The community has spoken, and John Maine will be the starter Opening Day, and Jon Niese will be the odd man out and will hone his skill some more in AAA. The Mets (Community) still have $2.1 million free.


Our next step in the Community off-season is addressing the bullpen, which I will do in parts due to the fact that there will likely be 7 pitchers in the MLB bullpen.

How this will work is that I am going to assume that K-rod is our closer, and organize the bullpen into the following:

Closer - Francisco Rodriguez

Setup Man

Setup Man

MRP

MRP

LRP

and we will decided whether the other two spots will be dedicated to "Lefties" or just miscellaneous relievers.

Right now, there are two setup men, so everyone in the poll will vote for their favorite candidate for the job and the Top 2 will have earned the job as the Community Setup Men. Options include:

Bobby Parnell: This young, in-house option is a player I'm sure we're all familiar with. As a rookie in 2009, his surface numbers don't look too hot: 4-8 record, 5.30 ERA, 4.69 BB/9 also. However, his numbers are deflated mainly due to his 8 starts, most of which ended up as atrocities. Parnell as a reliever posted a 3.46 ERA in 52 IP, striking out 43, and walking 23. In addition, his FIP finished comfortably under 4.00, and his tRA did as well. his GO/AO rate of 1.26 was also favorable, as was his 8 homers allowed in 88 IP. Even more in his favor is the fact that he had a .347 BABIP against. In terms of stuff, Parnell possesses a fastball that averages between 94 and 95 MPH, and a sharp slider to complement it. Occasionally he throws a changeup as well.

Sean Green: Green had an off year in his debut with the Mets, hitting three-year lows in FIP (4.42) and in tRA (4.55), however; Green's 2007 and 2008 speak very highly of him. In both of those years, he finished with his FIP under 3.80 and his tRAs were 4.34 and 3.97 respectively. His numbers were mainly altered due to a heightened walk rate from 2008, a career high 4.65 BB/9, and possibly because he's strayed away from his slider (used 18.9% in 2008, 7.1% in 2009) and the overuse of his curve (2.5% in 2008, 16.7% in 2009) perhaps this simple mistake will be easy to fix, and Green could return to his 2008 form, which would certainly be useful for the Metropolitans. Green isn't a gunslinger like Parnell, in fact his fastball for his career averages at only 89.1 MPH. Green gets by on groundballs generated by his sinking fastball and slider.

Jenrry Mejia: Who better to fill the setup role than this God of a man? He's got a mid-90s fastball with a ton of life, a very nice split-change and a curve that's coming along nicely. He dominated A+ ball at the ripe age of 19 and maybe a move to an MLB bullpen is the last step before he becomes our ace/closer. He's a groundball pitcher with a great mental makeup and its possible that from the bullpen his fastball could be even faster!

Kelvim Escobar: He's made exactly one appearance in the past two years, which is discouraging but may also make him willing to sign a 1 year, $2 million deal as a setup man. Escobar's always had killer stuff and he's looked alright in his recovery. Could be a very valuable guy to have in the bullpen and possibly a rotation replacement for any injured starters. His fastball in his only start of this year was averaging at a very encouraging 93.7 MPH. Escobar's deep repertoire consists of a fastball, curve, slider, changeup, splitter and cutter. Would be a bargain, but the Angels may very well re-sign him to be the #5 starter in their next rotation as they are losing Lackey.

I'm not sure of their availability but interesting targets may include Jose Arredondo and Chad Qualls, both of whom would command at least a few prospects in deals.

Sorry guys, there aren't many options I cant think of that would cost $2.1 million or less outside of the above. IF you have ideas, PLEASE post them in the comments section.