Nelson Figueroa won't have to worry about the "softball girl" antics of the Nationals anymore.
Figueroa was designated for assignment by the Mets on Tuesday as part of a flurry of moves.
Figueroa was the losing pitcher in Monday's 10-4 loss to Washington and got frustrated by his own pitching. He took issue with the Nationals' bench chanting and clapping "Let's go, Austin" during Austin Kearns' third-inning at-bat with the bases loaded.
"They were cheerleading in the dugout like softball girls," Figueroa said. "I'm a professional like anybody else, so I take a huge offense to that. If that's what a last-place team needs to do to fire themselves up, so be it. I think they need to show a little more class and professionalism. They won tonight, but in the long run, they're still what they are ... For the manager and coaching staff to let that kind of stuff carry on, it's truly unprofessional. That's why they are who they are."
Figueroa retired Kearns on a fly ball to centerfield. As he returned to the dugout, he clapped in the direction of the Nationals' bench. The game continued without incident.
In other moves, Jorge Sosa was also designated for assignment, and Angel Pagan was placed on the disabled list. Claudio Vargas and Fernando Tatis were called up, and Matt Wise was activated from the disabled list.
Vargas will start Wednesday against the Nationals.
Manager Willie Randolph confirmed Johan Santana will start Friday vs. the Yankees.
Comments (3)
Bye-bye Sosa. So...is Vargas going to replace Figgy in the rotation?
vargas is gonna start on wednesday, who knows about after that. as far as sosa goes, they should of dfa'd him a long time ago, yesterdays game showed how inconsistent of a pitcher he is. my only question is who's gonna be our long reliever? my guess is that its gonna be heilman.
Well I can't say that I am totally surprised about the moves they made but it is a bit uncharacteristic for Omar and Willie. They usually don't make the rash moves. Pagan had to be put on the DL if he wasn't going to be able to contribute in the next week. This team is playing to many games in the next two weeks to be short a bench player so that explains the Tatis move. Another reason I like the Tatis move is that he is a better right handed hitter sort of the Marlon Anderson they need from the right side off the bench. A quick look at his AAA numbers and he is killing the ball down there. 12 home runs in 120 AB's. Yup do the math. That is a home run every 10 AB's. The Figueroa move is interesting. He pitched pretty well this season but the last 2 starts have been dreadful. He is a control pitcher that was walking and hitting people. Not good. Vargas has good stuff not great but it is better than Figgy's on most days. Now the move that really was the shocker. I didn't think they had the cojones to cut Sosa. He has good stuff, he is owed a ton of money, and he is a Minaya favorite but he just hasn't been good all year. Too many home runs, too many hits, and far too many walks for a reliever. He was horrendous yesterday. He turned a close game into a laugher. This wasn't the Red Sox here. This was a Nationals team who had he bases loaded twice and 2nd and 3rd with less than 2 outs 4 times and got one run each against Figueroa who can't top 88 on the gun but against Sosa who throws 95 they took 2 walks and a blast by Milledge and boom the game was over. His performance against the Nats was proof that once he went against any AL club he would be worthless. Lets see if this can light a fire because this team sure could use one. Thankfully our Maine man is on the mound tonight. Go Mets.