Nut Crunching Time

[Frayed Knot]

Per E. Coleman on WFAN (and other sources):

- Heilman will NOT make his scheduled start today vs Florida having been banished to the bullpen (at least for now) and that Brian Bannister makes the team as a starter

- Keppinger sent down, which pretty much ends the speculation about who the starting 2nd sacker will be
Lefty relievers Juan Perez, and Royce Ring also sent down

- Matusi officially put on the DL although with backdating he can return as soon as the end of the first week

[Guest sharpie]

Well, that answers most of the burning questions.

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

So the six-man bullpen is Heilman, Sanchez, Julio, Wagner, Bradford, and...?

[metirish]

Good, Heilman in the pen is good news, he's probably pissed but this is where he best helps the team, plus he can be moved back to the rotation easily if anyone falters.

[Guest sharpie]

]So the six-man bullpen is Heilman, Sanchez, Julio, Wagner, Bradford, and...?

Now we're left to figure out who the last guy outta the bullpen is. This means we're getting close. I like this bullpen a lot.

[Frayed Knot]

So what's left to decide?

* Diaz - Chavez - Redman
One or maybe two of them (and probably not Redman) makes the team

Bench = Castro, Franco, Valentin, Woodward -- plus one or two of the above depending on the number of relievers kept



* The lefty relievers still hanging on are Darren Oliver & Pedro Feliciano

Pen = Wagner, Sanchez, Julio, Heilman, Bradford -- plus maybe one of the lefties, and/or Iriki, Lima?, am I missing someone?

[metirish]

Heath Bell?, I read yesterday that they Mets have cooled on Iriki, and that he's pitching crap lately, not expected to make the team.

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

Very un-Met-like, at least in recent years, to go with an untried guy, especially with the team otherwise built for no surprises.

I suppose the analysis Ben Baumer shoulda worked on was whether Hielman in the pen + Bannister in the rotation > Heilman in the rotation + Iriki? in the pen.

A whacky trade still wouldn't surprise me.

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

Neither would a Graffanino signing.

[metsmarathon]

bannister in the rotation gives the mets a guy with options that they can send down if he struggles, or ride if he doesn't, and also leaves a guy in the pen who can come on and give quality long relief if a certain sore-toed pitcher cannot go terribly deep into games yet.

its the move that prolly makes the most sense, tho it'll be important to see how much use heilman actually gets out there.

i'd prefer we not sign a graffanino, as i think we've got more than enough potential options with which to fill the 2b slot entirely from within.

[Elster88]

The move that would have made the most sense was keeping Seo or Benson.

Just one of them.

Gawd-damn you Omar.

[Guest Edgy DC]

The only real downside to Bannister in the rotation is if Heilman gets pissed, out of sorts, and off his game. And you can't make too many decisions based on fragile egos.

The other potential downside is Bannister failing, Heilman coming on strong as his replacement and the difference in a potential pennant race being the time they futzed around with Bannister.

None of that seems to make it not worth going with Bannister if they believe he's made the case.

[MFS62]

I would hope that if Bannister shows he isn't ready Willie will get him out of the rotation faster than he did with Ishii last year.

Later

[Guest Edgy DC]

Edgy DC wrote: The other potential downside is Bannister failing, Heilman coming on strong as his replacement and the difference in a potential pennant race being the time they futzed around with Bannister.

That's really a potential downside with any choice, anyway.

[metsmarathon]

Elster88 wrote: The move that would have made the most sense was keeping Seo or Benson. Just one of them. Gawd-damn you Omar.

well, true. but that hardly helps in evaluating this move...

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

Isn't it still possible Jose Lima is No. 5?

[Guest Edgy DC]

My guess is only technically, not realistically. He's looking like James Baldwin right now --- the experienced American League guy with nothing left but moxie and denial (and, like Scott Erickson, a wife not meant for minor leaguer towns), stashed at Norfolk all season waiting for a crisis, at which point he can come up and hopefully not exacerbate it, like Baldwin did.

Fifty-six words in that last sentence.

[Guest Rotblatt]

Well, I feel bad for Heilman, but this was probably the right choice.

