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On his blog for ESPN 1050, SportsClicker, citing the player’s agent, Bean Stringfellow, Andrew Marchand writes:
“The best case scenario for Billy Wagner even considering returning to the Mets is
three weeks.”
According to Marchand, citing a ‘source,’ if the Mets turn to Triple-A for a call up, ‘their first choice could be Bobby Parnell.’
…first off, any time i get to write ‘Bean Stringfellow,’ it’s a good day…
…lastly, three weeks…this is pretty much what i deduced this morning, just using a bit of logic…but, damn, to see it in print from wagner’s agent makes it hurt a little bit more…
This is OT, but you know who will be starting if Pavano can’t Saturday?
That’s right. Victor Zambrano. Ahahahahahahaha, I’m so sorry, Yankees.
He’s probably shot because of the injuries, but his ERA as a Met was better than average. It’s a shame the hate that man received because of a deal he simply was a part of. He wasn’t the GM. He did his best. Just let go.
VZ will probably come up and twirl a 3-hit shutout for those scumbags.
Better yet, he’ll be another pitcher to leave the Mets and throw a No Hitter.
Parnell is one of those guys who has the potential to step in and have immediate success out of the bullpen.
having never seen him, what does he feature?
Fastball with sink, not as heavy as a Pelfrey or Kunz, but with some sink
As a starter, the fastball is 90-91 and touches 95. As a reliever, he would sit 93-95 (he supposedly touched 98 in his last AAA start)
Pretty good slider with some tilt
Good minor league success against lefties as well as righties
Better against the lineup first time through
Dan Werthen, is that you?
I look less like Hank Hill, sadly.
What makes you think Parnell can step in and have success? Parnell’s got decent stuff, but he hasn’t been overpowering as a starter. He sits around 91-93. He gets more groundballs than strikeouts.
Now, I know what people are thinking, “well groundballs are good.” That’s true, but Parnell has been a starter exclusively. What makes us think he can transition over to a reliever just like that? If Kunz, who is a closer and has better stuff, found the adjustment hard, where does that leave Parnell.
We have to stop buying into the hype and over-valueing minor league numbers.
He can throw harder as a reliever. You don’t have to conserve energy.
What about the over-hyped Murphy and Evans? You might as well give a chance. And no reliever will have success pitching once every 10 days. I just think the bullpen can’t get much worse. I think they should try other people before messing with our starting rotation, which in my opinion is near the top in the NL.
give him a chance*
Dudes, you can’t bring up a AA starting pitcher and insert him as the closer of the New York Mets (with the NY media all over him) while we’re in the middle of a pennant race. Sheesh.
Did you see what happened to Kunz when they stuck him in the 7th inning of some game? He a$$ was no tight, you couldn’t get a pin up it.
Forget about Parnell as the closer.
Who wants him to close right away?
I bet he could help the bullpen in a middle relief role.
And he’s had 2 starts at AAA now.
the skankees did it with JOBA last year and he started the year in A ball. if a kid has the stuff, then give him a shot
How about Chris Parnell?
parnell and not kunz? its time to sign reyes from the devil rays who was recently released.. could be good and 3 reyes’s are better than 2!
We should corner the market on players with the last name Reyes….lol
We got a kid somewhere in the minors named Reyes as well. We need to bring him up. And while we are at it bring up anyone named Carlos.
Can we get a Carlos Reyes?? I don’t care from where…just get him…
Reminds me of the early 90’s when every player on the Knicks had some derivation of either “Anthony” or “Charles” in their name. Greg Anthony, Anthony Bonner, Tony Campbell, Charles Oakley, Charles Smith, Charlie Ward. They desperately needed a player named Charles Anthony.
Don’t forget Anthony Mason
Of course. Silly me.
Too bad we had to trade Carlos Gomez.
He’s done, best to move on like he’s not even on the team anymore
Unfortunately, I think this is a reasonable opinion.
I know Jerry has already dismissed this possibility, but I really think the way to go for this year and next is to move Maine from the rotation into the closer’s role. I think with his stuff and mentality, he would be one of the better closer’s in baseball. You can replace him with either Stokes or Neise this year and next year take the money some want to spend on K-Rod and put towards a starter. K-Rod is just a devastating injury waiting to happen, especially the way the Angels are overusing him this year. If they bite the bullet on Ollie and/or can bring Pedro back on the cheap next year, a rotation of Johan, Pelf, Ollie, Garland/Pedro, Niese/Parnell could be halfway decent.
