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Nelson Figueroa will start for the Mets tonight, making his first major-league start since 2004.
Figueroa was born in Brooklyn and drafted by the Mets in 1995. He was then traded to the D’Backs in 2000, after which he pitched for the Pirates and Brewers.
Ted Berg:
When you’re making all those stops – Taiwan, Mexico, the Caribbean Series – what keeps you going? What makes you make that next stop?
Opening Day in Shea Stadium. I got drafted by the Mets in 1995, so my dream was always to be a Met. My first uniform when I got to extended Spring Training, I had Howard Johnson’s pants and Dwight Gooden’s jersey. So for a kid that grew up in New York, it was just — right there was everything I wanted. I could have gone home and been happy just for to put on that uniform. Now, I get to see HoJo every day, I get to see Darryl Strawberry, I get to see all these guys I grew up absolutely idolizing. Willie, same thing – he played for the Mets for a little bit. This is the dream that we all dream of. I came back from my surgery and I busted my butt to get back and prove I was healthy. I went all over the world to prove one thing: that I could pitch at a very high level.
…Howard Megdal of the New York Observer, whose article is linked below, then pointed out that figueroa and A.J. Burnett are the only players from the team’s 1995 draft who are in the major-leagues…
That’s crazy, just me and him, huh?
That just goes to show you – I was a 30th round pick and I know he was a lot higher.
Ted Berg:
Who was the first-rounder that year? Ryan Jaroncyk?
Oh, Jaroncyk – the shortstop.
Ted Berg:
He ended up out of baseball in a few years.
Again, and see how much of a lottery it is, it’s just a crapshoot. You think this guy’s a first-rounder, you think you know his background, then all of a sudden he doesn’t want to play baseball – two years after they gave the guy a million dollars. I got my 2500 bucks and, for me, I was going to be a Met and have my foot in the door to just play.
When you look at it, my name is on the clubhouse walls with Darryl Strawberry and Dwight Gooden for the Minor League stops I’ve made and the numbers I’ve put up there. That alone – I can go in that clubhouse at the minor league stop in PSL, and my names with Jefferies, then I look down that list and, hey, there’s Nelson Figueroa…That’s one of the neatest things…hopefully one day, hopefully this season, we get to the World Series and win a World Series and then I get my name with those guys again. That’s the icing on the cake.”
…added to by Matthew Cerrone…
…first of all, outstanding interview by Ted Berg…second, wow, figueroa is as big of a Mets fan as any one…seriously…i mean, he mentioned Gregg Jefferies for pete’s sake…i’m stunned, and want this guy to do well, not only for the team, but because i feel like he’s one of us at this point…amazing…
For more on Figueroa, check out Berg’s full column for SNY.tv, in which they continue their discussion and talk about 2008, going from ‘not wanted’ to ‘adored,’ how he ended up at Brandeis, and Nelson’s nickname, ‘Figoolow.’
Also, in the New York Observer, Megdal writes a profile on Figueroa, as does the Journal News and the Daily News.
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I have a feeling that we will be impressed with Figgy today…
I do too, wholeheartedly. I may be rooting for this guy more than I’ve ever rooted for a single athlete!!
I can’t help but love any guy who mentions Gregg Jefferies…
Man, he just might pass Johnny Maine as my new favorite Met..
I wonder if he pulls a Chipper Jones and comments on Metsblog about how bad Willie is handling the bullpen…
Jefferies is a minor league legend in the Mets system. Heck, in the whole game. Two time Baseball America ML POY, right? And pretty good MLB career in the whole scheme of things. Hung it up at age 32 with 1600 hits. Not shabby. Unfortunately, he was a born DH like Baines, Edgar Martinez and Molitor without a team/situation that could’ve used him that way for his career.
I used to swing a bat in the pool, because I read in an SI article that Jefferies did it…
How many Mets fans didn’t do that after reading that article?
Figoolow, eh? I prefer Figgylicious.
This guy just has the neatest story. I am rooting for him so much. Don’t forget that he doesn’t have to be great — just decent enough to be the 5th/spot starter. Low expectations. Just the fact that tonight’s first pitch is the biggest moment in this guy’s baseball life is so cool.
Nelson FigueWHO????
Your multiple question marks, my fine Vulcan friend, reveal a most decidedly non-logical bent to your phrase…almost…human…
I kinda feel like a lot of major league players have a sense of entitlement that they are “supposed” to be playing in the majors and don’t really grasp the insanity that they have “made it”. I feel like Nelson will have that “holy s*&T, I’m pitching at shea stadium” feeling tonight — that we have all dreamed about as a far fetched nightscape when we were kids but knew it would never actually happen. Hopefully, that would screw with his pitch control.
can’t help but to root for this guy
“My dad’s a Mets fan, and my dad boos me,” he joked. “He gave me a whole scouting report already. He’s a typical Mets fan — he knows what’s best for the team.”
