The Phillies seem to be doing all the right things here and I'm sure Hamels will be fine. But he did throw what 60+ more innings last year than he's used to? I'm guessing the Phillies (and their fans) might have the same concerns entering this season with Hamels as we do with Pelfrey.

Except doesn't Hamels come with an injury history that Pelf doesn't have?

True. I forgot he's had arm troubles in the past, specifically with his elbow.

mets hired julio franco to be a minor league manager

awesome

Obviously player/manager right?

Man these tickets are expensive. Got Nosebleeds for The Marlins in April and Nationals in May, Both games cost me $65 total for 2 seats to each. Hopefully the nosebleeds are a lot better than Shea's.

It's looking more and more like Livan Hernandez for rotation spot #5.

Freddy Garcia looks just terrible. He's going to need to get a lot of work in in AAA. And if he is dumb enough to think that some other team will give him a roster spot then see ya!

Tim Redding isn't a good pitcher and probably should be in the bullpen if he even plays for the Mets this year. Luckily he's injured, making the decision for the Mets really easy. I can't believe Omar gave him a guaranteed contract.

Niese looks like he could benefit from some time in the minors. I wouldn't be surprised to see him in Queens for good later this summer.

Nelson Figueroa I think should be added to this discussion. He pitched very well in the WBC and maybe he can fight it out the rest of the way with Livan.

livan is probably the 2nd worst option out of that gruop, right ahead of freddy garcia. redding is way better than him - why would you be happy to see fat livan instead of redding?

gonna be some long games once every 5 days....and if anyone gets injured, sweet mother of mary.

why not give pedro 5m?

Sorry if it looked like I was happy Livan seems to be winning this competition. I'm not. I'm not happy with any of these guys really. I was thinking the same thing about Pedro. Just give him the same deal Smoltz got and be done with it. If he gets hurt oh well then give the ball to Redding or Livan or Niese or Figueroa or Armas or whoever they have stashed in the pen or in AAA.

What's with the Pedro love? Did you guys not watch him pitch the last 2 years? (Good chance you didn't, since if you blinked, you might have missed his tim on the mound)

The front office (Omar) is upset with Redding because he reported to camp 20 pounds overweight. Once Redding got a guaranteed contract, he just thought the starting role would be handed to him. He got rocked in his last two starts and did not look good at all.

The Mets will not give Pedro 5 m because the Mets do not have 5 m. They wanted to get rid of Castro to shed his 1.2m. Word on the street is the Wilpons lost 300m in the Madoff scam.

Probably because he 92 on the radar gun during the WBC.

Pedro is done, long live Pedro.

Well I hope Wilpon plans on selling then. Having a NY Team not willing to spend is kind of crappy. This team could have been so much better if they had spent just 10 Million more this offseason (Ohman, O-Dog, Abreu, Wiggington and maybe Pedro and no Cora) but alas.

they have the highest payroll in the NL

Seriously, the coupons stuff or bashing wilpon is beyond old. This guy has repeatedly opened up the checkbook in years past to bring players in and has probably knowingly overpaid for guys like piazza, pedro, beltran, etc.

As for this particular offseason, the payroll ended up close to last year, so it's hard to say wilpon's personal problems had a huge effect on the team. Also, minaya might just not have seen a lot of these moves that 4 high brings up, wouldn't be a surprise...

The Pedro "love" has more to do with the rest of the options being pretty awful. The more I think about it the more I think they might as well give the job to Niese and let him sink or swim. He can't be much worse than Livan/Redding/Figgy.

Seriously, enough with the Wilpon bashing. For 10 years now (starting with the 7 years/$91 mil for Piazza) this guy has spent and spent and spent.

I understand the 5th starter options are awful, but there's no reason to believe Pedro is $5 million better than any of them.

Sorry, I'm not gunna glofiry Wilpon because he resigned Piazza and sign Beltran, Johan and Pedro. Wow. He also allowed people like Luis Castillo, Tim Redding, Alex Cora to be signed. He has also allowed Omar to stay as GM, a major error. Compare the Mets to The Cubs, Yankees, Sox etc. The Mets management and how they spend money is pretty damn bad outside of a few good choices.

That's fine if you guys want to rail Wilpon and Minaya for the way they spend money but most of the talk was about the Mets not spending enough money. And that is downright wrong.

people thinking the mets don't spend enough are why the mets will always be the mets. they are not the yankees. they shouldn't try to compete with the yankees. and having the same prospect philosophy as the yankees for the last 25 years has simply not worked out for them, in part because they don't spend like the other new york team.

Obviously, the spending of money and how it is spent are two completely different issue.

So Oliver is a huge fatty, John Maine can't get anyone out. Anyone else getting nervous. Ugh if that moron Francessa ends up beign right again for the wrong reasons I'll be so annoyed.

Pelfrey, Oliver and Maine getting batted around. Going to be a long year.

If they are still struggling in May I'll start to worry, not until then.

I think we need to give Ollie some time to get straightened out after the WBC. I believe he only threw twice in 19 days there and he doesn't seem to be much of a self-starter, so the whole experience was probably like a 3 week vacation for him.

To me the corner outfield spots are much more of a concern. Murphy has 130 big league AB's, Church cannot stay healthy for a full season and a serious regression by Tatis seems inevitable.