Jul 17 2007 07:45 AM
Pro's pro Adam Rubin files late, summing up Heath's beefs, and lays out the current picture of Minaya's offseason in it's fugly glory.
Bell rings true for San Diego
Ex-Met Heath happy after being traded
BY ADAM RUBIN
DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER
Tuesday, July 17th 2007, 4:00 AM
SAN DIEGO - Heath Bell's lowest moment as a Met may have occurred during spring training three years ago, when the reliever was told there was no room for him at Norfolk, the organization's highest minor-league affiliate.After an '03 season in which he pitched at Triple-A with a stress fracture in his right arm that team doctors frustratingly failed to diagnose, Bell was told he could hang on in Double-A. Or, if Bell preferred, the Mets would release him without any strings, freeing him to sign elsewhere.
After struggling with inconsistent use by and mixed messages from Mets organization, Heath Bell has turned frown upside-down as key part of bullpen in San Diego.
"I said, 'Hey, I need a job. I have kids,'" Bell recalled.
So Bell persevered, and made it all the way to the majors by the end of that '04 season, which set up what's now a productive post-Mets career.
Traded last Nov.15 to the Padres with another San Diego-born pitcher, lefty reliever Royce Ring, for Ben Johnson and Jon Adkins, Bell has become an important member of the bullpen for his hometown club. He is 3-2 with 54 strikeouts and a 2.22 ERA in 52-2/3 innings, including a scoreless frame last night.
"I'm really happy the Mets gave me an opportunity to play pro ball when nobody did," said Bell, who still lives with his wife Nicole and three children in the Port St. Lucie home he had built shortly before the trade. "I'm also grateful for them finally calling me up in '04 to give me a chance in the major leagues. They're the ones who gave me a chance when no on drafted me. I'm always going to be grateful from that aspect. And I'm really grateful for San Diego giving me a big chance to perform in the big leagues and show what I can do."
Being offered his release had competing moments for Bell's lowest as a Met.
Bell recalled with some disdain how in September '05 he went unused for 27 days. He's also disappointed by what he calls "never being told the truth" while on a yo-yo between the big leagues and minors last season. In a Q&A in yesterday's San Diego Union-Tribune, Bell identified the best part about playing in New York as "when I got traded to San Diego." (He praised Mets fans, however.)
Bell particularly clashed with pitching coach Rick Peterson, who once halted the inline skating from Bell's home to the team's spring-training complex that had produced dramatic weight loss. Peterson, whose views on Bell's delivery didn't sit well with the reliever, feared the skating was an injury waiting to happen.
Bell suggested that he never checks the stats on Johnson (.281 average at Triple-A New Orleans) or Adkins (1-3, 3.52 ERA), for whom he was traded. He said he's more interested in the Mets' other winter castoffs - Marlins relievers Henry Owens and Matt Lindstrom, who were traded for Jason Vargas and Adam Bostick, and Royals starter Brian Bannister, who was traded for Ambiorix Burgos.
Entering yesterday, the ex-Mets farmhands had combined for a 12-10 record and 3.10 ERA in 2031/3 innings in the majors this season, with Bannister being named AL Rookie of the Month for June. Vargas is 0-1 with a 12.19 ERA in two Mets starts, while Burgos (1-0, 3.42 ERA) is out with elbow discomfort. Johnson has a .185 average in 27 major-league at-bats.
Meanwhile, Ring has been impressive with the Padres, too. He entered the Mets series with a 2.38 ERA and had held lefty batters to a .158 average. He's assumed the Pedro Feliciano role in the Padres' bullpen, combining as an effective tag team with drop-down righty Cla Meredith, who serves the Joe Smith role.
As for Bell, he now lives an hour from the home where he grew up.
"When I got traded over here, one of the first phone calls I got was from (Padres manager) Bud Black," Bell said. "He said, 'You had 19 unhittable games and you had three bad games (in '06 with the Mets). You double that and I'll be happy.' In spring training he came over and talked to me every day. He told me, 'We want you to be one of our guys.'
"As soon as I got off the plane, I was like, 'I'm home.'"
