Broken News: Joe Nathan Could Be The Mets' Closer

Welcome to the latest edition of Broken News, where we take Mets news that has already been broken by someone else, then we break it some more.  In today's edition, we'll be discussing the news that Twins' closer Joe Nathan might have interest in playing for the Mets.

Joe Nathan has been the closer for the Twins since being traded from San Francisco to Minnesota on November 14, 2003.  Nathan's 24-10 won-loss record while pitching in middle relief for the Giants was very good, but his 4.12 ERA and 1.38 WHIP left a little to be desired.  Once he became a Twin, his career took off.  In just eight seasons in Minnesota, Nathan has become the franchise's all-time saves leader.  His 260 saves are six more than former Met Rick Aguilera achieved in 11 seasons as a Twin.

Nathan did not pitch in 2010 because of Tommy John surgery and was erratic upon his return in 2011.  He was replaced as the Twins' closer by Matt Capps in April and was placed on the disabled list in late May when he strained his right flexor muscle.  However, after a particularly brutal stretch by Capps in July (10.80 ERA and a .406 batting average against him in his first eight July appearances), Nathan returned to the closer's role and did well.

From June 28 to September 25, Nathan's ERA was 2.63.  Opposing hitters struggled mightily against Nathan, batting .170 over the three-month stretch and reaching base at a .224 clip.  Nathan also regained his control, fashioning an excellent strikeout to walk ratio (26 K, 5 BB).  More importantly, he proved he could be a successful closer in the major leagues, recording 11 saves for the Twins after he returned to his familiar role.

For his efforts, the Twins decided not to pick up his $12.5 million option for 2012, choosing to buy him out for $2 million instead.  Nathan would prefer to be a closer in 2012 and not go the Francisco Rodriguez route, going from closer on one team to set-up man on another.

In light of this broken news, the question must be asked.  Would it make sense for the Mets to give Nathan a shot as their closer in 2012?

Sandy Alderson has already shown that is not shy to sign low-risk, high-reward pitchers who have been injured in recent seasons.  His reclamation projects in 2011 included Chris Young and Chris Capuano.  Young was brilliant in four starts before succumbing to a season-ending injury.  Capuano, however, stayed healthy all year, pitching 186 innings in 33 games (31 starts) for New York.

The left-handed starter also led the team in strikeouts (168), while walking only 53 batters.  Out of the five starters, only Jonathon Niese walked fewer batters (44).  However, Niese ended his season on the disabled list and made five fewer starts than Capuano.

Although Joe Nathan was born in Houston, he grew up in New York rooting for the Mets during his youth.  Since Nathan is still trying to prove to his suitors that he is not an injury risk, especially since he will be 37 by Opening Day, he will more than likely not sign for big dollars or a multi-year deal.  Rather, he will probably sign a one-year deal for a few million dollars and hope he can re-establish himself as an elite closer so he can get one final big payday in 2013.

Right now, the Mets don't really have a good internal candidate for the closer role.  Bobby Parnell tried last season and fell flat on his face.  Jenrry Mejia is being groomed to be a starter despite his electric "stuff".  Sandy Alderson has let it be known that the Mets may opt to look outside the organization for their closer in 2012.  If Joe Nathan wants to come here and is willing to accept a one-year, reasonably priced deal, then Alderson may have his man.

 Joe Nathan is pointing at you, Sandy Alderson.  Make this deal happen!

I like Joe Nathan.  I'm not afraid of his age or his recent injury history.  He came back for the Twins last summer and pitched well for a team that was out of the pennant race very early in the season.  As of right now, the Mets don't appear to be contenders for a playoff spot in 2012.  That would lift considerable pressure off Nathan's shoulders should he choose to sign with the Mets.  However, if the Mets somehow break their streak of fourth-place finishes and contend for a playoff spot next summer, Nathan has a proven track record of pitching well for contending teams, as his Twins were perennial contenders during the '00s.

If the Mets are going to compete regularly for the playoffs, they'll need to get younger.  They're already on their way to doing that.  However, every team needs veterans to guide their younger talent and help them succeed at the major league level.  Joe Nathan could serve as a mentor to the younger pitchers while serving as the team's closer in 2012.  It's a double duty the Mets should take a chance on.

