Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Let's Throw Ricardo Rincon Against The Wall And See If He Sticks

Actually, throwing Ricardo Rincon against the wall would be a really, really, bad idea. You see, Rincon is a tad fragile.
"The 37-year-old Rincon spent the early part of last season with the San Francisco Giants' Triple-A affiliate in Fresno, appearing in seven games before he suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee.

The left-handed specialist pitched briefly with the St. Louis Cardinals in 2006 before undergoing surgery to repair a torn labrum and rotator cuff in his left shoulder.

Rincon's most recent full season in the big leagues was 2005, when he appeared in 67 games with the Oakland A's and recorded a 1-1 record and 4.34 earned run average in 67 games."
But in the Mets' philosophy of throwing various items against the wall to see if they stick, the Mets have signed the left handed reliever. With Billy Wagner, Pedro Feliciano, and Scott Schoeneweis lying around, Rincon will probably be shutting down guys in the eighth inning at New Orleans. But you never know. Maybe he'll stick to the wall if you throw him against it ... although gently placing him against the wall might be a better idea.

***

Unfortunately for Met fans, the world will have to endure the fresh hell that is LeBron James' new sneaker. With a navy blue color and pinstripes, it's an homage to the New York Yankees. There is hope though, as a yet unidentified NBA star has a sneaker in development which will be a tribute to the New York Mets ... and it'll hit the market at a cheap price.

The problem is that the sneaker falls apart after five and a half months.

12 comments:

katherine said...

Omar's strategy of acquiring lots of affordable has-beens, or head cases, or slow learners, then seeing what rose to the top really worked well 2 years ago, but last year, with Chan Ho Park et al, not so well.

Krumbled Kookie said...

There is no real commitment here, so it's essentially a low-risk, potentially high reward situation.

Even if he turns out like Lima or Jeremi Gonzalez, you're not really losing anything. After all, someone has to play for New Orleans.

Anonymous said...

I think the key is, we're not going to be in a position of expecting something out of him, like we did of Chan Ho Park and Aaron Sele when the starters went down.

Katherine is right though, it seems that there have been a lot of the likes of Park, Jose Lima, Danny Graves etc lately.

I noticed Ryan Church doesnt have a number yet, but Schneider does. I wonder if it means anything.

Emma said...

Hey, you can never rely too little on Scott Schoeneweis.

Anonymous said...

right with you emma, except for a certain rain delayed game in Florida. (Or was that all a dream?)

Metstradamus said...

Hey, Schoeneweis was the Mets' best reliever down the (horrid) stretch ... for what that's worth.

katherine said...

Remember Testicular Cancer Awareness day?
Did he even get booed that day?

Anonymous said...

check his splits, the show is pretty damn good vs lefties. if willie would learn how to use a bullpen...

Emma said...

Okay, maybe I was a little unfair - I guess I just got into the habit of mocking Schoeneweis sometime around July, and never really broke it. Besides, someone needs to be the bullpen goat, and we don't have Guillermo Mota to kick around anymore.

The last commenter is right about Schoeneweis's splits, he was fine against lefties. One thing though, now that I'm looking at the numbers: his 2007 ERA was 3.26 on the road but 6.91 at Shea! Sure it's a smallish sample size, but still -- no wonder the guy gets booed, none of us have ever seen him pitch well in person.

Anonymous said...

yeah, he was god awful at home. who knows why. maybe he faced more righties at shea? his home/away BABIP are within 10 points of each other so he wasn't terribly unlucky at home... but allowing a .379 OBP and .513 slg % is horrendous any way you slice it.

dave crockett said...

I suspect you may be typing as I type, but numerous outlets are reporting that the Mets have landed Santana... and that F-Mart is not part of the package (Humber, Mulvey, Gomez, and Guerra).

Charity said...

Where are you with my Santana update!

I want to know your feelings!

GAH!