With the rumors surrounding Arod and the Mets, and Wright possibly moving to second then to first, its easy to see there is a lot of possibilties of what could happen. Here are just a few ideas. For the record, I still have not made a personal decision of whether or not I am for A-Rod or not.

Option 1: Arod comes to play third, Wright moves to second. My personal problem with this the lineup that this creates, there are so many potential four spot batters, Beltran, Wright, Arod, and Delgado. We all know in this situation Delgado would not be considered, Arod would get the fourth spot, Beltran 3rd and Wright 2nd. When Wright started to bat 3rd last year and Beltran 4th, it just felt like eveything fit better.

Option 2: Do not pursue A-Rod. Next year make sure to get Mark Texaria. This idea is the one I am most comfortable with. It allows the Mets to dedicate more money to the Catcher spot and pitching holes this winter. Then next season, when we don't have Delgado, it allows us to place Texaria at 1st base and plug him 5th into the lineup (which in '08 will most likly be held by Alou). In this situation, there is no messing with the development of current and future leaders.

Option 3: Get Arod, have him play at 3rd. Have Wright play at 2nd. Shop Delgado to another tam, maybe to one in the AL so he can DH. (I do not know anything about a no-trade clause in Delgado's contract, so to be on the safe side, I am going to say that this option is not available at this moment)

Now that the World Series is over, its time for the offseason, and offseason related articles. One series I wanted start was book reviews. A list was posted earlier this month.

The first book in the series is Why is the Foul Pole Fair? written by Vince Staten.

I have read this book a few times, and I still list it as one of my favorite baseball books. I read it a few years ago, and everytime I read it, I learn new things about baseball. The book tells the story as the author takes his child out to a ballpark for a major league game. The narrative lasts the entire book and during it, he explains things about baseball you never thought off.

One of my favorites is when they enter the stadium, he talks about the history of the turnstile. The sub-title on the cover is misleading, it says that the book will answer 101 of the most perplxing baseball questions. It does ask a lot of perplexing questions, but its hard to tell how many because the questions are not numbered.

At times, the answers feel a bit random, but it is all really good. The Arizona Republic puts it in the best words "The Quintessential Baseball Book." I highly recomend this book to anyone.

I was at the University of Maryland Book Center the other day, and in the Bargain Bin was a 1999 Scouting Guide for 3.98, so I thought it was worth the investment.

I checked out Moise Alou, who during this time was on the Astros. 1998 was his best season to that point. An interesting fact about 1998 Alou is that after 0-2 count, his batting average was .000. He also led the Astros in most offensive categories. That year he had 38 homers, and probably would have won the MVP if he hit some homers in September.

Other Notes:
In this book Adam Dunn is a Red Minor League Prospect. Vernon Wells was a prospect as well, with Roy Halladay. In the Yankee system, Ricky Ledee, Mike Lowell, Alfonso Soriano and Nick Johnson were all prospects.

I have not really been watching postseason baseball. I have been sort of following it, and to wake this morning, (I knew the Rockies were up 3-0) to learn that the Rockies clinched. Well I dont have much to say.

This will go down as an example of who ever goes in hot stays hot. They came into the postseason on a nice streak, and they have won 7 straight games in the post season so far. I hope they win. It would be nice to see a team that everybody, including myself, predicted to be last or next to last in the NL West.

Over the past several days, I have been reading for that book list bt also have started Project Rusty.

Project Rusty is something that I wanted to start a while ago. Its basically a complicated spreadsheet that information is added to after each game. I am hoping by keeping track of every stat possible, I can create an algorithim to help predict games.

The test version of Project Rusty will hopefully be ready by Spring Training, I'll give updates on how it is going every few weeks or so.

I announced way earlier in the week that I would be doing book reviews this offseason. Here are some of the titles that I will be looking at:

A Mathematician At The Ballpark By Ken Ross
The Wrong Stuff By Bill "Spaceman" Lee
The Hidden Language of Baseball  By Paul Dickson
Watching Baseball By Jerry Remy with Corey Sandler
Is this a Great Game Or What? By Tim Kurkjian
Mets Fans By Rich Wolfe
Designated Hebrew By Ron Bloomberg and Dan Schlossberg
The Ultimate Minor League Baseball Road Trip By Josh Pahigian
The New York Mets By Richard Grossinger
Baseball Between The Numbers By The Baseball Prospectus Team of Expert
The Ultimate Baseball Road Trip By Josh Pahigian and Kevin O'Connell
Amazin' By Peter Golenbrock
Why is the Foul Pole Fair? By Vince Staten

As a side note, I have no particular scheduel set for which book will be done when, right now I am working on the first book on the list and the last one.

After writing about Fukudome and Kuroda, I wanted to investigate other Japanese players that could be coming over to the majors this year. I am using a list of players from mlb4u.com to learn their names and a little bit about them and then using japanese baseball stat sites to learn about their performance in games.

He currently plays for the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks. Apparently he has won 3 of the last 4 "Cy Young" Awards in Japan, despite having nagging shoulder injuries. According to mlb4u.com, his forkball is devasting, has three breaking pitches, and fastball in the low 90's (seriously check out this site because they have really nice concise scouting reports).

His career ERA is 3.33, and the last two years he has gone 201 innings with a 1.75 ERA (two years ago) and last year 72.1 innings with a 2.74 ERA (so I am assuming he missed some time with one of those nagging shoulder injuries). The year that he pitched 201 innings, he had 205 Strike outs.

Like any pitcher coming to America to the majors, his ERA will shoot up. A "devasting" forkball will help him because its not a common pitch here in America and should give him some lift. I would expect that if he pitched around 200 innings, he would have a simular strikeout rating, but his ERA (once again) will be around 4.50 or so.

