As we all know by now Citi Field is a pitchers park. It has a big outfield and 16 foot fences on the outfield walls. The Wilpons decided when building a new ball park for the Mets to play in that they wanted a pitchers park for the Mets. I’m sure if you ask David Wright he will tell you emphatically that Citi Field is indeed a pitchers park. With Citi Field being a pitchers park and the Mets planning on becoming a small ball team it would make sense that the Mets would want to sign the best pitchers they can to take advantage of their home field. Unfortunately for us that seems not to be the case.
Rewind back to the off season and the quality of pitchers that were available on the free agent market. Sure there was C.C. Sabathia and A.J. Burnett but I was realistic enough to know that the Mets wouldn’t sign either of those guys, just think what the payroll would be with Sabathia and Santana alone. The Yankees I still believed overpaid for both Sabathia and Burnett, however there were other free agent pitchers that were available and were settling for less than C.C. and Burnett. The Mets passed on free agent pitchers Randy Wolf, Derek Lowe, Jon Garland, Pedro Martinez and they turned down a trade for Jason Marquis to sign Oliver Perez.
This year the free agent market is a lot smaller than last year. The best free agent pitcher on the market this year will be John Lackey. He showed this post season that he is a big game pitcher, he will work his butt off for his team and he’s got the stuff to back his warrior mentality up. Now he is not going to come cheap. He will get more than A.J. Burnett, rightly so in my opinion as he is a better pitcher. The estimates are that he will get a 5 year, 100 mill contract. I think Lackey is perfect for Citi Field and more importantly he is perfect for the Mets. He could be a great number 2 guy in the rotation. Johan Santana followed by Lackey would be a very hard 1-2 punch for any team’s lineup.
The Mets have a pitchers ballpark but you need good pitchers to utilize it properly. We saw that after Johan in 2009 the Mets don’t have a number 2 pitcher as Pelfrey took a giant step backwards. There was not one pitcher in the rotation for 2009 behind Santana that is anything more than a number 3 guy in the rotation. A pitchers ballpark doesn’t make mediocre pitchers better, just protects them a little more. If the Mets aren’t going to utilize the ballpark what was the point of building it that way?
But CC sure would have looked nice on our team. F@#!k%#g! Madoff!
btw, the madoff scandal didnt hurt the wilpons. they pulled their investment right before it went down and they ended up profiting $40 million. so this was solely on the wilpons themselves. they are trying to be general managers and if anything goes wrong, it’ll be easier to blame omar minaya. they have a chance to win but ownership needs to do what it does. give the money to the gm and let him build this damn team the way it needs to be to win. get a big pitcher, a couple relievers, a bat at first and matt holliday (preferably)
I believe that Lackey is better than Burnett as well, but just because the Yankees overpaid for AJ, why should Lackey get more than him because of the poor judgement exibited by Cashman and Steinbrenner? I believe 5 years and 100 million is way too much for Lackey and that it could end up being a disaster. How can we pay Lackey the same money we gave Johan Santana? That’s insane. Just because he’s the best available, it doesn’t mean he should get paid like Halladay and Santana.
If they picked up Lackey and Marquis I think the pitching staff would have improved significantly, but they still need Pelfrey to really come into his own and pitch up to his potential
Santana
Lackey
Marquis
Pelfrey
Maine/Perez battle it out for the 5th spot and whoever loses goes to the bullpen
Lackey is no doubt a good pitcher but he is overrated and probably not worth the contract he will receive. Holliday will be a smarter pick up for the Mets. If they can sign Holliday with a trade for Nolasco or Harang and.or signing of Sheets/Bedard/Harden the Mets should be set.
sorry i would not give lackey 5 yrs 100 mil, he’s not that good.
Thanks for not leaving me hanging. I know it’s not our money, but if the Mets dont spend it wisely nothing will change. The Mets may have the second highest payroll in baseball, but 20 teams spent their money more wisely than the Mets.
Jerry Manuel says the Mets can win with pitching and defense:
LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL LOLOLOLOLOLOL
Power pitching and 3 run homeruns win games.
I agree that there must be pitching improvements. But this idea of a small ball team is a joke. They will go to the bandbox parks on the road and have their clocks cleaned. They play 81 games away. Just put a normal, non-choking type team together and upgrade the pitching big time.
Why not instead of signing Lackey (even though it would be a solid signing even if for 5 yrs 85 mill (not worth 100 let there be incentives then to make it that). If not then. See if you can go out and get a Sheets AND Harden, granted they are both high risk pitchers but they are also solid pitchers and thats what this team needs a solid 1-2-3. Slide Pelf down and hopefully Maine is health to get us through the stretch run and put Ollie in the pen to sort stuff out and maybe figure out his pitch selection and placement on the plate. If one of them gets hurt you move Ollie back into the rotation or let Niese do his thing. Either way its not going to get fixed in a year so everyone needs to relax. Id try and sign the 2 guys to 2 year low guarentees with incentives to try and bring them in then use the money that we dont just go throwing at Lackey and Sign you know who (Holliday) and hopefully if not then if we are going the small ball route then Pagan did more than enough in my eyes to slide himself into the LF spot.
