The Year of Moises

Fat Ryan Howard takes the MVP trophy over Pujols and the gang? Not a travesty, but certainly not the right thing. Those voters sure love them a good story.

Still, nobody else in the NL rested on their laurels waiting for the judgment to come on in. Omar, especially, had a busy day. Thoughts? Verily.

Mets sign Moises Alou to 1-year, $8.5m contract

On a day that saw big money and big years thrown around by the likes of Ned Colletti and Jim Hendry, this was the savvy move. Only a one-year commitment to a guy with major pop in his bat, a souped up Cliff Floyd who happens to be right-handed and usually kills lefties. Big pluses there.

In the minus column, he's old and pretty bad defensively, and his durability is a major question mark. Games played in the last three seasons – 155, 123, 98. Ages – 38, 39, 40. As trend lines go, this one is relatively direct.

More to the bad – the injuries that plagued him during May and June were back and ankle woes, of the recurring genus. More to the good – they were largely cleared up by July, and a rejuvenated Alou played the second half of the season with a hot bat.

I'm split on the whole “peeing on his hands” thing. Really could go either way on that. Informed commentary from winos, vagrants, fashion designers and long-distance runners would be appreciated.

But in the context of this market, it was a great signing. Another righty leftfielder with a power bat the Mets were linked with – you may have heard of Alfonso Soriano – got an insane eight years out of Chicago in the fifth-biggest contract of all time. It's just crazy, giving a guy whose game is completely dependent upon athleticism a contract through his age-38 season, plus a no-trade clause. Why not just get a Denny Neagle tattoo?

I've always been relatively down on Soriano, .351 OBP in 2006 included, but at these prices, everybody should be off the wagon.

In case you missed this, Juan Pierre may have bilked a 5-year, $45m contract out of the Dodgers despite the fact that he's been more or less useless for the past two seasons and is vastly overrated defensively.

Reliable, sure, but as a guy who relies on extra-base hits for what little power he provides (12 career homers, baby), Dodger Stadium is going to kill him. And for five years! So much for Matt Kemp.

As Buster Olney pointed out, this is going to drive the market for J.D. Drew and Carlos Lee into the stratosphere. Great. Let other teams waste their dough on those two clowns. He also says it increases the chances of the Angels going after Manny, which I'm not sure I disagree with. Fine.

But look at the other madness going on. Nomar and Frank Thomas, brittle as they are, each got two years. So did Henry Blanco (?) and Jim Edmonds, another injury risk.

The Mets got a guy who falls just short of the superstar class with only a one-year hook, and that's to Omar's credit. This right after heisting Ben Johnson (non-steroids edition) from the Padres. Nicely done.

This also sends Spliff packing for sure, not that we were confused about the likelihood of that. You'll be missed, old friend.

Mets decline $14m option on Glavine

More evidence, in my eyes, that they're giving Tommy a chance to go back to Atlanta. It's probably the fair thing to do. If not, and again, I say this in the context of a market that just gave Justin Speier four years and $18m, the Mets would have pulled the trigger on that baby.

Moose goes to the Yanks at a discount, damn it. Who else is excited to see how much Jeff Suppan signs for? I'm practically tingling.

Mets trade RHP Henry Owens and RHP Matt Lindstrom to Florida for LHP Jason Vargas and LHP Adam Bostick

Owens was a product of Barry University, whose head coach, the scrappy Marc Pavao, doesn't trust AFOMG worth a damn. Long story, he's got his reasons. I don't blame the guy for a second.

Anyway, Owens has a long history of being pretty decent and went out and produced a completely dominating year at AA last year, of the 0.73 WHIP, 1.58 ERA variety. Unfortunately, he was 27, making him less of a prospect than a last-chancer.

He certainly could be a late-bloomer, a righy Mike Remlinger situation, and Florida's right to give him a crack at it where the Mets couldn't. Lindstrom is of no concern to anybody not named Ma Lindstrom.

As for the two guys the Mets got back, Bostick will be a 24-year-old lefty with a decent strikeout rate and a low professional WHIP of 1.43. Blah.

Vargas is the real haul, a former second-round draft pick out of Long Beach State. He had great years in '04 and '05, moving through the ranks from Sally League Greensboro all the way to the Florida rotation two years ago. He was good enough there (4.03 ERA in 77 IP) as a 22-year-old that the Marlins kept him there to start the season.

Then he fell off a cliff, sucking out a 7.33 ERA in 43 innings split between the rotation and the pen. He was fine the first time they sent him down to AAA, good enough to be called back up, but after going down for the second time on July 29, it was done. He gave up 38 runs in just over 31 innings, and the Fish didn't even call him up when rosters expanded.

All that said, he's exactly the type of guy you take a risk on for the pen. A three-pitch (fastball, changeup, slider) repertoire, middling size (6-foot, 215) ... sounds like a bullpen lefty to me. Let the spring training battle begin!

DC United F Freddy Adu to Manchester United for two-week trial

It doesn't look like he's going to be training with the first team, which had already left for the Champions League match in Glasgow. Instead, he's going to be with the youth team until, I don't know, Thursday. Salt.

Anything other than reps with the first team is useless. Let's let Giggs and Cristiano Ronaldo have a crack at him, and see how he does. Even if you're bearish on Freddy, you want to see how he would fare.