Tag Archives: Nelson Figueroa
In an honest and emotional post to their family blog, here, Nelson Figueroa’s wife, Alisa, explains the ins and 
outs, emotionally, mentally and logistically, of the team’s decision to designate her husband for assignment, writing:
“Nelson is upset. He did what is asked of any starting pitcher in baseball – he gave them a quality start and kept them in the game… He expected more than 1 day in the big leagues this time around.”
…it did come out of no place… i mean, i think most people felt he would stick around as the team’s long man… then, bam, dfa’d in favor of Casey Fossum… i like nelson, he seems like a good guy, but he’s also a good pitcher, who i think can bring a lot to the table as a middle reliever, spot starter and long man – if given a chance… hopefully he clears and ends up back in Triple-A for the Mets, because he will almost certainly get the call again to help the 25–man roster later in the season…
Speaking of Figueroa, go here to watch a video clip of an interview he did prior to his weekend start for the Mets.
Tagged Nelson Figueroa |
The Mets designated Nelson Figueroa for assignment following today’s loss to the Brewers.
The Mets purchased the contract of Casey Fossum from Triple-A Buffalo, who will take Figueroa’s spot on the roster.
…so, let me get this straight, essentially, the Mets just traded figueroa and Darren O’Day for fossum… i mean, there really wasn’t a more efficient way to bring on a spot starter for the afternoon… seriously, any time roster management comes to in play, i panic, because, while i believe Omar Minaya does a good job with major acquisitions, i feel he fumbles the ball a lot on these little moves…
…i feel bad for nelson, actually, who i wish could find a permanent job on a roster… hopefully he ends up back in the system…
Tagged Nelson Figueroa |On Sunday, David Wright was kneed in the head while sliding into second base during the World Baseball Classic.
Wright remained in the game, but told reporters later he felt dizzy while insisting he was fine.
Meanwhile, Team USA will play Puerto Rico in an elimination game today, meaning either Wright and J. J. Putz or Carlos Beltran, Carlos Delgado, Alex Cora, Pedro Feliciano and Nelson Figueroa will return to St. Lucie by the end of the week.
Lastly, Mexico was eliminated from the WBC last night, so Oliver Perez will likely return to camp in the next day or so.
Perez went 0-1 during the tournament, and allowed eight runs, three walks and 13 hits, including five homers, in two starts.
In a report for the New York Post, Bart Hubbuch says, “Club officials were especially hot yesterday after Mexico manager Vinny Castilla had Perez throw 85 pitches… Perez wouldn’t be anywhere near that number in an appearance right now if he were back with the Mets.”
To read more about Perez, and Dan Warthen, read Priced Out of the Citi.
Tagged Nelson Figueroa, Oliver Perez, Pedro Feliciano |‘The Mets are among the teams that have begun 
to request financial requirements for Pedro Martinez,’ explains Steve Popper in the Bergen Record, while citing one person familiar with the discussions.
Jon Heyman of SI.com believes the Mets, Pirates, Dodgers and Indians, as well as a couple of other teams, are interested in Martinez.
…i don’t doubt that… they should be interested… the thing is, are the interested at his price…
Heyman believes Martinez is still seeking a guaranteed, one-year deal, worth between $5 million and $8 million, according to team executives.
“Martinez has said he’d love to go back to the Mets,” Heyman writes, “but he and New York remain far enough apart financially that that scenario seems fairly remote.”
…here’s the question, for the Mets: Will Martinez pitch $7 million better than Livan Hernandez, Jon Niese or even Bobby Parnell…
…he may, but he may not… and, if the Mets are unwilling to spend even $1 million, why would they cave and spend seven times that for what may be perceived to be as much of a gamble as livan, niese or parnell…
…what’s more, if he stinks, how do you cut Pedro Martinez… i just don’t see the Mets being that disrespectful… instead, they’d probably end up hanging on to him too long in to the summer, as a more deserving pitcher entices you and i in the minor leagues… i mean, i can see it coming a mile away… all for millions of dollars…
…on the hand, livan is expendable… niese or parnell can be shuttled back and forth between Triple-A and Queens, at no major cost… Tim Redding will be back eventually… frankly, i am confused why Nelson Figueroa has remained absent from this discussion, since i believe he would make a good fifth starter as well…
…if the Mets had to sign a free-agent, i’d rather they sign Odalis Perez for peanuts, then give $8 million to pedro…
…the thing is, we’re talking about a fifth starter here…
…in even the most successful seasons, a team’s fifth starter will change a handful of times anyway… it’s just the way it is… some one gets hurt, a guy is terrible, he’s great, things change, and a collection of pitchers will make those missing 30 or so starts under even the best circumstances…
…right now, i am far more concerned with Mike Pelfrey, Johan Santana’s elbow, John Maine’s shoulder and Oliver Perez’s brain…
Tagged Nelson Figueroa, Pedro Martinez |The Mets announced today that they have 
signed Nelson Figueroa, Adam Bostick, infielder Andy Green, and catcher Rene Rivera to minor league deals.
