Memories of Francisco Rodriguez

[G-Fafif]

The big cheer that went up among those who stuck around for the ninth inning during the first Mets-Red Sox exhibition at Citi Field as the new closer's song played and the new closer entered. It never felt that exciting again.

The weirdness of hearing that song herald his one post-arrest appearance on a Saturday night last August, before it was revealed he injured himself in his fit of rage. Seems you get arrested, you shouldn't get your song.

The night in Colorado this year when I got myself all worked up in that instinctive "here we go again" Met closer mode and realized he was doing OK, I should really just relax.

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[Benjamin Grimm]

Made it to 7th place on the all-time Mets saves list, and a few more games could have gotten him to 5th:

1. John Franco 276
2. Armando Benitez 160
3. Jesse Orosco 107
4. Billy Wagner 101
5. Tug McGraw 85
6. Roger McDowell 84
7. Francisco Rodriguez 83
8. Neil Allen 69
9. Skip Lockwood 65
10. Braden Looper 57

At the time of the trade, he had the most Schaefer votes among Mets relievers, 3.10 points ahead of Pedro Beato.

[metirish]

His of the field shenanigans unfortunately might be his signature moment as a Met , his rehab this season and excellent pitching are to be commended .

[bmfc1]

Good: Getting 3 saves in 3 days, twice this year and once lat year. I wondered if he could pitch that much but he did and he got the job done in each game.

Bad: Last July 3 in Washington when he blew a big lead. We sat there for hours in the heat and he shows up and screwed up the whole day.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Prize acquisition of the dumb offseason spending spree that would get Omar Minaya fired.

First No. 75 in team history.

Admired his contrition (and results) this year but let the Beato Era begin already.

[Guest themetfairy]

I'll remember the post-game family brawl - it'll overshadow anything else that he did in New York.

Also his delivery -

[Ceetar]

Was a good pitcher, nice to have. Enjoyed for the most part (more often than most anyway) that if we could get the game to the 9th, pretty much had it won.

I'll remember his lambourghini too.

Wish him well, Brewers were/are my Central pick, and this helps them.

[Guest Edgy DC]

How long can that crazy motion last anyhow?

I'll remember the surrealism of the day after the arrest --- finding out he was still in the CitiField pokey, with some ironic fans showing up with "Free" scribbled above "Rodriguez" on their jerseys, while others had the name crossed out, and still others had makeshift tee-shirts turned into Rodriguez jerseys with magic markers, just to cross out the 75.

I've also got to recall the warning signs of him getting into it with coaches, teammates, and that meathead on the Yankees, that we were (or I was, anyway) all too willing to write off. The overindulgence of closers could be the subject of a wonderful book. It's done in college and Japan and Mexico also, I bet.

Let the transformation of Beato, Parnell, or De La Torre into the next fully grown pampered infant begin.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Ceetar wrote: Was a good pitcher, nice to have. Enjoyed for the most part (more often than most anyway) that if we could get the game to the 9th, pretty much had it won.

And there's the rub, while this is true, I never considered this more true of the Rodriguez era than of any other era.

[Ceetar]

Edgy DC wrote: Ceetar wrote: Was a good pitcher, nice to have. Enjoyed for the most part (more often than most anyway) that if we could get the game to the 9th, pretty much had it won. And there's the rub, while this is true, I never considered this more true of the Rodriguez era than of any other era.

He's a good pitcher, but a better one than say Wagner? even Looper was generally pretty good. Benitez pissed me off, but hey, he did usually get it done..

The question has always been how much are Sandy/Terry married to the idea of a tried and tested closer?

[Guest Edgy DC]

That's my point, I don't think his ninth-inning performance meaningfully outshone Wagner, Looper, Benitez, Franco, Young*, Meyers, Orosco, Allen, Lockwood, Apodaca, McGraw, Frisella, or Taylor.

*Hell, yeah, even Anthony Young managed a 3.19 ERA as closer in 1992.

[TransMonk]

I never disliked Frankie. I was disappointed after the brawl, but didn't dislike the guy. Personally, I actually found more things to like about him than Wagner.

And he was rarely anything but money on the field.

That being said...his contract was horrible. Clearly a reaction signing and we all knew it at the time. Agreeing to a year where any reliever can make $17.5M is almost criminal.

I'm glad he's gone for financial reasons.

[Ceetar]

TransMonk wrote: I never disliked Frankie. I was disappointed after the brawl, but didn't dislike the guy. Personally, I actually found more things to like about him than Wagner. And he was rarely anything but money on the field. That being said...his contract was horrible. Clearly a reaction signing and we all knew it at the time. Agreeing to a year where any reliever can make $17.5M is almost criminal. I'm glad he's gone for financial reasons.

Personally I wonder if Omar intended to do just what Sandy just did if it needed to be done. Got the guy he wanted immediately, and created a workaround to limit the length. The precident is there on a smaller level, with Cora. Cora got more PT than he signed him for, and BAM, released.

I think these option years are horrible for the players (besides being illegal). It's like a phantom year that the team is planning on being able to avoid from the get-go.



edit: bay's contract is structured the same way. Really easy to avoid a player that's not helping from getting 600 PA. Just by sitting him against tough Righies or one DL stint.

[metirish]

I think you are far too optimistic in Omar's long term thinking strategy.

[Ceetar]

metirish wrote: I think you are far too optimistic in Omar's long term thinking strategy.

I think others are too willing to be automatically "Omar did everything completely wrong"

Not that he's not without faults, but he also wasn't working with the same budget Sandy is.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Ceetar wrote: metirish wrote: I think you are far too optimistic in Omar's long term thinking strategy. I think others are too willing to be automatically "Omar did everything completely wrong" Not that he's not without faults, but he also wasn't working with the same budget Sandy is.

