Can we please remove Aaron Heilman from the bullpen already? Why is this guy still even on this roster? I can’t bare to watch the Mets when Heilman enters the game anymore. I’m trying to find the reason for having a guy with a 5+ ERA for most of the season on your roster heading down the stretch run in major games in the late August and September.

…and for you Heilman supports (which I can’t believe there still are people out there supporting him), this has nothing to do with a sour taste from Game 7 of the National League Championship Series in 2006.

This is simply the last thing the Mets need to have coming out of their bullpen at this point in time.

Heilman is currently sporting a 3-5 record in 22 innings pitched since the All-Star break with a 6.95 ERA. Can someone tell me the motive that is keeping him on the roster? What is it?

Find an alternative, Omar. Anything.

If he wasn’t already prior to yesterday’s game, Aaron Heilman is officially a liability with this team.

Despite finishing each season the past few years with reliable numbers to warrant him a bullpen spot for the next season, his situational statistics for his career are just awful.

Prior to yesterday’s game:

With nobody on base - 274 games, 235.1 innings pitched, 2.10 ERA

Prior to yesterday’s game:

Runners on base - 242 games, 203.0 innings pitched, 6.69 ERA

Runners in scoring position - 187 games, 121.1 innings pitched, 9.10 ERA

Runners in scoring position with two outs - 163 games, 54.2 innings pitched, 19.92 ERA

With the bases loaded - 46 games, 15.1 innings pitched, 7.04 ERA

Heilman is now currently 2-7 with a 5.74 ERA on the 2008 season.

I am not too sure what to do with Heilman. He clearly needs to head to Triple-A and work on something. He is simply not cutting it in the majors right now. I would prefer not to even see him on this team in 2009. The Mets can’t bare to have Heilman around during the stretch run. They can’t afford to lose any games and it seems like almost every other game he is in, he finds a way to blow it.

Take what you can for him Omar, anything. Just get him off my team.

Why? This is the question I was asking myself when Aaron Heilman started the 9th inning in place of Billy Wagner tonight at Shea. Granted, Heilman may be the “logical” choice, in terms of late inning situations and with Duaner Sanchez throwing 86 mph, but how can he be the right choice after taking two of the three losses against Houston this past weekend? Personally, I’m a big Joe Smith guy, and although he hasn’t been untouchable of late, he’s been a ton better than Heilman has been lately. Also, Heilman had allowed eight homers in 60 innings before tonight.

First off, you can’t walk the light hitting Nick Hundley on four pitches. Just can’t do it. Second, Heilman should have had an out, but a short fly was missjudged by Argenis Reyes and Carlos Beltran, leaving Heilman with yet another mess. The next batter, Scott Hairston, hit a sharp grounder to third that was not turned for two. Again, Heilman MIGHT have been out of the inning, but this is the part where you pick up your teammates. Low and behold, Heilman allowed a three run bomb off the bat of Jody Gerut, and the  lead was down to one.

Maybe I’m just being critical of Heilman, we did win after all, but I’m just really sick of seeing this guy meltdown. Just my opinion.

Not knowing how Mets’ pitching coach Dan Warthen has exactly worked differently with the Mets’ pitchers, it seems that, on the whole, Mets’ pitching has produced strong results in the wake of the change. There was no obvious reason for the firing of Rick Peterson, but perhaps, in the long run, Warthen will produce positive results out of some Mets’ pitchers who have struggled.

SNY and Mets fans alike have praised the recent performance of Michael Pelfrey. Admittedly, when the performance is succinctly summed up as “he’s won his last five starts,” his recent performance sounds more than adequate. Since Warthen was guiding Pelfrey during four of those starts, it seems reasonable that he should get some credit. Not to be overtly negative, but new expectations around Pelfrey should be tempered just a little.

There’s no arguing that Pelfrey’s last two starts have been optimum. In both starts, he pitched seven solid innings. Against the Cardinals on July 3, Pelfrey gave up one run on six hits and two walks. On July 8 against the Giants, Pelfrey had an even better start, giving up no runs on three hits and zero walks.

However, the previous three starts weren’t quite as good. He battled against the Yankees on June 27, giving up a lot of baserunners — eight hits and four walks in five innings. While he didn’t give up any earned runs against the Rockies on June 22, he had five walks, a season high, in that game. Pelfrey also struggled mightily in the seventh inning of his win on June 16 against the Angels. Pedro Feliciano ended up allowing two inherited runners to score, ballooning Pelfrey’s line to six earned runs after six innings that night.

