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Marty Noble at MLB.com says Jorge Sosa could open the season as the teams’ fifth starter.
Noble writes:
“Jorge Sosa temporarily became an effective solution for a rotation problem the Mets developed in May.
For five weeks, the castaway right-hander provided consistent performances, not to mention six victories in seven starts. Now, with the Mets less than a week from the beginning of their regular season, a similar problem exists. And the club is looking in the same direction for a solution.”
…with el duque and pelfrey pitching their way out of the fifth spot it shouldn’t be a big surprise that sosa is in the mix…that being said, unless someone comes out of nowhere and really runs away with it, i expect willie to play musical chairs with last rotation spot depending on who’s healthy and actually pitching decent...
However, Jon Heyman at SI.com says Mike Pelfrey is likely to be named the fifth starter.
Heyman writes:
“Mets decisionmakers appear set to overlook top pitching prospect Mike Pelfrey’s poor spring and name him the No. 5 starter in coming days, sources said.”
…heyman is great, but he provides information from more anonymous and mysterious sources than anyone, and it kills me…
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please tell me why Steve Sommers of WFAN reported that Endy Chavez and Steve Register were waived. I can understand Register but Endy???
What the hell is this????
Anyway if Sosa starts, Figueroa will be the long man…
It was Register & Gotay that were waived.
What? Why would they waive Gotay?? I don’t believe that’s true….
if gotay passes through waivers then the mets can send him to the minors (out of options) if not they can pull him back.
heyman wrote that team sources said pelfrey would likely be the 5th starter
sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/baseball/mlb/specials/spring_training/2008/03/25/mets.pelfrey/index.html
If Elduque is injured I think that Pelfrey most likely will be it. Ready or not, he was the opening day starter last year and is still next in line this season. I too would go with Sosa, Figgy, or sign Vargas but I expect to see Pelfrey for a little while sink or swim.
yea Steve Somers defiantely said Endy but I guess he meant Gotay
Hopefully, this will lead to El Duque being reassigned to an old folks home and Pelfrey being sent to N.O.
team’s*
So who is our long relief ? Matt Wise? Please oh Please don’t say Stokes.
Kyle Lohse or Livan Hernadez would have been nice in the 5 spot
Agreed…
ya know. a long reliever is needed when your starting pitching falters. It’s not expected that will happen with our #1-#4. So to say make Sosa the long reliever and put a lesser pitcher in the #5 slot seems like a poor use of talent.
If Sosa isn’t the #5 caliber, then it’s touch to argue he would be a solid long reliever.
If Willie uses Sosa like he did last season I would not expect him to be just in the long relief role. Maybe he gets some long work as well as 7-8 inning work too. No use to have the Sele type long man this season.
Yeah, Sosa was very versatile last year. I remember in one inning situations as well as long outings. My thought is that if he is your best pitcher after the fantastic four, then give him steady work at the 5 spot. If he blows the chance, try the other options, starting with Figgy, then Armas, and so on.
Its sad that time after time Pelfrey has a shot to cement himself as the #5 starter and work towards holding one of the openings we will have next year and he blows his chances each time.
Jeez, can we give the guy a real chance. He’s 24 years old, had a mere 17 ML starts and less than 100 innings total. Maybe you can let him get to a full season’s body of work before you decide he is not a ML pitcher.
Put him in AAA and let him figure it out. We have other options on the team.
I did not see anything wrong with the comment. Fact is every time that Pelfrey has a chance to become what we hope he will be he falls flat on his face. It does not mean that he wont eventually stand up but that is what has happen so far.
Maybe I’m reading into the commment too much, but it sounded to me like we’re giving up on the guy b/c he’s 5-9 is his first 17 starts.
I know we all want him to be an ace, but I’m trying to point out his still a youth.
We all want him to do well but it’s clear he is still not ready. Right or wrong the Mets want him to be ready right now and prove that he is and each time he has proven he is not.
I agree there has been more failure than success, but you can see some good flashes in some of the starts. He’s like bland chili…needs more seasoning.
i’m not really sure why sosa hasn’t earned more consideration before this… the guy pitched brilliantly for a stretch last year. yeah, he’s got a limited repertoire, and less than electric stuff, so he wasn’t very effective in his second start against teams. but in doses, he can be pretty effective, and he could be a solid stop-gap until el duque returns or they can claim/trade for a better solution. so i’m totally in favor of sosa starting the year in the rotation… in fact i can’t even imagine why they’d go with figueroa over sosa.
I was wondering this all along. We seem to have an abundance of capable relievers once Sanchez joins team, and with Pelfrey and Duque having shown us nothing this Spring, Sosa would be the perfect #5.
You have to remember, he pitched extremely well last year in the starting spot right before he pulled his hamstring. After that he started to sink a bit, but if he’s healthy there’s nobody I want more in that spot right now.
Also, I hope he grows his ‘fro out again. Just had to get that out there.
Depends on how much they value his ability in the bullpen. Especially with Sanchez still recovering. I still see no reason not to go get Vargas. If he will not take a minor league deal then stick him as the long man when and if Elduque is healthy. You know he will be needed and seems like the perfect Peterson project.
