Mark Buehrle – Keefe To The City

Jul 31, 2015

Podcast: White Sox Dave

The Barstool Sports White Sox blogger joined me to talk about the division of baseball fans in Chicago, the 2005 World Series, David Robertson, the perception of Hawk Harrelson and which team should be the “Sox”.

For the first time in forever the Yankees catch a break when it comes to facing an opposing team’s ace and one of the best pitchers in baseball. The Yankees will miss Chris Sale by a day this weekend (though that nearly wasn’t the case with rain in Boston on Thursday night) and have a chance to get back on track after back-to-back losses in Texas against the weakest part of the White Sox’ rotation.

White Sox Dave of Barstool Sports Chicago joined me to talk about the White Sox’ big plans from their offseason, the division of baseball fans in Chicago, the 2005 World Series, David Robertson closing for his new team, the differences between Ozzie Guillen and Robin Ventura, the perception of Hawk Harrelson and which MLB team should be called the “Sox”.

Blogs • Email Exchanges • Yankees

May 4, 2015

The Yankees and Blue Jays Continue AL East Battle

The Yankees’ early-season AL East schedule continues on to Toronto for the first time this season against the Blue Jays.

The Yankees are on fire. After a weekend sweep of the Red Sox in Boston, the Yankees have now won their last five series after dropping their first three series in what was a disastrous start to the season. The AL East-heavy schedule to start the year continues on with a trip to Toronto this week.

With the Yankees and Blue Jays meeting for the first time in Toronto, I did an email exchange with Tom Dakers of Bluebird Banter to talk about Jose Bautista’s early-season struggles, the emergence of rookie Devon Travis and the continuous health issues with Jose Reyes.

Keefe: The last time we talked was before Opening Day. The Blue Jays took two of three in that series and would have swept if not for an late-inning implosion in the second game of the season. The Yankees looked like a bad baseball team during that series and continued to for another week, falling to 3-6 on the year. But the Yankees have won 13 of 16 to improve 16-9 and take over first place. Meanwhile, the Blue Jays have gone 10-13 since the opening series and have struggled to find consistency.

What’s been the Blue Jays’ problem after a month of baseball?

Dakers: Pitching, pitching and pitching. The pitching has been every shade of awful imaginable. The starters have been terrible and the relievers haven’t been that much better. The starters have been so bad that the Jays have made a little cottage industry of calling up whoever was to start the next day’s Triple-A game, to throw long relief out of the pen. None of the starters have been good.

Keefe: Devon Travis is leading the Blue Jays in average, home runs, RBIs, OBP and SLG. He’s a rookie second baseman, who only has 88 career at-bats. If he were a Yankee, they would still have him in the minors the way they do Jose Pirela and Rob Refsnyder.

How fun is it to watch a rookie get the chance to play and succeed in your team? I only ask because the Yankees are against it.

Dakers: Devon Travis has been so much fun to watch. There was a bit of luck involved in him winning a starting job. Going into spring the idea was that Maicer Izturis was going to be the second baseball, at least to start the season, with Travis getting some more development time in Triple-A, but Izturis suffered a “groin strain” a couple of weeks into camp and still isn’t play rehab baseball, so the way was cleared for Travis.

Travis started out spring very slowing, going hitless in his first 5 games, but soon after started crushing the ball. He’s become my favorite in record time.

But the whole “watch a rookie” thing hasn’t gone all that well for the Jays. We started the season with six rookies on the roster, but three of them have been optioned to the minors already.

Keefe: When Jose Bautista didn’t tear apart the Yankees in the opening series, I figured he would go off after he left the Bronx, which would be a nice change. But after a month of games and with a shoulder strain for a few days, Bautista has yet to look like himself every game. I still don’t want him up in a big spot against the Yankees, but he looks off. Is Bautista healthy? What’s been the issue with his slow start?

