30
2012
Instead Of Rauch And Francisco, Some Players We Should Have Signed
An article by 
Tampa Bay signed the best contract of this past off-season
Sandy Alderson signed Frank Francisco to a two year deal worth $12 million this past off-season. He then signed John Rauch to a 1-year deal worth $3.5 Million. At the time I was happy because we needed a closer and Francisco had been a pretty decent reliever over his career. He was by no means a stud closer, but we needed help and I was just happy to see some moves made in an attempt to fix our bullpen woes. Rauch was a solid reliever coming off a tough year, but had closer experience, so if nothing else he would be a solid setup guy for us.
The one thing I wasn’t thrilled about was the money we gave Frankie, and the fact that we guaranteed him two years at that amount. He earned $5.5 million in 2012 and will earn $6.5 million in 2013, which is a bargain for a good closer, but I really can’t call Francisco a good closer. He is mediocre at best and unreliable. As we saw this season, his numbers were awful and he was very shaky even though he got the job done more often than not. He was just a poor mans Krod.
Here is what we could have done with the $9 million Alderson spent on Rauch and Francisco in 2012.
Exhibit A: Fernando Rodney – 73 IP, 43 H, 76 K’s, 48 saves, 0.60 ERA, 0.77 WHIP
2012 Contract: $2 Million, $2.5 Million dollar club option for 2013
Now this was a bargain for a closer! He also saved 37 games back in 2009 for Detroit, and has been an above average reliever for the majority of his 10 career, as evidence by his career 3.75 ERA.
Exhibit B: Ryan Doumit – .275 AVG, 18 HR, 75 RBI, 34 2B
2012 Contract: $3 Million
Doumit, 31, is versatile and has the ability to play positions in both the infield and the outfield. He could have split time behind the plate with Thole and probably would have taken over the job. He would have been a MAJOR bargain at a thin position.
Exhibit C: Cody Ross: .267 AVG, 22 HR, 81 RBI, 34 2B, .807 OPS
2012 Contract: $3 Million
Cody Ross was a name that was bounced around last off-season, He has three 20-home run seasons during his career and could have been a major player for us in 2012 just as he was for Boston. He is a free agent this off-season, and should be a target of Sandy’s, but will likely command a little more than the $3 million he made this past season. I could see $5 million being a reasonable number.
I know that it takes two to tango, and that these players may not have wanted to come here. Two of them signed with perennial playoff contenders in Boston and Tampa Bay, while Doumit inked his deal with the Twins who have been very successful in recent years as well.
The three salaries above total just $8 million and all three performed at very high levels at bargain deals for their respective clubs. If we had upped the offers just a little bit and not signed Francisco and Rauch, we could probably have nabbed one or two of these guys.
I guess we will never know, but it’s just interesting to take a look back and see what could have been.
About the Author: Dan Valis
I am a staff writer for Mets Merized Online. I am a Mets team analyst with a focus on the minor league system, as well as the major league club. I am a lifelong New Yorker who was born and raised to be a Mets fan. The ups and downs of being a Mets fan is what makes following this team so much fun, but at times so frustrating. You can follow me on Twitter @BgAppleMetsTalk.
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NL East Standings
| Team | W | L | Pct. | GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Mets | 27 | 40 | .403 | 12.5 |
| Marlins | 22 | 48 | .314 | 19.0 |
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Hindsight is always 20/20. The question with Rodney, as is every other reliever who shows up in the Mets bullpen, is whether Warthen would screw him up or not. So far, in the past 5 years, the record is pretty awful.
Relievers sometimes are only as good as u use them…
Warthen/Jerry/Willie used Scott Schoeweiss against righties…SS got bombed…SS got blamed….
Last October I said many times we should have gone after Doumit and Ross. I couldn’t believe they didn’t even kick the tires on either of them. It’s pretty sad when a fan like me has more foresight than the $6 million dollar man running the team. On top of that I said the Francisco deal was a disaster along with his 65% save rate, and that Rauch getting a raise to $3.5mil coming off the worst season in his career was incredibly stupid. While this post wreaks of hindsight, I can proudly say I told you so.
you don’t really know though who they “kicked the tires” on. GMs pretty much talk to all the agents at some level, and either side can initiate.
My God, do you ever stop playing these games of semantics? You have links that say we kicked the tires on them? Cant you ever just share a point of view? All you do is cherry pick any criticism of Alderson and try to snuff it out. What are you his secret lover or is he your uncle or something? My guess is you weren’t so amorous of our last GM during his first two years?
just go away and stop annoying people.
Thanks.
