A Pyromaniac's Delight
As I've written other posts in my look back at the 2005 season it continually strikes me just how bad and chaotic the Mets bullpen was that year. Any starter who departed the game with a lead, even a pretty big one, did well not to count on that win until after the last out was recorded. Indeed, closer Braden Looper blew a save for Pedro Martinez on Opening Day, a deflating loss that would set the Mets on a 5-game losing streak before they finally notched their first "W".
What fascinates me the most about the 2005 'pen was that it could probably serve as a primer on how not to build a solid Major League bullpen. In all, 17 pitchers pitched relief innings for that club, and the vast majority were awful. Basically, the Mets would give any pitcher with a pulse and a working arm a chance to pitch out of their bullpen in 2005, and the vast majority only proved that they didn't belong in any major league bullpen. What follows is the story of the individuals who made up what was, with few exceptions, a bullpen that undoubtedly took years off the life of those of us unlucky enough to root for the 2005 New York Mets.
The Good
While the bullpen was pretty awful almost across the board, there were three guys who managed to do a good job over a period of time for the Mets that season, and one other that made this category on the strength of one legendary day.
Aaron Heilman
Aaron Heilman
I've already done a post on Heilman for this series, mostly concentrating on his terrific 1-hit shutout of the Marlins. After 7 early season start, Heilman moved to the bullpen for the rest of 2005. His numbers as a reliever were quite good, the best of his career, in fact. He appeared in 46 games in relief, accumulating 66 innings with an ERA of 2.18. Hitters slashed a paltry .207/.293/.249 against him in that role, and he notched 5 saves after Braden Looper was shut down for the season.
Thanks to his excellent changeup, Heilman's numbers were actually slightly better against lefties, .208/.313/290 vs. .236/.286/.308 against righties. Since the 2005 Mets lacked an effective loogy, Heilman was often used in an inning where left-handed batters were due up.
Roberto Hernández
Hernández came to the Mets as a 40-year-old former closer who had fallen on hard times. Pitching Coach Rick Peterson worked with Hernández to pitch down in the zone, as his velocity had dipped some over the years. The work paid of as Roberto put together a really solid season for the Mets, their second best setup man after Aaron Heilman. He pitched 69.2 innings over 67 appearances, with a 2.58 ERA and 4 saves.
Hernández was particularly effective against righties, holding them to a .213/.296/.268 line, while lefties slashed .244/.321/.390 against him. Hernández still threw pretty hard for a 40-year-old, but lost velocity dramatically if he pitched too often.
The Mets chose not to resign Hernández, despite his effective pitching in 2005. This was a mild surprise. He was heading into his age-41 season in 2006, but he was one of very few success stories in the bullpen. Apparently the Pirates offered more money than the Mets were willing to pay.
When Duaner Sanchez took his ill-fated taxi ride in August, 2006, the Mets were forced to give up RF Xavier Nady to regain Hernández from the Pirates along with Ollie Perez. Hernández wasn't quite as good for the Mets in August and September of 2006 as he had been the previous year, but he did stabilize the bullpen. The Mets once again elected not to keep him, and Hernández spent the 2007 season - his last in the majors - pitching ineffectively for the Indians and the Dodgers.
Juan Padilla
I already wrote about Padilla in Part 1 of my Flash in the Pan post. His biggest claim to fame before his season with the Mets was the Player to be Named Later when the Yankees dealt former Mets hero Jesse Orosco to Minnesota in 2003. It must have stung a little to be traded for a 46-year-old washed up pitcher.
Padilla was pretty bad in his first two MLB stops with the Yankees and Reds, but quite solid in roughly half a season with the Mets in 2005. He pitched to a 1.49 ERA over 36.1 IP. He only allowed 5.9 H/9 and 3.2 BB/9, and not a single home run. There was probably quite a bit of luck involved in those final numbers, particularly not giving up a HR. Still, his 2005 success would have given the 28-year-old righty at least the right to compete for a bullpen job in 2006, but he needed Tommy John surgery that March and Juan Padilla never pitched in the majors again.
Dae-Sung Koo
By the numbers alone, Mr. Koo was not a good reliever. 13 walks in 23 innings pitched was pretty bad for a specialist brought in primarily to get lefties out. I give him a bit of a pass because an injury contributed to making his stat line look a little worse than they might have been. He gets bumped up to the "Good" category on the strength of one awesome game that elevated him from mediocre LOOGY who walked too many batters all the way up to Mets Legend.
Victor Zambrano
Just by the stat line, the much-maligned Zambrano was one of the better relievers the Mets had in 2005. Big caveat here, though. He only pitched 5 innings over 4 relief appearances, the vast majority of his work in 2005 was as a starter. Still, he only allows a single earned run, and struck out 8.
