Next Year Is Now

It's been a long time coming, but at long last, next year really is now. We finally made it, boys and girls. Take some time to breathe it all in.

Moving on, so yeah, remember when I said there were no vacations here? Well, turns out I didn't quite mean that. I'm just waking up now and I'm in no shape to write, besides there's not much of substance going on with the Mets or Yankees right now.

There was, of course, the weekly Manny Ramirez rumblings. The latest rumor is a four-way trade between the Mets, Devil Rays, Orioles, and Red Sox. At the end of the shuffle, the Mets would be up Manny Ramirez and Danys Baez, and down Lastings Milledge, Jae Seo or Aaron Heilman, and Kris Benson.

This trade appears unlikely at the moment for any number of reasons. The Mets do not want to part with Heilman (again, who'd have ever thought that Heilman would be a deal breaker?), the Orioles don't want Benson, and then there are a series of issues between the other teams involved.

As readers know by now, I'm pretty conflicted about the idea of trading for Manny. If we trade for Manny, basically we need to win it all in 2006 or else we're kind of screwed. That's a tall order. No matter how good your team is, there's still an element of luck and good fortune when it comes to victory in October, and putting all your eggs in one season's basket (or two seasons' at best) seems like a lot to ask for, especially with the good-not-great pitching staff we have.

Also, Baez has repeatedly said he doesn't want to be a setup man, and with Billy Wagner in the 'pen, the closer's spot is taken. Given that Baez will be a free agent after the season, it sounds like he's got 1-year rental written all over him if the Mets were to comlpete a trade for him. Parting with Heilman would be too high a price for a one and done kind of player.

So the final verdict on this trade is that the Mets shouldn't go for it. Try and work out a trade for Baez separately in a Jae Seo swap and that I'd support. Some Mets fans think Seo is the real deal after his strong 2005; I'm not convinced. His value may be peaking right now, if we could trade a package centering around Seo for Baez, I'd do it.

Anyway, the other big news is that I've lost a ton of respect for the readership of the New York Daily News. The weekly poll at New York's only true daily showed that 86% of readers felt that Johnny Damon wasn't a traitor for signing with the Yankees.

Now look, the overwhelming majority of these people must have been Yankee fans. Some of them want to stick by their new acquisition, fine. But 86 percent? Imagine if Bernie had signed with the Red Sox all those years ago. You think Yankee fans would have thought him a traitor? Somehow I suspect they would have. Revel in your new centerfielder if you wish, but let's be honest here. The guy's worse than Nina Myers and all those Yankee fans know it.

Anyway, that's it for today. We'll have regular content back up tomorrow, but as for today that's all I got.

- A.F.O.M.G.