Locker Room

Mets acquire Carlos Delgado for two prospects

In the grand scheme of things, I guess its choosing the lesser of two evils. It would have been nice to have Manny, but even with all of the negatives in areas such as his health and attitude Delgado is the big lefty bat that the Mets have lacked since Strawberry started smoking crack.

I am lukewarm on the prospect exchange. From my perspective, right now Jacobs is nothing more than a role player who could be exciting in the future. The Mets could not wait to see what could be with Jacobs so he off to Florida to platoon with 950 year old Jeff Conine at firstbase.

There are varying options on Yusmieiro Petit as many scouts have given him the "Can't Miss Prospect" label. However, from my perspective, Petit, 21, is a strong #3 or solid #2 starter as best. If minor league stats are any indicator, then I maybe right. He was 9-3 with a decent 2.91ERA at Class-AA Binghamton which made GM's across baseball drool. However, in three starts at Class-AAA Norfolk, he went 0-3 with 9.30ERA.

Maybe its not a fair to evaluate Petit over three starts or Jacobs on his role play during 2005. The bottom line is that Petit and Jacobs are young, low salaried talent that every team needs to fill the invaluable "role player" position.

Moving forward the Mets need to address their void at closer and sign the playoff experienced Billy Wagner or, the next-Wagner BJ Ryan. I hope they opt for the real Wagner. Also, the second base void needs to be addressed with a top of the lineup guy like Furcal. Catcher, in my opinion, is less of a need because Ramon Castro is serviceable. However, if the Mets are have no spending limit they would be wise to pursue Benji Molina due to his ability to call a good game and handle a pitching staff.

Finally, the Mets need to learn from the successes of other organizations and bring up Lastings Milledge to play RF and let him just develop. Bat Milledge in the 8th spot and bring him along slowly similar to David Wright two years ago......