It does not bother me that the Mets have one of the highest payrolls in baseball yet find themselves out of the playoff picture. Nor does it grind at me that the Mets have taken a beating in the press and in the blogosphere despite losing 3 of their top 4 offensive bats in the lineup and added the 4th when David Wright got beaned in the head. I can handle the fact that the Phillies dug up Pedro and he waltzed into Citi Field and won yesterday. I can even stomach the unassisted triple play by Eric Bruntlett who had made two errors on the previous batters to get the tying run on first and only made the triple play because he was covering second because the runners were in motion. I accept that it is only the second unassisted triple play in Major League history to end a game.
After all I am a Mets fan and while I was born in time to witness the 1986 Championship, what has followed can only be described as exercises in futility sprinkled in with a few good seasons that ultimately came up short. If you are going to be a Mets fan and not jump ship and take the easy way out and root for the Yankees, your stomach builds up a titanium lining to become immune to such acts of atrociously vile fortune. There is, however one aspect of the Mets' season that I fine too much to bare, and that is Oliver Perez.
I do my best to stray into individualized player bashing, but today I will allow myself an exception. Perez has never been a consistent pitcher, but he did have a fantastic start in game 7 of the 2006 NLCS but the Mets lost that game due to a superior performance by Cardinals pitching. Last year Perez went 10-7 with a 4.22 ERA. Before this season started, the Mets needed starting pitching after shoring up the bullpen with K-Rod who has been good this year and J.J. Putz who is now injured as well. Omar Minaya turned to Perez, who had been decent but nothing special. Not only did Minaya turn a blind eye to possible health problems with Perez but he allowed the market to drive up his price tag. In the end, the Mets gave Perez a 3-year, $36 million dollar contract. Everyone was up in arms about the contract; the media, the fans, and even the statisticians. Is it hard to believe that Perez is a Scott Boras client? There are some who say Boras is good for baseball, especially when it comes to negotiating contracts for players in the amateur draft, but when he gets this kind of money for this kind of player in my mind it puts him more toward Bernie Madoff than Curt Flood.
Predictably Perez started out awful this season. The Mets blamed the problem on a knee injury and placed him on the DL where he would soon be joined by a host of Met players as the season began to fade away. He came back in July and actually got a win against the Dodgers, going 5 innings and giving up 3 runs. He has not gone over 6.1 innings since he came back, maybe this is to protect his injury or maybe because he is incapable. His last three starts were two no decisions where he only gave up 1 run and had 7 Ks in each and a win against Atlanta where he gave up 4 runs in 5 innings but still got the win. That brought us to yesterday where he gave up a two 3-run home runs to Jayson Werth and Carlos Ruiz, who was 0 for his last 23 against the Mets. All this leads to a $12 season which has yielded a 3-4 record with 66 innings pitched, a 6.82 ERA, and a 1.92 WHIP. In these economical times it is great to see someone is still able to get fast money. If one thing is true among the increased media coverage, increased criticism and delving into the lives of athletes it is that they are certainly well-compensated for it. So while the Mets flounder this season and will no doubt make some absurd offseason move and produce another ridiculous contract to attempt to keep up, Perez can laugh all the way to bank.
Monday, August 24
Looking Good Oliver! Feeling Good Omar!
Wednesday, August 12
Wednesday Links
The video below has been around the internets a few days now but it pretty much encapsulates every reason why I hate the Miami Dolphins and shows their most redeeming quality: their cheerleaders. I dare not make a Gloria Estefan joke though, she is on the board of trustees at the U afterall. I cannot wait for T-Pain to come out with a series of auto tune nursey rhymes to help put kids to bed. All the kids love the robot voice!
