We continue or Fantasy Baseball analysis for the 2009 season with newly acquired closer Francisco Rodriguez of the New York Mets.

Fransisco Rodriguez: Rodriguez rewarded fantasy owners last season with an impressive campaign. K-Rod established a new single season saves record, finishing up with sixty two doors slammed.

So that begs the question; "Will K-Rod repeat, come close to, or totally miss last season's production?" Lets examine:


On the Field Factors:

Sixty two saves. That means he appeared in at least sixty two games. In total, however, K-Rod graced the mound seventy six last season. That is a mind boggling number for any reliever, let alone a closer. K-Rod pitched in 68 1/3 innings while also posting his third lowest ERA (2.24) since becoming a big time contributor to the Angels bullpen.

By all accounts, K-Rod will not repeat last season's success, and if the Mets are smart, he won't even come close. Trading for JJ Putz will help lighten K-Rod's workload, and even give him a rest every once and a while. The Mets say they plan on using Putz as a set up guy, but they're not dumb enough to expect Francisco to handle another abnormally large workload in back to back seasons.

Didn't seem to work that well for Billy Wagner.

Off the Field Factors:

K-Rod leaves quiet Los Angeles or Anahiem or wherever that team calls home for the Big Apple, the big bright scary New York City. K-Rod's successes and failures will be placed under bright lights and microscopes, every outing critiqued by mindless bloggers like myself. K-Rod will be compared to his cross town rival Mariano Rivera, a much taller order than having to hold a candle against the likes of Huston Street, Takashi Saito, or whoever the closer of the week is in San Francisco.

Final Thoughts:

While we understand that telling people not to select K-Rod as their fantasy closer of choice is just short of a retarded notion, we're urging you not to overspend or pick with, say your second draft slot. K-Rod is quite a talented arm to have on your team, but lets face it, he's on the Mets now.

Sports Illustrated, Newsday, and the New York Post are all reporting that Fransisco Rodriguez and the New York Mets are on the same page when it comes to contract talk.

The Mets offered the single season saves leader a contract believed to be worth 3 years at $37 million plus:

Rodriguez's agent, Paul Kinzer, said, "I am more optimistic than I have ever been" about finalizing a deal between K-Rod and the Mets, according to the Post. "We will know more in the next 24 hours, but so far everything has been positive."

According to Adam McCalvy, writer at MLB.com. the Brewers have make their first offer to CC Sabathia, one that's believed to be in the $100 million range.

GM Doug Melvin, however, refused to shed any further light on the contract talks. The Brewers have until November 13th to exclusively negotiate with the left hander.

No news is no news in the case of free agent outfielder Manny Ramirez, who has yet to receive an offer from the LA Dodgers. Early reports out of the General Manager meetings had indicated that Dodger GM Ned Colletti offered the dread sporting left fielder a 2 year, $60 million deal.

Padres GM Kevin Towers acknowledged that Jake Peavy has added two more teams to the list of places he's willing to waive his no-trade clause; Anaheim (Angels) and New York (Yankees). Towers also reminded everyone that Peavy's preference is to stay in the NL and that he won't come cheap.

Fransisco Rodriquez filed for free agency on Monday, as the free agent pool increased to 149 players. Other big names to file for free agency include Rafael Frucal, Edgar Renteria, Kyle Farnseworth, and Paul Byrd.