Continuing with thoughts on Mets players, continuing with pitchers
Jonathan Niese
This was a major blow for me to have waited for this kid to get his shot and see him blow it. After three starts in September, Niese did not show us much. Maybe this was one if the cases where the Mets moved him in to soon or he just could not take the pressure. After his move up to AAA he only pitched about 6 games before making his first MLB start. So here4 he was in the middle of a pennant race and crashed and burned. Nerves? You bet. I had seen him pitch well in both AA and AAA and is capable of much more than we saw. Then he pitched a gem against Atlanta, as I recall it was eight innings of shutout ball. I expected more like that cause teams had not yet seen him and usually that gives the pitcher an advantage in their first time facing teams, since the hitters haven’t seen them before and there. Plus their aren’t really any scouting reports. Niese had 5 starts. One was outstanding, two were pretty good and two were pretty bad. Then their was that awful night when he pulled that hammy, So what do we do with him, well for sure I want to se him get another shot, I know he has more than we got to see in 2009.We just need to see how the hammy healed. He is a big kid with a smooth overhand delivery I love and a mean curveball, inconsistent as it was, which shows me he has the tools and the talent to make it big. .What I remember is he needs to get better command of his fastball, and I would wanna see more consistency in his curveball needs to be more consistent. Next I would say he needs more work on the change-up. I think he will figure out what pitch is best strikeout pitch. I am anxious to se his at bats as well, what we have seen in the minors is that he can hit rather well, but I have not seen what he can do with bunts and holding runners. Me, I wanna see him pitch again, his season was cut to short.
Ken Takahashi
Ken Takahashi is a pitcher with pretty ordinary stuff, who will not have much of an impact on a championship club.It all started with Manual and his lefty/righty match up. While I agree with the need for it I don’t always subscribe to it as much and with the intensity of a Jerry Manual. Especially in cases like with Daniel Murphy who Manual refuses to allow to bat against lefties, but that’s another story. Ken was brought in cause the Mets were in need of another lefthander but son of a gun if Ken didn’t end up pitching better against righties that of course had Manual scratching his head wondering what to do with Takahashi. I don’t expect to see him in 2010
Brian Stokes
Brian was a big player in 2009, I looked it up and was surprised to find he pitched in 69 games.He was everywhere, long man, short man, mop up guy, setup man, in middle relief, and of course situational / matchup guy. Whew, the only thing the kid did not do was start. In fact there were times that Manuel used him in back-to-back games, and I am pretty sure I recall him used in three games in a row, but then Brian would go like a week or more without appearing in a game. Obviously Manuel and Warthen did not know what to do with him. Ya had to be impressed with his. 96-97 MPH fastball and shit load of secondary pitches, to bad he can’t strike batters out. He has had an interesting career, shifting from the bullpen to starting and back to the bullpen.
What I saw from him was a fastball which is like a straight line, If needs to have a little sink or lateral movement on it. Also his curve, slider, and change are all inconsistent, Not to say he is without promise, I see him as a good setup man. What does he need to do? Well, work on his fastball grip, and choose one secondary pitch to focus on. If he does that I could see him as a 7th-inning reliever.
Francisco Rodriguez
Ah Frankie, Frankie, This is our closer, and I love him even though he gave us a few scares last year. He only had about 40 save opportunities. 7 of em blown and his ERA increased by a run and a half not to mention his losses doubled. Kinda unusual, cause generally, pitchers who move from the AL to the NL improve their
overall numbers.So what happened, has he worn down, his fastball was in the 95-97 MPH range, occasionally flirting with 98. This past year he was usually in the 92-93 range, hitting 95some times. What I heard K-Rod say was that the drop in velocity has to do with improving his command and the way he masked his change-up. Interestingly is that he gave up about as many hits and walks as he always did. Then there is the fact that Frankie always allowed too many base runners, but, and this is key, he’s having a little more trouble pitching out of the jams he got himself into.But still, even with a drop in velocity and more guts seeing and hitting him, K-Rod is still among the best closers in baseball. Consider also the Jerry Manual effect, before he came to NY Frankie was almost never asked to pitch more than three outs, fact is he never retired more than three batters in 2008. Also he was not used to being used more than three games in a row. But now Jerry Manuel had K-Rod pitch multiple innings at least four times during the year, Something Frankie was not used to at all. The Mets have K-Rod for at least another two years plus he’s a near-lock to be a Met in 2012 as well, an option that option is guaranteed if he finishes 55 games in 2011 and 100 games total between 2010 and 2011 and is declared healthy by doctors. That’s a substantial investment we gotta protect.
J.J. Putz
The Mets signed Francisco Rodriguez to be their 2009 closer, in a move that had to be made to get their bullpen back to where it was before Billy Wagner blew out his elbow. I remember how excited I was when we signed him. But what we did not know was that J.J. was damaged goods. Dono how but The Mets completely ignored an elbow issue that kept Putz out of action for over a month of the 2008 season, which by the way was an issue that could be traced back to 2006. In what turned out to be an irresponsible show of self-denial,(how often did we see that) the Mets continued to ignore Putz’s elbow issues in fact Jerry Manuel rode him hard, even after a mysterious drop in velocity in spring training, a flare-up revealed in an MRI taken in May, and when JJ admitted to have Pain in June. As it turned out, the whole thing came crashing down and the Mets season began to spin out of control. Of course JJ’s failure wasn’t the only thing that destroyed the Mets in ‘09, but his inability to perform, and what we now know was a questionable deal that brought him in made us wonder about what was going on in Mets management.What a huge disappointment, we never got to see the one two punch of Putz and K-Rod that we had salivated for. It must have been difficult for the Mets to let Putz walk and call the deal a wash.So here we are back again in need of someone to hand the ball to K-Rod. Bobby Parnell? Jenry Mejia?
