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Pitching Changes (Split from 8/21 IGT)

Edgy DC Aug 21 2011 02:15 PM

I mos' def' think we need to make some pitching changes before the next game. Maybe Thayer and Schwinden. Batting-wise, I think this is good as we can put out there right now.

G-Fafif Aug 21 2011 02:24 PM Re: 8_21 IGT: Brewers at Mets

Terry had indicated no roster moves would be made pre-9/1, but geez. Hope this isn't ruining the Monks' honeymoon. It would ruin mine (a little).

Ashie62 Aug 21 2011 02:29 PM Re: 8_21 IGT: Brewers at Mets

How about Brad Holt?

Frayed Knot Aug 21 2011 02:35 PM Re: 8_21 IGT: Brewers at Mets

Ashie62 wrote: How about Brad Holt? What, the staff isn't walking enough batters for you already?

Edgy DC Aug 21 2011 02:38 PM Re: 8_21 IGT: Brewers at Mets

G-Fafif wrote: Terry had indicated no roster moves would be made pre-9/1, but geez. Yeah, well, this is the new regime --- accountability and all. Right?

John Cougar Lunchbucket Aug 21 2011 06:34 PM Re: 8_21 IGT: Brewers at Mets

Terry had indicated no roster moves would be made pre-9/1, but geez. Yeah, well, this is the new regime --- accountability and all. Right? Collins wants bullpen help ... now August, 21, 2011 By Adam Rubin Terry Collins said the Mets need bullpen help. And not on Sept. 1, when rosters expand. Now. (NOW!!!!) So the manager suggested he would talk to Sandy Alderson and try to get some assistance on the way sooner than later. “I don’t think there’s any question about it. It’s going to be discussed,” Collins said after his relief corps allowed four runs in two innings Sunday and suffered its sixth loss this month, matching the highest total in the majors. Collins added that the Mets have pretty much exhausted the options at Triple-A -- been there, done that, so to speak. So the manager floated Double-A right-hander Josh Stinson as a potential call-up. Actually, Stinson was the only reliever Collins identified by name in a question about relievers he would like to see, although the response was referring to an inquiry specifically about September call-ups. Right-handers John Lujan and Dale Thayer happen to be pitching well with Triple-A Buffalo and would be candidates as well. Stinson and Thayer are on the 40-man roster. Stinson, 23, is 4-2 with a 4.43 ERA and four saves in 23 appearances (two starts) with Binghamton this season, including Saturday’s save at Fenway Park in the B-Mets’ game at the historic stadium against Double-A Portland. He struggled in the rotation at Buffalo early in the season, posting a 7.44 ERA in 13 starts before a demotion and return to his preferred relief role. “I think he’s going to be an outstanding relief pitcher, and I think that’s where he belongs,” Collins said. “Power sinker. Great slider. Young guy.” A 37th-round pick in 2006 out of high school in Shreveport, La., who was signed over slot to lure him from attending Northwestern State University, Stinson worked in relief as a minor leaguer from ’08 until midway through last season. When B-Mets rotation members Eric Niesen suffered a concussion and Brad Holt was demoted, Stinson was given a starting assignment. “I’ve always said, whatever they see me being in the big leagues is what I’ll do,” Stinson said last week before a B-Mets game. “But I prefer relieving. You have to have more of a short-term memory. If you get hit around one night, you can go out the next night and pitch and not have to wait five days. It’s a different mindset. There’s a lot more adrenaline for me. I don’t know about others, but for me, as soon as that phone rings and you hear your name, it starts going.” Stinson throws five pitches -- fastball, sinker, curveball, slider and changeup. But in one recent appearance, 16 of the 17 pitches he threw were fastballs because the relief role allows him to pare his arsenal. Why was Stinson less successful as a starter? His explanation: “I was trying to, I think, hold stuff back to pitch longer innings. I think it took away from my game. I didn’t go out there every pitch and just let it go. That was the key, I think, of my success last year. Every pitch, when I was starting, I was letting it go. … And this year fastball command when I was up there (at Buffalo) wasn’t very good. I lost a little bit. Up there, and here, if you fall behind hitters, it’s a battle to get them out.” Stinson, by the way, planned pursue a career as an emergency-room nurse had the Mets not offered a reported $125,000 to sign him. “Every day is a different thing,” Stinson said about the attraction to that occupation. “You never know what’s going to come in. That’s why I was going to be a fireman if that didn’t work out. That’s always something different. “My scout was like, ‘We’re going to try to take you in the fourth to seventh round.’ After Day 1, it didn’t happen, so I was kind of like, ‘Well, I guess I’m going to college. In three years hopefully I’ll get drafted again.’ They came back the second day and drafted me in the 37th. At first I wasn’t sure if they were going to give me the money I was looking for. And then, luckily, they did.”

Edgy DC Aug 21 2011 06:48 PM Re: 8_21 IGT: Brewers at Mets

That's my Terry. Thought I lost you there for a little bit, buddy.

