7
2011
Terry Collins Is Thrilled With His New Bullpen And So Should Mets Fans
An article by Craig Lerner
Wow, what a roller-coaster ride it was for Sandy Alderson and the Mets last night as they completely overhauled the bullpen faster than it will take me to write this post.
In what seemed like an instant, the Mets went from having one of the worst bullpens in the league to a vastly improved bullpen with a new closer, a setup man, and more depth than they’ve know in years.
With additions of Frank Francisco, Ramon Ramirez and Jon Rauch, the bullpen may possibly be a strength ofr the team in 2012 rather than the disaster we’ve all come to know in the last few years. And Alderson performed this trick for less than a third of the money they would have had to shell out for Francisco Rodriguez if they had kept him and that option would have klicked in. Do you finally see the difference between a smooth operator like the proactive Sandy Alderson compared to the wild and erratic Omar Minaya who was always reactive?
The bullpen got a tremendous overhaul and that observation was not lost on manager Terry Collins who was glowing last night in Dallas.
“No disrespect to the guys; they worked hard last year,” Manager Terry Collins said referring to his 2011 bullpen. “But we couldn’t stop some teams, and I think we can now. We knew we had to get some bullpen help here. I was all on board with Sandy’s approach: let’s not just spend it all on one guy, let’s spread it around and get some depth. I was shocked we made it all fit.”
When asked to comment on his patient and measured approach to this offseason, Alderson said, “I think there’s virtue in being patient, but I think you’ve got to know when to move.”
And that’s exactly what he did – move. I’m confident in saying that the Mets are significantly better today than they were yesterday.
About the Author: Craig Lerner
I'm a data analyst and researcher for a leading news agency who loves life and is hooked on the Mets. I love following the Amateur Draft and have a particular fondness for the Mets Minor Leagues who I follow each day. Give me a cold beer, a summer day, and a Mets game, and I'm good to go.
33 Comments + Add Comment
Recent Comments
- Metsie: on It’s Not The Approach That’s The Mets’ Problem, It’s The Execution: Matt the metrics you used were not...
- Matt Balasis: on It’s Not The Approach That’s The Mets’ Problem, It’s The Execution: Cabrera may actually be an excellent example...
- Peter S.: on When Will We See Wilmer Flores?: 100% agreed. At the beginning of the...
- Sims: on MMO Exclusive: A Look Inside The Mets Dominican Complex: Seems like the Mets are focusing a...
- Reed: on MMO Exclusive: A Look Inside The Mets Dominican Complex: I liked LoDuca too. He did make...
Need Tickets To The Mets Game?
Check Out These Great MLB Links!
Photographs From Gordon Donovan
5393 Fans Follow Us On Twitter!
1269 Fans Like Us On Facebook!
2341 Fans Read Our Feed!
1702 Fans Subscribe via Daily Email!
This might the a bit overtop with love for future commish Craig. But the bullpen is improved and the team is still earmarked for 5th place, maybe 4th place if everything breaks right. That said, you forgot to say that we’re still on target to not even try and win until 2014.
Santana is the albatross. I would love for him to be pretty good but judging by what has happened to Wang and Prior after similar surgery, I can only hope about Santana. Pelfrey is a bum, the rest of our guys are 5′s. If Chris Young could stay healthy he might give them something, Truth is, he should have had the surgery before LAST season. NO, they need to go after a true front line starter. And they really need antoher 2-3 type. I am not sure they can get one, with their trading and financial restrictions.
Last place or not, they had to make moves to improve that BP. On the limited budget SA has to work with, these are decent pieces.
Don’t think there is a Met fan out there that doesn’t believe we are indeed ‘punting’ for 2012. Beyond that right now, is anyone’s guess. Especially if the team is up for sale, which I have to believe is better than a 50/50 shot right now.
I’ll take those odds. The Wilpons have to go.
Off topic- but here are some names to be on the lookout for in the Rule 5 Draft for Sandy to possibly draft if available to him- Bryce Stowell-RHRP-Indians org. , Sandy Leon-C-Nats org. , Nick Barnese-RHSP-Rays org. ,Thomas Pham-CF-Cards org, . Ryan Searle-RHRP-Cubs org. , Johnny Monell-C-Giants org. , Jon Gaston-OF-Astros org. & Mark Hallberg-2B-SS-D’Backs org.
the bullpen is improved, but what about the offense?? you got at least 3 guys on the lineup that in any other team with a decent offense they’d be the 8th hitter.. torres, thole and tejada..
