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Yesterday, Joe Smith, Pedro Feliciano, Duaner Sanchez, Aaron Heilman and Scott Schoeneweis combined to let up six runs in three innings, blowing a four-run lead handed to them by Pedro Martinez.
Martinez, regarding the bullpen, while speaking to reporters following yesterday’s loss:
“With me, it’s OK. Everybody out there was trying to reel in and win. They never quit, and you have to give them credit.”
…i admire pedro’s view, but forgive me if i am unable to be so peaceful and loving today…
The Mets have 20 blown saves this season, which is fourth-worst in the National League.
The Phillies have blown just eight saves, best in the league.
…i’m officially sick…do you realize if the bullpen had blown just half of that number, 
the Mets would be in first place by eight games, and have the best record in the league…
…one more time, in case you missed it: if the bullpen had blown just half of that number, the Mets would be in first place by eight games, and have the best record in the league…
This season, while Billy Wagner has blown seven saves, Pedro Feliciano is 0 for 2 in save situations, Aaron Heilman is 2 for 4, Carlos Muniz is 0 for 1, Scott Schoenweiss is 1 for 4 and Joe Smith is 0 for 3.
What’s worse, During the 10–game winning streak in July, opponents hit .191 against the bullpen – but, in the 22 games since, opponents are batting .289.
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Matt, what I’d like someone to research is this: how many Met losses this season would not have been losses if Aaron Heilman had done his job? I’m guessing somewhere in the 10-12 range which is absolutely extraordinary.
i’d really love to hear this stat too because I am truly sick of people acting as if Heilman is the only problem in the pen. He did have I believe 1 ER in all of June? A fairlry solid at least early July.
Tell me, how many games has Feliciano made worse? how about Sanchez? how about Show? How about Smith?
you can say the same thing for all of them except Heilman typically is used more than all of them, so by the math, he will have more times he doesn’t do his job.
All the heilman haters should look through the bad games for the bullpen this year to see, yes, hes bad, but hes DEF not the only one.
The entire bullpen is having an awful August, I would agree. However, Heilman has combined his awful August with an awful April and an awful May which helped sabotage the early part of this season. Now is not the time to be attacking “Heilman Haters” – it’s the time to be joining them.
ToastyJoe, there is no logic to you asking people to join the “heilman haters”. This is NOT the time to ask to pile up on ONE reliever. This is a time to figure out the whole bullpen.
They are not used right? They need different roles? They miss Wags that much? Heilman has taken losses in at least 2 games he should have never pitched in (Wags blown saves), as well as others he shoulnd’t have been in (yesterday)
The logic you use is completely unintelligent. I’m just sick of acting like hes the only problem, and yea, you pointed out he isn’t the only one, but then you go right back at attacking him. Getting rid of him or moving him to a different role will NOT fix this team, in fact, who knows, may be worse!
It’s actually quite remarkable. There is absolutely NOTHING Heilman can do to convince this cult of people who love him that he stinks. He gave up a 3-run home run? He’s tired. He walked the leadoff hitter with a 3 run lead? He’s overworked. He choked again in the 9th inning? He’s not being used properly. He stunk for a month coming out of spring training? His role wasn’t “defined” enough.
Has it ever occurred to you people that HE’S NOT ANY GOOD?
Heilman is not the only one who stinks. All the friggin’ relievers have stunk up the joint to high heaven this year.
And here’s the kicker. Heilman never wanted to be in the pen, his agent asked Omar to trade him a few years back so he could escape the pen, and he’s still among the lowest paid relievers in the pen.
It is not his fault he’s in a position he never asked to be in or wanted any part of.
Get on someone who’s paid millions to be a reliever — Show, Wagner, and the others.
I rest my case.
What case? It’s not much of one to begin with.
The case that there is nothing Heilman can do wrong according to you. You’ll spin every good outing as proof that he’s effective, and every bad outing as proof of your theory that he’s being used incorrectly. In other words, he’s bulletproof, yet he did nothing to deserve it. I almost want to see him start just we can end this nonsense once and for all after he gets shelled.
