Randolph announces rotation
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- March
- 23
Manager Willie Randolph just announced his first four starters: Johan Santana, Pedro Martinez, Oliver Perez and John Maine.
He said neither Orlando Hernandez nor Mike Pelfrey distinguished themselves as far as nailing down the fifth starter role, and that he might not need one until two weeks into the season regardless.
This entry was posted
on Sunday, March 23rd, 2008 at 3:48 pm by John Delcos.
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Weren't the Mets planning on having the 5th guy even in the first 2 weeks? That is what has been reported the last few days.
This really shows that they don't know what to do w/either of those guys.
JD, from one of your colleagues…Randolph confirmed he’ll use five starters the first time through the rotation, which means Pedro starts the home opener.
Randolph also noted the fifth starter may not be active until Game 5, which suggests it will be Mike Pelfrey over El Duque, in spite of Pelfrey’s horrid line: 4.1 innings, 13 hits, eight runs.
That opens an extra bench spot for the first four games, too.
Update: A Mets official suggested activating the fifth starter Game 5 doesn’t seem realistic, suggesting five starting pitchers and a five-man bench from Day 1.
so which is it 5 guys from the start or not for 2 weeks?
Well they're kind of screwed. Pelfrey can go to AAA or AA wherever he needs to go to figure out if he can get anybody out. El Duque however, unless he is hurt, and he claims to be fine, can only be kept on the roster or be DFA'd…
I know
i'd send Pelfrey out regardless and if I couldn't find a guy off of the DFA pile this week, I'd start Sosa until I found an alternative. I'd put El Duque in the long man role and see what happens. If he doesn't want to go bad enough he can retire and save me the money or he can go there until he finds out if he can pitch with his bad foot. Or he can refuse and let me suspend him…. or he can say he's hurt and let me disable him.
it should be johan not pedro and teach the philthies a lesson
No surprise in that announcement. I think they'll just keep the competition for the fifth spot ongoing till at least next week, while still keeping their ears open to other alternatives from other teams or with remaining free agents.
The Cardinals have had the Mets number all spring, so maybe this was in part a continuation of their struggles against them. I'd like to see Pelfrey and El Duque pitch at least one more time head to head before they give up on them.
El Duque is basically just starting his spring training. Yeah he looked bad, but Erik Bedard looked even worse the other day against Royals, and he's Erik freaking Bedard. If ED can throw 85-86 fastball consistently, he will be an effective #5 starter.
Pelfrey on the other hand is a career AAA player/emergency starter. 5 years from now people will still talk about him "needing time in AAA to work on his stuff".
What Cohen are you? Anyway its not a real comparison to compare a 40 some year old guy who just totally overhauled his delivery to avoid stepping down in pain every pitch with guys like Zito or Bedard. Pelfrey you may be right but bouncing him up and down hasn't worked so that's what they'll probably do.. Pretty tought when you have left yourself a a barren system.. Think Minaya is calling out for Limatime yet? Can you spell Yoshii, or Chan Ho Park….
John,
The way you stated the rotation with Perez 3 and Maine 4 begs the question, is that the actual rotation?
sloppy, you may be right. Sosa might get the nod from the begining. If he comes out and throws 3-4 inn sometime in the next few days, then he is probably it.
But knowing Mets, don't be surprised that this yrs Lima (Figueroa) gets the spot.
Eldud-even if Mets wanted to put him in pen, he takes too long to warm up those old bones. He can't be effective simply b/c they can't depend upon him to be ready when they call the BP. and if he is DFA'd Mets still have to pick up the tab on him (assuming someone wants to take him).
Pelfrey-I can't figure him out. One inn his ball seems to have lots of sink. Next inn it is straight as can be. And his comments just yesterday that he had no chance to be 5th starter are so negative. He really needs to go down and get his confidence back. He really spit the bit today.
CHOO CHOO
Perez ahead of Maine is to make it Lefty-righty-lefty-righty. No other reason.
Not any of the distinguished Cohens, unfortunately, altough my mother likes to overblow my life accomplishments.
Thing I wanted to emphasize is this – saying that El Duque's finished and calling our #5 spot situation critical is premature. He is a finesse pitcher who just made his first spring start, that's usually ugly. And he's a baseball legend who would be a HOF member if he jumped on the boat when he was 22. He was also excellent last year altough he seemed half-dead (OK, he's probably 60% dead now with the bunion thing). I'll give him benefit of the doubt at the moment.
I knew an Amy Cohen a long time ago and she married Pete Rose (not that Rose). Maybe you're related…...
Scoopcoop we're kinda of in agreement. What do you do with ElDuque. You can'r send him down and you can't disable a guy who is pitching, And we'd both be shocked if the Mets ate the contract. Pelfrey: How about a shrink for him in the minors. The second I read the quote a couple weeks ago that this was the Pelfrey of last year, I knew he wasn't mentally ready for the big time. Maybe Cohen's (not that Cohen) is right but if so this franchise is in deep trouble with zero depth to spell any disablement to anybody.
You know when you guy's were fighting over the greatly lamented Heath Bell I was wondering why Minaya traded a guy who threw real fast and had no breaking ball for nothing and went out and got a guy who threw real hard and had no breaking ball(Burgos) for a serviceable 5th starter (Bannister).
Pelfrey's still got a ways to go but it is way way WAY too early to give up on him. He's gotten yo-yo'ed a bit and it has certainly slowed his growth but… that's the extent of it.
He'll be a good middle-of-the-rotation guy if he ever gets the time to get his confidence and secondary stuff in order.
Dismiss a guy like Pelfrey too early and pretty soon they're trading him for two bench pieces and he's blossoming somewhere else.
I have a niece named Amy Cohen, but she's 15 and you just gave me a scary mental image of her getting married with THAT Pete Rose.
Speaking of Pelfrey, I know many pitchers have struggled early on, like Glavine and Maddux. Problem with Pelfrey is his mental make-up. He seems to crap his pants whenever there are any expectations from him. He looked like ML pitcher once in his career – last year in Atlanta when nobody counted on him.
Yes. As I stated when we were arguing that one issue is depth. I didn't think it would rear its head this early though and not to the SP.
But on the bright side, Santana looks good, Pedro looks healthy and maybe Maine makes that next leap. Let's hope OP does the same or at least stays to 07 levels and does not regress.
If so, then Mets probably only need about 5-10 wins from the 5th starter to get to that magic # for playoff teams of 65-70 wins from the starting rotation and 90 or so for the season.
And let's hope Armas or Fig are better than Lawrence or Lima.
sorry to scare you Cohen. The Amy I knew has quadrupled 15.
Mike C: Wouldn't you be shocked if the Mets sent Pelfrey to the farm and just left him there all year like they should do? I think Cohen described Pelfrey's problem very well, and how do you fix his mental outlook. You just can't do sport at any level and succeed with a negative outlook. If El Duque would have looked good today Pelfrey might have pitched well knowing full well his next stop was New Orleans…....
If there were any livable options as the fifth starter, I would certainly hope that Pelfrey was in AAA until after the All-Star Break, at least.