Start Devin

[Edgy MD]

If there has to be openers, let Devin Williams be one of them.  It is absurd to save him for situations that arise with increasing rarity.

He is regularly missing entire series.  He is on a pace to throw 51.19 innings over the course of the season, and when he does get on the mound in a tight spot, he initially seems so rusty for the first several pitches, like he isn't quite sure how he got there.

As Steve Gelbs reports:

Quote

In the first three innings of games, Mets pitchers have a 5.45 ERA, 2nd worst in MLB ahead of only the Rockies.

From the 4th inning on, they have a 3.40 ERA, 2nd best in MLB behind only the Braves.

Let's invert some of that usage.  Yeah, it will be robbing Peter to pay Paul, to some extent.  But it will be getting use out of a guy who tends to be deployed too little too late.

A week or two of some regular usage might be nice, and if and when the rotation stabilizes, he can return to the tomato patch.

In the meantime, teams with nothing to close don't need to pretend they need a closer.  And if they somehow do, and Williams has been rendered unavailable by an appearance as an opener, they've demonstrated they have several late-inning alternatives available.

Kooky proposal, I know — but not the kookiest one that has occurred to me in the last 24 hours.

[whippoorwill]

I think it’s brilliant. You all might have noticed I am not a fan of the overpacked bullpen 

[metirish]

I like it too ,I don't get the idea of an opener only to then bring in a starter ( if that happens)

[seawolf17]

You know? This kind of makes sense. I say go for it.

I mean, LITERALLY NOTHING ELSE HAS WORKED. You might as well. Then we can sign a new closer.

[Edgy MD]

Being as good the last six innings of a game as you are bad the first three innings of the game should be a plus on the whole.  Six is greater than three, and later innings should tend to be higher leverage than earlier ones.

It also amounts to being more correctable, perhaps with adjustments like the one above.

But then there is the offense.

[smg58]

I think our starting pitching is worse than our offense right now.  Senga and Peterson were broken by the end of last season and have not recovered even a little bit.  Manaea is at least recovering, but it took him a long while to get to this point and I wouldn't call him good just yet.  McLean will be fine in the long run, but a couple of really rough outings have skewed his numbers.  And the best thing I can say about Peralta is that Brandon Sproat and Jett Williams haven't done anything yet to make the trade a nightmare -- but it's obviously early, and the Brewers aren't wondering what if.

(And then I checked the boxscores from yesterday, and Sproat went six innings with 10 Ks, one hit, and no walks.  Sigh.)

[Edgy MD]

That's all pretty much fair, right down to the parenthetical.