Add The Mets To The List Of Teams That Need A Starting Pitcher
- Marlins 7-Mets 3; John Maine leaves the game in the fifth inning with shoulder pain/stiffness:
A week ago, the Mets starting rotation was relatively solid in comparison to the rest of the
league even with the ambiguity of Pedro Martinez; now the may have to go into the market for a stopgap to give them some innings. John Maine left last night’s game against the Marlins with pain/stiffness in the back of his shoulder and returned to New York for an examination and if he’s out for any significant amount of time, the Mets have a problem.
The initial belief from pitching coach Dan Warthen is that it’s not something serious that will cause Maine to miss more than one start, but that’s hardly any comfort to the Mets who don’t have any idea when they’re getting Martinez back and what they’re going to get out of him when he does return. So they, like most other teams, are going to scrounge around the non-contenders and teams willing to deal to try and find a starter. The Blue Jays have pulled A.J. Burnett off the market (more on this later), as the Reds have with Bronson Arroyo; that leaves the likes of Jarrod 
Washburn; Paul Byrd; Vicente Padilla; Miguel Batista; and Tim Redding. There are teams like the Astros that should be making pitchers available to re-stock the franchise, but instead are acquiring spare parts that they don’t need in Randy Wolf.
I wouldn’t get too excited or give up much of anything for most of the pitchers mentioned; taking their salaries should be sufficient to
acquire them in lieu of viable prospects, but guys like Padilla, who’s
signed through next year with a 2010 option, wouldn’t come cheap; and Redding is the type of impending free agent pitcher that the Nationals Bizarro GM Jim Bowden would ask for six top prospects after prematurely unloading the cheap, productive and versatile reliever Jon Rauch to the Diamondbacks for one. Byrd’s been terrible this year, but he wouldn’t cost
much in terms of players and the change might wake him up for the rest of the season; worst case scenario, he’d eat some innings. Perhaps the Twins would want to get something for Livan Hernandez as they promote Francisco Liriano; Hernandez would be a perfect fit for the Mets.
The only hope the Mets have in this case is that Maine will only miss a start or two and they can patch something together with Triple A veterans Brian Stokes or Ruddy Lugo; they could also promote top prospect Jon Niese from Double A for a couple of starts to see if they catch lightning. Unless they’re getting one of the veteran pitchers available for little or nothing, patching the problem with what they have is the best solution for now.
- Another reason the Blue Jays should fire J.P. Ricciardi:
Now the Blue Jays are justifying keeping A.J. Burnett by implying that they’re going to try to crawl back into contention and win right now after a brief hot streak has pushed them over .500. It’s nonsense.
Take a look back at the Blue Jays track record under GM J.P. Ricciardi. Every year they’ve
either been out of contention completely by this point, or were hovering around exactly where they are now; not in a genuine playoff race, but not bad enough to warrant a thorough housecleaning of veterans; and look where they end up. They wind up with a record of slightly above .500 or a bit better and everyone thinks that they’re improving; that they’re ready to take the next step and join the Yankees and Red Sox at the top of the AL East and possibly vault past one to make the playoffs; but they don’t. They’re a hamster on a treadmill and it’s enough already. They’ve had this latest hot streak to push them over .500 and into 
“contention” against the fading Orioles and the Mariners. In August they play: the Rangers, Athletics, Indians, Tigers, Red Sox, Yankees, Red Sox, Rays and Yankees. Does anyone really believe that they’re going to be able to keep up this “hot” streak?
Regarding Burnett, the main reason that they’re not trading him is that they’re not going to get much of anything for him because of that stupid contract that Ricciardi doled out in which the pitcher can either opt out at the end of this year or can activate two more years at $12 million per. If a deal could be worked out where Burnett would agree to activate the contract immediately upon being traded, then maybe the Blue Jays would get something of value for him, but why should he given the state of pitching around the big leagues? He’s got 12 wins now and could wind up with 17-19 by season’s end if he pitches well; he’d get a long-term deal from someone after the season if he does opt out.
The Burnett contract is eerily similar to the one that Frank Thomas received which—-despite the disingenuous claims by Ricciardi—-truly precipitated his release earlier this year. Thomas’s contract was going to activate for next year after he reached 376 plate
appearances and the Blue Jays used Thomas’s slow start (for which he’s been notorious throughout his career) and chafing at being benched as the reasons he was released. The truth is that they dumped him because they didn’t want to pay him for next year and having contracts dictate how a team is run and what player decisions are made in this way is inept management.