Mets Pitchers Can Help Jose Reyes Win A Batting Title

Jose Reyes has been on the disabled list for a week and a half now, his batting average frozen at .336 since injuring his hamstring on August 7. Despite this being his second trip to the DL, he has managed to maintain his lead in the National League batting race, although he is facing fierce competition from Milwaukee's Ryan Braun, who is hitting .329 entering tonight's series opener at Citi Field.



The Mets have never had a batting champion in their first 49 seasons. John Olerud had the highest single season batting average for the Mets, hitting .354 in 1998, but he finished second to Colorado's Larry Walker (.363) in the batting race. Cleon Jones and Dave Magadan also came close, but fell just short of the crown. Jones hit .340 in 1969, finishing third behind Pete Rose (.348) and Roberto Clemente (.345). Magadan hit .328 in 1990, also finishing third in the NL batting race behind Willie McGee (.335) and Eddie Murray (.330).



So with Reyes clinging tenaciously to his slim NL batting lead, his teammates might be able to help him out this weekend. Ryan Braun, who has hit .375 (48-for-128) over his last 34 games, dating back to June 29, will be facing Mets pitching this weekend. If Mike Pelfrey, Chris Capuano and the Tweeter-rific R.A. Dickey can shut Braun down over the next three games, Reyes will increase his chances of becoming the first Met to win a batting title.



Braun is probably licking his lips with the knowledge that he's facing Mike Pelfrey tonight. Over his five year career, he is hitting .500 (3-for-6) against Pelfrey. (Then again, who isn't hitting .500 against Big Pelf?). However, he has yet to collect a hit against Capuano (0-for-3, 2 strikeouts) and Dickey (0-for-7). Against all Mets pitchers currently on the roster, Braun is hitting .245 over his career with only one home run in 56 plate appearances. The Mets will need to continue this trend against Braun if Reyes is to maintain his lead in the batting race before he comes off the DL.



Note: For a player to qualify for the batting title, he needs to accumulate 3.1 plate appearances for every game played by his team. Therefore, if the Mets play all 162 games this year (barring any rainouts not made up), Reyes would need 502 plate appearances to qualify for the batting title. At the time of his injury, Reyes had accumulated 462 plate appearances, leaving him 40 short of the magic number for batting title qualification, a number he should easily reach within the first week to ten days following his return from the disabled list.



Over their first half-century of existence, no Mets pitcher has ever been able to throw a no-hitter. At least if they can't pitch a no-no, they can help a fellow Met achieve something that no other Met has ever done. Holding Ryan Braun off the bases this weekend will go a long way towards making that a reality.

Joey's Small Bites: Putting The Band(box) Back Together

I attended Saturday night's middle game of the Subway Series at The House That Juice Built and I came home with whiplash. No, it wasn't because Bartolo Colon fell on my lap. It was because of all the times I snapped my neck turning to watch 250-foot home run after 250-foot home run leave the park.

The Yankees hit four home runs off Chris Capuano, one short of the franchise record of five set by Roger Craig on May 4, 1963. They have now scored 226 runs this season. Only 99 of them have scored without the ball going over the wall. That means the Bronx Bombers average 2.25 runs per game that score on something other than a home run. They better hope they never have to use Citi Field as their home ballpark (the Yankees called Shea Stadium home in 1974 and 1975 while the old Yankee Stadium was being renovated) because they'll score less than Steve Urkel there.

Despite my neck pain, I still enjoyed myself at the ballpark. Since my paws were unaffected by the barrage of Bomber baseballs, I'll still be able to recap the game for you, one small bite at a time.

To honor all the players in tonight's game who started the season at AAA-Buffalo, I decided to feast on Buffalo wings.

A.J. Burnett entered the game with only four wins in 18 career starts against the Mets (six losses, eight no-decisions), and the Mets started the game as if they were going to make it four wins in 19 starts. They plated two runs in the first inning, the second coming off the bat of Justin Turner, who broke Ron Swoboda's franchise record when he drove in Daniel Murphy with an opposite field single.

But then the Yankees clicked their heels and said "there's no place like home (runs)". First, Russell Martin tied the game with a two-run homer in the second inning. An inning later, Mark Teixeira launched a two-run blast to give the Yankees the lead. After the Mets tantalized their fans by cutting the lead to one in the fifth inning on an RBI single by Carlos Beltran (I'm surprised it wasn't a home run. It was hit softly enough.), the Yankees homered twice in the sixth inning, as Curtis Granderson and Alex Rodriguez connected off Capuano.

