If you are one of those fans who has come to hate Aaron Heilman (for example, if you refer to him as “poopyface” or something less family-friendly), then please don’t bother reading further — your opinion likely can’t be changed at this point. The rest of you, who have at least a glimmer of hope … Read more
During spring training, non-roster invitee Ricardo Rincon looked like he might make Scott Schoeneweis expendable, seeming to have recaptured the form that made him one of baseball’s elite lefthanded middle relievers and a favorite of Billy Beane in the early part of this decade. Injuries had affected his performance in recent years, but this spring … Read more
Yesterday when I saw the post headline on MetsBlog that said “Mets Close to Vargas, Johnson DFA’d” I thought for sure that Jason Vargas was having a splendid comeback from surgery and that Ben Johnson was being released. That Heath Bell deal was starting to sting again. But alas, it was CLAUDIO Vargas and DAN … Read more
During the SNY broadcast last night, Ron Darling brought up the fact that Major League teams have a “systematic way” in spring training of deciding that every one of their young pitchers throw a good changeup. He added that he never was able to throw a good changeup, and therefore “might have fallen by the … Read more
Are pitchers graded on different scales, based on what’s expected of them? In the SNY postgame after the Mets win over the Phillies, Adam Rubin asked Willie Randolph if judging a performance is specific to the pitcher, and why Pelfrey’s 100-pitch, 5-inning effort was being celebrated while Oliver Perez’s 6-inning, 91-pitch performance was termed “inefficient”. … Read more
Some people wonder why I’m so panicked regarding the Mets’ fifth starter. After all, how many teams have a solid fifth starter? All we need is a guy to go out there and give us 5 decent innings, keep the team in the game, and then hand it over to the bullpen. Well, take a … Read more
It looks like Pedro Martinez may be placed on the 15-day DL any minute now, though it may not be as bad as we feared. So now we’ll assume the Mets will promote Nelson Figueroa to fill the fifth starter role — which is fine with me. At this time I feel it absolutely necessary … Read more
Assuming the worst — that Pedro Martinez will be out for a significant period of time — what are the Mets options for the starting rotation? Orlando Hernandez is already down until mid-April, and no one’s convinced he’ll be healthy or effective when (if?) he returns. Mike Pelfrey still hasn’t shown a second Major League … Read more
