Comments on: Is Free Agency Dying?

By: Metsie

Metsie — Thu, 03 May 2012 15:08:19 +0000

Srt you could have hired 6 Lidges for the price of one Francisco!

By: Metsie

Metsie — Thu, 03 May 2012 15:07:38 +0000

Well you aleady have heard one knee and now a muscle strain as excuses for Francisco so really I don’t see any difference here!

By: srt

srt — Thu, 03 May 2012 14:18:56 +0000

*so glad

By: srt

srt — Thu, 03 May 2012 14:16:15 +0000

Lidge? Was so called we didn’t touch that one. He’s held together with chewing gum and duct tape. Everyone knew it was not if but when he went down with the next injury.

If I’m not mistaken there’s currently 12 closers in MLB out on the DL. It’s an epidemic.

By: trs86

trs86 — Thu, 03 May 2012 14:10:10 +0000

Lidge would not count as a healthy closer. Sorry. Dotel? Maybe although you could say the same about him never being able to hold down a closer’s job.

By: Metsie

Metsie — Thu, 03 May 2012 14:06:59 +0000

I don’t find that story unbelieveable! LOL
Parcells is definitly a tough guy with a temper!

By: Metsie

Metsie — Thu, 03 May 2012 14:06:21 +0000

Well just going to point out that the ERA may be a product of being here but the pitching itself is quite the same as his previous…

But lets for a second say it isn’t….
Much the same could be said for Perez too couldn’t it?

Did he come back to himself?
Past performance doesn’t always show you what you got or will get!
This is one of the fundamental flaws of using statistics to pick your players!
They are fine for evalating what they did or are doing but they are useless towards predicting what will happen. It’s a hope and a prayer that nothing has changed and thats it!

I’m not going to look for the list I posted days ago to repeat it here!
There were at least three or four with Lidge and Dotel being two I remember off the top of my head!
And as I said before Parnell seems to be close to winning the closer job if he keeps up what he has been doing!
Maybe you can forgive Sandy for not having faith in him from his last year showing but it is what Sandy gets paid to know and make happen!

By: trs86

trs86 — Thu, 03 May 2012 13:46:42 +0000

Side note, I went to a coaching conference last weekend and Bobby Knight was there. I love Bobby and have heard him a few times. What I did not realize was that Parcells was at West Point with him. In fact he sat the bench with him for a lot of games when Coach K was there. K was often a 6th man. So sitting on that bench would have been Bobby Knight, Bill Parcells and Coach K. What a picture that would be.

In light of that he told a story about where Parcells was coming into the locker room behind Bobby after a big win and some fan was leaning over the railing cussing Knight and Bill punched him in the face and about knocked him off the rail. According to the story they had to sneak Parcells out that night because the police were looking for him. Most likely not a true story but oh the stories they have to tell.

By: trs86

trs86 — Thu, 03 May 2012 13:42:22 +0000

Yes he is showing much different. He is not an 8.00 ERA pitcher, LOL. If he loses his closer job to Rauch so be it but he has had to get that mid 3.00 ERA from somewhere so if it’s as a setup man then so be it.

You say plenty of better names were available, who was out there, healthy, better and willing to sign for that price? Again, he went with having 2 guys instead of one. Can’t you see at least the merit to that decision? Not saying it’s right.

By: Metsie

Metsie — Thu, 03 May 2012 13:38:00 +0000

I’ll quote Parcells….
You are what your record says you are!

I didn’t see any excuses made for signing reyes who despite injuries managed to win a batting title!
It would be one thing if he was the best or only closer available in FA this year…
But there were tons of good relievers available!

You think that francisco is showing any difference from his past performances? This is precisely why he has lost the closer job everywhere he has ever been!

By: trs86

trs86 — Thu, 03 May 2012 13:09:05 +0000

I agree to an extent. Not making excuses for him but he is not an 8.00 ERA pitcher. He’s not a 2.00 either. He’s a mid 3′s 1.30 WHIP pitcher. I do not think he has been healthy all year and I think they should shut him down for a couple of weeks and get a fresh arm in. That doesn’t mean the signing was a good signing but it’s too early to say it was a bad signing as well. I think looking at what was available, there were not many “healthy” guys with closing experience on the market so that most likely set FF’s price. Now it appears he wasn’t healthy either, LOL. I guess it is good that we signed Rauch which was the move I questioned to start with.

By: Metsie

Metsie — Thu, 03 May 2012 13:00:51 +0000

Who would take him today?
This year there were a ton of BP arms looking for teams!
We may have gotten one of the worst of the bunch unless he changes his tune real soon!

And I’m not saying he can’t turn it around but a player making 6 Mil per should not be inthe position of having to trn around anything he should be one of those things you don’t worry about!

By: trs86

trs86 — Thu, 03 May 2012 12:41:42 +0000

You MAY be right, fortunately for the Mets Frankie is only here for 2 years and will most likely still be tradeable.

By: Metsie

Metsie — Thu, 03 May 2012 12:36:27 +0000

Well all I’m going to mention here is that Pujols and Fielder got 250 Million dollar deals and from that Free Agency is dead!

Typical X post, ignore the facts draw the conclusion despite them!

By: Metsie

Metsie — Thu, 03 May 2012 12:30:49 +0000

LOL don’t let the facts get in your way!

By: Metsie

Metsie — Thu, 03 May 2012 12:29:40 +0000

Luis Castillo made 2 Mil more per year than Francisco does and performed far better!
If Luis Castillo and 8M per is paying too much then so is Francisco!

By: Nathan

Nathan — Wed, 02 May 2012 22:02:32 +0000

I don’t believe this is a cyclic ordeal. This is a result of the market reorganizing itself after the steroid era. No longer can a team bank on the productivness of 38+ players. In this way, what we are seeing is a return to the days of holding younger talent and then letting them go during their unproductive years. This is a process that should eventually lead to changes in the player agreement. Such changes may be to increase the percentage a team may cut pay from one contract to another. Another such change will probably revamp the entire arbitration process. The shift away from the steroid era will take along time to come to fruition due to union disputes and such. I think most can agree that older players are becoming increasingly less reliable and front offices (or at least most front offices) recognize this and unless backed into a corner, see little point to paying for a player in their decline.

By: Donal

Donal — Wed, 02 May 2012 19:34:13 +0000

I think it is cyclical. What is it going to look like when the players in question hit 30 and are about to enter free agency with real credentials like Cy Youngs and MVP runs?

What happens if this trend continues and veteran free agents go down in price? (Other than the players’ union forcing some sort of rule about that in the CBA).

Will this be affected by the new CBA rules for acquiring amatuers?

By: trs86

trs86 — Wed, 02 May 2012 18:06:01 +0000

Great question, off the top I would say no. I would think that whomever OK’d the deal would have placed injury considerations into the equation. However, they have to take some responsibility in allowing or forcing him to change his throwing motion that well could have caused or accelerated the shoulder issues. That being said, this is the organization that spent about double of what it should have at worst on Jayson Werth and did not pony up the extra to get a real difference maker in Prince.

By: Alex68

Alex68 — Wed, 02 May 2012 18:03:41 +0000

Year Age Salary
2012 27 $12,000,000
2013 28 $14,000,000
2014 29 $14,000,000
2015 30 $14,000,000
2016 31 $14,000,000
2017 32 $14,000,000
2018 33 $14,000,000
2019 34 $18,000,000
2020 35 $18,000,000 $18M Team Option, $2M Buyout

Is he worth all that money???