KROD

Nope, not a radio station. The Mets did themselves a doody by spending $37 million on the bespectacled closer from the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. (The fucking stupidity of calling a team that deserves a whole 'nother post. It's like calling yourself a New Yorker when you live in Staten Island. Snap!)

No position is more overrated in baseball than the elite closer. Teams constantly pay $1-$5 million to pitchers who will start 35 games during the course of the year who they hope will pitch 6 innings every time they go out there. But they'll spend almost $13 million a year on a guy who comes on to get three outs with a lead in the ninth inning. Any pitcher worth his salt should be able to get 3 guys out more often than not.

In fairness, one of the reasons the Mets missed the playoffs this year was because their bullpen was Switzerland Cheese, but the main reason why is that they paid $42 million to closer Billy Wagner three years ago. At that point Billy Wagner was in the same echelon that K-Rod is now.

But any pitcher has a bad day. Hernandez and I were at a Mets/Cards game a couple years ago when Wagner lost the game. And more importantly, in the crucial 2006 NLCS between the Mets & Cardinals, Wagner lost Game 2 by giving up a 3-run homer to So Taguchi, the Cardinals' weakest hitter in that playoff. If the Mets win that game, they go up 2-0 and probably head to the World Series. So why pay so much for a relief pitcher?

I'm sure it wounds Hernandez to hear this, but the Cardinals' closer in that series was an unproven but extremely talented Adam Wainwright, who got the out that really counted -- the last out in that series, on one of the most amazing curveballs ever thrown in postseason history. Wainwright is now one of the top two starting pitchers on my Cardinals, and he's going to make $2.6 million next year. Comparing that to the K-Rod contract, well, that leaves over $10 million for strippers & candy.

There are a couple guys who play baseball who excel at this position, and it just so happens that Yankees closer Mariano Rivera does it better than anyone else. In fact, he may be the best closer in the history of the game. So I chalk this move up to the Mets' ongoing insecurity in New York.

The Mets are the Jan Brady of baseball.