12/16/08

Sign Tim Redding

On my personal quest to find the Mets another starter, Tim Redding came across my computer screen.

Recently non-tendered by the Washington Nationals, Redding is now a free agent.

The man would easily be the fifth starter at best, if the Mets decided to take a chance with him. Last seasons he went 10-11 in 33 games with the Nats. 182 innings pitched and a 4.95 ERA later, Redding could be a nice fit to challenge Jon Niese in spring training.

But the real reason I think the Mets should sign him, according to his Wikipedia page, he is the nephew of Joyce Randolph, who is famous for playing Trixie Norton on The Honeymooners.

I can see it now...
  • Every time he comes out to the mound, they play "Hamana-hamana-hamana-hamana." The crowd echoes it.
  • If he ever pegs someone in the head, or gives him a little chin music, they would play "POW! Right in the kisser!"
  • If he ever hits a home run, they play "One of these days, Alice...Bang! Zoom! Straight to the moon!"
He's also from Rochester, New York. He appeared in one game for the New York Yankees in 2005, pitching one inning and surrendering six earned runs for a 54.00. Not the best stat ever, but he's a fifth starter!

A minor league deal, with incentives. Time to stockpile pitchers, Omar Minaya.

Link: Rollie Fingers and his 'stache

Head over to Big League Stew to check out a hilarious story about Rollie Fingers and his amazing mustache.
"I was in Chicago at the airport and there was this couple in front of me and they've got a little 5-year-old girl. She keeps turning around and looking at me. And all the sudden, she turns around and kicks me right in the shins. Her parents turn around and say, 'Honey, what are you doing!' and she looks up at me and says, 'Why were you so mean to Peter Pan?' She thought I was Captain Hook. It was right around the time that movie, 'Hook' came out. I just started busting out laughing. I was just glad she didn't have pointed shoes."
Amazing.

J.J. Putz as a set up man

J.J. Putz was an All Star closer only two years ago. Now he'll be the primary set up man for another All Star closer. Coming off of seeing years of Billy Wagner sometimes pitching in a non-save situation, I must say I'm a little worried.

Mel Stottlemyre seems to agree with me.

Anthony McCarron talked to Stottlemyre about Putz, since he was Seattle's pitching coach last year.
His mentality is that of a closer," Stottlemyre said. "If I had any question marks about how he handles New York, it's adjusting to the new role. J.J. will have to find himself comfortable as a setup man. He has the pitches and the capability.

"I've always questioned people who are closers for a long time, how they adapt to the new role. And he likes to be the guy. He gets an extra bit of adrenaline going when he's pitching the ninth inning. But the fact that he's going to a club expected to win and that has every capability to win with that lineup, that'll ease the situation for him."

I can remember times with Wagner coming in to a game when the Mets were up by four or five, and then having to sweat out the last few outs because he let in three runs already and there was a player standing on second base.

Hopefully Putz can translate well into the set up role, because it'd be a shame to watch the leads disappear in the 8th inning instead of the 9th next season. Maybe he was paying attention to the NL East last season, and knows how dire the Mets need is for a solid bullpen, so he'll step it up in the 8th inning. You never know!

Putz will be introduced on Thursday, with Francisco Rodriguez being welcomed in on Wednesday at the Christmas Party with Mike "Santa" Pelfrey.

12/15/08

Randy Wolf and the Mets have mutual interest

The Randy Wolf-to-the-Mets train is gaining steam. Are you on board?

Marty Noble throws some coal into the engine with his latest article. Here's what Noble has to say:
The Mets appear to be beyond the connect-the-dots stage with the veteran pitcher. Wolf himself acknowledged as much Monday night during a telephone conversation. The Mets, he said, have been in contact with his agent, Arn Tellem, and, in Wolf's words, "have shown some interest."
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The Mets have some appeal to him, seemingly the same appeal the Yankees would have -- they are likely to be a competitive team, and they play in the Northeast. "I like the intensity of the fans in the Northeast," Wolf says.
Since the Phillies fans "borrowed" Ya Gotta Believe!, I think it's fair to say that Mets fans are more than allowed to have their own Citi Field Wolf Pack if he's on the team in 2009.

Could the Mets make a play for Andy Pettitte?

Andy Pettitte is a free agent who we all know can handle pitching in New York. Could the Mets be making a play for the longtime Yankee?

According to Jon Heyman, an unnamed team supposedly has a three-year, $36 million offer on the table for Pettitte.

Hopefully, that team is not the Mets.

I would take Pettitte on a one year contract worth $8 million, though he likely won't sign for that. How about a two year deal worth $14 million? It's a bit off from this suggested $12 million a year he's supposedly getting from Team Anonymous (which I suspect doesn't exist). Pettitte also supposedly turned down a one-year, $10 million offer from the Yankees.

