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Last night, Brian Stokes pitch four scoreless innings in relief, for a ‘save,’ while striking out three batters, walking none and allowing just three hits.
In 9.2 innings this season, he has let up four runs and 10 hits, while striking out 9 and walking one.
He has a nice, hard slider, which goes well with his 95–mph fastball, which combine very nicely for the bullpen.
It would be nice to see Stokes slot in like Darren Oliver did in 2006, pitching not only in long relief, but also filling in against righties on a night when Joe Smith or Aaron Heilman need a night off.
In short, Stokes, who had a 7.07 ERA for the Rays in 2007, could be just what the Mets have been looking for to help out in their bullpen in 2008.
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I like how Stokes has looked…but before we annoint him an answer in the pen let’s remember he had one good outing against a buried, dreadful team down 12-0.
That said, fresh blood is fresh blood. Hope he can continue to contribute.
Eh, he also pitched 6 pretty effective innings vs. a young upstart team, the Marlins. His fastball is flat out scary.
I think that we gotta try Stokes in the long relief role - and not just as a righty specialist.
I agree w/ dave27, he’s untested - but he is fresh, and he does have some nasty, nasty stuff - and right now in the pen, only Wags has that.
Not THE but AN answer to the pen.
What else can we do?
Get Wagner back healthy
Keep checking the waiver wires.
Gain more confidence in Kunz
Wagner, Kunz, Felciano, Smith, Show, Stokes, Heilman
If you pick up a waiver guy, who goes? I like Stokes being a longman in the pen. We need that guy who can come in and throw 3 innings for Pedro or Maine.
Maybe DL Sanchez to work on his velocity and bring in a waiver guy if any get there. Someone like David Weathers.
Otherwise, our best help for the BP is our SP.
In your seven man bullpen, you have Dirty gone when Billy Wags comes back. Who do you then move to make room for a waiver guy? Kunz?
Missed that but I get to cheat because by that time the rosters will be expanded ;)
Fair enough :-)
I think expanded rosters will really help the pen. It’s gonna depend on who comes up and who works out of the pen, but it could really be a great benefit to an already overworked bullpen.
DL’ing Sanchez won’t do anything. Either:
1. His shoulder was damaged to the point where he will never regain his velocity
2. Something is up with his mechanics
3. He hasn’t 100% gained his arm strength back since the injury.
My view is to let him pitch. Either the arm strength comes back or he learns how to pitch at 90-91 rather than 95-96.
Why can’t he do that making rehab starts instead of tying up a spot in our pen?
WAY too early to judge Stokes.
Last year he was an abomination in the Rays’ pen.
About Heilman needing a night off? He needed to be sent down a long time ago to New Orleans to work out his kinks.
Why not make Heilman the long guy and gives Stokes a chance as a setup in the late innings? He can’t be any worse at it than anyone else out there.
I think at this point Stokes gives us more value as a long man. Who says he can’t come in the 7th inning and pitch 2 innings? I agree it’s too early to judge but at this point the only lable I would give Heilman is MUM. (MOP UP MAN).
Wait i thought Manuel was employing the tandem starter idea that someone wrote about in the comments section of Janish’s post about reversing the game.
I guess he works as a long man as well, but isn’t that kind of the same thing… especially if he closes it out?
He could be an answer but I wouldn’t count on it. That said he’s going to be unavailable for a couple of days.
Stokes AAA numbers are crummy.
Not “crummy” just average. His ERA is high but that’s in a hitters league. The rest of his numbers are average.
His numbers are average for the PCL. However, a guy who’s basically a two pitch pitcher like Stokes is better served to a relief role. His fastball and slider are solid pitches, so he should be capable of working through an order once.
I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised by Stokes’ performance on Saturday. His stuff isn’t bad and he throws harder than I thought. Granted yesterday was against one of the worst offenses in baseball, but I like what I’ve seen so far from Stokes.
At the very worst, it’s quite clear he is better than Muniz.
I have a melted stick of butter that is better than Muniz.
You know, if you take away that game against St. Louis, Muniz stats have not been that bad. I know it seems like it but take a look.
He would have an ERA around 4.00 with a WHIP around 1.20.
Stokes as a new face and new arm is fine by me. Until he blows up like the rest of the bullpen has been doing I say keep using him. I’m actually curious to see how Burgos would do.
Been on vacation, any new news on him?
No news, really. Still rehabbing with the GCL Mets. He’s made two appearances and is tentatively scheduled to throw in this afternoon’s GCL game. He has been popping the mitt just like he used to, sitting in the high 90s.
I saw that he had pitched another inning and it was clean.
Stokes is a hard thrower that the mets really need in the bulpen to strike out someone.
Joe smith, and pedro are 1 batter to 2 batter pitchers
and Sanchez and Show could set up
while stokes comes in as a long man
that is how are bulpen setup
while Heliman could be our bat boy
RH hitters have pounded Show to the tune of a .923 OPS this season, and an .849 OPS the past three. I really don’t think you want to count on him to pitch a full inning as a setup man.
Though RH hitters have hit Feliciano almost as hard as Show this season, for his career Pedro has held RHs to an OPS of .697.
If you had to choose between Show and Feliciano as a true setup guy, Feliciano is your better bet.
The problem with Stokes is that, even though he seems to throw hard, historically he has not been a strikeout pitcher. It is curious how a guy who was hitting 95 and 96 on the gun consistently doesn’t have a history of striking guys out.
Maybe Warthen or whoever is in AAA now has done some work with him to strike more guys out, I don’t know. What little he’s shown so far has been encouraging, and is not consistent with a guy who had a 7 ERA last year.
Just throwing hard though doesn’t do much but have home runs leave the park faster.
His fastball straightens out when he throws it 95/96. If he took off a few MPH so it would have some movement, then you’d prolly see an increase in K’s
Cliff Lee, Justin Verlander and Ben Sheets don’t strike out a ton of guys either. He has a hard fastball but as ravi noted, it is straight. It’s also one of only two pitches that he really throws, making it less likely that pitchers are overpowered by it.
Just another example of why you don’t trade prospects for middle relievers at the trade deadline (or any other time, for that matter).
My little 11 year old cousin who plays little league is an answer to this bullpen. He also catches, plays short, second, and left field.
This pen is just not clutch, and crumple at tough spots. Hopefully the others can pick it up after a few days off.
Any chance he pitches 38 I scoreless like that friggin’ Ziegler?!