With Jorge Sosa already on the disabled list with a strained left hamstring, the Mets added to their MASH unit by disabling Oliver Perez with a sore lower back and recalling Jason Vargas from Triple-A Las Vegas. Vergas will start tonight in Colorado against Aaron Cook.
Vargas has been decent if unspectacular with the Zephyrs this year, going 6-4 with a 4.35 ERA. He has been an extreme flyball pitcher (0.60 groundball-to-flyball ratio), which doesn't exactly make him a great fit for a game in Colorado. Vargas also has extremely bizarre platoon splits this year. Witness:
| AB | AVG | OBP | SLG | BABIP | WHIP | BB/9 | K/9 | HR/9 | |
| vs LHB | 53 | .321 | .390 | .491 | .405 | 1.86 | 4.38 | 10.22 | 1.46 |
| vs RHB | 232 | .259 | .304 | .397 | .297 | 1.31 | 2.59 | 6.41 | 0.76 |
Small sample size caveats apply as usual, but Vargas's line against lefties (Vargas is a lefty himself) is wild. He has struck out in excess of ten batters per nine innings, but walked almost a batter every two and coughed up a homer and a half per game. The BABIP is absurd, and he is dealing with almost two baserunners per inning. I think his performance against righties is more likely what we can expect out of him over a longer stretch. His BABIP is more in line with the league, his walks are under control and his strikeouts are serviceable.
I'm a little disappointed the Mets didn't go with Brian Lawrence, who has been quite good in Triple-A and has historically been a groundball pitcher. He was actually released by the Rockies earlier in the season before catching on with the Mets, so it would have been a homecoming of sorts for him. However, Vargas is already on the 40-man roster and Lawrence is not, so some additional roster shuffling would have been in order had the Mets called on Lawrence instead.