Results tagged ‘ Aaron Heilman ’

DOES ANYBODY LISTEN TO ME?!?!?!

Everybody who has read me saying that the Mets should not make a trade raise your hand.

 

 

 

 

 

Nobody listens to me. In case you haven’t heard, here’s the story.

 

In short, it was a 3 team deal, going like this:

 

Indians Get:

Luis Valbuena

Joe Smith

 

Mariners Get:

Endy Chavez

Aaron Heilman

Jason Vargas

Mike Carp

Ezekiel Carrera

Maikel Cleto 

Franklin Guttierez

 

Mets Get:

J.J. Putz

Sean Green

Jeremy Reed

 

 

In my opinion, this is an absolutely horrible trade. Obviously, I’m excited about getting Putz as a set up man, but honestly, we gave up way too much. We just signed K-Rod, do we really need Putz?

 

We gave up Endy, the best number 4 outfielder in the entire Major Leagues. I loved him. Everybody did. We will definitely miss his defense, although I’ve heard Reed is also a good defender, and we’ll never forget that amazing catch in game 7 of the 2006 NLCS.

 

Joe Smith was my favorite reliever. He was the only good reliever in the Mets bullpen last year. He was the perfect guy for New York, I remember watching him on the Subway on Mets Weekly. Plus he’s got an awesome name.

 

Mike Carp was the future first baseman, after Delgado. He was a great hitter, maybe better than Fernando Martinez, and he’s got lots of potential. I was looking forward to seeing him play.

 

I will miss Aaron Heilman and I won’t miss him. After all, who could miss that horrible ’08 season? I still think the Mets didn’t give him a fair chance, and I wanted to see him start. He will get that chance however, in Seattle, and he will get a better environment for his personality.

 

I’ve heard Sean Green is a good ground ball pitcher, which is great to replace Smith, and Reed is a mini Endy Chavez, so its not as bad as I thought. But I still hate the trade. Its like a punch in the gut to see my favorite players gone.

 

The Mets also picked up Darren O’ Day from the Angels and Rocky Cherry from the Orioles in the Rule 5 Draft, so they could also help replace Joe Smith.

 

I thought the Mets should have just gotten Huston Street for Heilman and Pedro Feliciano, they’d be giving up a lot less and be getting what they need, a set up man with closer experience.

 

I hope this turns out to be a good deal. I really don’t like it, I’ll really miss Joe Smith and Endy Chavez the most, but lets see how it works out. I meant to do my next projection today, but this news just shocked me so much, and I won’t do it now because this was a long post and I need to recover from my shock. Maybe it’ll come tomorrow, maybe tonight, I don’t know, but its coming soon.

 

Good news though, I finished 93 in the Year’s Top 100 Fan Blogs. Yay! It really surprised me since I came in around June, and since nobody commented much. hint hint

Noooo!

Don’t do it! Don’t make any trades, Omar! I am telling you, SAVE THE FARMSYSTEM!!!! Do not trade Eddie Kunz or Jon Niese or Bobby Parnell for Jermaine Dye or Javier Vazquez; do not trade them AT ALL! These men are the future of our club, how can you even consider it? Don’t trade Daniel Murphy, either, as he is potentially the next David Wright, or with the position issue, the next Ryan Braun. Don’t trade Nick Evans, or Mike Pelfrey. We must rebuild our farmsystem and build a good team. Everything in the world should strike a balance, and in baseball, that balance is between big name free agents and building a good crop of home grown talent.

 

There is one rumor of a trade, however, that I’ve heard and I support, although the Mets once again disagree with me. I’m not sure if its true, but rumors suggest that in order for the Rockies to trade Huston Street to the Mets, they are asking for Aaron Heilman and Pedro Feliciano. The Mets are completely open to making a trade for Street revolving around Heilman, but they don’t want to trade Feliciano. I would make this trade in a heartbeat. I understand that Feliciano is a rare solid lefty specialist, but Scott Schoenweis can easily have a bounceback year, and I thought the Mets were going after Brian Fuentes and Joe Beimel anyway? If they push the right buttons, this team can easily have a good bullpen in 2009. Here is what they have to do:

 

  • Trade Heilman and Feliciano for Huston Street. If the reports are true that the Rockies would accept this with no extra players, go for it. Street is your set up man.
  • Sign Brian Fuentes. He is a left hander who can be our closer, and we won’t have to spend extra money on Francisco Rodriguez.
  • Sign Joe Beimel. No matter what, we have to sign him. You can’t rely on Schoenweis anymore until he proves himself, and although there is no way Beimel will have as good an ’09 as did an ’08, he is easily one of the best lefty relievers in baseball.

 

If played correctly our bullpen will look like this:

 

Closer – Brian Fuentes

Set Up – Huston Street

Middle Relief – Joe Smith

Scott Schoenweis

Duaner Sanchez

Lefty Specialist – Joe Beimel

Long Reliever – Brian Stokes

 

In my opinion we really have a surplus of relievers. Claudio Vargas, Tony Armas, and Nelson Figueroa can all be long relievers, and Carlos Muniz could be back. Jason Vargas might make an appearance, and who knows, we still have Kunz, Niese, and Parnell!

