Garland, Sheets Off the Table
Remove the garland from the Christmas tree, and get Lazy Mary to pull the sheets from her bed.
A little late on this, but reporting it so you can post your comments — Ben Sheets agreed to a one-year, $10M deal with the Oakland Athletics, and Jon Garland signed a one-year, $4.7M deal with the San Diego Padres.
As mentioned in the previous post, Sheets + Oakland makes a lot of sense for both parties.
Garland, I imagine, preferred to be on the Left Coast, so it’s possible the Mets were never a possibility considering their Right Coast locale. Additionally, he has a nice opportunity to hurl a stress-free year in a huge pitcher’s park — a good formula for boosting his value when he becomes a free agent again next winter.
Additionally, former Cub prospect Rich Hill signed a minor-league deal with the Cardinals. The lefthander had a breakout season in 2007, then forgot how to throw strikes. This is a very under-the-radar move that could very well turn out wonderful for St. Louis. Can’t you just see Hill suddenly finding himself under the tutelage of Dave Duncan?
In other belated reporting, you may or may not have heard that the Phillies signed Jose Contreras to a cheap one-year deal. I don’t think the Mets were ever a player for his services, and I don’t believe he would’ve been a good idea. Most reports speculate that Contreras will begin 2010 in the Philly bullpen.
Finally, the latest buzz is that Jarrod Washburn is leaning toward the Twins and Mariners.
So, who’s left on the open market for the rotation? Looks to me like Braden Looper, John Smoltz, and Pedro Martinez are the best of the best. Ouch. In other words, Omar Minaya best be burning the phone lines talking trade with other GMs to find another arm or two.
Mets Game 144: Loss to Phillies
Phillies 1 Mets 0
Well, at least they weren’t swept. Though, they were mathematically eliminated from winning the NL East (the Mets are now 20 games behind the Phillies with 18 games left to play).
Tim Redding continued his remarkable ability to mystify the most powerful offense in the National League, holding the Phillies to one measly run on three hits in six innings. However, Pedro Martinez was just a little better, shutting out the Mets through eight frames — allowing six hits, two walks, and striking out seven in an inspiring and emotional 130-pitch effort.
You remember Pedro — the guy who insisted he was finally healthy and practically begged the Mets to give him one more year of pitching in New York?
With Brad Lidge remaining on the bench, the Mets had little chance of coming back in the ninth. Instead, Ryan Madson came on to earn his eighth save of the season.
Notes
The Mets scattered seven hits, more than doubling the Phillies’ three. But hits are irrelevant if they don’t score runs.
Pedro’s change-up was thrown as slow as 75 MPH and as fast as 87 MPH. He was 90-91 on most of his fastballs. His 125th and 126th pitches of the night were clocked at 91 MPH.
Pedro is now 5-0 with a 2.87 ERA and has yet to “disrupt” the Phillies clubhouse with his “poisonous” personality — which was predicted by such “experts” as Seth Everett and Don LaGreca. (The Phillies are 7-0 in his starts.)
Once Jeremy Reed replaced Fernando Tatis in left, joining Carlos Beltran in center and Cory Sullivan in right, the Mets fielded perhaps the best defensive outfield combination in their history.
Did anyone else see Kevin Burkhardt competing against Roger Federer between games? The commute would’ve been a lot easier if the Mets were playing at home.
Today’s Baseball Lesson
With two outs and Pedro on pitch #130, Dan Murphy broke for third on a ball in the dirt, only to be thrown out by Carlos Ruiz. Youngster, take heed of this baseball absolute: NEVER, EVER make the first out or the third out at third base. EVER. The reason you don’t make the last out at third is because you are already in scoring position at second base, and with two outs you can only score on a hit. OK, if you’re on third base there is a chance you can score on a wild pitch, but those are fairly rare (except at the very low levels) and they don’t occur often enough to make it worth the gamble of advancing to third — it’s a low-percentage play. In contrast, with less than two outs, it’s OK to be more aggressive in advancing to third because you can score on an out (i.e., sacrifice fly or ground out) — your options are greatly broadened. Dan Murphy standing on second base with two outs and standing on third base with two outs is essentially the same situation — in either case your most likely chance of scoring is on a ball hit to the outfield that falls safely.
Next Mets Game
The Mets have Monday off, and will travel to Atlanta to begin a three-game set with the Braves. Game one begins at 7:00 PM and pits Pat Misch against Tommy Hanson.
