2009 Offensive Production

It truly is amazing to see the different kinds of rumors that are getting cooked up this Hot Stove season. According to Matt Cerrone of Metsblog, two new Manny Ramirez to the Mets rumors have been hitting his inbox.

The first being that Omar is pulling a sleeper move, and waiting till the days before single game tickets go on sale before acquiring the right handed slugger. The second (and hands down the most outrageous) rumor is that Minaya is working with Scott Boras right now to sign both Oliver Perez and Ramirez. The local LA radio station that reported it stated the deal would involve the Mets getting Oliver at a "discount" so long as the club provides Manny with a guaranteed third year. Wow.

All this Manny talk has me nauseous. I would love it as much as the next fan if we acquired him. Honestly though, I think our offensive production should hold up just fine without him. Here is how our lineup projects as is, along with the projected run production of each player according to Bill James:
  1. Jose Reyes - 117
  2. Luis Castillo - 68
  3. David Wright - 113
  4. Carlos Delgado - 85
  5. Carlos Beltran - 110
  6. Ryan Church - 62
  7. Daniel Murphy - 73 / Fernando Tatis - 34
  8. Brian Schneider - 35 / Ramon Castro - 22
  9. Pitcher - 15 (no projection by James - this is an estimate)
That's 734 runs from the starting lineup alone. Add in projected runs off the bench (Cora, Reed, Anderson, Evans - 104) and you have 838 runs, or 39 more runs than the team produced last year. Though most Met fans are clamouring for him, this offense will be fine with or without Manny.