Mets sign former Brewers reliever Wise
The Mets signed reliever Matt Wise to a one-year contract today. He’s 32 and was 3-2 with one save and a 4.19 ERA in 56 appearances with Milwaukee last season.
Wise can pitch in the set-up, mop-up and long relief roles. Wise pitched in least two innings in six of those games while logging over 53 innings last year.
“Matt has had success in a variety of roles,’’ Mets general manager Omar Minaya said. “He adds a versatile arm to the bullpen.’’
He is 17-21 with a 4.18 ERA and two saves in 201 career games with the Angels and Milwaukee, numbers suggesting he’s not the bullpen’s answer.
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How good can this guy be? The Brew Crew waived him to make room for MOTA for goodness sakes!!!
Okay, now is Wise supposed to replace Heilman, Sele, Glavine, D. Sanchez, or, is he another pitcher like Stokes that the “Wizard of Pitching”, Peterson, is going to transform? Pardon me for my lack of enthusiasm in not running to purchase my 2008 Post Season tickets at more than 20% more than last year, no doubt…Oh, that is right. They did not make the post season last year…Go figure!
He’s not the answer BUT, he has much better record than Mota, Schoeneweis, Sele…. and if he’s not better than this AA pitcher Register, then he must have a bum arm. The pen is improved some with him…..
How good did we think Bradford or Oliver were going to be when Omar signed both of them ?
I liked getting Bradford, and he met expectations. I liked getting the unique delivery. I didn’t like not keeping him and it cost us the pennant. He had an ERA of just over 3 in the AL last year.
Oliver was the long man with no expectations from me. He was quite a surprise. After a bad start, he finished 2007 with an ERA under 4. Not keeping him also cost us the pennant.
Two guys who thrived in NY. Omar quit on them and we fans paid. I guess once your off the garbage heap, Omar doesn’t want you. Remember he also didn’t sign Anderson after he excelled for us and got him back only when he returned to the heap.
I like this move. You can’t fill your pitching staff with aces. You have to get the best guys you can and this guy is pretty good. This is the type of move that made Omar’s rep in 2006. Now if it doesn’t work out then it’s a stupid move.
Omar is a Wise-enheimer for this move. Good start Omar the jacket can fix him in 15 minutes. He had like a 2 era until he beaned that guy.
Wise was actually very good last year until he hit a guy in the head and lost his confidence.
He had a 2.91 ERA up to July.
Lots of guys were pretty good until they weren’t anymore.
PS: Who’d the jacket fix last year??
Sosa.
Who didn’t the Jacket fix last year??
Pelfrey
Schoeneweis
Mota
Chan Ho Park
Lawrence
Burgos
Smith
Williams
Vargas
The jacket had a worse year than Omar had.
The most amazing thing about BB today is how teams rely on BP but yet the BP is always the most difficult part to fill.
I don’t care how good your BP is suppose to be. Those guys, except an occasional closer, are there for a reason. And that reason is b/c they aren’t good enough to be SP.
Hence, this is why you either have to have SP who can go longer in games or you beat teams into submission w/your offense (like 06) or better yet have both.
Unfortunately, the Mets do not have either unless Beltran and Wright have MVP-like season, Delgado goes back to 06 form, Alou can play 145 games and Pedro turns back the clock to 2001. I don’t see any of these happening except Wright and Beltran. Why, b/c the other guys are old and past their best yrs.
.500 here we come.
Back to Wise- he has had a decent career for a BP guy.
And, look at it this way. At least it is only for a yr. Omar didn’t give him 10+MM like Show or 6+ like Mota. I guess that is progress.
But if it is one yr and he was non-tendered by Mil, you have to wonder if he got hurt. I saw his 2nd half #s were bad. Anyone know if he got hurt?
Let’s see where this ‘stockpiling’ is going….more moves are in making.
scoopcoop-
I’m going to disagree with you….
first, you forgot about Jose Reyes. i think you can agree that he cannot have a worse season than he did last year. he is only getting older and better. Same with David Wright, and you can even say same with Beltran. Carlos Delgado had that kind of season last year more than likely because of his surgeries, not because he just completely forgot how to hit. and then he started to press because everyone was talking about how much he was sucking. do you really think Carlos Delgado is capable of a worse year than 2007? mark my word delgado will have a better year, i will buy everyone on this comment section a steak dinner if i am wrong.
We are getting Pedro Martinez healthy and in April instead of september. and if he pitches anything like he did in his 5 starts that automatically makes our rotation better. I think Ryan Church is a good addition to our outfield, although some might disagree with me, and we have solid platoon options for when Alou goes down. we lost Mota and added Wise, which automatically makes our bullpen better. the only question is whether Maine and Ollie can repeat, which i think they are more than capable of doing cause they are one year older.
.500?!?!?!?
Do you really think the mets are that much worse than they were last year already? it’s december. and there is plenty of time for more moves to improve.
well i just stated a bunch of reasons why the mets are a better team in ‘08. criticism is welcome.
