Step right up, the Mets asked Fernando Nieve, Tim Redding, Bobby Parnell, Pat Misch and Nelson Figueroa. Essentially none of them has, certainly not for long enough to save 2009 or help save interest in 2010.
“There was some sporadic activity in that area but nothing real consistent,” said Jerry Manuel. “Basically, we saw some people who could possibly be used as future spot starters, give you a shot if the matchup and history was right, that kind of thing.”
That kind of thing doesn’t exactly make you wish spring training was starting in 10 days. Figueroa, knocked around for six runs in five innings last week in Atlanta, provided some of that so-called sporadic activity in last night’s 3-1 loss to the Braves by somehow giving up only two hits in 126 pitches and lowering his ERA under 5.00.
But it’s more than a little late to find any real silver lining in the clouds that deluged the Mets this season. And high pressure on the Wilpon wallets figures to linger, too, turning this cloudburst of misfortune into lingering cold and dry seasons.
Should a Bernie Madoff secret cash vault miraculously turn up everything in neat stacks of 20s and 50s, the failures of the above audition takers are further reminders that any recovered Wilpon fortune should go toward John Lackey.
Almost as inconceivable as the Mets expecting to compete for the postseason in 2010 with the infirmed John Maine, the callow Mike Pelfrey and pitching-coach killer Oliver Perez as Nos. 2-3-4 in their rotation would be Matt Holliday leaping at the opportunity to play 405 games over the next five years in a new park where the leading home-run hitter of the Mets who played here all season, Daniel Murphy, has 11.
Even assuming that whoever kidnapped the real David Wright returns him to and his 20-25 home-run power next season, Citi Field will continue to play a lot larger than even Gary Sheffield’s suitcase.
Because chicks dig the long ball, at some point the Mets will tire of overpaying for underproduction and either move the fences in or lower them or both. But they insist that’s not going to be next year and probably won’t be the year after that, either. In the meantime, it’s probably going to take obscene money to recruit power hitters willing to check their egos at the Jackie Robinson rotunda and come to New York’s National League team because they love bitter fans and hypercritical media.
Holliday can catch the ball and hit to the gaps, so if he thinks Citi Field makes sense for him, he would make sense for the Mets. Otherwise, signing a big, slow, 35-homer guy who will disappoint with 20 and give back 20 RBIs besides in a left field with more open space than between Angel Pagan’s ears hardly is the way to go.
“You have to have people out there to cover that ground,” said Manuel. “Pitching, defense, speed and then some power might be the best formula for this particular ballpark.”
Yes, the Mets manager was ranking them in his order of importance. And no, the Mets don’t have great commodities in any of those categories coming through the system. If they are to compete while trying to develop some guys who can both hit to gaps and cover them, their one basket is best filled with arms. Sure, they can crack like eggs, but sometimes not. Besides, it worked in 1969 and 1973.
If the budget precludes Lackey, who might prefer more immediately competitive climes anyway, Joel Pineiro, Jarrod Washburn, or Brett Myers would bring better value than Jason Bay, even first-base types like Carlos Delgado and Nick Johnson who will clog the bases. So paying a home-run hitter is an idea that should die on the warning track, too.
