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In a fantastic, 1800–word report for the Daily News, Adam Rubin travels to Port St. Lucie to catch up with 
Duaner Sanchez, who, according to the team’s rehab coordinator, Randy Neimann, ‘is his old self again.’
Sanchez returned to a mound last week, for the first time since last spring, and threw 30 pain-free pitches.
Neimann, as quoted by Rubin…
“When spring training opens, we would like him to be one of the guys, without any restrictions or anything else. It’s what we’re working toward. I like everything I’ve seen so far.”
In a recent poll of more than 3,200 people at MetsBlog.com, when faced with a variety of options on how best to fix the team’s bullpen, the majority of fans agreed that the best approach is to simply ‘pray for the health of Juan Padilla and Sanchez.”
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The health of Duaner is going to be one of the biggest issues for the Mets going in to spring training.
We need him to be in ‘06 form. I think his progression, health-wise, in the next few weeks may dictate whether or not the Mets deal Heilman.
if sanchez and padilla come back in the pen why not use heilman in the roatation so pelfrey and humber can be dealt. i dont want to see heilman go.
Wasnt he supposed to be his old self again last spring???. Im so skepitcal because he is so important to our success.
Agreed on Sanchez, but anything from Padilla would be as much a surprise as it was in 2005.
I wouldn’t be comfortable regardless dealing heilman unless something was lined up in the FA market for relief, not too much reliability on the mets staff right now
…because Schoeneweis and Mota were so helpful last year? I really dont think free agents are the way to go for the pen. They need to be developed and ‘found’ more than anything.
I hope the expectations on Sanchez are not for him to be like he was in ‘06. It’s fair to expect him to be healthy after all this time, but its a bit much to expect him to be as effective as he was after all this times away. I look at him as an improvement over Mota.
Mel Rojas would be an improvement over Mota.
Anyone who expects anything from Juan Padilla deserves to be slapped in the face. It pisses me off. Why is he even mentioned in the same breathe as Sanchez. Come on. Padilla had 6 good weeks for the 2005 New York Mets who were well out of it and now hes the bullpen savior. Last I checked, Mota had 6 good weeks in huge blowouts for 2006 and everyone thought he would be a force in the bullpen. The bullpen is one of the most inconsistent parts of the game. I was one of the few who expected nothing from Padilla or Mota. I expect something decent from Sanchez because he was actually great in LA and for the Mets before he got injured. But this article was too optimistic. I cant see Sanchez throwing 99 opening day and getting the lineup out in order. He will probably struggle for a long time before we see his usual self.
Agreed on Padilla. Jury is out on Sanchez though it was disturbing to hear last year how he was overweight and ambivalent about doing the work needed to be ready.
It is also a bit disappointing to hear he wont be pitching in the Dominican leagues this winter
way to throw cold water on a nice story, Kreskin. I love when people in here say they were one of a few or the only one that had a particular opinion.
I hope the Mets dont rely on Duaneer this season too much or else they are screwed. The Cubs were a great team in 2003, and just like the Mets lost in the NLCS in a huge upset. After 03, the Cubs did not move on and relied too much on having a healthy Wood and Prior back together. The Cubs lost 3 seasons because of that. The Mets already lost 1. Last year, Mets were expecting BOTH Padilla and Duaneer to come back. Now we are almost in 2008 and Mets are still relying on Padilla and Duaneer after both let us down in 2007. Minaya avoided signing Bradford because he expected Duaneer and Padilla to be there in 07. What did the Mets get in return? Willie ended up over using every part of the bullpen especially Mota. I dont want to see the same thing happen this year. Mets better do something about this bullpen through free agency. Hopefully they sign Riske.
Wagner
Heilman
Feliciano
Schoeneweis
Sanchez
Padilla
Duque
Pelfrey
Humber
Sosa
Muniz
Collazo
Smith
Some combination of these guys will produce an effective bullpen. To go out and sign more guys that become immovable, like Schoeneweis, would be a mistake. The trick is finding the combination before the season is too far under way.
I think the Mets need to bring in at least one more reliable reliever. Lets not forget that that’s the same crew that let us down last season. Sanchez and Padilla can not be counted on as they haven’t even pitched in near 18 months and nobody knows for sure if they’ll be effective when they do come back. If they can pitch, great, but if not then at least we’re prepared to go without them (again).
Im thinking a Right Hander like David Riske.
