For example, The signing of Ronny Paulino as the backup catcher. On the surface it looks like a mediocre move, but, the 2010 Mets catchers batted a combined .196 against LHP. Paulino is 6th in the NL in career batting avg vs. LHP, David Wright is 2nd on that list.

Escobar had not returned from his injury, Capuano and Buchholz have. Escobar was Minaya’s signing, not Alderson’s. Sometimes the top tier free agents aren’t always best. Look at last year, Bay, Lackey, Pinero, Wolf, Marquis. The only major signing from last year that worked out well was Matt Holliday. Some of the better ’09 free agent signings were the like of R.A. Dickey, Hisanori Takahashi, Vladamir Guerrero, Troy Glaus, Etc. Thes were under the radar guys who made an impact of their respective clubs and I think Capuano and Buchholz are those kind of guys.

Capuano will hold down the back of the rotation until the return of Santana. Buchholz will pick up the clutch innings that are left by Takahashi and Feliciano. They could end up being bum signings, but in a year of low expectations, these two could be quite a bright spot.

This is the genius I am refering to. We signed 2 pitchers capable of being starters or relievers with ERAs under 4.0 for roughly $2 million combined.

I think this is where the wary fan starts to get anxious. When the new administration gets hailed as genius’ for signing guys who previously we wouldn’t have handed over a dried out ligament for. Speaking of which…..

I think we’re all better off if we contain our unabashed exultation and superlatives for slightly bigger type moves rather than merely good candidates for re establishing themselves after potential career ending surgeries.

One thing about these guys that I like is that they have 4 years service time. I am really sick and ‘effin tired of the word if, but IF they did pan out really well in 2 years they could leave behind as many as four extra 1st round and four extra supplemantary round picks. In other words they could be able to help us now and help us even more later. Now that would be genius, but lets see it before we say it.