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According to Adam Rubin at his blog for the Daily News, the Mets have decided to send down Joe Smith on Wednesday to make room for either Adam Bostick or Willie Collazo, who will start Wednesday – and only Wednesday – for the Mets.
…as rubin points out, the goal is to use a pitcher from the 40–man roster…whereas Claudio Vargas, like Jorge Sosa, would have to be passed through waivers if the team wants to return him to the minor leagues following the start…
Rubin also reports that Matt Wise will be activated from the disabled list on Thursday, “once the spot starter is returned to New Orleans.”
Ted Berg, of SNY.tv thinks the Mets should just demote Sosa, and risk losing him, writing: “The only rationale the Mets could have for keeping Sosa around is the fear he could flee to free agency or be claimed by another team if he is waived. But at this point, how many Major League teams are clamoring for a reliever with a 7.06 ERA?”
For more, check out Rubin’s report in the Daily News, where he quotes Billy Wagner on the decision to demote Smith.
…added to by Matthew Cerrone…
…this is absurd…Willie Randolph is having a hard enough time managing his bullpen, now he’s being forced to go at it without smith, who has been his best reliever not named wagner…all for sosa, who is due to earn $2 million on the year…unreal…
…i hope this is temporary, in that they recall smith as soon as Wednesday’s starter is no longer needed, which would mean putting a player like Luis Castillo on the disabled list to make room for smith or Matt Wise…
…it’s just so difficult to understand when a team is unwilling to field the best 25–man roster possible…
… added to by Joe Janish …
… if the Mets are so bent on keeping Sosa around, wouldn’t it make more sense to demote Nelson Figueroa? Figueroa would have to remain in AAA for ten days, but his turn won’t come up again until May 24th … then you demote the spot starter on Thursday and activate Wise in his place … plus Figueroa gets a start with New Orleans to stay sharp … unless the Mets are worried that Figueroa won’t pass through waivers on the way down …
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awful move…awful
Phenomenal name you’ve got there.
Demoting Figueroa is the way to go, no one is going to take him and he loves NY so will stay.
Unreal. Sosa has been awful. Give a younger guy like SMith a shot to stick. He has been very good and he has held his own. We need to get younger. Show faith in the younger guys.
Sosa is junk!!!
if i was willie and omar i would demote sosa and take the chance we can always bring up a starter if we have to and move figuerora to the long relieve position because as i have heard he has a rubber arm and can throw on back to back days. keep smith around. i also dont see the fasination with wise if i dont recall correctly, he blew two games earlier this season on home runs which lost us games, hes prob junk also. if pedro can be back in 2-3 weeks the above situation will work.
To answer why the Mets did this,…it really is very simple:
They are stupid.
The more we accept this fact from them as an organization, the more we can move forward from this.
fire omar
I hate to bring this up…but look at the last names. Omar has a soft spot for the Latins…theres no way around it.
Uhhhh no.
This is why Matt wanted to moderate the comments. People like you. Go root for another team, thanks.
Stay in the Upper Deck.
No, stay OUT of the upper deck… where I sit.
Stay in the parking lot.
so dont bring it up…saves you from looking so stupid
ha, nice try, nothing saves upperdeckdweller from looking stupid.
Think about this logically…Omar’s job is up for review at the end of the month. He is absolutely not going to play the race card, especially considering the stark difference in the performances of Smith and Sosa. He is clearly making the move to keep Sosa around, instead of losing him. Considering there is nobody else who can give the team 3-4 innings when Perez/Pelfrey fail to get out of the 6th inning. Of course, if you asked me, I’d rather demote Sosa, move Figgy to the swing man spot in the pen, and bring up one of the other guys to take Nelson’s spot in the rotation.
Can you change your name to “IgnorantUpperDeckDweller” ?
Can we toss you from off the Upper Deck? Please???
It’s a money issue, pure and simple. The Mets are on the hook to Sosa for 2 million, and don’t want to DFA him because they lose their 2 mill. Smith has options so he gets sent down, this way the Mets don’t risk losing Sosa. Not saying sending Smith down is right, because it isn’t, but to say it’s about race is just dumb.
Is “Bostick” a Latin name??
Sickening move by Minaya.
Disgusting. You only do this if you are SO afraid of losing Sosa that it is worth it to lose arguably the best reliever we have.
How Omar can make this move after last night in particular is just horrifyingly bad. It’s the “safe” move, but its the wrong move.
Completly agree bro and i think u nailed it. Its the safe move not necessarily the right one. Id say its worth the risk to demote sosa. Who the hell would pick up a guy with a 7 era. Only problem is it would leave us w/o a long man and thats all i could think of. Crappy move……
How is this the safe move?
Vargas or Bostick couldn’t come out of the pen and pour gasoline on the fire the way Sosa does?
It is only “safe” insofaras it keeps Sosa in the club.
Personally, I’m happy to see him go.
So the choice is, keep an effective sidearmer who can get huge outs when you need it, or keep a mop up man who can’t get anybody out and gives up grand slams at will. Tough decision.
I think people may be overreacting just a tad, but I agree with the confusion over what Sosa has done to be guaranteed a spot. Willie does not even use him as a long man, so I am not sure what his value is.
That said, I’d send down Figueroa anyway, and let this spot starter take his turn if need be.
How is this overreacting? Sosa is bad, Joe Smith is good. I hate to make it that easy, but in this case it really is black and white. That should make this decision easy to make, not easy to screw up. But they did screw up, in a major way.
I love what Omar has done with this team, but this is indefensible and unjustifiable.
Because it’s a long season and you can’t manage your roster like it’s a fantasy team. A healthy Wise should be able to take Smith’s innings without a problem, and for a team with pitching depth issue you don’t just cut Sosa loose after a few bad outings.
yeah, but Joe Smith is pitching great right now. Wise can fill in for those innings, but can he be as effective as Smith is?
Sosa’s had about a half season of sucking out of the bullpen, for what it’s worth.
One half-season of sucking.
One decent month out of the pen.
Lifetime trust from Willomar.
Why can’t wise take Sosa’s innings instead?
Dave27 is right. It’s probably the wrong move, but it’s not indefensible. The entire league is starving for bullpen help, and Sosa can actually start, too, for the especially desperate. If injuries pile up, you could be wishing you had Sosa, believe it or not. Bottom line, there’s a reasonable position that if it’s mid-May, and you can avoid risking losing people, you make the move that eliminates the risk.
Why can’t wise take Sosa’s innings instead?
Maybe because we haven’t seen Wise throw a single pitch this year.
Wise has made 2 appearances for the mets this year. Also he made the team out of spring training, Wise is a guy that should definitely be in there. Smith will be back in a couple weeks so let’s step back from the ledge
My point is, they have been trying to figure out how Wise gets on this team. It seems senseless to me to drop Smith (and btw, I’m no huge Joe Smith fan) and keep Sosa. If they are afraid someone will snag Sosa, all I can ask is why? He’s not ever been the kind of pitcher who is hard to replace. And he’s currently a liability out there.
Nonsensical and asinine. Pure stupidity on the part of Minaya and whoever else made this decision. If Sosa has such a rubber arm and is supposed to be our long man and spot starter, then why isn’t he pitching on Wednesday? Oh yeah, because he sucks eggs.
Get him out of here. Good performance should be rewarded, whereas the worst performance in the bullpen should be jettisoned out of town immediately. This makes two years in a row that Joe Smith has been punished for pitching well. I’d demand a trade if that were common baseball practice.
Willie’s fault. he should be backing his players. Where’s the confidence rating so I can vote “1″