I hope they go after Lackey and Figgins.If Lackey wants 100 for 5.That is his starting offer.We start at 5 year 85.There is room to get it done.Figgins wants 5 at 10 mill a year thats his starting offer.I think both players who know how to win,would fit good.Lackey in the 2 spot in the rotation,figgins hitting 2nd,playing left a little 3rd and 2nd.
“Power pitching and 3 run homeruns win games.”
Most of the time-it is certainly the right way to start!
1) Last season’s failure to sign some competent pitching was inexcusable. Plus, the Oliver Perez signing was phenomenally stupid.
2) Who said that they aren’t going to go after top pitching this offseason?
3) Despite the need for pitching, Matt Holliday should be priority #1. He is awesome at baseball and appears to be undervalued by everyone except Scott Boras because of the false perception that he isn’t good at defense. Check out his +/- and UZR numbers.
4) I don’t think that Lackey is a perfect fit for the Mets since he gives up a lot of ground balls. The Mets were a horrible defensive infield team this year (see what it did to Big Pelf). A healthy Reyes will help, but Castillo and Wright were bad in 2009.
That said, I wouldn’t complain if they signed Lackey after signing Holliday.
CHRIS, LOUSY INFIELD? TRY LOUSY 1B BY COMMITTEE. LOOK NO FURTHER THAN NYY & OLERUD’S NYM TO SEE THE EFFECT A QUALITY FIELDING 1B DOES FOR ANY INFIELD’S DEF #s. SORRY, BUT I BELIEVE HOLLIDAY WILTS IN CITI, WEREN’T U SEEING HOW INTIMIDATED HE APPEARED IN VAST LF WHEN HE WAS IN LATE THIS SEASON? I WAS SHOCKED!
I’VE AN ISSUE WITH ANY JUDGING OF THE NYM’ PITCHING ROTATION AFTER SANTANA IN ’09. WHAT ROTATION? LET’S RECAP:
BROKE ST WITH A ROTATION THAT WAS SIPPOSED TO BE SANTANA, PELFREY, PEREZ, MAINE, REDDING AND WAS QUICKLY DECIMATED BY 3 DOWN IN PEREZ, MAINE, REDDING. SO UNLESS U BELIEVE SANTANA,PELFREY, TBD,TBD,HERNANDEZ WAS THE ACTUAL PLANNED SCHEME YOU CAN’T VALIDLY QUANTIFY THE ROTATION ANY MORE THAN BY SAYING NYM SS SUCKS BY LOOKING AT CORA, VALDEZ.
AS I’VE STATED MANY TIMES, I’D LOOK TO ACCOMODATE BREWS STATED DESIRE FOR 2 ‘EXPERIENCED’ SP WITH BOTH PETERSON HONOR STUDENTS, PELFREY & MAINE HOPFULLY IN EXCHANGE FOR THEIR SOON TO BE TOO EXPENSIVE 1B.WHILE NYMFANS MAY NOT VALUE THOSE 2 AS OFFERUING MUCH, REALIZE THEY EACH WOULD BE MORE EFFECTIVE THAN ALL BUT 1 OF THE CURRENT MLW ROTATION. INK LACKEY & MARQUIS AS THE REPLACEMENTS FOR A ROTATION OF SANTANA,LACKEY,MARQUIS, TBD,TBD.
HOW IS LACKEY GETTING STRATOSPHERIC DOLLARS WITHOUT EITHER NYY OR BOSOX PLAYING? ATL IS SHOPPING LOWE TO KEEP HUDDY. NOT A TON OF INTEREST FOR THAT REDICULOUS CONTRACT. PHL HAS NEVER ‘PLAYED’ WITH THE BIG BOYS RE. F/As
Maybe Holliday “looked” intimidated… but he plays good defense.
Olerud was a good fielding 1B, but Alfonso, Ordonez, and Ventura were also good defensively. Miles ahead of Castillo, Cora/Valdez/Hernandez, and Wright.
Rotations need to be more than 6 deep. And there are serious problems when this includes Tim Redding and Big Fatty. Not to mention Oliver Perez being paid way too much money (and then imploding). The Mets should have done a much better job building the rotation last season, with many cheap options available (Garland, Wolf).
No chance Brewers make that trade.