Figueroa was 3-3 with a 4.57 ERA for the Mets last year.
Bostick had his season limited to 11 games after undergoing left knee surgery on May 27. He was 2-2 with a 6.04 ERA in Triple-A last season.
Green, 31, spent all of last season in the minor leagues with the Mets and Reds. He hit .331 with 10 doubles, two triples, eight HR and 28 RBI in 52 games with the Triple-A Zephyrs.
Rivera had been batting .227 with a .252 OBP in 53 major-league at bats with the Mariners.
Tagged Nelson Figueroa |According to MLB.com, the Mets sent RHP Nelson Figueroa, LHP Adam Bostick and C Gustavo Molina outright to Triple-A Buffalo, removing them from the team’s 40–man roster.
…thanks to steve in nc for the heads up…
Tagged Nelson Figueroa |This off-season, I intend to do interviews with players, executives, reporters, bloggers, fans, etc., on the subject of blogging and baseball – as I try to learn more about the medium.
Today, I talk with Nelson Figueroa, not only 
because he pitched for the Mets in 2008, but because he also has a blog of his own, which he writes with his wife, Alisa, titled The Figueroas.
By the way, Nelson and his wife also help with the blog Rally for Recovery, which is currently running an impressive sports memorabilia auction that will benefit former Major League Baseball player Ricky Stone, who was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor in August 2008.
Matthew Cerrone, from MetsBlog.com: So, to what extent are you guys, as players, aware of blogging and aware of new media? I know that the newspapers are dominant, but are you aware of these other communication tools?
Nelson Figueroa: Absolutely. I think that it’s the kind of media that is so instant and current and there are so many inside tips that you read about. I was in Triple-A and I heard about things that were happening with the Mets organization through different blogs…They can voice their opinions and other things on blogs. So, it’s a new medium that people are taking advantage of and I think a lot of fans use well.
Matthew Cerrone: At the same time, what used to just be facts and then reporting has now become a lot of opinion. Even myself, a lot of times I feel awkward being here, at the stadium, around players, because, you know, I might have said something about somebody and I get paranoid about that. How do you guys deal with that added element now?
Nelson Figueroa: Well, we can’t change it, that’s the thing. That’s the downside to it, because all of a sudden everybody thinks that because they can write a blog they are an expert. You know, they feel they can judge you based upon the fact that they’ve seen two years of baseball, they know everything about the game and what went into the game…
Although it’s a great medium for people to get some inside information, it’s also, in a lot of ways, it hurts some people because there are things that come out that there is no validity to.
You know, you can hear about things, like where a guy ate dinner 
last night to where they saw him out at a club. There is no way to back us up because if you refute that kind of story, then obviously you must have done it or you must be guilty. So, it makes it tough as a professional athlete to be out and about anywhere…
Because, if one video of you out some place, or one little clip comes out on YouTube, you know, all of a sudden, that gets blogged about more than anything and anything that you have done up to that point. So, it makes it, it is a little tougher to be a professional athlete especially in a city like New York. You know, where there are a lot of eyes on you.
Matthew Cerrone: Does that make you guys want to be more distant, or be a bit more guarded than you would like?
Nelson Figueroa: I think that’s a downside, you know, the superstar, the David Wright, the Pedro Martinez, the Johan Santana, it’s harder for them to go out anywhere. You know, just to go out to the mall, because you never know what somebody is going to write about you – especially in a blog. Or, if someone is going to take a photo of you doing something and it might come out. I think for the superstars, they need to worry about that. Even some guys, up-and-coming rookies who don’t know any better, they go out to a bar and have a shot or two, and there will be a picture of them doing a shot. So, it makes it tough, but then again it’s part of being a professional athlete, so it’s the dual-edged sword.
Matthew Cerrone: At the same time, technically, a player could write his own blog, like Curt Schilling. I mean, you could almost circumvent the media by taking control of the dialogue. Does that ever cross anybody’s mind?
