Peter Gammons of ESPN has reported that the Mets don’t currently have the trading chips to acquire one of the Athletics pitchers, Dan Haren or Joe Blanton. They were also denied a trade for Erik Bedard late last week. With that said, it may be time for the Mets to look elsewhere. Here is a list of potential targets and what they are valued at.

LHP Dontrelle Willis (Florida Marlins) - The Marlins have stated that they are willing to listen to offers for Willis, though they are expected to retain him for the 2008 season, or at least until the July 31st trading deadline. Willis is coming off his worst season of his career, going 10-15 with a 5.17 ERA. Throughout the past three seasons, Willis’ strikeout to walk ratio has decreased each season. In 2005, Willis struck out 170 while walking 55. The following season in 2006, he notched 160 strike outs while walking 83. Finally, last season, he struck out 146 and walked 86.

Potential Suitors: Mets, Reds, Mariners, and Diamondbacks

Cost: Two young players

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Bartolo Colon (Free Agent) - Colon could definitely be a high-reward/high-risk signing for any team that picks him up. He has played only 28 starts due to his battle with shoulder and elbow problems since the beginning of the 2006 season. Omar once traded prospects Grady Sizemore, Cliff Lee and Brandon Phillips in a deal for Colon when he was general manager for the Expos.

Potential Suitors: Mets, Padres, Rangers, Diamondbacks, Phillies, Mariners, Nationals

Cost: One-year, $9 million deal or two-year, $16 million

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Carlos Silva (Free Agent) - The 28-year old Silva currently leads a very thin market of starting pitchers. He went 13-14 with a 4.19 ERA for the Twins last season and figures to cash in at around $10 million a season with another team. Plenty of teams remain interested in him, though most of them plan to use him as a fall back option and prefer to look to the trade market before committing a large contract to him.

Potential Suitors: Mets, Royals, Cardinals, Tigers, Phillies

Cost: 4-Years, $40 million

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Livan Hernandez (Free Agent) - Hernandez is an innings eater. He has not pitched less than 200 innings in any season since 1999. He went 11-11 with a 4.93 ERA for the Diamondbacks last season. The Mets lost a 200 inning pitcher in Glavine to the Braves via free agency and they need to find a way to fill those lost innings. The team have made it known that Livan is more likely a Plan C or D. The fact that his half-brother El Duque is on this team and his history with Omar in Montreal makes him a strong candidate to be a Met in 2008.

Potential Suitors: Mets, Astros, Cardinals

Cost: Three-years, $21 million

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Hiroki Kuroda (Free Agent) - The 33-year old right hander went 12-8 in 26 starts with a 3.56 ERA for the Hiroshima Carp last season in Japan. Scouts project him to become a middle of the rotation starter in the MLB. Conflicting reports have come out recently that the Mariners have have offered him a contract. One report says that it was for three-years, $30 million. The other states that they offered him four-year, $44 million.

Potential Suitors: Mets, Mariners, Dodgers, Royals, Phillies, Cubs, Rangers

Cost: Four-year deal, $45 million

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Jayson Stark of ESPN reports that A’s GM Billy Beane asked the Yankees for two of Phil Hughes, Joba Chamberlain, and Ian Kennedy for Haren.  The Red Sox were asked for two of Clay Buchholz, Jon Lester, and Jacoby Ellsbury.  The Mets are being asked for Carlos Gomez and Fernando Martinez.

Stark also writes that if the Angels land Miguel Cabrera, the A’s would go into a full fire sale, and would likely offer up Huston Street, Dan Johnson, Mark Kotsay, and Rich Harden in addtion to Haren and Blanton. 

I’ve been saying for awhile now that people are fooling themselves thinking its going to be easy to land a Dan Haren. Again, the more realistic option is to get Joe Blanton, who would be a very good pitcher in the National League.

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The two top targets the Mets will likely be zeroing in on at the Winter Meetings starting today are Erik Bedard and Dan Haren.

According to industry sources of the Baltimore Sun, the Orioles rejected a trade offer recently by the Mets for Erik Bedard which included 21-year-old outfield prospect Carlos Gomez, reliever Aaron Heilman, 29, and a third player, believed to be right-handed starter Philip Humber, 24.

However, Roger Rubin at the New York Daily News reports that the Mets offered Lastings Milledge at that time, not Carlos Gomez. Including Gomez or Ryan Church, along with Mike Pelfrey instead of Philip Humber might be seen as a more competitive offer.

The one thing the Mets do have going for them is that its unlikely the Orioles will want to trade Bedard within their division to the Yankees or Red Sox, if one or both of them were to lose out on Johan Santana.

The A’s would likely look for even more in return for Dan Haren because of his very attractive contract. Haren is signed through 2009 with a club option for 2010. He receives $4 million in 2008, $5.5 million in 2009, and his club option is $6.75

A more realistic option might be Joe Blanton along with signing either Carlos Silva or Livan Hernandez. Blanton had a 3.95 ERA last year with a 1.22 WHIP. He was 6th in Rookie Of The Year voting in 2005 when he had a 3.53 ERA and 1.22 WHIP.

