All his fault.

There he is. The man who quite possibly single-handedly ruined the Mets 2009 season.

John Smoltz.

You'd think Smoltz heading to the American League and taking his career 18-15 record, 24 saves, and 3.44 ERA vs NYM would be a good thing.

You're wrong.

John Smoltz started a bad list of events that led to the Mets doing the ONE thing they should not have done this offseason. Lets recap:

DEC 1, 2008: The Braves decline salary arbitration to John Smoltz. The future Hall of Famer is now free to sign elsewhere. The Braves - by all indications - fully expect Smoltz to return.

JAN 3, 2009: Derek Lowe rejects Mets 3yr/36mil contract.

JAN 7, 2009: Smoltz is expected to sign with the Red Sox.

JAN 8, 2009: The Mets and Derek Lowe are far apart on a possible contract.

JAN 9, 2009: John Smoltz makes it official, and signs with the Boston Red Sox. And here's where it all starts to fall apart.

JAN 13, 2009: The Braves, having lost Smoltz, completely freak out and offer Lowe a four year deal worth 60 million dollars. Four days after Smoltz's signs with Boston, Lowe signs with the Braves.

FEB 8, 2009: Ben Sheets - believed to be one of the backups if Lowe signs elsewhere, will miss almost all of the 2009 season with an elbow injury. I'm assuming the Mets figured this out weeks earlier, but probably not before they lost out on Lowe.

That left the Mets with no choice. Because John Smoltz signed with Boston, the Braves then lost their mind, then their backup plan got hurt, so the Mets were left with only one pitcher left to sign.

Oliver freaking Perez.

I've said my piece many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many times about this clown. But in 2009, I'll give him a break. Its not his fault.

So on October 4th - when the Mets are tied with the Phillies for first place on the last day of the season, and Oliver Perez is struggling to get through the 6th inning against the Astros - remember this Mets fans: Its all John Smoltz's fault.

- SB

Buy me that! Oh...uh...nevermind.

Creative team needs a buyout: The hot trend in baseball is to have a fancy patch on your uniform to signify anything important happening in your franchise. Mainly its a way to make money - all the fans will want to buy the fancy patch. The Mets decided to do just one of two.

They got the new patch - but they clearly don't want anyone to buy it. Who would want to? That's it on the left. Yes...THAT'S IT. Just the Citi Field logo with "Inaugural Season" on it. No shot of the stadium. No mention of the stadium. Just that.

The patch - and the Mets - are getting killed on a national website, and rightfully so. As the writer pointed out - it does kinda look like the Domino's logo.

Of course - as I type this - I wonder if Johnnymets has already ordered one for the whole family.

Onto the guys who might be wearing that snappy patch next year....

Makes me Red(ding) in the face: Forget Derek Lowe - sign Tim Redding! The Mets have come to terms with free agent pitcher Tim Redding. Redding's ERA last season: 4.95. Is he the number five starter? If they don't sign Lowe, he might be the number two starter! Its becoming clear - the Mets must sign Derek Lowe.

Home of the Brave?: Uh oh. Suddenly the Braves are the front runner to sign Lowe. Atlanta clearly wasn't expecting John Smoltz to bolt to Boston, and now they're in panic-mode. Will the Mets respond? At least they still have Pedro* to fall back on.

Don't go Pedro!: Uh oh....again. Pedro* has begun negoitations with the Marlins. Suddenly the Mets options are dwindling. I need a beer. Several beers. In fact...lets get...

Three Sheets to the wind: Based on the pitching market, the Southern Bureau completely endorses the latest Johnnymets post: The Mets must sign Ben Sheets.

-SB

FREE AGENCY UPDATE

As I mentioned yesterday, the home computer is on the fritz. It's in and out, shutting down unexpectedly. So I'll try to get these blogs in when I can. It's also a busy time of the school year, so I'm inconsistent with the postings anyway - I'll probably be back to posting more often in a week or so.

But I've been sitting on this e-mail from Justin in NYC for about a week, and it's high time to get to it:

The Rays just signed Pat Burrell. I thought he would have been perfect for the Mets. They're looking for a power hitting left fielder. He is that. Plus, he fits into the "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" mold. Yet, no one even mentioned it as a possibility. Your thoughts...

First of all, it's great to get an e-mail again. Since the comments section came to the blog, no one e-mails anymore. It's nice. Secondly, thanks for taking the time to write Justin. And thirdly, I'm going to go a step further and list a few other 'perfect fits' for the Mets:
-Brad Penny
-Rocco Baldelli
-John Smoltz
-Takashi Saito

While I agree Burrell seemed like a good fit, I'm also going to give the word of caution that he was one of those Chipper Jones-type Mets killers...while he did damage against the Mets all over the place, he was one of those guys who loved hitting at Shea. So maybe, just maybe, it wouldn't have continued at the new park. But that's a shot-in-the-dark rationalization.