Felix Heredia
Another guy who makes the "Good" category based on very limited numbers. Heredia came to the Mets in a trade for the dried-up husk of a pitcher formally named Mike Stanton. There was nothing in the erratic lefty's past that predicted it would go all that well with the Mets. He pitched in 3 games for the Metropolitans without allowing a run. He was diagnosed with an aneurism in his pitching shoulder in June and never pitched for the Mets again.
José Santiago
The 30-year old righty had some success with the Royals early in his career, but was at the tail end of his career in the bigs when he signed with the Mets in March 2005. He was sent down to Triple-A where he was used primarily as a starter. Santiago got a brief callup to the Mets in late July, and pitched in 4 games, allowing 2 ER over 5.2 IP. Luck was involved, as he scattered 10 hits, 2 walks and hit a batter. Somehow only 2 of those 13 baserunners crossed the plate.
The Mets sent him back down to Triple-A in early August. José Santiago would pitch 2 more seasons at Triple-A Norfolk for the Mets, but would never get called up to the majors again.
Shingo Takatsu
Takatsu was right-handed sidearmer whose best fastball only clocked in the mid-80s. He spent most of his time in Japan as a closer before signing with the White Sox as a 35-year-old in 2004. He pitched effectively in his first go-round with the Sox, saving 19 games with an ERA of 2.31 and a WHIP of only 0.98. In 2005 he was unable to repeat that fine performance, with his ERA ballooning to 5.97 and his WHIP jumping to 1.61. He was demoted to the minors and eventually cut by the White Sox.
The Mets were willing to give anybody a shot in their revolving door 2005 bullpen, so they signed Shingo and sent him down to Norfolk. He came up to the Mets in September, appearing in 9 games. He pitched 7.2 innings, allowing only 2 ER, but was kind of lucky, He allowed 11 hits and 3 walks, but the only runners who scored were on 2 solo home runs. The Mets cut him loose after the season and he went back to Japan to finish out his career.
The Mets chose not to resign Hernández, despite his effective pitching in 2005. This was a mild surprise. He was heading into his age-41 season in 2006, but he was one of very few success stories in the bullpen. Apparently the Pirates offered more money than the Mets were willing to pay.
When Duaner Sanchez took his ill-fated taxi ride in August, 2006, the Mets were forced to give up RF Xavier Nady to regain Hernández from the Pirates along with Ollie Perez. Hernández wasn't quite as good for the Mets in August and September of 2006 as he had been the previous year, but he did stabilize the bullpen. The Mets once again elected not to keep him, and Hernández spent the 2007 season - his last in the majors - pitching ineffectively for the Indians and the Dodgers.
Juan Padilla
I already wrote about Padilla in Part 1 of my Flash in the Pan post. His biggest claim to fame before his season with the Mets was the Player to be Named Later when the Yankees dealt former Mets hero Jesse Orosco to Minnesota in 2003. It must have stung a little to be traded for a 46-year-old washed up pitcher.
Padilla was pretty bad in his first two MLB stops with the Yankees and Reds, but quite solid in roughly half a season with the Mets in 2005. He pitched to a 1.49 ERA over 36.1 IP. He only allowed 5.9 H/9 and 3.2 BB/9, and not a single home run. There was probably quite a bit of luck involved in those final numbers, particularly not giving up a HR. Still, his 2005 success would have given the 28-year-old righty at least the right to compete for a bullpen job in 2006, but he needed Tommy John surgery that March and Juan Padilla never pitched in the majors again.
By the numbers alone, Mr. Koo was not a good reliever. 13 walks in 23 innings pitched was pretty bad for a specialist brought in primarily to get lefties out. I give him a bit of a pass because an injury contributed to making his stat line look a little worse than they might have been. He gets bumped up to the "Good" category on the strength of one awesome game that elevated him from mediocre LOOGY who walked too many batters all the way up to Mets Legend.
The Kind of Good, Small Sample Size
The pitchers in the following section managed to put up numbers that weren't awful, but mostly because they didn't have enough time to demonstrate just how bad they really were.Victor Zambrano
Just by the stat line, the much-maligned Zambrano was one of the better relievers the Mets had in 2005. Big caveat here, though. He only pitched 5 innings over 4 relief appearances, the vast majority of his work in 2005 was as a starter. Still, he only allows a single earned run, and struck out 8.
Another guy who makes the "Good" category based on very limited numbers. Heredia came to the Mets in a trade for the dried-up husk of a pitcher formally named Mike Stanton. There was nothing in the erratic lefty's past that predicted it would go all that well with the Mets. He pitched in 3 games for the Metropolitans without allowing a run. He was diagnosed with an aneurism in his pitching shoulder in June and never pitched for the Mets again.
