Jerry Crasnick of ESPN reports that the New York Mets may not be done shopping for former Brewers soft-tossers with a habit of giving up gopherballs — they’re apparently interested in Dave Bush.
Add Dave Bush to the list of FA starters on the #Mets radar. J.P. Ricciardi was w/ #BlueJays when team drafted Bush in 2nd round in 2002
MLB Trade Rumors says that Bush has “remarkably” not seen much interest this offseason. I don’t think there’s anything remarkable about it.
Bush probably doesn’t have anything left, but if there’s a place for him, it’s probably in Queens — Citi Field was the worst stadium for home run hitters in the NL last season, and fourth-worst overall (h/t klwillis45). That’d be good news for Bush, who had a HR/FB rate of 11.3% in 2010 — 7th highest in the NL, and his 1.45 HR/9 was third highest.
But even if he were to sign with the Mets and benefit from a better pitchers park, he’s probably not good enough to push past Chris Capuano and Chris Young, who were both signed by the Mets last week. Even when you average out that HR rate, Bush’s xFIP of 4.98 wasn’t nearly as good as Capuano’s last year (4.08).
Whether it was by injury or just regular wear and tear, there’s reason to believe that Bush’s arm is toast — he’s lost a full 2 MPH off his fastball since 2008, and around 1 MPH off all of his other pitches. The location has also slipped, as he’s seen his BB/9 rise from 2.34 in 2008 to 3.36 last year.
Signing Chris Capuano was a smart, calculated move by the Mets. Signing Dave Bush would be throwing stuff at the wall and seeing what sticks. Maybe they should call up Braden Looper next.
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