 

Omar Minaya has to really choose his cards wisely. With a little work, the bullpen can get better. It really doesn’t have as much cleaning up to do as it seems, as long as Minaya  takes a conservative approach.

Show Some Love For Aaron Heilman!

First a shout out  sanchezricardo for that comment on Wakefield. I heard somewhere had one more year with an option, but I forgot the option part. Is there a website or sometihng that has a list of free agents? If so can I have a link that would great.

 

As Mets fans, we realize what parts of the team and help us and what parts of the team hurt. But lets stop being so negative, the season is over so lets get ready for next year. Instead, lets show some love for our bullpen for a change! After all, they aren’t THAT bad. I mean, its not like they give up home runs every single big important at-bat, right?

 

So join me in boosting Aaron Heilman’s fan appreciation level and confidence level. Click here and go to the write-ins section. You know what next. First form Aaron, secod form Heilman, third form Mets. And who cares about your name email address and phone? Fill it in correctly if you like, but I always fill those out with fake stuff since it doesn’t matter.

 

The point is vote for Aaron Heilman. If Rick Astly can win an MTV music award as a joke, Aaron Heilman can win an MLB bullpen award as a joke. Show your Mets pride!

What I Would Do In The Offseason

Free Agents to let go: Alou, Pedro, Tatis, Easley

Resign: Oliver Perez, Rincon, Ayala, Matt Wise (Remember him? He was on the opening day roster but got hurt and came back and played one game and got hurt again and we never heard of him again. But he has GOTTA be better than Heilman at this point, right?), Delgado

 

Free Agents to Sign: Orlando Hudson, Tim Wakefield, Jon Garland, Teixiera, Manny Ramirez

 

Trade: Heilman, Duaner Sanchez, Castillo, Delgado

Trade For: Huston Street/Bobby Jenks/J.J. Putz, ANY relief pitcher, prospects, middle infielders for bench, cash

 

I figure outfield would be fixed with Manny and Evans/Murphy would play left if we can’t sign him or if someone gets hurt. You need to resign Oliver Perez, he could fill a huge hole, Rincon and Ayala did nice jobs for he most part. If we sign Teixiera and Delgado we can trade Delgado for someone good like a bench infielder to replace Easley. Street, Jenks, or Putz could obvisiously fill the closer role (forget K-Rod, he will be too expensive, especially with Manny and Tex, and he will blow out his arm), while Hudson could play second and be a clubhouse leader and Garland can join the rotation. I already blogged about Wakefield and Heilman sucks beyond repair, at least he sucks in New York. Sanchez will never be the same, and everybody knows that Castillo needs to go and trade is the only way because of that stupid extension. Unless we release him, but then we won’t get anything back (addition by subtraction?).

 

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Or how about we just sign Manny, CC Sabathia, K-Rod, Teixiera, and every other big free agent, and then pay for their contracts by winning the World Series! That sounds perfect!

It’s Over

It’s Over. Done. Finished. No more baseball. Mets lose. Brewers win.

 

It sucks. It sucks it sucks it sucks. I hate the bullpen. I hate it. They blew the lead like 35 times and we could have clinched it in the second week in September and we could have lead the Phillies by 10 games and we could have done something great for Shea in its last year. But we didn’t. 162 games. The bullpen can’t save 2 more of them. This is not a major league bullpen. It isn’t. Now it is too late. You boys let us all down. You know it. We are sick of it. And Billy Wagner, don’t feel bad, it isn’t on you. It is on guys like Aaron Heilman and Scott Schoenweis and Duaner Sanchez and Joe Smith and on and on and on. They all suck. 2 games. 2 more games is all they needed to save. They couldn’t. i don’t care how big a lead you had last year, as far as I’m concerned, THIS was the biggest collapse in the history of baseball.

 

But you know what? It wouldn’t matter if they saved 2 more games. I think that if the neccesary number of wins was lower, the Mets would have won less. They play to get back in the race. Not to win 95 games. I blame everything on the bullpen. Sure, the offense and starters and defense and offense had their days, but they are allowed. The bullpen passed their limit by about 20. Insane.

 

Goodbye 2008. Goodbye Shea. I’ll miss you. I’ll miss everything about this year. Except the bullpen. 

I Don’t Understand; Wakefield the Answer?

Side Note: The Astros have made their amazing run without Carlos Lee, mistake in my last entry. Now I am rooting for them twice as much! Especially since Milwaukee had the nerves to fire Ned Yost at this point in the season. Give him some confidence people! One bad stretch does not deserve a firing!

