9.1.09

Redding Or Not, Mets May Have A 5th Starter Before A 4th

If the latest rumour mill is to be believed, the Mets appear to be close to signing Tim Redding to fill the fifth spot in the rotation.

Smart move, if it comes to pass.

Once you've carefully read the headline and realised after the initial shock, that thank christ, Redding isn't meant to be the answer to the stall in the negotiations to sign Derek Lowe.

And of course, once you've gotten past the initial nausea of thinking jesus, the bottom-dwelling Nats didn't even tender this guy a contract even though he led the team in wins so what's wrong with him?

Well, if you read this you'll find that as a rotation star, he was rubbish, however as a fifth starter...

"The more you look at it, the more last year's Tim Redding seems like the "real Tim Redding" durably giving you a bunch of innings barely worth that of a 5th starter. Of course there is value in just having innings eaten up. The Nats bullpen has annually been killed by the fact the team hasn't had a true deep into games pitcher since Livan left. But I'm willing to bet they can find the same type of mediocre innings from someone else on the market, someone we fans can fool outselves into thinking might become something better."


You could also point out that he slumped badly after the All-Star break, going 3-8 with a 6.92 ERA. Of course, pitching for the Nats in the 2nd half of a pointless and miserable season, its quite understandable he might have lost a little motivation towards the end of the season, who wouldn't?

On the bright side, he was 3-1 with a 3.41 ERA against the Phillies last season and that alone is worth a few golf claps of appreciation.

Look, Jon Niese, for all his potential, is still an unknown entity.



And yeah, his signing might put a little damper on Pedro's desire to win a World Series with the Mets but as much as the heart might want to see Pedro redeem his forgettable 2008 season with a Mets comeback in 2009, is it realistic?

Is not a bad move. Signing a 5th starter is not exactly stop-the-presses sort of news but when your 5th starter is another team's former ace, even if that former team is only the Nats, well done, I say.

Now as for Derek Lowe and his scumbag agent preening for more than the 3 year, $36 million contract the Mets offered, well, I hope a deal can still be done, but if the Braves are dumb enough to give him a 4-year contract out of desperation, let them. Big game pitcher or not, Lowe is not going to last out a 4 year contract.

Raise the ante if you have to but truth be told, the Braves are notoriously conservative financially and they don't have the stomach for a bidding war. I still think the Mets will get their man.

Whatever happens, I am still engaging in daily prayers that Oliver Perez does not return as a Met. Hopefully, you'll join me.

As Oscar Wilde once said, "Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go”

Just so. Stay gone, Ollie, stay gone.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I read in the paper today that Omar is talking to Boras about Lowe and Perez. Omar PREFERS Perez! Others in the organization do not. We are DOOMED.

Jaap said...

jdon, we never really know what Omar is thinking and well we shouldn't because if we did. we'd be robbing him of the subterfuge he needs to make good signings on an economic basis and even good trades. Diminuendo.
Question is (and I think I know how you would respond) do you trust Omar?
He's a frugal GM by nature - cutting your teeth as a GM for the Expos will do that to you. I wanted him to be Gm even before that chimp Phillips was sacked.
He takes chances. Sometimes he is wrong on trades but I think about last winter when he traded Milledge to the Nats for Schneider and Church and I thought that was a big cock up and it panned out pretty good.
I'm gonna trust him for this year.
I'm going to trust the Mets for this year again because eventually, that psychological barrier they've constructed over the last two Septembers is going to come down.
I have to believe that. If I didn't, I'd be a Nats fan.

Anonymous said...

as much as i normally like reading your stuff, waxing poetic about a
5th starter is pretty fucking lame.

tim redding is not going to make david wright drive in meaningful runs, he isn't going to make jose reyes stop choking in the part of the season it counts.

as much as it sucks, the mets need manny if they want to go to the world series. he almost took the fucking dodgers there and the dodgers are far worse than the mets. imagine what that lineup would be like.

wilpons are making shitloads of cash on this new stadium - why don't they just offer a two year contract at better than yankee numbers?

by doing so you lose the risk of him pouting and fucking up your franchise and you lose the risk of his inevitable decline in the next year or two.

i can't help but feel, despite omar's signings, that this is a mickey mouse outfit.

and mickey mouse, apparently, always finishes second.

Anonymous said...

You are a Nats fan. You just haven;t realized it yet.

Anonymous said...

sanchez---the Mets are going to be making scads of dough from the new field, as you say. Meaningful games in September are no longer a requirement. Besides, they are short of cash at the moment. I will always b elieve that winning is secondary--maybe even tertiary---the the Wilps.

Jaap said...

well, I hope you're happy now sanchez - the Mets are so desperate to make the 4th starter splash that they've gone and offered bloody Oliver Perez a contract, just like I specifically asked them not to! Ok, I'm calming - must be some negotiating ploy by Omar to sneak Lowe in under the radar, make him sweat a little. But jaysus Omar, don't put TWO bullets in that russian roulette pistol of yours, eh?