Heilman

[Amazinz]

The main difference in Heilman was the change in the arm angle of his delivery. After the change the movement on Heilman's fastball is nasty and this made his change-up a lot more effective. Before the change the fastball was a flat 90-mph meatball. With these two pitches working in concert Heilman was really effective pitching out of the pen.

Unfortunately not too many starters can get by successfully just throwing a fastball/change-up. His success as a starter will probably rely on how well he can throw his slider. Last year he had some impressive starts but overall he was rather mediocre (4.71 ERA in 42 IP) when starting.

[George_Foreman]

I see him traded to another team where hell be in long relief.

I doubt it. No one pays very much for a long reliever, and I doubt the Mets would trade Heilman for "not very much".

[jolokhs]

does any met fan out there remember that even befor he cracked the major league ball club he was untouchable. via soriano. since hes changed his arm angle he has put up some nasty numbers in the pen and the rotation. hes had a whole winter to reestablish his arm angle, that was changed for some silly reason. granted he can be a very good relief pitcher but iam sure that can be said about alot of starters. he deserves a shot at the rotation but prob can get him off the wire unless he has a sick sp. can anyone teach him a new pitch ? where the hell is peterson, earn ur paychech...

[Coppermine]

does any met fan out there remember that even befor he cracked the major league ball club he was untouchable. via soriano. since hes changed his arm angle he has put up some nasty numbers in the pen and the rotation. hes had a whole winter to reestablish his arm angle, that was changed for some silly reason. granted he can be a very good relief pitcher but iam sure that can be said about alot of starters. he deserves a shot at the rotation but prob can get him off the wire unless he has a sick sp. can anyone teach him a new pitch ? where the hell is peterson, earn ur paychech...

I'd say peterson is earning his paychech [sic] just fine... basically we sometimes forget that he's still pretty young, about 28 I think, and has some developing to do. That said, as a Mets fan, I do think he would have been more effective in the bullpen since his changeup is pretty effective against lefty hitters.

As of now it seems that Heilman would have been better in the pen than Julio and Benson would have been better in the rotation than Heilman. But who knows, maybe Omar is cooking up something and a good deal is riding on how well Maine pitches.

I'd still love to see Zito come to the Mets, but that seems like a more like mid-season trade if the A's fall out of contention.