Johan Who?

Yes Mets fans, that's right. Instead of a shiny new dominant LHP under your tree this Christmas morning the management that brought you a %20 ticket price increase is pleased to present The Jacket's newest reclamation project - Kyle Lohse.

A man who gave up a grand slam to Kaz Matsui - and no, it wasn't on opening day - is the starting pitcher that the Mets are "zeroing in on." This after they offered $40 mil/4 years for Carlos Silva only to be brushed aside by the Mariners. Yes, the career 1.368 WHIP Carlos Silva.

Omar undoubtedly has Tony Reagins and Josh Byrnes on speed dial frantically inquiring about Bartolo Colon and Livan Hernandez - just in case the whole Kyle "career 4.82 ERA, 1.432 WHIP, and 95 ERA+" Lohse thing doesn't pan out.

Thank you Mets, thank you Omar, thank you Freddy Coupon, thank you Jeffy, thank you, thank you, thank you.

Hope Springs...

All the thanks to Riding with Rickey for this...If he makes them, I'll place my order. Kinkos won't give me a reasonable price for blowing up the "Choked to Death" NY Post cover - featuring the unluckiest non-devastated taxi rider in the city.

Lastly, someone needs to get on the Lastings Milledge Facts and re-coordinate the color scheme...navy and red perhaps? I'm sure Metstradamus would be up to the task.

In other news concerning the still Victor Zambrano-less Metropolitans, Omar is upbeat and confident something will get done...to improve the team that is.

From David Lennon in Newsday:

"The fact that we are having dialogue, you know you're in the game," Minaya said. "But it's really hard to tell. I can tell you when these things develop, they develop quickly. There's a lot of back-and-forth going on and we're pretty much in the back-and-forth area."

Minaya found Aaron Heilman to be in great demand, and a National League official confirmed that there was talk about swapping him for Rockies lefthanded reliever Brian Fuentes, as first reported by Foxsports.com. Minaya is likely to need Heilman, however, in a bigger deal for the top starters on the market.

Now pay attention here: Lennon throws some of those scented wood shavings on the pile of vomit that was the Bartolo Colon/Livan Hernandez rumors. Is everyone paying attention? You can come in off the ledge now. Yes, I'm talking to you 'Damus, Rickey, and just about every other Met fan with half a brain.

If the Mets are unable to do that, Minaya did not sound very enthusiastic about the free-agent market, so it doesn't appear that adding Livan Hernandez, Bartolo Colon or the rehabbing Freddy Garcia is an appetizing fallback position. Rather than package pitching prospect Kevin Mulvey, the Mets could always give him the chance to win a rotation spot and skip the free agents.