21
2011
When Will Dan Warthen And The Mets Part Ways?
An article by Former Writers
I know it’s only April, we’re less than 20 games into a very long 2011 season, but so far the pitching has been bad. Actually bad is an understatement, the pitching from the entire staff has been downright awful! There is no way to sugarcoat it, the team as of this writing is currently 5-13, the worst record in the majors. Now the offense is not producing the way it should, I’ll give the pitching staff that – but the limited offense has given the pitchers many leads only to see the staff later blow said leads.
As of this writing there have been 18 games played. In those games Mets pitching has currently walked 79 batters, 4 of which were intentional walks in just 160 innings pitched. The staff ERA is 5.25 and their WHIP is 1.62 this season. Already the staff has given up 20 home-runs as well.
The Mets walk too many batters and those walks almost always come back to haunt the team. It’s interesting that this season as of this writing, R.A Dickey has walked 12 batters in just 4 games. None of those walks are intentional walks. Last year Dickey in 27 games walked just 42 batters. Now it’s also interesting to note that Dickey spent a good part of last year at Triple A, not working with Dan Warthen. Could it be coincidence? Absolutely, but the entire staff is having trouble throwing strikes. Another case would be Dillon Gee. Gee this past weekend had a great outing, he threw strikes. Overall he looked more composed than some of our starters out there. Once again he hasn’t worked with Warthen much at all.
Equally if not more so troubling than the walks is the injuries our pitchers have had under Warthen over the years. The starting staff over the last few seasons have battled injuries with Warthen as the pitching coach. There were reports in 2009 that Santana was skipping side sessions dealing with his elbow injury and Warthen did not know about that. I find that unacceptable. Santana is the ACE of the staff and he’s paid a lot of money to pitch but the pitching coach, whose job it is to know the health of his pitchers was not aware of the situation.
The pitchers under Warthen have also regressed. Look at Pelfrey and his struggles. Also Maine and Perez were coming along fine until the firing of Rick Peterson and the promotion of Dan Warthen.
Warthen also has a problem of talking to the media and saying things he shouldn’t. Let’s not forget last year and the fiasco with him calling John Maine a “habitual liar.” In Spring Training Warthen told the media and the rest of baseball that he believes Mejia would be a reliever instead of a top of the rotation starter. Not only did he go against what the team plans but he could have killed any potential value Mejia may have one day if the Mets wanted to trade him.
I was surprised that Warthen kept his job, though I guess I shouldn’t be with this GM and manager. Hopefully soon the Mets will realize that Warthen is doing more harm than good for the staff and part ways with him.
About the Author: Former Writers
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Its a results business and the Mets arent getting good results. Fire him and find someone who can figure out what they’re doing wrong mechanically, mentally, and get them prepared better.
I think Mel Stottlemyre is available.
Of course it is beyond the realm of possibility that the pitchers just suck… lol…
And We don”t score any runs. Who cares who’s pitching
The pitching’s bad because we have bad pitchers. Last I checked, Dan Warthen didn’t choose them. I won’t lose any sleep if he’s fired, but blaming the coaches when the players suck is a little short-sighted. Terry Collins has been completely unimpressive so far, but Dick Williams couldn’t win with this crew.
As Joe D.’s article notes:
Offense: Sucks
Pitching: Sucks
Defense: Sucks
But Greg Pomes blames the witness to the ineptitude, Dan Warthen. Go figure.
I think Warthen is too passive
I think our Pitchers are too passive and try to fool batters instead of challenge them.
I think our Batters are too passive.
Basically this team is too passive to be a winner!
And while Warthen is partly to blame I am starting to wonder if Thole has something to do with it via the way he is calling the game.
Have to admit that the best pitching last year was when we had Blanco and barajas behind the plate. Thole hits better but they may have been a boost to the pitching with their experience.
Our guys (especially Pelfrey) tend to throw whatever the catcher throws down in the signs. Thole has never had that ACE throwing to him to show him the proper approach to hitters.
Maybe Paulino when he gets here will have better results and prove it one way or the other.
Not trying to knock Thole here or make excuses for Warthen since I was one of the first to question Warthen’s approach as early as last year!
Just saying that who calls the game is as important as who the pitching coach is on a staff like ours who is relatively young and inexperienced or indifferent to strategy (Pelfrey) and do whatever the catcher says to do.
It should be pointed out also that it was Nickeas calling that great game Young threw and if I’m not mistaken he caught Gee as well!
I agree about Warthen. He needs to go. Nobody mentions the velocity issues most of the pitchers have had since he has taken over. Santana never had problems throwing strikes until Warthen cam aboard. I don’t know why this guy get a free pass. Time to bring in a pitching coach that has a plan to get these pitchers to throw strikes and to get them throwing as hard as they are capable of.
Last year, the pitching staff was pretty good. Who was the pitching coach?
the players have stood up for Warthen, so they like him.
We can all agree the staff really isn’t that talented. Not much any coach can do with it.
And you were calling for Alderson to be fired since before he was even officially announced. Maybe you need a new schtick.
I disagree with that somewhat. The pitching staff was pretty good at home. They weren’t good at all on the road. They still walked at a high rate, and gave up a considerable number of home runs, including several grand slams. Also, how many players do you expect to publicly call out their pitching coach? David Wright swore by Ho Jo, should we have kept him too? Hardly.
Whether you think the staff is talented or not, a good hitting coach can make the most with what he has. The perfect example of this was Rick Peterson in 2007 and 2008, who was dealing with patch work rotations and a depleted bullpen. He did the best he could with that staff with guys like Maine and Perez overachieving in his tenure. Name one pitcher that we’ve seen improve under Dan Warthen? I can’t really think of one.
Fine, Peterson is better than Warthen. But what exactly do you expect out of this staff? Why does eveyone assume last year’s RA Dickey is the real one? Pelf has always been streaky. Last year, he simply managed to hold onto the good streak for longer.
In some of the early starts especially with Pelfrey I believe that comments were made about Pelf depending on Thole to call pitches and him and Josh not being on the same page.
If Thole can’t call game then have bench call pitches until he learns to call a proper game, though maybe being around Paulino will help, just saying.
When will MMO part ways with Greg Pomes
when you’re rotation is pelfrey ( career 1.476 WHIP ), dickey ( career 1.469 WHIP ), niese ( career 1.498 WHIP ), capuano ( 1.361 WHIP, missed 2 whole years ), and young ( is he on the DL again ? ), you can’t blame the pitching coach.
the only guy that can be evaluated in terms of being better or worse under warthen as opposed to another coach is dickey, and he’s been much better.