2/8/13

2-8-13 – Brandon Lyon, Dickey Trade, Felix Hernandez, Michael Bourn




-The Mets signed RHRP Brandon Lyon to a 1-yr. deal…

          -This is a very good deal. He’s 32-yrs old and 58th in career holds. His 2012 season was: 4-2, 3.10, 1.25, 67-G, 12-HLD, 61.0-IP, 63-K, 20-BB. From Wikipedia:

Lyon survives on five pitches: a four-seam fastball at 90–92 mph, a two-seamer at 90–91, a cutter at 89–91, and a curveball at 78–80. Occasionally, he also throws a changeup to left-handed hitters (85–87). Lyon's most commonly thrown pitch to right-handed hitters (and overall) is the cutter, while his lead pitch against lefties is the two-seamer. The curve is his most common 2-strike pitch

First we heard that Terry Collins has told all the reporters in camp at Frank Francisco is the Mets closer. I’m sure that it wasn’t a coincidence that announcement came out before this one. Still, this cleans up the bullpen is a great way. Lyon steps in immediately as the favorite for the setup role, taking all the pressure off of Bobby Parnell. Josh Edgin is your first lefty. The rest is to be worked out in camp but there now seems to be enough pieces (Greg Burke, Jesus Feliciano, Scott Atchison, Robert Carson, Jenrry Mejia, Jeurys Familia, Jeremy Hefner, Elvin Ramirez) to get that done. Good more, Mr. Alderson.


 Fangraphs  listed the top 10 transactions in the off-season:


5. The Mets acquire Travis D’Arnaud, Noah Syndergaard, John Buck, and Wulimer Becerra from Toronto - As I said above, I like this deal for Toronto, and I think there was a case to be made for the Mets keeping Dickey signing him to an extension themselves. But, in D’Arnaud and Syndergaard, they were able to get a couple of pieces in return that could have much more long term value to the Mets, and D’Arnaud is close enough to the Majors that they could start seeing a return on the move this season. Because Dickey was willing to take a discount on an extension, the Mets were able to pry a premium return from Toronto, and having these two guys around is probably better for their future than having Dickey under contract through his age 40 season. This wasn’t the Mets only option, but when you see what they were able to command in exchange for the reigning Cy Young winner, it makes the decision to trade him more understandable.


RH Felix Hernandez has agreed to a seven-year, $175 million contract extension with the Seattle Mariners, according to Bob Nightengale of USA Today.

                   This is a tremendous franchise builder. It also is the largest contract ever given to a pitcher. Ever. This is a team that started the day with a 2012 team payroll around $85mil. Of the $29mil already committed in 2014, $21mil of that is to Hernandez. 

The new money will be paid out at an annual salary of  $27.1mil for 5-year

And the amazing part of this who deal is he will still be only 33-years old when it runs out.

It will be interesting to see how this club operates in the future. Giving a $175 million dollar contract to one pitcher on a dead last team in a small market pretty much takes this guy off the trade market forever. No one is going to want any part of Hernandez, no matter how great a pitcher his is or was. This contract didn’t raise the bar. It is the bar.

          I’m sure Justin Verlander is smiling.



You know… I don’t have the contacts I used to have when I was “on the beat”… listen to me, as if writing for a Savannah, Georgia newspaper about the Sand Gnats meant anything, right. All the guys that shared things with me are either long gone or up in Queens with their lips closed, but I did talk to someone in baseball today that gets paid a lot more that I wish I was paid and, you know what? I think all the times we Mets fans pissed and moans that the Commissioner and Fred Wilpon were joined at the ass is actually going to pay off. Michael Bourn is going to be the centerfielder for the New York Mets, in the 3-4 year, $14-15mil/yr range and the Mets will forfeit one of their second round picks. Everything that’s going on right now looks like foreplay between the league, the agent, and the Wilpons.

We’ll see, but this is what I’m hearing.

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