In his blog for the Daily News, Adam Rubin tells us something that will be music to our ears here at the Foot. Nelson Figueroa has cleared waivers and is expected to report to AAA New Orleans. This opens the possibility of Figgy returning to Shea should the need and/or opportunity present itself.

I’m quite happy about this, as you should be. I understand we needed Claudio Vargas, since the double header had forced us to burn two pitchers in one day, but Figgy was booted out unjustly

Did he melt down? Sure. Should Dukes’ childish antics have rattled him so? No way. Did I really want to listen to Figgy cry about said Dukes taunting? Nope. But any one else in the rotation would have been given another shot.

It feels like Ollie has a meltdown game in at least a quarter of his starts, and its not like all three of the other starts are gems. Maine’s had his incredible off days. Mike Pelfrey is still hit or miss, though the ratio is improving.

Figgy had one extremely bad game, and was immediately shipped to waivers. Hopefully he does well in AAA and gets another shot to toss a few games, or a home in the bullpen. He seems like he works his ass off, gives it his all, and if this team is going to turn itself around it needs guys like that.