Come on out FiggyDad . . . who are you?
I can’t help but smile when I read this! Best of Luck Figs! Strike’em out!
Make sure you read the Sun article. It’s better.
FIGERO FIGERO FIIIIIGEEEEEEROOOOOOOOOO
it’s close enough.
In two of his recent outings he went 10 IP and the one where he was scouted by the mets: 9.1.
“When I went to Mexico, I told them I wasn’t going to ever come out of the game. They thought I was joking, but I was dead serious. I said to them, ‘All the teams in the States want to see me healthy, they want to see that I’ve recovered from my surgery. The only way I’m going to do that is by pitching.’ They said, ‘Do you get bonuses?’ I said, ‘Yeah, to get back to the big leagues again.’”
Three teams and two continents later, Figueroa again started a game and pitched past the end of regulation. This time, though, Omar Minaya was watching, thanks to a tip from scout Ramon Pena. With a one-run, 9 1/3-inning outing, Figueroa showed the Mets GM he had the method and the muster to make it in the Majors.
“I think I threw something around 280 innings in 2007,” Figueroa said. “Had I thought I threw enough innings after 250, I probably never would have been spotted by Pena.”
Also: “Figueroa was true to his word, pitching 10 complete games in 18 starts for Chihuahua.”
That’s from the SNY.tv column, if you’re scoring from home.
Yep, sorry. Good work Ted.
You know, I was thinking earlier – this is probably why the Mets didn’t give him long outings in ST – guy needed to rest his arm a little.
A complete game tonight would go down very well after the last two games though :P Our bullpen could do with some rest.
We obviously he can be an innings eater. I could not imagine him having a higher ERA than Eaton had last season.
I promise this is my last FiggyQuote:
“I’m ready to go well past 100 pitches,” Figueroa said. “I’d like to give the bullpen a rest. They’ve been worked hard this season. I’d like to give them eight and turn it over to Billy [Wagner] for the ninth.”
if he goes out there and pitches brilliantly its going to be huge for this team. Best of Luck for Figgy!!!!
LETS GO METS!!!!!!!!!!
Prediction 6 2/3 innings 3 runs, 7 hits, 3 walks and a HBP.
That’s about all we can expect right??
I’d take that…our longest start by a guy not named johan.
I really hope he has a good outing tonight, he’s worked hard and definitely deserves it. Lets Go Figgy! annnnd LETS GO METS
can’t help but root for this guy…and lucky for him he’s starting against a lefty-murdering lineup instead of a righty-murdering lineup. Here’s to a perfect game!
Ok..I am in..I am pulling for the guy…I loved the story but every year a guy comes around who bounced around and then gets bounced out again…but this guy is one of us…I accept that..Go Nelson…Give us a big 6 innings tonight
Prediction
6 innings, 5 runs, 3 earned, 8 hits. Not an easy outing, but he shows some toughness.
Mets win 9-6, as Angel Pagan hits for the cycle (just kidding… on the Pagan bit.)
8 innings, then hand the ball over to Wags.
Optimism people!
Awesome Work Ted.
Go Figoolow!!!
Brewers have been struggling big time with the bats, so hopefully that helps him. But i’m excited to see him pitch tonight, always like hearing stories like this guy, and him being a MEts fan only adds to it, thats pretty cool. But the real reason i’m excited, is tonight is my first game of the season at Shea! Can’t wait, hopefully it doesn’t rain…
Ditto. My brother got the tix but I know I’m in field level near section B. We need to have that Darkstar-Constnza meet-up.
oh right on, yeah, i’m field level somewhere as well i think, no idea where though, a friend of mine bought some tickets from a season ticket holder who was selling them and I wasn’t completely filled in on the details. Definitely won’t be my last game of the year though since i’m now living down near nyc, so we’ll have to meet up at some point. Just pray for no rain tonight.
What further impresses me about this guy is that he has a degree from Brandeis University, which is definitely not a jock school.
Well it’s nice to see he can pitch more than 9 innings, if need be. The way our offense is hitting, he’ll need to pitch about 11 if he wants a win.
I went to Brandeis, though Figueroa is about 6 years older than me. It’s pretty awesome that we have someone in the professional leagues in any sport! Our baseball team actually was pretty good, making it to the D-III world series a couple of times back then.
