Ted Berg

Opinion: On Figgy and Pending Decisions
By Ted Berg - May 6, 2008 1:33 pm

Joe Janish’s earlier point on MetsBlog about Nelson Figueroa is hard to deny.

Figgy has been the team’s third-best starter this year, even if he’s only started four games.

But today in the Daily News, Adam Ruben cites a team insider who suggested the Mets could move Figueroa to Triple-A and move Jorge Sosa into the rotation to make room for Matt Wise.

I don’t think that will happen, which is good, because it’d be absurd. I think even sending Joe Smith to New Orleans to make room for Wise would be silly.

I wrote more about this and other concerns facing the Mets in an SNY.tv column today, but essentially I think if the Mets so desperately want Wise back in the bullpen, Sosa should be the guy to go.

I know the arguments for Sosa - he’s leading the team in wins, he’s got a $2 million contract with no options and he’s the closest thing the Mets have to a long reliever - but he’s yet to pitch effectively.

If this team is really committed to winning in 2008, it should put together the best staff it can with the pieces it has - and it’s hard to argue that they should keep Sosa over Smith or Figueroa.

91 Responses to “Opinion: On Figgy and Pending Decisions”

  1. mphtrilogy says:

    I cannot understand the infatuation with Sosa.

    He is just not that great..

    • dwright012 says:

      and neither is joe smith.. the only hope with smith is that he gets better.. as of right now hes more or less chad bradford… he gets more billing cause he was a high draft choice and had a short minor league career, but he’s still a limited reliever

      • Xavier22 says:

        I would say he’s less Chad Bradford rather than more. When Bradford came in to relieve, I felt pretty comfortable that he would get the job done. Seeing Joe Smith coming into the game doesn’t fill me with that same sense of confidence - at least not yet.

        • kandiman says:

          It fills me with alot more confidence then when I see that Big Goofy Aaron Heilman with the high riser hat that looks like its never been worn before running in from the bullpen.

          when that happens its pretty much a given they will score at least 1 run, the challenge is holding them to 1

  2. Danny says:

    Sosa leading the team in wins highlights why that stat is mostly irrelevant for relievers.

  3. TheIcon says:

    I tell you the problem with Sosa — he’s a converted catcher who still doesn’t know how to pitch. It seems like those kind of guys never work out in the long run. To me, you’re more successful if you’ve been pitching your entire baseball career.

  4. dykstraw says:

    wise should be held on the DL until we have room for him.

    if aaron struggles one more time, demote him. and stretch him out to be a starter.

  5. stickguy says:

    Sosa had a nice start, then came down to earth, and has been there ever since. And I doubt he’s getting up. Putting him in the rotation and sending Figgy down is idiotic.

    Right now, it might be best to send SMith down if they insist on keeping Sosa. It will probably be only temporary until a trade or injury comes along.

    Now, the trade option is intriquing. Maybe the Sosa to the rotation idea was something to pump his value? One can only hope.

    So, IMO, either Smith goes down or someone (Sosa logically) gets traded to get Wise back up.

  6. jws366 says:

    Granted, but I feel like the innings that Sosa can give us totally outweigh any value that we can get from replacing him with Wise. Our big issue is that our bullpen is being overworked, so why would we get rid of someone that can go 2-3 innings on a given night? Matt Wise just doesn’t fit on our team. I don’t the know the specifics of his contract, but we should just leave him in the minors…or if we can’t do that then we should trade him or just release him. He’s not worth throwing away innings for, especially when we are going to be depending on Ollie, Pedro, Figgs, Pelf this year. When either one of them goes 6 innings, we consider it a godsend. Throwing away Sosa’s innings is just plain stupid to me.

    • jws366 says:

      Also, demoting Smith is even dumber than getting rid of Sosa. Think of the few relief pitchers we have the can handle the heat of NY Mets fan…

      Smith is one of the few guys that I feel confident in even if he had a bad showing the night before. I know he can bounce back quickly unlike some other guys *cough* Heilman *cough*

    • mrose says:

      Good point for the most part, except we don’t even know what Wise can do, hes pitched twice and unfortunately one happens to be a walk off homer loss…
      give the guy a chance

      • jws366 says:

        The reason why I’d prefer not to give Wise a chance is…

        1. The only guy you can make an arguement for to be dropped in favor of Wise is Sosa…

        2. Sosa has pitched over 100 innings for the last two years as a relief pitcher and a spot starter. Innings, Innings, Innings. With such an injury prone rotation and an inconsistent one at that, it would not make sense to get rid of a guy who can eat up those innings.

        3. Im not saying that Sosa is necessarily better than Wise, but he is far more valuable to our team.

        4. Wise’s ERA has slowly increased the last 3 years in a row from 3.36 in 2005 to 3.86 in 2006 to 4.19 in 2007 to god knows what this year. (Also don’t discount that he might have been a roidin partner with Derrick Turnbow…)

        • kandiman says:

          I would say highly unlikely, I think the only way you could look like Wise after taking steroids would be to stop eating ANYTHING and never work out.

  7. Wow i would punch myself in the face if we had to deal with Sosa as our 5th starter again. That ship has thankfully sailed. DFA Sosa, bring up Wise. When Pedro is healthy Nelson can go to the bullpen, then you can send down Smith. Sending down Smith just to keep Sosa, who is not a good pitcher, is silly

    • Dirtysanchez says:

      The problem being whos stuck with the long man duties when sosa is DFA?

      • backinbusiness says:

        Well, I guess not Vargas: (Rubin:)

        VARGAS SHELLED: Claudio Vargas, signed to a minor-league deal after the Brewers cut him a check for $900,000 at the end of spring training to avoid being obligated for a $3.6 million contract, allowed six runs on nine hits while striking out four and walking one in four innings at Portland on Saturday in his first start for Triple-A New Orleans. He allowed four first-inning runs. Vargas’ opponent was none other than ex-Met Shawn Estes, who limited the Zephyrs to an unearned run in seven innings.