Opinion: The Bullpen and Bench
On Saturday, Duaner Sanchez threw a bullpen session, then pitched an inning during a minor-league game on Sunday.
Over the weekend, Omar Minaya told reporters 
that the team is not willing to push Sanchez, instead, like with all players, they will be ‘conservative.’
…fair enough…as expected, it’s looking more and more likely that sanchez will stay back in St. Lucie in extended spring-training when the team breaks camp for Opening Day…
…as i have been saying for weeks, this is probably the best course of action, a) because it allows duaner more time to get healthy, but b) lets the team keep Steven Register, who they can continue to evaluate through much of April, while duaner keeps working his way back…
As such, the Mets opening day bullpen is shaping up to be: Register, Pedro Feliciano, Aaron Heilman, Scott Schoeneweis, Jorge Sosa, Matt Wise and Billy Wagner.
…for what it’s worth, there is reason to believe that the team will break camp with it’s full five-man rotation, despite not needing a fifth starter during the first week or so of camp…therefore, i’m anticipating seven relievers, five starters, eight position players and five men on the bench made up of Ramon Castro, Damion Easley, Marlon Anderson, Endy Chavez and Angel Pagan, with Ruben Gotay hopefully still back in St. Lucie…
For more on Register, read Adam Rubin’s outstanding post at his blog for the Daily News, where he tells you everything you need to know about Rule-V reliever.
…Update…9:45 am…
…right, with pagan slated to start in the field, making him part of the positional eight, in place of Moises Alou, that leaves one spot open on the bench, which i have to think will be either gotay or Brady Clark…