It’s not feasible with Maine’s shoulder to have him close right now. It needs rest and treatment in between starts just to get him ready to pitch again.
Pedro is in the same boat with his shoulder.
The best starter to fill the closer’s role would be Mike Pelfrey. We want to limit his innings anyway.
I could be sold on Pelfrey. I know Maine needs the “rest” between starts, but I don’t see how pitching 2-3 days in a row max for an inning is going to be considerably more stressful on his shoulder than pitching 5-6-7 innings every five days. If he’s that hurt, he shouldn’t be pitching at all frankly.
As for the other reply of mine, I’m not totally comfortable with Stokes and Niese in a pennat race but if Maine is only going to be 5 innings as he’s been doing for some time now, using the bullpen without a viable option to close 4 innings every 5 days is going to be just as bad for us through the end of the season as having a guy like Stokes or Niese in the rotation and a reliable starter anchoring the back-end of the bullpen.
I think with the shoulder injury, you want to get it on as much of a treatment schedule as you can. The thing with closers is that you can be asked to pitch 4 or 5 times in a week or just once. And maybe he has to warm up 5 times but only gets in twice.
As a starter, the Mets have a controlled environment with which to handle/treat Maine’s shoulder.
I think Ollie’s delivery most similarly resembles Wagner’s. If a starter is going to be moved to the pen, I think it should be Ollie. Ollie doesn’t really give you that many innings. He will give you 7 – tops. But it seems more frequently that he is out before that.
If they are going to try to fill it from within, I would think Heilman deserves another chance. If that fails, then give the ball to Kunz again.
I agree that Maine has the mentality to do it, but I also think Pelf is the best option due to the fact that he has great stuff and is entering unchartered territory for for innings pitched. but like Matt wrote earlier, the mets are 12-3 in his last 15 starts. If we had a 10 game lead it would be easier to justify, but right now they need to go with the hot hand in the rotation since it’s been such a successful formula. That being said, if he looks tired in his next few starts it’s a viable option. If the Mets make the post season they won’t need a 5th starter, especially in a divisional round. I would be ok trotting out Johan, Big gme Ollie, Pedro, and a combination of Johnny Maine and Big Pelf. So jerry and omar have to do whatever is the best move to get there first
There will already be enough questions with next year’s rotation without moving Maine out of it. Let alone moving Niese or Stokes into the rotation during a pennant race.
Would you really feel comfortable if the last week of the season comes down to starts involving either of them?
If anything, bring Niese up to the bullpen in September.
I’m just curious … how is K-Rod being overused? He is right on pace with his average IPs.
Yes, he has a ton of saves, but it’s not like he is pitching everyday. The Angels happened to have a lot of save situations this year. K-Rod also has a handful of 1 out and 2 out saves this season. As a matter of fact, he hasn’t pitched in more than one inning in any game this year.
The Mets should give K-Rod whatever he wants.
Agreed. 100%
Parnell would be a good option. His splits suggest that he is quite effective for at least his first two innings. He mainly gets touched up more as the game goes deeper.
I kind of agree. The other thing is he will be new to all of the hitters and will help down the stretch. Niese has been scouted a lot more closely.
Let’s get Parnell on the plane, then. What the heck are they waiting for?
Honestly, the scouting report on Parnell suggests that he could excel at this role, at least for a while. Bring him up and let him have at it.
If Kunz, the AA closer, can’t be our closer, then why in the world would you think Parnell can be it?
Forget about Parnell.
Pedro is the best option.
Parnell is further along in development with more pitches. His ERA isn’t the best but he is solid the first time through the lineup. Kunz still needs time to develop other pitches.
You cannot throw Parnell (no pun intende) into this situation at this time of the season. He’ll get eaten alive.
“Maybe you can help me straighten out my Stringfellow!”
-Thornton Mellon
Announcer: “Thornton Mellon will attempt, the triple lindy.”
Mellon’s romantic interest (forgot who it was): “Is that dive hard?”
