Duaner Sanchez.

[metirish]

By all accounts Sanchez will be a very important member of the team this year, from reading various reports the Mets will be relying on him heavily.

Ben Shpigel today says Sanchez lost 25lbs, now at 205lbs, remember at his last camp Randolph called him out for being fat and lazy.

Sanchez is drinking the Peterson Koolaid.

Rick.

] �It�s like walking across the desert step by step and today he finally got to the oasis,�

Duaner

]�It was like being in the desert,� S�nchez said. �I was here by myself. You�ve got to pick things that are going to make you excited to just come to work out. You don�t have a lot of choice. You either work out or don�t.�

Shpigel opens his article with this.

] PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. � The fans who packed the stands surrounding Field No. 7 for Monday�s intrasquad game screamed Jos� Reyes�s name and clapped for Jon Niese and roared for David Wright. But they fell silent, eerily so, when Duaner S�nchez jogged toward the mound and picked up a ball.

Welcome back .

Sanchez


Are the Mets depending on him a bit much all things considered?

[TransMonk]

="metirish"] Are the Mets depending on him a bit much all things considered?

I firmly believe that if Sanchez doesn't have his accident, we win the NLCS and probably the WS in 2006. We also make the playoffs last year. So, yeah, his performance could have made a hell of a lot of difference.


However, it remains to be seen how not playing for a year and a half impacts his ability. I'm hoping he can solidify the bullpen, but I don't think we can rely on him saving the bullpen quite yet.

[metsmarathon]

well, we also prolly wouldn't have gotten oliver perez... not sure how that fits into the whole prediction scheme.

[TransMonk]

metsmarathon wrote: well, we also prolly wouldn't have gotten oliver perez... not sure how that fits into the whole prediction scheme.

True story. Didn't even think of that.

[Gwreck]

...also means we wouldn't have had Shawn Green or Guillermo Mota, either.

[smg58]

Are the Mets depending on him a bit much? I'm worried that they are. The most significant outside addition to a terrible pen has been Matt Wise, so Minaya obviously didn't feel that upgrading the bullpen beyond Sanchez returning was a priority. That's a lot to ask from a guy who hasn't pitched in a year and a half.

[Benjamin Grimm]

The other upgrade to the pen, in theory anyway, was Johan Santana.

Hopefully, if things go according to plan, we'll be relying on the bullpen for fewer innings this year.

[Gwreck]

smg58 wrote: Are the Mets depending on him a bit much? I'm worried that they are. The most significant outside addition to a terrible pen has been Matt Wise, so Minaya obviously didn't feel that upgrading the bullpen beyond Sanchez returning was a priority. That's a lot to ask from a guy who hasn't pitched in a year and a half.

Is it really fair to call the 2007 'pen "terrible?"

When I look at our top 3 relievers, those numbers don't exactly suck.

Wagner: 68.1 IP, 2.63 ERA, .216 BAA,
Heilman: 86 IP, 3.03 ERA, .224 BAA
Feliciano: 64 IP, 3.09 ERA, .200 BAA

(Granted, the next 3 in terms of innings pitched were Sele, Schoeneweis and Mota. But the Mets have addressed 2/3 of that already).

Sanchez may not be entirely his 2006 self this year, but I'm guessing he's an upgrade over the 59 innings of crap we got from Guillermo Mota.

[Frayed Knot]

I'd venture a guess that there are very few teams that would NOT trade their best four bullpen guys straight up for Wagner - Heilman - Feliciano, plus a healthy Sanchez.
And I can live with a back-end of Schoeneweis - Wise - whoever.

Fans of every team fret about their pen because all they expect out of them is perfection. But, headed into this season, ours is one of my lesser worries.