Good Pitching Performance Yields Punishment?

by DavidNYC on Aug 29, 2005 10:47 PM EDT

In a column in tomorrow's NYT, Murray Chass makes the following claim:

With the Mets, a good performance seems to bring punishment, not reward. It must be a tough-love form of motivation.

He backs it up by offering the following evidence:

They waited far too long to yank Kazuhisa Ishii from the rotation, tolerating his wildness (48 walks in 89 1/3 innings, nearly 5 a game) and his hefty earned run average (5.04). They watched Aaron Heilman pitch a one-hitter in April and 10 days later allow two hits in seven innings, then they banished him to the bullpen. They saw Jae Seo give up one hit in seven innings and exiled him to the minors.

Do you think his assessment of Heilman and Seo is fair? If so, the treatment of Heilman, Seo and Trachsel after their impressive performances is either psychotic or idiotic. (And yes, I realize that Minaya might be playing some clever deep game by making Zambrano look more tradeable by keeping him in the rotation instead of Trachsel - but come on, Steve Phillips is no longer the general manager of any team in baseball, which means that there aren't any suckers big enough to fall for that ruse.)

This FanPost was contributed by a member of the community and was not subject to any vetting or approval process. It does not necessarily reflect the opinions, reasoning skills, or attention to grammar and usage rules held by the editors of this site.

Tweet Comment 3 comments | 0 recs |

Do you like this story?

Comments

Pitchers

The only thing I can really agree with is the prolonged use of Ishii in the rotation. With Jae Seo dazzling in Norfolk and Ishii bombing in Flushing, there was just no reason to keep Seo in AAA that long.

However, tough decisions had to be made with regard to Seo and Heilman early in the year. They just were not going to give Ishii's and Zambrano's rotation slots to Heilman and Seo, and I don't think I would have either.

In a certain sense, it is admirable that the Mets did not give those rotation slots away after one or two good starts from a spot starter. Working solely off of short term memory is not often a worthwhile endeavor in baseball. Where the Mets did fail at however, was cutting their losses and recognizing a trend for what it is.

Oddly enough, with Trax, they seem to be ignoring his superior track record as well as his recent start, and opting for Zambrano instead. Trax is not a great pitcher by any means, but he's solid. And at this point, I'm really not sure Zambrano is any better.

by Alex Nelson on Aug 29, 2005 11:49 PM EDT reply actions

Sample

This is a good point - I think Chass may be making too much of a very tiny sample set. He has the advantage of looking "right" based on that small sample only because it so happens that Seo and Heilman have done well subsequently.

by DavidNYC on Aug 30, 2005 1:29 AM EDT up reply actions

One theory...

I don't have the numbers at hand, but I think the reason Trachs isn't getting the start might have to do with his history against Florida when compared to Zambrano's.

I think the Mets just might be skipping Trachs's start and giving Zambrano one more chance. I read that Zambrano this season has an ERA of around 2 or so against the Marlins, while Trachsel last year put up an ERA or 4-something with an 0-4 record.

It could be that we will see Trachsel start when his next turn in the rotation comes around, assuming he has had some past success against the opponent.

I can't see the Mets keeping him in the bullpen due to his slow, diligent warm-up process--to come in in relief, he would have to start throwing in the third inning.

by kingcritical on Aug 30, 2005 2:44 PM EDT reply actions