Mets Game 124: Loss to Phillies
Phillies 9 Mets 7
You can’t say this game wasn’t entertaining.
What began as another circus-like outing by Oliver Perez turned out to be an unusually tenacious effort by the Mets.
Perez allowed two three-run homers in two-thirds of an inning and was on the verge of walking Pedro Martinez when he was replaced by Nelson Figueroa in the initial inning. Other than putting an end to the first frame, Figgy wasn’t terribly effective, allowing another two scores before yielding to Pat Misch. Misch proved he’s much better in the role of long man than LOOGY by holding the fort for four full frames, allowing just one hit and striking out four. His performance allowed the Mets to chip away and make the final innings interesting.
Meanwhile, Pedro Martinez’s return to Flushing was somewhat emotional and otherwise unimpressive — though he pitched well enough to earn his second win as a Phillie. He “held” the Mets to four runs in six innings, then let the Phillie bullpen finish up.
Going into the bottom of the ninth, the Mets were down by three but Angel Pagan led off with a triple by getting to third on a three-base error by Ryan Howard to spark a rally and ignite the Citi Field crowd. After two consecutive misplays by Chase Utley’s understudy Eric Bruntlett, the Mets had men on first and second with no one out and Jeff Francoeur at the plate. Perhaps to guard against a rally-killing double play, Jerry Manuel put on a hit-and-run — which did keep them out of a DP but created instead a TP. With the runners moving, Francoeur ripped a liner up the middle that was snared by previous goat Bruntlett, who stepped on second base to eliminate Luis Castillo, then tagged oncoming runner Dan Murphy to complete an unassisted triple play that ended the inning and the game.
Notes
Before Mets fans gripe that the triple play was “a lucky break”, they should remember that Pagan’s “triple” sneaked under Howard’s glove and that the Mets were “lucky” that Bruntlett muffed the next two balls to create the situation. If anything, the Mets’ luck was running out.
Again, is it safe to say Pat Misch is better suited to multiple innings, than to be used as a per-batter specialist?
Pagan hit an inside-the-park homer to lead off the first, though it would’ve been a triple had the ball not lodged under the padding in centerfield, causing Shane Victorino to give up on the play and raise his hands to the umpires. Apparently, Victorino was not cognizant of the ground rules at Citi Field.
Luis Castillo continued his hot-hitting, going 3-for-4 and raising his average to .321. He remains in fourth place among NL hitters — three points behind the disabled David Wright.
Dan Murphy also had three hits, hitting out of the three-hole (“I bat third”). His efforts also produced a run scored and another driven in. Murph is now 10 for his last 30 with 4 doubles and 2 RBI.
Next Mets Game
The final game of this four-game series begins at 1:10 PM on Monday afternoon. Bobby Parnell begins the game against Cliff Lee.
Viva Pedro Martinez
As if things couldn’t get worse for Mets fans, Pedro Martinez made good in his first start in 2009, allowing the Cubs 3 runs on 7 hits in 5 innings en route to his first win as a Philadelphia Phillie.
Yes, Pedro fulfilled the prophecy of being “only” a five-inning pitcher. But, he doesn’t need to be much more at the back-end of the Phillies rotation. And anyway, how many starters on the Mets not named Johan are a lock to pitch five innings these days?
But who cares, right? The Mets aren’t going anywhere this year, anyway. Pedro would have stolen valuable innings from people who could help the team in the future, such as Tim Redding and Elmer Dessens.
Pedro Martinez a Phillie?
MetsBlog posted a link to the latino publication Candela Deportivo, which states that the Phillies have made an offer to, or signed, Pedro Martinez.
If true, it’s not surprising — not when the Phillies are sending the likes of Rodrigo Lopez to the mound. Assuming he’s healthy, Pedro can give the Phils 5-6 competitive innings every five days, and can probably win at least half of them (see: Jamie Moyer).
I shudder to think what a Pedro vs. Mets game might look like. You know he’d turn it up a notch.
Personally, I love watching Pedro, even as an aging, mediocre pitcher. Likely, he wouldn’t have made much of a difference to the Mets’ 2009 season, but he would have at least given me more reason to pay attention to the games in which he pitched. I’d pay to see a broken-down Pedro before I’d pay to see Tim Redding, for example.
