And The Rest Unfolds

(Note: Steamin' Mikey Lehman breaks down the top 10 shit-talkers in Mets history after this piece from Sip.)

The Daisuke Matsuzaka saga came to a close hours before Thursday's deadline, with the terrifyingly Type O Matsuzaka agreeing to a 6-year, $52 million contract with the Red Sox.

A month ago it didn't look like getting this guy signed was rocket science. We talked about how the how the Red Sox would give this guy 5-6 years at $8-9 million per year so that the total contract equalled something around 5-6 years- $90-110 Mil.

We were close, 6 years and $103 mil was what it ended up being.

Everyone knew this would happen one month ago. Matsuzaka didn't want to go back to Japan. He wanted to come to America and play in the major leagues.

He was set to make around $3,000,000 next year in Japan, pocket change compared to what he could expect in America. His team wanted him gone. The Seibu Corp. wanted $50 million for one guy, understandable when you consider that their entire organization is worth around $150 mil.

So Boston won the "posting" war -- I still hate the word posting -- so it only made sense that they would sign him for what seemed right. SEE ABOVE.

Yet for some reason, over the last couple of weeks, everyone began to freak out. There was the threat that Matsuzaka might reject the Sox' offer and go back to Japan.

So Matsuzaka is dreaming to play in the States. He is ready to leave Japan and move on to better competition. He is about to sign a contract that will guarantee him 20 times what he is guaranteed him now. YET, HE IS THREATENING TO GO BACK TO JAPAN!!!

For all we heard about his threat to go back to Japan, we never once heard it from the horse's mouth. Hell, I don't even know if he had a translator during the negotiations.

The one person threatening to send him back to Japan was the only person in the entire world that would benefit from that threat, his agent, Scott Boras.

Boras is not a dummy. He is the biggest and brightest agent in the game. He did what any negotiator would do in a negotiation. He used his leverage.

Only this was not your normal negotiation. Boras could not play teams against one another. The only single piece of leverage he had was the "threat," no matter how empty, of Matsuzaka returning to Japan.

He took this one down to the wire and got an extra 4-5 mil from the Sox, money that I am sure they were willing to spend anyway.

But Boras did what he could in the Matsuzaka negotiation. He got his client the most money possible, he proved that he could make deals between Japaneese stars and American teams, and he set a precedent for future negotiations.

With each deal Boras signs for his clients, he gets a little smarter and a little more powerful. He learns more about each team and their tendencies and teams fear him more for his ability to always suck out the most from them.

Which takes us to the topic that we are all concerned with: Barry Zito.

I am all but willing to guarantee that the first phone call Scott Boras makes after the press conference in Boston on Thursday is a call to Barry Zito:

Boras: So Barry, you ready to get this thing done?"
Zito: Whatever, bro.

Boras: What's it going to be, Texas or NY?
Zito: Either way, I'll ranch or sing.

Thank you Frank Cushman Jr.

Like with the Matsuzaka negotiation, the Zito negotiation makes some sense. Assuming that he is choosing between the Mets and Rangers, it makes a lot of sense.

Everything Zito could possibly prefer would be in New York. New York has the Big Apple, a division championship, a pitcher's park (Texas ranked as the 5th best hitters park last year, Shea 26th) his old pitching coach and mentor Rick Peterson, tons of musicians and even more sideline reporters ready to go sloppy on him after a start.

The one and only thing Texas can offer Zito is more years and more money. Read: Carlos Beltran, Mets, 2005.

Zito prefers New York, Boras prefers New York, but at the end of the day they may prefer the green of Texas. Boras is doing everything he can to sell the Mets, their fans and the media that covers them on the idea that Barry Zito will go to Texas if the Mets fail to give him the right amount of dollars and years.

Sound familiar?

Zito would be a Ranger now if, in his heart of hearts, he wanted to be there. They have already offered him the money.

But it is very obvious that this is not the case. Zito's heart is in California, and his brains are in New York.

I really believe that the savvy Omar Minaya is simply calling Boras' bluff. He will come in at the last second and up his offer, but only to the point where the Mets want to go. We will not break the bank for this guy and we don't have to. In a way, he has to be a Met.

Otherwise, there is Plan G.

Two intriguing arms went non-tendered on Tuesday.

Non-tendering essentially means that their former team does not want them. By offering a deal, even one that the player doesn't accept, the team can then go to arbitration with said player protecting their ability to retain him from years 4-6 (the arbitration years).

The two names that interest me, Joel Pineiro and Mike Wood.

Joel Pineiro.

Three years ago this kid looked like an ace in the making. He was always my fantasy sleeper and he had a couple of nice years. Going in to 2006, if you were to give me the option of Joel Pineiro or Gil Meche, I would have chosen the former.

But then Pineiro went and had a pretty crappy season: 8-13, 6.31 ERA.

But the ERA number was up a run after Pineiro went to the pen, but his numbers as a starter weren't bad.

Through July he went 5 innings in 17 of 21 starts and 6 innings in 13 of 21.

Here's a guy that has averaged 180 IP/season since 2002 and has a lifetime ERA of 4.48 in the American League.

While he has had two rough goes of it in '05 and '06 I think there is still a lot of promise left in this 28 year old. In this ever-so-inflated market where Gil Meche and Ted Lilly are making as much to pitch as my hero Keanu Reeves gets to act in a movie, I can't see why giving Pineiro a 1-year offer with a mutual option isn't a sound move.

Mike Wood.

You may remember the name but not know why. Wood was actually the key component in the deal that sent Carlos Beltran to the Astros in 2004. Along with strikeout machine John Buck (a catcher, not a pitcher) Wood was supposed to save the Royals' rotation. As you may have noticed, this never happened.

But this kid is still 26. Why not give him a shot?

In both cases the pitcher is young and would be going from the AL to the NL, which is always a plus.

The other thing to remember is that we are not exactly dealing with a lot here. After El Duque in the 2 spot, there are no real guarantees at all with this rotation. Why not bring in as many arms as possible to compete, as long as they come cheap. Imagine if we find even another Darren Oliver (RIP) in the bunch. That wouldn't be too bad.

And remember, the above was said after I mentioned Orlando Hernandez as a guarantee at # 2, which unfortunately, my friends, is a whole 'nother story.

That's all for now.

Vaya con dios,

Sip

(From top to bottom, respectively, the first, third, and final three images that appear above are courtesy of mlb.com, the second image is courtesy of isportusa.com, and the fourth image is courtesy of tripod.com)