Totally Looped

The Mets and the Marlins pulled off an odd switch this past off-season, with each team signing the other team's deposed closer. Armando Benitez enlisted with the Fish after losing his job with the Mets and getting traded twice at the end of '03. He has been amazingly unhittable this year: 14 saves, 1 blown save, 0.43 era and 1.00 WHIP. His fastball's back to premium velocity and he's made the most of every save opportunity. He's hella good.

Meanwhile, the Mets -- who have a recent history of spending money in the stupidest possible fashion -- inked the Marlins' never-quite-closer-of-the-future Braden Looper to a 2-year/ $6.75 million deal, looking for a stop-gap measure until Orber Moreno or Royce Ring or another talented AAA arm would be ready to step up and choke. At this writing, the Mets' record is 17-19, which is what you get when you trot out an outfield that contains Karim Garcia (no offense) and/or Shane Spencer (sorry, dude) every night. Looper has a perfect 0.00 era in 16 appeareances and 18 2/3 innings pitched, though. That looks hella good, and Looper's performing way above expectations, but he hasn't been anywhere near as valuable to his team despite the similarities in these two guys' numbers.

The chink in Benitez's ERA comes from two shaky innings, including his Marlins debut and (later) his one blown save of the season. Looper has a blown save, too -- from his first save opportunity of the season on April 9th -- but his ERA stands pat at a perfect 0.00 because he walked the tying run in and that run got charged to the guy he relieved. Hey, that's the rules. Anyway, Looper has been lights-out in every appearance since, and I'm certainly rooting for him to maintain that 0.00 era for as long as possible, but he hasn't been given nearly as many opportunities to justify his paycheck.

Looper has 6 saves in 7 opportunities, and the Mets have only created 7 save opportunities in 17 wins over 36 games. Boo. I know it's folly to suggest that the value of a closer is tied to his save total, I know it's not, but I'd like to see what happens to Looper's numbers when he's placed in more situations where he has to work to preserve the lead. Three of Looper's saves have come against les Expos; all six have come against teams with inferior records. I should note that Looper has been a more efficient pitcher than Benitez so far (tossing 15% less pitches, or an average of 3 per inning), but pitch economy doesn't matter when your team sucks. This is the best money that the Mets spent in the off-season by a longshot, but that contract couldn't go up in flames faster if Vince Coleman held a lit firecracker to it.