Huh :?: Who said Heilman can do no wrong. He can do a whole lot wrong if he’s in the wrong role. That’s the case with any player. Duh.
Put a catcher at SS and he’ll do a lot wrong. Even if he’s a gold glove catcher. But if he’s forced to play out of position, then it’s NOT HIS FAULT.
Same thing with Heilman. Heck, even most of his detractors have it right. He’s not suited for the pen. So if you continue to stick him there, whose fault is that? Hint: the guy who makes the decisions.
Why can most fans see Heilman is not well suited for the pen but Omar can’t?
And I never spin outings to say he’s effective. Maybe you should read someone’s posts before you pretend to know what they are saying.
I agree-Heilman may not be a great starter but we will never know. We do know he is an inconsistent reliever that is prone to the home run. The Mets are short a starter and will not bring Niese up because of free agency 4-5 years from now (ugh), so move Heilman to the starting rotaion (don’t give me any nonsense about stretching his arm etc. our starters save 2 only go 5 innings anyway) and put Stokes in the bullpen. Give Kunz a role.
Can’t be any worse. BTW-Jerry said one of the problems that the bullpen had under Willie was that they didn’t have roles- Wagner goes down and all hell breaks loose even though we have a guy who has done nothing but close-why is there such an issue?
I’ve noticed a trend in terms of the bullpen’s effectiveness. Unfortunately, as we all know, we do not have a very good deep bullpen. However, the guys that are among the players who can SOMETIMES be counted on seem to be used far too often. To give credit to Aaron Heilman he is among the top relievers in IP, with 64 IP in 62 games. No other Mets reliever is within a complete game of matching these numbers. It seems like almost every game Aaron Heilman is coming in to pitch. The day in day out pattern of pitching has to decrease his effectiveness. I said this in the beginning of the year when he was inconsistent, because he was being overused. He’s pitched in 3 of the last 4 games with no scheduled off days in the middle. In one of those games he had to pitch 2 innings. THE GUY NEEDS REST! He can yearn to be a starter all he wants but being a reliever is a different animal and one that he’s not afraid to try and carry the load every day. The burden is too much for just him to bear.
I blame this recent loss on the fact that Jerry Manuel is afraid to put Eddie Kunz in a situation where he can potentially give up runs. I’m not saying put Kunz in the closer role and say GOOD LUCK KID. I’m just saying give the kid some innings see what he can do and if he’s not up to the task tell him what to work on and send him back down. Having a body in the bullpen just to keep it warm does not help the rest of the bullpen. If you don’t have confidence in him he shouldn’t be there. Not every story is an Anderson Hernandez (sucked) or a Dan Murphy (great). I’m looking for consistency like Nick Evans has shown, nothing special but nothing poor, just another body to count on from time to time when the stakes are high.
My final rant is about Omar, “in whom we trust,” who stated at the beginning of the year “I’m happy with the team we have now.” Eluding to the fact that he was not looking for further additions to the roster. We are with the same bullpen and starters (minus santana) as last year. Did we learn from last year and pick up a realiable reliever? No, we said that their price tags were too high while the White Sox bought up bullpen arms like crazy. They and the Twins weren’t even in the discussion to win the division. Both teams have stellar bullpens, one of which was done through the free agent market. Dotel or Linebrink would have been a nice addition, much better than the marginal Matt Wise, who if healthy would have been blowing games with the rest of them.
That is my personal opinion and far excessive rant.
Tell me something, how does the “poor Heilman is used too much” excuse work when he stunk coming right out of spring training?
He’s in a role he never wanted and is not suited for. If you want to get on anyone, get on Omar for continuing to stick Heilman in the pen, for letting Bradford go, and for not doing enough in the offseason to shore up the pen.
Not exactly your question, but as close as I can get in five minutes or less:
Based on Fangraphs WPA, the Mets bullpen from worst to best with regard to impact on wins.
