Matthew Artus at Always Amazin takes a look at Aaron Heilman’s poor start this season where he has given up 2 runs in three straight outings.

Artus wonders what the future holds for Heilman beyond this year with talk by Willie Randolph and Billy Wagner regarding him being the future Mets closer.

Yesterday, Jon Heyman told WFAN that “Other teams wonder why he is not a starter.”

The uncertainty of Duaner Sanchez is putting a lot of pressure on Heilman to lock down that 8th inning. In a perfect world Heilman would be the 7th inning guy, with Duaner setting up Wagner. That remains to be seen, and hopefully when Duaner is expected to return next week, we will see guys settle into their roles and get the job done.

The always outspoken Billy Wagner will be finally giving people a reason to switch back to radio, as he’ll be appearing on ESPN’s Michael Kay Show once a week. ESPN Radio can be found in the NYC radio market at 1050 AM.

Billy Wagner…the biggest topics of baseball of the week….access to a microphone….permission to use said microphone. Wow, this is going to be quite interesting. Bloggers will get carpal tunnels. The Mets PR staff will get ulcers. I can’t wait till we hit good stuff, like Billy Wagner on Jose Canseco.

The Mets lost to the Cardinals by a score of 10-3 this afternoon in St. Lucie. Johan Santana was shaky, allowing 4 runs (3 earned) on 5 hits, while striking out 5. For a full recap, head on over to MLB.com.

A few notes:

• Luis Castillo went 0-1 with 2 walks in his return from the lineup from offseason knee surgery.
• Carlos Delgado finally broke out of his mini slump, with a home run in 3 ABs.
• Angel Pagan continues his hot spring, going 1-2 and is hitting .385
• Ricardo Rincon essentially fried his chance of making the team, allowing 4 runs in a third of an inning.
• Billy Wagner pitched a spotless seventh and his ERA is now under 2 for the spring.
• Joe Smith allowed 2 runs in his 1 inning of work.
• Aaron Heilman pitched a scorelesss 9th, and was helped out by nice DP turned by Anderson Hernandez.

Pedro Martinez makes his first start for the Mets tomorrow in St Lucie against the Tigers.

For those who haven’t heard of him, blogger Matt Cerrone (of Mets Blog), apparently has some sort of contacts at SNY and will be at Spring Training all this week. Keep up with whats going on with him, and with the Mets, over at his site. I’m still trying to drink coffee and avoid sunlight, and he’s already gotten a press pass and watched Billy Wagner try to throw curveballs, so chances are he might have interesting things to share.

According to David Lennon at Newsday.com, the Mets have finally had it with Lastings Milledge. As you may remember (especially because he keeps reminding the media) Milledge had a rocky road during his time with the Mets. Milledge felt singled out by the team’s veteran players, but David Wright, who is only 3 years out of his rookie season, disagreed, saying:

“The veterans were never mean to him or singled him out,” Wright said. “They always tried to teach him. Some of that comes through tough love. I went through it, Jose [Reyes] went through it. All the young guys in the game go through that tough-love period. Some handle it better than others.

As usual, Billy Wagner spoke up regarding Milledge yesterday, claiming that “everyone in the organization babied the heck out of him”. Wagner explained that they were told to go easier on him and that the now infamous “Know Your Role, Rook!” sign hung by Wagner in Milledge’s locker was nothing more than typical rookie hazing everyone goes through. However, perhaps the most surprising response came from Wright, stating:

“Personally, I like Lastings. There were times when he messed up and he knew it and he learned from it. I don’t see where this is coming from. I don’t know if it’s just trying to play that ‘bitter traded guy’ role. I don’t know what he’s trying to accomplish by the things that he’s saying.”

Some people were sad to see him go, I wasn’t. Do I think the kid had talent? Of course! But if the Mets didn’t like him and weren’t going to use him, then why bother keeping him around? I think he needs to get over it. For someone who hated being on the team so much, he is still certainly very focused on them. He should be glad to have been traded but instead, as Wright says, he seems like he is trying to play the “bitter traded guy” role. I think it’s time for Millz to put on his big girl panties and deal with it.

It appears that Joe Smith will have to prove he deserves to be part of the Mets bullpen last year after he struggled through a dead arm period in the later part of last season. On Mets.com, Mary Noble discusses Joe Smith’s chances of starting the season with the big league club.

Noble talks about how new Met Ryan Church had firsthand experience with Smiths late season decline.

Their shared experience began — and ended — in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 17. A 1-1 pitch from Smith in the seventh inning became a pinch-hit two-run home run by Church and another unsightly episode in the Mets’ slippery-slope September slide.

Smith had faced the Nationals three times previously, faced eight batters, struck out four and allowed one to reach base. Those appearances happened in April, and the difference between April and Sept. 17, according to Church was “about six or seven miles an hour.”

Smith will have a tougher time making the team with Duaner Sanchez and Matt Wise in the mix. Sanchez, Billy Wagner, Aaron Heilman, Scott Schoeneweis, Pedro Feliciano and Jorge Sosa are are all most likely penciled in already. Smith, Wise, Ruddy Lugo, Juan Padilla, Brian Stokes and Tony Armas Jr. will fight it out for the likely seventh and final spot.

Billy Wagner didn’t seem very optimistic about the Mets earlier this offseason, his comment to Marty Noble on Mets.com show he’s much more confident in light of recent events.

“Whenever it is, wherever it is, I can’t wait,” closer Billy Wagner said. “We’ll all be looking forward to it. It’s going to be like it was two years ago, when we all came together. The Mets already had a good team, and then they brought in Carlos Delgado and Paulie [Lo Duca] and Duaner [Sanchez] and [me].

