Tom Seaver Fan Club

John Sickels recently posted his list of the top twenty Mets prospects.  Fernando Martinez tops the list.  Martinez hit very well in the South Atlantic League but not as well in the Florida State League and the Arizona Fall League.  Then again, the kid just turned 18 in October so he has a ton of time to develop.

Mike Pelfrey comes in at second and both he and Martinez received A- grades.  Right handed pitcher Phil Humber got a B+, Carlos Gomez a B, and everyone else got a B- or worse.

The overall prognosis is the Mets have some potential stars but not a lot of depth. Regardless, it’ll be worth keeping an eye on those farm clubs come spring.

The New York Mets are pulling out all of the stops to get the last good starting pitcher available outside of Roger Clemens.  Mets CEO Jeff Wilpon and GM Omar Minaya both flew out to California in order to visit with free agent Barry Zito.

Right now, it sounds like the Texas Rangers are the Mets primary competition for the former Cy Young winner.  You’d hope he’d want to come play for a winner and having Zito in the rotation would vastly improve the Mets chances in 2007.

Victor Zambrano will live in infamy for the player the Mets traded Scott Kazmir for.  Of course we all know he never worked out and he only threw five starts last year and eventually had elbow surgery.

In other news, the Mets picked up Dave Williams for another year.  The Reds outcast had a decent stretch for the Mets so he’s probably insurance in the event someone goes down.

The Mets solidified their bullpen earlier this week when they inked Guillermo Mota to a two year deal for $5 million.  That is, they solidified their bullpen for sometime after May because Mota will miss the first 50 games due to a performance enhancing drug suspension.

Mota was lights out for the Mets when they got him from the Indians part way through 2006.  He walks more people then I’d like but he’s oddly more effective against left handers then he is against right handers.  And $2.5 million, even for 2/3 thirds of a season, is a bargain these days.

The Mets solidified their bullpen by trading Brian Bannister to the Royals for closer Ambiorix Burgos.  Bannister earned a spot in the rotation out of spring training and had an outstanding April but he threw only ten innings after that after he hurt his hamstring.  I think the Mets are hoping to nab Barry Zito so the rotation spots are filling up.

On the other hand, Roberto Hernandez and Chad Bradford are both gone so the Mets needed reliever.  Burgos could be a good one too.  He closed for the Royals last year and while his ERA was pretty high (5.52), he did strike out 72 batters in 73 1/3 innings.  The nice thing is, he’ll still be only 22 when the season starts so with a little grooming, Burgos could make a nice set up man for the Mets.

The Mets shored up their rotation by re-signing Tom Glavine to a one year, $10.5 million deal.  Glavine had a very good year for the Mets last year and the it looks like they’re hoping Glavine has at least one more year in the tank.  The other team courting Glavine was the Atlanta Braves, Glavine’s former team so the Mets may have also hurt a primary competitor by pre-empting their signing.

Initially it sounded like a lot of money but these days (or rather, this season), $10.5 for a middle of the rotation starter isn’t too bad.  Hopefully Minaya knows what he’s doing and it’s money well spent.