Sign Jon Garland, please

I present you with the best fact I've found on why the Mets should sign Jon Garland. He may not be a spectacular pitcher, but this Stat of the Day shows why he's so durable and enticing.

Stat of the Day:

Today, I was wondering, from 2002 through 2008, how many big league pitchers younger than age 29 have posted four or more seasons where they made at least 32 starts, threw at least 190 innings, and won at least 10 games?

Here is the list.

Look who is at the top.

Six file for arbitration

Six players have filed for salary arbitration.

Duaner Sanchez, Pedro Feliciano, Ryan Church, Jeremy Reed, John Maine and Angel Pagan all filed for arbitration. David Lennon has the players service time and 2008 salaries up.

Last off-season, Oliver Perez was the first Met player to make it to a hearing since David Cone in 1992. Five bucks says they'll have another hearing this year. Clearing six players before the deadline is going to be a tough task, especially with Omar Minaya's attention elsewhere.

No we can't!

Via MetsTweets on Twitter.
Amazing.

Get your tickets

Tickets are...on sale!

40- and 15-game packages are up and ready to go.
Anyone getting seats? Anyone have extras? (hint hint)

The State of the Mets -- 1/15/09

Here is the second edition of The State of the Mets.

I cover Derek Lowe, Ben Sheets, Oliver Perez and Alex Cora.

Enjoy.

(Ed. note: I'm slowly improving this. Soon, you won't have to stare at my ugly mug the whole time.)

Link: Beltran is ready

Another great article from Christian Red in the Daily News, this time focusing on Carlos Beltran. Click here to read the story.

Andy Pettitte rumors to start swirling

One month ago (to the day), I wrote this:

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.
---
The Mets need at least one more starter, and it could be Pettitte.

Today, Wallace Matthews writes:

But for whatever reason, the Yankees - either scared off by his poor second half, emboldened by their relatively painless jettisoning of Bernie Williams a couple of years ago or warming up for their inevitable discarding of Jeter and Mariano Rivera a couple of years hence - have decided that unless Pettitte wants to work for the Yankee equivalent of clubhouse-boy wages, he no longer fits into their plans.
---
It doesn't appear to me that any of those guys is a better fit for the Mets' rotation than Pettitte. Unlike Perez, you absolutely know what you're getting: 30 to 35 starts a year, 200-plus innings, a minimum 14 wins. If you make it to October, you have a starter guaranteed not to rattle under pressure, and almost always guaranteed to put you in a position to win.

I'd prefer others, but Pettitte could work for the Mets.

A letter to the New York Mets

Dear Mets,

I'm writing you on behalf of Mets fans everywhere. I am imploring you to keep Johan Santana out of the World Baseball Classic.

As it stands right now, Santana is the only pitcher I trust in the team's rotation. With Mike Pelfrey coming off a season in which he threw a ton more innings, John Maine recovering from surgery, Tim Redding not being all that great to begin with and Jon Niese being almost completely unproven, Santana is all we've got.

Not to mention that he's also coming off surgery from October.

You might hurt the mans feeling a bit, and maybe you should send a fruit basket to Hugo Chavez, but this is what's better for the team. Tell him he's just not ready to pitch. Tell him he looks like he's coming down with a cold. Tell him something, anything, to keep him from putting excess wear and tear on his arm.

Protect your $137 million investment -- JUST SAY NO.

Sincerely,
Andrew Vazzano
TheRopolitans.com

Johan Santana's Baseball-Reference page libeled

Baseball-Reference is an amazing site. I use it daily to check stats and numbers on any player that I want. Even if he only played one season in the minor leagues in 1980, B-R is pretty much guaranteed to have his stats.

On each players page, B-R allows fans or websites to "sponsor" the page. It helps them wrangle with server costs and whatnot.

Well Johan Santana's page has a bit of "internet graffiti" on it.
Ugh.

Our first Ben Sheets rumor

With Derek Lowe becoming the newest enemy, the Mets are forced to look down the list of free agent pitchers to fill the hole in their rotation.

Oliver Perez and Ben Sheets both appear on that list. We've heard a few rumors lately about Perez, but really nothing has been brought up about Sheets.

Ben Shpigel stops all that, with this: "They are also weighing a run at Ben Sheets, but are wary of his injury history."

Finally.

Sheets, when healthy, is an excellent pitcher. Too bad that is a very big "if."

Also in the article, Shpigel points out that the Mets have been unwilling to offer four years to a starting pitcher this season, and only granted one to Francisco Rodriguez in the form of a vesting option.

If the Mets were to sign anyone for four years, I'd prefer it to be Perez, simply due to his age (27). Sheets is too risky to sign for that long, but a one- or two-year deal would be fine with me. Laden it with incentives that he can earn if healthy to keep him pitching and motivated and you'd pretty much have a steal if he can start 25 games.