Actually, what made the Murphy news feel weighty was the timing yesterday, coming on the same day the Mets practically declared a level of panic over their starting rotation, announcing that Jon Niese is suddenly their No.3 starter when the season opens next week….
Jerry Manuel can try to sell it as merely a case of matchups, but if the Mets are so worried about Pelfrey facing the Marlins that they are already reconfiguring their rotation, it’s hardly a good sign.
And you get the feeling Perez is now No. 5 in the rotation only because there isn’t a No. 6.
I’ve mentioned this a billion times before, but fretting over the order of the rotation is a huge pet peeve of mine. Your five best pitchers start. You can worry about who is No. 1 and No. 2 and No. 3 if and when the playoffs come around, but in April? Bah. Whatever.
I’m not arguing with Harper’s point that the Mets’ rotation doesn’t look great coming out of Spring Training. I’d be a fool to quibble with that.
But who really cares if Niese pitches Thursday against the Marlins or Saturday against the Nats? By the end of the season, the pitchers who have stayed healthy and effective will have started 30-34 games, and those who haven’t won’t have.
I’m near certain the reason the Mets shuffled their starters had more to do with saving their bullpen than anything else. Does anyone think the Mets think John Maine is their second-best starter and want to reward him for it by trotting him out in the season’s second game? Likely story.
Smart money says the Mets want to space out Maine and Oliver Perez as best as possible to keep the bullpen as fresh as can be, and do their best to make sure Mike Pelfrey, who for all his warts can eat up some innings, and Johan Santana are pitching between them.
Tedquarters 
We shouldn’t like Pelfrey pitch until Reyes and Murphy come back. With Jacobs, Cora and Castillo manning 3 spots the poor guys gonna lose his mind.
Yeah, as Catsmeat twittered yesterday, he’s going to break a whole lot more golf clubs.
I understand the sentiment but ‘you’re in the big league now, boys’. Time to step up and handle it like the big league pitcher he’s suppose to be.
He can’t go out there agonizing over every ground ball hit behind him. If he puts his best stuff out there, gets the ground balls and they botch it behind him, that can’t rest squarely on his shoulders. The stats might reflect that but he should show some confidence in knowing better.
I agree, but that’s not going to stop the media from making a massive deal out of it and masses of fans from thinking he’s awful and booing him. Plus it’s a lot easier said than done to keep doing the right thing and getting negative results because of things you can’t control.
Jacobs, Cora and Castillo could not prevent the HR barage that Pelfrey gave up in his ST games …. what difference does it make if you have four slugs in the infield or four gold glovers on the infield if your sinker ball pitcher’s sinker doesn;t sink?
Pelfrey had three good months in the middle of 2008 — other then that, he’s been quoite pedestrian …. his ST was horrendous.
Yippie Pelfrey is a back-end starter at best …. the problem is that with this team, sch a resume actually looks good.
Isn’t it possible that he’s started throwing the sinker less and trying to use the 4-seam more because of the infield behind him? Obviously if you keep doing something, using the sinker, and keep getting negative results eventually you’re going to try something different.
The only reason I care about the rotation order is because I have tickets to Saturday’s game. I was hoping not to start 2010 by watching Ollie try to pitch.
Not that the other options look all that much better right now.