Long story short, Pelfrey’s two “battling” starts look to serve as the bridge to his recent dominance, but not all five of the wins in his streak were dominant starts. Therefore, raising expectations exponentially might be a bit unfair to Pelfrey just yet, potentially setting him up for future failure.

Similarly, Oliver Perez was another Met starter who had been struggling at the end of Peterson’s tenure. In his first two starts under Warthen, against the Angels and Mariners, Perez continued to struggle, giving up nine earned runs in 14 innings. However, his last three starts have translated to just two earned runs in 19 innings.

But while Perez pitched well early on Friday, a Met fan cannot be completely satisfied with his last performance. He gave up six walks, the second-highest total he has this season. (His highest total was eight at Colorado on May 23. Gary Cohen said on Friday’s telecast that the Rockies’ lineup was a team that did well against Perez. Perhaps the team is specifically more patient with him.) Regardless, Perez walked the bases loaded in the 6th inning on Friday and then gave up a walk and a single in the 7th inning. While Perez got out of it himself in the 6th, Aaron Heilman really bailed him out in a big jam in the 7th.

Speaking of Heilman, he’s another man who has become more successful as of late. During Friday’s telecast, Ron Darling said Heilman was using his slider more during the last month and a half, as well as locating his pitches down more. The reliever has been excellent over the last month and a half, a period mostly under new coach Warthen.

Another pitcher who may be benefitting from the change is Duaner Sanchez, though his reaction to the change has largely not been speculated upon. Since the managerial changes on June 17, Sanchez has only allowed one earned run. This could be credited not only to new Warthen philosophies but also Jerry Manuel’s decision to finally define bullpen roles. Perhaps, the stability of always knowing he has the eighth inning has steadied Sanchez. Since June 10, he’s lowered his ERA from 5.26 to 3.57.

The only Met pitcher who has visibly taken a downturn since Warthen came on has been John Maine. While Maine still “limits the damage,” three earned runs given up in his last three starts, he has pitched even less innings than usual. The Cardinals just kept hitting Maine early on June 30. He gave up seven hits in just four innings and afterwards complained of lack of movement on his pitches. Maine gave up five walks, amidst eight strikeouts, against the Giants on July 10. This caused him to not be able to go five innings for the second time in his last three starts. Since these problems are the same as before Warthen came on and since Maine had struggles in the second half of the season last year, it would suggest that the pitching coach change might not be it. One shouldn’t completely shut the door on the possibility, though.

What has been said most often of Warthen during his early tenure with the Mets, both by Met pitchers and commentators, is that he allows the pitchers to do “what brought them to The Show.” Peterson supposedly tried to mold pitchers to his vision, whereas Warthen is the type to “accentuate the positives.” This certainly seems like a more positive approach on the whole. Then again, I could swear that Peterson’s philosophy of molding pitchers was held as a positive during the initial success of Perez.

With the signings of Billy Wagner and Moises Alou, the Mets have not had first-round picks in the past two years. Coupled with the various trades Omar Minaya has executed over the last two years, most notably the Johan Santana deal, the Mets’ farm system is depleted. Armed with three picks within the first 33 choices, the Mets have a great opportunity to help restock the system at Thursday’s Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft.

It might serve interesting to take a look at the first-round picks the Mets have had since 2000 and the varying degrees of success and failure the related moves have brought to the organization.

With the 16th pick in the 2000 draft, the Mets selected LHP Billy Traber. An article for the New York Times reported the Mets were going to offer Traber $1.7 million, but after seeing M.R.I. results on his elbow, Traber accepted the Mets’ new offer of $400,000. I would guess that is why he was so quickly dealt to the Cleveland Indians in the Roberto Alomar trade.

He did well for the Indians in 2002 and 2003 before having Tommy John surgery. He was out of baseball for the entirety two years before landing with the Washington Nationals in 2006, which is probably where Mets fans remember seeing him again. He got a chance to make both the Nationals’ rotation and bullpen but ultimately failed in both attempts. He was acquired by the Yankees for the 2008 season, where he began in the bullpen but quickly lost his job once again.

Obviously, looking back, Traber did not turn into the No. 3 starter the Mets thought he would become. He was a bust for both the Mets organization and every organization that has picked him up since. Ultimately, he just hasn’t been able to recover from the lingering arm problems.