Was this a Wise move by the Mets today? It would have been if this guy first name was Rick / But this new Met relieve first name is Matt the former Angel. For those of you who do not know—Rick Wise was a starting pitcher for the Phillies and Red Sox and a pretty dawn good one at that.Something the Mets lack at this time for sure.
I’ll be the first to disagree with you Brooxy:
1 Wright superstar in making but how much can his numbers improve. He might reach 40 HRs and add another 10-20 RBIs but there is a limit you know.
2. Delgado. Its mere speculation on all our parts. Did he have bad year because of surgery? Maybe? How about the broken wrist or hand he got last week of season. Will that ruin 2008? Maybe, as a non juicer he’s ust going thru the aging process. We forget that before the roid generation players slowed down in the 30’s not the 40s.
2. Pedro is healthy? How do you know? How does anyone know. He pitched one month and was babied. We had to go to 6 man rotation. His arm can handle 200 innings? Does he need us to have a 5th starter. Oh 7th because El Duque just says hes hurt sometimes.
3. Left Filed is a disaster in the making again. Only sub ready for bigs is Endy and we all know how quickly his games deteriorates when he plays a lot. Plus there’s no good spot for him in lineup. Can’t bat 2nd now and Schneider is an 8 hole minus type of guy. Alou as a key guy will ruin the offense again when he goes down for half a season.
4 This Ryan Church love affair is based on his name which causes prayer and hope. A 29 year old who could never get even 500 abs with the Nats is a sad story for Queens.
5. Wise is better than Mota. You still have a 5 man pen and you don’t know if there was a reason Wise collapsed the last 2 months. If he has Steve Blass disease after hitting the guy, he’ll be worse than Mota. Thinking the pen is fixed now is not even something to respond to. The pen is still in a big hole.
6. The only question about the rotation is is Pedro OK. your kidding us right? Can he last a year? How many times does El Duque need to stop pitching. Where do you find 5th starter and where do you find replacmeent for El Duque for 10-15 starts. What makes you think Omar/Willie will leave kids alone. They’ve screwed with all our kids since they took over. Oh tell me you want Livan to come here…..
5. Scoop has it pretty accurate. 81-81 is what they were last 4 months. They may not be that good tight now.
slop, brooxy
If the Mets are any better than .500 it is only b/c the rest of the NL East has gone down in talent.
Last yr the Mets did very poorly against the East, well against the Central and ok against the West.
I can see some improvement against the East b/c of loss of talent, especially in Fla and some in Atl. But the West will be better. And the Mets did play .500 BB for 4 mos. That is not an abiration.
BOTTOM LINE
There are too many ifs, ands, buts, maybes on this team to state with any certainty that they are better than .500
Alot of positives have to happen and few negatives can occur. But to me the negatives are more likely b/c they involve old players who have been prone to injury.
While I agree and disagree with the things Brooxy said I wanted to get in here just to get a chance at the steak dinner. Ruth’s Chris anyone?
Matt Wise actually was not very good at all for the entire season. Take a look at the game logs on ESPN for a good laugh, especially the majority of the games he was credited with a “hold.”
Interesting conversation.
I thik Scoop nails it on the BP/SP thing. That is exactly why we need to upgrade the SP. But that does not look to be in the cards for us.
Position players – We have to hope that Wright gets more consistent, Reyes does not start the season the way he ended and that Delgado improves from last year. I do not know much about our new RF which along with C is the big unkown for me offensively. I think we also are weaker depth wise in the OF. Endy is there but not much else.
Bottom line so far I think it is a wash the current team vs last year talent wise. Which considering how we did is a concern.
Dave
According to a post on Monday from Tim Brown at Yahoo! Sports, free-agent LHP Kyle Lohse is considering offers from the Mets and Phillies, ‘both of which could go to four years.’
I guess this could be considered addition by subtraction (subtraction from the Phils). Otherwise, I don’t like the idea of giving this guy 4 yrs at probably 10+/yr.
So where does this leave us in the bullpen:
The obvious names are Wagner, Heilman, Feliciano, Schoeneweis
If healthy, we have: Sanchez, Padilla
Starters moving to the pen?: Hernandez, Sosa, Pelfrey?
New guys: Register, Stokes, Wise.
Other pieces: Smith
There is a lot to work with here. My best guess right now would be the four guys at the top, unless Heilman is traded or becomes a starter here (HA!), plus Sanchez, Sosa, and Register, since he was a Rule 5 pick. Next in line would be Wise and Hernandez if he moves from the rotation. I really don’t know right now.
I also heard on SNY rumors about Prior. Maybe just changing teams could be the magic elixir, but I think not. If we can get him cheaply for one year, I think it’s worth the risk.
If hat you say is true, that this Register guy makes the club because of Rule 5 Draft then that Sloppy dude is right and we are now a small market club. We keep the guy because we lose 50 grand!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I’m sick. If that’s a problem we’ll never trade for or sign any ace ever again.