The common denominator with those other guys is that they all ended up being signed by the same team - the Red Sox. And it makes me wonder why the Mets couldn't sign them all. (I haven't even mentioned the likes of A. J. Burnett.)

It's not like the Mets and Red Sox are in the same boat right now. The Red Sox are coming off two world championships in five years, and a loss in Game 7 of the 2008 ALCS. The Mets are coming off back-to-back September collapses that forced them to miss the playoffs in consecutive seasons. However, when it comes down to it, they have the same needs as most everyone else in baseball - pitching depth (and a spare outfielder).
If the Mets were really interested in Burrell (and it was at least mentioned as a possibility in my brain, if not on the site here, Justin...but I'm not sure where else), they should have fallen back on Baldelli. I know he's not an everyday player anymore, but I'm not sure the Mets need an everyday outfielder. They need someone to replace Endy Chavez, coming into games late and providing a spark. Baldelli could have filled that role - and performed even better in it. Or at least platooned with some of the younger guys. Plus he's an easy guy to root for.

Then there are the pitchers. Oh, the pitchers. Sure, they've added the likes of Francisco Rodriguez and J. J. Putz....but what of the rotation? (I watched Tim Redding closely last year for a period when he was on my fantasy team - he was not very good for most of the season.) What of the other bullpen depth? I would think if you're the New York Mets, you spend like the Yankees and Red Sox, and take some chances on guys like Penny, Saito, maybe even Smoltz, just to give yourself some arms so that 2008 never happens again.

Which leaves us now with a Derek Lowe and a Ben Sheets. The price on Sheets is supposedly dropping...I say take the chance. If he's healthy (which is the phrase I'm sure all of the contract negotiations on Sheets begin with), Johan Santana-Ben Sheets becomes one of the best 1-2 punches in baseball. And then Derek Lowe becomes a number three starter if you sign him as well. Lowe needs to be in a spot during the regular season where everything doesn't depend on him, especially in New York. I just have a bad feeling about him coming to New York City and having a lot on his shoulders - I don't know that his psyche can handle that. Come the post-season, I think he'll step up...but he needs to help the Mets get there first.

I doubt the Mets will sign both of those pitchers. I have serious doubts they'll sign one of them. And I hate to be the skeptical Mets fan...but I have my doubts about the Mets' financial viability right now. They're opening a new stadium - things should be great. They should be spending to beat the band - like the Yankees, opening their new stadium.

It makes me wonder about the Wilpons' involvement (the money they lost, not the bad kind of involvement) in the Madoff scheme. It makes me wonder about the deal with Citi for the park's naming rights. It makes me wonder about the current economic situation. It makes me wonder whether all of these things are causing the Mets to be just that more conservative when it comes to spending money. And if that's the case...it's going to set them back quite a bit.

600 Miles From the Citi

Its the Southern Bureau. In case you're wondering - I'm the one on the right.

Thanks to Johnnymets for the invitation to join the site. Obviously I'm just trying not to get in the way, just keep it going with a (hopefully) clever posting every now and then. I'm more of a baseball guy, so you won't see much on the Jets - and you'll be sick of me during Mets season. So until then - just a few posts until we figure out what exactly I'll be doing around here. Or until Johnnymets fires me.

Here we go:

How Lowe can you go?: Or - how high will they go? Turns out Derek Lowe doesn't think he can feed his family on just 12 million dollars a season. He wants 16 mil. At this point, you've gotta figure the Mets will give it to him. When the backup plan is Randy Wolf, Lowe seems like a pretty good option.

Where's Rey Ordonez when you need him?: The Mets depth chart shows they currently have no backup infielders (I'm not counting Fernando Tatis). Can't you picture an Alex Cora-type player showing up on this team? Second base is obviously a concern too, so I wouldn't be surprised if two backup infielders show up on opening day.

What about the Hanukkah party?: Hopefully the Mets got their money in advance for the naming rights to the stadium. Citigroup decided to cancel their "Christmas Train Display" due to the fact that they're - you know - broke. Annual savings: $240,000. That's a pretty nice train set. My workplace's annual Christmas budget: probably about $14.

Its kinda blurry: Next time I thought I'd give a photographic tour of Wilmington - home to Michael Jordan, former Met Trot Nixon, and future Met Bradley Holt. But in johnnymets tradition, I'm going to take all the pictures from a moving car.

- SB