So they tell us the Mets are looking at Scott Erickson, El Duque, Garrett Stephenson and some Cuban guy to join Leiter, Traschsel, Glavine and Seo in the rotation, and they are talking to Todd Zeile to shore up the bench and Karim Garcia for right field. Remember this when you start getting excited about the team’s prospects in 2004 . . .
I’ve liked Garcia’s power for some time (31 homers in 491 AB the last 3 years), but his career .282 OBP says it all about his limitations (although I’d rather have him than spend a bundle on Brian Jordan). Zeile is 38, and his OPS+ the past three years have been (in order) 96, 89 and 78. The pitchers are all wild cards given their injury histories; El Duque might not be a bad gamble if he’s cheap, but none of them inspire confidence.
UPDATE: I should note that acquiring Garcia would probably signal a Timo-Garcia platoon in right.
2 thoughts on “Bottom of the Barrel”
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El Duque? Are they trying to go backwards or forwards?
Timo-Garcia platoon would never work. Garcia hits righties fairly well AVG and power wise as a lefty. He stinks against lefties. Timo doesn’t hit righties that well and he’s lefty. There is not a word to describe how bad Timo is against lefties. They are both lefties with the same weakness making a bad platoon.
As for Garcia’s platoon partner, it will be Raul Gonzalez or Roger Cedeno, depending on what happens with Roger. I prefer Raul, if only it means not seeing Roger. They have talked about Shane Spencer, but that doesn’t get me too excited.
As for the pitcher, El Duque’s injury history and supposed age of “34” scare me. Maels, the cuban guy, has an injury past and wants too much money. Erickson is a massive groundball pitcher, but has a semi low K/9 and is coming off 20 thousand surgeries. Stephenson is interesting, as he’s a big time flyball pitcher who was killed by homeruns with the Cardinals. Cameron makes the outfield defense good enough to have a flyball pitcher and Shea will turn many of those homeruns into flyball outs.
Still, I’d rather let Griffiths, Heilman and Yates battle it out for the fifth spot.