“We were excited the first day the whole team was in camp, and it kept building up. We couldn’t wait for the season to start.”

I’m happy to hear Country Time perking up. I like how Wagner tells it like it is, even if some fans may disagree. He’s not going to tell you what you want to hear, so when he says he’s excited with the current roster, you know he means it.

Over the next week, I’ll be breaking down the things that have to go right for the Mets this year if they want to make the playoffs.

Note: All of this is done assuming we do not make any significant acquisitions of any sort, be it through trade or a free agent signing.

First and foremost, if the ‘08 Mets want to succeed, their bullpen will need to be strong.

Even though I think both of them have their mental lapses, I am fairly confident Billy Wagner and Aaron Heilman will hold their own as a strong closer and a strong set-up man respectively.

However, you need more than two people to have a good bullpen. If I had to take a guess, the Mets will carry 12 pitchers. Subtract four starters that will start the season on the roster (no reason to start the season with 5 starters), Wagner and Heilman, you have six slots left. As of now, I give those spots to Pedro Feliciano, Scott Schoenweis, Duaner Sanchez, Jorge Sosa, Matt Wise and Juan Padilla. However, Steven Register could easily take Juan Padilla’s spot, as could a long reliever.

Assuming that is the general gist of our bullpen, these are the things that need to happen for our bullpen to be strong:

• Duaner Sanchez returns to his pre-taxi crash form. Before his crash, Sanchez had a 2.60 ERA in 49 games, which is close to irreplaceable. While Heilman is a work horse, he can go through rough spells and sometimes needs someone else to cover the eighth inning. Sosa showed flashes of brilliance out of the ‘pen last year, but he doesn’t seem ready to be our second righty out. A strong Duaner would not only provide us with many innings if high quality relief, but give more rest to Heilman, Sosa etc. Sosa especially seemed to need a rest down the stretch, pitching 12 innings in September while registering a 6.57 ERA.
• The re-birth of Scott Schoenweis. I know, you probably hate him. But let’s give him another shot. Booing him clearly hasn’t helped, as he had a 6.91 ERA at home this year, while a 3.26 ERA on the road. So maybe lets let him feel comfortable, and he’ll do better, can we give that a shot? Also, Willie has to learn how to use The Schoe more effectively. Lefties hit a mere .206 against him last year, while righties managed to tee off of him for a batting average of .316. Then, why did Willie let him face 136 righty batters? If we need a righty out, why not turn to Pedro Feliciano, who righties hit a poor .221 against. He clearly has talent (1.86 ERA in April) so lets give him another shot, give him a clean slate and let him try and impress us.
• The Development of Jorge Sosa. Sosa started of his tenure as a Mets’ reliever very well. In his first 11 innings as a reliever, he gave up only one run. His first full month as a reliever, August, he had a 3.00 ERA in 18 innings. Perhaps due to fatigue, and not being used to the schedule of a reliever, Sosa struggled in September towards a 6.57 ERA for the month. However, that month of August showed us what he can do. Should his arm strength and durability as a reliever improve, he can hopefully build on those August numbers. And if he turns out to be a solid middle-reliever, Omar might have found himself a shiny diamond in the rough with his signing.
• The success of one of Matt Wise or Juan Padilla/Steven Register. It’s unrealistic and almost unnecessary to think that you need the whole bullpen to be great. However, if you have a weak rotation, you do need most of it. One of the back end guys, whether it be Matt Wise, Juan Padilla or Steven Register has to step-up and surprise people. At first glance, Wise looks mediocre: 4.19 ERA with a 1.45 WHIP last year. However, if you take a closer look, he had a 2.70 ERA through July 23. Down the stretch he failed, but he was brilliant for the first 3 1/2 months of the season. We saw what Padilla could do in 2005, when he posted a 1.49 ERA in 36.1 innings. However, after Tommy John Surgery, we need to wait and see if he can return to anything near to his 2005 form. Finally, Steven Register, who the Mets selected in the Rule V draft this year. Register has never been above AA, where last year he posted a 4.03 ERA while recording 37 saves for the Rockies AA affiliate. At 24, he’s the most unproven and must unknown candidate in this group.

With a rotation that will most likely look like: Pedro Martinez, Oliver Perez, John Maine, Orlando Hernandez and Mike Pelfrey, a strong bullpen will be neccesary. Pelfrey, Maine and Perez will all be erratic, while Pedro and El Duque are both aging and struggle to go deep into games. Duaner has shown he can be great, Schoenweis deserves another chance, Jorge Sosa has shown he can be solid and we might still need some help from the back of the ‘pen. All in all, if our bullpen can pump out a solid season, our weak starting pitching will seem to be a much smaller issue than it actually is.

Marty Noble on Mets.com speaks with the always outspoken Billy Wagner, who gives his thoughts on the Mitchell Report.

Wagner comments on how all players might now be looked at with some suspicion.

“When it says 96, 97 on the gun, on the scoreboard, you know someone’s going to ask, ‘How can a guy 5-10 throw that hard?’ Then they’ll start wondering, ‘Did he use? Did he use and just not get caught?’”

Wagner talks about the great players before him, like Mickey Mantle and Sandy Koufax, who have had their achievements diminished by cheaters.

“Those guys are hurt by this, too,” Wagner said. “The things they did have been matched now. No one’s wondering about them. But when you’re 10th on some list of all-time stats, you’re 10th. I don’t think it’s going to say ‘Four of the other guys used steroids.’

To read more of Wagner’s comments head over to Marty Noble’s article on Mets.com