Friday, June 08, 2007

Jorge Sosa: Stopper

Go figure.

After probably the most heartbreaking series that the Mets have seen in a good long while wrapped up at Shea, the Mets had some serious issues...with a trip to see the NL Central leaders looming, and their main competition in the division taking on the Cubs and the Royals. It didn't look good, especially after the Tigers, who are not only leading their division, but leading all of baseball in batting average (.290).

And as if the Mets needed more consternation, they had Ricky Ledee in the starting lineup.

Hopeless you say? I can't say that I blame you. Especially after Curtis Granderson led off the game with a base hit and you probably thought, like me, that the sky was going to continue to crumble and lie at your feet.

Luckily, Sosa would only give up three more hits in his eight innings of work in Friday night's 3-0 victory. And of those four total hits, only the Granderson hit came before there were two outs in the inning.

Funny, I was having a discussion the other day about Jorge Sosa, regarding which pitcher the Mets would send to the bullpen when/if Pedro Martinez makes his grand return. I said it during this conversation, and I'll say it here for you. How can you send Jorge Sosa to the bullpen with the way he's pitched? If eight shutout innings against a team hitting .290 coming in isn't enough proof that you can't send him to the bullpen, well then you're never going to be convinced. Of course, there's plenty of time to make that decision...and logic says that somebody isn't going to stay as good as they have been and will have to be exiled to the 'pen.

But if Sosa, Tom Glavine, Orlando Hernandez, John Maine and Oliver Perez are all still on top of their game come August, then why not Pedro Martinez to the bullpen?

Go figure.

***

Speaking of go figure, how about the Phillies...as Gary Cohen said during Friday's telecast...going back to being the Phillies, losing 6-4 to the Royals tonight? How about Pat Burrell...well on his way to achieving that 0 for 14 that I so callously predicted for him with an o for 4 tonight against Kansas City?

Bum.

And how about the Braves getting their heads and tails bashed in and kicked in respectively by the Cubs, who won 9-1 on the strength of three Alfonso Soriano dingers tonight? All of a sudden, the standings aren't as dire as they could have been.

***

And how about those hot dogs at Comerica? Boy do they look good. No wonder Dave Murray moved there.

***

How about this for a possible trade:

Aaron Heilman to Texas for anybody they have.

Don't misunderstand me, I'm not being vindictive here. But the Texas Rangers have the worst record in the league, and members of their bullpen are now serving as the last bits of clean meat on the carcass of a dead animal. Why not trade Heilman for somebody more comfortable in that eighth inning role...Akinori Otsuka, perhaps? Or let's go nuts and get Eric Gagne for the eighth inning, shall we? The Rangers, meanwhile, can use Heilman as their fifth starter to replace Kameron Loe...who is now 1-6 or somethin equally hideous, and Heilman can stay in the Rangers' control until 2010.

I'm just sayin'.

6 comments:

Jaap said...

It's the kind of conundrum you want to have in August - Pedro to the Pen? That'd be a glorious idea if we didn't already have Wagner, Pedro Reborn In The Pen.

How about Heilman to Tidewater?

What? There is no Tidewater?

Why not send him to Japan for Hisanori Takahashi?

Mets Guy in Michigan said...

Metstra,

About the hot dogs in Michigan. It's a sad thing. They pile nasty chili-like sauce on them and call them "coney dogs" with a lower-case c.

I've tried explaining to them that you'll find nothing like that anywhere at Coney Island, and that the best part about Nathan's is actually the fries, but they don't believe me.

And even stranger, they call little diners that sell these things "Coney Islands."

It's a odd place. But I'm still trying to change them!

Sweet game Friday!

Anonymous said...

Yes. let's trade Heilman to Texas, but for the financial records showing that team was the cornerstone for launching the illegal Bush junta. We can then sell the records to Daily Kos or Amy Goodman in exchange for some Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky tomes, which can be placed in ballclub lockerrooms--distributed by the deviously intellectual Delgado--whereas the players can finally change their slavish political devotion to the right-wing military recruiting machines that pollute Shea. If any player objects we can send them to Iraq to face "the greatest battle of civilizations" (providing they're citizens, of course,and under 42, tough task for the Mets), which few MLB players are today. Or we can just trade Heilman for some good Texas fried steaks and ponies to bring the relief pitchers out like those old golf carts the Mets used to use.

Metstradamus said...

I'm for the steaks.

Anonymous said...

OK. The steaks. Then we give 'em to Beltran to eat so he can have the energy to hustle to 2nd on a dropped fly ball in the 9th. I'm sure on his salary he's starving for protein to give him energy, poor boy.

Anonymous said...

Hey, John. This is debmc, from FU. No, I don't mean "FU," as in, well, FU, but Flushing University.

I thought I'd pop over and visit, and see what's going on over here, and how you're all feeling about things.

I like the idea of trading Heilman, with Schoeneweis as a throw in, to any team, major league, minor league, Japanese league, little league....... lol.

Of course, I'm pissed as hell at The Two Carloses as well. Those two need a stick of dynamite stuck between them, lol.

Anyway, I'll be visiting here on a regular basis. I hope to be getting to know you and some of your readers better.

In the meantime, you can always visit us at www.flushinguniversity.com for more Mets talk and nonsense!