There’s nothing like starting a brand new New York Mets blog with a piece of good news. After suffering through another disappointing season with the Metropolitans and having to watch that historically bad bullpen blow big game after big game, Omar Minaya and the rest of the front office made an extremely necessary move today. They signed Francisco Rodriguez to a 3 year, $37 million dollar contract today (technically the deal is still pending on K-Rod’s physical, but this guy’s no Eddie Curry.)

I have to be honest, though. I am not a huge fan of Francisco Rodriguez. I know he broke the MLB record for

most saves in a season, but saves are a misleading statistic. K-Rod had, by far, the most save opportunities. He had 69 chances last year to close out games, the second most chances belonged to Jose Valverde who had 51. If a player like Jonathan Papelbon or Mo Rivera got that many save opportunities, they probably would have ended up with more saves than K-Rod did.

More important than that statistic, though, is Rodriguez’s control issues. He had a WHIP of 1.29 last season. Now this stat is not that bad, but when compared to other top tier closers it’s much worse. Papelbon, Rivera, and Joe Nathan all had WHIPs of less than 1.00. K-Rod also had an abysmal 2.26 strikeout to walk ratio last season. This is a number he must improve this year.

To be clear, I’m not saying that Rodriguez is not good. The guy saved almost 90 percent of the games in which he had an opportunity to get a save. I am saying that he is NOT a top tier closer. There are only three true closers in the majors, and by that I mean when these guys come in, everyone knows the game is over. Those three are Papelbon, Nathan, and Rivera. K-Rod is probably on the next tier of closers along with Bobby Jenks, BJ Ryan, and maybe one or two others. Rodriguez definitely has the stuff to become part of that elite class, but right now he is not.

In K-Rod’s defense, he was definitely hurt last year. I didn’t get to watch the Angels too much but his velocity was way down. In the regular season and playoff games I saw, he threw in the lower 90s. I remember in his rookie year when the Yankees couldn’t touch his 95+ fastball and that filthy slider, and this back when the Yanks were actually good! I’m praying that whatever was wrong with Rodriguez last year is fixed for this season and he’s throwing that mean combo again this year.

Whether K-Rod gains his velocity back or not, I think that this move was ultimately the right one by Minaya and Co. I thought that, for the reasons listed above, Rodriguez’s initial 5-year contract demand was way too much. But the three year, $37 million dollar offer is much more in line with what K-Rod is actually worth. Believe it or not, it’s actually $6 million dollars less than the contract Billy Wagner signed with the Mets three years ago according to ESPN.com. There is absolutely no question that the Mets needed to obtain a proven closer this offseason, and they got the best one available.

Hopefully New York fans will have more reason to like this Rodriguez than his namesake from our crosstown rivals…