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Following tonight’s game, Willie Randolph announced that Carlos Muniz will be demoted to Triple-A New Orleans to make room for the return of Pedro Martinez.
Meanwhile, according to Randolph, Mike Pelfrey will remain in the starting rotation, while Claudio Vargas will shift to the bullpen.
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Can they send Ollie down too?
Seriously. No wonder the Pirates and Padres gave up on him. He’s going to have a tough time trying to find 4/$40 this off-season.
No surprise regarding Muniz. We haven’t had a long man since the departure of Darren Oliver.
Can some one tell me why do they see in Ollie he does the same thing every start . Suppose in a big game in september he does this he cant be fix. mets are third team to try i wont even use him out the pen
The guy has nasty stuff, but does not have the moxy to use it correctly. Perez’s problems are in his head. I think it’s a combination of machismo and immaturity. If they could get him right, he is worth his weight in gold. The Jacket is doing all he can, but Perez has to want to change for any of that to work. I think that the Mets will cut bait on him before this season is out.
well, good thing he is sucking so much now
to think we might have given 40 million to this guy in the off season
does anybody else think its a Peterson issue….how many times do our pitchers give up first inning runs….its almost like they are not prepared
Say what you will about Peterson…
He’s Strange…..his hair is ugly……..etc
but he is the epitome of preparation…….I would be shocked to see this being the issue.
The issue last night is Ollie tries to go out there and do whatever the hell he wants….w/o any regard to a game plan and just implodes…
Peterson can only do so much… OP is about as reliable as a crackhead feening for his next fix…
At least Willie kept it real in the postgame comments.
That’s too bad. I know it’s a numbers game, and having options made Muniz expendable, but I thought he pitched well. I’m not so sure that Vargas is a good match for the bullpen, as he doesn’t have that knockout pitch. He’s best served as a 5th starter, but I’d much rather have Pelfrey in that role.
I think they should just skip Perez’s next start. Then bring him back the next time around.
So long as Vargas isnt needed in long relief before then, he could start Sat and Pedro Sunday, with Perez in long relief if needed on either day.
Perez might react better to a surprise outing than a planned one, worth a shot as nothing else seems to be working for him.
I still don’t understand how they justify keeping Smellfrey in the rotation, while dumping Vargas, who has pitched well, in the bullpen?
I think they’d be better off going, for the time being, with a rotation of Santana-Maine-Pedro-Vargas-Armas.
Dump Perez for a 4th outfielder (which they desperately need). You’ve got Duque due back by the end of the month (reported on the broadcast the other night), Freddy Garcia out there to be signed, and can have Pelfrey try to find whatever it is he’s looking for down in New Orleans.
And before anyone flames me for suggesting Armas, a friend noted the following information regardin the career ERA+ for Vargas, Perez and Armas:
Career ERA+
Armas 95
Perez 93
Vargas 92
Right now, Perez doesn’t have a clue. He’s down to averaging 5 innings per start. His last 10 are 7.08 with 39 walks in 48 innings.
Check please.
I wouldnt have a problem with Armas and Vargas at the back end of the rotation. Armas has been pitching well just about every time out for the Zephers and his ERA is leading the PCL, i think.
Right now Pelfrey is pitching just well enough to keep getting shots. If he goes the way of Perez I think they will have to make the move to Armas.
Its nice to know that they have options other than Perez and Pedro if they cant be relied upon for the rest of the year.
Santana, Maine, Pedro, Pelfrey, Vargas, Perez, Armas, Figueroa. plenty of depth there.
I’m frustrated too that Pelfrey is getting the nod over Vargas, but I understand why. It’s early enough in the season that even with a losing streak of six or so games, we certainly won’t be out of it; that being the case, the Mets brass want to continue to have Pelfrey face ML hitters from the starting role, in the hopes that he can learn to repeat his motion and throw strikes consistently.
It’s one of those win now vs. build for the future conundrums, except here, the line is blurred a bit since when Pelfrey is on, he can certainly help us win now. I’d imagine that if Pelfrey struggles in his next three starts or so, he’ll be sent to the pen or AAA. We’re just giving him a little bit longer to try to establish himself.
Duque back based on what? He hasnt even been in rehab games at all.
Besides, I doubt he can give them what Vargas and Figueroa have.
The other night on SNY, Cohen commented that Pedro, while he was in Florida, was working out with Duque. Pedro reported to Cohen that Duque is throwing off a mound and is almost ready to start simulated games. Given that it is now only June 3, it’s not unreasonable to think he could be back by the end of the month. As a matter of fact, that was what Pedro supposedly told Cohen, that he expects Duque to be back by end of June.
Granted, Pedro is a lot of things, but MD is not one of them. :-) However, I find it hard to believe he would offer that sort of comment unless he was very encouraged by what he saw.
It’s a HUGE mistake to count on El Duque to give us anything. He’s generally very good when healthy, but he pulls muscles just breathing at this point.
Considering your a numbers guy, I’d like to advocate something to you:
Pelfrey to the Pen and Vargas to the Rotation
It’s simple. Pelfrey’s ceiling with his K/BB is the next Noah Lowry unless he’s penned. He walks guys and can’t strike
‘em out.
Vargas’s numbers are a little distorted. I mean for God’s sake we know that how well a pitcher does is really based on the fielding, outside of Ks, BBs, and HR, and he played for the Brewers! THE BREWERS! They don’t know the meaning of the word “mitt!”
