http://view.picapp.com//JavaScripts/OTIjs.jsTwitter is hinting about the possibility the Mets will be able to void K-Rod’s contract. This is the first good news I’ve heard all week! Not only is he owed $11.5 million next year but the Mets also get the chance to eliminate a problem in the clubhouse and on the field.
Statistically speaking, I have always felt the closer position was the most overrated position in baseball. Correct me if I’m wrong but the average Major League pitcher will normally get out 70% of the batters they face. In the 9th inning, for every 5 batters a closer would face they technically can give up 2 hits and get 3 outs to earn the save. Is this really a tough job?
Combined with the fact the save rule says a closer can enter the game with their team having no more than a 3 run lead, the closer can give up 2 runs on those 2 hits and still gain a save with a one run lead intact as long as their team was leading by 3 runs when the closer entered the game. But more than likely those 2 hits in the inning will not result in more than 1 run.
So why not void out K-Rod’s contract and go with a closer by committee? Go with the hot hand every night (or at least a warm body), spread that $11.5 million around wisely or use it to eat up another contract, say a 2nd baseman’s or a lefty relief pitcher whose names I won’t mention.
But after this latest news of the injury K-Rod has suffered due to the altercation with his common law father in law, I tend to think this is a good time to clean up after a bad contract and move forward with the goal of cleaning house of all these bad contracts for 2011.
The Mets Report 
Agreed. You are completely right about the closer position. Take the money spend it wisely and reinvest in the team. K-Rod was a poor signing and maybe we can walk away from this free and clear.
Give Parnell the job and be done with it.
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Hopefully an arbitrator will rule in the Met's favor and K-Rod's contract will be voided. That will mean more to spend next season on a non clutch offensive player or on another overpaid headache closer like Papelbon.
I do like the by committee idea. But you could argue that method cost the Met's a playoff spot in 2008. That year, Wagner was lost for the season and the bullpen coughed up a ridiculous amount of games. That year, assuming the Met's still had a lead in the 9th, Luis Ayala would be brought into blow the save.
Let's try an Iragashu/Takahashi platoon for the 9th. They can bring back the magic of McDowell/Orosco from the 80's!
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