Edgy DC Aug 21 2011 09:17 PM Pitching Changes Fragment

Mets broach Mike Pelfrey to bullpen, R.A. Dickey gets little support as Mets fall to Brewers, 6-2 BY ANDY MARTINO DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER Originally Published:Sunday, August 21st 2011, 4:14 PM Updated: Sunday, August 21st 2011, 10:07 PM Mike Pelfrey, Mets closer? Mets starting pitcher R.A. Dickey gives up two runs on six hits Sunday. The Mets ask Mike Pelfrey (below) is he would be open to closing next year - an indictment of the current bullpen. This almost certainly will not happen, but it was a possibility within the past week, when some team officials suggested converting Pelfrey to that role next season. The discussions went far enough that Pelfrey was included in them. "Would you be willing to be the closer next year?" Terry Collins asked the pitcher, according to someone who was briefed on, but did not witness or participate in, the conversation. "Absolutely," Pelfrey responded. BOX SCORE: BREWERS 6, METS 2 Approached with this information before Sunday's 6-2 loss to Milwaukee at Citi Field - another defeat defined by bullpen failure, and underscoring the team's need for relief help - Collins said he did not wish to comment on a private discussion with a player. Again: This is highly unlikely to happen. Sandy Alderson did not hatch the idea of making Pelfrey a closer, and is said to be averse to it. There are other solid arguments against the move, but the general manager's "no" vote is the only one worth listing, as it is probably definitive. Still, it is revealing on several levels that the discussion occurred at all, and it underscores several realities facing the Mets in the near future. First, it is likely that Pelfrey, despite a disappointing season and a salary that will climb to about $6 million, will return next season as a member of the rotation. The team needs pitching, and Pelfrey has long established an ability to remain on the field and overcome injuries (as in 2010, when he won 15 games for a fourth-place team, despite persistent pain caused by a strained rotator cuff and shoulder capsule). His ability to contribute innings carries significant value. But as Pelfrey himself has conceded many times, he did not become the ace that his team needed this year, after it lost Johan Santana to shoulder surgery. If Pelfrey had risen to that hope, no one would have broached the idea of moving him to the bullpen. Instead, his 6-10 record, and 4.61 ERA, led to questions about his role. The closing idea, though, was far more an indictment of the current bullpen than of Pelfrey. In the 26 games since July 25, Mets relievers have posted a 5.95 ERA. Sunday's mess was typical: R.A. Dickey allowed two runs in seven innings, and left for a pinch-hitter with the game tied 2-2. The bullpen's day began when Manny Acosta walked the leadoff batter in the eighth. Over the next two innings, Acosta, Jason Isringhausen and Pedro Beato combined to allow four runs, three of them earned. "We can't stop anybody," Collins said of the bullpen, before criticizing his own strategy. "I should have stayed with R.A., see if we can keep the game tied." The manager indicated that roster moves involving the bullpen could occur before September, but hardly sounded enthused about ordering from the current menu. "We've pretty much had everyone from Buffalo," Collins said. Next year's bullpen, which Alderson plans to address more aggressively than the rotation this winter, presents similar uncertainty. The talented Bobby Parnell has yet to prove he can close, and Beato, who was in the mix for that job after the team traded Francisco Rodriguez, will not receive those opportunities this season. "I think he's getting tired," Collins said of Beato. The lack of options led the team to briefly dream of Pelfrey - who, in a rare relief appearance in San Diego last Tuesday, stormed out of the bullpen with a 96 mph fastball - as a closer. That dream quickly died, but the issues that created it remain quite real. Firstly, I'm glad to hear Collins second-guess his choice of pulling his Dickey. Starters who go deeper make bullpens better. Secondly, I'm all for this idea... if they pull Pelfrey from the rotation NOW!!!! and see if he can pitch his way into the job as a reliever, or at least approach the top of the heap by the end of the season. Starting camp next year with him penciled in as the closer after only working it out as a thought experiment is a McBad idea. Give Chris Schwinden his rotation spot, farm out Igarashi, and let him compete with Parnell and Beato over the last weeks of the season.

John Cougar Lunchbucket Aug 21 2011 09:58 PM Re: 8_21 IGT: Brewers at Mets

I was gonna mention this the other day but Terry's remarks on Pelfrey's surprise bullpen appearance last week were unusually supportive of the notion. Threw very hard, doesn't have to mess around with too many pitches bbbyyy. I suppose if you believe the jazz about Pelfrey's limited aptitude for the big picture when he throws the pen might be a place to put the guy.

MFS62 Aug 22 2011 07:17 AM Re: Pitching Changes (Split from 8/21 IGT)

He'll be performing some of the same functions as a reliever for the Mets as he would have as an emergency room nurse - stopping the bleeding and CPR. Later

smg58 Aug 22 2011 10:04 AM Re: Pitching Changes (Split from 8/21 IGT)

There ain't much to get excited about, unfortunately. Thayer is a ROOGY. Lujan has been decent. It might not be a bad idea to audition Schwinden for a long relief/sixth starter role next year. Mark Cohoon has not handled the jump to AAA well. Mark O'Connor has gone backwards. I could see Lujan and Schwinden being part of next year's pen, but the Mets are really going to need to import some arms.

Edgy DC Aug 22 2011 02:48 PM Re: Pitching Changes (Split from 8/21 IGT)

Schwinden's likely coming up for the Marlins doubleheader anyhow. Can't see a reason not to throw Pelfrey in the bullpen right now.