I think in addition to the potential dangers Edgy mentioned is that Willie will misuse Heilman (again).

Heilman's our second-best reliever, and we should be using him to set-up Wagner. Our pen should probably be: Wagner, Heilman, Sanchez, Julio, Bradford, LOOGY.

I have a feeling Heilman's going to get slotted in after Julio, though, at least initially, which will be a big, fat waste of Heilman.

[MFS62]

Edgy DC wrote: My guess is only technically, not realistically. He's looking like James Baldwin right now --- the experienced American League guy with nothing left but moxie and denial (and, like Scott Erickson, a wife not meant for minor leaguer towns), stashed at Norfolk all season waiting for a crisis, at which point he can come up and hopefully not exacerbate it, like Baldwin did. Fifty-six words in that last sentence.

We already have one of those guys in camp -Darrin Oliver.

Later

[Frayed Knot]

Except that Oliver is a lefty, would - if kept - be used as a LOOGY not a starter, and is pitching well this Spring something Lima is not.

Lima is starting today's game btw, with Heilman sked to relieve.


Also, it seems that they're still pulling excess starters to fill bullpen needs - even after the Seo/Benson trades - it gets tougher to make the case that reversing those deals would help us out here.
That doesn't mean you have to like the return we got, but we def have enough starting pitching to tide us over ... at least for now.

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

The Mets have extra starters because of the unexpected (by me, anyway) emergence of Bannister. Dealing Seo and Benson brought us too close to having no slack at all. But maybe things will turn out all right anyway. Last year I was lamenting that they had dealt Ginter, for the much the same reason I don't like losing Seo and Benson, because it hurt the rotation depth. As it turned out, I never missed Ginter at all. Of course, this year's exiles are quite a bit better than Ginter.

[Guest Edgy DC]

We also lack a photo of Melissa Oliver, to see if he qualifies in that regard.

I did however find something. I don't know what it is or was, but it appears to be the feedback forum to some baseball Annie's blog, in which, among other soap opera-type details, she claims that Ms. Oliver was raped by a relatively respected ex-Met.

[Zvon]

- Heilman will NOT make his scheduled start today vs Florida having been banished to the bullpen (at least for now) and that Brian Bannister makes the team as a starter

I dont like this at all.
Heilman wants it and has pitched well in winter ball and spring training and should be given that shot to start above Bannister.
Why not do it the other way around, with Bannister waiting in the wings?

Heilman pays his dues as a Met player, plays team ball - an opportunity arises where he asks to be given a shot, he does his best to show he has the stuff, and they give him the shaft.
Nope- dont like it at all.

[metirish]

Zvon it's not about Heilman being a team guy and all that, it's about whats best for the team, as for paying his dues he wasn't exactly any good his first two seasons so I don't think the Mets owe him anything.

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

I think he'll get his share of starts this year.

I had previously made a fearless prediction that Bannister would get 6 starts in 2006. With Bannister seemingly having made the rotation, I'll switch that six-start prediction to Aaron Heilman.

[Frayed Knot]

I wonder if the fact that Nady has followed up his hot start with a streak where he's currently on something like a 1 of his last 30 stretch affects the Diaz/Chavez decision?

[Guest OlerudOwned]

Frayed Knot wrote: I wonder if the fact that Nady has followed up his hot start with a streak where he's currently on something like a 1 of his last 30 stretch affects the Diaz/Chavez decision?

Unless Nady proves he can hit outside half pitches, they need Diaz on the 25 man roster. I wouldn't trust a Nady/Chavez platoon for a second.

[Frayed Knot]

]article in the Post about V.Diaz being on the bubble. it looks like its down to Oliver or Feliciano for the Loogy slot, and the 25th man is either V.Diaz or a 7th RPer (Iriki? Bell? Lima?). I'd much rather have Diaz than an extra arm in the pen.

Mee 2!!
Heard in the last day or two (forget where) that they were leaning toward only a 6-man pen rather than 7.
On the other hand remember that Matsui can come off the DL as soon as the end of the first week so some early yo-yo-ing is bound to occur.

[Guest Bret Sabermetric]

They can count on someone getting hurt by then, I think,