Two things stand out on the positive side of the ledger for Carrasco. The first is his tendency to keep the ball on the ground and, by extension, in the ballpark. Merely decent strikeout and walk rates coupled with an above average home run rate can add up to a pretty solid reliever. Ground ball pitchers limit not only home runs in particular but also extra-base hits in general–grounders are less likely to find gaps than their airborne brethren. Too, more ground balls usually mean more double plays, so that’s another bonus.

The second point in Carrasco’s favor, albeit an ethereal one, is that he was pretty effective against lefties in 2010, which is exceedingly rare for right-handed pitchers. Unfortunately, Carrasco hasn’t historically been very good against left-handed hitters, and was awful against them in 2009 (.317/.392/.463). He did throw far more curveballs last season than ever before, but it’s not clear how that would have served him well against lefties.

– Eric Simon, Amazin’ Avenue.

I was down on the idea of signing Carrasco just yesterday, but I figured he’d cost more than the two years and $2.5 million he reportedly received.

At that rate, he hardly seems like an awful signing (consider that it took over a million to lock down Kelvim Escobar for 2010). As Simon points out, he yields a decent amount of ground balls and is decently, if not spectacularly, effective.

I wouldn’t get too excited over his ability to retire lefties — across his career he hasn’t been great, and I suspect his success in 2010 might be a small-sample size hiccup.

Also, one thing Simon doesn’t point out: Carrasco has demonstrated the ability to throw a good number of innings in relief in the past two seasons, chalking up 89 frames in 2009 and 78 1/3 in 2010. The Mets haven’t had a reliever throw that many innings since Aaron Heilman totaled 86 in 2007, though I imagine that has as much to do with Jerry Manuel’s quick-trigger bullpen management as anything else.