Last year, he was on the mound for 204 innings. The three years before that he threw 215.3, 214.3 and 222.3 innings respectively. Don't expect his ERA to dip below 4.00, the last time that happened was in 2005 with Houston when he put up a spectacular 2.39 for the year.

The Mets need at least one more starter, and it could be Pettitte. Again, Jon Garland is still higher on my list, especially because he's seven years Pettitte's junior. I'm not sure if I could deal with that creepy stare Pettitte always has while pitching.Yeah, that's the one.

Mets Rumor: Randy Wolf

With the end all but sealed up, the Mets now need to focus on who will be starting some of those games.

According to Anthony McCarron in the Daily News, the Mets have turned their sights to free agent Randy Wolf. I believe the Mets made a tiny run at him during the 2008 season, but he instead went to the Houston Astros.

Here's what McCarron had to say:
The Mets are interested in re-signing Oliver Perez, something GM Omar Minaya has said is "50-50." Lefty Randy Wolf, who has a career mark of 11-5 with a 3.34 ERA in 28 starts against the Mets, is another strong possibility. Wolf is likely to sign faster than Perez, which would solve the Mets' rotation riddle sooner.
McCarron also notes that Wolf is represented by Arm Tellem, a person Omar Minaya and Jeff Wilpon have come to know lately, since he also represent Francisco Rodriguez.

Wolf spent eight seasons with the Phillies before moving on to the Dodgers, San Diego and Houston. His best seasons came between 2000 and 2003 when he went 48-39. Since 2002, he hasn't posted an ERA below 4.23.

In 2005 and 2006, Wolf combined to pitch only 130.7 innings. In 2007 he pitched 102.7 and last season he threw 190.3 between the Padres and Astros.

If the Mets do sign him, I hope it's cheap and incentive laden. He's the kind of guy that can break down very easily.

Who did it better?: K-Rod's player photo

I was pretty underwhelmed with the job MLB did on putting Francisco Rodriguez in a Mets uniform, so I decided to take matters into my own hands. (Actually, I was challenged to do this in the comment section.)

Here's what I came up with...There's a bit of red leaking out from under K-Rod's cap, but it's his hat, not someone else's pasted on his head. I didn't quite get the Mets blue correct, but at least it looks like he's wearing his own hat and shirt (because he is!) instead of an XXL uniform and hat that is way too big for his head.

Vote!

12/14/08

Minaya's Q&A

Steve Serby of the POST has a great Q&A session with Mets GM Omar Minaya. Here are a few highlights:

Q: You met again with Team K-Rod the next day.

A: We had met at the Bellagio late in the afternoon - 4, 5, 6 (p.m.)- then we kinda went back and forth for about 12 hours. Jeff was really the one driving this. I don't want to be the one taking credit. We work together as a team, between [John] Ricco and Sandy Johnson and Tony Bernazard and (pro scout) Brian Lamb.

---

Q: K-Rod had one concern.

A: He also wanted to know "Who's the guy that's gonna give me the ball?

---

Q: You're the talk of the town.

A: Being a Met fan, it's a passion. I just want Met fans to know we all care. I say, "Look, if you're afraid of your heart being broken, you cannot be a baseball fan," but you can't be a Met fan if you're afraid of your heart being broken. We overcome tough losses. It's like relationships in life - you overcome them. You bounce back. The fact that it's Christmas in the city, waiting for spring to start for new hope of a better year - they (Mets fans) should feel ownership and the front office will continue to do everything they can to provide them a championship team.

Minaya has definitely proved his worth as GM so far this off-season. He still has some work to do, but the bullpen -- which has been the major issue the last two seasons -- has been completely overhauled.

Two marks on the To-Do list down, a few to go.

12/13/08

I like K-Rod already

Brash. Attitude. Bold.

All things I like about Francisco Rodriguez, besides the talent of course.

Here's what K-Rod said during a conference call today:
Of course, we're going to try to win the division. Of course, we're going to be the front-runner. Of course, we're going to be the team to beat.
Good man. I'm sure the Phillies hate him already.

Oh, and come on MLB! You can't Photoshop K-Rod into a Met uniform any better than that?!

Update: Check out this in-depth article by Christian Red of the Daily News.

Toby Hyde on Connor Robertson

Though the Mets newest acquisition has some pretty awful numbers at the big league level, Toby Hyde of Mets Minor League Blog posts some stats from Connor Robertson's minor league appearances, and they look fairly interesting.
Robertson is a fine athlete who was a second-team All-American as a 3B at Birmingham Southern where he is the career leader in HR, TB and RBI.

In 306 minor league innings, Robertson struck out 383 batters while walking 123. That works out to 11.26 K/9,, [sic]3.26 BB/9 and a K/BB of 3.11. The nine big league innings that hardly indicate his underlying abilty [sic].

Very interesting. Maybe all he need is some seasoning with a different pitching coach.

The Mets sent Scott Schoeneweis along with $1.6 million to Arizona for Robertson on Friday.