Robert Downey Jr: “It’s impossible.”
Go with what you have, either bring up Kunz and say close and put everyone else in their beloved “roles” or just play the favorite hand, but no trade is going to bring in a top flight closer.
They aren’t going to get anyone through waivers but they could make a trade after Sept. 1 for a guy like Street, have him close and help you get to the playoffs and then you use the guys you have along with a starter that doesn’t make the postseason rotation to close. Its not perfect but they need to try and get to the playoffs first and see how things work themselves out. Maybe by the end of september wagner can come back and be ready for the playoffs.
I think it is time to consider bringing up Kunz and just letting him pitch as the closer. We can consider having a someone be standing by warming up in case he hits that proverbial blow up inning.
But it should be Kunz’s job.
Only Show has really demonstrated that he is pretty consistent in the pen.
Joe Smith is not closer material, Heilman can and can’t all in the same inning, Felciano…no, Stokes…no, Sanchez…should not even be in the pen his stuff is so diminished.
To me it should Kunz. Tell him he is pitching as the closer and then just trust him to get the outs. His stuff is fine. He pitched a few innings while up and poorly but he was used every 5th day and in situations that we were not closing opps.
It’s not that I disagree with you, but Jerry obviously didn’t seem to trust Kunz.
He got that HR hit off of him in his second start, and that seemed to scare Manuel away.
second appearance, not start*
“Kunz? We get Kunz on our back porch all the time and mama just whack em off with a broom.”
PED-RO!
P-E-D-R-O, P-E-D-R-O, P-E-D-R-O and Pedro was his name-o.
whats the latest with el duque? I havent heard his name in a while.
here’s idea outside the box … have our 6th starter (neise, etc.) start two games per rotation and go exactly 3 innings each time. Finish (or close to it) with Pedro and Maine, each starting 4th inning fresh.
Less pressure on No. 6 (won’t blow another pitcher’s win with a couple of runs) … hopefully fresh face gets thru line-up one time, can go all out … scheduled pitching means No. 6 won’t be up and down in BP warming up every game or worrying about getting call … could be good way for kid to get feet wet. Rest of the BP wouldn’t have to be warming up and sitting down from 5th inning on, maybe those guys might be a little stronger the other nights …. Also, for team, if number 6 gives up three quick runs or something, there would be some innings left to catch up . Scheduled days of rest for BP. Get that Pedro and Maine experience with game on line late and something still in the tank, and little bonus for them, hopefully get those guys a few extra Ws for their 5 or 6 solid innings.
As i say, outside the box, but there aren’t too many good options inside the box.
I see good and bad coming out of that. If Niese blows up and they are down 6-0 in the 4th inning, would you bring Pedro into that game? It’s kind of a waste if you think about it. It could work if you instead used your bullpen, but still don’t know about it working.
My concern with moving a solid starter to the pen is that he will catch whatever virus is floating around out there in our bullpen. I wouldn’t want any of our younger starters to morph into one of our bullpen guys.
Outside the box. Santana can close :)
if whoever we bring in to solve the problem is giving up 6 runs, we are pancakes anyway. and we’d have to let pedro pitch no matter what to keep rotation intact … but think how pumped we would be for pedro to shut em down after down 6-0 and have team come back for W!
I understand we would be toast, but I’m saying it is a very real scenario. You would bring Pedro in to a game that you are already down 6-0? I wouldn’t, short of a must win or playoff game anyway.
ah, i don’t know, won’t happen anyway (until Larussa trots out the strategy someday) if pedro did come in the fourth and finishes the game for Mets win, does he get win or save?? Let’s give him both!!
He would get a win. Starting pitcher must go 5 innings to get the win.
He should sign a one year deal with the Mets. They can bring him in to any game that is tied thru 5 innings or so. Bring him in and the moment they get the lead, take him out. Get him to 300. Though, that may take about 3 years. :)
EL DUQUE!!
El-Duque? One, he’s not healthy. Two, he has too big a leg kick to be the closer.
I’m telling you, IT’S PEDRO TIME!
He’s the only one who has the “je ne se qua” or moxy, if you will, to handle that role at this time of the year.
I was being sarcastic…
Oooops. You never know around here, unfortunately. Sorry.