At long last, the second installment of the Super Delicious Ingredient Force series. These are… wow. It’s like someone at Taco Bell is targeting an ad campaign specifically at me, ironic because they already have me locked up. It’s perfect.
Thought the blog was lacking both color and football today and found this while ambling around the AP wire. I swooped up Keller toward the end of the draft, when I needed a tight end and wanted a couple of Jets to root for. I tried to get Mark Sanchez for my very last bench spot just because, but someone took him right before me.
Turns out Randy Johnson’s perspective is: Tall.
I’ve gotten a few emails in response to my post yesterday about Johan Santana, so I figured I should follow up here. Here’s the point people are contending with:
Sure, it’d be nice if the Mets could win some more games, but a strong finish for Santana could help convince everyone that landing a No. 1 starting pitcher doesn’t have to be the No. 1 priority this offseason.
I guess I was specifically referring to pending free-agent Cliff Lee, who seems destined to get a massive and lengthy contract somewhere.
I wrote that yesterday imagining the inevitable demonstrations and petitions and sit-ins clamoring for the team to shell out big bucks to a 32-year-old pitcher likely to be an albatross by the end of his deal, just because of some notion that the team needs an “ace to pair with Santana” now that Santana is no longer “an ace.”
Which is not to say the Mets can’t use starting pitching, of course. All teams need starting pitching, and seldom does a team have enough. The Mets — with Santana, R.A. Dickey, Jon Niese and Mike Pelfrey set to return — look to be in at least decent shape in the department, but could certainly stand to beef up. After all, it’s no safe bet that any of those guys will maintain the success they’ve had in 2010, and at least one will likely regress a bit.
My objection is with the idea that the Mets need an ace, just like it would be if someone told me they need a closer or they need a slugger or they need a table-setter. What the Mets will need is to maximize the resources they have at their disposal to put together the best baseball team possible.
If that means adding pitching to strengthen their rotation, then yes, by all means. But going into the offseason with blinders on searching for players who fit a certain specific label is about the worst approach imaginable.
There are many ways to construct winning teams. Having dominant starting pitching is one of them. It is far from the only one.
The best player on the free-agent market isn’t always the smartest acquisition. Winning the battle of offseason perception pales in comparison to winning actual baseball games.
Certainly there will be much, much more on this to follow.
Absolute must-read: Cal Ripken’s LOL-tastic eighth-grade essay about why he wanted to be a baseball player when he grew up.
Busy day here means heavy video day on TedQuarters. Matt and I follow up on the question I asked here last week about whether the Mets seem to be in better or worse shape than they were last year at this time. Also, Matt hasn’t hit nearly as many home runs as Ralph Kiner.
Easter egg: My socks
I was trying my best to avoid buying into Lucas Duda’s absurd destruction of Triple-A pitching, but since it simply hasn’t stopped, it’s probably time the Mets call him up and see what he’s about.
Apparently there’s a subscriber-only piece about Duda up at Baseball America that explains how he’s finally changed his approach back to pulling the ball after breaking his wrist in 2005. Something like that.
Who knows? Duda has a .322/.394/.643 line in Buffalo and a .307/.401/.586 line for the season. At 24, he’s hardly a baby, but he’s still clinging on to prospect age.
Duda is not on the Mets’ 40-man roster, but the club could, I believe, make room for him by moving John Maine to the 60-day DL or parting ways with Extra-Base Omir Santos.
BORING!
From last night’s Bisons game on SNY. Nick the Stick:
And Captain Kirk:
Tedquarters 