Yesterday, Dave Cameron at Fan Graphs questioned the Diamondbacks decision to sign Jon Garland. He said that for a short term deal, Arizona should have just kept Randy Johnson.
Deciding that you want Jon Garland instead of Randy Johnson is a disastrous decision. Yes, Johnson is old, but he’s still an excellent major league pitcher. Garland is a #5 starter whose best skill is not getting hurt.
Today, Eric Seidman compared Garland to remaining free agents Randy Wolf and Braden Looper, suggesting that all three offer the same production, but at different costs. He also suggested that Looper would have made more sense for the Mets #5 than Tim Redding
The Mets signed Redding for $2.25 million, with 750K in incentives. Looper probably would have cost a little bit more, but also had slightly better numbers in 2008, posting a better ERA and WHIP. However, Looper has a poor track record in New York, which is why his name was never mentioned.
