Johan Santana threw in a minor league intra-squad game this morning. Billy Wagner, Scott Schoeneweis and Jorge Sosa also threw.
METS line-up vs. Atlanta
SS Jose Reyes
2B Luis Castillo
3B David Wright
CF Carlos Beltran
1B Carlos Delgado
RF Ryan Church
C Raul Casanova
LF Endy Chavez
LH Jonathan Niese
7 Comments
With this bottom half of the lineup, I’d take a lesson from LaRussa and bat Chavez/Pagan 9th until Alou comes back, if he comes back..
is schneider catching johan’s side or bullpen or whatever? is ramon every going to play?
Even though the Braves don’t have their full contingent, Niese has pitched better this spring than Pelfrey or El Duque. I think both Pelfrey and El Duque should get 1 more chance to prove themselves and if neither steps up, give it to Figueroa.
Niese provides a good backup option to all of them and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him make some starts this year for the Mets. I’m sure glad Omar has indicated he’s willing to do that, and that he isn’t afraid of “rushing” kids like some fans appear to be.
The only way Niese should be up here is if it’s absolutely necessary or in September. The kid hasn’t pitched above A ball. There is no way he should be up in the bigs before the all star break.
Mulvey is a perfect example of the right way to push, but not rush a pitching prospect. Guerra as well.
Within a few months, Niese will have pitched above high A ball. And if he’s doing very well, I don’t see any reason why they shouldn’t call him up if there’s a need. Let the quality of his pitching at AA dictate whether he should be brought up and when. Not the amount of time he’s spent in the minors.
I think they’ll exhaust all the viable backups anyway before they consider Niese. So by that time, it may be August anyway.
I see my new metsie GM, mr non-metsie is going to continue with the moinaya syatem of destroying every minor leaguer you can. go jk,, i see all the little metsies are attacking your brillliance and genius. womnder why jk.. wonder why….
The most useless thing to judge a player by is his spring training stats. so why are some so infatuated with them?
Keith You are very correct especially about a pitcher. You bring them up too soon and its fine UNTIL the day when things go wrong, and they don’t have the experience or the number of pitches to survive and the result is they implode… So lets listen to the Niese bandwagon and bring him up to soon???. Lets not learn from the imploseion of Joe Smith or Mike Pelfrey. OLets screw one of the few we got left in the faerm who may help someday…..NOT