On the Mets, Vargas is a 4 ERA guy in the rotation. In any rotation for any team, Pelf’s ERA is going to be around 5.
well for one I remember SNY showing some stat that if pelfrey had any run support he would be 5-4. not to mention whereas vargas looks like he can pitch out of the bullpen i’m not sure pelfrey can. he seems to be a guy that needs a few innings to find his groove while vargas is a guy that starts out great but then people catch on to him.
yea, in Pelf’s last three quality starts he is 0-2. He’s had two 4+ IP starts mixed in there as well.
Seems like when he pitches well the offense isnt there (Dodger game) and when they do score he gives it right back (Marlins game)
I’m not trying to be antagonistic, but I really don’t see Pelfrey ever being an effective starter, unless he somehow develops a “put away” pitch (nasty splitter, Maddux-like changeup, etc.).
He’s averaging a fraction over 5 innings per start this season. For his career, he’s right at 5.5 innings per start. Career-wise, opponents are hitting an even .300. These are not the numbers you can live with from your fifth starter on a team with championship aspirations.
This year, opponents are hitting .317 against him. THREE SEVENTEEN! Lefties are killing him, with an OPS over 1.000.
Pelfrey’s problem is not necessariy “throwing strikes”. His problem sometimes is that he throws too many of them, even when he’s ahead in the count and not trying to. Motormouth McCarver used to call this “wild in the strike zone”. Add in the fact that he does not have a nasty “out pitch”, and what you have is a guy whose pitches find way too many sweet parts of opponents bats.
FWIW, Vargas has 158 career appearances, and 44 in relief.
In 2004, the last time Vargas spent considerable time in the ‘pen, he had an ERA of 4.61 in 52.2 IP. He had an ERA of 5.76 in 65.2 IP as a starter.
Last year, Vargas made 6 relief appearances (12.2 IP) and posted an ERA of 5.68. He started 23 games and had an ERA of 5.03 in 121.2 IP. As a reliever, he only had one bad appearance, allowing 4 ER in 1.2 IP against Atlanta.
Basically, my brief and overly-simplified examination of his stats indicates to me that you are correct, and Vargas is better suited to the pen. Pelfrey is too wild, IMO, to be a reliever.
Once again — skewed numbers.
If you want to cite statistics, it’s a little flimsy to look at ERA or ERA+. They tell us a lot at times, but in other times too little. One thing baseball fans should know flat out is that a pitcher is only as good as the hitters and fielders. Vargas can strikeout give or take 1 man an inning, and walk one man every two or three. He’ll also average around 1 HR per start. He’ll do that about no matter where he is, no matter what the case, that’s what to expect. However, with the worst fielding in baseball, Milwaukee, you can expect a lot of hits. Way more than you’d expect of Vargas on the Mets.
So here’s a hypothetical start for the Mets:
6 IP, 6 H, 1 HR, 2 BB, 3 ER, 3 R
And here’s that same start with Milwaukee:
5 IP, 8 H, 1 HR, 2 BB, 4 ER, 5 R
As you can see, nothing huge changed in the counting stats, but his hit rates go up, therefore driving his HR, BB, and ER averages up. Maybe because Braun and Hardy didn’t get to balls that Reyes or Wright could have. Not necessarily because of errors, but because they have less range and worse arms. And maybe Bill Hall made a costly error that Beltran could’ve gotten. Not only did Vargas lose IP from all the pitches he threw, but he allowed more runs and hits, because the Brewers have shabby fielding.
Vargas is a pretty good starter. Not a bad guy at all for the back of the rotation. He strikes out a decent amount of guys and with good fielding he could very well be a solid pitcher.
big mistake. put pelf in the pen and keep vargas in the rotation. oh well, guess every 5th game the mets just give up
you mean Perez’s starts, right?
otherwise they are giving away 2 out of every 5…
Lets see what Pelfrey can do against the Padres and Rangers before writing him off for the year.
If Pelfrey goes just 5 IP against the Padres he will have more IP than Perez in one less start. Thats an eye opener. He’s averaging 5.6 IP/start to Perez 5.0, and doing better in those innings.
If we are going to pick on someone, lets start with the worst starter in the rotation. Which is Perez, even before last night’s debacle…
He took the loss May 10th against CIN, May 15 against WAS and had a ND a few days ago against LA; in those three starts, he gave up a total of 5 ER in 20.2 IP. If we scored any runs for him, he’d be 5-4.
Vargas has a career ERA of 4.91, which is almost exactly what Pelfrey has pitched to this season.
How is pitching Pelfrey “giving up” every fifth day?
I don’t think it’s “giving up”. But the problem is not only the lack of runs. If Pelfrey was able to economize his pitches better, he’d last longer into games and thereby have a chance to win more. A big issue with him is that he’s usually up to 100 pitches by the 5th inning. And why? Because he can’t put guys away. He’ll do a nice job of getting ahead of a hitter, then lose concentration and either leave a pitch over the fat part of the plate, or come back and walk him.
I’m certainly not suggesting that Vargas or Armas are saviors, because they aren’t. But with the team struggling as they have, the most important thing is winning games, and right now, I think the other guys give us a better chance to do that, at least in the short term.
If Pelfrey can go back to NO and work on his stuff, his mechanics, whatever, and come back and more effective pitcher, then it’s all good.
A few posts above I indicated that I’m all in favor of giving Pelfrey’s spot to Vargas- I just took issue with the whole “giving up” comment.
Your assessment of Pelfrey is spot on.