Heilman -1.48
Feliciano -0.88
Wise -0.42
Muniz -0.36
Schoenwieis -0.21
Kunz -0.10
Figueroa -0.05
Armas, Jr. 0.00
Vargas 0.08
Smith 0.35
Sosa 0.49
Wagner 0.59
Sanchez 1.56
Overall the bullpen is to blame with a -0.53 WPA versus the starters at +2.57 and hitters +0.96
Looks like Heilman is that bad and Sanchez is not so bad after all, although it is clear Sanchez is not the same pitcher in recent weeks.
Source; Fangraphs, Teams: 2008 Mets, WPA sorted from bottom to top, Relievers
WPA: WPA is the difference in win expectancy (WE) between the start of the play and the end of the play. That difference is then credited/debited to the batter and the pitcher. Over the course of the season, each players’ WPA for individual plays is added up to get his season total WPA.
Interesting stuff. Thanks.
Watching the games, it appears that Sanchez has failed just as much as anyone in the pen.
So unless there’s a good explanation of how they come up with their rankings, then I don’t trust fangraphs and consider it garbage.
Sanchez was doing very well until his velocity took a hit about a month ago. I’d say that, for a while there, he was the most effective reliever on the staff. These stats are season long, I’m sure… not just the last month.
Look at Sanchez’ game logs beginning in early May. He’s been shaky since then. I don’t know what formula fangraphs uses, but any formula that would rate any member of this bullpen higher than another is crap.
The entire bullpen from Wagner on down has done a putrid job this year.
Matt, thanks for that stat.. I feel even more faint.. BTW Im still removing the vomit off my keyboard..
Is that actual save situations or just “blown saves.” Based on the rule, a save situation can arise in the 6th inning or thereafter.
Every team can look at some stat and say if only… we’d be so much better. The pen sucks. That’s the fact. The organization decided not to improve the bullpen. The team will die on that mistake for the second straight year. Fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Minaya needs to be fired.
“The organization decided not to improve the bullpen.”
Yeah, I’m sure Omar had a meeting with the Wilpons and they all came out saying, “you know what? Let’s leave our sucky bullpen exactly as it is. That’s our decision.”
The problem here is that there aren’t that many quality relief pitchers available to be acquired right now, and there weren’t in last season’s FA market, either. And that the few that were available were too expensive.
Suppose you were offered a decent — not extraordinary, but decent — relief pitcher. The price? Dan Murphy. Would you do it?
I”m not saying that’s a specific deal that was offered to Omar, but all indications are that those were the kinds of deals he was offered. Right now, there are quite a few teams in need of relief help, and those teams who have some to spare know it, and are asking extraordinary prices. The GM’s job is to think about the future of this team — not just this year’s pennant race. It is not “win at all costs,” as much as we might like it to be.
I agree Matt…. this bullpen is a complete nightmare. Never in all my years of watching baseball have I seen a bullpen where no one can get anybody out. It;s time to let Kounz close, personally my patience will be a little more with a rookie. Also the Mets stopped scoring again, it would be nice if this team could add on runs.
I hate to say it with the bullpen like this, I think we can kiss away October baseball @ Shea.
By the way has anyone even seen or heard from Omar? When they win he’s all over the place, in the SNY booth talking… I would love to hear from him and maybe get an answer on how other teams have added relievers and the Mets have done nothing.
I know I’m the outside party here, and the phillies stats are impressive though their hitting pretty much negates those stats, It’s unfortunate that the mets pen is in crisis – but it begs the question: What the eff is the Mets pitching coach doing while these guys are tanking, catching up on Tivo’d reality shows?
THe pitching coach can only do as much as the athlete gives him. If that athlete isn’t that good, then its only a matter of time the pitching coach loses his influence. The problem is we have too many specialist relievers. We don’t have a pure reliever. Duaner was this in 2006, and could be when healthy. Wagner is obviously our best option. But b/c of these specialist players, they are used all in the same game, every game. That is not a recipe for success.
How much could it be that this bullpen pitches practically every single day? How many times are the starters pulled after the 5th or 6th inning? While some games (like yesterday and any Santana start) are obvious bullpen implosions these pitch counts limits and a refusal to have a starter get himself out of trouble seem to aid in losing late in games as well.
Pedro had thrown 99 pitches through 6 innings. I thought he should have gone out for the 7th.
