2009 Analysis: Lance Broadway
Early in September, loyal MetsToday reader “The DZA” made a content suggestion:
Seeing as the off season is looking to be more intriguing than the regular – would you perhaps give us a rundown of each player on the Mets as to how you think they have performed, and their subsequent projection (i.e. where they fit in or don’t fit in for the future)?
FYI, The DZA logs in from London — so MetsToday has officially achieved worldwide influence (!).
We’ll begin with the pitching staff, going in alphabetical order — that makes Lance Broadway first.
Lance Broadway
We were treated to only 16 appearances and 30.2 IP of Lance “Off Off” Broadway, so it’s hard to make an intelligent analysis.
After a spectacular college career at Texas Christian U., Broadway was drafted 15th overall in the 2005 by the White Sox and pegged for stardom. However, he was hittable from day one as a pro, and struggled with his control at both the AAA and MLB levels.
Broadway has a sinking fastball with impressive movement down and in to RH hitters, but it rarely gets far above 90 MPH and his command of it was inconsistent as a Met. His attempts at secondary stuff were similarly futile — a cut fastball/slider appeared to be the best of a bad lot.
One positive was his demeanor and composure on the mound; he was professional, competitive, and unflappable — he appears to have the heart of a lion. That can go a long way, as it’s something that few pitchers can develop if it isn’t already part of their makeup.
It’s unlikely that Broadway will one day live up to his billing as a star collegian and #1 pick. At 26 years old, time is running out quickly. To succeed at the MLB level with his high-80s / low 90s velocity, Broadway needs to have pinpoint control AND a plus off-speed pitch. Unfortunately he has displayed neither as a New York Met. That’s not to say he can’t still “figure it out”, and considering the Mets’ lack of depth in regard to pitching at the upper levels of the farm system, they have little choice but to start him in AAA Buffalo in 2010 and hope for the best. It probably makes sense to keep him in the starting rotation as a minor leaguer, so that he can spend more time and innings developing command of his fastball and a secondary pitch. I don’t see his velocity jumping the necessary 5-8 MPH to become a late-inning relief specialist, so his best shot is probably as a 5th starter / long reliever.
If indeed Lance can take the next step in his development, it would make a great story befitting of, um, Broadway (oh, bad one, huh?).
What’s your take on Lance Broadway? Post your analysis and opinion in the comments.
Next up is the immortal Elmer Dessens.
2009 Analysis: Elmer Dessens
Elmer was the glue in the Mets bullpen down the stretch — if “stretch” is what you want to call the agonizing final two months of the season.
Though he didn’t join the club until late June, Dessens managed to find his way into 28 meaningless games, and posted an impressive 1.04 WHIP over 32.2 IP. If nothing else, the 38-year-old righthander from Mexico proved that he can still reach home plate from 60 feet, 6 inches away.
But what to take away from Elmer’s performance? Hard to say, since many of the games he entered were blowouts, and he rarely pitched under duress. Further, his surprisingly good numbers could have been due to the advantage of being “unknown”; although he’s been in MLB since 1996, he pitched in only 4 games last year for the Braves (3 vs. the Nationals, 1 vs. the Mets), 17 games in 2007, and 19 games in the NL in 2006. One must wonder how well he’d pitch after the scouting reports caught up with him (interestingly, one of his worst outings this year came against the Diamondbacks — the same team that lit him up for 7 runs in a 1.1 inning start in September of 2007).
What gives Dessens a ray of hope is the same set of circumstances that pushed him to the bigs in 2009: who else is there? Yes, he’ll be a 39-year-old journeyman with a sketchy past when spring training rolls around, but the Mets don’t have a plethora of pitchers banging down the door to the big leagues. The sheer lack of depth of MLB-ready pitchers of any talent level forces the Mets to consider any and all options. That said, it can’t hurt the Mets to offer Dessens a minor-league contract for 2010, and stick him in AAA. Buffalo will need a mopup man, and the spot can go either to him or a minor league free agent that is cut loose from another organization. Depending on who becomes available this winter, it may make sense to simply keep Dessens around — sometimes the devil you know is better than the devil you don’t. Scary, huh?
2009 Analysis: Pedro Feliciano
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 always in “matchup” situations against lefthanded hitters. Feliciano returned that trust by holding 156 lefthanded batters to a .215 batting average and .245 OBP; he struck out 41 of them and walked only 6 — though, he did give up 4 HRs to LH hitters.
Though he was pigeonholed as a LOOGY, Feliciano was passably effective against righthanded batters as well — they hit .264 against him, though with a .365 OBP and .486 SLG. If you pretend the 4 intentional walks to RHs didn’t happen, that OBP drops to a more manageable .329.
Considering his every-other-day use over the past two seasons, it’s hard to imagine a Mets bullpen without Pedro Feliciano. He is clearly a master at retiring lefthanded hitters, but one must wonder if he’d make more of a contribution as a “crossover” reliever — one who faces both lefties and righties. When given the chance to do so by Willie Randolph in 2007, Feliciano responded with a standout season — one in which he held 163 RH batters to a .221 batting average. In 2008, though, righties hit him to the tune of .357, prompting Manuel to make him a specialist.