(via KSK)
Wednesday is trivia day, well who am I kidding everyday is trivia day with me so can you name what players have the most NBA Championships? [Sporcle]
Yeah I think Big Ben is going to win this case easily but it still doesn't excuse his taste in ladies. [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]
The Tigers' Magglio situation has become a dicey numbers game. [Rumors and Rants]
No, I am not happy about this, even as a Miami fan I hate seeing college athletes go down with injuries. [College Game Balls]
Spike TV is offering a chance to see the best of what Pride Fighting had to offer. [HHR]
That sound you just heard was the "Steel Trap" closing on Rick Pitino. [Lousiville Courier-Journal]
I am not going to watch the G.I. Joe movie until it comes out on FX in ten months, but this video about what the characters do on their downtime is fantastic and probably better than the film. [Major League Jerk]
Looks like Michael Vick is taking the low-profile approach to his comeback. Tony Dungy must be proud. [Larry Brown Sports]
Wednesday, December 17
$100 Million Pitchers: You Don't Know [Blank]
Last week C.C. Sabathia signed a 7 year, $161 million deal with the Evil Empire New York Yankees to become their ace. It is not the first time a team has doled out over a hundo-million for the services of a pitcher. In this installment of YDKB, we test your knowledge of 9 figure deals and in particular, how they seem to not work out quite often. As always no cheating, feel to share your score and winners will receive a custom Christmas ornament from Catfish. Continue on for the quiz.
The first $100 million pitcher in baseball was [No cheating], signed by the the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1998 for $105 million over 7 years. His first season was a respectable 18-9 but it would only go down from there. He would soon be plagued by injury problems and ended up only averaging 9 wins per season in L.A. and was traded to the [Darth's team] in 2003.
Mike Hampton was a key component helping the [Kings of Queens] win the 2000 NL pennant. He was even named the MVP of the NLCS victory over the [No cheating]. After that season Hampton sought greener pastures in the west as he signed a 8 year, $121 million deal with the [Code Blue]. In his first season he went 14-13 with a 5.12 ERA and followed that up with a 7-15 mark in 2002. Hampton was then shipped to [No cheating] briefly and then to the Braves. Ever since then Mike has been hampered with injuries to his arm, his oblique, and his pectoral.
Barry Zito spent 7 years in Oakland where he made [#] all-star games and won the Cy Young in [year]. In 2006 Zito made a switch to POS agent Scott Boras and one year later signed with the [No cheating] for 7 years and $126 million. In his first season he went 11-13 with a 4.53 ERA, not exactly what the team was hoping for. This past season he had troubles again and was even moved to the bullpen after a [tough one] start. He finished 10-17 with an ERA over 5 as many are having buyer's remorse on this one.
Last season the New York Mets made a priority out of signing Johan Santana. The result was a [#] year, $137.5 million contract. The Mets so far have not been dissapointed as Johan had a 16-7 record, with a 2.53 ERA and 206 strikeouts. He finished third in the Cy Young behind [No cheating] and the winner [Not Zito]. Santana would have had an even more impressive record if the Mets' bullpen did not suck so bad.
Sabathia's deal now makes him the pitcher with the most lucrative pitcher in MLB history contract-wise. It is hard to say what it will take for Sabathia to earn his money in the eyes of the tough New York media. Sabathia is only [No cheating] years old, but has thrown a tremendous amount of pitches in his career. Last year for the Brewers he went [No cheating] and carried them to the playoffs. This off-season Yankees GM [Gimmie] made it a priority to sign Sabathia to help the depleted New York pitching. We will see how he handles the big money, bright lights, and boisterous fans of New York.
Pencils down!
Answers below:
Answers:
1. Kevin Brown
2. New York Yankees
3. New York Mets
4. St. Louis Cardinals
5. Colorado Rockies
6. Florida Marlins
7. 3
8. 2002
9. San Francisco Giants
10. 0-6
11. 6
12. Brandon Webb
13. Tim Lincecum
14. 28
15. 11-2
16. Brian Cashman
Scoring Scale:
0-1: Cold Stove
1-3: Think Tim Kurkjan is the prime minister of Kazakhstan
4-6: Afraid of inflation
7-9: Have read "Moneyball"
10-12: Attended a Steve Phillips fake press conference
13-15: Have the number to Buster Olney's PDA
Perfect 16: Still chew baseball card gum