Personally, I would like to stay away from Japanese pitchers, there is a lot risk associated, and this pitcher will have to be posted as well, and the cost will be more than Kurdoa.

There have been a lot of rumors recently about the Mets and Jones, and a lot of other blogs talking about the possibility of Rowand, so how would each player affect the lineup?

In my opinion, Jones shifts the lineup from being (ideally) speed based with power to being balanced. This year, he hit for more for power than average. Power wise he will add some pop, but I feel that Wright should stay in the 3 spot, and Beltran in the 4, so then that means that Jones will have to play it out with Alou for fifth, and Delgado could still be in the mix for that spot in the lineup.

Rowand shifts the lineup towards the scrappier side of speed with power, which is something that I personally love. I love watching baseball teams like this and an addition of Eckstein I feel would work very well with Rowand on the team. He is a solid bat that could help add stability to the end of the lineup and raise the OBP for bottom of the lineup, which in turn should help Reyes and his RBI numbers.

Just what I have been thinking about today.

While surfing the net yesterday, I came across the site, mlb4u.com. Which right now is listing players that will be free agents this year or have options that can picked up or declined this year. I was just surfring around and they "predict" (their predictions are not connected to their rumors" that the Mets will pick up right handed starting pitcher Hiroki Kuroda. He would have to be posted.

They have a brief description of his arsenal that includeds a mid-90's fastball, forkball, slider and a reverse slider.

The next step was to find out what a reverse slider is.

A reverse slider, according to wikipedia, is called a shutto in japan (or shootball) and it is thrown to right handed batters primarily by RHP. The difference between the reverse slider and a sinker, which it also looks like, is that the ball has less spin, making it break less and have a higher velocity. It also appears to move like a two seem fastball.

So back to Kuroda, who is 32 years old. He has a carear 3.70 ERA with a 91-81 record. Last year in 26 games, his ERA was 1.85. The year before in 29 games, his ERA was 3.17. That year he pitched 212 innings, last year he pitched 182.

I have a feeling we will be hearing more about him. I still have a lot of doubts that he will be coming the Mets, and still have some doubts that he will be posted, just because this is the first news of him I have ever heard.

Yesterday I lightly touched the topic of Kosuke Fukudome. Lets take a look at the 30 year-old's stats over the last few years. Before we head to the numbers, mlbtraderumors.com points out that Fukudome is going to be a free agent this year, so there will be no posting for him.

In 993 games, he has hit .306. In 130 games in the Japanese 06 season, he hit .351.

In fact over the last 8 seasons he has hit over .300 in four of those seasons. All four of those seasons have been within the last five years hitting .312, .328, .343, and 351. In the year during those five that he did not hit over .300, he hit .277 (the BA's were not in chronlogical order).

He does not have to hit .351 to be a sucess here in America, in fact if he hit over .300, I would say he had a great season, over .315, he had an exeptional season, and over .330 he had an amazin' season.

Over the last 2 seasons, 272 games, he has hit 86 doubles, 59 homers, and 207 RBI's.

Those power numbers, even with a dip, would probably project him to be 5th or 6th batting order player. His averaged would go nice after Alou, but that would mean pushing Delgado back to 7 if they decide to keep Alou.

Now since the Phillies have been eliminated, and the nightmare of Rollins with a new ring has been demolished, I feel its safe to go in depth of the 2008 New York Mets.

The Mets have a few options for the Outfield Next year, lets look at the options as if they dont resign Alou.

1) Milledge, Beltran, Gomez/Chavez
My problem with this plan is that with Chavez platooning with Gomez, it makes the bench that much weaker and our defense that much tired in late inning substitution situations.

2) Spring Training Miracles: Ben Johnson has shown promise in the past. If he has a knockout ST this year, whats stoping that again. This year, I felt like he was blocked by Newhan.

3) Fokudume. Dont know much about him, but he has an extremely high average, I think that will translate better in the majors than high power numbers.

I will look at the other options later this week. I am also getting a book review for later this week as well.

This the preliminary version of Keep'em/Drop'em, referring to the 2008 roster of the New York Mets:

Drop'em:
Schowenwies
Mota
Green (I've been a fan of you for a while, but its time)
Sele
Lawerence
Glavine (love yah man, but its time to get the golf bag)

Keep'em:
Wright
Beltran
Reyes
Gomez
Milledge
Wagner
Maine
Pelfry (some one has to replace Sele in long relief, wouldnt mind him as a starter either)

Not Sure Yet:
There are a few players that I havnt completly figured out my stance on them yet, which will become topics for future posts.
LoDuca
Castillio
Alou

Living in Baltimore, (and now near DC) I always get asked why the Mets. Besides the reasons are have been true for ages (family, place of birth, etc) I have a few other things to say at them, especially someone who is a Phillies fan.

Our players (from this season and the few previous ones) do not brag about themselves. They rarely talk trash, and for the most part are very classy and respect the game.

Heres my slight at Jimmy Rollins, He is not. He is a great player, but sometimes I do question his ethics.

We sometimes boo our own team, but that is because we love. I know Philly fans would love to insert here that they do the same...but when you are knonw for throwing batteries, that "boo because we love" just doesnt seem so real. I will never forget one of my first times at shea. It was a pretty bad season, it was almost over. The Mets lost 10-2. The fans were booing a few players.....and then there was a line outside of the giftshop that just went on forever.

What I am really saying here is that I love this team, especially this 2007 team, beceause although they dropped the ball at the end, they carried themselves well, they do teach good values...and Mets fans are not idiots like other fans in the league.

I woke up today to my floormates hanging newspaper clippings of the Phillies celebrating. I did not apprieciate this one as much as the picture of me as a Washington National Player.