Looking Back at the 2011 Mets Roster Construction

In September, 2010, I theorized as to what a (sort of) contending New York Mets roster might look like. A lot has happened since then. Johan's recovery from surgery has taken a LONG time. Omar was (sort of) let go. Sandy came on, as did an army of front office executives (an under appreciated Mets weakness these past few years). From day one, Sandy basically admitted that 2011 would NOT be a contending Mets team, and the start to their season would do nothing to make us think anything different.

My theoretical roster, from September:

"C - Thole/Ramirez
1B - Davis/Ramirez/Evans
2B - Tejada/Murphy/Arias
SS - Reyes/Arias
3B - Wright/Murphy/Arias
LF - Bay/Carter/Evans
CF - Pagan/Beltran
RF - Beltran/Carter/Evans

SP - Santana
SP - Zambrano
SP - Niese
SP - Pelfrey
SP - Dickey

CL - Rodriguez
RP - Parnell
RP - Beimel
RP - Green
RP - Acosta
RP - Takahashi
RP - Igarashi"

Some hits, some misses. Obviously Santana is hurt and without contending, there was no point in trading for Carlos Zambrano (although his start so far is encouraging). Niese, Pelfrey and Dickey are the top three Mets starters, unfortunately. Chris Young could be trade bait if he stays healthy and should be gone about the same time Santana is due to come back. Capuano is much the same, and will probably be replaced with Gee when he is ready/when Capuano is traded. Lets call that 4/5ths of the starting rotation.

The bullpen, as with all bullpens was hard to call. Who saw Jason Isringhausen coming out of retirement and the Mets selecting Pedro Beato in the Rule 5 draft and him being lights out? Byrdak is the situational lefty that Biemel could have been. 4/7 in the pen.

Thole is the starting catcher, and is looking pretty good. Davis is entrenched at 1st. Murphy is in a platoon with someone (currently Justin Turner, but, come on) at 2nd. Reyes and Wright hold down the left side. The backup infielder is Hu, not Arias, but same difference. My big whiff was in the backup outfield, where I wanted the Mets to give power and patience some run (and it's odd, cause it would go along with Sandy's philosophy, but oh well) with Carter and Evans, but instead the Mets have gone with defense and scrappiness with Hairston and Harris. So, let's say 9/13.

Thats a total of 17/25. Not bad.

Yankees Abuse the DL?

Last year, Phil Hughes finally made good on the hype that had been built up by the Yankees and Peter Gammons. He had an xFIP of just over 4 in over 175 innings as a 24 year old. He was penciled in as the Yankees' #2 starter this season, and everyone assumed that he would take another step forward, especially since his peripherals matched his performance.
photo © 2008 Keith Allison | more info (via: Wylio)

Well, this season he has sucked. An ERA of almost 14 over 10 innings (3 starts!) led the Yankees to question what was wrong with him. Almost immediately, they put him on the DL with a "dead arm". Today it was reported that he had a significant setback while throwing a bullpen session, although he reported no pain. ESPN's Stephania Bell reported:

"As ESPN New York reported, however, Yankees pitching coach Larry Rothschild indicated this may not be a true dead-arm scenario because Hughes never demonstrated velocity on the ball since reporting to spring training.


On the one hand, the fact there is no overt structural issue is a positive. On the other hand, it can make trying to tackle an invisible enemy all the more frustrating."

Now, one might ask what the issue with this is? Two words. Oliver Perez.

The Mets searched for two seasons for a solution to Perez' "dead arm" (Yes, I am aware that a dead arm is an actual injury. I only quotate the term because it seems that Hughes does not have a dead arm, but rather just sucks, and hence, him being on the DL is fishy at best). They openly campaigned for him to be on the DL. They begged him to go to the minors to work on his "issues" (read: suckiness).

But rather than stash him on the DL or have him agree to the minor league batters that were more on his level, a saga got played out in the press, with Ollie basically stating that since he was being paid $12 million, he saw no need to be in the minors. Only after he began openly limping did he agree that his knee was an issue, and went on the DL, only to come off as soon as eligible, creating more roster issues for the Mets.

It pains me to say this, but the Mets should look to how the Yankees handled their crappy pitcher issue for how to properly handle roster decisions. If they came correct in most instances, they wouldn't have crappy pitchers holding them hostage, but rather looking to help out the organization.