Bobby Parnell
Did you guys know that Bobby was a shortstop converted to relief pitcher? His career as a pitcher after being drafted by the Mets was he was a reliever converted to a starter. Then converted from starter back to relief. Then, he was converted from reliever back to starter. And before the season closed, Bobby was back in the bullpen.Talk about getting jerked around, But the Mets are good at that, Aaron Heilman and Grant Roberts for example What is it about Mets management and their inability to make a decision one way or the other about Bobby,You had to notice that his velocity drops dramatically when used as a starter. In both roles his fastball often has heavy sink, you can see it often sits flat and high in the middle of the strike zone. I don’t remember him having much in the way of an off speed pitch if any. Slider sucks as well. I remember Bobby as a relief pitcher, showing some brilliance but he was inconsistent. His biggest issue I am sure you will agree is his lack of command and then there is his secondary stuff. Problem is once batters realize all he could get over the plate was the fastball, it was so long good bye, they plain and simple just sat on it.
Then there was the WTF time when the Mets moved Bobby to the starting rotation after failing in the bullpen. How did that turn out…. DISASTER that’s how. You guys know about starching out a pitcher, but he went from throwing 15-20 pitches per outing, about 3-4 times per week, to throwing 80-100 pitches once every five days in like two weeks. That’s’ not stretching him out that’s wearin him down. What happened to conserving pitch counts, especially with the young guys? Bottom line, Parnell did not establish himself in either role, part of that should be blamed on the way he was handled. He needs more time to develop. The question is what would be best for Parnell, to pitch as a starter, or to focus on relief?
Fernando Nieve
When things were beginning to fall apart in June, Fernando Nieve was called upon to fill a huge hole in the starting rotation, but only lasted a month. His leg injury came ay a very bad time, his ERA was 2.95 through 7 starts and 36 innings. He was spectacular going 6+ innings in each game and allowing only about 3 earned runs through 18 innings. He was on his way to becoming one the Mets’ biggest success story, and then the Mets injury curse kicked in and his quadriceps muscle gave out and he was off to the DL.So what’s next, first he has to come back 100% healthy from what is a major tear in his thigh. What worries me there is that he has had to heal and rehab under the Mets’ guidance, which based on their record scares me. Maybe (hopefully) in the off season the Mets will make better decisions are made in his rehab. Come to think about it we have heard nothing about him since he went down. I hope and assume he is working on his game.Another thing to consider is that Nieve had Tommy John surgery in 2007; I think it takes about two years to make a full recovery. But that’s without the addition of a leg injury so you gotta add time for that.
He was touching 96 MPH occasionally; a little lower than 98-99 MPH velocity that made him a top prospect with the Astros is questionable. But of course good enough to be successful, plus there is that killer change-up. I believe Nieve has the stuff to fill a role on the Mets pitching staff. The Mets need to have a little patience here.
So let’s start him out in AAA as a starter and let him get in the innings needed to sharpen up the rough edges, then he could be back as either a decent back end starter or a strong middle reliever / setup man.
Pat Misch
I was waiting and waiting for this kid to come up and when he did I was so stoked. Who could forget that first day with him a d Thole, But the teaming of Misch and/ Thole had its good days and bad days, including that shutout I will never forget. But As a LOOGY out of the bullpen, Pat was ineffective especially against the Left handed hitters we saw it all with him, great outings, awful outings, and average outings. But that was taken from a very small sampling.Misch rarely reaches 90 MPH, and he has to have his off speed pitches working well. His control is very good, but his command within the zone not so much. We also saw him throw too many hittable pitches over the middle of the plate. I always liked him and feel he can be great. Let him join Nieve in AAA and sharpen his game. Look for big things from him.
Sean Green
I always shook and sweated when ever Shawn was called to the mound, I mean this kid could be awful.He did not come as advertised; we were told he was a sneaky fast, sinker balling side armer who would knock our socks off. What we may not have known (or did we) is that he had to be used judiciously. He tended to weaken in the second half, and his performance dropped considerably when overused. So of course Manual did the same thing he did with so many others in that situation ride him till he dropped. In 80 appearances his ERA was about 8 But he did improve holding opposing hitters. I think Manuel tended to use him as a specialist against right handed hitters, but in fact left handed hitters had a lower batting average against him.Because of his inconsistency, Green never really had an established role in the bullpen. Manual would use him for several days in a row, then not use him at all for a week. In fact Green was used with no rest or one day’s rest in about 50 of his 80 or so games By the end of the season, he was so out of out and burned out that he tried pitching from a much lower release point, sorta like closer to submarine style. That worked well, and he raised his ERA to 2.19 ERA and allowed only 7 hits in his last 17 appearances.So what do we do with this guy, I sorta want him back in the Mets pen in 2010. I wanna see more of him with that further down under delivery, it worked well for him I recall thinking maybe he has something there..
To be continued…
what I like is his situational hitting; he has a real knack for elevevating the ball, and can be counted on to go up the middle. He has a wacked out stance like none I have ever seen, because of that pitchers often bust him inside.
...as you know sonny!
The Giants did not offer salary arbitration to Molina, although they have said they would like Molina back for one more year, to help break in 2008 first-round draft pick Buster Posey.prolly offer molina a one-year deal, wiith incentives,which is prolly what the Mets offer him maybe with an option for 2011. 