In this season, he should have. For a normal team, the bullpen should’nt give up 6 ER.
Top 4 starters by innings pitched for NL East teams:
Phillies:
Hamels – 167, Moyer – 144, Kendrick – 131, Myers – 127
Total: 403
Mets:
Santana – 161, Pelfrey – 138, Perez – 136, Maine – 124
Total: 559
Marlins:
Nolasco – 149, Olsen – 147, Hendrickson – 118, Miller – 101
Total: 515
Braves:
Jurjjens: 144, Hudson – 142, Campillo – 114, Reyes – 83
Total: 483
Nationals:
Redding – 141, Lannan – 138, Perez – 112, Bergmann – 107
Total: 498
Who has the most overworked bullpen? Who has the least?
Oops — sorry… The Phillies total is off in the above — it’s actually 569. Which means they have the least worked bullpen in the division. But we’re number 2.
It’s last year all over again ( the bad part only a lot more of it)
I guess the coaches were not the problem.
Matt — since acquiring Johan our GM has essentially done absolutely nothing to help this team — we have the same bullpen minus 1 guy that blew it last year — when is someone gonna call him out? when?
yea, because acquiring Johan involved moving our tradeable pieces. Personally, I am not on board with giving away a top prospect for a decent middle reliever, considering that this team doesn’t seem to be on the verge of winning the World Series
you can’t say that though. Our starting pitching for the most part, has been very good this season. Our bullpen…has not. If we had competent relievers and not a full pen of specialist guys, than we would be more successful. Our offense, while being inconsistent, has been better of late, but its hard to keep scoring runs when your bullpen keeps putting us in deficits. Any team can win the W.S. But not every team can make the playoffs. Simple as that.
Bradford was traded for a nothing prospect. Every minor leaguer is not a prospect.
right, but nothing that was available to the Mets would have come at a low cost..in addition, of all the arms available to us, nobody represented a clear upgrade.
AND for the millionth time, waiver wire deals are much different than non-waiver trades. Why? Because waiver-wire teams involve the seller and just one buyer. There is less demand, whereas on the open market, a seller is dealing with several buyers (depending on the player) and therefore has much more leverage. The Mets found themselves in a low leverage position.
The Chad Bradford example is irrelevant, because the Mets had absolutely no shot to get him, given the rules of the waiver-wire claim.
We got away with one; the Phillies lost. After yesterday it feels like we should be back 5 or 6 or 10, not 2. Perspective, even though it makes me sick.
What are the Mets waiting for on Heilman. He is not going to succeed here. Just not happening. He is one of those guys who is not built for NY. You can see him going on to have a decent career as a 3/4 starter in Kansas City or whatever. It does neither the Mets nor Heilman himself a shred of good to just continue to obliterate his value.
Maybe we should be 5 or 10 back and then maybe Omar could improve our bullpen. But by being so close, obviously our team is great and needs no improvements.
According to Joel Sherman, the Mets are planning one of three things:
1)Move Kunz to the closer role until Wagner is back
-I haven’t been impressed with him so far…probably the easiest,
and apparently the most likely decision
2)Keep Stokes in the rotation and use Maine or Perez in the bullpen
-Perez is definitely not moving out of the rotation…I’d be intrigued
with Maine in the pen, but Stokes isn’t the right fill-in guy
3)Promote Niese, send down Kunz, move Stokes AND Maine/Perez to the pen
-Most drastic move, but I think this is the best move…Like in #2
I’d want Maine in the pen over Perez, and Niese may be able
to step into the 5th spot in the rotation…
Thoughts?
At this point, I’m am open to anything to change up the bullpen. Something needs to be stirred there. Let Kunz have a shot, Could it be much worse? And I’d like to see what Niese gives us before commting to moving the other players to the pen.
I would put Stokes in the pen. He throws gas. It can’t hurt to see what he can do in the pen.
The notion of putting Perez in the pen is ludicrous. Maine, not so much … but if you do that you have to let Niese start, not Stokes.
Kunz should definitely get an opportunity to close as well … he can’t be any worse. Plus, he’s a closer.