Sandy Alderson is straight up an awful GM..he hasn’t even been here long , yet has already proven that statement correct. He’s only made one good call to this point (Zack Wheeler) and we still don’t even know how Wheeler will pan out because in all honesty, you never know with the mets. At least Minaya had an aggressive approach and actually tried to sign the big fish. Alderson, as we know from his days with the A’s, is the complete opposite.
Alderson didnt make the call, a desperate Brian Sabean did according to Alderson.
LOL
Yup.
Brian, yes and we still have 2 of omars prize catches. The Omar love fest here amazes me.
This post is an Omar lovefest? I think I hear Cerrone calling you Sadecki.
if the “love-fest” amazes you?…the Omar “witch-hunt” baffled me
Alderson set the team up for failure this past season. On top of the 2 shitty reliever signings, he traded pagan for ramon ramirez and torres, now thats bad. so i dont think we should be on the alderson bandwagon also
kmaxx , there are omar defenders all over the place. On another post here somebody is bringing up all the great talent he brought in including Duda and Mejia. Love is blind as they say. Phillips never gets any love but at least he got us a pennant and 2 all stars in the draft.
Why is it wrong for some people to like some of the things that Minaya did? If it bothers you that much, your disdain must go beyond baseball reasons alone. That’s what I don’t get by some of the haters here and Metsblog. Whether the hate is for Alderson or Minaya. You draw lines and take sides like we are at war. Baseball is a game for crying out loud.
Not allowed. The blessed ones have so decreed.
every GM has good moves and bad moves. Sandy, Omar, Philips, and every other team in any sport. Just the nature of the job.
funny…omar was getting hate on message boards before the mets even played one game….
lets just call it what it is…
The same reason that senator said that Colin Polin was supporting Obama because of race..is the same reason some met fans thought Omar was signing/supporting players because of race…
I have yet to hear any met fan complain about Sandy having any preference in his choices…
despite the fact that he brought on Chris Young ( a former Padre ), Scott Hairston ( a former Padre ) and Brad Eamus ( a JP former draft pick )….
as a matter of fact…after Brad Eamus was released by the Rockies…guess who picked him up again in at the end of 2011…
you guessed it….Sandy Alderson…
and guess who was the starting 2B in 2012 at AAA…
Brad Eamus…who proceeded to hit .212 against watered down pitching….
Let that be Omar Minaya signing ________ ( <—insert latino scrub name here )
let that scrub be the starting 2B on Opening Day…despite not being the best option in Spring Training…
then after one month…after it is painfully obvious this scrub sucks…we cut him loose….
then at the end of the year…Omar signs him again….and then has the guy start at 2B all year in the minors…
Met fans would've gone ape-sh*t
there is this imaginary grip some folks think the good ol boys have on baseball…
yall need to let that sh*t go…
there will be people who dont look like u…act like u…think like u…it doesnt mean they are bad people…they're just different…
i never understood why or how people repeat ________ is a clubhouse cancer or has a bad attitude when all they do is see him for several minutes a day…never hear any conversations dude has with his teammates…
all u have is some journalist talking sh*t trying to sell papers…
and 99.999% of the time that journalist says _______ ( <— insert black/latino player ) has an attitude problem, is lazy….blah blah blah
ask yourself…
how often do you hear a black/latino player is lazy or loafing…
how often do you hear a white player is lazy or loafing..
do you really think these perceptions match up with reality ?
and if u know deep in ur heart that they dont…why do u choose to just repeat them…?
Phillips doesnt get any love because:
1) he had no track of anything other being a Wilpon stooge before he was promoted
2) he publicly said he didnt want to trade for Piazza…and even after the trade, Doubleday had to step in and sign Mike P.
3) the only reason Jose Reyes and David Wright were mets was b/c Cleveland and Toronto TURNED DOWN Phillip’s offers
4) Most people give Bobby V credit for taking the Mets to the WS because they lacked talent
emphasis on the word LACKED
5) when he was promoted, the wilpons PUBLICLY said they wanted to surround him with more experienced talented baseball people…Enter Omar
Honorable Mention:
Not ONE but TWO harassment cases in 4 years
yeah…most met fans are trying to forget about Stevie P…
Instead of Jason Bay the Mets could have signed Colby Lewis, Kelley Johnson, Aubrey Huff, Alex Gonzalez, and had about 5m + left over.
