Before I start, Let me Say, I am a Mets fan.  I bleed blue and orange.  And unless David Wright is asking for north of 180 million, I believe the New York Mets have to sign him to a long term deal.  The fans have gone through the tough loss to the Cardinals, the collapses to the Phillies, the Madoff scandal and just total lost years.  But there has always been one constant for the Met fans.  They always had homegrown STAR David Wright.  I capitalize star because even though I love David and want him long term on the Mets, he is not a superstar by any means.

Yes David is hitting around .375 and that is amazing.  But that doesn’t make him a superstar.  He also has 5 home runs, five less than J.J. Hardy, tied with Chipper Jones and Scott Hairston.. both who have at least 60 less at bats than David.  Now its not about home runs, its also about driving the runs in, well David is at 18th in the league which is average for all stars at the moment.

Wrights career totals are 300 batting average with 20 home runs and 83 rbi a year.  I am sorry, but that is not close to super star numbers.  While yes he has played in a big ballpark his entire career and then Citi Field didn’t help for three years, he should still be better if he is truly a Superstar.

Average is great, but do you know who is in second with batting average right now?  Melky Cabrera.  He is certainly not a superstar just because he has a high average, and neither should Wright.  Wright has only hit above .315 once in his career, so its hard to believe he will finish above .330.

But the Mets need David Wright.  The Mets fans need David Wright.  As fans we hope Wilpon Alderson and Wright come to fair terms.  He is more valuable to the organization and the fans then Jose Reyes ever will be.  Reyes still might be the better overall player, but David Wright is what the Mets want to be.  Classy, positive and never say die attitude.  That is what Wright is all about, that is what Alderson is all about and that is what Collins is all about.  It’s what Wilpon needs to understand and be all about.

Hopefully David will sign a longterm deal near Mark Texiera money, that seems fair on both accounts to me.

Happy Early St Patties day to everyone. Tomorrow, 3/17, members of TRDMB and NLEC will be at Spring Training for the Mets vs Braves in Port St Lucie.
We will be posting pics, perhaps a live blogging and more notes to follow.

Follow @RealDirtyMets and @nleastchatter on twitter for updates!

In a tweet from Erika Gilbert , Blue Jays GM J.P. Ricciardi is quoted as saying “I think at this point its probably unlikely that we’ll trade Doc.  We’ve got to be motivated to move him, so we haven’t been highly motivated yet”

Will this slow down the rumor mill? Probably not, and we will probably never know if the Mets “declined” offer was real or what may be going on, but I for one never thought he would be traded in season anyway.

Lets see what happens on this rollercoaster.

The biggest news of the day appears to be that according to many reports, including Todd Zolecki’s Twitter, that former Met Pedro Martinez is on his way to Philadelphia.  His latest news says that the physical may not be completed until tomorrow, but a deal is expected by Wednesday.

Zolecki also speaks to different Philly players who send a message to management that they want Halladay.

1st time All-Star Jayson Werth said “”I understand all that, We won last year and we pretty much have the same team this year. If you were ever going to sell the farm I think now would be the time. But that’s just me speaking who has a short window of a career. Ruben (Amaro Jr.) and those guys are going to be there for a long time. It’s a lot to leverage, I know. But I think we’re definitely in a situation where if we did go for it, it could pay off.”

Zolecki includes quotes from Charlie Manuel and Ryan Howard as well in his article.

Finally, the starting lineup is announced and it includes five NL East position players, not bad for what most(including their own fans) label as a terrible division.  It also includes Shane Victorino who Charlie Manuel chose to start for the injured Carlos Beltran in Center field.  The lineup is as follows:

Hanley Ramirez SS

Chase Utley 2B

Albert Pujols 1B

Ryan Braun RF

Raul Ibanez LF

David Wright 3B

Shane Victorino CF

Yadier Molina C

Tim Lincecum P

The Rosters for the 2009 All-Star in St. Louis have been announced, and the National League East has 11 total representatives including 5 positional starters and the Mets leading the way with four representatives.  The players that are listed are below:

Starters Chase Utley 2B Raul Ibanez OF Reserves Ryan Howard 1B

Starters Hanley Ramirez Pitchers Josh Johnson RHP

Starters David Wright 3B Carlos Beltran OF Pitchers Johan Santana LHP Francisco Rodriguez RHP

Reserves Brian McCann C

Reserves Ryan Zimmerman 3B

this is celebrating?

The Mets have signed international free Agent Juan Urbina for a bit over 1M according to MLBTR.  Check MLBTR or our own Real Dirty Mets Blog for more. Juan is son of former Major Leaguer Ugueth Urbina, shown above celebrating a “win”