Garland's name starting to get mentioned....

With the Mets in desperate need of pitching I'm sure every decent arm will be linked to the Mets at some point and while the relief market is very deep, the starting pool isn't.

Today, Jon Garland's name seems to be making the rounds. Not only was Garland mentioned in Dan Graziano's article today for the Star ledger but he also appears in the Daily News' top five targets for the Mets, this is what Adam Rubin had to say about Garland. By the way if you haven't seen the Daily News free agent tracker it's a pretty cool site....

If Oliver Perez and Pedro Martinez both bolt, the Mets have two rotation vacancies to fill. Jon Niese can compete for one slot. But the other will need to be an established pitcher, with Garland right with Derek Lowe as the class of the free-agent class. Combining with Johan Santana, Mike Pelfrey and John Maine,Garland would give the Mets a formidable top four in the rotation and allow Niese to be broken in without considerable pressure. He's averaged 14 wins and 206 innings the past seven seasons while making no fewer than 32 starts in any of those years. source Daily News

Jon Garland is a 29 y/o right handed pitcher who is a veteran of nine seasons, he has pitched at least 190 innings and won double digit games in everyone of those seasons except the first two.

He has a lifetime ERA of 4.47 and a record of 106-89, what he brings to the table is durability and consistency. Every winning team needs a back-end of the rotation who takes the mound every fifth day and keeps his team in the game which is exactly what Garland does. In 2005 Garland was an All-Star and won the World Series with the White Sox, he went 18-10 with a 3.50 ERA and in the post season he started two games, one was a complete game and he went 1-0 with a 2.25 ERA. Many believe that Ozzie over pitches his starters and while Garland's numbers have declined, he's still only 29 y/o and we wouldn't be looking for anything more then a workhorse #4 starter.