Say what?!

" The Mets are moving toward dealing starter Kris Benson to the Orioles for reliever Jorge Julio..."

Huh? The Mets are in need for better starting pitchers, so they trade one of their better options for an overpaid, crappy reliever? What can Julio do that Benson can't? I can surely name some things that Benson can do that Julio can't, like throwing strikes, pitching for more than a few outs, getting batters out, having a sub 5 ERA. I just don't get it. This is an obvious cash dump, and it is dump number 2 of the offseason for Minaya (and the Mets overpaid to get that cash from Florida). The Mets are losing 33 million in payroll from last year, they are adding a new sports network (which will rake in the money)and yet they are downgrading talent to save money? Forget this whole "this means that we'll get Zito or Vazquez now" idea, obviously we didn't need to trade Benson to do so, so why can we now acquire him? The Mets are actually looking like they will drop their salary from 2005 to 2006. If the Mets so baddly desired a relief pitcher with nasty stuff who just has to put it together, they already have one in Zambrano (who I really believe can be lights out in the pen) and they had Farnsworth on the market, but hey, let's trade Benson for a 2.5 million dollar a year AAAA relief pitcher! If this trade goes down, it's a .5 out of 5 for the Mets, and 5 out of 5 for the Orioles...