“I swear, I’ve seen a lot of stuff in my life, but that… was… awesome.” – Thomas R. Callahan III.
Good thing the Mets have John Maine going Sunday.
Tedquarters
Ted Berg
“I swear, I’ve seen a lot of stuff in my life, but that… was… awesome.” – Thomas R. Callahan III.
Good thing the Mets have John Maine going Sunday.
Tedquarters 
The biggest miracle of the day is that Jerry Manuel made it through a 20 inning game without endangering a single Mets pitcher’s career.
We sure about that? K-Rod supposedly warmed up 10 times and threw 100 pitches, Mejia’s thrown 50+ in the last 2 days, etc.
Yeah apparently K-rod has a dead arm, they said he threw a 70 pitch bullpen inning before the game too.
And for the most part I’ve been joking about Jerry blowing Meija’s arm out before June because I assumed even the mets weren’t dumb enough to let it happen. Now I’m actually legit worried. How can an organization be so incompetent to not even try and protect a 20 year old all words pitchers arm from a mad man lame duck manager in what’s likely a lost season anyway.
The only hope is that he’s the guy sent down today when they call up Stoner.
I assume he won’t be, but if this org had even a shred of common sense, he would be.
Makes sense of so many levels, beyond the obvious ones we’ve talked about ad nauseum:
1. Send him down following a good performance, so he doesn’t think he’s being punished.
2. Rest of pen has been good, so there’s no need for him up here.
3. Gets him away from serial child abuser Jerry Manuel
You guys need to stop with the Mejia nonsense. I mean if you think he should be working on his stuff as a starter, thats fine, its a completely valid arguement. But the idea that hes now being over worked by Jerry?
Hes pitched 7 total innings this season. In two weeks. Hes thrown 99 total pitches in 2 weeks, 99 Pitches!!!!
How can you sit here and say he should be starting in the minors, when you think that 7 IP and 99 pitches over 2 weeks is overwork?
Um because relief innings=/starting innings? There’s a reason relievers don’t throw 100+ innings a season. A reliever throwing 51 pitches over two days is completely different from a guy who’s stretched out throwing 100+ twice with 5 days of rest in between. The act of warming up throwing 20+ pitches, usually at max effort since you’re not pacing yourself, then having your arm essentially cool down but not actually get rested then coming out and throwing 20+ pitches again is pretty dangerous. There’s a reason relievers usually aren’t “available” after throwing so many pitches in an inning the day before or throwing a certain number of days in a row.
And it’s not just the number of innings you throw it’s the number of pitches. Like when Feliz came up he might throw two days in a row, or throw 2 innings one day and only get one day of rest before his next appearance but that was because they had him on a specific pitch count limit which he hadn’t exceeded.
Chris, it’s not so much that he’s been overworked by Jerry (although the fact there are no “rules” regarding his use is ridiculous)
It’s the fact that with Jerry, it’s a matter of when, not if, he will overuse Mejia. He does it with everybody. After watching the Mets the last two years, you can’t really believe Jerry is going to handle this kid, our most precious commodity, properly.
Actually it seems like he’s doing his best to limit Mejia’s innings. He’s been used sparingly, but the good thing is that Mejia has looked fantastic when he has been used. He seems very cool and calm out there. I really do want to see him as a starter next year.
This is true to an extent, but he’s already pitched on back-to-back days three times. He’s also on pace for more than 100 appearances. I know a couple of these are due to extra inning games, but that’s still insane.
Mejia has looked great when he’s out there and if he had been used properly all this year, I would think him in the majors as a starter next year could be reasonable. But even now, I don’t think that’s possible.
You figure the earliest he would get sent down (and this is probably a stretch) would be early May. It will take close to a month to stretch him out, giving him only a couple of months to start games. Given his lack of starting experience, I dont think that will be enough.
I’m beginning to think that they are not going to send him down and that they will transition him into the major league rotation by mid or late late June to keep his innings below 150.
And, after watching him the last couple of nights, that might not be such a crazy idea. This kid can really pitch. He threw a couple of nice breaking pitches last night, and his fastball has such great, late movement and velocity. He’s also locating his fastball pretty well (except for the Ianetta HR which he grooved).