Correct.
We need to go into the season expecting nothing from Sanchez and Padilla.. Build the pen as if we don’t have them, they are question marks anyway.. Then if we do have them great and it will just make the pen that much better, but if we don’t have then, oh well, that sucks but at least we weren’t banking on them.
Sanchez coming back healthy and strong really could fill 2 holes.
He can reclaim the primary set up guy role, and allow Heilmann to go to the rotation and cover the 5th spot.
Now, Heilmann may not become Chris Carpenter (although who knows!), but he is built like a guy that can throw a lot of innings, has pelnty of experience, and is here.
If a stiff that may not be any better 9if even close to as good) costs 10 million for 4 years as a FA, or costs 2 legit prospects (say Humber + Milledge), then Heilmann in the rotation makes much more sense to the organixzation.
The guy was a 1st round draft pick, as a starter, and that small sample size was quite a few years ago (and hey, he is tied with Tom Seaver for fewest hits given up in a game!)
I wonder how much different the team would be if Bannister had strugled in ST 2006, and He4ilmann had kept the job he had prepped for, and probably won.
I think he easily could have done just as good as Blanton in 2007.
Free Heilmann! There are a ton of arms to mix and match for the pen.
no way! heilman has been our most consistent RPS since 05. the only way you move heilman is for a big time starter. if duaner comes back and is 80 percent of what he was in 06 a 7th and 8th inning combo of heilman and sanchez would be lethal. moving heilman to the rotation would create a larger hole in the pen.
Hasn’t that Heilman starting thing died a timely death yet? Apost that includes “Heilman” and “starter” at this point should go to Matt’s never never land of posts.
Why? You’d be silly not to put him in the rotation. He’s a starting pitcher.
david riske or doug brocail would be a fine pickup
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/tom_verducci/11/13/padres.relief/index.html
this is why el duque would be perfect in the pen, as towers said guys with different deliveries are what he goes for.
Great read! Lets trade Ben Johnson, Jon Adkins, Steve Schmoll and others for cheap relievers.. Towers did it.. Why cant Omar?
i cant stand people who congratulate Kevin Towers on the amazing job he has done with the pitching. Of course they are going to have a great stats because the pitch in PETCO PARK!!!!!!! I love how SI in the article above did not mention that. Come even Mota can put decent number in the “Coors Field of Pitchers” Did anybody realize that the padres era on the road is 4.47 compared to the mets 4.28 overall? did any one realize opponents hit .264 against the padres on the road, compared to the mets .255? There ERA at home was 3.03 THATS A HUGE DIFFERENCE, i dont understand why people make a big deal about coors, but dont realized the pitching number at petco are just as skewed at petco. It that fans are fixated on home runs than good pitching (hence the steriod scandal). I am not even going to begin with not including petco, they are three other huge pitcher parks in that division, That is why you have the 2nd worst scoring team in the league (SF) Third worst in the league (arizona) and the 7th worst (LA)! Yes Bell and Peavy were terrific and did well on the road, but bell did pitch about 100 games for us and did nothing and he was 30. He needed a change of scenery and that helped him out. But it is no guarantee that if we kept him, he would have the same confidence and motivation to succeed as a met. Maybe since he is from cali, being close to home helped him out, but he played for 3 years with us and did get a shot. But padres have a bulpen (all era’s on the road)of meredith 4.79, hoffman 4.84, cameron 3.68, Linebrick had an era of 6.05 before he was traded. The padres have a below average pitching at best but they do have a strong ace. But that article about towers does have some good points but dont think its that easy to get quality relief pitchers. Yes you do have to get lucky, but its not a job an average joe can do, you need quality.
Sorry its late at night, and I wrote this quickly so they are quite a few typos and grammatical errors. Just bear with it., I am just one frustrated Mets fan.
I hear you man. But asking writers to consider things like park factors (outside of Coors), is like asking them to consider new-age statistics like VORP or WARP or Win Shares. At least they have recently embraced OPS (well some of them have). Next step: try to take on OPS+.
The writers are just slow. Look no further than Philadelphia. They open an offensive ballpark in 2004, and then win 2 of the next 4 National League MVPs. It’s going to take the writers a few years to realize that the ballpark skews offensive numbers, just like it took them a few years to understand that it does the same at Coors (Hi Larry Walker winning the MVP over the greatest offensive season by a catcher in history).
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