Cutnpaste: - K-Rod, Jose Reyes, David Wright, Angel Pagan, and Sid Fernandez

michael g. baron

K-Rod:

No matter how you feel about closers in general, Francisco Rodriguez's $17.5 million option for 2012 is an onerous black cloud looming over the promise of dropping almost $60 million in contracts once this season is through. Rodriguez is certainly no Mariano Rivera, who is getting paid $15 million a season with $1.5 million deferred, and even if he were, the Mets don't strike most observers as a Yankees-like team that is a mere piece or two away from a championship in any given year. A $17.5 million closer is a fancy bauble at an extreme price on a team that needs to go lean and mean and spend money in a smart way. - .amazinavenue.  



Jose Reyes:

The Jose Reyes of the first half of 2007 is better than Carl Crawford, and deserves a similar seven year contract. That Jose Reyes is also a mini version of Rickey Henderson. This is where the challenge lies for the new Mets coaching staff. What happened in the first half of 2007? How can they get him to understand that working counts in his favor will not always result in a walk, but better pitches to hit. Imagine what a boost to the offense the Reyes of the first three months of 2007 would be to this year’s team? - link  



David Wright:

To examine this question, I'm going to take a look at David Wright, a pretty good hitter (and probably the best hitter on his team) who happens to have a "hole in his swing" that makes him weak against pitches thrown in the outside part of the strike zone (You can see this in figure 1 above). This weakness is over 2 years old, so it should clearly be in a pitcher's scouting report. So have pitcher's adjusted to attack the weakness? And how quickly have they adjusted? After the Jump I'll take a look. -

BTBS  



Angel Pagan:

Pagan also said the Mets must "find a way to go to someone else's house and do the same damage" they did at Citi Field, where they were 47-34 last season. On the road, the Mets were 32-49. "I wish I could tell you what the problem was," Pagan said. "We definitely played hard, but it never happened. That's something we have to work on because it really killed us." If the Mets do thrive, Pagan probably will play a part after his breakout season of .290-.340-.425 with 11 homers, 69 RBI and 37 steals in 46 tries. - nydailynews  



Sid Fernandez:

I will never forget his 16 strikeout performance in Atlanta that he lost on a Lonnie Smith ninth inning homer. Won 98 games, good for fifth in team history, but his stingy 3.14 ERA probably should have resulted in more wins. Maybe the unluckiest pitcher in team history. - nybaseballdigest