The Yankees added a new word to their vocabulary in the eighth inning, when they learned how to manufacture a run, as the less famous No. 2 in New York singled, stole second, took third on a fly ball, and scored on a sacrifice fly.

The Mets' offense went to sleep after scoring their final run in the fifth, despite the fact that Le Grand Justin Turner batted twice in the late innings.

At least there was a bright side to the Mets' 7-3 loss, as Frankie Rodriguez didn't get to finish the game. (K-Rod has finished 18 of the Mets' first 45 contests, putting him on pace to finish 65 games, or 10 more than is needed to make his contract vest for the 2012 season.)

The Mets will try to do something on Sunday that they have not done well against the Yankees - winning a rubber game. Since 1997, the Mets and Yankees have split the first two games of their series 13 times. The Mets have only won the rubber game three times. They'll look to buck the trend on Sunday, sending the improved Mike Pelfrey to the hill. His counterpart will be Ivan Nova, who has never faced the Mets or any other National League team, for that matter.

The Mets spent an entire month taking small bites to get back to .500. Now that they're back on the south side of the break-even point, they'll need to make room for one more bite against the Yankees on Sunday. Gluttony is the only way to go for the Mets in this series.

Joey's Small Bites: Do You Believe In Miracles?

Last night, I took a one-day sabbatical from watching the Mets. In lieu of watching the team with the worst record in baseball, I did some light reading, ate some Chinese food and went to bed without knowing the outcome of the game. This morning, I woke up refreshed and ready for my day's activities, which began with a quick check of the morning paper.

As I was perusing through last night's boxscores, something caught my eye. At first, I thought it was a typo, but upon closer inspection, I realized that it was not. Faster than I could say "holy chicken nachos, Batman!", it hit me. The Mets had actually won last night's game.

Click on the photo to enlarge the boxscore so you can see that my eyes didn't deceive me.

It's not just that the Mets won. It's how they won. The 9-1 victory over the Houston Astros represented the Mets' largest margin of victory of the season. It also gave the Mets their second one-game winning streak of the week (the team rolled off another such streak when they defeated Atlanta last Sunday).

Many things happened in last night's game that hadn't been seen in quite some time. If you didn't see the game, here are some small bites of what you missed.

Jason Bay returned to play in his first major league game since introducing his noggin to the Dodger Stadium left field fence last July. In four at-bats, Bay hit a ground-rule double and scampered around the bases when Hunter Pence made a Metsian error in right field.

David Wright proved that every once in a while (and by a while, I mean every hundred or so at-bats), he actually can provide a clutch hit. With the Mets holding on to a 1-0 lead in the fourth inning, Wright's home run (which broke an 0-for-20 slump) ignited the offense. In the fifth inning, Wright's two-out double plated two more runs and knocked J.A. Happ out of the game.

David Wright is stunned that he could produce two extra-base hits in the same game at Citi Field.

Ike Davis proved once again that Citi Field isn't as cavernous as some third basemen think. Davis' 456-foot eighth inning blast was hit so far to center field that the home run apple had to duck for cover. It eventually dusted off its cobwebs and made its third appearance of the game (Mike Nickeas had started the home run parade in the third inning with his first major league homer) as Davis rounded the bases.

Chris Capuano pitched seven strong innings, allowing one run on six hits. He walked two batters and struck out four to notch his second victory of the season, which leads all Mets pitchers. Not bad for a pitcher who was supposed to be the No. 5 starter on the team.

Terry Collins was ejected from the game before the tens of dozens of Mets fans in attendance had purchased their first Shake Shack burger of the night. The fiery manager was thrown out of the game after home plate umpire Doug Eddings had ruled that Mike Nickeas had not caught a foul tip cleanly. The Mets responded to their skipper's ejection by tying their season-high with nine runs.

Terry Collins doesn't look like he's arguing here. Perhaps he got thrown out for wearing black instead of the traditional blue and orange. (Photo by Andrew Theodorakis/Daily News)

Tonight, the Mets will attempt to do something they haven't done since last October 1 and 2. If they can pull off a victory in tonight's series opener against the Arizona Diamondbacks, it will mark the first time since those dates that the team has won back-to-back games at Citi Field.

For a team that used to believe in home field advantage, consecutive wins at home have been hard to come by. I'll be watching tonight, hoping to see the Mets stretch that winning streak to two. Miracles do happen, right?