Jenrry Mejia didn’t fail today. He was awesome, because Jenrry Mejia’s pretty awesome. He tossed a 1-2-3 inning with a strikeout, hit 97 on the gun, and even threw a couple of consecutive breaking pitches over the plate.
The last note is the most important one. It provides a glimmer of hope that, should he make the Major League staff, Mejia can continue using and honing his secondary stuff instead of relying on fastballs while allowing the rest of his arsenal to atrophy.
One of the men he’s sort of competing with for a bullpen job, Sean Green, was not nearly so impressive. The sidearmer walked one batter and hit another in yielding two runs to the Braves in the ninth, demonstrating more of the control issues he has shown in most of his Grapefruit League action.
Another bullpen competitor, Bobby Parnell, allowed three hits and a run in his frame. He walked one and struck out one. So no great shakes there, either.
Ryota Igarashi managed to get out of his inning unscathed, but allowed one line-drive hit and one walk.
I still maintain that the Mets can have a perfectly fine — and markedly improved — bullpen without hindering Mejia’s development as a starter or losing rotation insurance-person Nelson Figueroa by simply sending Mejia to Double-A to start games and Green and Parnell to Triple-A to work out their various kinks.
That would leave a bullpen of Figueroa, Igarashi, Francisco Rodriguez, Kiko Calero, Pedro Feliciano, Hisanori Takahashi and Fernando Nieve, whom the team does not appear willing to risk losing through waivers.
Maybe none of the eighth-inning candidates in that situation has Mejia’s “electric” stuff that everyone keeps raving about, but Calero has been an excellent Major League reliever when healthy, Takahashi has been at least as dominant as Mejia in the Grapefruit League, and Igarashi can dial it up into the mid-90s.
So though Green doesn’t appear all that likely to help the Mets out of the gate — and I don’t want to read too much into the Spring Training results, but it’s his inability to get the ball over the plate with his new delivery that is concerning — the Mets certainly have options beyond him.
And to ask fans if they’d prefer to see Green or Mejia in the eighth inning of Opening Day in 2010 neglects the crux of the argument against using Mejia out of the bullpen this season.
That one says this: The short-term cost of having a pitcher inferior to Mejia pitching the eighth inning of Opening Day 2010 will be far outweighed by the long-term benefits of having a fully developed Mejia pitching the first innings of many Opening Days to come.
Tedquarters 
Your ability to argue with idiots without resorting to name-calling (as I do) is admirable.
The thing that annoys me most is the inconsistency. If spring training stats matter so much, why isn’t Carter a lock to make the team over Jacobs? Why isn’t Figgy getting a look at the 5th starter spot?
Because Jerry plays favorites with no rhyme or reason.
Because Mike Jacobs is a “proven major leaguer.”
Of course, the fact that he’s proven to be a pretty terrible major leaguer is of no consequence.
They’re not looking at stats; they’re using their old school baseball eyes younin’… and don’t you forget hear? Lest you take all the fun and goodness out of this hallowed game with your new fangled “stats”. Computers don’t play the game sonny, tobacca spittin, grit lovin’, hustlin’ MEN do.
Forgive me please for the above comment, momentary loss of sanity because I am right there with you about all this Ted. It seems very much like the powers that be for the Mets are incapable of seeing the bigger picture. I rarely admit out loud how much this bothers me, because even I realize its kind of weird to be as upset as I am about roster moves on a team in which I am personally acquainted with zero people involved.
Sean Green’s lack of control is more worrying (same with Parnell) because of the fact that both of them walked so many batters last season especially toward the end of the year. I don’t have the stats in front of me, but I just remember Green last year having a number of appearances where he was coming nowhere near the strike zone, throwing wild pitches, etc. Now he has a new delivery and his control has been just as bad. Parnell surely has options left; does Sean Green? If so, he should definitely be sent down to start the season and figure out the control issues.
Indeed, both Green and Parnell have options left. Figueroa and Nieve do not.
And miss out on watching Green walk the winning run in against the Phillies again?
At this point isn’t it starting to feel inevitable? Mejia will be the “8th inning guy” whatever that means. Jacobs will make the team over Carter and we can forget about Figueroa – hope he has fun in Japan. It’s like if you put together the worst possible combination of scenarios and that’s exactly what Jerry and Omar think are brilliant ideas. Jeez.
Well at least Reyes looks like he’ll be back soon, so the Cora vesting option watch is over for the time being.
I am a diehard Mets fan Ted.
I am astounded that the Mets are thinking of doing this with a guy who could be huge as a starter as close as next year!
Game 2 of the WS, your #2 SP has to start, you want Santana or Maine?
It took me like ten minutes to figure out what you were saying. But yeah that’s a good point, does it matter who’s in the 8th inning if you’re counting on Maine/Ollie, and the likes to get you there?
Exactly. A good bullpen is irrelevant if the starters are incapable of handing them a lead. Ollie’s performance yesterday was depressing. Maybe they should send him to Buffalo and make Niese the 3rd starter and Figgy the 5th. :)
And to make matters worse, my first game in my package plan is the 3rd game of the season. So, I get to see Ollie in person for what seems like the 50th freaking time. I use to joke that I had the Victor Zambrano plan a few years ago, but the last couple of years I have had the Ollie plan. Not sure which one is worse.