(Tom’s professionalism and positive attitude is begining to rub off on his younger teammates)
Today’s line for the Mets starter introduced by the Fox Sports NW jokers as “a probable Hall of Famer” :
2 1/3 IP, 8 hits, 6 earned runs, 2 walks and a two-run homer served up to Richie Sexson.
Were it not for his enormous contract and inexplicably close relationship with the owner, Tom Glavine would not only be a candidate for demotion, but waiving him outright would be openly discussed. With the possible exception of George Foster, Glavine might be the worst free agent acquisition in club history. Though neither Heilman nor Seo have done nearly as much to earn Willie Randolph’s patience, neither have been as consistently disappointing over a 3 year span, either. How many more times will Glavine spot the opposition a massive lead before his spot in the rotation is in jeopardy?
Sure, Glavine was horrendous, but of equal concern is Willie’s/Rick’s utter reluctance to slot Heilman back into the rotation, or let him throw more than 40 pitches in a one-run game when the next best option in the 6th inning is DeJean/Ring/Bell/Graves etc. In an AL game no less. What gives? Did Heilman screw Randolph’s wife or something? Fails to add up.
Willie’s explanation in today’s NY Post (Mark Hale) :
Heading into the bottom of the sixth inning yesterday, Aaron Heilman had pitched 22/3 innings of scoreless relief as the Mets sliced their deficit from five runs to one.
But at that point, manager Willie Randolph took Heilman out and replaced him with Mike DeJean — essentially exchanging one of his best relievers with perhaps his worst.
By the time the sixth was over, the Mariners had scored four runs — all charged to DeJean — and the Mets were done.
After the 11-5 loss, Randolph had to explain his thinking.
“I didn’t really want to stretch [Heilman] out any more than that, possibly lose him for Tuesday,” Randolph said. “And he hasn’t been in that spot before. All year long, he’s been pitching in short spurts. So I felt like he kept us in the game. That’s what I wanted from him at the time.
bringing in DeJean in this spot was a dubious decision. The righty entered the game with a 5.04 ERA, and calling him into a one-run game seemed unnecessarily dangerous. But Randolph said he did not think about using another reliever — say, Roberto Hernandez or Heath Bell — who had been more successful.
“He was up. He was warming up,” Randolph said of DeJean. “He was ready to go in there and he’s part of the pitching staff.”
“To me, 22/3 [innings] is real good for him. If I had left him in longer, it could have been 32/3 [innings] or something like that and then I’ve lost him for Tuesday. Who knows how he would have responded to that? He hasn’t been there before.”
so in other words, Heilman is the long-reliever / mop up guy whom Randolph presumes will have to be summed as earlier as tomorrow night against Philly. But he better not burn the pitcher out in case Wednesday’s starter sucks as badly as the previous two games. I don’t like where this is headed.
still, i think Willie allowing DeJean to put the game further out of reach is not a big a story as Glavine continuously spotting the opposition a healthy margin early in his starts. I’m less furious about Heilman being yanked yesterday than I am that he’s not being given the opportunity to start.
I wholeheartedly agree with your point on Heilman, Gerard. Credit where it’s due to Victor Zambrano, who is — if not exactly winning ugly — at least pitching effectively of late. Ishii has been awful but Glavine especially really has been terrible at the start of games — I don’t know which one I’drop from the rotation first. If the Mets offense were a bit better, all this might be a bit more bearable, and Glavine might even sneak in some 7-5 wins. But the offense stinks, and even if it didn’t it sure wouldn’t change the fact that Heilman has inarguably given the team a better chance to win in his starts than Glavine or Ishii. They’ll never move Glavine to the pen and I doubt they’ll release him, but I don’t think Ishii is owed the same (odd, frankly un-owed) dispensation. Heilman should be starting, and DeJean should probably be cut or farmed out. Ring has looked very good when I’ve seen him, and I’d much rather watch a raw-ish twentysomething of the Steve Colyer/Juan Padilla AAA variety get rocked and hopefully learn something from the experience than see DeJean’s limp and certainly not-getting-any-better self get the same treatment.
Also, that photo/caption combo made me laugh out loud.