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In a spot called First Person at 
, Billy Wagner and Aaron Heilman talk about the impact Johan Santana will have on their team’s bullpen.
Wagner, among other comments, says:
“He eats innings, and it allows you to be able to use your bullpen in the right way. Willie we’ll be able to stack his bullpen on the days Johan pitches because he has a good chance of pitching seven innings, and possibly a complete game, which could lead to your John Maine or Perez not feeling like they have to throw seven or eight innings…Our bullpen will get a rest…So, he’s a huge, huge asset.”
…last season, Willie Randolph received a ton of criticism for how he managed his team’s bullpen, which was fair on some days, and unfair on others considering that his starting rotation did need him no favors…which is exactly what wagner is talking about here…if willie’s bullpen is healthy, rested and pitching well, it will be interesting to see how he does with the staff, because, if i remember correctly, he didn’t get a lot of flack in 2006, when the bullpen was brilliant…
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I’d assume that Maine will be eating innings this year too.
the bullpen carried the team through the first half of the year. they were overworked b/c of injuries to starting pictures and long relievers who couldn’t stay in the game.
feliciano, wagner, smith, heilman, all pictured brilliantly and kept ERAs around 3. other links were weaker. but the whole team, pitching and batting, was out of sync.
i always thought the criticism of willie over the bullpen was overblown. People would be upset because he overworked some guys, and then they’d get upset when he’d put in Mota or Show, or whoever. Well, if you want to not overwork guys, you need to use more people, and if you want to avoid using guys like Mota and Show, then you’re going to overwork a few guys. Sure, there were some individual questionable decisions to point to no doubt, but over the long haul, what could he have really done differently?
What could he do differently?
How about not blowing out Joe Smith with 16 appearances in the first 26 games of the season (absurd)?
How about using Feliciano more since he’s one of the better pitchers in the pen and not as a lefty specialist?
How about not throwing Schoeneweis against right handers so much and use HIM as the lefty specialist?
This is just the stuff that sticks out … the guy has no clue. If anything, the criticism of his running of the bullpen isn’t enough.
feliciano pitched the most innings of his career.
no-show is terrible. over the last 3 years he’s had a 6+ era.
smith to one or two batters in 4 of those games. his pitch count was in the teens.
zen makes a good point about Smith, so that’s kind of moot, either way, Smith wasn’t going to last the whole season, ride the hot hang while you can, and either way, would you have preferred Show pitch in those situations? Sele? Who? As for Feliciano, again, zen makes the point, most innings of his career, and he also got tired towards the end of the year. Show sucked, gotta give you that, but when you’ve got him and Mota in the same pen, and Sele, somethings gotta give, you have to pitch them, which is contradictory to your point about Smith, which is we should have saved him, and again, how do you do that and not pitch a guy like Show in more situations?
Feliciano obviously tired last year and you wanted to use him more? The best thing we could have done last year was to cut Sele and bring in another arm that could be used day in and day out. There was no need for a long man last year Sosa and Show could have done as well as Sele.
And that, Phillthies fans and Braves fans, is why one person added to the Mets really does make a difference.
the season comes down to pedro. i have no doubt that santana, maine, and ollie will pitch 200+ effective innings. if pedro joins them for a full season the bullpen is likely strong enough. probably.
el duque is a concern too as pelfrey is the only other option.
if the front four make it through the season without too much time off, then El Delfry is fine as the #5. between them they could end up making 30 starts.
Last name only Matt?
I just heard somewhere the Mets signed Barry Bonds. Please tell me this person is lying.
i hope that person IS lying…the mets dont need an a-hole like bonds to add controversy to this team
where did you hear this exactly??
You’ve apparently been punk’d
Buster Onley on ESPN radio (I heard it on Mike and Mike on Monday; may have been a recording) was saying Bonds would be “a good fit for the Mets” and listed they how’s and why’s.
All I can say is I hope it was a slow news day and he was dreaming up April Fool’s gags….
and matt, please do something about these damn pop-ups…it’s annoying as hell..now it even happens going onto the homepage
Ok i just got it figured out, and i will never listen to that source again. Sry everyone that Human roid will not ruin this WS team.
I would agree there were situations that were questionable last year with willy and the bullpen. As someone said earlier ollie/maine/santana all have the ability to make 200 innings and hopefully martinez/hernandez can join that club as well. Willy will have his work cut out for him this year with the pitching staff. I think his main challenge is going to be the lineup and keeping everyone rested
I wish that Wags would just shut the F up and just do his job, which, in my mind, he hasn’t done up to our expectations.
No player can live up to that expectation.
Then why did we pay him $40 million. He was supposed to be lights out in big games for us, wasn’t he? Did he get Armando Benitez disease or something?
admittingly, he had two bad games for us in the postseason in ‘06, but he also had 4 good games for us that year in the postseason. The back to back bad appearances sucked, it ended up costing us. However, calling him Armando Benitez is ridiculous. Wagner otherwise has been great for us. Your expectation that he should be lights out in all the big games is a bit riduculous. It’s going to happen, I mean, Mariano Rivera cost his team a World Series and kept them from getting there other times.
I think you took my off-the-cuff “Benitez” slight a little bit out of context. I was being a little sarcastic to underscore the point. Of course Wagner is not Benitez. I’m not a complete moron. But for you to compare Wanger to Mariano is equally, if not more, ridiculous.
Do you have confidence in Wagner in a one-run game 5 or 7 in the playoffs? I still think he’s shaky and he worries me. And he hasn’t “done it” here in NY. Are when he talks trash to the Phillies and Pat Burrell and then they stick their bats up his butt, Wags looks like a shmuck.
He ought to stop talking to the press about how Willie should use the bullpen and let his pitching do his talking.
As far as I’m concerned, Wagner has proved nothing yet here in New York. And I bet most people here agree with me.
I’m sorry, I meant… No player will ever live up to any Mets fans’ expectations… Bahh, whatever… No reason explaining myself.
He has been doing his job and like every other closer he is not perfect. He gets asked a question and he answers it, he says what everyone else thinks but he gets flack for it.
No, Wagner isn’t Rivera in my opinion but there numbers over the past 2 seasons are very comparable:
Wagner #’s over past 2 years:
74 saves, Avg. ERA of 2.44, 140.2 innings pitched, 114 hits, 43 walks, 174 Ks
Rivera #s over past 2 years:
64 saves, Avg, ERA of 2.48, 146.1 innings pitched, 129 hits, 23 walks, 129 Ks
If you say Wagner didn’t earn his salary over the past 2 years then Rivera definitely didn’t either, and Rivera makes more.
Your way too critical. Wagner is doing fine…..
I’m not talking regular season stats. I’m talking big game situations. I don’t have the stats on my fingertips, but I’ll bet you dollars to donuts that the stat lines start looking much different.
bring back nady!!!!
I wsh we had a bullpen similar to the jesse orosco/roger mcdowell now. a lefty with 20 saves and a righty with 20 saves also.
This is the first time this offseason/preseason that I’ve actually had NO problem with what Billy has said !! Wow !
Two things one, lay off billy lets see how he does this season, if he’s blowing then lets criticize but let him have a chance. Also their not getting Nady so just give it up.
is that you, Omar?
I think that this season could be great based on my projections of the pitching.
I see Santana geting 220 innings. Maine getting 210 and Perez getting 200. Thats as many innings as the entire opening day staff got last year. As many have said, our bullpen was one of the best in the league last year but just got killed by 5 inning pitchers. Just think if our starters can average 1 more inning a game that’s 162 less innings for the bullpen.