Dakers: Jose hasn’t been terrible, but he hasn’t quite been Jose Bautista yet. He does have 5 home runs and he is getting on base. Part of his problem is the sore shoulder, he’s been just DHing for the last 7 games, after missing a couple.

He also seems to be getting more than his share of bad strikes called against him. There seems to be at least one a game, where the ball is clearly 6 inches or so off the plate but it is still called a strike, and it seems to happen at the worst times, like when he’s at a 1-1 count. Having those calls go against him makes him feel the need to go after pitches off the plate more than he normally would. He has a very good eye at the plate, but you get a bad call and you think that you have to swing at everything.

He has been doing a better job at controlling his temper on those calls. In the past he might have given the umpire a blast, but now he’s more just shaking his head and trying not to show his displeasure as much.

Keefe: Living in New York and dealing with the Mets and Mets fans I know how frustrating it can be to watch Jose Reyes since it seems like he’s always hurt. Reyes is on the DL with a rib injury and even when he was playing he wasn’t his old self.

Are you frustrated with Reyes’ health issues? Is he losing his abilities?

Dakers: He isn’t a good defensive shortstop anymore. He doesn’t have the range you’d like to see at short. Offensively, he actually started the season hot, and was hitting .417/.444/.500 after the first week of the season, but trying to play through the cracked rib was a mistake.

The Jays seem to have this habit of hoping guys can play through painful injuries, instead of giving the players time off to heal up. I wish they would stop that.

Keefe: Before the season started I thought the AL East would be a six-month fight that would come down to end of the season with no team ever really running away and hiding with a division lead. After almost a month, 4.5 games separate the entire division, which is the smallest gap of any of the league’s six divisions.

After a month of baseball, what are your feelings on the division and how it’s projecting for the summer?

Dakers: It really doesn’t look like there is a team that is ready to run away with the division, at least at this point, which has been good news for the Jays, because they could have buried themselves by now if one or two of the other teams had a hot start. I think the division is likely to start close, no team seems good enough to rattle off a 6-10 game win streak and get themselves a bit of space.

If the Jays want to stay on the edge of the race, the pitching, especially the starting pitching, will have to come around. They are in a bad spot, about all they really can do is hope that their starters figure things out.

Mark Buehrle has been particularly terrible, and when he looks this bad, you start thinking that maybe he’s lost it and maybe he just can’t compete in the MLB anymore, but he was awful to start the 2013 season too. At about this point in 2013, he had an ERA over 7 and then he turned things around and had a normal Mark Buehrle-type year. The Jays have to hope that he, and the other starters can do that again.

Blogs • Email Exchanges • Yankees

Apr 4, 2014

The Derek Jeter-Jose Reyes Debate Is Over

The Yankees head to Toronto to face the Blue Jays after a disastrous opening series and that calls for an email exchange with Tom Dakers of Bluebird Banter.

When I saw that the the Yankees were going to open the 2014 season in Houston, I penciled them in for a 3-0 start to the season. At worst they would open the year 2-1. After back-to-back disastrous games to open the season, the Yankees head to Toronto at 1-2 and with an offense that has looked like a continuation of last season despite the addition of Brian McCann, Jacoby Ellsbury and Carlos Beltran.

With the Yankees and Blue Jays meeting this weekend, I did an email exchange with Tom Dakers of Bluebird Banter to talk about Jose Reyes and the Blue Jays since their November 2012 trade with the Marlins, the decision to trade prospects for R.A. Dickey and what it will be like for Blue Jays fans to no longer see Derek Jeter in the Yankees lineup.

Keefe: For nine years years in New York, I was forced to be involved in Derek Jeter-Jose Reyes debates, the same way I was forced into Derek Jeter-Nomar Garciaparra. Mets fans would cite Reyes’ abilities and excitement against Jeter’s accomplishments and championships. I would have to defend Jeter against fans who believed that the Yankees would have achieved the same success with Jose Reyes in the lineup over the years. But over time, the potential for Reyes was overshadowed by him becoming the face of everything that started to go wrong with the Mets after their 2006 NLCS Game 7 loss and has continued to go wrong since their September 2007 collapse. Like the Jeter-Garciaparra debate, it seems like the Jeter-Reyes debate has headed the same way.