José Santiago
The 30-year old righty had some success with the Royals early in his career, but was at the tail end of his career in the bigs when he signed with the Mets in March 2005. He was sent down to Triple-A where he was used primarily as a starter. Santiago got a brief callup to the Mets in late July, and pitched in 4 games, allowing 2 ER over 5.2 IP. Luck was involved, as he scattered 10 hits, 2 walks and hit a batter. Somehow only 2 of those 13 baserunners crossed the plate.
The Mets sent him back down to Triple-A in early August. José Santiago would pitch 2 more seasons at Triple-A Norfolk for the Mets, but would never get called up to the majors again.
Shingo Takatsu
Takatsu was right-handed sidearmer whose best fastball only clocked in the mid-80s. He spent most of his time in Japan as a closer before signing with the White Sox as a 35-year-old in 2004. He pitched effectively in his first go-round with the Sox, saving 19 games with an ERA of 2.31 and a WHIP of only 0.98. In 2005 he was unable to repeat that fine performance, with his ERA ballooning to 5.97 and his WHIP jumping to 1.61. He was demoted to the minors and eventually cut by the White Sox.
The Mets were willing to give anybody a shot in their revolving door 2005 bullpen, so they signed Shingo and sent him down to Norfolk. He came up to the Mets in September, appearing in 9 games. He pitched 7.2 innings, allowing only 2 ER, but was kind of lucky, He allowed 11 hits and 3 walks, but the only runners who scored were on 2 solo home runs. The Mets cut him loose after the season and he went back to Japan to finish out his career.
The Bad
Now we get down to the guys who really stunk the joint out in 2005.Braden Looper
It all started with the "closer". Braden Looper was bad enough for the 2005 Mets to earn his own post in this series. He pitched better than most fans remember in 2004, although you always had to sweat his save attempts. However, it started badly with Looper in 2005 and went down the toilet from there. Looper was handed a 2-run lead in the ninth on Opening Day in Cincinnati, blew the save for Pedro Martinez and lost the game. After allowing only 5 HR all year in 2004, Looper allowed 2 in that inning. The Mets lost 4 more in a row after that and 2005 was threatening to go bad fast.The Mets caught a second wind and managed to be a contender until a late August/Early September swoon, but Looper never did right his season. He struggled all year, his season ending early after blowing his last 3 save attempts in September. He had a shoulder injury that required surgery. No one was sorry to see him go.
Heath Bell
The Mets never saw Heath Bell as a viable relief option. I'm not sure why. He first came up as a 26-year-old rookie in 2004, giving the Mets 24 solid innings out of the 'pen. Yet 2005 and 2006 saw Bell bouncing up and down between the Mets and Triple-A Norfolk. Finally Bell was shipped out after the 2006 season to the Padres for virtually nothing, and became a solid closer for San Diego.
Bell's 2005 season with the Mets was nothing to write home about when he was allowed to pitch. In 46.2 innings he allowed 56 hits and 3 HR, pitching to a 5.59 ERA. Bell was given chances, but anytime he faltered the Mets were quick to back off him. He threw pretty hard and seemed to have the right temperament for the 'pen, which he proved in 5 solid seasons in San Diego after he was shipped out.
Rick Peterson was a good pitching coach, and managed to help some guys like Roberto Hernández turn their careers around. But, for whatever reason, he didn't seem to like Bell, and that eventually cost the Mets the services of a pitcher that could have helped them. According to this article, Bell was told by coaches in the Mets Minor League system that "he needed to get out of the organization because other people didn’t believe in him." The sad part is that the Mets could have really used Bell in 2007 and 2008.
Kazuhisa Ishii
The walking man had only 3 September mop-up appearances as a reliever, long after he failed his way out of the starting rotation. He pitched 1-2/3 innings and allowed 2 runs. The Mets were long out of any playoff chance by that point, so it hardly mattered. He actually pitched a couple of times without allowing a run, but his last-ever MLB appearance was truly bad: in 1/3 of an inning vs. the Phillies he allowed 2 runs on 2 hits and a walk. He threw 11 pitches, only 5 of them were strikes. A fitting swan song for his MLB career.
Probably the only winning Mets teams ever has solid pens; any bad pen teams ever make playoffs?
ReplyDeleteThe 1973 Mets were maybe the worst bullpen to make the playoffs. McGraw stunk in the first half and was good in the second half. The rest were okay, but they asked so much more from the starters back then it didn't matter as much
ReplyDelete