K-Putz! JJ-Rod!
Wow, the Mets have a bullpen. I'm a believer that a team with playoff ambitions should have a strong 1-2 punch in the bullpen. Now, the Mets have one of the best combos in baseball.
It's arguable that there are better ways to spend $37 million than on a closer, but I generally won't argue too much against acquiring the best available players at a given position; K-Rod and Putz were the two best available relievers.
The Putz deal is a very nice move. He's clearly a huge upgrade over Aaron Heilman. I'll miss En-dy Cha-vez, but not anyone else in this deal. Sure, Joe Smith is a decent arm, but groundball machine Sean Green seems to be an adequate replacement. Mike Carp had a nice year in Binghamton, but is far from a blue chipper. Jason Vargas is no loss. I've never heard of the other two guys.
My only fear about this trade is that Omar will have too much faith in Jeremy Reed as a 5th outfielder and not make any more moves. I'm okay with the Murphy/Tatis platoon in left, but we need another legit righty outfielder to serve in a platoon with Church or as insurance for Tatis. Someone like Juan Rivera or Marcus Thames. Omar's done a bad job building a bench in the past, let's hope he doesn't fall in that trap again this time.
Remaining priorities:
Starting Pitcher!!! - Lowe? Sheets? Perez?
Another Starting Pitcher - are we really sure Niese is ready? Garland? Moyer? Wolf? Marquis?
2B - I haven't heard anyone mention him, but how about Grudzielanek?
OF - see above
semi-related note: Endy probably won't start every day, but when he does, an outfield of Endy, Franklin Gutierrez, and Ichiro will be ridiculously good.
1 comment:
As far as Carp goes, the fact Murphy and Evans passed him by in the organizational depth chart reveals a lot about his development.
Adding Juan Cruz on top of everything would a nice way to round out the bullpen. That and either trading or outright releasing Schoeneweis. There is no way he can return after closing down Shea. I'll give Castillo Spring Training and April before giving him the boot. That said, a competent second baseman should be signed anyway, as well as a bench that was a major weakness-can the Mets count on Marlon Anderson alternating good/bad years?
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