Sure, when Reyes is healthy and playing, he is a dynamic and rare talent, especially for a shortstop. But “when he is healthy” isn’t something that happens that often. Since 2008, Reyes has played at least 133 games just once and after one inning this year, he’s back on the disabled list with a hamstring injury.

What are your thoughts on Reyes and since I’m asking, what are/were your thoughts on that entire deal with the Marlins?

Dakers: I liked the trade, at the time, but then I figured Emilio Bonifacio would be able to play second base (boy was I wrong) and that Josh Johnson would become our ace (0-for-2). My least favorite excuse for a bad move by a general manager is “anyone would have done the same thing.” I want the GM that does moves that turn out better than anyone would have expected. For a team that prides itself on due diligence and scouting, I don’t know why they didn’t notice that Bonifacio wasn’t good with the glove or that Johnson’s arm was hanging by a thread. But then, we all make mistakes.

A season later and all we have to show for the trade is a mid-rotation innings eater (definitely not a bad thing to have, but not something that will put you in the playoffs) and an often injured shortstop who is entering his 30s who is owed a ton of money over the next four years. I think it is safe to say the trade didn’t work out.

Reyes, when healthy, has been a lot of fun to watch. Unfortunately, he broke his ankle, two weeks into last season and when he came back he wasn’t 100 percent. Favoring the ankle slowed him, and it was very noticeable on defense. For a good part of the season he had the one step and a dive range, only he rarely dove.

This year it is a hamstring problem. I’m hoping it doesn’t keep him out long but I don’t think we are ever going to get a full season out of him.

Keefe: R.A. Dickey became one of my favorite non-Yankees (and there aren’t many of those) during the 2010 season when he put together an 11-9, 2.84 season for the Mets. And his season should have been even better considering he had seven starts where he pitched at least six innings and gave up two earned runs or less and lost or received a no-decision.

I was nervous about Dickey joining the AL East last season following his 2013 Cy Young campaign in 2012 because he had given the Yankees some trouble in the Subway Series in the past and you never want to add front-end starters to other teams in your division. Dickey wasn’t the same pitcher with the Blue Jays (14-13, 4.21) that he had been in the NL, though given the team’s performance and the stat conversions from the NL to AL, it’s not like he had an awful year. But to me at least, I wasn’t as scared of the knuckleball specialist I had been in the past and I think that has carried over into this year. Though I’m sure I will regret saying that when the Yankees face him on Saturday in Toronto.

What are your thoughts on Dickey as a Blue Jay? Were you for the team adding him to the rotation and do you trust him as a front-end starter?

Dakers: No, I wasn’t thrilled with the trade. Trading two of your very top prospects for a 38-year-old pitcher, even if he throws a knuckleball, just seemed wrong to me. The idea was to put the Jays over the top, and if it worked it would have been worth giving up Travis d’Arnaud and Noah Syndergaard, but it didn’t.

Dickey is 39 now and he isn’t the normal knuckleball pitcher. He throws a harder version of the pitch than most, so I’m not sure that he will age as well as most did. Last year the drop in velocity was blamed on a sore neck, sore back. This spring he says he’s 100 percent healthy, but he had a rough spring and his first start of the season didn’t exactly make Blue Jays fans think that he’s going to get his second Cy Young Award. Pitchers, even knuckleball pitchers, do lose something as they age, and maybe R.A. has lost a little bit too.

He did finish strong last year, he had a 3.57 ERA in the second half of the season, so I’m not without hope that he’ll be, maybe not the pitcher he was in 2012, but a good member of the rotation.

