Ace Dickey Applesauce - Knuckleball baffles Cards, Met HOFers praised, Bay's opp. field problem

Because if he’s type A, unless we get 2 good prospects, we might as well hold on to him

we are looking at Downs. Market = crazy for relievers, Omar thinks “BUY BUY BUY”

Kevin Elster reference. And Ron is a Jay-Bay fan.

but am I the only person who think that the last thing this team needs is relief help? K-Rod’s been solid, Parnell’s been fantastic, Feliciano, if used properly, is a good LOOGY, Tak, out of the pen, has been great, Dessens’s success has been admittedly BABIP-fueled but I’ll take my chances with him, Acosta’s certainly been adequate in his limited time, and Valdes has been very good outside of a few hiccups. Perez is awful, of course, but it’s not like any new acquisition would replace him anyway.

In short, the last thing this team needs is a reliever. I’m always in favor up upgrading wherever possible, but to the extent that we’d trade any prospects of value, they should be to upgrade the glaring needs on the team – second baseman, outfield, and starting pitcher.

With the exception of, really, one player — Pedro Feliciano — Omar has managed to build a team which entirely lacks guys like Capps. You know, people who fit the criteria of trade bait:

• Clearly above replacement, if not above average
• Relatively inexpensive salary-wise over the course of the team’s control over the player (as in, a good contract, or fewer than six years of service time)
• Someone who we aren’t going to rely upon next year

It’s amazing how few players fit in that mold, not just this year, but in year’s past. It’s also amazing that the types of players we collectively were clamoring this off-season for do, in fact, fit there: Felipe Lopez, David DeJesus, etc.

There’s no understanding of this concept in the Mets organization. They’re thinking big names, immediate future, etc. It’s sad, really.

So after reading that Gooden/Strawberry article, I decided to relieve the pain of being a 21st century Mets fan by scrolling through Gooden’s game logs from his first few years, and I noticed a few interesting things: first, he had an ERA of 4.50 after his first start of 1985, then pitched a shut-out in game two, and his ERA never went above 1.89 for the rest of the season. That’s unreal.

Second, in early-August of his rookie year he had a mid-3’s ERA. He was obviously already having a nice rookie season, but from that point on he really turned on the gas, going 8-1 with a 1.07 ERA and 105 K’s in 76 innings down the stretch. In fact, from August 11, 1984 until May 16, 1986, here was his stat line:

417.2 IP, 37-6, 1.40 ERA, 422 K, 92 BB.

He then gave up 6 runs in 4 innings on May 22, and from that point until 1993, he turned into a mere mortal (though still well-above average) pitcher. Then it obviously all fell apart. But still – look at those numbers! Those are insane.

Gotta love RonRon.