Poll: Who Do You Trust in the Pen
By Matthew Cerrone - May 15, 2008 9:37 am

[Poll=93]

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Comment by giuseppe franco_procede
2008-05-15 09:38:31

Who was the clown that voted for Heilman?

Comment by cyclone
2008-05-15 09:47:07

3 clowns voted for heilman…maybe it’s Heilman, his wife and his sister lol

 
Comment by Prismo
2008-05-15 09:59:24

Now it’s 6 clowns, and climbing!

What in all of god’s glory could convince someone to vote for Heilman, besides being a joke vote.

They must all be joke votes…please all be joke votes…

Comment by giuseppe franco_procede
2008-05-15 10:03:49

If they are joke votes, it takes away the validity of this poll. BOOO!

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Comment by cyclone
2008-05-15 11:09:07

15, Aaron called up his whole family to vote on this one….lol

 
 
 
 
Comment by NY Cuban
2008-05-15 09:38:42

Why is Feliciano in Willie’s doghouse? It seems he only comes in as a last resort. His numbers vs RH were good last year and yet he was only used as a specialist.

Comment by giuseppe franco_procede
2008-05-15 09:44:49

Good point. Didn’t Feliciano miss a flight from Puerto Rico to attend to a family issue? This coincided with the Mets home opener.

Comment by NY Cuban
2008-05-15 09:52:59

He missed the flight because it was cancelled during that spell of cancelled flights for safety inspections. It wasn’t his fault. Willie can’t blame Feliciano for something like that.

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Comment by ravi3
2008-05-15 10:19:14

A few seasons ago (maybe ‘06) Feliciano did make a few ant-Willie comments, but I’d think thats water under the bridge at this point

Comment by metterman
2008-05-15 12:46:48

At this point i trust smith, feliciano, and shoe, the rest not so much…i think it’s great to see all the trust in smith, he started similar last year and then faded as the year went on, hopefully another year older and another year of experience will prevent that melt down from last year.
Honestly though I’ve never understood why willie doesn’t use feliciano more. over the last 3 years his era is 2.54, next to wags, he has been the most consistent of the bullpen over that span. I’d like to see him get Heilmans 8th inning spot especially considering we have another lefty out in the bullpen for the situational sports.

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Comment by Metsnumba57
2008-05-15 09:41:34

I would trust Schoeneweis more then Heilman and alot of the people in the bullpen right now except for Wags. Scott has been very dominant this year

 
Comment by wrightnow5
2008-05-15 09:43:36

Should it be phrased “Aside from Wagner, who do think will fail least often?”

Comment by Prismo
2008-05-15 09:45:21

Your glass is half empty, Matt’s (and mine) is half full.

 
 
Comment by fortleemets
2008-05-15 09:44:48

Typical short-term Mets fans results. Joe Smith would have been the reliever everyone was most confident with last year at this time as well….time demonstrated, however, that Joe Smith post-May, is not so reliable.

Where are all the people who booed John Franco during the 90’s? Take a look at his career numbers and tell me how much you would pay to have someone like Franco now.

Comment by MacD81
2008-05-15 10:01:12

I’m sorry. Where in the poll does it mention anything about sample sizes? Before you castigate so-called “short-term Mets fans,” consider that the question did not give any qualifiers like “due to their recent success,” or “looking at their careers.”

I voted for Smith because — at this moment — I feel most comfortable with him on the mound in a big spot. How is that being a short-term fan? I’m not saying he is the best reliever of the bunch, or that he’s had the best career, or that he’ll have the best year. Simply put, right now, IMO, he’s been our best reliever short of Wagner.

Comment by therealsince86
2008-05-15 10:04:50

But do you feel comfortable in him facing Chase Utley?

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Comment by MacD81
2008-05-15 10:12:16

I’m never comfortable with anyone facing Utley, if you want to know the truth. These days I just assume he’s going to hit a dinger.

 
Comment by metinDC23
2008-05-15 11:07:43

Actually I’d rather Show face Utley due to matchups but the poll didn’t give those kind of terms.

In general though- right now Smith is our best reliever.

 
 
 
Comment by carlosgomezisfast
2008-05-15 10:04:35

He went downhill last year b/c Willie over used him early on. Like someone said in another post’s comments. Willie learned how to kill relievers from the Torre School of Bullpen Mgmnt.

 
 
Comment by General Millz
2008-05-15 09:45:47

I wish we could have a vote where we put them in order. I trust Smith the most, so that’s who I voted for, but I also trust Feliciano, Schoenweiss (can’t believe I’m saying that publicly), and Sanchez. I think the Mets have a fine bullpen, even if Heilman was no longer on the team.

 
Comment by Old Backstop
2008-05-15 09:47:30

No shock that many of our knee-jerk faithful voted for Joe Smith. Half of your readers would simply vote for whoever looked good in their last outing or two.

This was sadly a tough question, since no one in our bullpen (Wagner aside) has made me feel warm and fuzzy for a while. Feliciano has probably been the most reliable if you look at a larger sample size, with Schoenewies looking pretty good this year.