Tom Glavine Released
Tom Glavine has been released by the Atlanta Braves, just as he was on the brink of returning from shoulder and elbow surgeries.
Glavine had just enjoyed a 6-inning, 64-pitch outing in a final tuneup for Rome, an A-level minor league club. He did not allow any runs and 44 of those tosses were for strikes.
It is assumed that the Braves are not in a position to add Glavine to the 25-man roster, and in fact are in the market for hitting, and decided to dump Glavine for budgetary reasons. Glavine was to earn a $1M bonus if the Braves added him to the active roster, another $1.25 after 30 days of being with the Braves and then $1.25 million more after 90 days.
Without having to pay Glavine the bonus money, the Braves can use those dollars instead in an effort to add a veteran bat.
Are the Mets in the market for a starter, or are they going to continue to send Tim Redding to the mound in hopes he’ll come around? If they ARE in the market, is Glavine a consideration? Would he be cheaper than Pedro Martinez? Healthier than Ben Sheets? Better than Tim Redding?
If so, did the final game of 2008 erase the fans’ memory of the last game of 2007?
Pitching Options (None)
In Adam Rubin’s column today, it was suggested that the Mets might shake up the starting pitching rotation, and/or consider adding an eighth reliever to fit the role of long man:
Manuel mentioned after the Mets’ fourth straight loss that the club may be forced to add an eighth reliever, to guard against overworking the current bullpen with the starting pitchers not going deep enough into games.
Hmm … who might the Mets have who can fill that role? Read more
Oliver Perez Signed
Finally, the Mets signed Oliver Perez.
The contract is a very fair three years at $36M. Not too much for the Mets to feel hamstrung in the event Ollie spends more time as Mr. Hyde, and not so little that Perez should feel slighted. And in fact, the three-year contract makes a lot of sense for the still-young lefty, who at the end will be only 30 years old and — if he plays his cards right — could be in line for a mega deal.
Personally, I’m very happy Oliver Perez is back with the Mets. He’s one of the few members of the team who has some style and character, and plays the entire game with passion. Yes, that passion sometimes is his downfall, and he has yet to learn how to avoid falling apart and beating himself when things go poorly. However, it’s part of who he is, and I enjoy watching “colorful” and unique ballplayers.
As we all know, Ollie is as gifted as any lefthander in MLB. Whether he can “figure it out” and get his mental skills to reach the levels of his physical gifts remains to be seen. Should that connection ever occur, the Mets could have the best lefty in the NL, a dominant Cy Young candidate. More likely, he’ll be the same Ollie we’ve known since 2006 — up and down, outstanding at times and awful at others. In the end, that’s OK, because the bottom line is this: he takes the ball every five days, and he goes into the 7th inning the majority of the time. Yes, there are days he can’t get out of the fourth (or third) frame, but for more than half his starts, he’ll get past the sixth. Considering that both John Maine and Johan Santana are coming off surgeries, and the back end is full of question marks, one cannot underestimate the value of an above-average starter making 30-32 starts. It’s easy to forget the days that people like Brian Lawrence, Jose Lima, Dave Williams, and Chan Ho Park took the mound too many times.
With Oliver Perez in the fold, we can assume that the Mets are done assembling arms for the starting rotation — though, I’d still like to see Pedro Martinez brought back on a minor league deal. They might pick up another scrub for the back end, but you can forget Ben Sheets — at this point, it ain’t gonna happen. Hopefully, Omar Minaya will now focus on bringing in one or two more middle relief arms (Chad Cordero?) and a power-hitting outfielder. At this point, I no longer care if it’s a lefthanded hitter (Adam Dunn? Bobby Abreu?) or a righty (Manny Ramirez!) — a strong hitting lefty is still better than anything that Fernando Tatis and Danny Murphy can produce.
Oh, and how about picking up Pudge Rodriguez on the cheap, to platoon with Brian Schneider? He’ll come cheap.
White Sox Sign Bartolo Colon
According to Ken Rosenthal, the Chicago White Sox have signed Bartolo Colon to a one-year contract.
Nice pickup by the ChiSox, who simply needed an extra guy to vie for a back-end rotation spot. They add Colon to the competition for the #5 slot and as insurance behind Jose Contreras, who is coming off an injury.