Wise will get 750K if he does not make the team out of ST.
It would seem he is on the team.
El Duque is gonna start unless they pick somebody up which seems unlikely.
The Coupons won’t pay a guy 6M to be in the pen (for a full season) unless he is the closer.
Spider,
Astros are the more likely spot for Prior.
They are rumored to be willing to give him 2 yrs.
Plus, if he is on your team you probably have to guarantee him a roster spot even though he is not expected to be ready until at least mid-yr.
Pelfrey in the pen would be a waste. He needs to go back to AAA and work on his control and off-speed stuff.
Padilla was let go. Unless they sign him to a minor league deal he won’t be back.
Sosa seems likely to be the swing man.
There might be alot of guys but I would not catergorize it as alot to work with.
It is an ok bunch if….if Sanchez is healthy and effective.
But we probably do need numbers b/c these guys arms are gonna fall off with the iffy SP (Pedro, El Duque old and brittle; Maine and Perez only one decent yr under belt; and no known 5th starter)
On a totally unrelated note….AMT tax
If you have done ok this yr (more than 75k) you might have had to pay AMT.
Fortunately, Congress just passed an AMT patch to raise the amount of income that is exempt when calculating AMT.
So unless you have done really well (>200K), you probably won’t have to pay AMT. I just got back 3-4K from those jacka$$es.
Prior has a lot of talent, but considering how brittle our rotation is can we afford him?
Prior won’t be ready until mid-yr anyway.
If he came to Mets, he would only be someone who Might help later in season.
If you work under the premise that this team is at best a 500 team. Then the best thing to do is let Humber & Pelfrey both be in the starting rotation and gain valuable experience. They might take a lot of lumps over the first half of the season but if they are any good they should improve in the 2nd half.
Why give away the whole farm system for Bedard or Santana if they still might not make this team a playoff contender.
Kyle Lohse a Met?
It’s believed the Mets have made an offer to Lohse for four years, but it’s not known if it is for the $10 million Per he is seeking. YUCK!
Phils backed out b/c they were only willing to go 3 yrs.
This is typical Coupon mentality. Get a guy who has some talent but b/c he is not top notch it won’t cost top $. And then our genious staff can fix him. What a bargain!
If the Mets were going to get one of these weak FA I was hoping for Livan H b/c it might have only been 1 yr. 4 yrs of LOHSE? He’ll be bood out of the stadium by June.
Best you can say is this is addition by subtraction b/c he is not on Phils. On the other hand it could be addition by subtraction for Phils b/c he is on the MUTS!
Silva signs w/Mariners. YES! This means they are out of Santana bidding. I still hold out slim hope for Johan.
Scott: You have figured it out. And that’s why the Milledge trade sucked. Omar added average at best and gave up who knows what? If you cn get a true ace then the kids go, but to get Lohse for 4 years would be horrendous. It would add no talent and permanently block young talent from ever getting a chance.
I’m am so glad glad Silva signed somewhere so I don’t have to read the we need Silva posts ever again.
Scoop: Who ever said that Lohse had talent? lol. If the Mets sign him it really goes to show what they think about Pelfrey and Humber. Doesn’t Omar think that those two can give you a 4.72 ERA like Lohse does?
Sign of the times for the farm sys
From another web site….the organization’s .442 winning percentage was 30th among 30 organizations. OUCH!!
Now winning isn’t always the best way to measure progress in the Minors, but that finish is not a positive sign, especially when it includes poor showings for the Dominican and Venezuelan Summer League teams—areas in which the Mets have been very aggressive in signing the top talent.
steve,
I said Some talent.
He does have some good stuff. But he has very poor control-hits alot of bats.
The point was that it is par for the course for Mets FO. This guy is good enough to demand a 4yr/10 per but he is not nearly the best (like Santana).
So, and in the Mets FO speak, “let’s get him and fix him”. And we get a bargain in the process.
And yes it does speak to Pelfrey/Humber somewhat. It also speaks to Pedro/Duq as being brittle too.
All in all, a bad move (if it happens).
Sloppy: I never was against the idea of playing kids.
If Omar stated the following, what do you think would happen.
” We are going to take a step back and find out if our kids are able to do the job, the free agent market has no one we feel will be an upgrade and any trade will hurt both the short term and long term future of the Mets.”
I think he would be ripped by the media , the talk shows and the vocal fan base. People would demand he be fired, he would be called incompetent and the Mets would be called cheap and back to their old small market mentality.
You would have to agree Omar’s biggest problem is that he is trying to serve two masters. The business side which demands enough success for SNY to make money and to sell tickets. These guys simply do not want to understand that sometimes you need to take a step back ( use the kids ) to make the team better. Omar has to deal with this everyday.
Not all kids come up to the majors the way Wright did. Most need more time. Baseball is not football, the draft does not bring immediate rewards. A little patience could reap great rewards, but I get the feeling most Met fans do not want to hear this.