So now what?

Another baseball post folks... fair warning.

As you may or may not have seen, First Baseman Carlos Delgado signed with the Florida Marlins instead of the Mets. If you read my previous baseball post then you know this comes to me as perhaps a small relief... well, now I am not so sure.

See, losing Delgado makes me think the the Mets are going to go ahead and try to trade Cliff Floyd to the Cubs for Sammy Sosa. I really think this is what Minaya wants to do now, and I am really not sure how I feel about it. I know that even though Sammy is on the downslope of his career, he is still a decent clean-up bat and a bad season for him is 30-40 homers. But I think that more of a concern to me is what happens to the rest of the outfield. Obviously Beltran is cemented in at center, but Sammy will want to play Right, and he will refuse to play left, especially at Shea. I imagine the same will be true of Magglio Ordonez if he were to come here. It is also true of Mike Cameron, who is already uncomfortable about moving to right field.
I feel like this is going to set off a series of domino effect moves for the Mets that will not improve their chances in the NL East.

What possibilities I foresee:
1) Sammy comes to Shea forcing a trade of Cameron for a far inferior outfielder with likely less pop in his bat to play left. Upside to this is that middle relief is also likely involved in the trade.
2) Magglio Ordonez comes to Shea. Better defense than Sosa, but same consequence as above. Also not to be left unmentioned are the serious health questions for Ordonez.
3) Serious concerns over who comes in and plays first base. With no decent power hitters on the market, the Mets have to get defensively minded and try to get someone that at least hits for average. There is really no one available who fits the bill, so they will likely trade for Boston's Doug Meintkewitz (sp?), or pick up John Olerud. Offensively it's a wash, especially seeing Olerud's number drop rather significantly after 2002. Defensively, Olerud gets a slight edge, even though he is almost 10 years older. I honestly don't see who else they could bring in. Maybe they can work out a trade with Cameron and bring in someone better. It's kind of disheartening to think about. Whoever it is comes in to bat 8th in the lineup. Perhaps a bigger issue is that even in future years their are no decent players coming up for free agency, and there are no hot shots on the farm to play first. Missing out on Delgado looks worse now that is has happened.
4) No matter who comes to play first, the focus has to shift to middle relief. They have a great rotation of guys who will most likely not often make it past 6 or 7 innings. They have to get a few dominant arms into spring training and fill those roles. Looper is an OK closer at best, and needs guys who can come out in front of him and keep runs off the board.
5) I'm still concerned with the top of the lineup batting order. There is an obvious whole in the 4 slot which will likely be filled by Sosa or Ordonez, but outside of that everyone is expecting Beltran to hit 3rd and Wright to hit 6th. I think this is a big mistake. The numbers show that Beltran is more comfortable in the 2 spot and he flourished there in Houston, he has at similar speed to Matsui and actually stole more bases. Wright has the best average on the team by more than 10 points and should definitely hit third. He is going to have a monster year and should not be relegated to the bottom 3rd of the lineup. K. Matsui should be moved to the bottom of the lineup in either the 6 or 7 slot, depending on who else is on the team April 1rst.
6) I'm way to engrossed in this whole offseason. I spend way to much time thinking about this not to have a job in the Mets front office. So if anyone knows Omar Minaya or the Wilpons, have them call me.

And for my dear friend ML who commented on my last Mets post: I love you too, but you're wrong about approximately 60% of what you said.

back to reality, awaiting news of the next acquisition.

There is seriously no way I can play FBB this year... I'd kill myself if I tried. I'm far too excitable and analytical about these things.