Nelson Figueroa: It does, but, again, because of the various things, whether they are good, bad or indifferent, if your opinion is different than management, different than the manager, different than your follow teammate, you don’t want it to be misconstrued in a certain way. Even though you might be talking about one instance, if it gets taken the wrong way it could affect the chemistry in the ball club and people don’t want to be around you, they don’t want to be near you, people don’t want to go out with you because they think, ‘Hey, this might come out on his blog.’ So, it’s very hard during the season to write a blog.
In the off season, you know, it’s a little different, I could write about my travels all over the world, I’ve blogged about that. I’ve 
blogged about my experiences with my family life in my downtime. That is something that is really important to me and a lot of people don’t get to share in. So, being that I was in Taiwan and Japan last year, I had an opportunity for everybody to know how I was doing on a daily basis – and people kept up with it… But, it is hard to do it during the season; it is something that is kind of frowned upon just because of that fact.
Matthew Cerrone: Especially here in New York.
Nelson Figueroa: Oh, absolutely. I mean, if you look at Wikipedia, if you go on and read something about yourself you can go on and erase it. But, other than that, somebody can put whatever they want about you. I mean, my sister’s name has changed three different times. It said in 2003 that I converted to Judaism. So, if I don’t stay on top of that and if I don’t stay on top of what is out there about myself and just checking whether it is photos or this or that…
My wife reads the blogs all the time and there was a blog where someone was like, “There are three people on this earth that I would like to kill,’ and my name came up as one of them and my wife just wanted to know why he would say that.
Matthew Cerrone: For the record, I’m pretty sure that was not me. At least, I hope it wasn’t me (laughing).
Nelson Figueroa: I’m almost sure it was not you (laughing).
It was just one of those things that it is a scary world and, again, with the Internet and people having access to the Internet, you know it is hard to police that sort of thing. At the same time, we are fortunate enough that we have MLB securities so that if something like that does turn up, they handle it and that website is probably taken down very quickly.
Matthew Cerrone: Thank you very much, Nelson.
Nelson Figueroa: No problem. Thank you.
Tagged Nelson Figueroa |
Mets Walk-Offs provides a listing of a surprising number of left-handed starters who have made their Major League debut for the Mets.
Over at Always Amazin’, Matthew Artis says this September will be different for the Mets because after last September, we’ve already seen the worst they can do.
Metstradamus looks at the continuing comparision of Daniel Murphy and Wade Boggs, and he believes Murphy needs to continue his ‘Boggsian’ effort if the Mets will be without Carlos Beltran for awhile.
…from the beginning when people were trying to find a comparison for Murphy’s batting stance, my first thought was boggs…i even mentioned this to MetsBlog’s own Regis Courtemanche at a recent game…glad to know others see it as well…
Meanwhile, over at the New York Post, Bart Hubbuch takes a look at Nelson Figueroa‘s return.
Tagged Mike Nichols, Nelson Figueroa |Yesterday, Nelson Figueora, who pitched a perfect seventh inning, let up a lead-off double in the eighth inning. However Pedro Feliciano struck out Prince Fielder, after which Joe Smith struck out Corey Hart and Mike Cameron to end the inning.
Luis Ayala, who is pitching with a sore groin, retired Milwaukee in order for a save in the ninth inning.
Jerry Manuel, regarding yesterday’s bullpen, speaking to reporters following the game, said:
“They stepped up, attacked the hitters and threw strikes, and the catchers did a good job bringing them through that. I felt going in, with a lot of our righthanders, that we appear to match up very well against this team. They’re a very aggressive club and we were able to get it done.”
In their last two appearances, the Mets bullpen has not let up a run.
In the four games before that, they let up seven runs.
The sooner we accept the rocky reality of this team’s bullpen, the better off we will be. This is how it’s going to work it seems: The bullpen will look great, ease our minds, then explode the minute we exhale.
Thankfully, the same can be said for most bullpens.
Tagged Nelson Figueroa |The Mets have put Ramon Castro on the 15–day disabled list, and replaced him on the roster with Robinson Cancel, who has been promoted from Triple-A New Orleans.
Additionally, Nelson Figueroa has been promoted and will be available in the bullpen for the Mets tonight in Philadelphia.
As such, Argenis Reyes has been optioned back to Triple-A.
For more information, be sure to check out 
‘s Pre-Game Show starting at 6:30 pm, featuring Matt Yalloff, Kevin Burkhardt, Lee Mazzilli and Harold Reynolds.
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