Back-Story On K-Rod Option, Beato and Parnell Have Struggled

11 Comments + Add Comment

• alex68 August 1, 2011 at 8:13 am

  hojo,

  quite frankly what did you expect?? the mets and the F/O had a plan since december who were making the team and who wasn’t by the end of this year.. so far, they’ve given up on the season first than the fans and players expected..
  also, is a shame to have 2 guys like beato and parnell in roles they clearly can’t handle yet, it messes up with their phsychic imo.. having izzy in the 8th inning and krod in the 9th would’ve given us at least 3 more wins in the past 2 weeks imo, but, it is what it is and all we fans have to do is just sit back and let the ppl that “know” handle the situation
  • t agee August 1, 2011 at 10:15 am

    That 2-2 slider was the literal definition of “too close to take.” Right on the black or at the most an inch off the plate. Why didn’t Parnell get that call? Because Thole is not a Major League caliber catcher. I cannot say about his game calling but his blocking of pitches is awful. Pitchers can’t attempt to bounce one in the dirt with runners on base when he’s behind the plate and everyone knows it too. Now guys are stealing 3B with two out because of the PB/WP situation. Winning run gets OB because Thole doesn’t catch the ball, winning run gets on 3B because he can’t throw and the winning run scores because the perfect pitchers pitch doesn’t get called strike 3.

    I’ll bet umpires really love to be behind the plate when Josh is back there.

    Roster management is such a critical part of a GM’s job and we have continually lost guys for nothing who wound up being good useful parts for other teams. Jesus Flores is just another example of this, no different than Jason Vargas, Endy Chavez, Joe Smith, Matt Lindstrom, Darren O’Day and Health Bell to name just a few lost between 2007 and 2008.
  • Getaclue August 1, 2011 at 12:49 pm

    Speculative………

    It would not have helped yesterday, tie game, bottom of the 9th on the road = no KROD (had he still been on the team), but you know that right? You know everything about the game.
• Brian August 1, 2011 at 9:57 am

  Beato and Parnell are potentially good setup men in future. I have no doubt that Alderson had a plan to address closer situation this offseason. For all we know Heath Bell could be on his way back to the Mets.
• 86mets August 1, 2011 at 10:25 am

  I’m not sure where the notion that K Rod thought the Mets were trying to avoid the option are coming from. In his 42 games with the Mets this season he finished 34 of them, several of them in non-save situations and he was on pace to blow right past the 55 games finished. To suggest that one game in which he warmed up but was not used set this off is a little absurd. Maybe there was more than one incident of this kind, but that’s hard for me to believe based on how often Collins went to Rodriguez. Alderson himself said he was surprised a bit by how often K Rod was being used.

  I just don’t see how the Mets pattern of use would have avoided 55 games finished when it was clearly going to get him well past that threshold. In any event K-Rod’s “alleged” theory that getting rid of the “Elephant in the room” ($17.5 mil. option) would keep him closing games has clearly backfired now that he’s setting up a better closer in Milwaukee. Scott Boras has to be steaming! Especially at the previous agent who failed to submit K-Rod’s 10 team no-trade list which would’ve included the Brewers! That’ll teach him to sign up a player mid-season like that!
  • Donal August 1, 2011 at 10:32 am

    Boras actually loves it. He wouldn’t have gotten a cut of the option. Now, Rodriguez is renegotiating a deal and Boras is getting a cut of that.
    • 86mets August 1, 2011 at 11:10 am

      I guess I was saying that Boras is steaming that Rodriguez isn’t closing. As soon as the deal was made he was calling the Brewers trying to sell them that K Rod performs better as a closer and giving them all kinds of numbers about how he is better off closing than setting up. With Rodriguez likely not to be among the league leaders in saves this season now that could adversely affect his next contract (although not that much to ordinary people like us fans), something Boras can’t be happy about. And there is nothing he can do to make the Brewers use him as their closer, especially when Axford is having a better season than Rodriguez.

      If K Rod were closing and could stay in the top 5 or 10 in saves (currently 10th and falling) it would make it easier for Boras to get a better deal. But given that he’s being used as a set up man and his volatile history that’s going to be just a little harder. Although one thing in K-Rod’s corner is that he is “technically” having a better season than Brian Wilson (his WHIP is lower, K/9 IP is higher, and BB/9 IP is also lower than Wilson). But Wilson has 1 fewer Blown Save (4 to 5) while having 10 more saves than K Rod. But of course, as Boras has already pointed out, K-Rod is an “historic” closer on a quicker saves pace than the great Mariano Rivera. Will anyone buy into his logic that K Rod is as good or better than Rivera this winter? Who knows, but I don’t.
      • Mookie August 1, 2011 at 12:26 pm

        I still think K-rod will get a deal similar to the one he got with Mets sans the option of course. He’s still young and I could see a team giving him 3/36 again.
• Metsie August 1, 2011 at 1:39 pm

  Well the truth of the matter is whatever K-Rod said to Collins was out the window the second he hired Boras to represent him.

  Action do tend to speak louder than words.

  It could have easily been handled by extending K-Rod to a reasonable contract that would have a clause to waive the option.

  But the second he hired Boras there was no way in hell that would have happened.

  I don’t know when he said these things to Collins but I am willing to bet it was BEFORE he hired Boras not after.
• jessep August 1, 2011 at 12:58 pm

  Honestly… I don’t really care what KRod did or didn’t say. For starters, I have some doubts about how true this is considering his drastic change in agent. If he wanted to eliminate the option then why wasn’t his agent in talks with the Mets and why didn’t Boras make it clear? When a player talks contract, they don’t talk to their on field Manager. Terry Collins has no say over KRod’s option.

  Secondly, they wanted him gone. Did we all forget the drama and everything else KRod created with the Mets last year? They wanted to move on from him last winter but couldn’t without a fight from the union.

  Do you think KRod was willing to forego his option because he wanted the Mets to get draft picks for him? Of course not.

  He wanted them to forego it so he can leave next year, and the Mets still have no closer but he and his new agent get a new deal somewhere because he was closing all year. Now, he’s a setup guy with no chance to showcase himself…
  • Metstheory22 August 1, 2011 at 1:38 pm

    I agree Jessop,

    Boras is not going to sign a player unless he has a plan already on how to collect his cut. He wanted K-Rod as a free agent but probably did not know about “the list” not being sent in. Still worked out for him, but not for K-Rod going to Milwaukee.