Category: Pitching

Schoenweiss and Sosa Available for Trades

Good luck Omar! Scott Schoenweiss has 2 years and $7.2 million left on his contract. Jorge Sosa has one year and $2 million left. Look at last year’s numbers:

Schoenweiss: 70 games 0-2 5.03 ERA

Sosa: 42 games 9-8 4.47 ERA

Neither one of these two is a prize out of the bullpen. Hang on to your hat when they come in the game because it’s going to be a wild ride. Sosa can start but I don’t see him having much value there either. He started 14 games last year and wasn’t particularly effective.

Omar Minaya must be hoping that some desperate team for bullpen help will take one or both of these bad contracts off his hands.

New York Mets High Priced Talent, Really High Priced

Dan Rosenheck of the Times did a great article analyzing the contract of Johan Santana. The factors considered are: his historical performance, statistically similar pitchers, age, and value based on Citi Field opening next year. I usually look at Baseball-Reference for statistically similar players, and they list Roy Oswalt and Tim Hudson among others as the most statistically similar to Santana.

Santana

The Walking Wounded

It seems like everyone is injured. The list is long: Gotay, Beltran, Schneider, Delgado, El Duque, Church, Anderson… is there anyone left? The longer El Duque stays out, the better Pelfrey’s chances are of making the team out of spring training. He pitched three more innings today, two hits and no runs. It’s early but if this keeps up there’s no denying Pelfrey the fifth spot in the rotation.

Pelfrey

Will Pedro be a Met after ’08?

Pedro talked this week about being open to a contract extension beyond this season. The Mets appear to want to see what he can do for at least the first half of the season. He’s an injury risk after missing most of last season. Johan Santana is the clear #1 starter now, so Pedro’s stock has gone down as has his spot in the rotation. I would wait until the end of the season before talking to Pedro about another contract. If Pedro returns to his successful form, I would try to keep him on a two-year deal or maybe a third option year. They should be able to get him in the $8-10M/year range if he’s back to his old self.

Pedro Martinez

Bartolo Colon Signs Minor League Deal with Boston

I was disappointed to see that Bartolo Colon signed a minor league contract with Boston. He’s a much better option as a long shot starter than Tony Armas, Jr. is. Colon is only three years removed from a Cy Young Award.

Obviously, Colon’s weight is a concern. It looks like he ate himself out of LA and he’s been hurt for the last two years. Prior to that he was a consistent 30+ start per year pitcher. In his 11 year career (he’ll be 35 in May) he’s 146-95 with a 4.10 ERA. He won 20 games a year twice, most recently in 2005.

Contrast Colon with Tony Armas, Jr. and his 9 year career record 52-65 with a 4.62 ERA, no All-Star games and no Cy Young’s. Sure, he’s played on some bad teams with the Expos/Nats and Pirates. But it just doesn’t make sense to me that the Mets would go in this direction.

The last few years have seen several forgettable starts from veterans called up from the minors like Brian Lawrence, Chan Ho Park, and Jose Lima. Even though Pelfrey and El Duque are vying for the final spot in the rotation, the Mets are bound to need a veteran starter at some point during the season. Minaya missed the boat when he didn’t get Colon.