Phillies and Mets make big offseason splashes

Baseball’s general managers spent a few days soaking in the sights and sounds of Las Vegas, and in the process, the powers in the National League East came home with a few new weapons.

As with most winters, the New York Mets have spent a ton of money to fill in the gaping holes in their roster, and like most winters, those holes needed a reasonable solution, not the most expensive.

However, the Phillies - the winners of the last two National League East battles - have taken a more practical approach to their offseason fine-tuning.

Since the Mets came into this offseason needing to improve their club to reach the heights that the Phillies did this season, I’ll start by analyzing their moves.

Make no mistake, the Mets’ bullpen is better right now than it was on the last day of the season, but is it that much better than at the start of 2008? And more importantly, how long will this improvement last?

First, looking at the Francisco Rodriguez signing, the Mets went out and signed the biggest name on the bullpen market, and wound up with what I think is going to be damaged goods, and a huge waste of money.

K-Rod, as those on the West Coast affectionately called him, will be just 27 years old on opening day, but is already on the decline. His 96-mph fastball helped earn him his nickname back in the 2002 playoffs, when he took the league by storm and won five games for the Anaheim Angels in their run to the World Series title. However, just six years later, his fastball sits at 91 mph, and his strikeouts per nine innings dropped by nearly two from the consistent rate of the last three seasons, and his other peripheral numbers are on a consistent decline. Since 2004, his batting average against has jumped from .172 to .216, while his on base percentage against jumped from .258 to .316, and his OPS against has gone from .482 to .629.

In addition, if you compare his statistics to the Mets’ previous closer, Billy Wagner, you’ll see that K-Rod had a similar ERA, but his WHIP (walks plus hits, divided by innings pitched) was a far worse 1.29 compared to Wagner’s 0.89.

The more telling statistic from K-Rod’s 2008 season is that he blew seven saves, and six more back in 2007. Combine that with the eight saves that their other acquisition, J.J. Putz, blew in just 23 chances with the Seattle Mariners last season, and you get a team with a terrible bullpen adding 15 blown saves to their roster at great expenses to their budget and their farm system.

Looking at how their two new acquisitions match up with the Phillies, the Mets lost a closer who threw a 97 mph fastball out of his left hand, which baffled lefty hitters Chase Utley and Ryan Howard, and replaced him with a righty tossing just 91 mph. That has to make a Phillies fan feel good.

For the Phillies, signing Raul Ibanez to play left field is a slight upgrade over Pat Burrell, but mainly saves the team a few dollars to help satisfy the raises coming to Cole Hamels, Ryan Howard, Jayson Werth, Brad Lidge, and the other young players who helped carry the Phillies to their first world championship since 1980.

Comparing their numbers, Ibanez should hit for a higher average, but provides less power than Burrell did. The key statistic for Ibanez is that he has hit at least 30 doubles each season since 2002, which in Citizens Bank Park, could lead to more homers, but more importantly will lead to more runs scored. Those doubles will do far more to help the Phillies score runs than a walk by Pat Burrell. Ibanez, who will probably bat sixth in the lineup behind Jayson Werth, has driven in more than 100 runs each of his last three seasons, and with Utley, Howard and Werth in front of him, he should have plenty of opportunities to continue that streak.

These signings were pretty good starts to the offseason for both teams, but with just two months left until Spring Training, they each still have some work to do. The Phillies just signed Jamie Moyer for another two years, and added Chan Ho Park to be a reliever or the fifth starter, so they just need to determine who will play second base while Utley recovers from hip surgery. However, up in Queens, the Mets still need two more starting pitchers, a few more arms in the bullpen, and an infusion of heart, because as Cole Hamels said, until they prove otherwise, the Mets are a bunch of “choke artists.”

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Like the “On the Edge” Blog? Hear more of my opinions about Philadelphia sports every Friday at 3:30 p.m. on WBCB 1490 AM during the Coffee with Kahuna show, where, this week, we will look at the playoff ramifications of this week’s NFL games, while also looking ahead to the Eagles’ divisional battle with the fading Washington Redskins.