Emergence of the Tampa Bay Rays, Closing of Yankee Stadium, Mets Collapse and More!

Mark Teixeira has signed with the New York Yankees. Boy was my earlier prediction wrong. Here are my thoughts on the signing.

A Lot of talk in the New York area today about the Yankees apparent interest in Manny Ramirez. At the end of the day, my prediction is Manny will sign with the Angels. Where do you think he will end up?

For More Info on Manny Ramirez, check out his player profile on mlb.com

As a Mets fan, I am somewhat concerned as to how the New York Mets will handle the remainder of the off season in terms of signing free agents. It’s been reported that the Mets Principal Owner, Fred Wilpon stands to loose a substantial amount of money due to a fraud case.

The Mets recently signed Francisco Rodríguez to a three-year, $37 million contract but as we all know, the Mets have some major holes in their starting rotating and in Left Field. If Mr. Wilpon does loose a large amount of money, we could see the Mets become a conservative team and not look to bring in any more big name free agent and instead settle on less desirable players. I for one hope this will not be the case.

I don’t think the Mets need to spend money like the Yankees to be successful but they do need to bring in at least one more big name pitcher (Oliver Perez or Derek Lowe) and a big bat (hopefully Manny Ramirez). To do that, the Mets would need to increase the payroll at least another $35 million for 2009. The Mets are one of the richest franchises in baseball but I wonder if the recent issues with the CitiField Naming Rights and now this fraud case will cause the Mets to cut back a little?

As the meetings conclude this evening, I have two main take-a-ways: