Billy Wagner

[wh1t3bread]

Okay, you have a point with Alomar, Vaughan & maybe Burnitz.

But Cone/Erickson were signed to essentially Minor League deals. Zeile made a million in 2004. Hidalgo the Mets traded for in 2004 he hit 21 homers for them in 80ish games. The Astro's also picked up a portion of that huge salary if I remember correctly. Zambrano was 28 when Duquette STUPIDLY traded Kazmir to acquire him.

So they made some bad moves. But it isn't nearly as bad as you are making it out to be.

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"Does anyone else see doom in the Mets for the 500th time here for the Mets?"

They've added Delgado and Wagner, and will probably get Molina or Hernandez to catch. Seems to me like they'll be much improved.

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Come on Andy, you remember
Roberto Alomar
Mo Vaughn
Jeremy Burnitz
John Thompson
Jay Bell
David Cone
Todd Zeile
Richard Hidalgo
Scott Erickson
Victor Zambrano
James Baldwin

And that's just off of the top of my head. It seems like there were more.

The Mets have pretty long history of overpaying veterans heading into the twilight of their career.

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Of this list, only Vaughn and Alomar were bad free agent signings. Hidalgo was a colossal mistake that the Astros made, and Mets took a chance on him. Thomson was not making much back then, and was dealt away after two months. Zambrano is admittedly the worst trade in team history. The others were not given big-time money.

What team do you like? I'm sure I can point out as many piss-poor signings there as well.

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Alomar was a trade, not a free agent. The Mets didn't give up all that much to get him. Zambrano was a trade too -- a terrible trade, but it was not a FA signing.

And some of the names on the original list are laughable. James Baldwin? Please. He was signed to a minor league deal. Jay Bell? Scott Erickson? Come on. The Mets have made plenty of mistakes, but to pick on these "signings" is ridiculous.

[Sluss]

Like I said I pulled these off of the top of my head. I just remember several times in the past where the Mets have thrown huge money at players who are showing signs of breaking down. They love to steal the headlines off of the Yankees and if they want to bloat their payroll to over $130 million that's fine with me. I just have never seen it work out for them.

Delgado has not been healthy the last two years, Wagner has not been healthy the last two years. I'm not saying they might not pull a Pedro and have good years I just mean they are setting themselves up for a big fall when these contracts come to roost and the players can't play. They have overpayed in the last few years for Glavine, Pedro and Beltran. Now they have added Wagner and Delgado to that mix.

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Delgado has not been healthy the last two years, Wagner has not been healthy the last two years.

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They've both had AN injury in the last two years. This is different than, say, Shaq playing 50-55 games a year with nagging knee injuries. If the Mets could turn back time and sign Vlad, they'd do it in a heartbeat.

If the Mets could turn back the clock, they'd veto Nolan Ryan for Jim Fregosi and Amos Otis for Joe Foy. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

God they have made some awful trades.