What are the stats on that 10 game win steak we had? Didn’t the majority of the starters go deeper in the game?
There is no way, with this current BP, we can expect them to be paraded out there every day from the 6th inning on (or even earlier) and get it done. No way is that a recipe for success.
We need an arm or two that can give us 3 innings and be effective against both lefty/righties. Until someone steps up to prove they can, or we get those arms, I think we can expect more of the same….
How many of those blown saves has resulted in a loss? For example, Wagner blew that save in Philly by giving up that home run to Werth, but Tatis won the game in the 12th. Another I can think of was when Wagner blew Pelfrey’s 8 inning gem, but then Beltran won it with a walkoff. So of those 20 blown saves, not all of them have been losses.
You read my mind. Was just about to post that in all likelihood not all 20 “blown saves” resulted in losses. Still it’s a disturbing stat.
Wow — is 20 blown saves a correct stat?
If a team is up 1-0 in the 6th and a reliever comes in and allows a HR to the first guy, it’s a blown save. And no, I’m not joking. That’s the stat.
Come to think of it, after watching this bullpen all season “20″ seems low. I wonder if Matt can track how many games the bullpen came in after the 5th in a tie game or where the Mets were down by 2 runs or less, but the pen let the game get away.
Ill just repeat what I said last night:
Pelfrey is the best candidate if you are going to take someone out of the rotation. The team wants to limit his innings, and out of Pelfrey, Maine and Pedro…Pelfrey has the best 1st innings. If he does give up runs, its usually in the 3rd or 4th inning.
And he would be the only sinkerballer in the pen who gets ground ball outs.
That’s a lot better than putting Perez in the pen. If Pelfrey continues to seem to wear down just a little bit that seems like a good idea, especially if Maine comes back healthy and Pedro pitches OK.
Though shaky in his last few outings, Pelfrey has in fact done very well in his first inning or two.
The question is that given the fact that he is approaching highs in IP, will he be able to withstand the rigors of pitching 2 out of every 3 days, plus warmups?
He doesn’t have to do that, he can replace someone like Muniz who doesn’t pitch everyday and pitch 2 out of every 4-5 games. Of course, after a couple of good innings they’ll for sure overuse him like the “Heilman just got 2 batters out, let’s pitch him everyday in big spots” philosophy. Not that I’m comparing Pelfrey to Heilman.
Manuel said that Kunz will be the closer for now.
Please don’t start with the “what ifs.” It’s a pretty tired act. Cardinals fans say the same thing, and use it as an excuse. It’s the way it is, so deal with it.
I like the idea of Niese coming up to fill in the rotation and using Maine out of the pen, at least for another rotation turn. Hopefully it won’t disrupt the way Maine prepares.
Gotta love how the starters are giving an excellent PR routine about the bullpen. Its gotta be fustrating to them that their bullpen cannot get 9 outs while a team is up 4 runs….and to top it off TO THE PIRATES. I had no idea it would be this difficult for this team losing a closer….I hope kunz can do the job but thats alot to ask for from a rookie.
Yea, people can complain all they want about Wagner, but the fact is he is our best reliever and besides his struggles at times, he is pretty good.
Thanks to all the stupid fans out there who were blaming Jose Reyes for the collapse last year and didn’t realize that it was actually the bullpen that destroyed us. Omar had no pressure to seriously revamp the bullpen (lets not forget, Joe Smith was an add on after spring training this year…he was not even supposed to be in the majors).
You’re going to blame the FANS for the bullpen being awful?
Wow.
Omar had no pressure? wow, with that logic, Omar is a horrible GM. He should have been smart enough to realize that our pen wasn’t that good last year, and instead kept it as was and made no improvements. Omar should not have to listen to the fans, he should be more effective than that.
Plus, Joe Smith WAS going to be on this team this year. Just b/c he wasn’t supposed to start with us the first game doesn’t mean he wasn’t going to be with us…he was supposed to come to us sometime at the end of April anyways…I don’t even know what your talking about.
The collpase was a joint effort last year. The bullpen was terrible but Jose was also terrible. Truly a collaboration.
