Casey Fossum DFA'd, Ken Takahashi Called Up
Takahashi is a 40 year old lefty reliever. He's posted a 0.77 ERA in 11.2 innings with AAA Buffalo, striking out 9 and walking 6.
On Oliver Perez, David Lennon at Newsday adds:
"Team officials immediately gathered after the game to talk about their next roster move and that could involve skipping Perez's next turn before demoting him to the bullpen."
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I thought we signed him for his next turn
which is against Philly. And Philly is missing Johan in all 5 games coming up which would mean no lefties. Not that Ollie deserves to pitch right now.
Yeah, I thought we was a big game pitcher/Sandy Koufax.
Honestly, he is the only Met right now that if I saw him do something sucky at Citi Field I would boo mercilessly.
"I dunno. I never smoked any Astroturf"
-Tug McGraw
Ken Takahashi, step on up!
Lennon updated his post. Guess we decided not to go with a starter.
'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 Apr 26, 2009 6:00 PM EDT reply actions
ah, i was just about to post that
so takahashi replaces fossum. maybe ollie to bullpen to allow for either stokes or parnell to start. personally, i’d like to see what parnell could do as a starter. he’s been pretty good in relief so far.
yeah, why not?
He can’t possibly be worse than Sandy, er, Oliver.
Anyone know what Niese’s been doing in Buffalo? Christ, I hope Saturday’s start is indicative of what Pelfrey will do now that his forearm isn’t bothering him. Maine really needs to step it up too.
2009 Mets: maybe its the Phillies turn to have a terrible bullpen?
by Greenpoint Ian on Apr 26, 2009 6:28 PM EDT up reply actions
Niese has not been great in Buffalo
8.44 ERA in Buffalo. He’s been pretty sharp the first time through in his last few starts, but the wheels have completely come off in the third inning when he tries to go through the lineup a second time.
by Mark Himmelstein on Apr 26, 2009 6:30 PM EDT up reply actions
I could still see him going against Philly though
Just to get a lefty into that series.
by Mark Himmelstein on Apr 26, 2009 6:38 PM EDT up reply actions
Parnell's an interesting thought
We really need SP, but I’m torn. Parnell has never been an overwhelming starter in the minors. I think the Mets may have really found a hidden gem in moving him to the pen, and he probably doesn’t have the repertoire and/or command to be a starter. He doesn’t have an offspeed pitch, and his slider is pretty inconsistent. A spot start would be fine, but wouldn’t you need to send him down first to stretch him out? That’d probably mean Figgy starting at least three or four games. I don’t think its worth it. The fact that neither Niese or Gee has been sharp at Buffalo makes it tough, but I’d still probably rather just see one of them.
by Mark Himmelstein on Apr 26, 2009 6:37 PM EDT up reply actions
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Ollie in bullpen.
Walk machine? As a reliever? Hell to the no.
That scares the shit out of me, to be honest.
"I dunno. I never smoked any Astroturf"
-Tug McGraw
what else are we going to do?
I don’t think we can outright him to the minors.
2009 Mets: maybe its the Phillies turn to have a terrible bullpen?
by Greenpoint Ian on Apr 26, 2009 6:54 PM EDT up reply actions
They can
Apparently he still has options, but as a five year vet he can reject the assignment if he doesn’t mind his contract getting voided.
by Mark Himmelstein on Apr 26, 2009 7:16 PM EDT up reply actions
I'd LOVE to see him do that.
Scott Boras would throw a fit.
"I dunno. I never smoked any Astroturf"
-Tug McGraw
Exactly
He wouldn’t have much choice but to accept, unless he wants to take a massive pay cut. He needs it anyway. Ollie’s spotted history is well documented, but he’s below par even by his own standards so far this year. His fastball isn’t there and not really showing signs of improvement at this point. Maybe he could pull a Brett Myers and go down for a few weeks and come back and pitch respectably.
by Mark Himmelstein on Apr 26, 2009 8:48 PM EDT up reply actions
keep sending him down
until he rejects the assignment is what i’d do. it’s the only way out of this fine mess ollie has gotten us into. at the very least, the traschell treatment is in order.
I.M. Forme
"When you get yourself into trouble is when you feel you have to do something, and then you get yourself in trouble." --Omar Minaya
by itsmetsforme on Apr 26, 2009 8:51 PM EDT up reply actions
the Trachsel treatment worked pretty well, IIRC
Steve had a nice tenure with the Mets after that happened.
