Glavine's deja vu

All in all, the Mets got about what they could have realistically expected from Glavine. Yes, he sucked his last few starts, but he also pitched very well for them in some big games the last couple of years, including a couple of those late-season games against the Phillies in which the bullpen blew it for him -- although I don't buy the contention that the bullpen kept him from having a much better career mark with the Mets, because their offense also got him his share of wins and no-decision in games he didn't pitch well. The bottom line is that he's now a pitcher who can still be very effective when he has precise command of his pitches, but when he has anything less than that, he's gonna get torched -- and those days are only going to come more often. As a Met fan, I thank him for his service, and I look forward to him taxing the Braves' bullpen and giving them +5.00 ERA in return for their $8 million.

 

Gary Gaetti is far from the worst Starting Lineup figures I own.

Second-to-worst is Chuck Long.

The worst? Jeff Chadwick. Does anyone even know who that is?

 

Kicker? (ok, off to google I go, but that was my guess)

Edit: Damn. Right sport. Wrong position. He was a receiver with the Lions, Seahawks and Rams. Stuck in my head that he played for the Lions, but that's about all I could come up with on my own.

 

That's still a fine showing, OOP. Nothing to be ashamed of...or wait, maybe it should.

 

Right. And if it wasn't about the money in 2002, he never would have left the Braves. So let's not fall over ourselves congratulating tom for putting personal happiness ahead of his checkbook.

I like Glavine personally but it still disappoints me he let the union bully him into taking the most money with a shitty team five years ago. I can only imagine how he feels about it. Five seasons with the Mets and, as Webster notes, it felt like he was concealing a Braves T-shirt underneath his uniform the entire time. Is it really worth that much to set the market? You spent five mostly mediocre years with a mostly shitty team. you won no. 300 as a hired gun.

Winning no. 300 in Atlanta would have provided the historical context his accomplishment deserved. He would have been only the fifth pitcher ever--yet the fourth Brave--to win 300 games with one franchise. He could have been painted as the modern-day Warren Spahn. He could have been lauded as the guy who won 300 games with one team in the free agency era. Someday, they would have unveiled a statue of Glavine next to Spahn.

Instead, he won it for the Mets in Chicago. It felt more inevitable than it did historic. All because he had to set the market.

So yeah, let's not congratulate the guy for taking $5 mil less in 2008.

 

All the Nationals fanboys (all four of them, not including Moddy) can stop e-mailing me now hoping he will go to D.C. because of his "prior relationship" with Kasten.
Told 'em there was no chance; he was going back to Atlanta. Rare prescient move on my part, after I responded "why would you want him at what he'd charge to go anywhere other than Atlanta?"

 

Just to be accurate, Glavine only took $2 million less. He got a $3 million buyout from the Mets when he declined his option, so he's making a total of $11 million instead of $13 mil.

 

Funny he's talking about family considerations now. When he signed with the Mets, he talked about how Wilpon made him fell like family. The businesslike Braves clubhouse -- in which, it should be noted, he was the central businesslike figure -- no longer appealed to him, and Wilpon made it feel like family. Great, he'll finish his career with Atlanta. Like BYH said, he's cheapened his career by the choices he's made.

 

He made a mistake, recognized it and now is giving up real dollars to correct it. Doesn't that count for anything?

At least now he can stop pretending to like being a Met.