FanHouse Alex Cora

Footprints in the Snow is FanHouse's look at the paths to be forged by MLB teams this winter as they look ahead to 2010.

At $149,373,987, the New York Mets had the National League's highest payroll in 2009. Their fourth place finish in the NL East, 23 games back in the standings, might suggest that the cash Omar Minaya dished out wasn't money well spent. A closer look reveals a team harassed all season by injuries and a group of hitters that could never find a long-term answer to produce runs.

In the outfield, Carlos Beltran had a potential All-Star season broken up, playing in only 81 games due to a knee injury. In fact, only Jeff Francoeur amassed more than 500 at-bats among Mets outfielders, and he was a mid-season import from the Atlanta Braves.

The infield wasn't spared either as mainstays Carlos Delgado and Jose Reyes had their seasons cut extremely short due to injuries. Even staff ace Johan Santana ended his season early with elbow issues.

The good news is that most of these players are expected to be healthy and ready to go for spring training.

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She's the sideline goddess, the fantasy of just about every male sports fan between the ages of 15 and 40 and she's pretty well-versed in the world of sports, too. She's Erin Andrews, and for years she's been peering into your eyes from the comfort of your television to let you know what the coaches said during that last television timeout.

And on Wednesday night the the evil Alex Cora of the New York Mets tried to do what your girlfriend has secretly been hoping would happen for years now. Andrews was in New York to cover the Mets-Dodgers game for ESPN when Cora fouled off a pitch into the stands. It was a seemingly harmless moment in the game but for one tiny detail. That foul ball hit Erin right on the chin.

NEW YORK – Alex Cora might as well have been swinging a licorice stick. That's how effective his bat had been every time he stepped into the box and looked out at pitcher A.J. Burnett. Cora was 0-for-19 against Burnett, with seven strikeouts, and so of course Cora's manager did the only sensible thing Saturday night, when the Yankees played the Mets.

Jerry Manuel made Cora the Mets' leadoff hitter.

Snorting, charging bulls have been known to treat waving red capes with more kindness.

"The Mets injury woes are becoming so comical that from now on I'm just going to imagine that Snoop and Chris Partlow are bringing starters one by one into vacant homes and shooting them in the head." - Matt W., on the Progressive Boink forums

The important thing to remember here is that now is when the Mets are supposed to be great. They don't start getting bad until the middle of September. If they can hurry up and be bad NOW, maybe they will be good at the END of the season. Or they will be so bad that Major League Baseball demotes them to AAA.

Tonight's Dugout is after the jump.

New York Mets manager Jerry Manuel announced that he's making some lineup changes for Thursday's game. The biggest deal is the fact that he plans to move David Wright down two slots to bat fifth, while moving Beltran up to bat third.

A move from batting third in the batting order to batting fifth doesn't seem like much, but batting order studies have shown that the fantasy devaluation that Wright could take might be dramatic. If the switch is long term Wright could miss out on about 5% of the plate appearances he'd see in the third slot. He would also be subject to a 5% drop in RBI and a 10% drop in home runs. The biggest hit, however, could be in stolen bases, where he could possibly see a 40% drop-off. Does anyone want to see David Wright with these kinds of drop-offs in production?

Coming off of a last-place finish in the AL Central, the Tigers are desperate for upgrades all over the place, including at shortstop, but after splurging big last winter, they're looking to do it at a discount.

As such, Detroit has targeted the Red Sox, who have a logjam at shortstop with rookie Jed Lowrie overtaking Julio Lugo in midseason, and the ability to absorb an albatross contract, namely Nate Robertson's or Dontrelle Willis', in recent weeks.

But according to Michael Silverman of the Boston Herald, those talks have stalled and the chances of a deal between the two clubs is "remote."

The question becomes what now for the Tigers. They'll probably revisit trade discussions with Boston and kick the tires on San Diego's Khalil Greene and Pittsburgh's Jack Wilson, but with the Sox increasingly likely to hold on to Lugo and with the acquisition cost of Greene prohibitive, their options are limited in trade.

