Friday, June 18, 2010

Do the Mets Need a Starting Pitcher?

Everywhere I turn I keep hearing that the Mets need to trade for another starting pitcher to make the playoffs. The Phillies and Braves supposedly do not need one, but the Mets do. I think that this is based on a huge misconception. Whenever you hear this fallacy, the people who say it explain that the Braves and Phillies have a very good rotation while the Mets do not. Whether this is true or not is a matter of debate, but it is quite irrelevant when we are figuring out who needs a pitcher. What we have to figure out is which pitcher will be replaced by the new pitcher. What matters is who is the #5 starter. For the Mets that is Hisanori Takahashi who has pitched pretty well since coming over from Japan. For the Braves this is Kenshin Kawakami who is 0-10. I think a replacement might be in order. It doesn't matter if the other 4 starters are in the running for the Cy Young Award. They
need a starter. Same with the Phillies and Kyle Kendrick. (36 k's in 75 innings with 23 walks. Watchhim implode in the 2nd half.) But the Mets should not be looking for a starting pitcher. Johan Santana is pitching the worst in the rotation now, but he is not going anywhere. Hopefully he can pick it up soon. But that has nothing to do with the Mets picking up a starter. The Mets need another bat (hopefully that will be Beltran soon), but they do not need another starting pitcher. A reliever, on the other hand...

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