Jenrry v. Daisuke

[Guest Mets Guy in Michigan]

OK, we're getting down to the wire. Jenrry's has a great spring. Daisuke is a veteran. Jenrry is injury prone. Daisuke has periods of ineffectiveness. Jenrry can spend time in Vegas without costing much, Daisuke will get a fat $100,000 check from Fred and Jeff if he's wearing a 51s uniform in April.

Who do you want to see head north and why?

[Ceetar]

Jenrry all the way. He's almost definitely the better pitcher already with more upside.

I'm not worried about losing Dice-K if they decide not to go with him. big whoop. We got him for nothing last year, we can get a similar pitcher for nothing later this year if we need.

[seawolf17]

Ceetar wrote: Jenrry all the way. He's almost definitely the better pitcher already with more upside. I'm not worried about losing Dice-K if they decide not to go with him. big whoop. We got him for nothing last year, we can get a similar pitcher for nothing later this year if we need.

Same.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Matsuzaka. Mejia is going to be innings limited, so I'd let Daisuke eat up some early-season innings and ease Jennry into the rotation later on.

[Ceetar]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Matsuzaka. Mejia is going to be innings limited, so I'd let Daisuke eat up some early-season innings and ease Jennry into the rotation later on.

why waste Mejia's better innings in the minors though? It's not like he's not going to be pitching.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I think both guys will hang because I don't really believe Niese is healthy.

Mejia's health is a concern to me too, which is why I ight give an edge to Dice-K, assuming both pitch well enough to give me CAHNfidence they will be effective. I suppose that's happened so far.

[Edgy MD]

Yeah, I'm having trouble counting who the four guys ahead of them are, and I got, Gee, Colon, Wheeler, and nobody.

[Frayed Knot]

The current plan for Niese is that he'll start the year on the DL but that's only an accounting move until they need him for Game 4.
So until then we'll see an extra reliever but he won't miss a start.


I suspect Mejia will start the year in Vegas while Dick-K shows us what he's got. Matsuzaka is easily droppable (maybe even trade-able) partway into the season if/when youngsters start knocking on the door. But, until then, you don't want to go throwing away perfectly mediocre starters because, as Louis said to Rick about women, 'some day they may be scarce'.

[Edgy MD]

"Dick-K"?

Ouch.

[Guest Mixtapewormhole]

Indications are that Matsuzaka would stick around in Las Vegas if he isn't on the ML roster breaking camp. If that's the case, I'd much rather see Mejia in the rotation. If not, well, it feels wasteful to sacrifice depth for nothing.

[nymr83]

Who is Mixtape and where did he find that awesome avatar?

I voted for Mejia, we know dice k sucks, i dont need himvto prove it again. I am intrigued to see what Mejia can do

[Lefty Specialist]

I's not like they need to hold Mejia back for Super-Two reasons, since Jerry and Omar took care of that problem years ago. Let him pitch; he'll be better than Dice-K and, well, he'll be better than Dice-K.

[Ceetar]

Lefty Specialist wrote: I's not like they need to hold Mejia back for Super-Two reasons, since Jerry and Omar took care of that problem years ago. Let him pitch; he'll be better than Dice-K and, well, he'll be better than Dice-K.

Actually there are very much Super-Two reasons involved, I'm not just not sure they should matter for a guy with his injury history and perceived value over Dice-K.

[Lefty Specialist]

Wasn't he already on the major league for half a season, though? Doesn't that mean that his service time clock has already started? Holding him back for a month or two while Dice-K does a Kamikaze run shouldn't really matter then. Unless I misunderstand completely, which is entirely possible.

[Ceetar]

Lefty Specialist wrote: Wasn't he already on the major league for half a season, though? Doesn't that mean that his service time clock has already started? Holding him back for a month or two while Dice-K does a Kamikaze run shouldn't really matter then. Unless I misunderstand completely, which is entirely possible.

I haven't crunched the numbers but people I trust have mentioned the Super-2 status being likely if he starts with the big club. He was actively demoted after that so that stopped his service time clock so I don't think a lot of this DL time attributed.

[smg58]

I just think it's funny that we were debating Mejia's readiness four years ago and we're still sort of debating it now. Dice-K's been hit hard this spring, and if he doesn't improve significantly today there really should be nothing to discuss.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

I don't think Mejia's readiness was the stuff of the debate a while back, as much as the organization's perception of/plan for said readiness.

Matsuzaka's always been insurance in my mind; Mejia's got the potential to be the best guy on this current staff, Wheeler inclusive.

I get the feeling it's the veteran's job to lose.

[TransMonk]

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: I get the feeling it's the veteran's job to lose.

I think everyone (fans) want to see the kid, but this is what will happen.

[Edgy MD]

I certainly want to see Mejia get a chance to prove that his sweet month in the starting rotation last year wasn't an illusion. I don't want to see him relegated to the pen, but I'm going to have to trust the Mets on this one, because (1) I can't speak to the shape of Mejia's elbow, and (2) I think probably everybody involved in the decision is working from a better thought process than Jerry Manuel ever was.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Ceetar wrote: Benjamin Grimm wrote: Matsuzaka. Mejia is going to be innings limited, so I'd let Daisuke eat up some early-season innings and ease Jennry into the rotation later on. why waste Mejia's better innings in the minors though? It's not like he's not going to be pitching.

He'll be pitching, but not necessarily as part of a starting rotation. I'd have him spend the first month or two in the pen and get him into the rotation around June 1. (Or sooner, of course, if Matsuzaka isn't any good.) If the Mets do end up contending, it will be good to have Mejia available in those later months.

[Zvon]

I'd like to see Mejia but it's going to be Dice-K.

[Frayed Knot]

Mejia has 1 yr + 140 days of ML service time as of right now, so another 40 gets him ~2 full seasons (for accounting purposes an ML season is 182 days long) and maybe another 60 on top of that kicks him into 'Super-2' status for 2015
So, if you're working on the theory that's this is about that then they'd have to keep him down for more than half the year in order to keep him below S-2 status.



The 'Dick-K' thing was actually just a typo, although I might use it later on for real if he has a bad game or reverts to taking 45 seconds between pitches.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Catching today's game live. Between the fastball location and the hard breaking stuff, Matsuzaka's arsenal is looking quite quite.

Hope you guys like four-hour, 3-2 games in April as much as I do!

[Guest Mixtapewormhole]

All principles of roster construction aside, the trachsellian pace that Matsuzaka works at has me pulling hard for Jenrry. It's like watching paint dry on a glacier made of frozen molasses.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Everyone on the Internet says this battle was decided this afternoon when Dice -K shut out the Cardinals.

[metsmarathon]

dice dice baby. see if he can offer anything on a limited return audition, and if so, great. if not, cut bait.

[Frayed Knot]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Everyone on the Internet says this battle was decided this afternoon when Dice -K shut out the Cardinals.

1 earned over 6 IPs on 5 Ks, 3 walks, 3 hits

[Lefty Specialist]

Which is pretty much what he had to do. Dude's fighting for his ML career.

Still want Mejia, but this'll probably sway them to keep Dice-K.

[Ceetar]

boom, Mets pay the $100,000 bonus to Dice-K which allows them to send him to the minors if they want to.

Technically just defers the decision, but it's probably silly to spend the money to see one more practice game.

[Lefty Specialist]

Well, hell, what's $100,000 to the Wilpons?

Hope the guys enjoy their cold showers and dirty towels this week....