CHRIS, WHETHER BREWS WOULD MAKE THAT DEAL OR NOT ISN’T THE ISSUE. THEY’LL NEED TO DEAL HIM SOONER MORE THAN LATER. IF THEY WAIT TO NEXT OFFSEASON, HIS VALUE PLUMERTS DUE TO ARBITRATION HEARING Vs BORAS AS FIRST ISSUE BEFORE GAME 1. THE MKTPLACE FOR A 20M PER 1B IS VERY SLIM ESP CONSIDERING MORE THAN 2/3 OF CLUBS STILL HAVE PAYROLLS UNDER 100M.
THERE AREN’T A LOT OF OPPORTUNITIES FOR BREWS TO ACQUIRE 2 “EXPERIENCED” SP AT A PRICE THEY WILL PAY. ATL IS LOOKING TO DEAL LOWE; BUT OUT OF MILW SCALE.
Good article Greg. It points out the flaw in the Mets strategy. They built a Pitcher’s Park in the misguided belief that their current staff was comparable to the traditional Mets staffs. However, a staff with Ollie, Maine, Pelrey and Redding is not the likes of Seaver, Koosman, Matlack, Gooden, and the other Met greats of the past. It just tells me that Mets mgmt has no idea how bad their pitching staff was and still is especially with Warthen in charge. In reality, our Pitcher’s Park only helps our opponents aces bury us in our own house. Match that with our Small Ball approach and we get buried on the road when we visit the Hitter’s Parks. There is no indication that mgmt even understands this yet, and so unfortunately, the future does not yet show any improvement over the horizon. Until we pick up some real pitchers and get some power in the lineup, we will stay in competition for the cellar.
MASK, YOU ARE MIXING GENERATIONS WITH YOUR SUPOSED ‘MODEL’ ROTATION. WAY BENEATH YOU. VERY DISAPPOINTING!
Mets62fan, how in the world do you claim Holliday “looked” intimidated at Citi? Did you have binoculars trained on his face througout the game? Or perhaps you’re just that good a judge of character from the 2 seconds on camera time on his face while he was catching a ball. The man plays solid defense and after a few days practicing on the field, he’ll be just the upgrade we need.
SC, I WAS RELAYING THE GENERAL IMPRESSION I CAME AWAY WITH. I DON’T PLAY FANTASY I PUT LITTLE STOCK IN MOST OF THESE NEWER, SO-CALLED ‘TELLING’ STATS, AS A BASBALL FAN FOR MORE THAN 50 YRS, I PREFER MY OWN IMPRESSIONS & I’LL TELL U AS SOMEONE NOT ALL THAT FAMILIAR WITH HOLLIDAY OTHER THAN HIS GERNERAL HARD BACK-OF-THE-CARD NUMBERS, I WAS SHOCKED BY WHAT I CAN ONLY DESCRIBE AS TIMIDITY OR UNSUREDNESS FROM WATCHING HIS ROUTES & DEMEANOR IN CITI’S LF(THE MOST COMPARABLE OUTFIELD DIMENSIONS IN MLB ARE AT COORS FIELD. IN MY ATTEMPT TO RESEARCH HARD NUMBERS FOR THIS RESPONSE, I COULDN’T HERLP BUT NOTICE THE TREMERNDOUS NUMBER OF LF ERRORS HE MADE DURING HIS YRS W/ROCKS. UNLIKE OTHERS I’M NOT ALL THAT CONVINCED HIS POWER PRODUCTION WILL TRASNSLATE WELL AT SEALEVEL IN CITI AT SEALEVEL I’M NOT CONVINCED HE HAS A BETTER HR PRODUCTION CAPABILITY AS (PRE-’09)WRIGHT OR EVEN FRANCOUER.
Pitching and Defense are 2 priorites to a winning club….offense fills the seats and create the excitement….mets need a balance of both….1 more started and a big bat a 1st, send Murp to winter ball/minors and teach him 2nd base…if Chase Utley can play it so can Murp
FRANK, I’M NOT GOING TO BELITTLE; BUT WILL ASSUME U WERE IN A COMA WHEN THEY’D ALREADY SENT MURPH TO AZ FALLBALL TO LEARN 2B LAST YR, WHERE HE WAS A DISMAL FAILURE. PERHAPS U MAY WANT TO SEND BOBO THE CIRCUS ELEPHANT TO BALLET NEXT? JUST AS ONLY A FOOL WOULD HAVE CONSIDERED PIAZZA TO 1B WAS EVER AN OPTION, MURPH TO 2B IS EQUALLY DOOMED. THE BETTER/SMARTER MOVE WOULD BE TO GET HIM MORE POLISHED AT 3B WHERE I UNDERSTABND WAS CONSIDERED A BUTCHER BY B-METS FANS. PERHAPS MORE POLISH @ 1B, LORD KNOWS HE NEEDS IT. RATHER THAN DENIGRATE UTLEY, PERHAPS THE BETTER CHOICE OF ‘U’ NAMES WOULD’VE BEEN UGGLA?(ARE U REALLY RECOVERED FROM THAT COMA?)