Willie, Mets Chase: Wild Card or Wild Goose

by Guichard Cadet

The scariest inning for the Mets and manger Willie Randolph? It is the one when the team is leading and he needs to turn it over to the bullpen. Some claim Randolph has mismanaged the bullpen from day one. Oft-times it looks this way, but last night – leading 8-0 with the ace, Pedro Martinez on the mound – was not one of them.

The record shows not much improvement from last year, with a record of 63-59. The Mets are 6 games out of the division; and 3 out of the Wild Card.

Willie’s pros are that he is bringing along two budding superstars in Jose Reyes and David Wright. Early in the year, there were many questions in his approach with both.

For Reyes, Willie handed him the key to the kingdom allowing him to start the year as the lead-off hitter. Reyes struggled mightily, early in the year, but has since improved in every category.

Willie’s approach to Wright was the opposite. Wright started the year as the 7th place hitter and has now worked his way to as high as cleanup, with his normal spot being the 5th hole as protection for team Home Run leader, Cliff Floyd.

Why has the bullpen baffled Randolph? Some instances point to his not playing the percentages as to which pitcher fares better against certain hitters and/or teams. From the opening day game, it was clear Randolph had bought into the concept that a team has a set “closer”. He has tried going away from Braden Looper in spots, but overall Looper has been the closer.

The Mets bullpen has been average. With the starters ranked 4th in innings pitched and 6th in ERA in the National League, the bullpen has been used mainly to wrap up games in the late innings. The Mets are:

3rd Fewest innings pitched in the NL
4th Fewest save opportunities
4th Fewest saves (27 out of 41)
17 wins 17 losses
4th Fewest earned runs
Fewest home runs

The key stats are 14 blown saves and 17 losses. For Relievers wins are not necessarily a good thing; they are usually the result of blown saves, in which the team comes back to win in the 9th or extra innings – last night was a good example.

For Looper, his wins, losses and save numbers reflect the “average” nature of the bullpen and do not truly reflect his ineffectiveness. He can be an effective pitcher for the team but he should assume the role he had with the Florida Marlins.

It really is time for an adjustment or else the progress the rest of the team has made will result in a Wild Goose chase instead of a Wild Card spot.

Everyone wants Aaron Heilman as a starter next year. The best thing to do would be to use him as the closer instead. If we can't get rid of Looper, then he could be the setup man.

Aaron reminds me of what the Yankees did with Dave Righetti. Dave took one for the team, and as much as it may pain Aaron, that's the teams main needs, in the short and long-term.

If Randolph is hell-bent on following the blueprint that a team must have one guy designated as the closer, I would even go with the plan for the rest of this year as:

Starters: Martinez/Benson/Glavine/Seo/Trachsel

Long Relief: Zambrano / Ishii

Short Relief: Koo / Hernandez / Looper / Graves

Closer: Heilman