Sorry but this post is silly. Put up their 2011 stats compared to what we signed or brought in. Granted I will give anyone Doumit or Ross as those were logical but Rodney? Lol
By the way, to help a little. Rodney had a 4.50 era and a 1.69 whip in 32 innings with 3 saves and 4 blown saves. Like any antiSandy person wouldn’t have lit him up like a cheap Christmas tree if he was signed to be the closer. Fff had an Era a run lower pitching in the AL East. Never said Franky Fran would be great but at the time how could anyone say Rodney was a safer bet?
the fact that he signed a 2mill 1 year deal pretty much means 29 (hell, 30) GMs saw very little in him.
Bay was hands down the best available RH power hitter and that’s what we needed. Holliday wanted and got more than double what Bay got. 4 years for Bay was a great deal compared to Holliday. Plus Bay wanted 5 guaranteed and he only got 4, same as original Red Sox offer. Nobody could have predicted what happened.
Which is the entire point, of course there were many who predicted the Bay signing would be a bust but that’s not the point either.
The point is you can do this EVERY offseason. Seriously, complaining we should have signed Rodney? Come on.
Rodney sucked, so did FF and Rauch. Cody Ross and Doumit were the guys to get and I recall many Mets fans wanting them. Alderson loved and was committed to Thole.
Two things, of course he was committed to Thole. It’s a rebuilding year, he was committed to Murphy, Gee and Duda too. Second it isn’t like they were exclusive. I wanted a second catcher too and rumors were they were looking for one. So two things could have happened, no money or no interest for the the catchers.
damaja,
I sure dont want to forget 1999 and 2000.. They were a lot more fun teams to watch then what we have been subjected to since then. as far as SP not wanting piazza and wanting to trade reyes and wright. show me the published reports. I have never seen that from anyone else than bloggers with an axe to grind. Results are what matters to me, nothing else.
Steve ( nor the wilpons ) were interested in acquiring Piazza and paying Hundley to be the highest paid backup ever.
This would’ve been like the Mets acquiring Ryan Braun and then placing Jason Bay on the bench…getting paid 18 mil to ride the bench.
Quotes Below
I’d have the best platoon catching tandem in the history of baseball,” General Manager Steve Phillips said with a laugh before the Mets and Giants began a three-game series tonight. ”But I don’t see a fit for us. For me to give up chips to get a player for the rest of this year who duplicates — when healthy — one of our strengths, it really doesn’t make sense to do anything like that.”
Phillips was referring to the All-Star catcher he already has — Todd Hundley, whose progress from elbow surgery continues to accelerate. ”We’ve got arguably one of the top three catchers in baseball ourselves,” Phillips said.
All race, all the time. Wonder who is responsible for that.
i wish we could just talk pennant race….
but we got folks who say Cam Maron and Brooke Forsythe are better than Juan Centeno…despite the fact that the first 2 are either not full-time catchers anymore or dont do that thing called hitting/fielding well and Juan outperforms them in almost every facet of the game.
Who cares?
You? Get your mind out of the gutter and stop making ugly and disgusting assumptions.
Francisco was not a good risk at all. He had no upside, failed as a closer during many attempts to make him one, assaulted fans, and Toronto wanted him gone. Lefties killed him for an .819 OPS in 2011 and when you only have one lefty in your bullpen the last thing you need is a closer who gets torched by lefthanded sluggers. It was a bad idea. Also two years? That was an even worse decision and there was no competition for his services. The team knew all along that Byrdak would be the lone lefty in the pen. Knowing that made the Francisco signing an especially bad one with plenty of red flags. If his 18 blown saves in 65 opps didn’t scare you, his numbers against leftys should have.
”I’d have the best platoon catching tandem in the history of baseball,” General Manager Steve Phillips said with a laugh before the Mets and Giants began a three-game series tonight. ”But I don’t see a fit for us. For me to give up chips to get a player for the rest of this year who duplicates — when healthy — one of our strengths, it really doesn’t make sense to do anything like that.”
Phillips was referring to the All-Star catcher he already has — Todd Hundley, whose progress from elbow surgery continues to accelerate. ”We’ve got arguably one of the top three catchers in baseball ourselves,” Phillips said.
Steve Phillips was NOT interested in adding Piazza and only did so after Nelson Doubleday practically forced him to.
The Mets had the HIGHEST paying catcher in baseball in Todd Hundley…then they get Piazza…
so when Piazza came…
what did the Mets do…
Move a guy who played Catcher his entire life into Right Field !!!
Sounds like a smart move there…
they had to put hundley somewhere. ok, I will buy that phillips actually said that. At the time I was thinking the same thing myself. to his credit, SP was able to deal hundley for cedeno and benitez who were huge contributers to the 99 team and then he used cedeno as a piece to bring in hampton without whom there was no subway series happening. still not seeing anything where SP tried to trade reyes or wright.