Delgado, Omar and Other Things

Well, my practice set is finally finished so I can get back to blogging.

First thing is first, according to Mark Hale, Mets' management has finally decided to call the best 1b on the market and official FA choice of this blog, Carlos Delgado:

"According to a source familiar with the discussions, Mets special assistant Tony Bernazard and GM Omar Minaya each personally placed phone calls to Delgado a few days ago to let the free-agent slugger know that the Mets are interested."

I've already touched on his offensive production before, and according to early projections I've seen on him he projects to hit 263/389/507 at Shea stadium next year. Needless to say that is a very conservative projection, but one that would still put Delgado at roughly 40% better than the average hitter. Another projection has his hitting alone to be at least 3 wins better than the average 1b for the next couple of years. Thats phenomenal and worth anywhere from $6-10 million a year to a large market club like the Mets. Of course, after the Mike Piazza experiment, the Mets are probably looking for a little defense from 1b. Well, no problem, over the last four years, Delgado has had a positive UZR and was ranked the 6th best defensive 1b in baseball this year [+12/150 games]. Feel free to comment on this below, but I've already made my mind up, unless Carlos Beltran is willing to come to Shea, Carlos Delgado should be the Mets' priority this offseason.

Speaking of Beltran, I've read things about him around the Met blogsphere that have me puzzled. Sure, Carlos when measured by OPS or RBIs [wha?] isn't going to stand out, but that doesn't mean he isn't one of the 10 best players in baseball. Look, don't get me wrong, just a few months ago I thought the same thing, but once you realize how good his non-OPS skills are, you'll be convinced too. I'll have an article on this and my new favorite stat [SLWTs ] later on this week. Speaking of things I should be writing soon, I'll also try to write something on the three top prospects in my list and the performance of some of them in the Winter Leagues.

Finally, Omar Minaya was in the Dominican yesterday for the second time in a week....I wonder what he was doing there?