The Real Brokeback and the Broken Rotation
So my gmail account was flooded all days with the "what do we do" e-mails.
What do we do about the fact that we are looking at Jose Lima and Jeremi Gonzalez as our 4 and 5 guys?
More on that in a second.
While the Mets are always at the front of my mind, my hatred for the Yankees is always somewhere close behind.
I think it goes family, friends, Mets, eating, hating the Yankees, sleep.
So anyway, today I got "the e-mail." If The Sports Guy has his pantheon, then I guess I have something similar (someone think of something creative that I can call it.)
Well anyway, this was the best of the best. I think it has to be the best e-mail I have ever received.
Close friend, Y2K Enthusiast/Cynic/Resident Happy Man/NYC hoops legend Happy Will sent it my way, a video clip a little over 2 minutes long that will change the life of every Mets fan, baseball fan, Yankee hater, and person with a soul.
Please watch. If you don't like it, I will wear a Yankee hat for the next month.
www.kickina.com/chokeback
I don't know what more I can add, except that whoever made that... way to go.
It's like when Camper Zach and his family bought me that hard to find Marc Boerigter jersey for my 21st birthday. He was my favorite obscure white WR for the Kansas City Chiefs who singled-handedly won me my fantasy football league with a 126 yd 2 TD performance in week 16. He was always my guy. So when young Zach made the delivery I looked at him and I smiled. It was just Right...
NOW THE ROTATION
Right now I think the Mets are in a bundle of fuck. It's time like this when you wish we hadn't made that Kris Benson deal.
We have many problems. There is really no one in the system ready to step in. The two guys closest to the bigs are probably Alay Soler and Jeremi Gonzalez.
Soler from my side is the brighter star there mainly because Jeremi Gonzalez has spent many a year doing just this, hovering between AAA and the bigs and nothing has ever really worked.
I'm happy to report that Aaron Heilman remaining in the bullpen has become a pretty broad view among Mets people. He is too dominant of a setup man to move.
So what are the options?
The two big ones circulating the sports wires are Barry Zito and Odalis Perez. Both come with some major issues.
1. Barry Zito
Zito is a big name. He's a legit 1-2 guy who will pitch you 200 innings and win you 15 ballgames while maintaining his really, really weird lifestyle.
He's a lot like that dude Graham who tried to steal Jessie Spano's heart during cut-day but came up a bit short. He's just a weird guy.
Zito will cost us a ton. Lastings Miledge to start.
Is he worth it? I really don't think so. I just can't justify this. Miledge appears to be as can't-miss as we are going to find, and as my good friend Nails constantly points out, we are getting this guy for 300k for 3 years. Add him to the mix of Wright, Reyes and Beltran and we have our brightest young nucleus in a long, long time.
At the same time, I just don't think Zito is that good.
This isn't the same Barry Zito who won the 2002 Cy Young award and went 23-5, 2.75 ERA.
This is the Barry Zito that from 2003-2005 was 39-36 with an ERA hovering around 4.00 (3.30, 4.48, 3.86).
This isn't the Barry Zito that averaged the 193 K's from 2001-2002.
This is the Barry Zito that averaged 160 K's from 2003-2005.
The fact of the matter is that Zito isn't an ace anymore. As my good friend Chris Martin would add, his star is fading.
To further complicate things, Zito is in his 6th year of service, meaning that he is eligible for free agency this winter. Zito is sure to command $12-13 million per year and could corner the Mets to pay more with the fear of losing out on their prize mid-season pickup.
Further, there is a great chance that the Mets could sign this guy anyway, without losing our top prospect, arguably a top 5 prospect in all of baseball.
I'm selling Zito.
2. Dontrelle Willis.
Do I trade Miledge for Dontrelle Willis? Faster than you can say "Keanu Reeves is the most underrated actor of our generation."
Willis is 24, would be locked up to the Mets for 4 more years and of greatest significance in my eyes, though a controversial subject to some, is that he could make a huge impact on the African-American population of New York City.
Unfortunately I don't think Dontrelle is going anywhere, not now at least. Things may change in the run-up to the trading deadline, but until they do, consider this a backburner option.
