Our Bullpen

[Guest Edgy DC]

I think this argument all boils down to Heilman. Randolph should have recognized his improved abilities faster, and upgraded his role sooner --- perhaps a la McDowell 1985.

I think we can come to understand from his approach with his offense that Willie Randolph likes to upgrade the role of a coming talented young player gradually, so such a player is not set back by finding himself in a situation that's over his head.

Now, I'm not about to defend that approach right now, seeing as having Heilman in place as the closer even by the beginning of September might have made a big difference for our then-backsliding team. But it certainly is defensible. We'll see more next year when we guage the performance of those players Randolph has played Mother Hen to.

One way to judge a manager is to count how many young players they've lost --- players who were productive in AA and AAA but failed to establish themselves as major leaguers.

[MFS62]

This is one of those threads that makes this place really fun; stats, opinion, challenge, defense, all with some logic thrown in and no personal attacks.
Good job.
Please permit me to add my 2 cents.
I wondered why Graves was given some late season, low impact situations when those innings might have been given to Heath Bell.
Maybe he'll get to pitch tomorrow (Sept 29th), on his birthday.

Later

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

As noted earlier, Bell had some family issues (he has a daughter with Down's syndrome, tho it wasn;t said what was the issue) and he'd left the team for a period. He was warming last night.

PS -- I think we can all point to a few cases where's WWSB's patience proved too much for the team's good, and not limited to the bullpen necessarily. Innerestingly, lieutenant Sandy Sr. in a pregame interview acknowledged that WWSB can improve recognizing how to best utilize his ams, so it ought not be such a huge controversy.

[metirish]

Looper to have surgery Monday, he's got a chip in his shoulder.

[Frayed Knot]

Yeah, supposedly it's something that's been bugging him since the end of last year but rest rather than cutting was recommended. Speculation will shirley follow about whether it was the cause of his off-year.

[metirish]

His control problems are being blamed on this injury...so when did Loop last appear in a game?, probably his last as a Met