2009 Mets: maybe its the Phillies turn to have a terrible bullpen?
by Greenpoint Ian on Apr 27, 2009 1:12 PM EDT up reply actions
thank god
the best news i’ve read all day about the mets
by JADDENHOPKINS on Apr 26, 2009 6:06 PM EDT reply actions
I have to admit...
When the Mets traded for Perez, I liked the deal. When I heard reports later on in the day that they were going to turn around and trade him for another reliever, I thought it was stupid, and was happy when I found out it didn’t happen. After last year though, I didn’t want him to be resigned (let alone for 3 years and 36M), and I think we’re really screwed now. I don’t know how they’re going to get out of this mess.
Same, I really, REALLY did not want to resign Perez.
Like, I nearly cried when I heard, thinking, “3 years of pain coming right up”
"I dunno. I never smoked any Astroturf"
-Tug McGraw
They should have thrown
Fossum to the wolves and let him pitch today until his arm fell off.
I don’t know if anyone else caught this, but they were discussing why Stokes was up today after throwing two innings yesterday, and Keith said that Jerry feels that Stokes has a rubber arm and he doesn’t worry about him, and it sounded like Gary thought he was off audio (it was low and muffled) and said something sarcastic like “yeah right” or “get real.”
I caught that
But it may have been background noise too. For what its worth, Stokes was still throwing 97
by Mark Himmelstein on Apr 26, 2009 6:31 PM EDT up reply actions
Ken-Tak time!
Sweet. A complete unknown>Fossum
by Mark Himmelstein on Apr 26, 2009 6:32 PM EDT reply actions
Oliver Perez > Fossum
OK, well, maybe not
2009 Mets: maybe its the Phillies turn to have a terrible bullpen?
by Greenpoint Ian on Apr 26, 2009 6:57 PM EDT up reply actions
Ollie's frustrating
And while he’s throwing 88 mph meatballs, he may not be far from Fossum, but Fossum is most definitely not >Ollie. That’s not meant to say much about Ollie though.
by Mark Himmelstein on Apr 26, 2009 7:25 PM EDT up reply actions
Philly is up next!
That’s the reason we signed Ollie, cause he kills Philly. I’d give him his last chance against Philly, and if he sucks again, he’s out of the rotation.
Problem with that
Ollie Perez avg fastball velo :
2004: 93.0
2005: 91.3
2006: 90.2
2007: 90.5
2008: 91.2
2009: 89.0
And that was not counting today’s start. The SNY gun had him touching 90 a couple times, but the Verizon Pitch Speed had him topping out at 88, and he was definitely more often registering 88 than 90 on the SNY gun too. He just doesn’t have the command to throw 89 mph fastballs to good hitters. The Phillies are lefty dominant, but they also have Werth protecting Howard, and Werth has destroyed lefties the last couple years.
by Mark Himmelstein on Apr 26, 2009 7:24 PM EDT up reply actions
Weird.
I went to the game today, and Ollie was consistently clocked from 90-93. Then I looked at the gameday though, and read the beat writer’s blogs claiming otherwise. Still, 1 run in 26 innings last year? It’s worth throwing him out there with a backup starter immeadiately on call in the bullpen.
"What position do you play?"
"I bat third."
Yeah
Having Redding progressing now makes that more viable I think. Maybe the Citi gun is fast though, because I saw him hit 90 or 91 only a handful of times on the SNY gun and he was most often throwing 88.
by Mark Himmelstein on Apr 26, 2009 8:43 PM EDT up reply actions
Adam Rubin
Says Tim Redding is getting close. He was sharp in an extended ST outing recently, throwing his fastball at 90-93 with better command than he had in March. He thinks Redding will need one start for Buffalo and then he’ll be ready. So this begs the question, do you go through the rotation one more time now knowing you’ll have Redding to step in during the next trip through?
by Mark Himmelstein on Apr 26, 2009 8:12 PM EDT reply actions
I am also torn
because as much as I despise Perez and never , I repeat Omar, NEVER thought he was going to be worth any big money, I do think he may have the Phillies number. But starting Redding or Parnell interests me also.
So it's like we really never missed out on Zito.
that could involve skipping Perez’s next turn before demoting him to the bullpen
At least we're not paying him Zito-level money.
Which is kind of like having herpes instead of HIV.
by BobbyV_Incognito on Apr 27, 2009 1:53 AM EDT up reply actions 2 recs
Perez vs. Phillies
I’m torn on this. True, he dominated them last year, but oddly my biggest concern is that he’ll dominate them again. That just feeds into the “big game pitcher” hype, and then he might never lose his spot. I think I’d be willing to trade one loss against the Phillies now for the multiple losses one good Ollie performance will save us in the long term.
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