Joe Beimel has received some offers and he's going to decide soon where to head. I'd like it to be us, but if not, there are some other options, so that's that.
And Pedro Martinez wants a real money contract. Somewhere in the millions. This one is a little tougher.Normally, I'd say forget it, but the more I look at the situation regarding our 5th starter, the more I start to get worried.
Here's the list of our possible 5th starters and their Spring Training's so far:
1. Eric Milton - 5.40 ERA in 11.2 innings
2. Jason Schmidt - 6.75 ERA in 4.0 innings (though Torre has said he won't start the year in the rotation)
3. Claudio Vargas - 7.15 ERA in 11.1 innings
4. Shawn Estes - 9.00 ERA in 8.0 innings
That's not pretty. Scratch that, that's ugly. Very ugly. It's Esteban Loaiza ugly (I'm talking stats, not the man himself, he's actually quite attractive).
Maybe not.Anyway, point is, Martinez might actually be our best solution right now.
As it is, it's looking like we'd have to depend on a Milton or Vargas for the 5th starter spot. Ok, fine, I'd be willing to accept they'd only be pitching once, maybe twice a week. How much damage can they do? It's an unpleasant thought (kinda defeatist), but that'd be the facts. Fine, maybe we can get by like that.
However, should someone go down due to injury (which is likely over a long season), I definitely don't want to have to depend on more than one of the above candidates. Can you imagine Vargas and Milton starting three or four games a week? (How about Estes? I shivered as I typed that.)So really, maybe we should just give Pedro some money. Sure, we don't know if he can stay effective or even healthy for that matter...
But do you really want to live in a world where Shawn Estes starts 20 games for us?
EDIT: Beimel is going to the Nationals. 1 year, $2 million.
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