Brad Hand
Could Steve Matz emulate the hotly pursued Brad Hand?
We didn’t get Hand. He wanted to close. We have Edwin. I guess we next pursue Justin Wilson. Anyway...
Back to the thrust of this article:
Brad Hand basically sucked as a starter.
How does 8-24, 4.86 ERA sound?
“Sucks” is as good a word as any.
Even ex-Met Jack Fisher would likely think so.
He was 8-24 as a Met in 1965, but he sported a much better 3.94 ERA that year.
Brad Hand also fanned a pedestrian 135 in 222 career starter innings. Pretty sucky.
But Hand as a relief pitcher?
Night and day.
18-19, with 105 saves in 353 relief outings, with an amazing 489 Ks in 387 innings.
That screams "VALUABLE", not "sucks".
I did a similar article several weeks ago on how Andrew Miller went from quite a lousy starter to an electric reliever.
I sure think it is time in his career for Steve Matz (20-40 in his last 60 starter decisions) to embrace a move that might just take him from SUCK to ELECTRIC, too.
Maybe Matz will suddenly figure it out and be a true SP 3 type. I have strong doubts. Steve, try the pen. Embrace the pen.
I for one will give you a big Hand.
5 comments:
Tom,
Losing Brad Hand is another typical Sandy the Genius mistake because he always thinks he is the smartest person in the room.
Think about it, Sandy had said in the past that if he had been in place when Hand was released, he would have put a claim on him. That would have costs the Mets 10M.
Obviously, the smartest man in baseball wanted to low ball Brad Hand when the only think he needed to do was match the 10M salary he would have gotten. If he wanted to get him for less, he needed to add a year to the deal. Say 2 years 18M. But no, this is Sandy so what would have made the Mets BP a great goes by the waste side because his brain go on the way.
It seems that common sense is not a skill the Brainiac has at his disposal.
Viper, I thought the Mets had upped their Hand offer to 2 years. Hand would no doubt have been the Mets' property if the Cohen deal was finalized a bit sooner.
It is interesting that Ray suggested the Mets could have kept Rosario and signed Springer. I still like the move, and wonder if the bidding war would have gone even higher if the Mets went toe-to-toe with the Jays.
Losing Hand will not be the end of the world. From what I have read, and it is very hard to separate fact from fiction in many cases, it sounds like they could have had him in New York a week or more ago if they had offered him the closer's role.
It does sound like the Mets offered him similar money, and even went to two years, but without that promise to close, he moved on.
While the role of the LOOGY is minimized now with the three batter minimum, it would still be nice to see a lefty once in a while. Perhaps Doolitte, Wilson, or McGee could fill the slot for a little less money. I also am bullish on Zamora becoming a good one.
Remember 1969, it is hard for us to picture Matz as a full time relief pitcher. But it was probably hard for their teams at the time to picture Miller and Hand as relievers - and they became very good ones. If the Mets get another starter, I think Matz's future is in the bullpen - or starting with another team.
Heck, if Smoltz could go to the pen, it is no insult to go to the pen.
Even the great Mariano was 3-3 with an ERA above 5 in his short early career trial as a starter. I'm sure he was thrilled he switched.
I could actually see that working.
I remember the discussion a couple months ago being how poor Matz's stats were for the first inning and that wouldn't translate too well to a relief role.
It is interesting to look at the comparison of the last three years statistics of Matz and Odorizzi. Other than the fact that Odorizzi had some physical injury issues, they parallel very closely.
I also looked at the age 25 thru 29 years of Matz and Rich Hill, another pitcher that some commenters suggest would be a good signing at age 41. The early years of Hill compared well to Matz, especially the age 29 year.
Matz is my bounce-back guy for 2021, either as a reliever or a starter.
I am fairly convinced that Sam McWilliams is going to open the year with the #5 rotation spot.
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