Omar's not done yet...

"Mets and Red Sox execs have agreed to discuss Manny Ramirez at the winter meetings in Dallas in early December, and Omar Minaya recently told one baseball person, "I'm going for it.""

"The Daily News obtained a copy of the advertisement yesterday that announces: "Manny's on board: Mets on the rise.""

That first quote is new, the second one is from Wednesday morning. Omar is clearly obsessed with offense and really wants to have Ramirez in Flushing. Who can blame him? The problem is, at what cost do you acquire Ramirez for? It's no secret that Boston wants to rid themselves of that contract (irrevocable waivers, benching him the days before the trade deadline, pressing the Mets to trade for him every offseason since signing him, and so on), but it's also no secret that nobody but the Mets really want him. The Indians passed up on the chance to bring back their past (apparently losing Thome and Ramirez as free agents has left them bitter and wouldn't allow them to consider trading for either). The Dodgers and Angels just can't add the payroll (and the Angels kind of have a thing about "negative clubhouse players" ever since that whole Jose Guillen experiment; interestingly they didn't win a single playoff game without him), and the Diamondbacks have been bankrupt for quite some time (despite adding Richie Sexson, Troy Glaus, Shawn Green, Russ Ortiz and so on since then), and the other options for Ramirez just don't add up. That really leads to one destination for Ramirez: Flushing, New York.

Omar needs to realize this, he needs to realize that Boston wants to move Ramirez. He also needs to realize that they want to save money so that they can resign Damon, go after Giles, and sign Beckett long term (and maybe go after his former teammate Burnett). Boston is at Omar's mercy, it shouldn't be the other way around. We just watched the Mets give up too much for Delgado, while the same Marlins were incredibly ripped off by the Red Sox (who by the way demanded that Florida throw in Guillermo Mota at the last second). Boston realized that the Marlins needed to dump Lowell on somebody, and that they would gladdly package real talent along with him (and it's not like having a gold glover who has hit before is a bad thing), it's your turn Omar. The Mets should not give up Milledge, Bannister, Hernandez (Gaby, the pitcher), Humber or David Wright (that's kind of obvious) to get Ramirez. Instead they should offer something like Xavier Nady and Jae Seo. It may seem ridiculous, but Boston may do it to remove that paycheck from their payroll. I don't know about anybody else, but I'd like this lineup in 2006:

1)Reyes SS
2)Beltran CF
3)Wright 3B
4)Ramirez RF/LF
5)Delgado 1B
6)Floyd LF/RF
7)Hernandez/LaRue C
8)Play the magical guessing game 2B

It might win a few games...