Keefe: After watching Vernon Wells for nearly a decade as a Blue Jay against the Yankees and then for another two years as an Angel, he became a Yankee in 2013 thanks to a ridiculous amount of injuries. I was actually optimistic about Wells joining the Yankees near the end of spring training last year and I fell into the same trap that the Angels must have when they traded for the backloaded $126 million man.

The Yankees needed Wells. They needed an experienced major leaguer who could provide power, even if his lowest batting average and on-base percentage went against everything the Yankees had been built upon since the mid-90s. But with Derek Jeter, Mark Teixeira, Alex Rodriguez and Curtis Granderson injured to start the year, the Yankees had to find depth somewhere. And at the time, paying $13.9 million of his remaining $42 million seemed like a bargain. I mean the Yankees have spent much more money on worse players.

On May 15, Wells hit his 10th home run and had 23 RBIs in just 38 games and 143 at-bats, and was boasting a .301/.357/.538 and the Yankees were rolling. I thought Wells had revived his career at the age of 34 by putting on the pinstripes and it seemed like the Yankees’ latest reclamation project was working. The problem was the Yankees’ entire 2013 team became a reclamation project, eventually failing, and this included Wells as he would hit just one more home run with 27 RBIs over the rest of the year in 281 at-bats, hitting .199/.243/.253.

Wells didn’t work out with the Yankees the same way he didn’t work out with the Angels after not working out with the Blue Jays following his big contract. What happened to Vernon Wells after signing the $126 million in his prime? For Blue Jays fans, what was it like to watch his career fall apart after his success from 2002-2006?

Dakers: What was it like? Sad. Just sad.

Vernon was a favorite of mine. It really isn’t his fault that the team offered him way too much money. He really was the sort of player every fan says he wants on their team. Runs out every grounder hard, always hustles, good teammate, and all around good guy. Unfortunately, he also tended to pick of little nagging injuries, hamstring problems and wrist problems. He also tried to play through these too often. We do like guys to be tough, but sometimes it’s best to take some time off to heal.

The nice part was that Alex Anthopoulos was able to trade him before his salary went up through the roof. His last season with us he was paid just over $15.5 million, and he had a pretty good season, the next season he was paid just over $26 million. It was the prefect moment to trade him, especially since the Angels took almost all of his contract.

Keefe: On Opening Day 2003 in Toronto, Derek Jeter went down with a shoulder injury when he collided with catcher Ken Huckaby at third base. That was on March 31 and he didn’t return to the Yankees until May 13.

Before breaking his ankle in Game 1 of the 2012 ALCS and missing the rest of that series and nearly all of the 2014 season, that shoulder injury in Toronto was the closest I had ever come to not having Jeter in my baseball life. He has been the Yankees shortstop since I was in fourth grade and I have grown up with him as a staple in the Yankees lineup and my life every spring, summer and fall.

Since this is Jeter’s last season, what has been like for Blue Jays fans watching him against your team all of these years? I always get the Yankees fan perspective on experiencing Jeter for all of these years, but you never hear about what it’s like watching him from the outside. The ovations and ceremonies on the road during the Derek Jeter Farewell Tour are one thing, but will it be weird for Blue Jays fans to not see him in the Yankees lineup when they play starting next year?

Dakers: Well, playing against the Yankees has changed so much, over the last few years. Jorge Posada is gone, Mariano Rivera is gone and Alex Rodriguez has been mostly gone. With Jeter missing last year and not really being the same player he was in the past. And now Robinson Cano and Curtis Granderson gone it doesn’t seem like the same Yankees as in the past.

An infield made up of an old Mark Teixeira, Brian Roberts, Brendan Ryan and Yangervis Solarte (who?) doesn’t really exactly strike fear in our hearts.

Yeah it will be weird not seeing Jeter out there. He’s been around for so long. He’s the last link to the great Yankees teams of the 90s. Last year, without him, they just weren’t the same team (though we still couldn’t win against them). It will be interesting to see if the Yankees can come up with a new “face of the franchise.”

