Monthly Archives: January 2010
According to ESPN 1050, the Mets are thinking about Jarrod Washburn.
Now I’m not sure exactly what they’re thinking about Jarrod Washburn. Maybe they’re thinking, “hey, would you look at that, Jarrod Washburn has really put together a respectable, if unspectacular, Major League career.” Or maybe they’re thinking that he looks a little like Kiefer Sutherland.
If they’re thinking he’d be a nice fit for their team in 2010, as the ESPN 1050 item suggests, color me unenthused.
Washburn has been, pretty consistently, among the most fly-ball heavy pitchers in the Majors. This worked out extremely well for him while he was with the Mariners last season, since they were fielding an outstanding outfield defense behind him.
This would, presumably, not work out as well for the Mets, assuming Jason Bay and Jeff Francoeur can’t cover the ground that Franklin Gutierrez and Ichiro Suzuki do. Spoiler alert: They can’t.
Is Washburn the worst pitcher in the world? Far from it. He’s a guy. He’s just not particularly good either, and he’s 35, and he’s coming off two straight seasons shortened by injury.
And I’m not certain he’s much of an upgrade over any number of guys they already have in house.
Sam Borden wrote a nice column for SNY.tv about what Johan Santana’s 25-pitch bullpen session means, and the optimism it brings to Mets and their fans. He writes:
There is still nothing more pleasing for the Mets fan than seeing Santana back healthy. Nothing more pleasing than seeing their star with a smile on his face.
At the absolute minimum, he’s something exquisite to watch every fifth day, a distraction from the frustrations of losing. At the absolute pinnacle, he’s the lynchpin of a miracle run.
Right now, he’s just possibility. Optimism. Hope. That might seem crazy to some people, and maybe it is. But at the end of a long, hard winter, six minutes can feel like so much more.
I’m with Sam. And there’s something about Santana that seems to bring out the liveliest language.
When I think about the Mets’ offseason and outlook for 2010, I am gloomy. When I think about Santana pitching, I am happy. He makes me excited to watch baseball again.
Jon Garland signed a one-year, $5.3 million deal with the Padres. The Mets have Fernando Nieve penciled in for the back of the rotation.
Sam Page gives Nieve a thorough examination at Amazin’ Avenue.
NASA hopes to return astronauts to the moon by 2020. 2020? We’ve already been to the moon. In 1969. Boring. Call me when Mars is in play.
I don’t throw the term “bureaucracy-choked morass” around liberally, but that’s certainly what this seems to describe.
Ben Sheets signed a one-year, $10 million contract with the A’s today.
Whatever. I didn’t want that chump on the Mets anyway. If he played for the Mets, he’d be hurt by May. You could mark that down. And he has no heart. Couldn’t handle the New York media. Wasn’t up to the pressure of the big city. Something something something.
Seriously, though, $10 million does seem like a lot for a guy who is such a huge injury risk. Of course, for the Mets, the danger in paying him so much is the chance he gets hurt, the team stinks, and you’ve flushed some payroll down the toilet.
And the Mets, without Sheets, seem pretty much destined to flush a whole lot of payroll down the toilet. It’s not my money, of course, but it was only a one-year deal — not the type of contract that would hamstring them down the road.
I advocated Sheets for the Mets because he was the type of gamble I hoped could yield a big enough return to launch the Mets into contention, even despite all the question marks in their lineup and the expected absence of Carlos Beltran.
And it doesn’t look like there’s a whole lot left out there that might make that difference.
Regardless, I wonder how much more on top of the $10 million it would have taken for the Mets to lure Sheets away from Oakland. After all, that club can also boast a park with a reputation for benefiting pitchers, something I thought could be a big selling point for the Mets.
And perhaps more importantly, the A’s lack that pesky notoriety — deserved or otherwise — for spectacularly mishandling their injured players.
Pure speculation, but I’d guess that factored into his decision. This is, after all, a guy who missed all of last season and parts of the previous four with injuries.
So maybe the Mets didn’t really have a shot at Sheets in the first place.
Whatever. What’s done is done. Ben Sheets is on the A’s and the Mets are still penciling Fernando Nieve into the back of their rotation. I’m still all for John Smoltz, and it seems like the Mets might be too, so, you know, good.
Every one of them1 is beautiful and awesome:
1- Sadly, not every one of them is contained in this video. I’m just assuming they were all beautiful and awesome, because Johan Santana threw them all.
Also, Kevin Burkhardt references Santana throwing a changeup and then yelling, “whatup!” which, sadly, is not contained in this video. I’d pay anything to watch that happen, especially in the midst of this long offseason.
Here’s what SNY.tv looked like this morning. Maybe we should have broadened our focus on our Jets follow-ups:
I have no idea if it’s notable or if he’s just being nice, but Jerry Manuel said yesterday he’d be at least open to the idea of starting the season with Josh Thole behind the plate:
The one thing about Josh that is definitely different than Omir is that Josh kind of balances out the lineup. He’s a lefthanded hitter. We’ll take a look at him and talk to the people who saw him in winter ball and see how much progression he made and go from there. It’s not out of the question.
So that’s cool. Anyway, I figured a poll is in order:
Loading ...I left the question intentionally vague. I guess I’m just trying to see how y’all1 feel about Thole in regards to the other options, and in light of all the talk that he needs at least another year of Minor League seasoning.
Also, I didn’t include trade options, because it’s impossible to really judge a trade option without knowing what he’d cost in return. Granted, we don’t know exactly what Barajas or Torrealba would cost either, but it’d only be money.
1- I really wish English had a word for the second-person plural, and it very much bothers me that Spanish does — vosotros — and most Spanish-speaking countries opt not to use it. I tried adopting it into English for a while, but it didn’t catch on, so instead I use “y’all” and sound like a dunce.
The Mets opened minicamp yesterday, which means actual baseball stuff is happening. Eddie Kunz is notably trimmed-down and may just be in the best shape of his life (depending on his odds of making the team, I suppose), and Oliver Perez has the best beard of his life.
Marty Noble is baffled by the Gary Matthews Jr. deal.
Good lord, the Super Bowl is less than two weeks away and this is starting again. At this point, I hope Brett Favre retires and unretires one more time, so he will officially become the boy who cried retirement and no one ever takes anything he says seriously ever again.
This is an awesome story. Actually, just about everything involving Satchel Paige is awesome. Someone should make a Satchel Paige biopic and cast Dave Chappelle in the lead.
← Older postsNewer posts →
