Starters on the horizon?

It's been a slow off season for us in general, but the past week has been ridiculous. I ran out of speculations and, at the risk of being repetitive, I decided to just wait until there were some new names linked to the Mets before posting again. This morning, I got what I was waiting for - an article on nymets.com by Alden Gonzalez naming potential starters for the Mets to acquire.

Out of what he claims to be "the steady hands" - Joel Pineiro, Jon Garland, and Doug Davis - I'm really only interested in Garland. Pineiro wants way too much money for his talent (thanks again, Randy Wolf) and even though Davis consistently makes 30+ starts per season, the last thing we need is another starter with no control (in 2009, he walked 103 batters and posted a 4.12 ERA). Even though Garland started off shaky last season, he improved so much once he was with the Dodgers that I'd be willing to take that chance for the right price. And as much as I want to kill Omar and the Mets for their inaction, I have to admit that they've been steadfast in holding out for the right price and I do appreciate that.

I disagree with most of the "wild card" starters mentioned after that: Chien-Ming Wang, John Smoltz, Ben Sheets, Pedro, and Erik Bedard. There is no way Pedro is a good investment. Everyone wants to point to his success with Philadelphia last year, but what about the fact that he only made nine starts? He hasn't proven that he can go a whole season, and he'll be looking for at least that. Bedard was shut down for shoulder surgery in 2009 and there's a chance he won't even be ready until the second half. I'm still scared of John Smoltz, because I'm a product of the Braves' dominant NL East run... but that's hardly objective. I wouldn't sign him as a starter because I'd be concerned about his durability, but he's an intriguing option as a reliever (not something we desperately need).

The only high risk pitchers I'd show interest in are Wang and Sheets. I've mentioned before that Sheets will need to come down from $12 million for that signing to be worthwhile, and I have no idea whether or not he plans on doing that. I think that he'll quickly find himself in the "Pedro Zone" if he doesn't lower his price. Wang has been prone to injuries recently, but he has posted impressive numbers in the past. As usual, it's kind of fun to speculate... but I honestly have no idea what Omar has planned. Hopefully there will be some interesting developments between now and February 18th because I'd love to see someone new report for pitchers and catchers.