Heilman: The Question

by wgarrett on Jul 17, 2006 9:01 PM EDT

Should Aaron Heilman be a starter or a reliever? Read these stat lines and decide:

Starting: 25 starts, 133.2 IP, 144 Hits, 22 HRs, 106 Ks, 66 BB, 5 W, 13 L, 5.93 ERA

Reliever: 88 G, 118.1 IP, 109 Hits, 6 HRs, 114 Ks, 43 BB, 3 W, 3 L, 3.20 ERA

(Stats as of 07-17-2006)

Please give your answer and an explanation why. Thanks.

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Comments

Disingenuous to ignore development over time

Your batched stats could be examined if starting and relieving were intermingled enough, but otherwise, they are relatively worthless to cite. Rookie pitchers develop.

As for the overall question I don't have enough information to make a recommendation to be honest. I would hope the Mets staff would.

by peeder on Jul 17, 2006 11:42 PM EDT reply actions

Statistics can mislead.

Sure his relief numbers look better, but (a) most of his starts came early in his career, before he was really ready for the bigs, and (b) recently his relief appearances have been lousy. So what are we to conclude? That he will somehow magically become effective again if allowed to start? Or that his period of dominant relief pitching was an outlier and that he is reverting to his mediocre norm as the league figures him out? I'm leaning toward the latter, but I'm just a fan, so what do I know? But if by some miracle I'm right, the solution is obvious--trade him now while there's still a market for him.

by madisonmetsfan on Jul 18, 2006 8:46 AM EDT reply actions