According to the New York Post, the agent for reliever Matt Capps said that “he hasn’t heard from Mets since the GM meetings,’ which is when the Mets had told him they were interested in his client.
Also, another reliever the Mets were interested in, Jonathan Broxton, is expected to sign with a new team in the next two days and the agent specifically said that he “won’t be headed to the Mets.”
Wasn’t it just three days ago that I said the Mets would find even the secondary market for closers to be too rich for their tastes? You see what’s going on here? Lot’s of looking, but no touching and certainly no buying.
Still, this is not what I want to rant about this morning. Instead I want to point out the perception that some fans have with regard to how choosy the Mets can afford to be right now.
Case in point, I go to where all the Mets fans flock to, MetsBlog of course, where Matt and Mike had this to say about Capps,
To me, Capps is a middle reliever. He can be better than what he showed last year. But, even still, he shouldn’t be a closer…Capps is not a typical closer….He gives up a lot of hits and has seen his walk and home run totals go up over the last couple of years…I’d be concerned it was the beginning of a downward trend for Capps.
Of course Matt Capps is not a typical closer. Of course he’s in a downward trend. All of these closer on the secondary market, have flaws. Many are coming off bad seasons. Some are coming back from a significant injury. Others still are at the end of their careers.
When the Philadelphia Phillies signed Jonathan Papelbon, and even when the Texas Rangers signed Joe Nathan, my brothers in the blogging community wasted no time in saying how glad they were it wasn’t the Mets. Many of them laughed and mocked both teams as if we were the ones in the envious position. What I feel is lost on many of them is that if you want quality you have to pay for it. The fan base has become an army of accountants all looking to preserve what little is left in the coffers of the Wilponian Empire.
Now back to the secondary closers market…
If you want middle of the road relievers like your Matt Capps’ and Jonathan Broxton’s to be your closer, there’s even a steep price for them too. I’ve told all of you this before.
You can’t go picking apart these quasi-closers because they all have inherent flaws many of which are significant. There is not going to be an elite pitcher that drops out of the sky and into the Mets laps for the $2-3 million dollars they are only willing to spend.
We should be talking about the real issues that plague this franchise, and not regurgitatiing the false pretenses that the Mets are interested in Player A or Player B when in fact there’s not even a snowball’s chance in hell that any significant player ends up on the Mets roster next season.
Matt Capps and Jonathan Broxton are far too good for the Mets. You have to aim lower… Much lower… And don’t be so damned picky either… Didn’t your parents ever teach you? Beggars can’t be choosy.
