Comments on: Buzz: Expect Harden, not Other A’s

By: Mets Today » Blog Archive » Buzz: Harden, Silva

Mets Today » Blog Archive » Buzz: Harden, Silva — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 19:16:10 +0000

[...] deciphered from a recent Oakland A’s Mailbag that Rich Harden would be traded before Danny Haren or Joe Blanton. However, after reading the A’s Mailbag, it appears to me that trading Harden is the opinion [...]

By: GuruMets

GuruMets — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 13:41:15 +0000

I’d say Silva would be an OK addition, but as nothing more than a #4 guy. I know the recent emphasis is to acquire and innings eater, but we all have to admit, Pedro is a strong #2 now, not an ace. If we could find another solid #2 then we could make it work, but going after lower-rotation pitchers is just putting us back where we were last year. Too many #3 type pitchers. While I would love to see Maine elevate his game to a #1 level, don’t think that’s going to happen next year. Same with Perez, if he can harness that noggin of his, he could be a solid #2.

BTW, does everybody hate the Fox broadcast crew like I do? Friggin Buck and McCarver are awful. The only one who is worse is Joe Morgan. And Buck never shuts the f**k up! It’s no longer safe to listen to anything on TV unless it’s the SNY crew, and even Keith has his wtf moments…

By: sundaysection15

sundaysection15 — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 03:54:39 +0000

I do agree with not giving up someone like a maine, but why not trade an OF when you have three young possible OF studs (beltran, gomez, martinez) if its for a pitcher who has been dominant in the AL. i cant even imagine him in the NL and in a pitchers park like shea. from what it seems the A’s are shoping him so i dont think they will be getting a ton in return like some other aces (santana, oswalt, etc). While pelfrey has potential, he hasnt shown a thing at any level of pro ball. but i also do see where youre coming from with the chemistry and make up of the team being priority #1

By: juunit

juunit — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 23:03:50 +0000

Silva would be a great option here for the following reasons. More innings than Trachsel and less walks. His ERA would come down alot moving to the NL and Shea. He is a groundball pitcher playing on turf which hurts his numbers. Then obviously the transistion to the NL should bring down the ERA as well and he is 28, just going into his prime years and getting better if anything. He would probably come out with around 13 wins and an ERA of 3.8 or so if he pitched for the Mets, similar to what Blanton would achieve except Silva is in better shape, again the moving to natural grass would change his numbers alot and he would only cost money, and a set amount at that. Blanton would be going into arbitration soon.

By: juunit

juunit — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 22:58:42 +0000

El Duque is more of a curveball pitcher than Humber. When I watched Humber pitch I saw that he had a decent curve, yes only decent. He can’t get it down enough in the zone and it doesn’t have enough to break to get there by itself, and even if he could it still is his 2nd or 3rd pitch just like everyone else. The only kind of pitcher who doesn’t have some sort of fastball [4-seam, 2-seam, cut, sinker] as their number one pitch is a knuckleball pitcher, so maybe we should go in that direction if you wan’t something different.

By: Zug

Zug — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 22:32:41 +0000

Kind of funny how a year after Trachsel gets run out of town for his bad start in the playoffs, the majority of the Mets fanbase is happily suggesting high-ERA, workhorse type pitchers of the Trachsel variety. Sure, both Silva and Livan Hernandez, the most commonly suggested solutions, had more innings than Trachsel the last two years, but in some instances had higher ERAs… and Steve’s last year with the Mets was his first after missing almost an entire season with injury and he still logged about 165 innings, if I remember, 15 wins and a high 4.00s ERA. I’m not going to get on some high horse and say Steve was the answer to all our problems, but I think its safe to say that his veteran presence, his ability to go deep into games and his occasional brilliant games would have made a huge difference for the Mets last year… I always thought that letting him go, particularly at that point in time for the franchise, was a stupid decision… it sounds from a lot of these pitcher suggestions that I’m hearing that a lot of people agree with me.

By: dwrightswingman

dwrightswingman — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 21:39:04 +0000

Whatever your feelings on small ball verse money ball, I think we can agree that Gomez is exactly the type of player that Billy Beane would say is overrated: High speed, low on base percentage/walks. No way Beane takes Gomez instead of Milledge.

By: The Dotel Motel

The Dotel Motel — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 20:54:35 +0000

I love the idea of the Mets trading for Paulino. He’s a much better hitter then his stats indicate. I know it was stated in the press this summer that the Mets are planning a winter trade for Paulino as their catcher.

By: BigHangWithEm

BigHangWithEm — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 20:52:47 +0000

GuruMets,

I totally understand that about Farnsworth. And believe me, I still give my janko fan friends crap about wasting all that money on Farnsworth. It actually makes me chuckle a little when I think back to when I heard about the signing.

Anyway, my point was that Humber seems to be a curveball specialist, it’s something the Mets don’t really have so why give up on him already? He hasn’t even had a chance to prove himself yet (under 300 pro innings).

Lastly, I understand that virtually all pitchers are FB/something types, I mean that’s pitching. But still, the Mets have really only developed and aquired guys that do not feature a curveball as anything more than a crappy 3rd or 4th pitch.

By: Philnym31

Philnym31 — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 20:50:47 +0000

Guys, I’ve done a bit of scouting on possible Japanese players worth considering. The 33 year old, left handed closer from the Chunichi Dragons, Hitoki Iwase may be a viable option for the pen next year. He also is a free agent on his own terms, which means the Mets would not need to go through a posting process. He holds the Japanese record for most saves in a single season with 46 and his slider and fastball have been compared to Akinori Otsuka’s. He enters next year with a career earned run average of just 1.97 in Japan, and during 2007 he had only 9 walks in 59 innings of work. Not to mention, 3 of those 9 came from intentional passes too. He supposedly kept a close eye on how Hideki Okajima would fare in the MLB as well, because him and Okajima share a similar delivery.

If you would like to take a look for yourself, I have found this video of him pitching an inning in Japan:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKnWxXxFzkI&NR=1