Gina — I’m with you 100% about Jerry blowing his arm out in the pen, but not much can be done when you have 20 inning games. I’d like to see them give him 3 days off after the last two nights.
Will Chris Carter be up on Monday or Tuesday to play first after they send Stoner back down?
Apparently they’re bringing Davis up, so Carter won’t be up.
Maybe this is a terrible idea, but what would people think about the Mets starting to stretch out Mejia in the major league bullpen?
I definitely would prefer him starting full-time in the minors, but if they’re going to keep him up, what about pitching him once or twice a week at 2 innings a time? If the chance to go 3 innings comes up (and with this staff, it probably will), he could do that too.
I know it’s far from ideal, but if he’s going to be in the majors, I think I’d rather have him going 2-3 innings at a clip as opposed to 1 inning.
Worst case, he’s closer to being fully stretched out when he (God willing) gets sent down.
If he keeps pitching this way, that would be fine with me, but not until June. They need to keep him below 150 innings this year. Ideally, he should be at 135-140 this year.
He could get stretched out quickly. Like Joba Chamberlain and Bobby Parnell last year. A couple of longer relief appearances, then a 4 inning start, a 5 inning start, and then he’s good to go.
But if he’s only doing it once a week, is it really any different than 2-3 one inning appearances that he’s doing now?
The fact that you guy are judging jerrys use of the bullpen the day after a 20 inning game is just stupid in the first place. What happened last night is not a normal occuence so anything Jerry did with regards to the use of the bullpen should be considered the norm either. I doubt jerry would have had mejia throw 2 innings in the second if back to back days had it not been an extremely unusual case last night. It was an anomily last night, throw it out, disregard it for purpose of all arguements.
Some would argue that the fact you think people’s concern about Jerry’s management of the bullpen is based solely on last night is “just stupid.”
Jerry has no credibility when it comes to anything: in-game strategy, player evaluation, you name it.
I assume you’ll apologize and withdraw that ad hominem attack on Jerry as soon you see who he shrewdly penciled into the clean-up spot tonight.
Tonight was really a thing of beauty.
GMJ in center instead of Pagan. The team’s three worst hitters batting 2nd, 4th and 6th.
I won’t kill him on bringing in Igarashi, but it does seem weird that they’ve put this emphasis on Feliciano getting out righties and on a night you’d like to save as many arms as possible, Feliciano gets a righty out and then gets taken out immediately.
Ryan,
Please tell me how your arguement here is not based on last night. The main point you made was that Mejia has thrown 50+ the past 2 nights. Does that not include the 2 IP and 30+ pitches he threw in th 20 inning game?
If Jerry hadnt been forced to use Mejia like that, Mejia’s overall innings and pitches would still be quite low considering its 2 weeks into the season and you;d have no arguement.
I don’t recall that being the main point. The “main point” was that it’s too early to tell if Manuel made it through a 20-inning game without damaging any of his pitchers.
And the fact he had “K”-Rod warm up 10 times and throw more than 100 pitches before coming in is borderline criminal.
From there, I mentioned Mejia throwing 50+ pitches in the last two nights. More concerting that that one specific instance is the fact he’s already thrown back-to-back days three times this year. And it’s not just about pitches thrown in the game — it’s about warming up, getting up and down, etc.
And the general incompetence Jerry has shown throughout his tenure would give any Mets fan cause for concern when he holds the fate of the organization’s most prized prospect in his hands.
Agreed about last night — a complete anomaly and I’m glad Jerry played to win the game (unlike LaRussa).
But he’s already had a couple of unnecessary back-back outings, and that is quite disconcerting. And if he wasn’t in the pen in the first place, last night’s otherwise anomalous use would never have occurred. You seem to think that the concerns expressed here by many over Mejia getting burned out in the pen are “nonsensical.” Was Brian Cashman engaging in nonsense when he implemented the original Joba Rules in 2007 to keep Torre from blowing his arm out?
I know this is a little off topic, but Tobi Stoner’s pitching, giving us an eight-nation army, Ted.
I know! I don’t know how I feel about that, except I don’t think Tobi Stoner’s going to be around that long, broseph.
He pitched well tonight tonight, though.
Meh.Didn’t walk anybody but also didn’t strike anyone out. He could be a servicable long man, but I wouldn’t have much confidence in him coming into a high leverage situation with men on base.