Sweet, Sweet Omar

Comme je t'aime. I was less than thrilled with the Pedro Martinez signing at the time. My first reaction was that the move seemed consistent with the trades his predecessor made on last season's "Black Friday": terrible down the road and not especially exciting even in the short term. It seemed the Omar Minaya regime would see more of the same brand-name disasters as the late Steve Phillips era. Now I can see what a fool I was.

The four-year, $53MM contract is going to hurt, and that's that. 180 innings of last year's Pedro is worth that kind of money, but it's unlikely the Mets will get that even this year, and come 2008 it's almost certainly going to be an albatross. This is why Theo Epstein didn't want to offer three years.

However, it sounds like Carlos Beltran's coming to the Mets was to some degree a consequence of the Pedro signing. If that's true, and it seems reasonable enough, it goes a long ways towards justifying Omar largesse with the Permed One. I say this because I'm a Carlos Beltran fan. I am. I celebrate his entire catalog of outstanding seasons, and I dont see them stopping in the near future.

Even at those dollars ($119MM/7 years) I think it's good money, as he singlehandedly puts the roster at a level where it's not so hard to imagine Pedro starting a playoff game in Shea.