Lets not forget that during that 10 game win streak the offense wasnt leaving runners on base by the truckload and scoring a ton of runs.
More runs=less pressure=only time this season the bullpen was getting results=July
That being said the offense disappearing late in games and leaving 15 runners on base a game is just as much to blame, the bullpen cant be the only ones who have to save the team when wagner is on the DL.
So in other words, it is OK for the bullpen to to give up runs and blow leads b/c the offense should score everytime? Hitting 3 out of 10 times is considered good and if we depended on that we would lose 7 our of 10 games. The fact is, the bullpen SHOULD not be blowing leads or making deficits greater…CONSISTENTLY. Every so often, fine..but thats not the case in 2008.
haha..by the way, your name is exactly what I was saying to myself this morning.
Omar needs to be held accountable… yes he got Johan but he has done nothing else. Meanwhile he has traded bannister. ring, bell for the likes of adkins. julio and burgos….. for all the good he has done he has done alot of bad. If the Mets do not play baseball in October I think Omar is gone.
Bannister and Ring are horrible. Do you really think they would be helping right now? Bannister’s pitches have been getting hit into Neptune’s orbit the past few months.
honestly…. earlier in the season bannister was good, he may have hit the wall… Ring. has not been good but still we dont know what he could of been,. we gave him and bell up for adkins and ben johnson– what did they do?
Ring is a lefty specialist, and not even a very good one at that. We already have Feliciano and Scho, so there was no spot for Ring anyway. Bell turned out to be a mistake, but the fact is he had plenty of chances to succeed and he was flat out horrible.
You don’t judge a trade on 2-3 months. Since he’s been traded, Bannister has been more good than bad.
Bottom line is that he would have helped the Mets last year when they kept throwing out crappy starters and when their bullpen was horrid.
I’d rather have Bannister any day in the farm system than Burgos with his bum arm and empty head.
darn, wish I knew why my thoughtful, insightful post wont, well, post!
anyway, desperate times = desperate measures. make kunz the closer, and if he rises to the occasion, you will have a good set-up guy when wags comes back. Pelf as the closer is also intriquing, if they can cover in the rotation and want to save innings.
but mostly, if the starters can have another stretch of 7-8 innings per start, it will take a big load off. The offense going nuts for a while would be fine too.
making Kunz the closer is a solution, but who can bridge from starter to Kunz? EVERYBODY in the pen is so shaky, Dirty maybe, but this bullpen is a hot mess.
Matt,
One thing about the 20 blown saves this year, how many of those games did we actually win? It’s got to be at least 5 of them, probably more…which takes a little sting out of it…
I agree that the bullpen has been nothing short of a nightmare, but Matt, your analysis is a bit lazy. While the Mets have 20 “blown saves”, the Mets actually have a record of 7-13 in those games. So if they did win half of those games, they’d still be in first, but only by one game!
I made the same exact point on my site last night and several times this month.
We should be in first place….
There’s nothing wrong with our offense…
Blow up the damn bullpen!
I couldn’t believe we were within 20 runs scored of Phillie this year. Between the ballparks and their better lineup it seems crazy…
On the other hand, if you had told me we’d give up this many more runs then Philly to this point….
If they had only held onto that 3 run lead in that horriffic game vs PHI.
They’d be tied for 1st today.
That game is going to haunt for the rest of the season
PLS EXCUSE CAPS AS ACCOMODATION FOR DISABNILITY. THANKS!
