Will Ohman Fits

by Sam Page on Feb 12, 2009 10:48 AM EST

LHP Will Ohman is expected to sign soon, and the Mets may be one of four teams with an offer out. Before we look at Ohman, however, consider who currently will be competing for spots in St. Lucie:

Francisco Rodriguez
J.J. Putz
Pedro Feliciano
Sean Green
Duaner Sanchez
Brian Stokes
Brandon Knight
Bobby Parnell
Darren O'Day (DL)
Rocky Cherry
Eddie Kunz
Carlos Muniz
Connor Robertson
Billy Wagner (DL)

The first five are locks, leaving seven healthy pitchers to work for two additional slots. Those seven, however, are all righties. With that in mind, adding another lefty, who can get batters out on both sides of the plate, makes sense. The incumbent left-hander, Feliciano, used to fill this role, but after being treated like a LOOGY, he started to act like one.

Ohman exhibited a somewhat opposite phenomenon last year. Although he didn't display the two-way abilities of Feliciano's '06 and '07, he made strides to drop the LOOGY label:

He's also a pretty good pitcher. Ohman posted FIPs of 3.87, 3.90, and 3.17 in the last three years. Last year, he was especially good as suppressing homers and especially bad at stranding runners. He's a good bet for a FIP somewhere between 3.50-3.90 next year, with some upside. In the Mets bullpen, he could very well be the third-best reliever. At the very least, he's way better than Schoeneweis for what look to be a fraction of the price.

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Did Feliciano start acting like a LOOGY because he was being treated like one?

Or did he start only pitching to lefties because he could no longer get righties out?

by ams258 on Feb 12, 2009 10:58 AM EST reply actions

I don't think it's fair to say Feliciano was suddenly treated like a LOOGY

he faced roughly an equal number of righties and lefties and did the same in 2006. 2007 is the outlier where he faced substantially more RHB. He just was way worse against righties in ’08 than he had been and I think was probably treated like more of a LOOGY as the season wore on because of his first-half ineffectiveness and because Jerry treated every pitcher we had as either a ROOGY or LOOGY.

by jasondg on Feb 12, 2009 11:12 AM EST up reply actions

I wouldn't call a one year drop

from 6+ ERA vs righties to near 5 ERA vs righties “strides to drop the LOOGY label.”

by Sokojoe on Feb 12, 2009 11:07 AM EST reply actions

I would

It’s the difference between league-average and terrible. And even though it’s a small sample size, it’s not unprecedented (see: 05 on the graph).

King of the bling come to lay down the evidence//Not George Bush, L-Millz be da president

by Sam Page on Feb 12, 2009 11:46 AM EST up reply actions

I should note

that I biased against Ohman. I think someone will give him a pretty good deal, 2.5-3 million perhaps, and I’m an advocate for spring training battles when it comes to the bullpen. I agree with MetsTailgate, I think the loser of Redding/Garcia will become the long man ala Oliver/Sele; I would much rather Stokes, Knight, Rule Five picks, NRI, and our minor leaguers battle it out not only so that maybe we can catch lightning in a bottle, but our bullpen would have greater flexibilty for double-header callups, hot hands on the farm and such.

by Sokojoe on Feb 12, 2009 12:25 PM EST up reply actions

I like Stokes, Parnell, Darren O'Day

and Brandon Knight of course.

King of the bling come to lay down the evidence//Not George Bush, L-Millz be da president

by Sam Page on Feb 12, 2009 2:21 PM EST up reply actions

Great typo, Sam:

One of my all-time favorite Mets: “Billy Wanger”. Too bad he’s on the DL.

On an actual note, anyone know how much is Ohman looking for/expected to sign for?

'Oh yes, I know all about that duty-of-a-citizen stuff. It doesn't go. There are exceptions to every rule, and this was one of them. When a man risks his liberty to come and root at a ball-game, you've got to hand it to him. He isn't a crook. He's a fan.'

by Catsmeat Potter-Pirbright on Feb 12, 2009 11:11 AM EST reply actions

Fixed

but I consider leaving it.

King of the bling come to lay down the evidence//Not George Bush, L-Millz be da president

by Sam Page on Feb 12, 2009 11:42 AM EST up reply actions

I would sign Ohman

And let the battle begin!

"I dunno. I never smoked any Astroturf"
-Tug McGraw

by squid92 on Feb 12, 2009 11:15 AM EST reply actions

by Sam Page on Feb 12, 2009 11:43 AM EST up reply actions

I hope Rocky Cherry makes it

So that I can hear Alex Anthony say, “Now pitching for the New York Mets, Rocky Cherry.”

We've got ourselves a ball club, the Mets of New York town!

by kingcritical on Feb 12, 2009 1:11 PM EST up reply actions

I like Ohman, especially because of his non-LOOGY status

I think if he’s signed the odd man out might be Brian Stokes, who I also like. Garcia/Redding will probably be the #5 and it appears the loser of that battle will be the long man.

by James Kannengieser on Feb 12, 2009 11:41 AM EST reply actions