That shouldn't have excused him. Really I suspect Omar was put up to the Rodriguez contract -- as well as the idiotic Putz trade -- by Jeff Wilpon. You can find JW quotes from the day that offseason began telegraphing the awful offseason to come ("We'll be making big changes in the bullpen" "addition by subtraction" etc etc). It's Omar's fault for either not standing up to Jeff and/or for agreeing with the notion that the way to solve last year's problems was to pay the most money for the free agent with the most saves.

This should have been easily apparent given what a failure the Billy Wagner contract was.

[seawolf17]

I think JCL is right.

Except for the criminal assault, I think Frankie did what we asked him to do. Much fonder memories of him on the field than I had of any other recent closer.

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

I seem to remember that he had filthy stuff for much of that first season.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Let's trade Rodriguez to Milwaukee and all become Brewer fans.

[Ceetar]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Ceetar wrote: metirish wrote: I think you are far too optimistic in Omar's long term thinking strategy. I think others are too willing to be automatically "Omar did everything completely wrong" Not that he's not without faults, but he also wasn't working with the same budget Sandy is. That shouldn't have excused him. Really I suspect Omar was put up to the Rodriguez contract -- as well as the idiotic Putz trade -- by Jeff Wilpon. You can find JW quotes from the day that offseason began telegraphing the awful offseason to come ("We'll be making big changes in the bullpen" "addition by subtraction" etc etc). It's Omar's fault for either not standing up to Jeff and/or for agreeing with the notion that the way to solve last year's problems was to pay the most money for the free agent with the most saves. This should have been easily apparent given what a failure the Billy Wagner contract was.

I don't think the Wagner contract was a failure. Sucked that he blew the save in the NLCS, but those things happen to them all. Sucks that he got injured in 2008 though.

I don't mind overpaying for guys if they're going to contribute and it's not going to inhibit you from making other moves. I don't think Omar invisioned being up against a wall financially after 2008, the Mets were a solid bullpen from being in the thick of things and he went after it. He pushed his chips into the pot, got a bad beat, and then perhaps foolishly tried to throw more chips at the problems to try to make up for it.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Sucked that he failed in a big spot and got subsequently hurt. But both were totally predictable, and that's why you don't over-invest in veteran relief pitching.

I mean, look, they're going to be replacing K-Rod with Isringhausen, Beato, or Parnell, who combined are making the sum total of... squat, relatively. I hardly expect a real performance falloff, and in fact, I expect new and capable faces to emerge at the back end.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I realize that as long as you feel its OK to waste money there's no point in arguing anything is a waste of money, but you only needed to see Heath Bell in the ASG again last night to realize what a colossal waste of money both Wagner and Rodriguez were. The Mets got these guys because they have no imagination and wanted to sell tickets. The time to "invest" in the bullpen came and went while Omar sat on his hands in 2008 and watched an otherwise playoff-bound team collapse.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

If it's the one hole on your otherwise-unsinkable ship, you can overpay the vet closer and sleep well. Of course, that ain't us.

Bloody knuckles and the Lambo and several dozen ill-advised text messages are tough to forget. But in retrospect... guy was a much more interesting pitcher to watch than most of our erstwhile closers. I have to say, I've enjoyed the Bugs Bunny changeup and the rest of his onfield bag-of-junk.

[Ceetar]

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: If it's the one hole on your otherwise-unsinkable ship, you can overpay the vet closer and sleep well. Of course, that ain't us.

was in 2008, even if he should've tried to do something earlier.

But no, it wasn't this year, and it's been pretty obvious all year that Sandy wasn't going to allow that option to vest.

Are new capable guys gonna emerge from the backend? or is Acosta going to get more innings?

[Vic Sage]

Are new capable guys gonna emerge from the backend? or is Acosta going to get more innings?

Wait, aren't you the "optimistic mets fan?"

[Guest Edgy DC]

An improvement by Acosta is certainly possible, as is a subsequent opportunity for a Manny Alvarez, a Jose De La Torre, a John Lujan, or a somebody else. The back end is for auditioning and redemption.

[Ceetar]

Edgy DC wrote: An improvement by Acosta is certainly possible, as is a subsequent opportunity for a Manny Alvarez, a Jose De La Torre, a John Lujan, or a somebody else. The back end is for auditioning and redemption.

I've been done with Acosta for a while. I'd have rather been auditioning and redemptioning some of those guys with or without Frankie. And I hope it's one of those instead of Thayer or Igarashi or Misch.

[seawolf17]

Ceetar wrote: I don't think Omar invisioned being up against a wall financially after 2008, the Mets were a solid bullpen from being in the thick of things and he went after it.

Exactly. I think he -- and the Wilpons -- saw the cash cow that they expected a full Citi Field and thriving Madoff investments to be, and figured they'd be flush with money.

[Ceetar]

seawolf17 wrote: Ceetar wrote: I don't think Omar invisioned being up against a wall financially after 2008, the Mets were a solid bullpen from being in the thick of things and he went after it. Exactly. I think he -- and the Wilpons -- saw the cash cow that they expected a full Citi Field and thriving Madoff investments to be, and figured they'd be flush with money.

Which, had the K-Rod/Putz gamble worked out (and all the injuries not happened) probably would've been the case. Or at least, the full Citi Field would've neutralized the 60-70 loss the Mets are expecting this year and kept them separate from the Madoff mess.

And perhaps we wouldn't have had Jason Bay.

[Guest attgig]

themetfairy wrote: I'll remember the post-game family brawl - it'll overshadow anything else that he did in New York.

same here.