MY PROBLEM WITH NIESE REPL MAINE IN ROTATION IS SIMPLY THIS 3 LHP IN ROTATION WHILE STILL HAVING 19 OF OUR REMAINING GAMES AGAINST RH DOMINANT FL, DC, PITT IS PROBLEMATIC. BLAMING OMAR FOR THE PEN WOES FROM THE START IS LUDICROUS.. A PLAN THAT CALLS FOR REPLACING LAST YEARS SOSA & MOTA WITH REHABBING SANCHEZ & PADILLA WOULD’VE BEEN SUFFICIENT CAUSE NOT TO OVER REACT. FROM A PLANNING POSITION, MANY OF THE AVAILABLES WERE NOT GUARANTEED BETTER OPTIONS. UNFORTUNATLY, PADILLA NEVER RET’D, UNFORSEEN, AND SANCHEZ HAS BEEN ENIGMATIC. THUS GOES MANY PLANS. NO NEED FOR PERFECTION; BUT PEN IS A FLAW THAT KEEPS REPEATING ITSELF. MY BIGGER COMPLAINT IS SIMPLY THIS: WHY HASN’T OMAR BEEN ROTATING FRESHER ARMS IN FROM AAA,AA. WHEN HE HAS, JERRY FORGETS THEY’RE THERE. ie KOONZE, LUGO. NO THESE GUYS AREN’T WAGNER, PAPPLEBON OR RIVERAISH; BUT ARE THEY AS BAD AS HELLMAN, FAIL-ICIANO, SMITHEREEENS? KOONZE IS A CLOSER BEING USED IN MID-RELIEF USUALLY A DISASTER FOR BEST OF THEM. NO GAME ON LINE, NO ADERENALINE BOOST, LITTLE EFFECTIVNESS.
WHY ARE YOU YELLING AT ME?
Did you read the first sentence of his post? Don’t be a jerk.
FYI. Bullpen effectiveness based on Fangraphs WPA posted above in response to first question. Summary for those who don’t want to scroll up: Looks like Heilman is that bad and Sanchez is not so bad after all, although it is clear Sanchez is not the same pitcher in recent weeks. Overall the bullpen is to blame for the Mets woes (as if we needed formal stats to tell us that) with a -0.53 WPA versus the starters at +2.57 and hitters +0.96.
If anyone had told me at the beginning of the season that pitching was going to be our weakest link, I never would’ve believed it.
Let’s face it, in addition to the BP stinking, starters consistently don’t take us deep into games. Frankly, Maine, Perez, and Pelf underperformed for much of the season. Only Santana has been consistently good, but even he rarely takes us deep into games. The friggin’ pitch count crap has doomed many a team, and it is destroying so many Mets chances to win in 2008. There is no reason that these starters cannot throw 125-130 pitches routinely in a game.
If the argument is you try to keep them fresh for September and beyond, then it’ s bogus b/c at this rate we could be seven or eight games out by second week of September. Some BB man w/ a brain and some guts has got to intervene and overturn this pitch count madness!
Unrelated, I would be interested in a stat (if one exists) concerning the Mets seeming inability to put additional runs on the board after scoring w/in first three innings. Everyone complains about it, and to me it seems phenomenal. Situational hitting is one thing, but this going up early and then dying is quite another. I never recall a Mets dynamic as horrible as this one.
There’s no sugar coating it. Omar put together crappy bullpens for 2007 and 2008. Mota, Show, Heilman, an aging Wagner, an over-the-hill Sele, an inconsistent Feliciano, and a rehabilitating Sanchez are not what teams with WS aspirations should bank on.
He messed up bad on Bradford, and then compounded his mistake by signing such turkeys as Show and Mota.
He needs to do major surgery on this bullpen in the offseason, or his investment in Santana is wasted.
Spend major money on the bullpen (and rotation). Forget about Teixeira or any other high priced position player. The pen needs a complete overhaul.
Better yet, fire Omar and hire a GM who knows how to put together a good pen.
What Im worries me is the next six games against the Nats and Astros. We lost 3 to the Astros allready and The Nats could kick our butts as well. We have to start taking advantage of these lesser teams. Why cant we beat these sub 500 teams? I only need to watch the 8 and 9 ining of a game. That is sad. Even if we go to th eplayoffs this season feels lost to me.
Um, you do realize you can blow saves and still win, or blow multiple saves in one game…so your post makes no sense.
By my count “only” 13 of those 20 blown saves led to losses. The other seven (4/10, 4/29, 5/4, 6/11, 7/6, 7/17, and most recently, 8/7) led to wins when the bats bailed out the pen. Still troubling, no question, but the post is far from accurate…
I would Booo, but then the players and some of the fans would tell me I’m a bad fan.
Oh wait, considering the results, they deserve it.
Boooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!