Another Day Another Blogger

K-Rod is not the answer.

Not the answer that is if you are any baseball team playing outside of New York City.

5 years at $15 per is simply too much to spend for a closer who's velocity has dropped from the high to low 90's in the early stages of his career. While there is no denying that Rodriguez is great, the closer is an inter-changable position and he is not worthy of those kind of dollars.

It's just not a sound investment.

But these are the New Mets and this is a fan base that, like that of the Yankees, demands a postseason every year.

So the Mets can and probably will "overpay" for the single season saves leader. But what would that mean?



K-Rod to the Mets brings the Mets that much closer to the Yankees: A team with a financial advantage that uses this advantage to win.

While I understand that this is baseball, I never have been comfortable with this being Mets baseball.

And I don't mean paying for free agents.

Free agency is part of the game and any and every team can play that game.

But overspending is not a part of baseball as a whole.

It's a luxury that few teams can afford, one that always makes me feel uncomfortable.

Carlos Beltran and Billy Wagner never felt like Mets to me.

They came to Shea because the Mets gave them more years and more dollars than other teams who wanted them would. They came to Shea for the paycheck.

Whether they have said the right thing or performed well on the field adds or takes nothing away from my feeling for these players. They never truly wanted to be a Met.

For this reason, I could never love K-Rod.

I couldn't love a guy who left the best team in baseball because he wanted $10 million more dollars. I would never believe that his heart was in the right place.

I'm already very uncomfortable with the idea of next season.

Citi Field just doesn't really sit right with me for the Beltranian reasons above.

If I felt that the only reason for the Citi Field to be born was because the Mets wanted to play in a nicer park, then I would be 100% for it.

But Citi Field to me is about so much more.

It's about Seat Licenses, Exorbiant prices, and Dollars.

Shea might be a shit-hole, but it was our shit-hole and it had charm. As expensive as the seats have gotten, you never felt like you were being taken.



All in all, I'm pretty down on where the Mets are going off the field, but unlike most, I could not be more confident of the product being put on the field.

I think the Mets are the best team in the NL East going into 2009 and expect them to make the postseason.

I just don't know how I'll feel if we get there with K-Rod pointing to the sky from my $150 upper deck seat Citi Field.

Vaya,
Sip

(Pics courtesy of francisspecker.com, fromtheflightdeck.com)