Should the Mets have traded Heilman for Marquis

Dan Graziano of the Star Ledger takes a look at a trade the Mets are reported to have passed up last month. Aaron Heilman for Jason Marquis, while I'm not sure about that deal I have to agree with Dan on the rest of his article. Graziano goes on to take a look at how the Mets are approaching this off-season, it seems like Omar thinks he's back in Montreal and not the GM of a New York team. The Mets have a brand new stadium with sold out luxury boxes, a very successful network and record attendance but they are already selling themselves low. I have no problem with the Mets getting out bid on players and ending up settling but it seems like they're not even in on guys.

Earlier this off-season, the Mets had the opportunity to trade Aaron Heilman for a 30-year-old pitcher who's averaged 32 starts and 13 wins for the past five years while his teams won four division titles and a World Series. As part of the deal, the Chicago Cubs were willing to pay part of the pitcher's $9.875 million salary in 2009, the year before he became a free agent.

But the Mets passed on the deal because they didn't think they're trying to use Heilman in other deals (for bullpen help) and because they didn't think Jason Marquis was better than what they have in their projected 2009 rotation. source Star Ledger