Minaya still wants Manny

[Providence A's]

Just Minaya being Minaya:

http://www.newsday.com/sports/printe...y-sports-print

Mets and Red Sox execs have agreed to discuss Manny Ramirez at the winter meetings in Dallas in early December, and Omar Minaya recently told one baseball person, "I'm going for it."

One thing about Minaya, he loves offense. Another thing: When he falls in love, he falls hard.

While one Mets official characterized their chances to squeeze Ramirez into their budget as "not impossible," he acknowledged that a deal for Ramirez, which would necessitate clearing significant salary space and involve "several moving pieces," won't be easy. And that's only if Ramirez consents to coming home.

Minaya's infatuation is so well known that one of Carlos Delgado's first questions about his new employers was, "Are they going to trade me to Boston for Manny?" The answer, Delgado was told, is no. He's here to stay.

The Angels, deep in young pitching, competed with the Mets for Delgado. Their next logical target could be Ramirez. With Ramirez preferring a slow-paced lifestyle, perhaps they can sell him by changing their name back to Anaheim.

Though Delgado is technically allowed to demand a trade after 2006, there's NO SHOT (the first- ever appearance of all caps in this column) he'd follow through and walk away from his heavily backloaded contract ($34.5 million total in '07 and '08). Which means the Mets have him for three years if they like, whether he likes it or not.

The Mets always seem to add and subtract players every year...I just don't think it will end in a championship for them.

[Providence A's]

http://www.newsday.com/sports/printe...y-sports-print

Sixteen weeks and a day to go until the Mets kick off 2006 with a home game against the Nationals, which means there's time for at least 12 more incarnations of the Manny Ramirez trade discussions.

Manny for Aaron Heilman, Lastings Milledge and Brian Bannister ... Manny for Carlos Beltran and $20 million ... Manny for Kris Benson, Chris Woodward and a "Seinfeld" Season 4 DVD ...

Manny, Manny, Manny. You can get a pre-emptive headache just thinking about what lies ahead.

So here are some holiday shopping tips for Omar Minaya, who clearly regards Manny as his great conquest, his personal Moby Dick:

Give it up.

Focus on your bullpen.

Don't fall into the same trap as the 2002-05 Yankees.

For the moment, things have cooled on the Manny front. As Red Sox senior adviser Bill Lajoie - about 1,000 times more forthcoming than Theo "No, I won't comment on what day of the week it is" Epstein - said Thursday at the winter meetings, "Manny, we were close [to a trade] in our minds before we came here, but not in actuality. We felt we'd be able to do it here, but we weren't."

The Mets, meanwhile, having doled out just about $100 million in commitments to Carlos Delgado, Billy Wagner, Paul Lo Duca and reserves Julio Franco and Jose Valentin, clearly want to rest before making another huge expenditure. Or, at least, trade Benson and Kaz Matsui.

But you can set your watch to it: Be it in the days ahead or after the holidays, Minaya, as long as he has access to a telephone, will check in once again with the Red Sox on Manny, just to hear the latest asking price.

Because of what Minaya already has accomplished this offseason, Ramirez should be his last priority. Offense is no longer a problem for the Mets, thanks to the arrival of Delgado, who figures to provide lineup and spotlight protection for Beltran in addition to serving as a mammoth upgrade over Doug Mientkiewicz.

Yes, the Mets' starting rotation could use some help, but not from Javier Vazquez, who struggled greatly for the Diamondbacks last season, and not with a Milledge-for-Barry Zito swap; I'd rather see Milledge as the leftfielder in 2007.

The rotation is good enough now to make the playoffs, but with a front end of Pedro Martinez and Tom Glavine, neither of whom reaches the eighth inning anymore, they're going to need a deep bullpen to build a bridge to Wagner. How about signing Ricardo Rincon and Rudy Seanez?

Even if the bullpen gets staffed sufficiently and Matsui finds a new home, Minaya should view what happened to the Yankees these past few years.

From 2002 until May of last season, the Yankees kept adding All-Star after All-Star to their lineup and pitching staff, boosting their payroll past the $200-million mark. Little consideration was given to the notion that a good team exceeds the sum of its parts.

And you know what happened. The Yankees, for all of their regular-season success, haven't been able to navigate through an entire October, their huge payroll advantage notwithstanding. They haven't clicked as a unit, committing memorable defensive gaffes, making bad pitches, failing in the clutch.

The 2004 Red Sox had enough team-first guys to allow Manny to be Manny. Maybe the 2006 Mets would, too, but it's not a risk worth taking. There already is a pair of star players here in Delgado and Beltran.

And at Shea Stadium, Ramirez's warts would stand out more. Suddenly, he would have far more real estate to patrol than he does at tiny Fenway Park.

"If the Mets get Manny Ramirez," one American League scout observed, "he'll be the first outfielder sponsored by OnStar." He'll need help finding his way around.

When you commit yourself to Ramirez, an AL general manager observed recently, "You sell your soul a little bit."

No matter how much he hits, it still takes something out of a team when Ramirez vanishes mentally for a week.

The Mets don't need his offense badly enough to tolerate those disappearing acts, or the additional strain on their payroll and farm system.

They need to think small. One day at a time toward Opening Day, like a quitting smoker, Minaya must stay Manny-free.

It's the Mets' best chance for complete success.

This guy thinks they should forget about Manny. I would.