It’s an interesting dilemma, and I personally wonder if Feliciano’s struggles against RH hitters under Manuel were due to a deficiency in his toolset or overuse. He pitched with no days’ rest 34 times in both 2008 and 2009, but only 23 times in 2007. There’s a possibility that if he were used more judiciously — optimizing a fine balance of sharpness and rest — Feliciano might have the ability to be a solid setup man. We may never know, because the current manager seems set in his thinking.
What do you think? If Pedro Feliciano were used for full innings at a time, but limited to, say, 10-12 games per month instead of 15-18, would he be more valuable to a bullpen? Or is his ability to get that one or two outs 85-90 times a year the best use of his talents?
2009 Analysis: Nelson Figueroa
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 Read more
2009 Analysis: Sean Green
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 abuse he would have received from the boo-birds if the Mets finished, say, only a few games out of first place?
Green came in with the reputation as a sneaky fast, sinkerballing sidearmer who could pitch effectively IF USED JUDICIOUSLY. Much was made about the fact that Green tended to weaken in the second half, and his performance dropped considerably when overused. So naturally, manager Jerry Manuel threw that part of the scouting report out the window and rode him like a wild horse of the Pony Express.
Not surprisingly for a Jerry Manuel reliever, Sean Green set a career high with 79 appearances. He started out poorly, with an ERA of 8.49 in April, but eventually found success in June and July, when he appeared in a total of 30 games and held opposing hitters to a .194 batting average. Manuel tended to use him as a specialist against righthanded hitters, but in fact lefthanded hitters had a lower batting average against him (.223) than righthanded ones (.250).
Because of his inconsistency, Green never really had an established role in the bullpen (or was it the other way around?), and he was used strangely — it seemed as though Manuel would use him for several days in a row, then not use him at all for a week. The final stats support that thought: Green was used with no rest or one day’s rest in 55 of his 79 games. By the end of the season, he was so exhausted and ineffective that he began pitching from a much lower release point — one that was much closer to submarine style. The tweak worked well, as he posted a 2.19 ERA and allowed only 7 hits in his last 17 appearances.
After a rollercoaster of a season, it’s hard to figure out where — or if — Green fits into the Mets’ 2010 bullpen plans. Personally, I’d like to see him stick with that further down under delivery, as I believe it will allow him to pitch more effectively in the Jerry Manuel System of Bullpen Abuse. Even better, I’d like to see what he can accomplish under a manager / pitching coach that pays attention to things like usage and individual differences.
2009 Analysis: Pat Misch
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 Read more
2009 Analysis: Fernando Nieve
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 Read more
2009 Analysis: Bobby Parnell
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 to starter. And before the season closed, Bobby was back in the bullpen.
The Mets have jerked around young pitchers before — Aaron Heilman and Grant Roberts are the more prominent recent examples that come to mind — and their inability to make a decision one way or the other regarding Parnell is a symbol of the organization as a whole. It seems no one has the chutzpah to take a stand and stay the course, in any area of the franchise.
But back to Parnell. We know that he can touch triple digits when used as a 15-20-pitch-at-a-time reliever. We also know that his velocity drops dramatically when used as a starter. Regardless of his role, his fastball often has heavy sink, though it just as often sits flat and high in the middle of the strike zone. He has no offspeed pitch to speak of, but he does throw a slider that is deadly about 20% of the time.
In his first professional season as a relief pitcher, Parnell showed flashes of brilliance but overall was inconsistent. Lack of command was a major issue, as was the inability to rely on secondary stuff. Once batters realized all he could get over the plate was the fastball, they sat on it.
Inexplicably, the Mets moved Parnell to the starting rotation after failing in the bullpen. Generally speaking, a pitcher who fails in relief because of a deficiency in repertoire will get slaughtered as a starter, so it was no surprise to anyone (other than the Mets brass) that the “experiment” was a colossal failure. What was more concerning was the fact that Parnell went from throwing 15-20 pitches per outing, 3-4 times per week, to throwing 80-100 pitches once every five days — in the course of two weeks. Where did the Mets come up with that accelerated plan of “stretching him out”, and what was the rush, considering that the team was well out of the race by late July? The quick conversion seemed incongruent with the philosophy of a team that has been so conservative in regard to pitch counts — particularly with young pitchers. It’s interesting that so much buzz surrounded the Yankees’ conservative approach to Joba Chamberlain’s transformation from reliever to starter, yet almost no one questioned the Mets’ handling of Parnell. Few would have faulted the Mets for treating a 100-MPH thrower with kid gloves.
In any case, the bottom line is that Parnell did not establish himself as competent in either role — though some of the blame could go to the way he was handled. It’s clear he has dominating velocity, but it’s also clear he needs more time to develop. The question is, will it be more beneficial for Parnell to pitch as a starter, or to focus on relief? It’s not impossible for a 25-year-old to learn a “plus” secondary pitch, but it’s not easy, either — and without one, starting is out of the question. Right now, Parnell is stuck n a spot from where people like Joselo Diaz, Marcos Carvajal, and Lino Urdaneta never advanced. He may remain there, or he could evolve into a Matt Lindstrom (valuable reliever throwing heat for an inning at a time) or a Mike Pelfrey (enigmatic starter throwing two pitches at similar speeds in the low- to mid-90s). Which way he goes is anyone’s guess, and the Mets seem as clueless as the rest of us.
2009 Analysis: J.J. Putz
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: Read more
2009 Analysis: Francisco Rodriguez
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, Read more
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