Repeat After Me: Gil Meche Is NOT Pedro Martinez

(Note: A.F.O.M.G. will be in with a post later this afternoon. Also, we're at four days and counting until the launch of www.yankees2000.com.)

I got the numbers wrong yesterday. Gil Meche didn't get 4 years, $45 million. He got 5 years, $55 million. Pardon me for that.

But really, what the hell is going on here? Is Royals GM Dayton Moore drinking from the kool-aid? This guy is coming off a career year with very unspectacular numbers (11-8, 4.48 ERA, 1.43 WHIP) in the most pitching friendly of parks, Safeco Field. Career year and all, did you guys know that Meche was 51st amongst starters in baseball in ERA this past season? I mean, yikes.

This guy doesn't even have moxie. He's sort of a strikeout guy (157 K's, 187 IP), he's not a control guy (85 walks) and he was won more than 11 games just once in his career (15 in 2003).

I don't consider myself Einstein when it comes to baseball, but I like to think I know the game pretty well. So what the hell am I missing here?

I can see the appeal in Ted Lilly. He is a lefty, who put up solid numbers in the homer dome in Toronto while pitching in the toughest division in baseball. I understand why the Sox paid for Matsuzaka and you can argue that Jeff Suppan deserves his money after the postsesaon he just had.

But Gil Meche? The only other Gil in the world I know is the Gil from "Average Joe II" who turned down Larissa after she told him that she once dated Fabio. At least that dude had some moxie.

I talk Gil Meche because it makes me want to kill myself for not being 6'4, 220 lbs. No way I couldn't be a shitty pitcher in the major leagues, and it appears that the market for shitty pitchers is really strong these days.

The reason I bring in Gil Meche and his Pedro Martinez-like contract is that there is ZERO CHANCE that Omar Minaya will trade Aaron Heilman now unless the value he gets back is huge.

If teams view Heilman as a 4th starter and Gil Meche is getting $55 mil to be just that, then someone will have to cough up big time to get the former Fighting Irish righthander.

Amidst the Joe Blanton rumors I heard talks of a Lastings Milledge and Aaron Heilman for Danny Haren deal.

Danny Haren, besides being my favorite pitcher and a linchpin of my fantasy team every year, is an ace in the making. He was the integral piece of the deal that sent Mark Mulder to the Cardinals back in '05 and has emerged in 2 seasons as a very dependable, innings eating strikeout pitcher. I

can't fathom a world in which Billy Beane would trade this kid. He is 26 and still earning pennies in relative baseball terms. But if for some reason Beane is as obsessed with Milledge as he has been in the past, and likes Heilman enough as a starter, then this is absolutely the type of deal that the Mets should jump at. That is the type of value we need to get to part with our two kids.

Do I make this deal with Mike Pelfrey instead of Heilman? Yes I do. That is how good Haren is. But my point here is not to speculate as much as it is to talk about the type of player we can obtain via trade where a trade makes sense.

To get our hands on a proven ace who is getting paid (Chris Carpenter, Roy Halladay etc.) aka, guys that would never in their lives be traded OR a young, cheap, but somewhat proven ace in the making, then we pull the trigger. But for nothing less.

In today's baseball economy, kids with talent and cheap contracts are like gold. Gil Meche or anyone like him. That ain't Gold.

Vaya con dios,

Sip