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Ken Rosenthal of FOXSports.com reports that the Mets most recent offer made for SP Dan Haren was considered more suitable for SP Joe Blanton.

Ken also notes that the A’s are no longer as interested in Mets OF Lastings Milledge and RHP Aaron Heilman as they were when they tried to acquire them for LHP Barry Zito in 2006. The A’s have found solutions for starters in the corner outfield spots and are looking for a long-term answer in centerfield. The A’s consider Milledge more of a corner outfielder. Carlos Gomez seems to be the more attractive option.

Milledge appeared in 14 games in centerfield last season in relief of Beltran who was injured, committing just one error and two assists in 120 innings.

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I want to introduce myself to the Hot Foot audience. My name is Mike Silva and I am the host of Gotham Baseball Live. Anthony has been kind enough to allow me to blog on Hot Foot weekly and share some thoughts on the Mets. Although my show involves all of NY Baseball, I would like to share Mets and general baseball content with the site from time to time.

Today I published at my blog this article, that discussed a comparison between Dan Haran, Erik Bedard, and Johan Santana. Take a read on those stats and tell me you don’t get excited about Erik Bedard? I understand that Santana is the best pitcher in baseball, but from a return perspective you might even be able to solve your catching (Ramon Hernandez) and relief pitching (Chad Bradford) needs in one deal. Some food for thought here on a Thursday morning. What are your thoughts?

Also in case you guys are interested Matt Cerrone of Metsblog and Marc Malusis of WFAN will be on my winter meetings preview show. I will be announcing this tomorrow on my blog. The show will be Sunday at 7pm on Blog Talk Radio. All next week my colleagues Mark Healey and Paul Greco will be in Nashville doing multiple show updates every day. I will keep you posted on any updates.

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At Yahoo, Tim Brown writes a thorough article discussing potential trade opportunities coming up at the winter meetings.

For each player, he lists the player’s contract, realistic trade partners, upside and downside to the player, the cost to get him and who he predicts as the favorite to land the player.

Brown writes that the Mets would make sense as trade partners for Johan Santana, Dan Haren, Dontrelle Willis, Erik Bedard and Joe Blanton.

He lists the Mets as the favorites for Haren, Willis and Blanton. Brown lists the Yankees as the favorite for Bedard and the Diamondbacks as the favorite for Bedard.

Well, its nice to hear that we are favorites for getting Haren, Blanton and Willis, especially Haren. He’d really be great at the top of the rotation for years to come, not that Blanton and Willis wouldn’t be good fits.

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The following is an unconfirmed rumor:

According to WFAN, the Mets are set to make an offer of OF Carlos Gomez, SP Deolis Guerra, and SP Kevin Mulvey for Athletics SP Dan Haren and RP Kiko Calero.

Haren, 27, started 34 games for the A’s in 2007 and went 15-9 with a 3.07 ERA. Calero, 32, went 1-5 for the A’s last season with a 5.75 ERA in 40.2 innings pitched.

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John Delcos on his blog for the Journal News, makes a very good case for passing on Johan Santana, assuming the Mets had a realistic chance at obtaining him.

Delcos cites several reasons why a smaller deal for Dan Haren or Erik Bedard makes more sense. He lists Santana’s average season last year and the need to eventually replace Pedro Martinez, Orlando Hernandez, Carlos Delgado and Moises Alou in the next year as reasons why giving up affordable prospects who could fill roles could be a bad decision.

Delcos also reminds you that a pitcher will only help you win every 5 days, while a position player has multiple chances everyday to help you win.

First off, I have to give props to John, who does a great job on his Journal News blog. Its a great resource for keeping a pulse on the team from someone who has insider access to the team. John tells it like it is and is usually pretty good at reading the tea leaves.

I, along with a lot of other fans get caught up in all this excitement surrounding a pitcher of Santana’s stature being available, and sometimes lose sight of the big picture. John makes a great point that while Santana is an amazing pitcher, he’s only going to help the team every five days. Sure that could be the difference between the post season or going home, which we saw very clearly this past September. One game could mean all the difference. However, a position player is going to contribute just about every day.

Going after Dan Haren might allow you to use one less prospect, and Erik Bedard might cost you even less. You then have one or more less positions to fill and fill them at a tremendous discount, allow you to spend more money to plug more holes.

This of course assumes you could get a Haren or a Bedard, which remains to be seen. The Mets are also facing stiff competition just to get Santana, so they’re going to be looking at many other options. John makes a good case for the alternatives.

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Tyler Bleszinski (also known as “Blez”) is founder of Athletics Nation, the flagship of the SB Nation network of sports blogs and has one of the highest trafficked volumes of any non-political blog.