Also, I am guessing that if Gotay were waived it is strictly to judge interest. Maybe a team that claims him has a RH hitter that we need and we can work out a trade. Maybe because of his injury and lack of defensive ability nobody claims him and he can go back to AAA. Not a big deal, If he is claimed and we don’t like the trade options then we can just pull him back. Only problem is I think the second time through we can’t pull him back.
I like the Sosa idea, and have suggested this option for a while. Couple of reasons, but the primary ones are that he is on the roster, so no need to trade a body (or lose someone on waivers), and it lets Duque and/or Pelfrey time to get ready (DL or AAA).
Like last year, he can stay in the rotation as long as needed, and move back to the pen when he isn’t any longer needed in the rotation.
Plus, they seem to have enough bodies to cover for him in the pen. Figeruoa, Register (if not lost), etc.
And hopefully this year, they will have more deep starts out of the rotation, making Sosa somewhat superfulous as a long man.
heck, Sele was the long man last year, and he almost never pitched. This year, there just shouldn’t be that many games that the starter (unless it is Duque or Pelf) should be out by the 3rd inning, requiring a true long man.
Ok I have heard that this season we won’t need the long man as much. I hope that is right but I can’t expect Pedro to be any more than what Glavine was last season in terms of innings per start? Maine and Perez hopefully will be but if they are not that only leaves Johan giving us more.
well, if we can get 200 innings and 34 starts out of Pedro, I think we will be staying up late in October. The long man would be needed when OP walks the bases loaded in the second inning, and can’t figure out where CB Buckner’s stike zone is that nite, which I hope isn’t too often.
That’s what I was saying in another way I guess. Maine as good as he is still has to prove that he can be a 7 inning pitcher instead of a 5 2/3 with 100 pitches. Perez can melt down or pitch 8 innings and Pedro who knows. That does not even count the 5th man. I would expect our bullpen to get close to the same amount of action as last year but we have to find a way that it is not burnt out at the same time that the starters hit their wall.
Sosa deserves the five spot…his performance last year long and short trumps any potential and hope assigned to pelfrey
let pelfrey develop further in the pen or AAA..Will this hurt the team or his ego as much as running him up there every fifth day only to inflate his ERA??
Sele was never truly a long man last year anyway, only twice in ‘07 did he pitch more than 2.2 innings. He was an excuse to fall back on for a diminished rotation and bullpen.
El Duque gets his rest early in the season in the bullpen, has some spot starts in the dog days, and is healthy (fingers crossed/candles lit) for the post season.
Do the intentionally diminished innnigs make him less of a threat to break down…Conventional wisdom says yes, however, evidence to the contrary is appreciated.
Sosa is a a quintessential 5 guy, and could make himself into a more valuable chip come the 31st of July, who knows whats available then
Pelfrey sucks and we should just get over it now and move on. If it’s Sosa for now, then fine. I wish it was Heilman, but the Mets brass seems to have their collective heads up their asses on this one.
Oh yeah, and Delcrapo. Him too., Pelfrey and Delcrapo are going to be our demise this year.
Let’s go mets. ugh.
loser.
you goota be a Jets fan too, right?
we have that rosey outlook on life!
http://www.tangotiger.net/clutch/
Where’s the “thrilledge for prez” guy? I was hoping he would chime in with some stats about how Lastings threw an inning of relief in HS once and struck out a batter… :)
Could someone explain to me why Heilman isn’t in contention for the 5th spot? He has the endurance and the stats support him as a good option. I talked to one guy who says he only has two pitches though. Just wondering if someone could explain the logic for me.
Oh, and all things being equal I think Sosa is would make a decent choice. At least in the beginning to see how he does.
Actually, he has three, but he doesn’t throw his slider enough. If he did, he could probably contend for the #5. As it stands now, they need Heilman right where he is. Yeah, we have Sanchez coming back, but how effective will he be? And, Matt Wise is here, but how effective will he be? Same thing with Stokes and Register, which may be why the Mets placed Register on waivers.
Heilman is consistent. That’s why he isn’t going anywhere.
He didn’t have success previously as a starter, he has only two good pitches–the fastball and change. But it’s not as if Pelfrey or Sosa have three pitches either.
I don’t think he’s any worse than any of the other Mets options at the #5–but since he’s such a good setup guy, the Mets would be reluctant to lose that and experiment with him as a starter.
Maybe i’m a masochist, but i’m still willing to give Pelfrey a shot here at least for 2-3 starts in April. If he falls on his face then we give the spot to Sosa and go on from there.
I’m still a Pelfrey supporter for some of the reasons stated here which is he’s still soooo young. You want to believe he can take his lumps and come out the other side better for the experience.
What I’m starting to fear is his mental make-up. Is he one of those guys who can’t settle down and find himself b/c it’s NY?We’ve been through this with other guys either as prospects of FA signings. His stuff is good enough to be a productive ML. Why can’t he go through the same learning curve as Maine. Young guy with a plus FB who has control issues at times but starts to settle down and then begins to incorporate the off-speed stuff? Am I just fooling myself? I hope not.
Agreed its all a mindset. Everytime I watch him its like he’s choking on that stupid mouthpiece not to mention the mound. After watching the kid Niese pitch yesterday, I have more confidence in him then Pelf.
Agreed with everything u said.