Keefe: Entering the season, I was confident about the 2014 Yankees because of their free-agent signings and because of their revamped rotation and because I knew there couldn’t be the same series of devastating injuries of last year. I expected them to take care of business in Houston to open the season and I couldn’t have been more wrong.

The Yankees scored just seven runs in three games and without the Yangervis Solarte you asked about and Ichiro, who has become the Yankees’ fifth outfielder, they might have left Houston 0-3. But even 1-2 is pretty disheartening considering the Astros lost 111 games last year.

As for the Blue Jays, after their franchise-changing trade with the Marlins, they became the team to pick to win the division and contend for the playoffs. But like the Yankees, injuries and underachievers ruined last year for them and now they seem to be forgotten in the AL East.

What are your expectations for the Blue Jays this year?

Dakers: Honestly? This has been the most frustrating offseason of my life as a Blue Jays fan. Last year the team was ‘all in’, making huge trades, signing free agents, building a buzz about the team. This year, nothing.

Last season everything that could go wrong did. Injuries? Damn near everyone on the team dealt with some sort of injury. Three members of the season opening starting rotation went down with major injuries. On offense Jose Reyes, Brett Lawrie, Jose Bautista, Edwin Encarnacion, Melky Cabrera and Colby Rasmus all spent time on the disabled list. Most of them for long stretches of time. Other players had their baseball skills seemingly removed. It was just an awful season.

Going into this offseason, the team had three vital needs: improving the starting rotation, finding a major league second baseman and getting a catcher that could get on base more than once a week. Of the three, the only move the team made was to let J.P. Arencibia leave and sign free agent Dioner Navarro. Oh, and they let Josh Johnson go, in a addition by subtraction move.

So we end up with a rotation made of up R.A. Dickey, Mark Buehrle and three guys who had a collective 10 major league starts last year: Brandon Morrow (who missed most of last year with a nerve problem in his pitching arm), Drew Hutchison (missed all of last year coming off Tommy John surgery) and Dustin McGowan (who has made a total of four starts over the last five years, because of various arm problems). It isn’t a rotation that should fill one with confidence, but odds are they have to be better than last year.

Personally, I see a .500 team. The Injury Gods almost have to be nicer to the Jays. There is a ton of talent there. A great offense (when healthy), a great bullpen and a starting rotation that has a little more depth than last year, even if we didn’t make a big free agent signing. If the team finishes more than five games above or below .500 I’ll be surprised.

Blogs • MLB

Dec 7, 2011

Mets Make Moves To Salvage Mess

The Mets responded to the departure of Jose Reyes with a busy Tuesday night in which they traded Angel Pagan and signed a pair of free agents. Rich Coutinho joined me for an epic email discussion to talk about the moves.

This column was originally published on WFAN.com on Dec. 7, 2011.

The Mets delivered their fans a dagger on Sunday night when they failed to meet or exceed the Marlins’ offer for Jose Reyes, and on Wednesday, Reyes was introduced as a member of the Mets’ division rival.

Right after the Mets watched their franchise shortstop, who has been with the organization for 12 years, leave through free agency, Sandy Alderson spoke with the media and made the Mets’ finances known and what people could expect from the team in the near future as they play with the payroll of a small-market team in the country’s biggest market. Then on Tuesday night, Alderson went on a spending spree and changed the look of the 2012 Mets with a pair of free agents and a trade with the Giants.

With all of the madness of the Winter Meetings, Mets beat reporter and WFAN.com Mets blogger Rich Coutino joined me for an epic email discussion to talk about the Mets’ early offseason moves and the impacts of the series of deals they made on Tuesday night at the Winter Meetings in Dallas.

Keefe: I told Sweeny Murti on Monday (in an epic email discussion for Friday on WFAN.com) that I made sure I called my dad to thank him for being a Yankees fan and for raising me as a Yankees fan following the latest Mets debacle with Jose Reyes signing with the Miami Marlins (typing Miami Marlins is going to take some getting used to).

