Episode 13: Destroy and Rebuild

It's been a long time.......since i left you..........with another dope blog to step to.

Well, in today's blog, the topic will be both the New York Yankees and the New York Mets. Both teams ended their seasons on dissappointing notes. Yankees were huge favorites to beat the Tigers only to get dismantled and the Mets being the odds on favorite by Las Vegas to win the world Series at midseason only to watch the Cardinals edge them out in a game 7. If I was a GM of either team, what would Gregg Popa do?

New York Yankees

1. Get some starting pitching

Pitching wins championships. It was the main reason why the yankees won all those world series in the mid 90's. It's the reason why alot of these scrub teams that i don't really care about since the turn of the century are winning World Series rings. Well, it's time that the Yankees go back to their meal ticket. Looking at the Yankees rotation right now, it consists of Chien Ming Wang, Moose, Randy "Never doing Dandy" Johnson, Jaret "I'm never feeling" Wright, and Carl Pavano. Well, the yankees hold an option on wright where we can buy him out at 5 mill. I buy him out immediately and tell him not to let the door hit him on the way out but secretly pray for it. Randy Johnson just had back surgery. I would ask him to retire. The man is done. I'm sure he wants to go after 300 but at what cost? His legacy is being tarnished. His slider hangs. His fastball doesn't have the same velocity. People could tolerate his grumpiness when he was good but now he sucks. Retire, nigga. Carl Pavano hasn't pitched for the yankees in 2 years and will continue to not pitch for them. Alyssa Milano dumped him a couple years ago and now the Yankees are looking for every possible way to dump him too. It reminds me of the Seinfeld episode where George's girlfriend wants to dump him but he goes out of his way to avoid her so she never gets that chance. Fuck Carl Costanza Pavano. Fuck Him.

So who fills their spots? Easy. Sign Andy Pettitte. He's a free agent, he's a lefty, he's had great postseason sucess, and he's familiar with the the Yankee organization. He finished the season strong last year with a 2.80 ERA in the second half. He's not too old at 34. Plus he loves Torre and Torre loves him. He can easily be the 4th starter in the Yankee rotation. Who else would I get? I'd outbid everyone for the rights to negotiate with Daisuke Matsuzaka. Who's that? The Japanese pitcher who mowed down everyone in the WBC and pitched great in the Japanese majors last year (17-5, 2.13 ERA, 0.92 WHIP, 200 K, 186.3 IP). He could come in and be the #2 starter for the Yanks. As for my fifth starter, I'd dig deep into the Yankee minors and pull out Phil Hughes, the uber prospect. The man has been mowing down every hitter at every level he's been at so far. Its about time he starts doing it at the major league level. So at the end of my spending spree, my starting rotation looks like this.

1. Wang
2. Matsuzaka
3. Moose
4. Pettitte
5. Hughes

A defenite improvement over last year.

2. Don't trade A-rod

WHAT?!?!?! Yeah, I know every Yankee fan wants to trade A-rod. But why? He's a top 2 player in all of baseball. And if you trade him, the Yankee lineup would be overwhelmingly lefty. A good lefty starter would neutralize them. Sooner or later, A-rod will hit in the playoffs. I'm convinced of this. He's too good not to. At least, I hope he is. He is, right???? RIGHT?!?!?!?

No way I would trade him unless I got an ace starting pitcher and a solid prospect to go along with it. Seems like too much? Well, no it's not consider A-rod is in the prime of his career and if he retired now, he'd still be a first ballot Hall of Famer.

3. Trade Sheffield for a relief pitcher

I'm tired of this fagnut. He complains about every little thing that happens. Plus, he badmouths everyone. If he didn't outweigh me by 100 pounds, I'd challenge him to a fight. If I were GM, I trade him to a team that can hopefully give me some middle relief. See if I can get Scott Shields from Anaheim (who is interested in Sheffield) for Sheff. If not, try to get a decent prospect and look for relief pitching in free agency.

and really, that is all the Yankees need. The Yanks don't have any glaring holes anywhere else. The lineup is still filled with all stars. They still have the greatest closer in baseball history. If they do everything I wrote about here, they should be back in the World Series with no problems.