3. Odalis Perez
This guy is very much a 3-4 starter. Unfortunately for his current team, The Los Angeles Dodgers, he is making $19,000,000 over the next two seasons.
If the Dodgers would eat $4-5 mil of his contract, acquiring him would make sense financially, and it would not cost us a whole lot, talent-wise. It wouldn't take a big name prospect, heck they may give this guy away.
Would the reward be great? Probably not. But there is very little risk in this one.
Still, it's not too exciting. The guy was hurt last year and has looked pretty bad to start this season. Still, if healthy, the guy can pitch us 180-200 innings.
The Conclusion
I haven't left you with much. I don't like the idea of trading Miledge for Zito. I'm not crazy about Odalis Perez and we don't have much in the farm.
In short, I really think we are kind of fucked.
There is one positive. The Mets will only need a #5 starter 1 time until May 24th. We can go with a 4-man rotation for the next 2 weeks until Bannister comes back while keeping pitchers on regular rest.
If I were Omar Minaya I would try and wait this one out. We need to wait until more of a market develops. There aren't teams yet looking to make moves with their starting pitchers.
I say, give everyone we have a shot. Who knows if one of these guys will pan out.
One thing that will kill me is if we get over-zealous. Remember, we are replacing Victor Zambrano, not Cy Young. We should not be in too big of a rush.
Unfortunately, we are in a bad situation. Injuries suck, they just do.
But trading Kris Benson afforded Omar Minaya the ability to say (like he has said many times of late in the press) that the Mets shed $10 million dollars in payroll this offseason despite all their moves.
It could come back to bite us in the ass.
Big Week this week.
VCD,
SM
What do we do about the fact that we are looking at Jose Lima and Jeremi Gonzalez as our 4 and 5 guys?
More on that in a second.
While the Mets are always at the front of my mind, my hatred for the Yankees is always somewhere close behind.
I think it goes family, friends, Mets, eating, hating the Yankees, sleep.
So anyway, today I got "the e-mail." If The Sports Guy has his pantheon, then I guess I have something similar (someone think of something creative that I can call it.)
Well anyway, this was the best of the best. I think it has to be the best e-mail I have ever received.
Close friend, Y2K Enthusiast/Cynic/Resident Happy Man/NYC hoops legend Happy Will sent it my way, a video clip a little over 2 minutes long that will change the life of every Mets fan, baseball fan, Yankee hater, and person with a soul.
Please watch. If you don't like it, I will wear a Yankee hat for the next month.
www.kickina.com/chokeback
I don't know what more I can add, except that whoever made that... way to go.
It's like when Camper Zach and his family bought me that hard to find Marc Boerigter jersey for my 21st birthday. He was my favorite obscure white WR for the Kansas City Chiefs who singled-handedly won me my fantasy football league with a 126 yd 2 TD performance in week 16. He was always my guy. So when young Zach made the delivery I looked at him and I smiled. It was just Right...
NOW THE ROTATION
Right now I think the Mets are in a bundle of fuck. It's time like this when you wish we hadn't made that Kris Benson deal.
We have many problems. There is really no one in the system ready to step in. The two guys closest to the bigs are probably Alay Soler and Jeremi Gonzalez.
Soler from my side is the brighter star there mainly because Jeremi Gonzalez has spent many a year doing just this, hovering between AAA and the bigs and nothing has ever really worked.
I'm happy to report that Aaron Heilman remaining in the bullpen has become a pretty broad view among Mets people. He is too dominant of a setup man to move.
So what are the options?
The two big ones circulating the sports wires are Barry Zito and Odalis Perez. Both come with some major issues.
1. Barry Zito
Zito is a big name. He's a legit 1-2 guy who will pitch you 200 innings and win you 15 ballgames while maintaining his really, really weird lifestyle.
He's a lot like that dude Graham who tried to steal Jessie Spano's heart during cut-day but came up a bit short. He's just a weird guy.
Zito will cost us a ton. Lastings Miledge to start.
