Results tagged ‘ Claudio Vargas ’
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.
Castillo Up, Maine Down
After delaying his return from the DL for “the need of more rehab” (I think Castillo gave an extra day because he knew the Mets were better without him), Luis Castillo was finally taken off the DL. So who was the unlucky soul who got sent down? Argenis Reyes? Nick Evans? Brian Stokes?
None of them. They got lucky. With John Maine going down with a possible season ending bone spur in his shoulder, he was placed on the 15 day disabled list. The platoons will stay in place.
Stokes, however, will stay in the bullpen as the Mets plan to go with a 4 man rotation until they can get some September callups. With the back-to-back complete games (and so he doesn’t have to face the Marlins who beat him three times this season), Mike Pelfrey is in need of an extra day of rest, and so Pedro Martinez will go tonight against the Phillies, Oliver Perez tomorrow, an off day, Johan Santana, then Stokes will get a spot start before Pelfrey will start on 6 days rest. Once September rolls around, the Mets will probably just go with whoever is hot. Nelson Figueroa, Claudio Vargas, and Jon Niese are all possibilities.
Pedro’s Replacement
It was announced yesterday afternoon that Brandon Knight will be Pedro Martinez’s relpacement for tomorrow night’s game. Knight is 32, and had a short career with the Yankees as a reliever. He was recently named to America’s Olympic team, so after this start he will have to go to China. Knight was 5-1 in AA Binghamton this season, and that was why he was chosen over Brian Stokes or Jon Niese. Claudio Vargas or Nelson Figueroa was going to be called up, but they both just pitched, so they wouldn’t have enough rest.
By the way, I can’t help but notice how well Ramon Castro is always hitting. I really think that if he had full playing time, he would be like Jorge Posada or Mike Piazza. This guy is an absolute beast at the plate, but he really doesn’t get enough time to prove how great a hitter he is. Seriously could have been the next Piazza.
Last Day Before All-Star Break
Well, its the last day before the All-Star break and the Mets look to continue their winning streak to 9 games. The last time the Mets won 8 in a row was that fantastic road trip to the west in 2006. The Mets haven’t won 9 straight since 2000. I wouldn’t count on this streak to go much longer, seeing as the players will undoubtedly cool down with 3 days off.
Pedro Martinez was taken out of yesterday’s game after just 4 innings with muscle soreness. He says he is okay though. Carlos Muniz worked 2 innings in relief, and then Schoenweis, Heilman, Sanchez and Wagner all came on as well. Had Claudio Vargas been up in the majors this wouldn’t be necessary. Now Johan Santana might be used in relief of Mike Pelfrey today. Pelfrey just came off a 114 pitch outing, so he should get pulled early, and Johan Santana last pitched just 5 innigns because of a rain delay. If Santana doesn’t pitch long relief, he could close out the game. Billy Wagner has been used in multiple straight games, and he will be in the All-Star game, so Jerry Manuel might be looking to give him a day off now. Pedro’s injury leads me to believe that maybe the reason for John Maine’s inadequacy in his last start was because of his elbow hurting. He said his elbow was killing him a couple days prior to that game, and I haven’t heard any news of it lately so it should be fine, but just throwing out a possibility.
Bobby Murcer died on Saturday from brain cancer. A tumor was discovered in 2006 and he had surgery to remove it, but the cancer hung around. Murcer, a long time Yankee player and announcer, was 62.
Injuries
Tony Armas continues the team trend of getting hurt. He was placed on the 15 day DL with a strained abdominal muscle. Carlos Muniz was called up. I still think Muniz needs more experience in Triple-A and I think they should have called up Claudio Vargas. Now who will be the long man?
Moises Alou was inserted into the starting lineup in a Double-A game and he was supposed to play the whole game. Alou left the game, however, with a cramped hamstring. This will hopefully prompt the Mets to acquire another outfielder before the July 31 trade deadline. Who knows, Mark Shapiro, the General Manager of the Indians, said the Mets had the propsects wanted to acquire Sabathia, so why can’t they get Matt Holliday? Colorado is 6.5 games out of first place. Let’s see if they decide to shop him. With the injuries of Alou and Church, I am glad that Tatis and Chavez are performing so well. If they can’t keep it up, big deal. Fernando Martinez is off the DL, so he should be ready to make his big league debut some time soon. Look for that to happen.
Mark Mulder, who made his first start since September, 2007 last night, got injured and had to leave the game after just 16 pitches. Perhaps this will prompt the Cardinals to trade for a starter? I wouldn’t count on it, but maybe Jonathan Niese or Oliver Perez could go for maybe Chris Duncan. The Cardinals usually have him in Triple-A, and he can play outfield and first base with some power. He would be a nice fit for the Mets.
And Johan Santana actually got some offense for him last night! How cool is that?
Pitching
I am not too excited about the Mets’ pitching situation. I am glad that they are not in a spot like ’06 where they had about 15 different starters because of injuries, but there have been some questionable moves.
For example, I do not understand at all why the Mets would send down Claudio Vargas to call up Carlos Muniz. Vargas is a veteran and was the one guy in that bullpen who could go 4 innings in relief if need be, and Muniz is just a nice prospect who needs more experience in the minors. Now Tony Armas Jr. has been called up to make a start, (he was pitching very nicely in Triple-A but couldn’t even compete for a roster spot in Spring Training because of a problem with his visa) and I have to admit, he did pretty well in last night’s 7-4 win over St. Louis. All the Mets really needed from him was a spot start because Oliver Perez will pitch in relief either tonight or tomorrow, and will start Sunday’s game at Philliadelphia to move his place in the rotation behind John Maine so they didn’t have two leftys back-to-back (the other being Johan Santana), but for now Armas will stay with the club as a long man. I don’t really think that is a good idea, as Andy Phillips was sent down to make room for him on the 25 man roster and now the Mets only have 4 position players on the bench.
Another questionable pitching move the Mets made was having Pedro Martinez start tonight on 4 days rest. Both he and Mike Pelfrey pitched during Friday’s double-header, and it would make so much more sense to have the younger guy go tonight. I just hope Pedro doesn’t get hurt, as another serious injury could mean the end of his career, which would be so sad at this point. Pedro is my favorite player.
One more thing. Have you noticed the Mets’ scoring patterns? The amount of runs they score usually depends on the pitchers. When Oliver Perez starts and gives up 8 runs in the first inning and the bullpen is also horrendous and there is no way the Mets can win that game, that is when they decide to score 6 or 7 runs. But when Johan Santana pitches and gives up 2 earned in 7 brilliant innings, the Mets score 1 and play sloppy defense, allowing at least a run on an error. I feel sorry for Johan, because at 7-7, he isn’t getting all that much good attention. But I feel he is having an All-Star season, and if he got better run support (which he truly isn’t asking for a lot of) he might be 12-4. He has also been the Mets’ most consistent pitcher this year, and he has certainly done the things the Mets asked him to do when they signed him to the biggest pitching contract in history, but he isn’t getting the credit he deserves.
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