 

Anyway, down to business. I was at the Mets game yesterday, and they were winning the entire game by a score of 4-2. Then, before the ninth inning, a bunch of fans left to go to the last ever Mr. Met Dash (its where all the little kids get to run the bases after the game) at Shea Stadium. Well let me tell you, they certainly picked a great time to leave. The Braves scored 5 runs off the Mets bullpen (by the way its called the bullpen for one plain and simple reason: its bull****), and I left after the Norton homer. I just couldn’t take it anymore. I fail to understand, however, how in the world are the Mets still in first place? Look at how many games they’ve blown. More than 20 blown saves. They should have clinched it before the Angles did. Every time you have a bullpen meltdown, you go, it could all come down to this game once September comes, this loss could mean no playoffs, we might miss it by one game because of this loss, its August already we gotta pick up the slack, 6 weeks left this could be a crucial loss, 2 weeks left this is unacceptable, whats next? Darn if only we won that last game this is just like last year. So many times. I am sick of it. You are sick of it. A bullpen like this and we should’ve already been hoping to be at most a spoiler. But Mets have shown extraordianry ressiliance this year to bounce back from a heartbreaking loss. Heck, the surgeon is a billionare by now from all those heartsaving surgeries. Why are you guys doing this to us? Either win the division already or drop out. You are too much like Ralph Nader.

 

No matter who the Mets throw out in the late innings, no relief pitcher seems to work. Sure, you can sign K-Rod but then the set-up men will blow it. You can pick up CC Sabathia and have him throw complete games all the time but he will only play every fifth day. There seems to be no solution. To that, I say, there is one option. Risky, but why not? Sign Tim Wakefield. His contract is up this year and he shouldn’t be asking for that much. Make him a reliever. Insead of mixing and matching, have him come in every day (of course give him a break now and then, more like 3 or 4 games in a row, and only when you are winning) and let him pitch 2 or 3 innings. If he can pitch 6 or 7 every 5 days, lower the workload and raise his apperances. He is just about the only knuckleballer in the bigs (save R.A, Dickey of the Mariners, but his floater isn’t nearly as good), and being in the American league for the past few years, not many guys in the NL will be able to hit him. He can come in and shut down hitters, and you will no longer need to rely on Duaner Sanchez or Aaron Heilman. You can carry less pitchers and have more hitters off the bench.

But even if the Mets don’t get a bullpen soultion, don’t fire Omar Minaya. He has done a great job finding hitters, and making coaching moves. Instead, fire the Mets pitching scouts. If they still think that Heilman is fine and they can take a vacation to Barbados, they don’t deserve to be working in such a fine class that is New York, especially since the Mets have so much money.

Stokes to Start Tonight

It was announced yesterday that former Devil Ray Brian Stokes will get the ball tonight in the spot start of John Maine, who is ready to come off the DL soon. When asked why top prospect Jon Niese was not chosen, GM Omar Minaya said it was because he didn’t want to call up Niese for one game and then have to protect him on the 40-man roster. I agree with this reasoning, but there was also the point of the Marlins having a mostly right-handed lineup against a lefty Niese. Nice move, Omar. Now lets wait and see if you are proven an airhead again tonight.

 

In other news, Brian Giles was almost traded to the Red Sox, but he vetoed the deal, because San Diego is his home town. Could this perhaps mean that the Mets picking him up are slim? Even if Giles would allow a trade to New York, I doubt it would happen. Ryan Church was just cleared by doctors to play baseball again, and he will work out with the Mets tonight. I am thinking he will be in the lineup by this time next week, but there is still no timetable on his return.

 

And by the way, I am stunned by Aaron Heilman’s 6-up-6-down save performance last night. This guy is waaaaaaaay too inconsistent, and Brandon Eddy of metsblog.com threw around the idea of Heilman starting again. If neither Pedro Martinez or Oliver Perez return, I don’t see why Heilman can’t get a shot in Spring Training.

Prediction: Mets to Remain Silent at Deadline

The Braves just traded Mark Teixiera to the Angels for Casey Kotchman and a minor league pitcher. Glad he’s out of the division.

 

I do not think the Mets will make a move this trade deadline. With Fernando Martinez and Jon Niese both untouchable. If they do make a move it seems Scott Schoenweis will be the most likely to go. Minaya said he would not include Aaron Heilman in a deal for Brian Fuentas, which I think is a horrible idea. Get Heilman out of here, especially when someone will take him. Fuentas would be a perfect fit fot the Mets, with the troubles Feliciano and Schoenweis have had. He could close out games when Wagner needs rest, and he could pitch the eighth inning because Duaner Sanchez is too inconsistent.

 

I know the Mets won’t trade Fernando Martinez, and I hope they won’t, but I also hope they don’t stay silent. He could turn out to be a bomb, and with the surprise production of Nick Evans, why not explore the market? I say try and go for Martinez, and Schoenweis for Raul Ibanez and Arthur Rhodes. Of course, you can try Schoenweis and Martinez and possibly someone else for Fuentas and Holliday,  but that won’t happen. Maybe Jason Bay?

 

I don’t think Fuentas or Holliday will be traded. Nor will Manny Ramirez, but Jason Bay could be on the move. I can’t wait to see what happens on Thursday.

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