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1.29.2004
Mesa to the Pirates
Wow...really? I guess this only a minor league deal, but I still can't see why the Pirates would be interested in signing Jose Mesa. And yet, they've apparently done so, with an eye towards him competing with Juan Acevedo to be the team's closer. I know Mesa's got a lengthy track record of accumulating saves (he's got 249 in his career), but he'll be 38 in April and was absolutely terrible last year (5-7 with a 6.52 ERA over 58 innings, which doesn't adequately sum up how poorly he performed). On top of that, acquiring or anointing a "closer" should be low on a team like the Pirates' list of priorities...they ought to be more concerned with putting together a passable bullpen, something they currently lack. Adding Mesa doesn't help matters. As of right now, the Pirates are looking at a passable rotation in: 1 Kip Wells 2 Kris Benson 3 Josh Fogg 4 Oliver Perez 5 Rick Reed / Ryan Vogelsong (probably the former) And then a pretty bad bullpen. Looking at the likely candidates with a nod to Baseball Prospectus's ARP (Adjusted Runs Prevented, if you're not familiar with it, learn more here) and the innings they pitched in 2003: Jose Mesa (-19.8 ARP over 57 innings) Juan Acevedo (-10.9 ARP over 38.1 innings) Brian Boehringer (-4.5 ARP over 61.1 innings) Joe Beimel (-10.6 ARP over 62.1 innings) Mark Corey (-1.7 ARP over 30.1 innings) Brian Meadows (4.4 ARP over 45 innings) Mike Gonzalez (-3.8 ARP over 8.1 innings) Salomon Torres (6.4 ARP over 39.1 innings) Jason Boyd (5.6 ARP over 52.1 innings) Nelson Figueroa (4.2 ARP over 19.1 innings) Of course, I'm looking at only 2003 numbers here, but the Pirates are taking the two pitchers who performed the worst among their bullpen candidates and letting them battle it out for the opportunity to come into games late with a three run lead or less. It's reasonable to expect that at least some of these guys will perform better in 2004 than they did last season, but of the entire group, who do you expect to bounce back less than a 38-year old who completely bottomed out last year? This probably isn't a real significant piece of news as the Pirates aren't going to do anything this season...but moves like this don't help matters any. Jose Mesa's not a guy the Pirates ought to be wasting their time with. - |