Monday, December 13, 2004
Pedro is "in the bag"
it's a bit confusing at this point on how official it is, but everybody is saying pedro martinez has agreed to sign with the mets. it was pretty apparent that pedro's thought of leaving the world champion red sox for flushing was somewhere along the lines of leaving for a leper colony. the mets have had the bigger offer on the table for some time now and noston just wasn't budging on money or a 4th year. finally today, owner freddie wilpon took a vote and gave the go ahead for a guaranteed 4th year, and the overall offer of $56m/4 years just blew boston out of it. the mets had plan B with odalis perez ready, so time was of the essence. pedro had no other choice, of course.
was it a good signing for the mets? well, for sure, pedro martinez is a huge upgrade for the rotation. he's instantly the ace among mediocrities and maybe his success and noted intensity can help spur on some final production out of tom glavine's dead soul, some more half-decency out of the ever halfway-decent trax, and some results out of the aging "big potential projects:" benson and zambrano. that's still a pretty shaky rotation, especially when you take into account the history of arm problems for benson and zambrano. anybody goes down, and the mets do their heilman, seo, ginter routine again. people may also include pedro in the shaky health category, but he's put in his 600 innings the past 3 years, and doesn't seem a risk beyond his perpetual reputation for being a small-framed pitcher.
all in all, a helluva lot of money for pedro. the mets and bosox were the only serious suitors and the mets blew them away. mets fans can always rationalize it as "it ain't my money," but it's always been these tenuous monster money signings that freddie later uses to rationalize his subsequent periods of cheap-ass youth movements. it's a nasty deja vu spin-o-rama we ride. for now, we can only pray the spending and wheeling-dealing doesn't stop here. the mets have gone from a "pretty bad team" to now a "pretty bad team with pedro martinez." still lots of holes to fill, lots of spots to upgrade, and if the significant spending has stopped, there's not much omar can do -- even if he was a bright man -- which is isn't.
Post a Comment
was it a good signing for the mets? well, for sure, pedro martinez is a huge upgrade for the rotation. he's instantly the ace among mediocrities and maybe his success and noted intensity can help spur on some final production out of tom glavine's dead soul, some more half-decency out of the ever halfway-decent trax, and some results out of the aging "big potential projects:" benson and zambrano. that's still a pretty shaky rotation, especially when you take into account the history of arm problems for benson and zambrano. anybody goes down, and the mets do their heilman, seo, ginter routine again. people may also include pedro in the shaky health category, but he's put in his 600 innings the past 3 years, and doesn't seem a risk beyond his perpetual reputation for being a small-framed pitcher.
all in all, a helluva lot of money for pedro. the mets and bosox were the only serious suitors and the mets blew them away. mets fans can always rationalize it as "it ain't my money," but it's always been these tenuous monster money signings that freddie later uses to rationalize his subsequent periods of cheap-ass youth movements. it's a nasty deja vu spin-o-rama we ride. for now, we can only pray the spending and wheeling-dealing doesn't stop here. the mets have gone from a "pretty bad team" to now a "pretty bad team with pedro martinez." still lots of holes to fill, lots of spots to upgrade, and if the significant spending has stopped, there's not much omar can do -- even if he was a bright man -- which is isn't.
Post a Comment