Athletics Nation has attracted a large following due to Bleszinski’s ability to get interviews from many people well connected to the Athletics. He has interviewed local beat writers, players and coaches on the Athletics, General Manager Billy Beane, and team owner Lew Wolff. In March 2005 Bleszinski became the first blogger to be given press credentials to a Major League Baseball team during spring training.

I wanted to get a sense from Tyler what the Athletics intentions are this off season, with the rumors that Beane is considering breaking up the team, and in particular the prospect of him dealing Dan Haren.

Anthony De Rosa : How serious do you think Beane is about trading Dan Haren? What team do you think could offer the best package in return for him?

Tyler Bleszinski : This isn’t avoiding the question, but I don’t know because I don’t think Beane knows. I truly don’t think Beane has decided which direction to go for 2008 yet and that’s because some of the key cogs for the season are still big question marks, health wise.

Guys like Justin Duchscherer and Eric Chavez who are crucial to the A’s being competitive this year had surgeries and no one knows whether they’re going to be 100 percent healthy. As for what team do I think could offer the best package, I would say it would probably be the Dodgers. The Dodgers system is stacked with young talent that is on the verge of contributing and contributing immediately.

Course I do know that Beane loves Milledge. I just think it’s going to take a truckload of talent for Billy to be willing to part with a guy who was the best pitcher in baseball for three months this past season and is still relatively cheap and still on the way up.

Anthony : Does Beane covet Lastings Milledge and Aaron Heilman as much as some folks who follow the Mets seem to think? What kind of package do you think the Mets would need to offer to get Haren? What would the A’s want in return from the Mets for Rich Harden or Joe Blanton?

Tyler : Yes, he definitely does covet Milledge. He told me that he wanted to draft him a few years ago. I’m not as sure about Heilman. In order to pull in Haren, the Mets would likely have to give up Heilman, Maine and Milledge to get him. That probably wouldn’t work for the Mets, but Haren would give the Mets a proven young ace something they desperately need. Harden or Blanton might be a lot more realistic. Blanton in particular. Blanton had a very good year and is only getting better and he wouldn’t cost as much in return as Haren. Harden could probably be had for even less given his uncertainty and injury problems in recent seasons.

Anthony : The A’s have been pretty successful working within the restrictions they’ve placed upon themselves and being fiscally responsible. Despite that, as an A’s fan, does it bother you at times that the team does not tend to try to retain their players once they reach free agency eligibility, especially a guy with as much promise as Haren?

Tyler : Honestly, no because they’ve largely remained in contention for nearly a decade with that philosophy. Does it make it harder at times to constantly be saying goodbye to players you get attached to? Oh yeah. But fans of the green and gold have become accustomed to rooting for the laundry during Beane’s tenure. Now last year was an aberration because of the historic amount of injuries the A’s had, but I think this team could’ve been in contention had they not be ravaged by sending players to the DL.

If the team decides to go for it and try and win the West this year and doesn’t have injury issues and the team continues a downward spiral, then it will get frustrating that the team didn’t retain some of that premium talent. Although it would’ve be fun to see what this team could’ve done had it been able to retain Hudson and Giambi and Tejada.

Anthony : How serious are the A’s about moving out of Oakland, and do you think it could potentially increase their revenue and fan base making it easier for them to extend their payroll?

Tyler : Dead serious. And it will happen. It will either be Fremont, California or the team will wind up finding another place altogether. The City of Oakland never really wanted to retain the A’s. And yes, I do think it could increase the revenue quite a bit which would hopefully lead to some of the young talent the A’s develop staying here longer-term.

Anthony : Who are some of the top prospects in the A’s system at this time and how close are they to joining the major league club?

Tyler : The A’s system doesn’t really have a lot of guys who are on the edge of making the team. The big prospects that they’ve had in the system will likely start the year in Oakland. Guys like Travis Buck, Kurt Suzuki and Daric Barton wound up being rushed last year, likely because of the injury problems and the team being out of contention. Suzuki never gets the chance if the team is in contention. Barton might’ve wound up staying with the minor league affiliate all year. Hopefully the time they got last year will give them the opportunity to shine this year. It’s a shame too because Travis Buck probably would’ve won rookie of the year had he been healthy all year.

Anthony : Does Barry Bonds being indicted, along with the Angels seeming to making a major push to spend money this off season seem to push the A’s closer to a rebuilding process this season, and how drastic do you think the club will look to sell off their parts?

Tyler : I’m not so sure the Angels have made themselves all that much better yet except for the fact that signing Hunter probably means that Vlad has a better chance of staying healthier now. At the same time, if the Angels also go out and wind up with Miguel Cabrera then all bets are off because the Angels would likely finally have some quality hitting to go along with their quality pitching. I think that the biggest thing that will make Beane decide to sell off parts is whether or not he gets medical reports that say his players will likely be healthy in 2008. If he doesn’t get a positive health report from his medical staff, then I think he’ll decide to go into rebuilding mode.

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