Thinking back on the 2001 draft is much more fun because both players the Mets bagged in the first round of that draft are still on the team. After an early attempt at starting with mixed results, highlighted by a 1-hit shutout against the Marlins in 2005, Aaron Heilman has served as the Mets’ off-again, on-again set-up man. Heilman’s relationship with both the Mets fans and the set-up role is notoriously love-hate. Heilman is basically the Diane Chambers (from Cheers) of the New York Mets.

But all things considered, picking Heilman has worked out. He has definitely contributed to the major league club on more than one occasion, particularly down the stretch. The Mets didn’t really need to trade for a Roberto Hernandez at the trade deadline in 2006 because Heilman admirably stepped to the plate in the absence of Sanchez. Has he done well in 2008? No. Will he do all that well in the future? Still up for debate.

The other pick in 2001 was David Wright, a Gold Glove, MVP-caliber player. No real arguments needed.

(more…)

David Lennon in Newsday quotes Aaron Heilman regarding the idea that he’s somehow still disgruntled about not being a starter with the Mets.

“It’s the most insane logic I’ve ever heard,” Heilman said Wednesday outside the team’s weight room. “The reason I haven’t pitched well is because I want to be a starter? If I can’t get through one inning, how could I ever expect to pitch more than that? It doesn’t make sense.

“I realized a while ago that my role on this team is as a reliever. That’s my job. That’s my responsibility. That’s how they feel I’m best suited to help this team. I don’t think my mind-set has ever changed on that.”

After his early season struggles, Heilman has been better of late, giving up just one hit in his last two appearances, four innings, with seven strikeouts.

SI.com’s Jon Heyman was a guest today on WFAN’s Mike and the Mad Dog program. Heyman had some really interesting things to say about Aaron Heilman…

“There are guys in the organization that are worried about the way he is reacting to NY. I know, he has been here for a few years but this is the first time that he is getting a real taste of the booing. They are wondering if he is a sensitive guy.”

“He’s very talented and teams are trying to “bottom Fish” for him now. I know Arizona is interested and Colorado. I’m sure half the league is interested. They may think they can get him at 50 cents on the dollar. But the Mets have said, “No we want him on our team”.

“There are other teams that see him as a starter. The Mets do not see him as a starter. He’s a two pitch pitcher plus with his mechanics, he has what they call a “high back elbow”. He moves his elbow way back and it’s not real conducive to a breaking pitch. They think with that form, if he throws more than a 100 innings he will put himself in jeopardy for an injury. They site Mark Prior, who is a guy with a similar style. He threw over a 100 innings and was injured right away. So, they are being safe. They want to keep him as a relief pitcher. Also, there is the fact that he does not have a great breaking pitch.”

Heyman did a great job explaining the mechanics of Aaron Heilman’s pitching style and why the Mets won’t use him as a starter. The Mets tried to change Heilman’s delivery in the past but he was not comfortable or effective with the adjustments. I think I actually see what Heyman is talking about in the picture up top… Interesting stuff.

Marty Noble of MLB.com writes about Mike Pelfrey’s possible demotion and his reaction:

“I know I pitched well enough to win two of those games,” he said. “I had a no-hitter going in one. But I’ve been disappointed with the others. I haven’t pitched well. I know that. That’s why I hate the game right now. It’s miserable. I’m miserable. I haven’t been able to command my pitches. When I do, I win. But it just isn’t there.”

Ed Ryan of Mets Fever lobbies for Tony Armas Jr. to be promoted. Armas has been pitching great for the New Orleans Zephyr’s, Ryan writes:

Tony Armas Jr. is absolutely dominating AAA…Armas deserves a start and then could be moved into the pen as a true long-man. Last night Tony Armas went seven innings in which he allowed one run on six hits, no walks while striking out seven his ERA is at 2.23.

Anthony Rieber of Newsday’s The Final Score points us towards a newspaper columnist ( Pete Colaizzo of the Poughkeepsie Journal ) that actually wants Willie Randolph to remain as Mets manager and this is before yesterday’s win.

SI.com’s Jon Heyman tells us that Mets brass wonder if Aaron Heilman is “tightening up in tough situations” since his stuff is still very good. Heyman also writes a bit about Gary Carter lobbying for Willie’s job and Keith Hernandez’ reaction.

The folks over at the blog formerly known as Mets Geek received a lot of attention because of their name change to Rays Geek. Hot Foot’s own Anthony De Rosa wrote about it here. But according to the USA TODAY not all the attention has been positive:

“We were starting to get death threats from Rays fans that they hadn’t won since we switched the banner,” Eric Simon of Rays Geek said.

