Out With The Old; In With Chris Young

According to a tweet by Buster Olney, the Mets might be close to signing oft-injured Padres pitcher Chris Young. Being that Sandy Alderson and Paul DePodesta both worked for the Padres during Young's time there, there may something to this deal.

There is no question that the 31-year-old Young is talented. Since breaking into the major leagues in 2004 with the Texas Rangers, Young has made 135 starts, holding opposing hitters to a .220 batting average.

Despite the fact that Young can occasionally go through bouts of wildness, he has still limited his opponents to a .299 career on-base percentage. Basically, he will retire seven of every ten batters he faces. That type of success rate leads to fewer big innings by the opposing team.

There is one drawback to having Chris Young in your starting rotation. His 6'10" frame is very fragile.

From 2005-2007, Young made at least 30 starts each season. As you can see below, in each season he lowered his ERA and WHIP, while striking out more batters.

• 2005: 31 starts, 4.26 ERA, 1.27 WHIP, 137 Ks
• 2006: 31 starts, 3.46 ERA, 1.13 WHIP, 164 Ks
• 2007: 30 starts, 3.12 ERA, 1.10 WHIP, 167 Ks

Then 2008 came along and the brittle Chris Young was born. From his third consecutive 30+ start season in 2007, he went down to 18 starts in 2008 to 14 starts in 2009 to only four starts this past season.

His walks have also been on the rise as he has struggled through these annual injuries. If Young is healthy (and that's a BIG if), he can be a fine acquisition for the Mets.

Young is known as a fly ball pitcher, which is perfect for a pitcher's ballpark such as Citi Field. Having pitched most of his career for the San Diego Padres in cavernous Petco Park, Young knows how to pitch to his park's dimensions.

In 45 career starts at Petco Park, Young maintained an exceptional 2.85 ERA and 1.11 WHIP, striking out nearly a batter per inning (250 Ks in 265.1 innings). He also held opponents to a .205 batting average and .283 on-base percentage. Pitching half his games at Citi Field could lead to similar results.

As long as the Mets don't do something stupid and sign him to a three-year, $36 million contract, Young could be a good fit. He would need to prove he is healthy, but if he does, a one-year, incentive-laden deal would not be uncalled for.

The Marlins signed Javier Vazquez to a one-year, $7 million contract. The Dodgers signed Jon Garland to a one-year, $5 million contract. Both of those pitchers were healthy last season. The Mets should be able to sign Chris Young for less than that. He may be the most fragile of the three, but if he can stay on the mound, he may end up being the best bargain.

Hey, Wilpons! Where's The Beef?

Watching the Mets go after free agent pitchers is like watching a game of musical chairs, except the Mets are the ones who are left without a chair when the music stops.

First came the announcement that free agent pitcher Ben Sheets had signed a one-year, $10 million (plus performance bonuses) contract with the Oakland Athletics. Now comes word from Corey Brock of mlb.com that Jon Garland has signed a one-year, $5.3 million deal to pitch for the San Diego Padres. The deal also pays Garland $6.75 million in 2011 if the Padres choose not to buy him out for $600,000.

After the John Lackey signing with the Red Sox, many of the remaining free agent pitchers on the Mets' radar have signed reasonable contracts FOR OTHER TEAMS! None of these contracts has been for the amount of money the team wasted on Oliver Perez to retain his impeccable ability to throw ball four.

Here are some of the deals given to players who were supposedly on the Mets' radar, but chose to sign somewhere else. The players are listed in alphabetical order to appease the fans who like organization amongst all the disorganization:

Doug Davis

Surprisingly leaves Arizona to sign a one-year deal with Milwaukee for $5.25 million.





Jon Garland

Takes his laundry from LA down the coast to SD for the next year and $5.3 million.



Rich Harden

Yawns his way out of the north side of Chicago to sign a one-year, $7.5 million deal with the Texas Rangers.




Jason Marquis

Gets off his Rocky Mountain High to sign a two-year deal with the Washington Nationals worth $15 million (with an option for a prosthetic right leg).







Joel Piñeiro

After a career year in St. Louis, he looks to the heavens and finds the Angels and their two-year, $16 million deal to his liking.






Ben Sheets

Celebrates his year off from baseball by signing a one-year, $10 million contract with the Oakland Athletics.




Randy Wolf

Takes the force with him from Los Angeles to Milwaukee for three years and $29.75 million.





Usually players sign with other teams for big money, for the security of a long-term deal or to play for a contender. Every player listed above signed for less money than Oliver Perez did in 2009. Other than Wolf, none of the players signed for more than two years. And other than Harden and Piñeiro, the rest of the players decided to sign with teams who finished the 2009 season with a losing record (Brewers, Padres, Nationals, Athletics).

So are you telling me the Mets couldn't afford these pitchers? Did they find the length of their contracts to be too much? To the Wilpons, I have one thing to say. Come close to the screen so you can see it clearly.

WHERE'S THE BEEF??

Are you aware that the fans are not going to accept a repeat fourth-place performance by the Mets in 2010? Do you think you can place a small patty inside a bun and hope that it satisfies your paying customers to come back for seconds? Surely you can't believe we're idiots!

But hey. Who am I? I'm just one of those paying customers who keeps coming back for that small patty inside that oversized (and overpriced) bun. The free agent pitchers who have chosen to sign with other teams are probably on to something that I've failed to notice.

As Mets fans continue to sit around hopelessly watching the latest free agent pitcher sign with another non-blue and orange team, I'd rather look on the bright side. At least Omar Minaya hasn't decided to re-sign Jose Lima (yet).