The Mets are not expected to bring back JJ Putz, and he will become a free agent.

What do you think we could get for him, and I know we were interested in getting him last year, do you think we will go after him this offseason?

I think we could get him on the cheap since he is coming off an injury plagued year. He would be a good addition to the bullpen and possibly a great closer for us.

ht tp://www.fannation.com/truth_and_rumors/view/127173-mets-to-part-with-putz

Injury plagued season.....I say no.
He probably wont be cheap enough plus the Cards have a lot of young arms for the bullpen.
The cards have a closer...The All Star Ryan Franklin.

First half or the season all star closer would be more accurate. He was very ordinary in August and September.

He was an All-Star but at the end of the year he was ordinary and returned to his normal form. He is as much responsible for Game 2 as Holliday, he could have gotten one of the next 4 guys out and didn't. I like him in bullpen, but he is not closer material I don't think.

There are about 25 other closers that would love to have had Franklin's stats at the end of last year. Everyone has bad stretches. His happened when Larussa started sitting him for 4-5 days at a time late in the season. Franklin has been a guy with a rubber arm and likes to pitch often not sit for days between app.
Pujols had a very average month after the allstar break...did anyone say trade him..hes washed up..????

No one said we need to trade Pujols, but Franklin has has seasons like this in the past. He starts out red hot and then cools off big time in September (and in this case October too). I think he did a great job before September, but you can see what a quality closer can do for you in Mariano (dominant), and Lidge (never know what you are going to get). Although Lidge didn't blow a save in the postseason he did blow a tie game in the World Series. It it comforting to have that guy in the 9th to give the ball to, the team knows that if they can shorten the game then it takes pressure off of them.

I'm not saying Putz is the answer but he is an option. You could bring him in with an incentive laden contract and give it a shot. If he is not fully recovered then we have not really lost anything. I just think that if we cannot address the other issues because of lack of talent or lack of good players available, we should at least look to address some other issues if we can.

"He was very ordinary in August and September."

I don't think he was very ordinary in either, or for that matter, any month.

In August he was a perfect 11/11 in save opportunities with 0 runs on 6 hits in 11 IP. The only thing that didn't look good that month was his BB/K ratio of 6/4.

In September he downright stunk! 2-2, 7.56 ERA, 3/6 in save opportunities, 8.1 IP & 7 ER, which was more than he had given up in the previous 5 months combined. Maybe his BB/K of 6/4 in August was (or at least should have been) a warning signal of things to come in the next month.

Ironically, the 2 HR he gave up this season were both in the first half, actually both in the month of May, when he was 1-0 with a 2.79 ERA & 5/6 in save opportunities.

I know it is the opinion of some that he tends to burn out from overuse, but come on. I know they warm up in the bullpen even when they don't end up pitching in the game, and they probably also throw on the side. But burning out from pitching 10 innings per month over a 6 month period? Really? What are these pitchers made out of today, besides money?

I think that his (fraklin) problem was that crazy beard. When he started struggling, he should have cut it off, and started fresh.

I wish we could have gotten ordinary out of Franklin in October and September. Instead, we got pathetic.

Don't lie he was your losers' savior along with Holliday..............................................

Maybe you missed game 2....if Holliday would have caught the ball that hit him in the nuts the game would have been over. People that try to defend Holliday's gaffe needs to pay a little more attention,

said the ret@rd

Yeah that is true, if he had caught the ball we would have won, but Franklin was to blame too. He walked a guy, then let a guy get a base hit, and then gave up another base hit to lose the game. That does need some fault. I do agree that none of that would have happened if Holliday catches it, but thats baseball. You have to be able to move on from that mistake and then go out and get one of the next guys out.