New York Mets

1. Find a good hitting corner Outfielder, preferrably right handed hitting

Cliff Floyd is as good as gone. He was rumored to be gone since the beginning of the season. So who do you replace him with? Lastings Milledge? The rumor mill is buzzing with talk that they will use him as a chip to trade for someone so he doesn't seem to be a viable option. So who else is out there? Alfonso Soriano? Well, he's the obvious choice. Let's run down the reasons why.

1. He's hispanic. We all know how much Minaya loves hispanics. It's actually, quite disturbing how much he loves them. I better stop before this blog gets homophobic. WHAT?!?!? IT ALREADY IS?!?!?!

2. Willie Randolph loves him. In fact, when they were both on the Yankees, Soriano credited Randolph with helping his transition to second base (soriano was originally a SS prospect).

3. He's already a proven commodity in NY. He's shown up and done things in the playoffs as a Yankee.

4. He has an outstanding power and speed combination.

However, I don't think the Mets will land Soriano. I don't think they are as big on him as they were in the beginning of the season. He's starting to gain a reputation of being sensitive. Will he mesh well in the Mets "rah rah" locker room where LoDuca is the leader and Reyes cracks jokes constantly? Maybe but i think Minaya has his eyes on another hispanic outfielder. His name is Carlos Lee. Stick him in the middle of that Mets order at a more cost friendly price compared to Soriano, the Mets lineup becomes more formidable. This would be the smart move if I'm the Mets GM.

2. Let's get a second baseman

You cannot bank on 56 year old Jose Valentin to have another season like he had last year. However, if you look at the free agent market, it's slim pickings. The best second basemen are Ray Durham and Ronny Belliard. YUCK. So would I try to grab one of them?

2 words.

HELL FUCKING NO

I know. That was three words. Anyways, you try to trade for another second baseman. Who's out there? Ask the LA Dodgers if they are open to trading either Jeff Kent or ,prefferably, Julio Lugo. Or you can go to Plan B and ask the Tamba Bay Devil Rays if they are willing to deal Jorge Cantu. Offer one of the many promising Mets starters in the minors, and we might have a deal with either the Dodgers or Devil Rays. Another good thing about the possibility of getting Lugo or Cantu is the fact that they are both hispanic. I think we went over how much Minaya loves Hispanics.

3. Let's get a Starting Pitcher

After Pedro and El Duque went down before the playoffs, the Mets were in big trouble and their feared lineup was expected to carry them to the World Series. Then something weird happened. Their hitters stopped hitting and their scrub pitchers threw gems. Thing is, can the Metropolitans rely on John Maine or Oliver Perez to do what they did in the postseason over a 162 game season? Going into next season, the Mets don't have anyone they can rely on to start baseball games. Their two supposed aces of Pedro and Glavine have the ability to burn them. Pedro can burn them through the sheer fact that there could be a good chance that he'll never be a great pitcher ever again after surgery. Glavine can burn them by simply not picking up the mutual option that both the Mets and him have. There are grumblings that Glavine wants to go back to Atlanta to finish up his career.

So what do I do about the starting staff? Lets start off by convincing Glavine that he needs to stay here. Then you need to start the chase after Barry Zito. Zito had a good year in the AL. Imagine what he could do in the NL. That 3.83 ERA he posted in the AL can easily be a 3.33 ERA pitching in a pitcher's park like Shea against NL hitters and facing pitchers every 9 hitters. I could go after Matsuzaka but I fully expect the Yankees to blow everyone (no homo) out the water when it comes to bidding for the right to negotiate with him. Now you need another starter. How about someone that just helped eliminate you? Jeff Suppan is a free agent. More then likely though, the Cards will resign him. There are also solid starters like Greg Maddux and Gil Meche available. I'd fill out my final two spots in the rotation with Oliver Perez and John Maine. My five man rotation would be glavine, zito, Meche/Maddux, Perez and Maine until July when Pedro comes back.

Those moves should be good enough to get the Mets into the World Series. Their lineup is stacked and their bullpen is great. So with a bit of tinkering, they should be just as good or better. However the Mets should watch out because the Braves will retool as well and the upstart Marlins will have a full year under their belt. It will be one crazy year in the NL East.