Opinion: Putz, Delgado and Maine, the Linchpins
Bob Klapisch of the Bergen Record lists the top 10 players to watch in 2009, including J.J. Putz, of whom he writes:
“He might be the best closer in Flushing, but if the right-hander can live as K-Rod’s set-up man, the Mets will crush those last six outs the way the Yankees did with Joba Chamberlain and Mariano Rivera. Putz has an elite-caliber fastball and even better splitter; he used it to strike out both Carlos Delgado and Carlos Beltran in the Team USA’s stunning comeback victory over Puerto Rico. The key question is whether Putz really enjoys pitching in the eighth inning. Stay tuned on that.”
The way I see it, Putz, John Maine and Carlos Delgado are the linchpins to this team’s success.
Johan Santana will be the team’s ace. Mike Pelfrey will likely have a hiccup at some point, but, for the most part, 
he’s matured at a steady enough rate, and grown intellectually as a pitcher, that I trust he will be consistent, efficient and strong. Meanwhile, despite a new contract, Oliver Perez gives me no reason to believe he’ll be anything than Oliver Perez, i.e., a start-by-start coin flip. Lastly, I believe Livan Hernandez will be better than some fans think, but he’s still just a fifth starter, who, at best, will simply ‘keep his team in the game.’
This leaves Maine, who, to me, is sort of like a swing man. Maine is the pivot, or the linchpin, the guy who, if he has a strong season, will turn this in to a very good rotation, but who, if he struggles, could tip the rotation in to rocky ride.
The same can be said for Putz, who, like Maine, is the linchpin to the bullpen, delivering the ball from the situational relievers to Francisco Rodriguez. If Putz is dominant, the bullpen falls in to place; if he struggles, he’ll have a ripple effect through the rest of the staff.
Lastly, the same can be said for Delgado, who will bat clean-up for the Mets this season. He is essentially propping up the middle the batting order. Jose Reyes, David Wright and Carlos Beltran, for all their strength, can be very inconsistent. Delgado will be needed to provide power to the middle of the order. If he struggles, like the start of last season, regardless of how well Reyes, Wright and Beltran are hitting, the team will struggle to score; if Delgado is clicking, the lineup will rotate like a merry-go-round, as we saw during the second half of the season in 2008.
For more on the team’s bullpen, read Jim Baumbach in Newsday.
