Michael Baron of MetsBlog had an interesting quote from Jerry Manuel in a post this morning regarding the starting rotation.
The Mets have setup their rotation for after the break and it will go as follows beginning with the four games against the Atlanta Braves.
- Oliver Perez on Thursday (Braves)
- Mike Pelfrey on Friday (Braves)
- Johan Santana on Saturday (Braves)
- Fernando Nieve on Sunday (Braves)
- Livan Hernandez on Monday (Nationals)
Jerry Manuel then told reporters that lefthander Jonathan Niese, who is having a solid two months in Class-AAA Buffalo, would take the place of a starter who has “three bad outings in a row”.
Michael points out that the threat applies mostly to Livan Hernandez who in his last two starts is 0-2 with a 19.29 ERA, allowing 21 hits, eight walks, and 15 earned runs in his last seven innings and has lost his last four starts.
I have absolutely no problem with the three strikes and your out theme, and in fact I applaud it.
I only wish that we could the apply that same measure to the general manager Omar Minaya.
I don’t want to hear him whining about the injuries, because he was in a position to react to them with through trades and free agency and he chose not to.
I don’t want to hear him say that the minor leagues had no major league ready talent to call upon when guys like Jose Reyes, Carlos Delgado and Carlos Beltran went down. Omar had five years to build our minor leagues and he should be held responsible for a system that is ranked 26th out of 30 and has no prospects in Baseball America’s Top 25.
Has Omar had some shining moments? Of course he has, just like Willie Randolph did, and yes even Livan Hernandez.
But after two straight collapses and the potential for another doomed season lurking in the background, why should he not have the same three strikes rule applied to him?
Hopefully, the Mets can pick themselves up and go on to win the division. That would be my dream come true for the season. But anything short of that, would require drastic action. And even though I’m not exactly thrilled with Jerry Manuel’s managerial acumen, if anyone deserves a free pass for this season, it’s him. Omar however, already got two free strikes and in baseball it’s three strikes and you’re out.
as much as i want to agree with you on this, i might have a problem. he has had time to develop guys, but he has also taken the better ones and traded them away for guys like Putz and Johan. in those trades we lost guys like Carlos Gomez, Mike Carp, Phil Humber and others. what happened this year is something you dont see often in which the heart of your lineup is completely gone due to injury and you dont want to over react by getting too many guys and having no place for them when your guys come back. they will be back soon enough and if we stay close then we’ll be in good shape
Omar’s not going anywhere.
BTW, it would look really bad if Ollie has three bad outings in a row.
I also think we could send Livan to AAA, and have Figueroa take his spot.
Not a good idea,
I don’t think it’s a good idea to tell your starters that the first guy to have three bad outings is out of the rotation. And I certainly wouldn’t make it public. As a manager you can certainly talk about those ideas with your coaching staff and I also happen to think it’s a good time to bring up Niese again as well. I just wouldn’t threaten my starters with that idea because it could be counter-productive. I would probably use my pitching coach as the messenger to my starters and have them tell them individually something like – hey man…Jerry’s thinking about bringing that kid up from AAA again so how about giving me something extra day..i know you can do it because you’ve done it before” Some kind of pep talk like that. But not publicly threaten them.
I agree with you. Going public with this is bush. What if something happens and Santana has 3 bad outings? What’s Jerry going to say then? — well, I meant REALLY BAD!. Come on get real. Also if Ollie has 3 bad outings, what do they do with him? He’s already been on the DL and back via rehab. I guess he goes sits in the corner with a dunce cap on. This should have been handled with a private conversation with Livan. “Look, if we get 3 more starts like we’ve seen recently, we may have to say goodbye.” That’s seems simple enough.
More proof that Jerry Manuel is an idiot!!!
As someone else mentioned, what if Johan happens to have 3 bad outings? Is Manuel really going to pull him?
Or what if, for example, DW goes into a slump? Bench him?
If Manuel is serious about this then he should hold himself to the same standards. Three straight losses and he quits?
One of the pitchers has their 3rd “bad” outing in a row and Manuel walks up to him and says. “Sorry. Go pack a bag. Your on the next flight to Buffalo or banished to the bullpen. So. a pitcher currently in the bullpen gets sent down so the banished starter has a place to go? Of course not.
Manuel has no say in personnel moves beyond offering his opinion whem asked. I have no idea what Manuel meant when he made that comment but everyone should know by now that Manuel says alot of things…
And if we take Manuel seriously what is the definition of a “bad outing?”
Its a case of Manuel trying to sound proactive and people for some reason taking him seriously.