Pen Thoughts

[Guest Edgy DC]

How do you feel about starting pitching prospects using the bullpen as a springboard to cracking the rotation?

When I was a kid, there was no shame about parking a prospect in the long relief/spot starter role until he found a level of consistent produciton. Some guys resist it because they fear success won't get them a rotation slot, but rather typecast them in the pen, a la Aaron Heilman and Grant Roberts.

But sometimes that's good. The Mets of my yoot kept Juan Berenguer starting at Tidewater, trying to get him over the hump. When he went to the AL, he got that long relief/spot starter role, and eventuallay flourished as a releiver.

Other NL teams, however, were establishing starting pitchers like Charlie Lea and Bryn Smith and Joaquin Andujar, launching them from the lr/ss role into the rotation.

Anyhow, I'm thinking thusly because, if the Mets land a free agent pitcher, that leaves no immmediate apparent room for Pelfrey or Humber in the rotation, and I'm not averse to carrying either or both of them as relievers.

Also, didn't Humber sign a Major League contract, which should force the Mets to carry him at this point?

[metsmarathon]

i like it, though i suspect that aaron heilman would disagree, and sharply.

[metirish]

Starting Pitchers.


Pedro Martinez
John Maine
Oliver Perez
Orlando Hernandez
Free Agent/Trade

Mike Pelfrey
Philip Humber

Jorge Sosa

I really don't have any knowledge on weather having Humber or Pelfrey or both pitching from the pen would help them advance in their careers, I would rather see them start but I assume they would have to win those jobs out of spring training.

If they went to the pen they might stay there like Heilman has, would they care about that?

[Gwreck]

Edgy DC wrote: Also, didn't Humber sign a Major League contract, which should force the Mets to carry him at this point?

Yes, he did, as did Pelfrey. But I was under the impression that the ML contract only requires that they be on the 40-man (which they both have been since day 1).

[smg58]

Winding up in the pen wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing for Humber or Pelfrey any more than it's been for Heilman. But there are no free agent starters left that I would consider a definite upgrade over either, and a trade would probably involve at least one of them. Yes it's an option, but I don't think at present that the offseason will pan out in a way that makes that option likely. We'll see, though.

[Frayed Knot]

]But I was under the impression that the ML contract only requires that they be on the 40-man (which they both have been since day 1).

Correct, although it also starts the "options" clock right away meaning that someone who gets an ML deal immediately upon signing needs to be on the ML roster by his 4th year I believe.
So for Humber that might mean he DOES need to be on the 25 this season or else risk being exposed to waivers (if not this season it would be next). For Pelfrey the timeline would be shifted a year later.

[Valadius]

I have heard it bandied about that El Duque might wind up in the pen as the long relief/spot starter guy.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Where? The guy went deeper into starts than anybody last year.

[Valadius]

I forget where I read it. It had something to do with the aftermath of his foot surgery and the fact that he's getting up in years.

[metirish]

Hernandez has been " getting up in years" for years now, the talk I remember may have been Hernandez going to the pen for the playoffs after coming back from injury.

[nymr83]

i fully favor prospects in the bullpen, particularly older prospects like humber and pelfrey who would be dominating younger competition in the minors, what do they have left to learn there anyway?

[MFS62]

IIRC, for a few years recently, the organizational program for minor league starting pitching prospects included having them spend at least a month pitching out of the bullpen. That way, they would be better prepared to fill that role should they be brought up (at the end of or mid season).
I noticed they didn't do that this year.
But maybe they're thinking to get Humber and Pelfrey (or another starter) ready for the bullpen role during next spring training.

Later

[Gwreck]

Frayed Knot wrote: So for Humber that might mean he DOES need to be on the 25 this season or else risk being exposed to waivers (if not this season it would be next). For Pelfrey the timeline would be shifted a year later.

But that only applies if he gets sent down, right? If we start him on the 40 (at Norfolk) and then call him up to the 25 in June, I don't think that exposes him to waivers. It would only expose him if he was removed from the 25 once he was put on it...right?

[Frayed Knot]

If his options are up then he needs to be put on, and kept on, the 25.
What I'm not sure of is whether that applies starting this coming season or the following.

[Fman99]

metirish wrote: Hernandez has been " getting up in years" for years now, the talk I remember may have been Hernandez going to the pen for the playoffs after coming back from injury.

The fact that he has no desire to pitch as a reliever may come into the equation. As well as his $6 million salary, pricey even for a Mets reliever.