All season Mets fans were dragged along like a gullible group chasing a $20 bill in a parking lot that’s attached to a fishing line. They figured that the Mets refusal to turn Reyes into a few pieces for the future meant that they would be re-signing their franchise shortstop, who they originally signed in 1999. Now Mets fan are left with nothing, and while watching Mets fans agonize over the state of their team never gets old and being obnoxious to my friends who are Mets fan, even this is a little much.

Back in May I wrote about Yankees fans being fortunate that the Steinbrenners are the owners of the Yankees and not the Wilpons, and on Monday you wrote about Sandy Alderson doing the best job he can under this Mets ownership. But now, just two months removed from another disastrous season in Queens, the Mets are likely headed for another one in 2012 with the other four teams in the NL East in a much better position than them.

So what is going through the minds of Mets fans right now and those that cover the team?

Coutinho: I honestly thought once they did not trade Reyes at the deadline, they would make every effort to sign him. Sure, letting the market set itself was a risky strategy, but when you really think about it, the market on Reyes for whatever reason did come down from the “Carl Crawford” plateau. And then came the Marlins, who I honestly never thought would top $100 million, but they did. I do believe the Mets had a dollar amount in mind and it was five years for $85 million. The reps for Reyes always felt he would get a $100-million deal and given the fact the Marlins and Mets were the only suitors, I give them so much credit for getting this done for Jose.

Reyes is a superstar worthy of this money when you consider guys like Adrian Gonzalez, Jayson Werth, Carl Crawford and Matt Kemp have all signed bigger contracts recently. I think the thing that upsets Mets fans is that they had Reyes, Carlos Beltran and Francisco Rodriguez and now they don’t have any of them, even though most had accepted the fact they would lose two of the three. They understood K-Rod was a money issue and Beltran did return them a big-time prospect in Zach Wheeler. But losing all three is too much to swallow and that is why Mets fans are so upset.

Keefe: Sandy Alderson addressed the media and gave the public an idea as to what kind of financial situation the Mets are dealing with as they move forward. And even after all of this, Bud Selig is still allowing the Wilpons to own the Mets and to continue to destroy the franchise. Now the Mets will be playing in the country’s biggest market with a small market payroll.

I guess the next most logical thing to ask is what do the Mets do with David Wright? The Mets are sort of in this weird place where they need to be in complete rebuilding mode, but they really aren’t. They still have Wright and Jason Bay and Johan Santana on the payroll, and there isn’t much they can do regarding the latter two right now.

Wright is probably the last thing keeping Mets fans from completely losing hope and from the Mets ticket offices from being overtaken and the front office being held hostage. But is there really any point for the Mets to hold on to Wright any longer? The Mets aren’t exactly in a position to win right now and don’t look like they will be in one within the next few years. The Phillies are already a contender, as are the Braves and the Nationals and Marlins are on the rise.

Should the Mets just say, “Eff it!” and move Wright and rebuild this entire thing?

Coutinho: I would say no. Coming off an injury season, David Wright is severely undervalued now and will not get the prospects back that he would in the middle of the season when teams are in desperate need and David has produced his customary numbers.

The other reason is the Mets are in a tough situation, but not a hopeless on. Look at the Diamondbacks, who lost 90 games in 2010 and won their division with over 90 wins in 2011, and they did it with the same cast of offensive players (maybe less if you consider Stephen Drew was hurt most of the year). How did they do it then? They got Ian Kennedy and Daniel Hudson to pitch at an All-Star level and had a great closer in J.J. Putz, who was finally healthy for them. Nobody and I mean nobody picked them to win the NL West. It is a good blueprint for the Mets to follow but certain things must happen.

Johan Santana must return to the form of being a pitcher with a 3.00 ERA or lower and they must have a second pitcher to give them a solid 3.30 ERA season. R.A. Dickey did that last year while Jonathan Niese, though inconsistent, has the stuff to be that type of pitcher. Clearly, there are a lot of ifs and quite frankly, they’ll also need a reliable closer. My feeling is you start the season hoping this could work and if it doesn’t, you look at Plan B and around the break you try to pry prospects from teams and in the process, shed more payroll.

