In a report for ESPN.com, Jayson Stark 
analyzes Omar Minaya’s recent bullpen additions, complete with a variety of interesting stats.
According to one long-time talent evaluator, who talked to Stark, nobody in baseball has a better tagteam than J.J. Putz and Francisco Rodriguez.
“To me, they’re the best,” the talent evaluator said, ‘and they’re not just a great duo, they’re a strikeout duo too. There won’t be many balls in play when those two guys are out there. As big as strikeouts are in the ninth inning, sometimes they’re even bigger in the eighth…The Mets can play a 21-out game now.”
{ 31 comments }
Confidence in the 8th and 9th? What are these stranges feelings that have come over me?
nice batman and robin insinuation.. i said all along, if we would’ve gotten k-rod and woods or putz outside of joba and mariano we would have the best 1-2 punch in late games..
i love that we had severe 8th and 9th inning bullpen problems so we went out and got two great closers for each inning! unprecedented, but highly necessary. great job omar, now get manny!!!!!!
yeaa babyyyyy………
lol @ snipz
Does anyone really feel relief until they actually see these guys perform consistently in the 8th and 9th? At this point I just can’t believe it until I see it with these Mets.
wow, i tell you guys.. if manny comes here or teixeira that’s when we really would have a conference press…
For the first time in months, I’m encouraged.
Wow…where are all of the FIYA MINAYA critics? A couple of days ago ppl were calling for his head as we all thought he was sleeping when he was actually revving up the train for an Extreme Bullpen Makeover! Kudos to Omar. I have always been an Omar guy, since before he was GM to our friendly neighbors to the north.
Give the guy his due props, all you haters turned lovers!! Now let’s go get some starting pitching and another RH bat so my Christmas can be complete. Thank you Omar!
BTW….when do pitchers and catchers report?
Stark framed the Mets bullpen issues perfectly in his column. The stats regarding how much their bullpen hurt the team are stunning.
Kudos to the Wilpons and Omar for addressing the main weakness so well.
I still can’t believe this, We may have one of the most dominant bullpens next year.
Yeah, let’s just wait and see. I like the dynamic, and the dynamism that these 2 project— we need some of that attitude back!
On top of that, the word was that we wanted an 8th inning guy who could also close in a pinch, and obviously Putz can do that and then some. I think you will see him closing on quite a few occasions– a good hedge in case K-Rod blows out his arm on one of his wacked-out deliveries.
Here’s my projected 7-man bullpen:
K-Rod
Putz
Sanchez/Cordero (yes, I think we will get him, even if he can’t start the season on the roster)
Feliciano
Green
Parnell
Stokes (long man?)
The question is– do we need another lefty? Probably yes, but not Schoe.
While I love what he has done to the bull pen, he has a tremendous amount of work left to do. To say the least, our rotation is pretty questionable at best at the moment…
I mean we have Santana, Maine (coming off an injury), & Neise. Seems like we’re missing several pieces to our puzzle.
I Love It!!!
“So one miraculous trade later, this doesn’t just look like a whole new bullpen. It looks like a whole new team.”
something special is about to happen
Yeah Show was supposed to get both lefties AND righties out. We all know how that turned out….
I’m curious on how Duaner’s shoulder is going to be. Conti said last year he believes Sanchez “isn’t letting it loose”.
i gotta get my tickets in place for next season i gota see putz and k rod back to back its going to be sweet
santana, pelfrey, perez, penny, maine…. a dominating starting pitching staff….if every 3rd day we forgot perez… but 4 outa 5 aint bad…
Great column by Stark
MeetTheMets says: “I mean we have Santana, Maine (coming off an injury), & Neise. Seems like we’re missing several pieces to our puzzle.”
We’ve got Pelfrey in the mix too.
I loved “…and that was in the American league, where lineups run nine deep”
…because so many pitchers hit in the ninth inning over in the weak sister NL. More thinking, less sillytalk, Mr Stark.
Whoops, yah I forgot Big Pelf, but that’s still a very weak rotation
omar min-ay-a, clap clap clapclapclap
i’ve been begging for two closers for two years. finally.
don’t be afraid to make it three :)
I still want another 7th/8th guy, because I think Sanchez has lost it, Show never had it, and Feliciano is a situational lefty. Sean Green is no better than those three nor is Darren O’Day and both are a downgrade from Joe Smith. I’d like to see if we can get Juan Cruz, Joe Biemel, or Dennys Reyes for something at or less than $2.75M for 2 years. Another option is to offer spring training invites to Keith Foulke, Scott Elarton, and Kip Wells and see if any of them can recreate their loss magic in a bullpen role.
We still need an SP. It looks like the Yankees are going to run the table on the big 3 (CC, Lowe, and AJ) which doesn’t leave a lot of options. I’d rather see extending 1 yr incentive laden contracts to both Pedro and Randy Johnson.
Now all we need is a great nickname for the two of them
Batman & Robin
Thunder & Lightning
Vanilla & Cinammon
Cagney & Lacey
Cannon & Ball
Cheech & Chong
Cocoa & Butter
Dastardly & Mutley
Ernie & Bert
Gumby & Pokey
Johnson & Johnson (my personal favorite)
Lennon & McCartney
Lone Ranger & Tonto
Mario & Luigi
Penn & Teller
J/K
K-Putz
Come’on Cerrone, this is the best article you could find!!! Look harder
One of the main concerns with K-Rod is that his Strikeout ratio is dropping consistently year to year. So it pretty much blows Stark’s point out of the water.
Secondly is he serious about about the AL having batting orders 9 deep. Yeah because the NL teams always send up the pitcher in the 8th and 9th inning when they are losing. It’s a valid point when you are a SP less so when you are in the NL.
Come’on Cerrone stop trying to be a celebrity and find some good articles that really provide analysis, you wanker.
Cerrone, you know I am only kidding I love you and it was nice to meet your wife last night.
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