Category: Roster

Milwaukee Brewers Release RHP Claudio Vargas

Claudio Vargas was released and received termination pay today by the Brewers. He might be an option for the fifth starter for the Mets if he would agree to a minor league contract. Omar Minaya know him from Montreal where he pitched from 2003-2004. Last season Vargas pitched in 29 games, 23 of which were starts. He’s not going to light the world on fire but he may be able to compete for the fifth starter in the rotation. Certainly, Mike Pelfrey and Orlando Hernandez haven’t sewn that position up.

Vargas is 30 years old, 6’3″, 220 lbs. For his 5 year major league career he’s 43-38 5.09 ERA.
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The Mets Won’t Show Braves/Marlins Starters

Willie Randolph announced today that he won’t start Johan Santana and Pedro Martinez in their final scheduled spring training games. Instead they’ll start in minor league spring games. Randolph also said that John Maine probably won’t start the final spring game, the Civil Rights Game in Memphis either.
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This strategy is less about caring for the pitchers than it is hiding them from the Marlins and Braves. Three of the last five games are against these two teams. The first two series of the regular season are in Miami and Atlanta before coming home for the last opening day at Shea against the Phillies on April 8th.
The “hiding starters” strategy is standard operating procedure for the Mets. Frankly, I agree with it. I’m sure that Major League Baseball isn’t happy about it because they’re trying to make money at these last few games with marquis names. There’s no sense in showing starters to the division rivals before opening the season. Good job Willie.

Willie Randolph Won’t Coddle Martinez Again

SI.com reports that Willie Randolph says that he won’t have Pedro Martinez on a pitch count again this season. I don’t buy it! Randolph has managed the pitching staff in the classic late 20th-early 21st century fashion. He employs pitch counts and rarely lets starters finish games. He uses the formula late inning relievers regardless of the situational aspects of the games and point in the season.

Willie Randolph

Certainly Willie isn’t the only manager employing these tactics, as a matter of fact he’s in the company of almost every manager in baseball. It’s the style of the game today to closely manage starting pitchers to limit innings. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, it may keep pitchers from burning their arms, shoulders, and elbows out.

I don’t buy that Willie will change his style this year. Specifically, changing his style with Martinez doesn’t make sense. He’s 36 years old this season and coming off a 2007 in which he only made five starts at the end of the year due to injury. Martinez hasn’t pitched a complete game since 2005 (he had 4 in 31 starts).

I could see Willie running Oliver Perez and John Maine deeper into games. I’d like to see that. They’re younger players without a recent history of injury.

Time will tell but I’m not buying Willie’s big talk during spring training. It doesn’t jive with his historical record and common sense.

Photo courtesy of alpineinc

The Last Starter In The Rotation

Another position battle that’s been brewing all spring is the fifth starter. Neither El Duque nor Mike Pelfrey has taken complete command of this spot on the roster. This is another position on the team that will probably come down to the last week of spring training to force the Mets to make a decision.

El Duque hasn’t pitched much at all. He’s pitched a couple of simulated games including one today. David Lennon of Newsday reports that his velocity barely qualified as velocity.  Apparently he hit 81 mph and most pitches were in the 70’s. That’s not going to get it done…

Mike Pelfrey has been inconsistent so far this spring. Inconsistent is an improvement over his performance last season. He was completely overmatched by major league hitters for the most part. He has potential but just hasn’t put it all together. Some pitchers take some time to find it and some pitchers just never do.

My opinion is that El Duque is probably done. Who knows how old he really is anyway? There’s been a lot written this spring about his new, more subdued windup to alleviate health problems. He has foot problems and maybe some others that we don’t know about.

I think that Pelfrey will come away with the fifth spot in the rotation. I don’t know where that will leave El Duque. He’s said that he doesn’t want to relieve and I can’t see him going to AAA either. He may end up getting released with $6 million left on his contract. Hey, it’s been done before. Damion Easly was released by the Tigers with $14 million left on his contract in 2003. He played 36 games for the Rays that season before being released again. It happens.

Last Man in the Mets Bullpen

The seventh spot in the bullpen is one of the few position battles left on the Mets roster. In all likelihood it will come down to Joe Smith or Duaner Sanchez. Marty Noble for MLB.com profiles this position battle.

It’s premature to take a side on this issue at this point. We don’t really know what Sanchez is capable of. The only thing that we do know is that he hasn’t pitched in a major league game in almost a year and a half.

Joe Smith is more of a known quantity right now. He’s had his up’s and downs this spring. Maybe the Mets could take a chance on how hot Smith was coming out of spring training last season. Although I’m not sure that translates into this season.

Sanchez hasn’t shown that he can pitch more than once a week yet. That won’t help the Mets during the regular season. He may need to get his arm back in shape in AAA.

It’s just too early to tell who will win the last spot in the bullpen. I need to see both Smith and Sanchez over the next week and a half to decide who I’d like to see there.