There’s also the additional wild card team in 2012, which can put additional teams in the playoff picture. That could mean the Mets might have more available trading partners at midseason than they normally would. In regards to the Mets’ payroll, $100 million, to me, is the minimum it should be at in this market. The chances are it will be a tad lower than that on Opening Day, but a good start could entice the Mets to add on if the situation presents itself. I try to compare the Mets’ situation to other companies that might have lost $70 million last year. Do you think any of them would add employees or would they cut payroll? Now it is fair to concede with a cut payroll, but expectations should be lowered as well in regards to both wins on the field and ticket sales.

The Mets are in a tough spot here and granted much of it is self-inflicted, but Sandy is playing this correctly. He can’t just do things because the fans demand it with the way things change in a hurry in this sport. Who ever thought that Texas would be in back-to-back World Series in a league that houses the Yankees, Red Sox and Rays? Who thought a Cardinals team with a payroll less than $100 million could win it all when most left them for dead in late August? Sandy can’t afford to make a move now because he lost Reyes. He must resist the temptation to overreact to the reaction.

Keefe: I’m sure Mets fans appreciate your optimism.

If Santana does come back and pitch the way he has in the past and you couple that with R.A. Dickey’s 2011 season, then you have something working at the top of the rotation. No, it won’t be easy for the Mets to score runs, but if they can build a stable rotation and one that has a true ace then maybe, just maybe they can hang around during the summer.

At the same time, I’m hoping Johan comes back and is healthy and dominant and the Mets decide that paying him to play for a non-contender isn’t worth it, and the Yankees take him off their hands and relieve them of some payroll. A healthy Santana behind CC Sabathia? Yes, please. But I know that many people are skeptical about what kind of pitcher Santana will be when he returns to the mound, and if he will be anywhere near the pitcher he once was with the stuff he once had, or if he will become the left-handed version of Freddy Garcia.

There were reports on Tuesday that the Mets were part of Mark Buehrle’s list of the final five teams he would sign with, and then there were reports and direct quotes from Sandy Alderson that disputed those claims with Alderson saying that the Mets would not be in contention to sign Buehrle. So maybe this is just Buehrle’s agent (who Alderson didn’t know the name of) using the New York market to drive up the price for his client?

This is good news for me since I’m still holding out hope that he joins the Yankees rotation, but it’s not good news for Mets fans, who might have been expecting the ownership to treat them to one solid free agent this offseason.

Last season the Mets rotation was pretty healthy with five starters making 26-plus starts, and Dillon Gee and Jonathon Niese combining for 53 starts and proving to be viable young arms for the Mets’ future. Aside from Gee, Niese, Dickey, Pelfrey and Capuano, the Mets only used four other starters (Chris Young, D.J. Carrasco, Chris Schwinden and Miguel Batista).

And in the bullpen, after trading Francisco Rodriguez, the Mets juggled the closer role between Bobby Parnell and Jason Isringhausen in an effort to transition Parnell into the role as the closer of the future, but it didn’t really go according to plan.

What do you think the Mets rotation will look like heading into spring training and the season? Who is the next Chris Young or Chris Capuano for them in a low-risk, high-reward arm? And how do they rebuild the back end of the bullpen?

Coutinho: From what I understand, the Mets inquired about Buehrle, but the price was too high. I think he is an absolute horse and would be a great NL pitcher and no worse than a No. 2. If I were the Marlins I’d go with him over C.J. Wilson or Albert Pujols if I could only sign one more free agent. As far as the Mets rotation, I see Santana, Niese, Dickey, Gee, and possibly Pelfrey as No. 5 starter if they tender him.

