After Francisco Rodriguez set an all-time record for saves in a season on the Left Coast, he went cross-country to the Right Coast to cash in with a 3-year, $37M contract from the very desperate New York Mets — desperate because they had suffered their second consecutive collapse in the final days of the season, and all fingers pointed to ineffective relief pitching as the culprit. Surely, the best closer in baseball could make the Mets problems go away.
As fate would have it,
When the Mets signed Francisco Rodriguez to be their 2009 closer, it was a move that had to be made to get their bullpen back to where it was before Billy Wagner blew out his elbow. But when they traded for J.J. Putz, it signified the Mets were committed to ensuring that the bullpen could not be blamed for falling short of the team’s expectations — with Putz in place as the linchpin.
It was a nice idea, and just the “splash” needed to ease the worries of potential season-ticket buyers.
But there was one problem with the plan:
In college, Bobby Parnell was a shortstop converted to relief pitcher. After being drafted by the Mets, he was a reliever converted to a starter. After opening eyes in spring training with a 97-MPH fastball, he was converted from starter back to relief. By the first week of August, he was converted from reliever back … Read more
When things were beginning to unravel in early June, Fernando Nieve burst on the scene and filled a huge hole in the starting rotation — only to be befallen by the injury bug a month later.
Before going down with a season-ending leg injury, Nieve posted a sparkling 2.95 ERA through 7 starts and 36 innings. He had a stretch of three straight spectacular outings in mid-June, when he went 6+ innings in each and allowed a grand total of 3 earned runs through 18 2/3 IP. He was on the verge of being the Mets’ biggest success story when his quadriceps muscle gave out on an infield grounder, and became one of the infamous “backups to the backups” who went to the DL.
The numbers look good, and our memories return fond memories, but what can we really expect from Fernando Nieve going forward?
First of all, he has to
Patrick Misch’s singlemost important contribution to the Mets organization may have been enabling a smooth September debut for rookie catcher Josh Thole. For it was the easy-throwing, level-headed Misch who threw soft darts all around the strike zone, making Thole’s trial by fire a bit less stressful. Can you imagine, for example, if Thole was charged with catching the wild and unstable Oliver Perez in his first few starts behind the dish?
As it turned out, the Misch / Thole battery had its good days and bad days — culminating with the first shutout of the season in game 156 and an impressive five-inning, one-run performance that was cut short by rain in game 161.
Similar to many of the players performing in the late-season auditions, Misch gave us just enough information to
Last December, no one would have guessed that Sean Green would be the highest-impact performer from the fateful deal with the Mariners. In many ways, he “replaced” Aaron Heilman — in terms of role(s), overuse, inconsistency, and fans’ whipping boy. Lucky for Sean Green, the Mets had a terrible, meaningless season — imagine how much … Read more
Of all the late-season auditions, Nelson Figueroa was the most impressive. Ironically, his numbers don’t support what our eyes told us — that Figgy is capable of pitching well enough to give his team a chance to win.
After a spectacular AAA campaign in which he posted a 2.25 ERA through 17 starts, Nelson made 10 big-league starts that were less than spectacular — but good enough to warrant consideration for a 2010 MLB contract.
In those 10 starts, Figueroa had a disappointing 2-8 record with a so-so 4.19 ERA. But one must take a harder look at the numbers, and combine them with his competitiveness, to get a better gauge on his value.
Nelson Figueroa has the
One of the few bright spots on a disappointing pitching staff, “Perpetual Pedro” set a New York Mets record for appearances with 88, and set career bests in WHIP (1.16), Holds (24), K:BB ratio (3.28), and Walks per 9 IP (2.7). Manager Jerry Manuel used the 33-year-old lefthander whether he needed to or didn’t, nearly … Read more
