In the six weeks since the Mets' disastrous season has ended, lots of people have opined on how to fix the Mets. One person who'd like to chip in to the conversation is Jason Marquis. The Mets need to add a starter and, well, what do you know! Marquis is a free agent starter! After adding those two together, the Staten Island native has gone ahead and declared himself a "perfect fit" for the Mets. Marquis had a nice enough year for the Rockies in 2009, notching 15 wins, a 4.04 ERA, and his first career All-Star nod. He's not a bad pitcher. He'd make a nice enough fit for a contender looking for a back-end starter to eat some innings and not embarrass himself. For a team like the Mets that trotted out Mike Pelfrey, John Maine, Oliver Perez, Tim Redding, and Livan Hernandez after Johan Santana, well, I dunno if I'd call him a "perfect fit."
As much as Marquis' wins, WHIP, and ERA make 2009 look like a career year for Marquis, his strikeout rate was lower than it's ever been since he left St. Louis (only 4.8 per nine innings) and his 1.44 K/BB ratio isn't particularly strong, either. In fact, a lot of his success in 2009 was predicated on a 2.03 GB/FB ratio (meaning two ground balls for every flyball), which is much higher than the ratio he has (around 1.5 in the past).
Cavernous Citi Field is a nice place for any pitcher to keep his stats down and if Marquis can keep getting ground balls, he might continue to find some success as he enters his 30s. Still, he'd better be the second- or third-best pitcher the Mets add this winter, or they're still going to have some concerns going in to 2010.