They might be even more limited in free agency. Detroit already declined Edgar Renteria's 2009 option and appears unwilling to walk down that road again after only one season. It will certainly be priced out of the Rafael Furcal market and probably the Orlando Cabrera market as well. Add it all up, and the Tigers might be forced to punt the shortstop position in 2009, settling for a platoon of Ramon Santiago and one of the bargain infield options like David Eckstein or Alex Cora.

Footprints in the Snow is FanHouse's look at the paths to be forged by MLB teams this winter as they look ahead to 2009.

The Red Sox may have fallen short of the Rays in the AL East and in the ALCS in 2008, but despite the frustrating end to their season, they actually proved something quite significant and positive. The team that was once known mostly for a championship drought that spanned eight decades is now known as the premier franchise in baseball.

Boston has won the World Series twice since 2004 and been to the ALCS in four of the last six seasons. Perhaps more importantly, GM Theo Epstein has proven deft at mixing in new talent -- at providing stability while also keeping the roster fresh and young. Indeed, the Red Sox have won two championships with two almost entirely different groups of players.

That's going to be more important than ever going forward. The AL East has become a cruel beast and Tampa Bay, not Boston, has suddenly become the young, deep power in the division. With the Yankees looming as well, Epstein is going to have to keep working his magic. Get younger, Theo. Get better. Oh, and be a perennial World Series contender while you're at it.

One of the few chinks in the armor of the Red Sox is Julio Lugo. His bat is prone to long stretches of invisibility, see June 2007, and his glove can undermine the best work of any pitcher. They have taken a look at Jed Lowrie this season but he might not be ready for an everyday job just yet and Alex Cora is best suited to a reserve infielder role.

Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe floats an idea today about a potential replacement.

Omar Vizquel is an intriguing name floated by ESPN's Peter Gammons for helping solve Boston's shortstop problem if Julio Lugo's defense doesn't settle down. Vizquel is quite fond of Boston but would be interested only if he were a starter. He has a close relationship with Manny Ramírez from their Cleveland days. Vizquel still has a terrific glove and can hit.

I'd take a bit of an issue with the notion that Vizquel "can hit." Sure he can but he doesn't, his OPS has been south of 700 in three of the past five seasons. Fenway would probably goose his numbers but if there's a reason to think about this deal it's the improvement he'd bring to the defense.

Vizquel just made his season debut on May 10 so you'd probably like a bit more assurance about his health but if Lugo remains, well, Lugo, it's a deal well worth considering for Boston.

Our MLB editor provides weekly dispatches from major league games in Notes From the Clubhouse.

Manny Ramirez and the sluggish Boston Red Sox arrived in Baltimore very early this morning at the tail end of a tough 10-game road trip. Ramirez sits just two home runs away from the 500th of his career, but he doesn't appear to be letting Boston's 6 AM arrival here in the Charm City slow him down.

As Manny departed the clubhouse for a pre-game workout he pointed to Josh Beckett, the Red Sox starter tonight, and told him he was going to get to 500 homers in the next two days. Ramirez doesn't have a home run against either of the Baltimore starters in this abbreviated series -- Jeremy Guthrie and Daniel Cabrera -- but if Manny feels good, I'm not sure it even matters. He is, after all, one of the top right-handed hitters of this generation.

The other major news to report is that Boston manager Terry Francona has left the team because of a death in the family. His wife's mother passed away last night during the Red Sox's game against the Twins and Francona found out following the game. He could return to the team as early as Thursday, Boston's first off day this month. The Red Sox face the Brewers Friday at Fenway Park to open interleague play.

Brad Mills will take over the managing duties in the meantime, but he doesn't expect much to change. "This is a veteran team, the dynamics are going to stay the same," he said during his pre-game meeting with the press. Mills has been Francona's bench coach since he took over as manager in 2004, and he may eventually have a future as a manager himself, but he isn't thinking about that today. "Not under these circumstances," said Mills.

Not slappy in the way the Michael Barrett-era Cubs were slappy. No, the Sox are slappy in a goodhearted, male-bonded sort of way.

Like our brethren at Surviving Grady, I'm not sure I really understand what's going on in this clip, but that doesn't make it any less awesome.