SI.com’s Jon Heyman was a guest of WFAN’s Mike and the Mad Dog today.

On the Heyman/Carlos Delgado incident:

“What happened yesterday is I asked a question I thought I’d get an answer to…This is before they announced that Willie Randolph was coming back. I had an inkling he was probably coming back. I asked him, should Willie be the manager? All he had to do was say yes or it’s not my place to answer. He started to say it’s not my place to answer. But then he gave me a big wink so I started to see he wasn’t too happy with the question and then he added If your gonna be an ass then I can be an ass. Then he started to tell me what a bad question it was. I said well it’s the question on everybody’s mind. Then later, I guess he wasn’t satisfied with our exchange, later he came up within one inch of me, he was like one inch from me, he was like eyeball to eyeball and again he was berating me about the question. But I’m happy with question because it got me the answer. The answer would be, yes I think Willie should be the manager and if he didn’t say that then I have my answer. Obviously he doesn’t love Willie Randolph as the manager, at least that’s the conclusion I draw, he probably doesn’t love me as a reporter either…Isn’t the obvious answer yes Willie should be the manager, we support him, we love him, we want Willie to be the manager. I didn’t get that at all. He gave me the it’s not my place answer, which is fine we’ll leave it that, which is what David Wright said basically. But the fact that he got this upset about it, he (Delgado) even said something like you should ask me when we’re not in a group. I guess he felt like I was putting pressure on him but you know this is a big city, what are you gonna do. I just think he was in a bad mood. Obviously he’s nearing the end of his career, he’s not playing well, he’s getting booed. I think it was just a bad moment for him. That’s the way I look at it. Maybe somebody thought it was a bad moment for me but I thought he shouldn’t of done that.”

On Willie:

“Well, I think what happened was the Wilpon’s want stability. They did a study, they had their people do a study about what it’s like when teams change the manager a lot and they found out that it’s normally not a thing that is conducive to winning. That it doesn’t usually help you too much. You may get a shot in the arm for a game or two but that’s about it. They realized that there was not an ideal candidate. I think Jerry Manuel was a guy who was a possibility but I think to them and probably to many people he’s reminiscent of Willie in many ways. He’s a low key guy. He’s a nice guy. I know he got thrown out of the game the other day which Willie didn’t do and I think the Mets people wanted to see Willie get thrown out. They’re just not happy. They’re not thrilled with Willie and obviously they’re not thrilled with the way things are going. There was no way they could fire him last year. They just couldn’t, this is a guy who won 83 games then improved to 97 wins. He was one bad change-up from Aaron Heilman from going to the World Series. Then of course they had the collapse but they still won 88 games. I was even surprised they let him twist last year but I don’t think they are satisfied with him as the manager but they feel they don’t have a better alternative. That’s basically what it comes down to. They don’t want to be seen as a team that keeps changing managers. I don’t believe it can be the money. They just tossed away Jorge Sosa, that was two million dollars right out the window. That’s a very small amount of money for a billion dollar company.”

On Omar Minaya

“Omar is the biggest supporter Willie’s got I do think there other are people in the front office that are not as big a supporter as Omar but Omar is the one making this call. You can look at it a couple of different ways, if Omar switched to someone else, say Jerry Manuel or someone else and the team played the same then the onus is on Omar. But then again if he sticks with Willie and things stay the way they are well its still on Omar. I don’t believe it was to save himself or to keep himself further away from the chopping block. I think he genuinely likes Willie he grew up a Yankee fan. He was one of his heros. He’s a likable guy. He did do good things his first few years but the problem with this team is its not a resilient team. I know earlier in the year they won a game, they came back from a bad defeat and won a game and Willie started talking about how resilient they looked but the fact is they have not shown any resiliency whatsoever.”

On why they didn’t commit to Willie for the whole season yesterday:

“Well, two things, first I don’t think they love Willie and they are not sure if he’s gonna be here for the year and they don’t want to lie. The other thing is they think holding something over Willie like this might trigger something. I don’t know, they’ve tried this before, during the subway series they told him you better turn it around and you better turn it around fast. He won the two games and then disaster struck. He had a horrible week, the comments that were made. That was discussed at the meeting. It was a very bad meeting for Willie I’m sure, very uncomfortable. They are just not pleased at all.”

For more on Reyes. Plus, Heyman tells a story about Rickey Henderson “taking” money from some players while playing cards last season that “guys were not pleased with”. Go to WFAN.com to listen.