Robby, the reason for that is rather obvious…going into the year, feliciano and heilman’s righty-lefty splits weren’t bad (and no where near as profound). Sanchez never was a righty or lefty specialist, so the same with him.

Only show and Joe smith had shown a tendency to be a specialist of sorts, and smith’s is more blatant due to his delivery (which makes that person more often than not a specialist). So smith was never going to face lefties that often if it could be avoided.

The Mets bullpen has been mostly overworked this year, and looking at the splits, it seems like Heilman, Sanchez, Schoeneweis, and Feliciano have all worked at least 20 innings against batters of “the opposite hand,” as it were. But I do agree, out of those four, Heilman’s splits are the most dramatic, while Sanchez’s are the least.

For what it’s worth, splits really show how much the Mets have protected Joe Smith, who has only pitched 10 innings against lefties. That’s the least anyone in the Mets bullpen has pitched against “opposite-handed batters.”

I still feel that it should be Feliciano or Smith in the 9th in a save situation, depending on the batter that is up.

I mean, I’m not denying that heilman’s not been bad this year. But he a. has a track record of being better in the past, b. has stats that show quite a bit of bad luck, and c. he’s been overused this year.

In fact, here’s the real question which im surprised no one has brought up….why has heilman been pitching to LEFTIES THIS YEAR….

Heilman: vs Righties, 2HR, 218/299/310 against.
vs Lefties, 7HR, 326/417/596 against.

Guess what handed batter hit the HR yesterday?

you cant ignore 9 homers in 60 innings.

that is absolutely awful.

I’m actually surprised that there are two people who agree with me. I expected to be getting hate mail/comments after writing this.

Before I wrote this I told two people my feelings about Heilman, and one of them said, “You are the only person alive who likes him.”

The other person said (albeit sarcastically), “I have no problem killing you too.”

Heilman is unfairly getting the brunt of the criticism that all of the bullpen deserves.

In his last 3 years with the mets, Heilman’s ERAs are 3.17*, 3.62, 3.04. The bad in pressure sitatuions line is just stupid idiotic talk because you REMEMBER the failures far more than the successes.

Now this year, Im not saying heilman has been to that level. His ERA is 5.67, and more importnatly, he has more walks already than last year, a WHIP of 1.49, a huge jump. And he’s giving up home runs at a greater clip. On the other hand, his BABIP is abnormally high (Career its 296, and now its 339) showing the increased hit total is a large part due to luck. Which suggests at least some normalization down to career stats is likely (he’s projected to have an ERA of 4.57 this year, which is still higher than any of the last 3 years, but far better than he’s gotten this year).

In other words, Heilmans’ likely to at least come down to close to his career stats (or at least in the 4 ERA range) if given the time. And of course, he’s been overworked to hell again this year, which may take its toll and result in the walks.

All evidence suggests the mets should rest him a bit if they can, and then use him as normal, and that he will become effective again. I’m not saying he’s closing material right now, but he’s certainly far from as awful as you and other stupid met fans make him sound. And he’s way worth holding onto for this year and beyond.

*The 05 stats include 7 starts.

———————————-

but anyhow, andrew you’re not alone. Right on Man.

To be frank, all of our relievers have blown their share of games this season. When Duaner Sanchez had the chance to close one game when Wagner was unavailable, he didn’t get the job done that night either. Neither did Smith or Schoeneweis in that inning. To these Mets middle relievers, pitching the 9th inning is just absolutely daunting to them. It’s not just Heilman.

Aaron hasn’t morphed into dominant second-half Aaron just yet, and that’s a bit concerning. If he doesn’t, this will be his worst year as a reliever. But people act like he’s been terrible since 2005 when he clearly hasn’t.