Thursday’s Mets Player Spotlight: K-Rod
By: Josh Cohen
This is the start of what will become a Thursday ritual. I will spotlight one Mets MLB player every Thursday starting today. How can I not start this ritual without the biggest offseason acquisition the Mets made this season? I am very close to saying the most vital acquisition we have made this decade and will explain as we go on.
K-rod comes to us from the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (still the most absurd name in all of sports). Last year as we all know he set a major league record with 62 saves, and our management went out and did the right thing by getting him. On the minus side, he pitched in 76 games and only threw 68 1/3 innings. He is NOT the stop gag closer that will come in in the 8th inning, stop a rally and come back in the 9th and end it. In that tiny inning count, he still K’s a ton of people, more than 1 per IP which is what you want from a closer, but as I’ve been reminded by some friends, he walks a lot of people (more than Billy Wagner). Us Mets fans are gonna be tough on him, give him a chance. He is what we need and let’s hope he doesn’t turn into another big FA bust!
What makes this possibly the biggest offseason acquisition of the decade? You might say Pedro, Beltran, or Johan but why not a closer? The Mets biggest problem over the past 3 seasons is they haven’t been able to finish anything off. We are so close every year, but just miss that final piece. We can get to the end but we can’t close the deal. We had the best record if games ended after 6 innings (yes I am going to beat that into your heads). This is the man we need, Wagner was obviously not the answer. If he does what he was brought into do, and closes out 45-50 games and is lights out then he is it. If he does his job like Johan did last year, then he is it. He needs to prove it, but when it’s all said and done, if we make the playoffs this year, he is going to be one of if not the main reason we did it this year instead of the past 2.
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