Personally, I would have liked to have seen the Mets bring in Colon, despite his physical similarity to Shamu. Despite his weight issues — which no doubt have contributed to his health issues — when he’s on the mound, he’s a tough competitor and knows how to win. In fact I would be happy if the Mets brought in four or five guys of Colon’s caliber to compete for the last two spots in the starting rotation. The more the merrier, and to me it’s better to take chances on pitchers who have succeeded in the past (Colon, Pedro Martinez, Freddy Garcia, etc.) than guys who have never been more than mediocre (i.e., Tim Redding). But hey, what do I know?
One good thing for the Mets about this signing: it likely means that Freddy Garcia is off Chicago’s radar. The question, of course, is whether the Mets will roll the dice on Garcia, or let yet another starting pitcher with postseason experience elude their grasp.
Pedro Listening to Marlins
At 10 am on Saturday, MLB.com reported that Pedro Martinez was anxious to return to the Mets, saying he had “unfinished business” to take care of.
Twelve hours later, MLB.com was reporting that Martinez was negotiating with the Marlins, who would like to add the venerable righthander as a peer leader to their young staff.
Meantime, the Mets signed Tim Redding. Yee ha.
Martinez as a Marlin makes all too much sense. First of all, Pedro has a house in Miami, as it is a short plane trip away from his home in the Dominican Republic. Secondly, the smug wait-and-see strategy of the Mets has suggested that Pedro’s days as a Flushing favorite are in the past. Whereas the Mets have been less than lukewarm in their interest, the Marlins are motivated to bring in Martinez, seeing his value as a guide to developing youngsters and his expected discount rate.
Funny, isn’t it? The Mets’ rotation currently consists of two solid, healthy MLB starters, one question mark due to injury, and a guy who was unwanted by the worst-pitching team in baseball. They also have more money than just about every other team in the National League. However, they are in no rush to re-sign a three-time Cy Young Award winner who puts fannies in the seats, owns a championship ring, and provided humor, personality, and media savvy that is otherwise nonexistent in the Mets’ clubhouse. This despite the fact that they need more arms for their rotation, they invested millions in nursing Martinez back to health, and the public statement from Pedro announcing his wish to return.
On the other hand, the Marlins already have five young, competent hurlers filling THEIR rotation and little room in their budget to gamble on a guy who may or may not be on the verge of a comeback, and may or may not be interested in playing for them. Yet, it is Florida making the advances — not New York.
It’s easy to look at Pedro’s performance in 2008 and say he’s washed up — any knucklehead can safely grade a player on the most recent numbers. But when one considers the type of injury and surgery Pedro endured, he should not have been expected to be much more than he was last season. I, for one, cautioned several times that Pedro’s eye-popping return at the end of 2007 was not necessarily indicative of how he’d pitch in 2008. Shoulder surgeries generally require a recovery period of 18 months to two years — which means Martinez should be just beginning to feel like his old self around May or June of this year. We witnessed his velocity come back at random points in 2008, but he never returned to full strength — partially due to the recovery process and partially because of a rash of nagging injuries to his lower body.
Bottom line is this: few people have Pedro’s desire to win and determination. Those are assets that can’t be taught. If Pedro still wants to compete, he’ll find a way to be at least a decent #5. With a little luck, he could push himself into a #3 or #4 — it all depends on whether he can stay healthy. Yes, the Mets need pitchers who can give them 25-30 starts, and there’s doubt that Martinez can do that. But, the Mets need pitchers, period, and Pedro will take a significantly reduced rate — so it won’t be a huge gamble. To me, giving Tim Redding a guaranteed deal is more risky than offering an incentive-laden one to Pedro — at least Pedro has done something in his career, has already succeeded on the big stage, can handle New York, and is a positive influence on everyone in the clubhouse.
Which brings me to my next point. This Mets team is desperate for leaders, winners, clutch performers, and people with personality — so where is the logic in allowing Pedro to walk away? Isn’t he all of those things?
Of course, Pedro hasn’t walked away yet, and these discussions with the Marlins could simply be a backup plan, or a way to motivate Omar Minaya to strike a deal. But signs are pointing to a Pedro exit — the “addition by subtraction” comments, the demotion of Guy Conti, the signing of Redding, and the inaction by Minaya thus far. My fear is that Pedro Martinez will be lured to the Marlins and not only have a comeback year, but inspire the rest of the Florida staff to take a big step. There are some very talented youths down there in Miami, and Pedro could be the key to unlocking their potential.
Such a development would make the NL East a vastly more competitive division than it’s been the last three years.
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