure, and Pedro usually provides just five or six good innings at this stage of his career, but three of five starters would be pretty consistent, providing mostly routine quality starts. 

So there’d be quite a few instances of a need for good relief pitching with that rotation.  But now the Mets have it.  If they can just get to the eighth inning, they now have the best finishing tandem in either league,  JJ Putz in the eighth and Francisco Rodriguez in the ninth.

<>With a finishing tandem such as that, the Mets really don’t need to do more in the pitching area than to just keep Perez and Pedro.  They’d keep some of that crazy chemistry too.  The lineup they have is strong enough to score runs, and that’s just by keeping the other Reyes (Argenis) at 2^nd base and the Murphy/Evans combo in left field. 

Keeping Damien Easley would be fine, and Fernando Tatis was no slouch either last year.  Otherwise, I’d be happy with Reyes, Wright, Beltran, Delgado, Church, Murphy or Evans and Schneider/Castro.

<>The Yanks are talking with a lot of guys.  They need a lot of guys.  And maybe they’ll watch Teixeira go to Boston.  Oh man!  How good does it get?  Imagine the joy of watching Teixeira hit 30 and 100 and lead the Sawx to one more title.  Meanwhile, we Mets fans got what we needed all year. 

The Yankees are figuring, I guess, they can throw just anybody into the first base position. Giambi, Damon, whatever…and I suppose they’re not that crazy about Bobby Abreu, which is hard to believe really, given that he hits .300 every year. 

<>If I were a Yankee fan, I’d be worried big-time.  Sabathia has always been one of my favorite fantasy-league pitchers and he’s been great, but he tends to start the season slowly and that just won’t do in the big town.  He’ll be vilified on the rags’ back pages at least a few times before the beginning of June.  How will that affect an easy-going guy? 

Does trading Mike Cameron for Melky Cabrera really accomplish that much?  For all anyone knows, Melky could come back from his down season, and he was never bad in that centerfield spot.  It was his lack of presence in the lineup that was frustrating.  Cameron has more power but he strikes out……a lot.

<>Maybe they’ll have some bulletins during the football game tonight letting us know what other moves the Yanks may be making.  God knows they still need some pitching.  C.C. may be able to pitch with three days rest but not even the big guy can pitch every day.  

The Yanks too are allegedly bidding against the Phils for Derek Lowe.  That would be just fine for Mets fans, robbing the Phillies of still another weapon that would soon turn on our boys in blue.  Go get ‘em, Cash….

Anything can happen in baseball, of course.  As Yogi was supposed to have said one day, “It ain’t over ‘till it’s over” but Mets fans are a lot further along than they were a couple of days ago.  That’s for sure.  The beginning of the beginning is looking very good indeed.

 

 

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