So, both Angel Pagan and Figgy were drafted by the Mets and now return to play an important sub role? It worked for Angel, can it work for Nelson?
Omar now realizes these ex-Mets farmhand prospects are like hidden jewels waiting to return and help their old team. He’ll scoop up Dotel once the White Sox release him mid-season, and he’s got scouts around the globe searching to see if Lesli(e) Brea and Dicky Gonzalez are still active in any international beer leagues.
I went to college with Figueroa in the mid to late ’90s. He started a year ahead of me, but was drafted while he was still in school. Since I wrote for the sports section of the campus paper, I interviewed him a few times for the summer issue about what it was like to be drafted, play in the minors, etc. He was a really nice guy then, and it seems like he’s that same nice guy now. And, he’s the only D-III Brandeis graduate to ever play in the Major Leagues (although a few others have played minor league ball). Which I think is very cool! Go Judges!
I have to dig up the article I wrote, but I remember him being so excited that he was drafted by the Mets org cause he really was a huge Metropolitan fan.
Based on his Spring performance, I think he’ll do fine.
I too am a proud graduate of Brandeis, who will be rooting for Figgy tonight. While I am 15+ years older than you mid 90’s guys (graduation year, not fastball), I can attest that it wasn’t a jock school when I was there either, although there was a run in the 70’s and 80’s where the baseball team was darn good, and usually the best in New England. Plenty of guys were drafted, but didn’t make it to the show. Finnegan, Burrell, Carpenter, and DiCarlo are just a few names from the late ’70’s early ’80’s of guys that I knew who played minor league ball, and I am sure that there were plenty more. I played 4 years of tennis at Brandeis, which was your typical small college varsity team back then, but baseball was a different story. Coach O’Connell, who went on to coach at Princeton, was the real deal, as were his teams. LETS GO METS!!!!
Even without all these sappy stories on him, I just like Nelson Figueroa. I think he can succeed. He has realy good control with some nice movement on his pitches. And that’s all you can ask for really.
If he doesn’t work out as a starter, I can certainly see him as a long reliever or just a reliever in general, Figgy has a rubber arm.
The mention of the 1995 draft made me look at it, and I gotta say, that was a good draft!
Todd Helton, Darin Erstad, Kerry Wood, Geoff Jenkins, Roy Halladay, Michael Barrett, and Matt Morris, Marlon Anderson, Jarrod Washburn, and Carlos Beltran. Which is interesting to see because the Mets had the pick directly ahead of the Royals, and the Mets passed on Beltran and took a kid named Brett Herbison.
It’s cool and interesting to look back and see what’s happened since then.
I hope Nelson Figueroa throws a perfect game.
i would cry like a little baby.
Ted Berg:
When you’re making all those stops – Taiwan, Mexico, the Caribbean Series – what keeps you going? What makes you make that next stop?
Nelson Figueroa:
Opening Day in Shea Stadium.
I LOVE THIS GUY
Oh man, once he got the invite to spring training i’ve been rootin for him. Every duque post, every pelf post, i’ve gone through 3 keyboards cause the F, I and G’s are all crushed to dust… can not wait… Figgy Figuelicious…. let’s make this happen
Seems like a great guy……wishing him the best for tonight. hopefully his career will finally begin to move forward. Go Nelson! Great article/interview with Figueroa in today’s Star Ledger also.
C’mon Figgy, hopefully we get these games in this weekend.
Definitely a great story :)
Here’s hoping for a happy ending… I’ll be happy if he goes 6 and Muniz, Feliciano and Wagner handle the relief between them. Sosa, Show, Smith & Heilman could all do with a rest today.
Go get’em FIGGY! How could you not root for this guy?
Please go deep into the game, and here’s to the bats getting cranked. The relievers sure could use a nice quiet boring night just spitting seeds in the bullpen.
great story. pulling hard for figgy.
amazing the number of current players who loved those 1986 mets teams. reminds me that this was once a mets town. just read that johnny damon wears #18 because of strawberry (ny times bats blog)
I love this guy. I saw him interacting with a bunch of fans at the end of one of the spring training games, and he was having a great time. I wish I had associated the name with the face (he had his jacket on) and told him how much I’m pulling for him.
Someone who knows Nelson must read this blog…tell him we want to see a movie about him someday,
This guy wants it so much, and has worked so hard – plus he’s a Mets fan like us crazies – that you have to root for him no matter what. Go Nelson!
What a great story…
It’s a nice change of pace for everyone to be so upbeat given the course of events over the past week…
Let’s hope mother nature is on our side tonight!
I am going to dust off my Jeffries jersey for the night…can’t wear it though since I have put on a few pounds since his playing days…