Is he worth it? I really don't think so. I just can't justify this. Miledge appears to be as can't-miss as we are going to find, and as my good friend Nails constantly points out, we are getting this guy for 300k for 3 years. Add him to the mix of Wright, Reyes and Beltran and we have our brightest young nucleus in a long, long time.
At the same time, I just don't think Zito is that good.
This isn't the same Barry Zito who won the 2002 Cy Young award and went 23-5, 2.75 ERA.
This is the Barry Zito that from 2003-2005 was 39-36 with an ERA hovering around 4.00 (3.30, 4.48, 3.86).
This isn't the Barry Zito that averaged the 193 K's from 2001-2002.
This is the Barry Zito that averaged 160 K's from 2003-2005.
The fact of the matter is that Zito isn't an ace anymore. As my good friend Chris Martin would add, his star is fading.
To further complicate things, Zito is in his 6th year of service, meaning that he is eligible for free agency this winter. Zito is sure to command $12-13 million per year and could corner the Mets to pay more with the fear of losing out on their prize mid-season pickup.
Further, there is a great chance that the Mets could sign this guy anyway, without losing our top prospect, arguably a top 5 prospect in all of baseball.
I'm selling Zito.
2. Dontrelle Willis.
Do I trade Miledge for Dontrelle Willis? Faster than you can say "Keanu Reeves is the most underrated actor of our generation."
Willis is 24, would be locked up to the Mets for 4 more years and of greatest significance in my eyes, though a controversial subject to some, is that he could make a huge impact on the African-American population of New York City.
Unfortunately I don't think Dontrelle is going anywhere, not now at least. Things may change in the run-up to the trading deadline, but until they do, consider this a backburner option.
3. Odalis Perez
This guy is very much a 3-4 starter. Unfortunately for his current team, The Los Angeles Dodgers, he is making $19,000,000 over the next two seasons.
If the Dodgers would eat $4-5 mil of his contract, acquiring him would make sense financially, and it would not cost us a whole lot, talent-wise. It wouldn't take a big name prospect, heck they may give this guy away.
Would the reward be great? Probably not. But there is very little risk in this one.
Still, it's not too exciting. The guy was hurt last year and has looked pretty bad to start this season. Still, if healthy, the guy can pitch us 180-200 innings.
The Conclusion
I haven't left you with much. I don't like the idea of trading Miledge for Zito. I'm not crazy about Odalis Perez and we don't have much in the farm.
In short, I really think we are kind of fucked.
There is one positive. The Mets will only need a #5 starter 1 time until May 24th. We can go with a 4-man rotation for the next 2 weeks until Bannister comes back while keeping pitchers on regular rest.
If I were Omar Minaya I would try and wait this one out. We need to wait until more of a market develops. There aren't teams yet looking to make moves with their starting pitchers.
I say, give everyone we have a shot. Who knows if one of these guys will pan out.
One thing that will kill me is if we get over-zealous. Remember, we are replacing Victor Zambrano, not Cy Young. We should not be in too big of a rush.
Unfortunately, we are in a bad situation. Injuries suck, they just do.
But trading Kris Benson afforded Omar Minaya the ability to say (like he has said many times of late in the press) that the Mets shed $10 million dollars in payroll this offseason despite all their moves.
It could come back to bite us in the ass.
Big Week this week.
VCD,
SM
posted by Sippy Momo at 1:04 AM
2 Comments:
Since Rick Peterson was able to fix Victor Zambrano in 15 minutes, imagine how quickly he could restore his old protege, Zito...
While I'll concede that Benson would be better than Jeremi Gonzalez - he has not been better than Bannister (who wouldnt have been in the rotation if Bens was around).
Benson this year: 4-3, 4.89 ERA, 1.42 WHIP.
i know he has the cute nickname, "The Slump Stopper." But he's only won after a loss twice. He also stopped two winning streaks - and prolonged a slump with that sweet 9 ER allowed performance.
His first name is Kristin.
Bannister's ERA is 2 runs lower (more than accounting for the difference in leagues) and his WHIP is lower. And he's younger and $14 million cheaper over the next two years.
It's important to look at the bigger picture here.
Also - remember who traded for Benson in Baltimore (and New York).
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