26.8.08

Easiest Solution: No Bullpen No Cry

Getting the feeling that in order to have any hope of salvaging the season your going to have to burn out the brightest young arm in your rotation?

Granted, back to back complete games is not necessarily Six Million Dollar Man territory. That fat guy in Milwaukee does it almost every start.

Nor is 108 pitches a particularly alarming number of pitches to through. Not unless your arm is hanging by a thread, like Pedro.


Enjoy this whilst you still can because next season he will probably be on the DL.

But surely no one can look at Pelfrey, his innings pitched, the innings he's pitched in the past and think Generation K

You get the crazy urges, I'm sure, to imagine that even Aaron Heilman could hold a 9-0 lead, but deep down you realise this isn't a certainty and sparing the stadium more late inning bullpen cock-ups theatrics is always the nice way to close out a bank holiday weekend. Even if that's only in England and not in New York.

Still, a bit of a waste of Pelfrey's arm, you might imagine.

In any event, quickest solution to the bullpen is keep them in the bullpen where they can't do any damage.

Add a pair of three run homers from Carlos Delgado (where were you Sunday when the bases were loaded, but all is forgiven) and for a night the Mets seem nearly invincible and the Astros look as mediocre as they should rightfully look given their lineup and rubbish pitching staff.

So short, sweet and painless it goes for a night. Not very good practice for when all hell breaks loose in Philly but maybe we all needed a night off of hysterics in preparation.

PS: Mr Castillo - don't think that diving catch gets you off the hook just yet.

6 comments:

katherine said...

For tonight's game, I want to suggest that Pedro give an intentional walk to the lead-off batter in the first few innings, just to avoid those pesky homers, you know?

Anonymous said...

Not a bad idea. Pedro's pitches are always up in inning one. Niese is coming. Good. You cannot fool around with guys like Figueroa or Brian Lawrence or Brandon Knight. Huh? How did Brian Lawrence get in there? Ugly flashback to 2007. Good Grief!

Anonymous said...

Jaap--I promised you nightmares and now they are here. Nice
A-Rod move there by Wright with a power hitter on deck in the
11th. When you are out by that much it is a terrible move. 3,4,5have killed us tonight so far. which not surprise me in big games. this one is a disgrace. a win would alleviate my shame somewhat. but this is why we will not win unless the Phils tank like we did last year.

Anonymous said...

oh, and sanchez and feliciano should both be CUT.

Jaap said...

katherine, intentional walks are almost worst than first pitch homeruns because they're three extra pitches closer to seeing the bullpen when Pedro is pitching...

Jaap said...

jdon - the Phillies WILL tank like we did last year. That's what will make this season ultimately so satisfying. Ok, either that or they'll just start slipping away henceforth, one ugly game at a time until first place and the wild card is no longer a reality, we can watch the Mets play out a string of meaningless games to end the season and begin the witch hunt in earnest. (not a good sign that Rollins is suddenly getting hot - wonder why Beltran/Wright/Delgado aren't flexing some MVP muscle?
Irrevocable waivers for the pen in its entirety. The frightening thing is I bet some of these duds will be back next season.