M-E-T-S, yada yada yada

In baseball, I really do think that it's as easy as considering a team's home field when figuring whether they're making the right off-season moves.

Take the Mets.  (Please.)  They play in a cavernous ballpark that robbed their entire lineup of their power in 2009.  Who was their big free agent signing?  Poor outfielder/great power hitter Jason Bay.  Why?

Hey, the Seattle Mariners also play in a pitcher's paradise.  You know who their big free agent signing was?  Slaphitting, speedy, great fielding Chone Figgins.  Smart.

Maybe it's hard to be a general manager in Major League Baseball, but Mets GM Omar Minaya sure makes it all the more difficult for himself.  The transactions he made last off-season (Francisco Rodriguez, J.J. Putz, Livan Hernandez) were designed to bolster the pitching corps.  They led instead to a disastrous 70-92 season.

This off-season there's the Bay deal and most recently a trade for outfielder Gary Matthews, Jr., who has been steadily producing diminishing results over the past three years.  If Matthews couldn't hit in Anaheim, how is he going to hit in New York?

The AL East gets a bad rap for having the Yankees and Red Sox perpetually at the top, but the Atlanta Braves won eleven straight NL East division titles and now it's looking like a fourth straight Phillies division title, isn't it?  They should send Omar Minaya a thank you card.

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