METS: Far From Exciting Offseason

Not only is Pedro still reiterating that he will return mid-season (July/August) at the earliest, but the Mets still haven't picked up another reliable arm for their rotation, which consists of the aging Glavine + El Duque, John Maine, and Oliver Perez. The Mets offense is strong enough to withstand the weakness in their rotation but don't expect it to be a cake walk like last year.

The Mets have already whiffed on B. Zito (Giants), D. Matsuzaka (Red Sox), K. Igawa (Yankees) and M. Mulder (Cardinals). They were also believed to be looking at T. Ohka but those talks have been no where in sight as of late. Now Newsday reports that the Mets have reached a preliminary agreement with Scott Schoeneweis for $10.8 million over 3 years. Not only is this an unwise move to spend this much on a decent (at best) pitcher, but he is also 33 and it is a long contract for someone who has a career ERA around 4.25. He has been in the majors around 8 years and they certainly can't expect him to be pushing into his prime at this point. I haven't looked at the free agent market but I am willing to bet that he was one of the only decent lefty relievers left out there (they should have taken a closer look at Villone since the Yankees appear to be relying on Vizcaino). This comes after the Mets failed to sign John Thomson, who refused to sign with the Mets citing he didn't want to pitch to Paul LoDuca and he doesn't trust Cliff Floyd's defense (Floyd is no longer with the team).

Though he didn't come straight out and say it, I don't blame him for not wanting to pitch to Pauly. Matter of fact, I don't see how any player with teenage kids would want to join the Mets as long LoDuca is hanging around. As some may remember, LoDuca was reported last season meeting little girls at 18+ Long Island clubs (such as Bridgeview). LoDuca was still married at the time and has a child. Notice that Mets were offering a chatting session as a prize on MLB.com a while ago and LoDuca was not included in that sweepstakes. Friends of mine have also spotted LoDuca at Posh (the Garden City Hotel's club--older girls, whew) with David Wright and Cliff Floyd. Wright is believed to be the one who did all the talking for LoDuca at Bridgeview, needing to mention that LoDuca is a Met.

You can tell I'm no Pauly fan.