Wagner done for the season?
The Mets and Billy Wagner say no, that he is not finished for the year, despite what is looking like a very ominous elbow injury. I'm no doctor, but the fact that both Wagner and GM Omar Minaya described the inflammation as actually getting worse, that's not a good sign.
The immediate plan is to leave Wagner on the shelf until the swelling subsides and then have another MRI to get a better view of what's going on inside the elbow. Here's another troubling part. Wagner can't get a cortisone shot because doctors fear he could blow out the elbow if heads back out to the mound without them knowing the full extent of his injury. Again, not good.
That leaves manager Jerry Manuel little choice but to mix-and-match his current batch of relievers for the immediate future -- and perhaps for the remainder of the season. Both Minaya and Manuel pretty much ruled out using a starter in the bullpen.
As Manuel explained it, they don't want to push their luck with Maine, whose shoulder needs the time off between starts, and Oliver Perez is doing too well in the rotation. As for Mike Pelfrey, Manuel said he doesn't want him to shoulder that added responsibility this late in the season.
So there you have it -- no Wagner, no easy solutions in the bullpen or rotation, and little chance of trading for help either. One team official said that was very unlikely as just about all the candidates already have been blocked and relievers have almost zero chance of making it through waivers at this point.
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Comments (8)
Fantastic. It's hard enough watching this bullpen blow so many games on what could have been a dominating first place team by now. Mets could easily be 7, 8 games up in the division, at least, if not for the bullpen. Now, if the Mets make the playoffs, we will have to watch more implosions and the games will be too important to throw away. I was totally against it, but now I think Maine has to go to the bullpen to at least provide another option. Then, if the Mets make the playoffs, they start Santana, Perez, Pelfrey, Martinez in that order. Is there any way to claim a Huston Street at this point or would he be blocked? I'd take any half-decent reliever who has experience closing games right now.
Doesn't sound good.
Anybody in New Orleans able to come up and shut down the 9th inning....?
Maybe Ollie can go all 9 tonight against the Braves.
I'm not saying that I am not worried, but one only has to look back two years to the cardinals who were in a similar predicament with their closer, and a young pitcher stepped up (Wainwright) and was dominent for them, and perhaps the primary reason the won it all. I'm not saying that the bullpen hasn't been a disaster, especially recently, but this is the time for someone to step up, or for them to think outside the box (Niese) for a solution.
1. if the offense would deliver some clutch hits, and demonstrate a bit of a killer instinct, we wouldn't be sounding all these alarms over the bullpen.
2. Phils need bullpen help too -- they'll claim anyone the Mets are interested in, not just to block the Mets but because it would help them too.
3. Don't mess with the rotation. Pedro and Maine are both fragile and don't bet on Niese being any better than Ian Kennedy.
4. Charlie's best option is to give the ball to Heilman and express some confidence. If he blows one, bring him back the next day. He's got the best arm in the pen, so use it. Not the the greatest choice, but the best of what's available.
who is Charlie?
Some good points by Delaware, however maybe Neise isn't better than Kennedy, but I'm betting that he is. Against the Phils, Lefties are needed (Utley, Howard), and while you are looking at Kennedy, I feel that Niese has to be better than Schoenweis. Sometimes when there are no other answers, and if someone doesn't step up, you have to do something risky....while the offense has left way too many men on base, nothing is more demoralizing than the pen coming in and blowing game after game. For "Jerry" some days choosing a reliever is like playing Russian Roulette, you just hope you haven't chosen the "loaded chamber". It's amazing that this team can keep bouncing back and not having their confidence shot after losing so many games that should have been in the W column.
A little chicken and egg theory regarding Maine--no? He would not need time off between starts if he was not starting and throwing 100 pitches. Maybe 20-30 pitches every other day would suit him better? Typical Mets circular thinking, as far as I am concerned. I do not care if he can or cannot pitch every day. I would be perfectly happy to have a decent pitcher on the mound in the ninth every other day, at this point.
There are far to many arm injuries in present day in Major League Baseball. Did the pitchers of the fifties and sixties and seventies have so many arm injuries?? I am a MLB fan and I do not remember so many arm injuries to pitchers like Gibson,Spahn Carlton,McNally and Tiant and the list goes on and on. Is it poor conditioning of their pitching arms or physically they are really not able to be pitchers and became one anyway.