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Wednesday, May 22nd, 2013

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Mets 6-Man Rotation — Why, Exactly?

The Mets are currently going with a six-man pitching rotation. And I have to ask — why, exactly?

Useless

Useless

The original rationale was to give the surgically-repaired shoulders of Johan Santana and Chris Young extra rest between starts. Good idea, but Santana is done for the year and we found out Tuesday night that Young pitches even worse with extra rest than with his usual rest.

So there seems to be no real reason to do it anymore.

The way I look at it, the Mets should do one of two things. Option one would be to remove Jeremy Hefner from the rotation and put him back in the bullpen. Hefner is a pretty good pitcher (who pitched an incredible game on Sunday), but I think we’ve seen enough of him to know that he will be a back of the rotation guy at best, a long reliever/spot starter at worst. He will never be a star, but he could be a valuable member of the bullpen in 2013.

I’m not a fan of this option only because there is a better one — remove Young from the rotation and the roster. We’ve seen enough of Young to know that he will not be part of the team for 2013. He is 3-7  with a 4.64 ERA that is rapidly climbing. Only eight of his 15 starts are classified as “quality starts,” not my favorite stat but indicative of his performance.

I understand that Sandy Alderson wants to field the team that gives the Mets the best chance to win, and that’s fine. But does he really think Young gives the Mets a better chance of winning that any of the younger starters? If so, Alderson is not watching the games.

With one month left in the season, it is time to start evaluating players for next season. Young won’t be around, but guys like Hefner and Collin McHugh might. Let’s see what they can do on the normal rest they would get in a regular rotation.

At the very least if they can distinguish themselves, they could be trade bait to improve other parts of the team. The Mets have a plethora of young starting pitching; Alderson can deal from strength to make the rest of the team better. Let’s start the process now.


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Date: August 29, 2012

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  • http://metsblog Paul

    The Mets did this because they are stupid plain and simple. Obviously another experiment that didnt work.

  • Jack Fitzpatrick

    The “babying” of pitchers must stop! Why is it that pitchers of years ago could throw over 150 pitches per game. Changing managers makes me laugh. Collins is no different than Valentine, Randolph, and Manuel when it comes to pitch counts. What the Mets need is a manager with the same philosophy as John Torterella. Suck it up and play. NY has three of the biggest “nannies” in the world. (Collins, Girardi, and Bloomberg).

  • http://baseballgods.blogspot.com bbgods

    I totally agree.Young and Andres Torres should be released, and McHugh should be in the rotation. with all the off-days, it makes more sense to have a four man rotation than a six man one.

  • Bill

    I think it’s pretty obvious that they’re doing this in order to evaluate the starting pitchers for next season. After Dickey, Niese and Harvey, who pitches for the Mets in 2013? The Mets have a decent amount of options in this area, and they are taking advantage of the fact that they can use the end of a lost season to see who’s capable of the task. The bigger the rotation, the more starting pitchers that can be evaluated going forward.