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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…
Isn’t Pagan part of the starting 8? That would leave a spot open for Gotay, Clark or Tatis
Wow, that bench leave much to be desired.
it’s a bench. benches are made up of bench players, who are bench players because they aren’t good enough to be everyday players. what do you expect, 5 all-stars on the bench? come on.
JORGE SOSA FOR 5TH STARTER.
The bench is fine IMO. Castros in the top tier in back up catchers, as is Endy in super backup OF’ers. Anderson and Easely are both clutch as hell, and although not known for it have some power.
Cerrone why’s Pagan on the bench? You see Clark starting in left?
To those above…yes with Alou out on the 15 day dl for now…this team breaks camp with one more guy than mentioned above.
Probably Gotay.
We have a numbers issue this year in both the pen and the bench it appears.
Register and Sanchez make the pen 8 deep not 7 and
Pagan and Gotay make the bench 6 deep not 5.
Pagan has options but Gotay does not. I do not know about Clarks status and I am pretty sure Tatis is a minor league contract so he can stay down if needed.
Glad I do not have to sort this all out.
i think Tatis has a chance to make the team at the expense of Gotay. He’s a much need righty bat.
i’m confused as to why there is reason to believe the team breaks camp with a 5th starter….
They do not “NEED” one until the 12th I believe it is…Pelfrey had a horrible last outting, Duque obviously needs work. I’d rather keep an extra bench spot of bullpen spot for the time being..
The reason why they want to take a 5th starter is because they would rather have Pedro get an extra day of rest as much as possible. Having a #5 starter break camp means that Pedro would get 5 days of rest between starts for much of April.
i dunno… i did just hear on ESPN RAdio that the mets announced the first 4 starters…santana, pedro, perez and maine as expected…
this late in spring training and with how Duque and Pelfrey, neither is completely showing the 5th starter role…I would put money on that 4 man rotation being it until April 12th….
I think they initially wanted to take a 5th starter, but will probably take 4 due to how terrible Duque and Pelfrey are doing.
I think it would be a mistake to take advantage of the schedule and use only 4 starters. Considering how the team performed at the end of last year–particularly the obvious exhaustion exhibited by Maine and Perez–it would be best not to push our starting rotation too hard, too early.
I’m more willing to take shitty start here and there, than have an overall malaise come August or September.
That being said, I’m no proponent of Willie’s mantra of resting position players on schedule instead of going for the kill in a series.
Few things
totally fine with Register in for Sanchez to start, Don’t rush Duaner. Real imoportant for later in the year once 100%
Also for the bench I would think it’s Pagain in for Alou and then Castro, Chavez, Easley, Anderson , Gotay
Not real sure why they need to go with 5 starters. Let Duque stay back for 2 weeks then he is the 5th starter………..Pelfrey to AAA for seasoning and we all know he will be back up
Saw Reed Johnson may be available and it won’t surprise me to see them pick him up and release Gotay in the process…………..Johnson is the perfect platoon bat and Defensive replacement in the OF………………..although they may let him go with Pagan having such a good spring
I think SD will scoop up Johnson though cause has anyone realized how horriffic they are in the OF…………Edmonds, Giles , and guys like Harriston, eek
The only good thing about letting one of these shleps start the season as 5th starter is that I think Pedro is now on line to make the opening day start at Shea….somone verify?
It is clear to me that Duque and Pelfrey are clearly not (at least rigt now) good enough to be in the rotation. The Mets should let Sosa have a shot. He was very productive for them as a starter last year. Not sure why he isnt getting more of a look. Why not let him start and have register or Figuerroa be the mop up guy instead of Sosa? Makes sense to me…..
I’m not sure what it would take to get Sosa into starting rhythm. He has pitched in relief all spring and his arm is not stretched out to be a starter right now.
Yeah, I think that would be the biggest obstacle. The way Sosa’s been used this spring would lead you to believe the Mets had no intention of putting him in the rotation. And now there’s not a whole lot of time to stretch him out for that purpose.
thats the excuse they use all the time for not making heilman a starter. Its nonsense….if they told Sosa to start going 3, then 4 and then 5 innings he would need 3 starts and be ready by April 12, easily. The Mets still claim El Duque could be ready by his first start (in early April) and he has pitched 3 innings so far this spring (granted we all know in reality he wont be ready, but thats the puke the Mets are feeding us). If the Mets decided today that Sosa will be the 5th starter, he could be ready. He isnt being used as a key piece in the pen anyway. WAKE UP OMAR AND WILLIE….DUQUE IS DONE!!!!!! Dont wait until he is 0-4 before we make a change!
and, by the way, lets say the Mets insist on going with 5 starters from opening day…..ok…let sosa go 3 innings today, 4 innings on saturday and then he will be ready for 5 innings on the 5th game of the season….DO YOU REALLY THINK DUQUE OR PELFREY WILL GIVE YOU 5 INNINGS?????
This is a complete no brainer. Those 2 clowns got blown away yesterday and they werent exactly facing the 27 Yankees.
If they come out of the gate with a 5-man rotation, Pedro would start the home opener, however, doing this is also at the expense of Santana NOT starting at all against Philly in that first home series. If it were up to me it’d go as follows.
Santana, Pedro, Maine, Off, Perez, Santana, Pedro, Off, Maine, Perez, Santana, Pelfrey, Pedro,
That gives Pedro an extra day after his second start. From there, you work around Santana making sure he goes every 5th day.
Look at the pitching order in ST.
It seems obvious to me that the Mets intend to go:
Johan, Pedro, OP, Off, Maine, Santana, Pedro, Off, OP, Maine, Johan
In other words, what MWN said but swap OP and Maine. This makes the starters against the Phillies OP, Maine Johan – we get to run out two lefties against them, which we need to do.
The ST order just hasn’t ever been set up to break camp with 5 starters otherwise pitching Maine immediately before Santana doesn’t make sense, there’s no way he’s our #5 guy.
Are they cutting Saenz?
I thought he would become an important power PH.
Saenz was already reassigned to minor camp on Thursday.
Agreed that taking 5 starters to start makes no sense……..Just let Duque sit back and get healthier………it’s his spot people……he makes 6 million a yr and is a veteran……..Pelfrey is fine at AAA so he can get better and we will see him again
I like Sosa but he is good in the pen…………feel confident about the 7 down there and the depth too at AAA
As for the bench it’s Pagan in for Alou and then Gotay, Easley, Anderson, Chavez, Castro
Clark is a maybe but I would think that would be at the expense of the 5th starters spot to start
Reed Johnson is perfect for this team but I bet he is claimed by the Padres before us or another team
I like Gotay and think he makes alot of sense as the backup 2B for Castillo who gets to play a bit……………otherwise it looks like they are turning to Easley as that guy and bringing in a OF
I think this is a fine pen and a fine bench. 5th starter out of camp, I’ll believe when I see (considering the awfulness so far); but weren’t they also considering figuroa? Right now I’d take him over teh other two, at least if they insist on breaking camp with five.