Sanchez is a crap shoot because we really don’t know where his rehab is at. Heilman has been struggling, and Smith has far too small a track record to bank on right now. He could be one outing a way from a disaster inning. I remember last year he looked this way early and then suddenly dropped off and became a BP pitcher.

Comment by Old Backstop
2008-05-15 09:48:24

My order would be:

Wagner
Feliciano
Schoeneweis
Smith
Sanchez
Heilman
Wise

Comment by krumbledkookie
2008-05-15 09:53:00

Why are you hating on Matt Wise?

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Comment by altru426
2008-05-15 10:17:32

it’s not hating…he just has hardly pitched this year…tough to make an assessment on someone you have hardly seen…

 
 
 
Comment by carlosgomezisfast
2008-05-15 10:08:30

How can you say Smith is a knee-jerk reaction when he has been (with the exception of Wagner) the most effective and consistent guy in the pen all year.

Comment by Old Backstop
2008-05-15 11:26:10

Because he only has 17 innings so far this year and after 17 great innings last year he completely stunk for the remainder of the season. I like Joe, but it’s a matter of calculated risk. Track records and history factor in.

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Comment by General Millz
2008-05-15 11:31:58

I’ve been a Mets fan as far back as I remember, and I voted for Smith here.

I know what happened to him last year, but the question asked who I trusted most amongst the current group of relievers. Right now, that’s Joe Smith. I know a few other lifelong Mets fans who would answer that question the same way.

If the question asked who the best reliever was on the team other than Wagner or who we thought would have the best season in the bullpen, I might answer differently, but if this afternoon’s game is tied or the Mets have a small lead, I’d turn to Smith.

And if we weigh last year too heavily, we’d never, ever be confident in Scott Schoenweiss. These words may come back to bite me, but I think he’s going to be a good part of the pen for the season.

 
Comment by Massey
2008-05-15 12:45:49

Feliciano has been lucky to get out of many jams, and he has allowed a lot of baserunners. (1.68 WHIP)

Smith has been excellent, with a ton of dominant performances. (0.98 WHIP)

While you can’t ignore career numbers, you also can’t completely discount how they’ve performed this year, even if it’s only 15 innings. Stats aside, Smith has looked great, and Feliciano has looked just ok. And while it’s possible, you can’t expect Smith to suddenly fall apart out of nowhere.

The fact is, at this moment, Smith is clearly the better reliever.

 
 
 
 
Comment by Bruce Boisclair
2008-05-15 09:53:43

I am actually pretty confident about our bullpen overall.

However, we really do need Heilman to straighten himself out, and he’s going to have to get some work in some non-pressure situations to do it. I was quite upset about Willie not taking him out after the first couple of hits last night, and for the first time I disagreed with his move even after hearing his post-game comments about the unavailability of others in the bullpen as a factor. Clearly, he had Smith warming up (and even checked his status on the phone) and should have brought him in sooner.

You can see that, with a bit of tinkering and straightening Heilman out, we could have the makings of a fine pen:

Wagner - closing
Sanchez - 8th
Heilman/Smith/Felciano- 7th
Schoe/Wise- 6th or situational
Figueroa - long man?

(I know that is 8 people, but things will straighten themselves out.)

 
Comment by therealsince86
2008-05-15 09:54:47

My answer is faulty because of bullpen roles. I trust Show the most…… against LH, not vs. RH. I trust Smith but his job is to get RH out and does poorly overall against LH and can’t be overused. I trust Feliciano but assume he will put people on base this season. I trust the old Sanchez but realize that he will continue to struggle for a while.
So the answer is that we do not have a setup man right now, PERIOD.

Comment by AndrewP
2008-05-15 12:23:34

I made a post below about the idea of using situational relievers itself not being a problem, but I really agree with what you say as well. Once you get to the eighth inning, you just want to go to the bridge and then call in Wagner. You can only mix and match for so many innings, and the guys that were supposed to take over in the eighth this year once that situational portion of the game was over haven’t been championship-caliber at all.

 
Comment by Massey
2008-05-15 12:58:46

True, I knew Scho and Feliciano weren’t great against righties but their L/R splits are pretty bad.

Smith hasn’t really been given an opportunity against a lot of lefties (only 12 ABs), but he hasn’t been great against the few he’s faced (5H, 2BB).

For now, I’d just bring in Smith in the 8th if 2/3 are righties, Feliciano or Scho if 2/3 are lefties. Or, just use all 3 for the 7th and 8th in a tight game, mix and match.

I’m not really too confident Sanchez yet, his fastball is too slow right now to really set up his change. And so he just throws mostly changeups…hitters will catch on and just sit on it.

 
 
Comment by fortleemets
2008-05-15 09:55:08

How come Willie doesn’t believe in the long reliever? I hate the lefty-righty switches during the 6th-8th innings. Let them stay in.

Comment by therealsince86
2008-05-15 09:57:13

Who would do it? He used Oliver a lot in that role but we don’t have that right now.

Comment by AndrewP
2008-05-15 12:31:46

That’s been a big misstep by Minaya two years in a row now. I think the value of the long man is underrated; when we had Oliver in ‘06 how many games were we down big, then he holds the other team down until we get back in the game? And I still remember the year Pat Mahomes had a little while back. It seems like it’s worth a handful of wins a year