Mets Thrive while Zito Struggles [Aaron DeRosa]

[JME] - Aaron DeRosa is a good friend who follows sports with a great passion. He has offered up a post for the blog. Just a quick note, his reference to Matt is just a friend of ours from home. Also, I readily concede to Aaron's point. He is spot on:

Over the summer, Addison, Mark, and Matt (though silent, still complicit) tried to convince me that spending "whatever was necessary" for Barry Zito, the "best pitcher on the free agent market" at the time, was the smart move for the Mets. Thankfully Omar Minaya agreed with me. Just a quick look at some numbers:

Barry Zito

2007 Salary: $10,000,000

ERA 5.42

WHIP 1.42

BAA .243

K/9 4.97

John Maine

2007 Salary: $370,000

ERA 2.15

WHIP 1.25

BAA .206

K/9 8.05

-or-

Oliver Perez

2007 Salary: $2,325,000

ERA 2.90

WHIP 1.09

BAA .209

K/9 8.7

While obviously Maine and Perez have less of a history of success, their skill sets are definitely comparable to Zito's (if you think that Perez was a former Cy Young contender who just needed to get over his psychological problems). And while Zito has a "history of success," he also has a history of colossal disappointment and failure. There are players that are worth spending a lot of money for (see: Carlos Beltran) and there are players that get a lot of money because they are the best on the market (see: Carl Pavano, Barry Zito, etc.).

[JME] - I'll reiterate my opening thoughts...Aaron is absolutely correct. I was wrong over the winter in my argument that the Mets should spend whatever it takes to go after Barry Zito. In the opening game against the St. Louis Cardinals, Joe Morgan said "sometimes the best moves are the moves you don't make." In this case, the best off season move the Mets made was not getting Barry Zito.