Aaron Heilman has pitched in 11 of the Mets first 17 games. This is too many appearances.
Met relievers pitched 59.1 innings going into tonight’s game. 12 of those innings have been pitched by Heilman – just over 20 percent of all reliever innings. This is too many innings for a guy with a 5.25 ERA and a 1.333 WHIP.
Heilman is on pace for 108 appearances and 114.3 innings pitched. That is far too much work for a reliever, especially in a seven-man bullpen.
Jorge Sosa has a career WHIP vs. lefties of 1.76. His stat line against lefties are .296/.384/.507. In comparison, those same numbers against righties show a 1.20 WHIP and a .230/.296/.373 stat line. Jorge Sosa should not be allowed to pitch to left-handed batters, especially in important situations.
In the eighth inning of a 2-1 game, Willie Randolph brought in Aaron Heilman to pitch. Again. Heilman was ineffective. Again. The Jose Reyes error was bad luck – hitting a batter and giving up two singles was bad pitching.
With the score now 4-1 and two outs with two runners still on base, Felix Pie came to the plate. He is a left-handed batter. Willie Randolph brought in Jorge Sosa to get the final out of the inning. Sosa got the final out – after giving up a three-run home run to Pie. Sosa failed to get out the left-handed batter. Again.
There’s no point in ranting or raving tonight, dear reader. Either you get it or you do not. Willie Randolph, after over three years of managing this team, still does not get it.
4 comments:
One missed point in reference to some past conversations and posts:
Randolph should have stayed with Maine to start off the inning. If he got into trouble then you insert the appropriate reliever for the situation. Best case: You boost Maine's confindence who has been a little off since his sparkling spring, and you save Heilman who has been overworked despite his poor performance (even the two big strikeouts he got on Saturday were proceeded by a RBI single) thus far in the season. Worst case: the same events take place, except we're (at least me and you) aren't calling Willie out on this one because at least he makes what in my mind is the right move.
He's not sticking with Maine there when he's over 105 pitches (I think he was at 108). That - for the sake of argument - might not be Willie's fault because we know how strict Peterson is with pitch counts.
As to Heilman pitching for 62 straight days - I'm speechless.
I know that it's against every earthly instinct for Rnadolph to go against the all-powerful pitch count, and I knew that he wouldn't. It's only what I would have done in that situation, especially when I know my squad is not getting a day off anytime soon.
Round of applause - Willie just double switched.
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