Kevin Appier may not be a big name but for a reasonably cheap price he will do the job just as well as Mike Hampton did.

Since the Mets do not make any profit during the season until the postseason starts, Steve Phillips had a tight budget to work under and he still managed to pull in some solid players.

Lets start by looking at Alex Rodriguez. Rodriguez is going to receive $25.2 million dollars per year. If the Mets had signed him they would not have been able to fill in all five spots in their pitching rotation and they would have not been able to resign Franco, Turk or Reed. Signing a guy like Ramirez or Arod would have handcuffed the Mets, not allowing them to make any other significant moves.

Phillips only real failure this offseason is not being able to resign Mike Hampton. Now I'm not saying Kevin Appier is anywhere near as good as Hampton. But I am saying that the two pitchers both won 15 games last year and Appier only lost one more game (11) than Hampton (10). Something most Mets fan are overlooking is the fact that Mike Hampton did not win 22 games as a Met. That was the season before. Kevin Appier does not have to win 20 games to replace Hampton, he has to win around 15 games.

The day after the Mets sign Kevin Appier to replace Hampton, the new broke out that they reached an agreement with free agent journeyman starter Steve Trachsel, who went 8-15 last year. And obviously a team competing for a World Championship should not have a pitcher who loses 15 games. But remember how many times Glendon Rusch lost games that he should have won due to that fact that the Mets could not score runs for him. Well Trachsel had the same problem with the Devil Rays last year. Both Rusch and Trachsel were league leaders in lowest run support per start. With some solid run support from the Mets this season Trachsel should win around 11 games and Rusch would win up to 15 games.

Phillips did leave one large whole in the Mets outfield. Jay Payton and Benny Agbayani will be regular outfielders. But there is still a large questions to who he starting right fielder will be. Or will it be a combination of Daryl Hamilton and Timo Perez? Or does Steve still have another trick left up his sleeve? If Timo Perez could return to his NLCS form for a full season this is not a question Mets fans will have to worry about. Only time will tell the answer.

And the old saying "If it ain't broken, don't fix it" does not apply to Steve Phillips because he bolstered the already fabulous Mets bullpen. Phillips added Padres' star reliver Donne Wall and possible surprise Tom Martin. Since the rotation got a little weaker Phillips decided to strengthen the already strong bullpen and it was a good move to make.

So just because Phillips did not sign Alex Rodriguez does not mean this offseason has been a total failure. The value of some of these moves like signing Steve Trachsel will have to prove themselves during the course of the season. Let these moves speak for themselves before you judge them just because none of them have big names or frills attached.