Part of me is very happy. Part of me is very sad. Kris Benson was traded to the Orioles today for reliever Jorge Julio and minor league pitcher John Maine. I think it was a good trade for the Mets. Benson is an overpaid mediocre starter. He had an ERA of 4.13 while pitching half his games at Shea Stadium, a pitchers ballpark. An alarming stat for you fellow rotoheads is that Benson's strike out to walk ratio wasn't even 2-1. He only struck out 95 batters in 174 innings. He also seemed to be a 6 inning pitcher who lost his stuff in the 7th inning. Benson was simply not worth the $15.5 million left on his contract over two years.
So ok, the Mets return bounty on Benson wasn't great. Jorge Julio had 35 saves two years ago and has good stuff, but sometimes questionable location. However Rick Peterson might be able to harness that and he won't be the closer and with Duaner Sanchez, probably won't even be the setup man, but he would be fine in the 7th inning. John Maine is possibly a career AAA minor league pitcher, but he was a sixth round draft pick in 2002 and he is not even 25 years old yet.
Kris might not have been worth $15.5 million, but his wife Anna was. Her final appearance with the Mets publicly will always leave an awesome impression on me. She wore a very revealing dress as a Santa's helper while her husband played Santa Claus at the Mets Christmas fund raiser. All I can say is she will be sorely missed but probably not by the Mets brass. One less headache to worry about.
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