Good point Alex and Mr Lerner failed to mention the offense is now minus their 2 best bats from 2011 Reyes and Beltran and there might not be 21 7th inning or later leads.Not that I’m saying we should go out and resign Beltran and gaurantee 6 years for Reyes but the offense has taken a step or two back frrom last year which was a pretty good offense,6th in runs scored.
Should say there might nt be 21 leads after 7 innings to blow like the 2011 bullpen blew.
Yeah the offense for sure will be depending on Murphy and Davis returning to the lineup and Wright being healthy. Not to mention the changes in field dimensions which makes the offense at least look better. Doesn’t do much for the pitching though. Of course if those three things happen then the offense should not lose too much in terms of runs. Certainly will look different though.
Lost Beltran, Gained Ike.
Lost Reyes… Ick…
We’ll see if, like you say, Wright rebounds, Bay doesn’t suck, Duda progresses.
And we’ll see what Tejada has. He is in no way a Reyes. But he will not be an Ordonez.
Lost betran and got ike???? in what world is ike davis in beltran’s class?? are you serious???
add reyes and hell, even pagan to that list, now you got bums at the top middle and end of the lineup.. and with wright unclutchness god only knows how bad our offense will be
Do you realize what Ike was doing last year when he got injured? Of course he was not likely to do that all year but damn give the guy some credit. It really seems like you are so biased against certain types of players.
.302 .383 .543 .925
Again, I know you hate stats but I am sure your eyes even told you that the guy was on fire when he went down.
agan, i am one of ike’s biggest supported, and i want him to be a 30 hr guy for years to come along with duda, but shouldn’t you agree he’s nowhere near the hitter beltran is yet???? am i wrong on that one as welll???
Right now, yeah you are. If you are looking at a career, of course Beltran is better. Right now? Uh yeah I would take Ike any day.
Beltran is a better hitter than Davis right now…..Maybe in a year or two that would change, but right now, Beltran is the better hitter.
Alex68 —
Beltran was Beltran. A great player with all the tools. Too bad some Mets fans didn’t appreciate him as much as they should.
I’ve criticized Ike in the past — hitches in his swing, stubborness, etc. He surprised me a lot last year when he shortened his swing and learned that a 500 foot homer doesn’t count for more than a 375 foot homer. I like Ike. But Ike will never be a Beltran. He’s slow of foot, can’t steal, can’t run the bases real well, and can dominate defensively only at 1B. But if he comes back, he’ll be very welcome. He’s good enough to be valuable.
P.S.: Just so you don’t get too smug, I remind you that you’ve never been able to really define CLUTCH. Until you can, it doesn’t exist in my book.
Oh I loved Beltran, think he should be in the Mets HOF one day. It’s just that if you ask me who has a better chance of being a good hitter right NOW? To me it’s Davis.
Alex68 — You’re right on the money. I see all three as transition players until we get new owners or reach solvency. There are better ballplayers out there.
Alex, You hit the nail on the head. With the anemic offense this team has, the BP won’t mean much. If you don’t have a lead there won’t be many opportunities to save anything. Will the Genius in charge spend any money on offense now? If not, all this emphasis on BP won’t count for much. Right now the team is destined for the cellar. Yesterday, the Genius woke up, got his butt out of bed and finally put in a day’s work. If he goes back to sleep to see what all the other GM’s do and starts exploring again, the team goes over the waterfall and crashes in a heap at the bottom of the pile. We won’t get offense just by moving in the fence. And with our limitations with SP’s, the visiting teams may very well benefit more from the fence change than our team does. Let’s see how many games get saved when we’re 5 runs behind when the SP turns over the ball after 5 innings to TC!
Let’s not go too nuts with adding Frank Francisco and Jon Rauch, there is an improvement, but there are concerns with each. While it looks on the surface that the Pen is Fixed, there is plenty of reason to believe that each of these guys are going to struggle.
Rauch has never been good…I’m not sure I’d trust Ramirez vs LH hitters and Francisco has never been a full time closer and has only one season with more than 20 saves. I’m not overly impressed with any of their WIHIP’s.
