Only in the eighth, when Aaron Rowand hit a two-run homer over the right field wall off Jennry Mejia – who really needs to go back to Triple-A and hone his starting skills – did the wind finally blow a favor to the Giants.
– Bill Madden, N.Y. Daily News.
Emphasis mine. It’s not particularly surprising, but it’s certainly amusing that the city’s newspaper columnists now appear to unanimously agree that Jenrry Mejia should be starting games in the Minors. I don’t recall any newspaper writer but Joel Sherman making so much as a peep about it during Spring Training, when countless Mets blogs were furiously lobbying on behalf of Mejia’s longterm development.
That quibble aside, as far as I’m concerned it’s the more the merrier on the let-Mejia-grow bandwagon. The Mets seem to react to media pressure as much as any team in baseball, so it’s good when the media clamors for something that will actually benefit the team.
Anyway, here’s the thing: Not only is Mejia’s development likely being hindered by irregular work in short bursts — he has thrown 83.7 percent fastballs — he’s also being questionably handled, given his youth. Both appearances and bullpen sessions tax relievers’ arms. Mejia has pitched in 15 of the Mets’ 31 games, but warmed up in plenty more.
For all I know, the Mets do have some sort of Jenrry Rules governing Mejia’s usage, but they certainly don’t manifest themselves in his game logs. And that’s a bit worrisome, because Jerry Manuel’s overuse of certain bullpen arms is one of the aforementioned early-season trends very likely to continue.
It’s nothing new. And with the proverbial axe perpetually hanging over his head, Manuel has little motivation to concern himself with the condition of his relievers late in the season.
Fernando Nieve has pitched in 20 games, putting him on pace for 104 appearances. Pedro Feliciano has pitched in 18, putting him on pace for 94 — a career high even for the guy who has led the league in appearances two years running. And like Mejia, both guys have been “dry-humped” numerous times.
Granted, at least some of the blame lies on the Mets’ starting pitchers — the Mets are second in the Majors in relief innings. But Manuel’s team leads the league by a pretty wide margin in relief appearances on zero days’ rest. Mets pitchers have 35. The league average is 18.
In all likelihood, this will eventually catch up with the club.
Tedquarters 
Are the Mets second in the majors because their starters aren’t pitching well, or because Jerry has a quick hook? (See, e.g., taking out Pelfrey after 85 pitches on Friday night.) I think it’s almost certainly a little bit from column A and a little bit from column B, but it’s not *just* the starters who are responsible for all those innings the ‘pen is working.
“In all likelihood, this will eventually catch up with the club.”
Hasn’t it already, on multiple occasions?
Pretty much the entire last 2 series was evidence of it catching up with them.
Yeah, pretty much. I think it’s hard to say for sure that the Mets’ bullpen crapping out recently is because they’ve been overworked in the early part of the season, but it’s also impossible to argue otherwise.
Yeah, I guess it could be regression to the mean (since Nieve has never been as good as he’s looked, Meija is 20 and Felciano’s main goof up came against a RHB). But I’m going with Occam’s Razor (Shines) on this one.
Ted, hasnt this already started to catch up with this club? The Bullpen has been pretty mediocre over the last week, with no small part of that due to the fact that we saw the same three guys trotting out each game (whether they got an out or not).
I tend to place a large part of the blame on Jerry, but he didn’t make this bullpen alone. It’s clear he’s not going to use Frank the Closer outside of “closer” times. That leaves 6 guys for the other areas, with the lack of willingness to cut bait on Oliver, Tak2 must be saved for long relief efforts. That leaves 5 guys. Jerry doesnt seem to have any trust in Valdes or Acosta (no shock) but it should be noted that unless he gets some relievers he is comfortable with, he’s just going to keep trotting the same three guys out there.
This is where Omar’s job becomes important. Now I understand that he didnt predict that Ishaguru (sic?) would become injured and that Escobar was an ok gamble. But if you’re manager is just NOT GOING TO USE 2 of your bullpen arms, find someone he can use.
The same goes for the bench to some extent. It seems to me that Jerry has given up on Frank from Smithtown and Sarge Jr. (after sticking with him for no reason early), so shouldnt Omar be managing the roster to get some worthwhile help (cough* Chris Carter and Nick Evans* cough) onto the bench?
And we say it over and over about so many things, but why can’t the media make themselves of some use from time to time? Why isn’t anyone confronting him about the implications of his bullpen use, and how those numbers project out? This isn’t even any advanced topic. Gary is bringing up the overuse on every telecast, in his modulated way.
It is on Omar to provide an optimal bullpen and to make sure Jerry uses it appropriately, sure. But why isn’t Jerry having to answer for what he’s doing?
The root of the problem is the starting pitching, and how many pitches they throw. And in that, Jerrys hands and tied for the most part. Wehn John Maine throws 100 pitches in 5 innings what is Jerry supposed to do? Make maine throw 7 Inning evvn if he had to throw 170 pitches? Ollie start yesterday, how is Jerry supposed to avoid the bullpen?
I’m sure Jerry realized how much hes using these guys, but realistically what can be done about the root cause of this problem?
He also took Pelfrey out after 86 pitches on Friday. Took Johan out after 101 pitches and Eli Whiteside at the plate on Saturday and then required 3 pitchers to get the final out of the eighth. And if Frankie was able to work the 9th and 10th there, why couldnt he have gotten one out in the eighth?
And given Jerry’s history of doing this every single year, why should he be given the benefit of the doubt?
I think it’s pretty insidious the way he’s handled Nieve. He’s a fringe major leaguer and there’s no way a guy like that is going to refuse the ball. And if he doesn’t get the job done, the media blames Nieve.
One would think that Jerry Manuel dry humping K-rod during a 20 inning game would get more radio and news coverage than it did.
I love the larger point here though. The mainstream media, by and large, loves to dismiss the blogosphere as irrational, unintelligent basement dwellers, of the same ilk as the morons who call WFAN.
But on point after point, everything smart people (which doesnt include myself) here and at Amazin Avenue and other similar places were saying has been proven true and the MSM is trying to come late to the party.
Jacobs sucks? Bloggers knew it before Jerry and the media
GMJ? Ditto.
Mejia in minors, Carter over Catalanotto, etc. Time and again, it’s proven that the people with all the access don’t know as much as those they disparage. Even worse is that the people paid to run the Mets don’t know as much as people here.
I’m not by any means knocking the blogosphere, but there are some good blogs with smart people and there is just some total garbage out there. Same as with real mainstream sportswritters.
And yes the blogs have been right about many things that you have pointed out but it was also alot of blogs that called for the Mets to cut Carlos Delgodo early in 2008 when he struggled. Or called for Tatis to cut in early 2007 before he picked it up and had a come back player of the year season and helped the Mets tremendously. Or said “why is Jose Valentine on this team” in early 2006 before he became a huge part of that team.
I dont think the Blogoshere as a whole is any more right or wrong than the mainstream guys are. What I do think happens is that in most cases, the bloggers, since they are largely fans, tend to have a faster knee jerk reaction to most things negative, and are quicker to voice thier opinions on a subject. Therefore in cases like you mention, bloggere seem have thier finger on the pulse, but I think, like I have mentioned there are many times where the bloggers react to quickly and dont give the things a chance, and looking back they are wrong alot of the time as well.
Oh yeah, I think that’s a fair assessment. I by no means want to suggest that all blogs get everything right all the time, since that would be foolish, obviously. This particular instance, though, is funny because Mets blogs seemed near-unanimous about keeping Mejia in the Minors and no one but Joel Sherman even voiced a little bit of concern in the papers.