Bullpen Point

During Friday night’s edition of “Live From Mickey Mantle’s“, my co-host Mark Healey brought up an interesting point (if you missed the show, you can download it and listen to it at your leisure).

I won’t provide the exact quote, but the gist of Mark’s point was this: after the 2006 season, when the bullpen was absolutely spectacular, the Mets let two key components walk away — Chad Bradford and Darren Oliver. After the bullpen’s atrocities of the 2007 season, instead of an overhaul, they brought back the exact same personnel (except for Guillermo Mota).

I’m not going to say ChadBrad and Oliver would have definitely been the difference — though I will point out they both have continued to pitch well since their exit — but it is strange that the Mets would choose to dismantle the bullpen that “worked” and retain the one that didn’t.