I hope Sandy knows enough not to go on TV telling people that the Bullpen is fixed…
Yes, the WHIP’s of all 3 are pedestrian. Yesterday does not make us winners.
Saying Rauch has never been good is an overstatement. He has never been dominant but he had a very good tenure in Minnesota and some good years in Washington as well.
You are right though, bullpens are volatile and it could be terrible. Hard to say though that on paper it is not better today than it was yesterday.
Alex, I think you’re underestimating the Mets offense of Torres, Murph or Turner,David,Ike,Bay, Duda,Thole & Tejada especially if 1 of Wright or Bay improve on last year’s nos. Dave Hudgens on twitter thinks that Jason Bay is going to have an overall improved year with the bat. I think Andres Torres is going to rebound and hit more like 2010 rather than last yr. Ike Davis did miss virtually all of last season and I think Ike is a legit 25HR 95 RBI and clutch RBI bat in the middle of that order. And where is Carlos Beltran more than a 25HR 95RBI .290BA bat right now in his career? I also think Lucas Duda makes for a fine 6 hole hitter, Murph makes for a nice 2 hole hitter and Ruben Tejada whom a lot of people on this site like to hate on hit a very solid .287 out of the difficult 8 hole last season.
Sach, i hope i am wrong.. but i won’t be.. the offense is pathetic.. you have no player in the lineup who can be a difference maker, and, there’s not a single player in the lineup you plan against.. i am sorry, i am very optimistic. but this is a bad offense and will be seen early and often.. i mean, torrez?? there’s an idiot here posting garbage about how great of a guy he is because he won an award in SF.. this is an awful player, and trust me, in order to have a good bullpen you need to have a lead, and with our SP, i don’t think thta’ll be the case..
“i am very optimistic.”
LOL.
That being said, don’t you think those stats from Davis last year show potential to be a game changer?
As I said above the offense has potential to go either way. If Davis, Duda and Murphy are in the lineup and productive and Wright rebounds as most expect him to at least in some degree the offense will still be productive.
To me we just don’t know yet. I don’t think the offense will be bad. Will it be as good as last year? That is the part I don’t know. Of course replacing Reyes’ career year will be difficult. Funny thing is we most likely would have had to replace some of that if he stayed. Yet we all assume, other than Alex, that Wright has to rebound some and having Duda, Davis and Murphy in the lineup should help. We also have no idea how the new dimensions will play. Will they increase the offensive production? If so to what extent. Should be interesting to watch.
bay, thole, torres and i am sorry to say, but with the pressure of replacing reyes offensively and defensively, tejada will struggle mightly and will be almost automatics outs… wright will rebound to what??? we’ve seen his “numbers” with reyes out of the lineup.. davis is coming off an whole year off and duda is unproven, so, how is the offense any good??? a lot of ifs if you ask me.. i hope i am wrong, but with everything going right for this team, sandy alderson has put together a 4th place team instead of a cellar dweller..
There were not enough moves out there Alex for Sandy to produce anything but a bottom half team. Period. Resigning Reyes, and signing Bell and Buherle would not have made this team a contender yet.
As to your point on Wright without Reyes, you have intrigued me. Maybe I will go look at those stats in a few.
However, one thing to keep in mind is that last year post ASB, minus Beltran and missing Reyes for a significant period the Mets offense actually scored MORE runs, they averaged 4.49 runs per game in 71 games PASB and 4.38 BASBreak.
I do’t understand…. Sandy Alderson is a genius, an Ivy League man obviosuly smarter than everyone else in all of New York and all of baseball. Yet he can’t turn the Mets around in two Winters? Why not. The poor small market and horrid D Backs were turned around in one year by someone not half as msart as the genous!
Yeah, I’m thrilled.
The bullpen is improved, but there’s no way it’s going to be a strength. We got two good, but not great guys with Francisco and Ramirez, and one not so good pitcher in Rauch – I don’t see how just THAT would turn an awful bullpen, into a strength of the team.
yeah but if you can’t score runs what difference does it make,they keep getting rid of any good hitters we have for trash.
Please Mr Lerner why is it exciting and pleasing to have the worst closer in your own division?