It’s one thing to dump a player because of his contract and the team situation; it’s another to dump him in April as the Blue Jays did with Thomas. It’s the same situation with Burnett. They’re not keeping him because they think they’re going to leap into contention; they’re keeping him because Ricciardi is hoping against hope that the Blue Jays will win their 87-88 games and again save his job as he hides behind the “improvement” that isn’t really there. You really can’t blame the guy for trying this strategy because it’s worked in saving his neck before; you’d think that ownership would eventually catch on and make a change, but Ricciardi, with all of his controversies, embarrassing public dustups with players and bottom-line mediocrity, is still there, so he might again survive like the reptile he’s proven himself to be.
princeofny
Remember when J.P. held Golden Boy status? Then the Jays’ front office started increasing payroll and Golden Boy still couldn’t get out of first gear. If he stays on for ’09, it’ll be a miracle.
Steve T
http://soxblog.mlblogs.com
So now that its looking like Hudson is going to be out for a good chunk, if not all of the rest of the year, any indecision about charging or reloading for the braves is over.
on the DL are: Smoltz, Hudson, Chipper, Peter Moylan, Tom Glavine, Matt Diaz, probably somebody else I forgot.
Also out for some indefinite time due to a concussion: Brian McCann
Miraculously not on the DL: Mike Hampton
What kind of bizarro world is this?
Tex will be traded this week, I think. It looks like the Yankees are thinking about an audition for a long term deal, the Rays have interest as do the Angels.
The D-Backs are seeming to be a fallback now, as the Braves seem to have a firm offer of Micah Owings and Chad Tracy. I don’t really know if this is better than two draft picks or not. I don’t really see Micah Owings turning the corner. He’s an exciting player, but I don’t know that he’d be a productive everyday at bat if converted and I don’t know that he’ll be that much mor ethan what he is now as a pitcher.
Who knows. I have an odd feeling that the Angels will do a deal for Tex and Ohman for a couple of prime prospects and some throw-ins.
Ricciardi has some admirable traits—-he’s blunt and self-confident; but his other traits hinder his ability to be a good GM. As irritating as Brian Cashman is, his corporate doubletalk helps him to not make the same temperamental mistakes Ricciardi has in his dealings with certain players; and Ricciardi’s made some grotesque errors in judgment. If they’re gonna fire him at season’s end, they should just do it now and not even give him the chance to do further damage.
If the Braves have an offer on the table of Owings and Tracy for a player in Teixeira that they won’t have next year, they should do it RIGHT NOW!!!
What I’m hearing is that the Braves aren’t particularly enthralled with either player though and may even prefer two draft picks to two players that they don’t really see as stallwarts of the organization. It also might just be them trying to get connor jackson in the deal, which the d-backs don’t seem likely to do. About the only thing that is clear is that the Braves would immediately accept any deal that included Jackson.
There is also the possibility that Cashman gets pressured into parting with some high level prospects by little Hank. Especially since the Yankees are the prime candidate for him ot land with next year.
And as you’ve noted in the past, the Angels tend to deal in swift, almost unexpected blows. They seem to desire one more big bat for facing the other power AL teams.
It’ll be interesting.
On a side note, I know some players have it in their contracts that if a club declines an option, the club also has to decline arbitration, meaning no draft picks. You have any idea if this is the case with Manny? And if the Sox do offer arbitration, wouldn’t it be hilarious if Manny did a Greg Maddux and accepted?
I’m not convinced that Manny’s career in Boston is over. He and the Red Sox have had more blowups and reconciliations than Pam Anderson and Tommy Lee. Are the Red Sox really planning to replace Manny with the likes of Pat Burrell or Jason Bay? Burrell and J.D. Drew (injury prone and having his career year) in the same outfield? Burrell is NOT a clutch player against anyone except the Mets and Bay looks like the type of guy who’d stifle under the pressure in Boston and replacing Manny. The only viable replacement for Manny would be a deal for Matt Holliday after the season; he’d handle Boston and replacing Manny fine.
I don’t know about the arbitration thing and Manny’s unpredictable, but I’m sure some team would offer him enough money and years for him to reject arbitration if it’s indeed possible. The thing that makes me laugh about Manny is that guys like Peter Gammons (for whom I have great respect even though he’s losing his objectivity as he ages) chuckle about Manny’s behavior when they’re picking him for the MVP and he’s helping the Red Sox win championships, but call him greedy and selfish when he acts as he’s acting now. Manny is the same guy he always was; it’s the perception of “Manny being Manny” that changes.
Looks like my hunch was right, Tex to the Angels. I like Kotchman a lot better than Chad Tracy. I don’t think Owings is ever going to be a viable ML starter or much better than a mop up guy buried on the bullpen depth chart.