Mets getting a crack at Matsuzaka?

2006 stats:

Zito: 16-10, 34 starts, 221 IP, 211 hits, 151 K, 99 W, 3.83 ERA, (116 ERA+, 1.4 WHIP)

Schmidt: 11-9. 32 starts, 213 IP, 189 hits, 180K, 80 W, 3.59 ERA (125 ERA+, 1.26 WHIP)

Pretty much a wash to me.
Schmidt 34 (in January) with injury history, Zito 28 and very durable.

You can have Schmidt, I'll gladly take Zito

 

Cubs and Cardinals also reportedly were in the mix, but I'm not sure if he was ever really considering either destination.

 

I noticed that, too.

I'm ashamed to admit it, but this is what came to mind...."There she was....holding up the f...in' building. Three, maybe four hundred pounds. I was going to make her mine."

 

Pretty good column by Shaughnesy on DK today with a few pretty funny lines:

http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/articles/2006/12/14/some_friendly_suggestions_for_matsuzaka/

Be wary of a large teammate with a blond mullet wearing No. 38. He will explain that he is a spokesman for all of the other players and instruct you on everything from tipping the clubhouse kids to throwing the splitter. He will show you his copious notes on all major league umpires. He will tell you which media members to trust and which ones are snakes. He will also urge you to vote Republican.

Pay no attention to confusing, number-numbing reports placed at your locker if they are postmarked, "Lawrence, Kan." ( I guess Dan is not a James man)

 

If he immediately becomes the Red Sox ace or No. 2, I won't seem so tipsy from that Boras Kool-Aid. Because if Gil Meche and Ted Lilly make $11 million per season ...

 

Big if, simply because he hasn't done it yet.

 

THAT DOESN'T MEAN ANYTHING! Jeezus, stop comparing apples and oranges. We were talking about market forces in baseball, not having some bullshit playground discussion about who's a better pitcher.

Yes, even without him having thrown a big league pitch, I will concede he is better than Meche or Lilly, because the law of averages just kind of make it so. But they are not handing out those kinds of deals because those guys are worth that ON THE FIELD ... it's because they are worth that AT THE MARKET. Can you differentiate?

I agree with Boras in that, if Matz was a free agent, he'd be worth twice Lilly or Meche. BUT, Matz was in a different market and thus had different value. He wasn't a beneficiary of the new law of baseball, which is that your value is predicated on what the dumbest owner is willing to pay you. Meche and Lilly were playing in The Stupid Room. Matz was one-on-one with the Red Sox. Thinking the rules should be the same for both is like thinking Earth's gravity forces apply on the moon. They don't and they shouldn't.

 

it's not really as much of a hard, long "a" vowel sound as in "kay" but a softerer e. they sound similar, but still different

 

I'm looking at the players' salaries as actual value or worth, not specific to this one Mats negoation. Calm down. And before you explain to me what we already know again, trust me, I know.

 

Tough to do that because this new escalation in the market has thrown things out of whack. Guys like Ted Lilly and Gil Meche are making more money than Johan Santana or Brandon Webb, the Cy Young winners.

Imagine what Santana would have made as a free agent this offseason.

 

Well, it's not that hard to do. We know Schmidt just got 3/$47 million and Pettitte got 2/$32 million, so this year's market is already being established for top-of-the-rotation pitchers. Zito will get more than either of them (because of age, clean injury history) and D-Mat, had he been on the market, would have fetched as much or more than Zito because his marketability in Japan is sky high.

 

All this talk for a guy who'll be hurt quickly and will learn that he gets to play golf earlier than those playing into deep October.