Jul 15 2008 07:22 AM
] AMAZIN' PLANS By JOEL SHERMAN July 15, 2008 -- THE METS are more seriously considering promoting from within (Fernando Martinez for the outfield, Jon Niese for the rotation, Bobby Parnell or Eddie Kunz if a bullpen arm is needed) then making a trade between now and the July 31 deadline, Omar Minaya told The Post yesterday. Minaya faces three major obstacles to reaching outside the organization for improvements: 1) The organization is cautiously optimistic Ryan Church will soon return, making a righty-hitting left fielder to replace out-for-the-season Moises Alou the main priority. Minaya has been unable to identify a player significantly better than a Fernando Tatis/Endy Chavez platoon to make it worthwhile to sacrifice prospect chips. 2) The Mets are finding the asking prices for relievers they have interest in, such as Colorado's Brian Fuentes, to be too steep. 3) To reach the level of contender, the Mets have expended a lot of prospect artillery the past three years, and Minaya recognizes he must protect the farm system and let it rebuild. "We can't keep doing four-for-one deals," Minaya said. So what does this all mean? Because the Mets are more fixated on a righty-hitting outfielder, they have substantially cooled on Seattle's Raul Ibanez, although the organization's top executives like him a great deal. Because they are unwilling to give up a big-time package, Colorado's Matt Holliday can be scratched off the list, and, unless the prices fall substantially, so can Pittsburgh's Xavier Nady. An NL executive said he believes Minaya's historic aggression will lead him to make some kind of trade before the deadline to augment the surging Mets. And Minaya confirmed that he is very active looking for opportunities. It is possible he is just playing the propaganda game when he says he is comfortable going with internal options, hoping that lowers prices. But he insists he is sincere. There already are two players on the 25-man roster Minaya thinks far more of than most of the rest of baseball. He said he believes Nick Evans is going to grow into a .280-plus hitter who produces 20 homers and 80 RBIs annually. Minaya also said, "I like Carlos Muniz a lot. I think he is going to grow in a nice seventh- or eighth-inning guy. I like Muniz as much as I liked Chad Cordero (when Minaya was Expos GM) in the first round." Minaya also said the Mets' top two high-level players, Martinez and Niese, could be in play in August. He said that at the time of the trade for Johan Santana, he was thrilled he was able to keep Martinez, Niese and Mike Pelfrey out of the deal because he believed they would be building-block players for the team moving forward. Left-handed Niese (5-7, 3.09 ERA) drew scouts from about 10 teams to his start Saturday and Martinez drew raves from scouts at the Futures Game on Sunday. The general scouting consensus, however, remains that both players need more minor league seasoning. However, the Mets are an aggressive organization when it comes to promotion, and that is no different here. Of Niese, Minaya said, "He might be pitching for us this year in August." Of Martinez, Minaya said, "He might be better than anybody we could get in a trade. This kid is legit." Martinez, however, is a lefty hitter, is 19 years old, and has had another injury-interrupted season in which he has batted .294 at Double-A. |
Thats big talk about Evans and Muniz. If even a pom-pom waving Met fan like me can see that Omar is blowing smoke up my ass, I'm guessing a major league GM can see it too. "Hey, you don't want Neise and Fartinez, you want Evans and Muniz, youknowwhatI'm sayin'?"
Good luck with that one Omar.