Pedro to the pen?

[Guest Kong76]

Sorry for wording it like I read/heard it somewhere.

I woke up thinking it.

[MFS62]

Could he be any worse that some of the others who have inhabited the pen this year?
But who replaces him as a starter?

Later

[Guest themetfairy]

I'm more concerned that Pedro is injured again.

His first two starts off the DL were fine, but the last two have been very unPedrolike.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Right now Pedro and Perez are the weak links in the Mets starting pitching.

Vargas was okay; I don't know why they did the DFA thing to him. I'm really not sure what the other options might be. Tony Armas, I guess. I doubt that Niese is ready to step in.

[Frayed Knot]

Suggestions like 'Pedro to the pen' are inevitable whenever a pitcher has a couple outings where he keeps them scoreless for the first few innings then starts falling apart in the 4th or 5th. Fans see that and think; "Hey look, he's a great 3-inning pitcher now. Let's put him in the pen!"

Not only am I not willing to draw that kind of cause-and-effect conclusion but you've also got the problem where, unless you believe in Armas being an answer AND Ollie Perez suddenly bouncing back (or an El Duque resurrection), the rotation has more problems then the pen and Pedro isn't really replaceable from within. I think for now we're pretty much committed to staying the course with him.

That said, I don't know what to think of Pedro at this point. He'll look good for a while and then suddenly get ripped. It seems to me that his own mistakes AND bad luck (bloops, squeakers, errors) have been showing up at the same time and conspiring to make him look worse than he really deserves but maybe that's a bit of wishful thinking. Obviously his control is off and that's a big part of it.

[smg58]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Right now Pedro and Perez are the weak links in the Mets starting pitching. Vargas was okay; I don't know why they did the DFA thing to him. I'm really not sure what the other options might be. Tony Armas, I guess. I doubt that Niese is ready to step in.

The fact that they knew they'd need a sixth starter this coming week makes the timing of Vargas' removal that much more puzzling.

I think I'd move Ollie to the pen before I moved Pedro. But you'd still need a replacement.

[seawolf17]

I've actually long been a proponent of Pedro being a short man or closer. Let him go out there and give you a dynamite inning or two in a big spot every other day instead of getting lit up every fifth day. It's a tough transition, but he certainly has the stuff for it, just like Smoltz did.

[Elster88]

MFS62 wrote: Could he be any worse that some of the others who have inhabited the pen this year?

Yes

[Guest AG/DC]

Ilike the wiggle room of "some who have inhabited."

[Elster88]

seawolf17 wrote: I've actually long been a proponent of Pedro being a short man or closer. Let him go out there and give you a dynamite inning or two in a big spot every other day instead of getting lit up every fifth day. It's a tough transition, but he certainly has the stuff for it, just like Smoltz did.

Doesn't he get lit up in the first inning a lot?

[seawolf17]

You pitch differently in the first inning when you're trying to stretch out over six or seven innings... maybe you don't show your third pitch or whatever. But if Pedro can come in there, change speeds effectively for an inning, he could be dominant. He certainly has the repertoire.

[Guest AG/DC]

Maybe. Part of what makes him effective is the ability to adjust.

What a releiver needs is one pitch that is going to be there for you every time out. Some guys it's the fastball, others it's the splitter or the sinker or the slider. One guy used the screwball. Almost nobody lives by the curve out of the bullpen, because that's not a pitch that you always have control of right out of the box.

Pedro's alpha-pitch right now is the change, and I don't think that pitch often works that way. Sometimes it's going to take him an innng or two to get the feel for the thing. That's just the way that pitch is.

You want a releiver who lives and dies with the changeup? You've got a rare one in Aaron Heilman. And as much bile as he's inspired in Met fans this season and before, at this point in their careers, he's got more heat than Pedro to fall back on when his change isn't working.

[Farmer Ted]

I defer this conversation to my hero, Guy Conti, bullpen coach extraordinaire.

[Guest AG/DC]

All bow.

[Guest Rockin' Doc]

Trevor Hoffman and to a lesser extent Todd jones are two relievers that have been pretty successful out of the pen with a change up as a prominant part of their pitching repertoire.

[Guest AG/DC]

Hoffman evolved that way, for what it's worth. And he similarly devolved to a less effective pitcher. His heat was his money pitch in the nineies.

Pedro, meanwhile, has shown us that sometimes it's his first inning that's his bugbear.