I figured the question I posed would have gotten a chuckle more than anything else considering how the rotation looked going into 2012. I too thought he could have been used as trade bait or even, if necessary, having him or another starter go to the bullpen for middle relief since we did know that was a problem.

But by re-signing Cappuano he would have had some money left over for another, less expesnive relieve on the free agent market even if for one year – and there were about 45 who signed for less that Francisco did.and many have worked out much better for their new clubs.

You’re right with that. We all knew Cappy was looking for a multi year deal and that we had starting pitchng returning in the form of Santana/Dickey/Gee/Niese/and Pelfrey with Harvey on the horizon. And even though I disagreed with Sandy’s assessment of Cappy’s performance in 2011, I thought he made the right move releasing him nevertheless.

This, of course, is just an after-thought – and very novice one at that – but if he had it to do over again, wonder if Sandy would have re-signed Capuano for that $9 million two year deal and used the other $3 million he saved from the Francisco signing to apply to somebody else?

SP turned out to be the least of our problems this season – even considering all the injuries by season’s end to the starting 5 on Opening day.
The only real bad decision IMO was starting Batista – should have just rolled with Harvey sooner rather than later.

I believe the reason no FA SP was getting a multi year deal coming into 2012 was because SP depth was the one area coming into 2013 they probably figured would not be a problem. So a 2 year deal with Cappy probably did not fit into their plans.

The only deviation from that was the 5 year extension for Niese. Probably because he does figure to be a part of their long term plan.

Regardless of my opinion, it was Sandy last year who said when he released Cappy that he was very happy with his performance but that Chris did not fit in their plans for the future.

But what does that say about a general manager who releases his one and only good acquistion (out of how many) last season?

Didn’t think much of Cappy last year except that it was indeed a feel good story about one coming back from such injury, however, his record reflected more or less cheap wins (except for two gems) with a high ERA and the seventh best run support in the league for starting pitchers.

Best Sandy didn’t re-sign him for it would have only set up the Met’s GM for even more ridicule about his role causing the second half swoon. By that I mean, Chris ERA:

As of 6/23/12 (approximately first half): 2.60
As of 9/27/12 (all since that point and in second half): 3.69

Second half ERA approximately 4.78

Sandy did not want to trade Hairston this summer because he wanted the team to still be “competitive” after falling out of the race and would not settle for anything less than a top minor league prospect in return.

The complete opposite of last year when Sandy wanted to trade Beltran when we were still in the wildcard race – which is much more than just being “competitive” – and said he would have even settled for monetary consideration in return.

so, his primary attribute is he rakes lefties for power, and that is certainly valuable.

does he think some team is going to give him a 3/30 contract to be an everyday OF? Hard to imagine, but you never know what a GM is going to do.

Still, there are always RH hitting COF veteran bats that can hit LHP available, so Hairston is not unique, and if he gets paid like a FT starter, there should be someone available to replace him for the same few million that he would get as a platoon guy.