I've already written one thing about the Mets' outfield, but I think more writing is necessary to fully cover how much the group of guys standing out on the grass sucked last year. Take Jeromy Burnitz...please. Brought in to add some offense to the team, the 33 year old outfielder hit .215/.311/.365 with 19 HRs and 54 RBI. And, unlike some of the Mets' other 2002 flops, there's not much reason to expect him to turn it around. There was nothing much to blame for his troubles other than deteriorating skills and moving into a more severe pitchers' park. He hit .229/.333/.394 against righties and a Timo Perez-like .174/.242/.281 against lefties. There's just no way to justify giving him 500 at-bats again this year.

Luckily, the Mets aren't entirely without a clue, and have been trying to get rid of him, but the outrageous $11.3 million dollars he's getting paid this year have made that difficult. It's rumored that the Padres might be interested, and I say the Mets should do whatever it takes to get a deal done. Having to pay $10 million of his salary for him to play somewhere else wouldn't be as painful to the team as having to pay him $11.3 million to play right field. Even an outfield that had Roger Cedeno in it every day, with Cliff Floyd and a Perez/Shinjo platoon staffing the other two spots, would be better than one with Burnitz in it. The planned Floyd/Cedeno/Burnitz outfield is bound to be two-thirds ugly. Getting rid of Burnitz, by any means necessary, would be a good second step, with the Floyd signing being the first, toward returing the outfield to respectability and productivity.

And if they can't shop him, and he starts off the season looking a lot like the 2002 Burnitz, they should be willing to just bench him. I'm repeating myself from what I said about Cedeno, but paying a guy 11 million dollars to do nothing isn't quite as stupid as paying him 11 million dollars to actively hamper your chances of winning. A perfect outfield for the Mets this season would have a healthy Cliff Floyd in one spot, Shinjo and Perez in another, and either a revitalized Roger Cedeno or someone not currently on the roster in the third. Jeromy Burnitz seems like a good guy, and he worked really hard last year without accomplishing anything, but I just don't see any way he'll be good enough to deserve one of those spots.  ¶ joe | 4:31 PM |