As far as a reach with starters, why not Rich Harden? I love his stuff and with last year’s high ERA he might come cheap. His K/IP ratio was over one per inning, so I think he might be a low-cost, high-reward type of pitcher the Mets could snare.

I do think the Mets will get a closer, but do not think it will be one of the big three left (K-Rod, Francisco Cordero or Ryan Madson). I think their hope is to stockpile guys relievers like Octavio Dotel, Jon Rauch, Frank Francisco, Chad Qualls or Todd Coffey and develop the back end that way. I thought Jonathan Broxton would have been a good gamble for them, but I agree the Royals overpaid for him at $4 million.

Aside from the relievers they obtain, I think Tim Brydak, Manny Acosta, Pedro Beato, and Bobby Parnell are in the mix as well. Beato and Parnell were spotty at best, but both have live arms and are worth another look. Brydak was solid vs. lefties all year and Acosta turned heads in the season’s final two months by finally realizing you have to throw a breaking pitch even if you possess a plus fastball. (Take note, Bobby Parnell).

The thing I noticed in second half last year after K-Rod left, is that the Mets crashed and burned in so many games from the seventh inning on, and you know what I say about a bullpen, Neil: a good one can cover up weaknesses, whether they be light hitting or starters not going deep in games. On the other hand, a bad bullpen can make every blemish an eyesore and I firmly believe in today’s game, the bullpen can make or break a team no matter how much hitting you possess.

The Cardinals refurbished their bullpen at the deadline, and so did Texas and not coincidentally, both teams made it to the Fall Classic.

Keefe: The Mets were busy on Tuesday night. First they signed Jon Rauch to a two-year deal worth $12 million and they followed that up by trading Angel Pagan to the Giants for Andres Torres and Ramon Ramirez. Then they went on and signed Frank Francisco to a two-year deal. And just after hours after you gave me your take on what the Mets’ game plan should be to bolster their pitching staff, your theory on the Mets’ plan to rebuild the bullpen by stockpiling arms couldn’t have ended up being more accurate.

I think the trade of Pagan was a great move since both teams traded guys off down years in hopes of rejuvenating them with a chance of scenery. I don’t think Pagan is actually as good as he was two years ago, and I’m a big fan of Torres’ even if he’s getting up there in age. I haven’t seen as much of Ramon Ramirez since his departure from Boston and the AL East a couple years ago, but I know he has the ability to be dominant in the back of the bullpen and was for long stretches of time in the best division in baseball. Jon Rauch and Frank Francisco also have the ability to be lights out, but they both have had their fair share of struggles the last few years.

Coutinho: I think the Mets got better on Tuesday night. Don’t get me wrong I would rather have Jose Reyes, but Sandy Alderson really improved the team with these deals.

Rauch and Francisco have ability and pitching late innings in the AL East does test your ability. The trade of Pagan was necessary because there were rumblings in the Mets clubhouse that Pagan’s attitude changed dramatically in the second half of the year after the exodus of his mentor, Carlos Beltran. Torres is not the athletic specimen that Pagan is, but he is a much better defensive centerfielder and a great off-the-field guy. He has speed and could bat leadoff although the Mets may have other ideas about the leadoff spot.

The crown jewel though could be Ramirez who has a nasty slider and good heat. More importantly, the Mets have rebuilt their bullpen with three guys that could be penciled into the seventh, eighth and ninth innings. Add in Tim Brydak as a lefty specialist and Manny Acosta, who impressed in August and September, and you might have something here. It also affords the Mets the luxury of swing-and-miss guys in the ‘pen and I think not having a solid ‘pen cost the Mets at least 10 games in 2011.

Clearly, there is still a lot of work to do, but Sandy Alderson gets rave reviews from me on a night in which he both reshaped and strengthened the Mets.

Tag: Mark Buehrle

Podcast: White Sox Dave

The Yankees and Blue Jays Continue AL East Battle

The Derek Jeter-Jose Reyes Debate Is Over

Mets Make Moves To Salvage Mess