Comments on: Quote: It Really Hurts, Humber

By: Two-By-Four

Two-By-Four — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 20:41:03 +0000

From Ken Davidoff’s column in Newsday:

This has become such a fiasco that you can blame everyone, up and down the hierarchy, from ownership to Omar Minaya to Willie Randolph to the players. The Humber mess has to rank atop the list of transgressions.

What was the purpose of having this guy sit around for a month, throwing a total of three innings since Sept. 5? He couldn’t have pitched any worse than Brian Lawrence did Sept. 17 in Washington, right? That the Mets sent Humber to Port St. Lucie on Saturday night, for a quickly assembled, simulated game, spoke to their lack of preparation. Didn’t they know earlier that they would need a sixth starter, given Martinez’s insistence on receiving a fifth day of rest?

Before yesterday’s game, Pedro said, “If it was in my hands, we would’ve been pitching [Humber] a long time ago.”

By: metstoday.com

metstoday.com — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 18:11:59 +0000

Willie doesn’t have that kind of foresight. Who do you think he is, Manny Acta?

By: jamie

jamie — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 16:18:11 +0000

yup

By: el guapo

el guapo — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 15:21:57 +0000

his legs started going in the fifth???? what?????? how OLD is he?????

By: Hit The Weights Zeile

Hit The Weights Zeile — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 15:11:23 +0000

we definitely need a joe blanton type for next year just a big body that can go out and pitch 7 innings every time out. Willie can get second guessed all you want but honestly other than schoenweis for very short appearances 3 batters max, no one has been effective as of late so no matter who he puts in has stunk i mean he might as well just pick names from a hat bc they all stink, you can blame willie if he were using the wrong guys but there are no RIGHT guys theyre all wrong they all stink.

By: jdon

jdon — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 14:51:08 +0000

I don’t like everything Willie does and I did not like the hire. He never went to the minors to make his bones so I did not want him. He has some in-game problems but he knows the game and until this month fundamentals were not the problem. However, I cannot blame him for Humber. He never intended to pitch Humber. The fact that his pitching staff blew up could not have been anticipated 3 weeks ago. If he never planned to use him, and Omar made him do it (as I am convinced he did: let us not forget who the boss is), he had to take what he could gwet from the kid. I also think Humber should pitch off his curve, not the other way around. I hope his mid-season fastball has a bit more pop than the one I saw last night.

By: VCarver

VCarver — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 14:15:20 +0000

I’m listening to Benigno now. I don’t like him but I have to agree with what he just said. That when the team continually scores early … builds 5-6 run leads … and sees the bullpen continually blow those leads … then it’s dispiriting. It’s human nature. I know you’re gonna say they should fight back, but that’s just what the offense has been doing for the last 2 weeks. Only to see the pen blow it again. And again. And again.

By: Metlomaniac

Metlomaniac — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 14:11:48 +0000

I agree. I liked what I saw from Humber, and he and Pelfry should get a full shot to earn starting jobs in the spring. We need more youth in our starting staff, and I’d be very comfortable with a Pedro/Perez/Maine/Pelfry/Humber rotation. El Duque can come out of the pen (he’s done it before) and spot start when Pedro needs an extra day. I don’t know where that leaves Glavin, but at this point, I think it is time to part ways.

By: VCarver

VCarver — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 14:10:24 +0000

You can’t expect a team to keep coming back and coming back. Over the last 11 games, the Mets have scored 6 or more runs 9 times. Out of those 9 games, they’ve lost 5 of those games. That’s unacceptable for a championship caliber team.

The offense is pressing because they feel they have to score 9 or 10 runs every game just to win now. The fact they’re scoring about 7 runs a game right now says to me they’re doing their job.

Could they hit a little better? Of course. Just like they could be fielding or baserunning better. But the big black hole in the team right now — the big killer — is the bullpen. Followed by the starters. Followed by the hitters. That’s the way I see it.

By: Metlomaniac

Metlomaniac — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 14:08:25 +0000

They had no idea this would happen? If so, management is more FUBAR than I thought. Humber hadn’t started a game in over a month. He’d pitched 3 innings in that time span, and none in over 2 weeks. Why [i]wouldn’t[/i] management have a failsafe plan to fall back on? If el Duque takes a while to warm up, he should have started in the Met half of the 4th. At that point, Humber wasn’t going more than another inning.

And to bring Joe Smith in with runners on base is, at best, a curious decision. I can see bringing him in to start the 6th, and take him out if he falters, but the kid needs to regain his confidence, and he can’t do that coming in in a pressure-packed situation.

Willie’s decisions don’t happen in a vacuum. They have real repercussions, and he has to face the consequences for them.