Please tell me you guys aren't serious about him closing over Looper, right? The guy throws his fastball at 89, and he's a 36 year old lefty to top it off. No chance he'll close, unless Looper were to get hurt. Even then, I would expect a trade for Urbina or Baez.
closer Braden Looper
setup Mike DeJean
setup Dae-Sung Koo lhp
setup Roberto Hernadez
middle Mike Matthews lhp
middle Manny Aybar
middle Felix Heredia lhp (assuming he is not outright released)
And they were somewhat unhappy with Stanton I believe though I amnot that familiar with the situation. Of course they got stuck with Heredia, who is one of the worst relievers around in everyone's mind except Joe Torre's in 04 it would seem.
Please tell me you guys aren't serious about him closing over Looper, right? The guy throws his fastball at 89, and he's a 36 year old lefty to top it off. No chance he'll close, unless Looper were to get hurt. Even then, I would expect a trade for Urbina or Baez.
lol, I wasn't talking about him closing over Looper. I think Looper will keep his job throughout the season and end up with descent numbers. You guys were all bashing on Mets bullpen and were saying it sucked so I just wanted to mention a reliever who's going to have a nice impact on their bullpen this year.
Cornbread Maxwell wrote:While I dont think Looper will lose his job anytime soon, I do think openning day highlighted the Mets biggest weakness.
Middle relief is the Mets biggest question mark but Looper isn't. I don't think Looper getting lit up highlights the Mets weakness because he's the most dependable aspect of their bullpen. It's just magnifide because it was opening day.
As far as the rest of the pen, the bullpen is the Mets biggest question mark because it's unproven not necessarily because it's bad. The opening day bullpen is most likely not the same bullpen the Mets will have in May. Bell, Strickland, Koo, Dejean, Looper could prove to be a pretty decent bullpen. Both Strickland and Bell are still at AAA.
It would have been nice if the Mets could have traded for a legitimate setup man unfortunately both Detroit (Milledge?) and TB (Petit) wanted far too much. No reason to overpay for relief pitching in April.
Maine has a good swing for a pitcher but on anything that moves, he has no chance. And if it's a fastball, it has to be up in the zone. Basically, the pitcher has to hit his bat. - Mike Pelfrey
Amazinz, I wasnt clear about my statement. I think Looper is solid and have no problem with him - its the entire bullpen that I agree is the Mets biggest weakness. It seems as though the only additions were in the form of SP and position players. As a fan of a team that lost damn near 30 games last yr when carrying a lead into the 7th inning I know that a team will go only as far as the bullpen takes them.
What did you guys do to address this in the offseason? Are Mets fans optimistic about it or do they realize they need to upgrade? Are there any new trade rumors? It seems that with all that money spent this offseason, to not address the biggest weakness would be a waste. Is there a sence of urgency now or is it more a state of optimism that who you have will be good enough? BTW - what about Bell, Koo, and Strickland - are they for real or is it more optimism than anything else? It seems we in Detroit have similar guys in German and Rodney, but then again, they arent counted on for major setup roles currently.
The Mets bullpen is terrible but that was common knowledge. If they had more SP that could go deep into games, it wouldn't be such a big deal but their biggest IP eater is on the DL right now. With their staff, they need some guys in the pen. Obviously. I'm not too worried about Looper, though. Just like I'm not too worried about D. Young hitting 486 HR this season.
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by slomo007 » Tue Apr 05, 2005 12:14 pm 
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