In 2008, KRod set the single season saves record with 62. And then after losing arbitration the previous winter, it was pretty obvious a team was going to be dumb enough to pay a closer 14-16 million a year. The Mets were completely brutal in 2008 due to their bullpen being as ineffective as they were (mainly the closer by committee role), so they were out to fix that no matter the cost and no matter what the contract would do to the teams payroll restrictions. For some reason Mets GM, Omar Minaya, thought that if he added a couple marquee arms to the late innings, it would hide the fact their rotation is a bunch of 4 and 5′s behind Ace Johan. Minaya made a trade to acquire JJ Putz from Seattle, sacrificing even more of his team’s farm system depth, and everyone thought that was the big splash. No, the Mets had something else in mind. Minaya shocked the baseball world with a laughable and embarrassing 3 year 39 million dollar offer to KRod. It probably took KRod a good 13 seconds or so to sign his name to that contract, knowing NO OTHER TEAM was going to give in to that kind of demand.

Why is this deal so bad? It’s rumored that the Wilpon Family (owners) lost an unbelievable amount of money investing with Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff. Not to mention already having the second highest payroll in baseball. It was ridiculous to give 39 million to a pitcher to get THREE outs roughly 40 times a year ESPECIALLY with the Mets DESPERATELY needing a starting pitcher to compliment Johan Santana. Without that second pitcher, the Mets weren’t going to win in 2009 regardless of if everyone stayed healthy the entire year. Starting pitching wins games, not your closer. Did the Mets have NO ONE in the organization that could get the final 3 outs of the game at an 80% clip? If that’s the case, then the Mets are even worse off in terms of depth than I originally thought.

This year, Kevin Gregg blew 7 saves, Brad Lidge blew 11 and Brian Fuentes blew 8 while leading the league in saves. My point? That all closers blow saves. Most closers can give you an 80% conversion rate, while a few can give u better than that, so why give someone like KRod roughly 13 million a year to go 3-6 with a 3.76 ERA, 73 to 38 K/BB ration (which is well below the league average of 3 k’s to 1 BB). But more importantly going a mediocre 35-42 in save opportunities. These numbers would have been much worse had he not pitched into some luck with a .270 BABIP. In retrospect, he blew just as many saves as Kevin Gregg making 9 million a year more. Does that make sense? Apparently it makes sense to Omar Minaya, and that’s ridiculous.

What could the Mets have done with that extra 13 million? They could have made a run at trading for the Cubs Jason Marquis. They could have made a run at free agent Derek Lowe or even gone crazy and outbid the Yankees for AJ Burnett. They could have gone after 2 or 3 of the following pitchers to solidify their rotation, Brad Penny, Randy Johnson, Carl Pavano, Randy Wolf, and/or Jon Garland. This being already AFTER they had traded for JJ Putz. If they had gotten 2 of those guys at 1 or 2 year deals, the Mets would be in MUCH better shape to go after big named starting pitchers such as Josh Beckett in the big winter of 2011 (as of right now). If Krod’s contract gets in the way of that, Omar is going to be looking for a new job. The only solace is the fact the Mets are always going to be a bigger market team with a big payroll, but when do the Wilpons say enough is enough? Just because a team can afford a guy, doesn’t mean it’s always in the team’s best interest to give him the money. This is a perfect example of how the Mets (or Minaya) fell in love with the “big name closer syndrome” while ignoring all the facts.

The KRod the Mets signed wasn’t even the same electric closer of years past. KRod’s K/per 9 innings has fallen considerably since 2004 to an outstandingly low 9.66,, while his walk total has gone up to a dreadful 5.03 BB/9IP. How is that not concerning? Walks aren’t a terrible ordeal if you can strike your way out of your own jam but when you pitch to contact more often walks in the 9th inning will absolutely kill you. What’s even more concerning? KRod’s average fastball used to sit around 94 mph since he came into the league, while being able to go 96-98 on certain nights. In 2008, KRod threw about 92 on average while in 2009 that fell to 91. When you throw a straight 4 seam fastball, you better be able to throw it wherever you want at 91 because if not, MLB hitters are going to tee off. Could that have been a contributing reason for his monster drop off? The law of baseball is that as pitchers get older, they don’t throw harder but are the Mets concerned with that? They should be if they aren’t already. The Mets are a team filled with big contracts in all the wrong places, and Minaya is going to need more of Wilpon’s money or a magic act to get out of this mess.

Thanks for checking in and we’ll talk again soon.