8 posts tagged “aaron heilman”

Tampa Bay Rays 2008 Starting Rotation:
James Shields 14-8 3.56 ERA, 215 IP, 40 BB, 160 K
Andy Sonnanstine 13-9 4.38 ERA, 193.1 IP, 37 BB, 124 K
Matt Garza 11-9 3.70 ERA, 184.2 IP, 59 BB, 128 K
Edwin Jackson 14-11 4.42 ERA, 183.1 IP, 77 BB, 108 K
Scott Kazmir 12-8 3.49 ERA, 152.1 IP, 70 BB, 166 K

- James Shields, drafted by Tampa in 2000.
- Andy Sonnantine, drafted by Tampa in 2004.
- Matt Garza, acquired in a 2007 trade along with SS Jason Bartlett with the Minnesota Twins.
- Edwin Jackson, acquired in a 2006 trade with the Dodgers. Jackson was TERRIBLE with the 2007 Rays, going 5-15 with a 5.76 ERA. Jackson was traded to Detroit for OF Matt Joyce after the 2008 season.
- Scott Kazmir... we know.

At this point in time last year, the Rays were 35-24.

Now we look at the 2009 starting rotation for the Tampa Bay Rays and how they're performing so far...

Tampa Bay Rays 2009 Starting Rotation:
James Shields 4-4 3.53 ERA, 74 IP, 20 BB, 52 K
Matt Garza 4-4 3.67 ERA, 73.2 IP, 28 BB, 66 K
Andy Sonnanstine 4-5 7.07 ERA, 56.0 IP, 16 BB, 32 K
Jeff Niemann 5-4 3.77 ERA, 59.2 IP, 24 BB, 39 K
Scott Kazmir 4-4 7.69 ERA, 45.2 IP, 29 BB, 35 K

And since Kazmir is now on the DL, and the Rays FINALLY called up top draft pick David Price...

David Price 1-0 3.00 ERA, 9 IP, 7 BB, 17 K

So from examining the starting rotations based on the available stats, the only major issues are the falloff of Andy Sonnanstine and the injury to Kazmir. Kazmir will come back later this month. 

Ideally, the Rays would best be suited to have Price and Kazmir healthy and in the rotation, and find another role for Sonnanstine, who likely peaked in 2008.

The offense for the Rays is primarily the same as it was last year with the major changes being Pat Burrell at DH instead of Cliff Floyd.

So despite having a very similar roster to the 2008 team, this is a .500 team at 28-28 on June 3, 2009. 

Every team has injuries:
But the Rays suffered a big blow with 2B Akinori Iwamura tearing his ACL and he's gone for the season.

SS Jason Bartlett is currently on the 15-day DL with a sprained left ankle.

DH Pat Burrell is on the 15-day DL with a neck strain, though expected to return in late June.

3B Evan Longoria has a sore left hamstring right now, but SHOULD be ready to play by the weekend. Losing Longoria for any period of time would be extremely devastating to Tampa.

Closer Troy Percival, who had a huge comeback season in 2008, has had a disappointing 2009 and may be gone for the year with shoulder tendinitis, if not his career.

So yes, you can have a great farm system and develop quality players like Longoria, Shields, Price, etc.

But the Rays also have their share of veterans. Some are extremely productive stars (Carl Crawford) or underrated veterans (Carlos Pena), others are filling up roster space (Gabe Kapler, Jason Isringhausen).

And despite having a very similar team to a year ago, they're not playing the way they were. They could potentially have a strong second half and make a run at the AL East, but with Boston and New York having strengthened their rosters in the off-season, that's going to be a tough going.

Game 2 of the 3-game interleague series between the New York Mets, now managed by Jerry Manuel, and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, ended with the Angels beating the Mets 6-1 behind the insanely great pitching of John Lackey.

While this was billed as a big-time pitching matchup, a battle of staff aces, Johan Santana doesn't pitch well against the Angels, and even less so when he's at Angel Stadium. Santana was 2-3 with a 4.05 ERA in 10 games - eight starts - against the Angels. After tonight's loss, make that 2-4 in 11 games, 9 starts against the Angels. I don't know the ERA offhand but it's definitely gone up.

Here are the key points of the game:

• Angel John Lackey was great. He scattered 6 Hits in 7.2 IP, walking 1, striking out 7, and the only run he gave up during the game was when David Wright hit into a double play, scoring Damion Easley, who replaced Jose Reyes after was pulled from the game by Manuel after he seemed to tweak his hamstring running to first on a leadoff single. I'm told that on TV, Reyes was shown throwing a tantrum in the dugout after being removed from the game. Apparently he thought it was just a temporary thing, but Jerry Manuel thought otherwise. All I could see from my vantage point was when Reyes threw the helmet, but no one knew what had happened.

• The Mets defense was terrible. They would've lost the game either way, but they committed 3 charged errors, and probably committed another 2-3 during the game that didn't make the official scorecard. Carlos Beltran could've nailed Vladimir Guerrero at the plate, but his throw to Brian Schneider was on the first base side of homeplate, allowing the Angels' 3rd run to score in the 1st inning.

• Johan Santana didn't pitch well, and earned the L in this game on his own. 4 of 5 Angel runs were scored on 8 hits in 6 Innings. Santana walked 2 and struck out 5. Angel catcher Jeff Mathis also connected on a solo blast in the bottom 6.

• Aaron Heilman pitched again tonight, and was perfect in the 7th. Heilman quite possibly saved last night's game by striking out Vladimir Guerrero and Torii Hunter with 1 out and runners on 1st and 3rd. The Mets led 8-6 at that point, so it was imperative to escape the inning.

• Claudio Vargas pitched the 8th, gave up an unearned run thanks to some more poor defense by Fernando Tatis and Luis Castillo, but at that point the game was pretty much over anyways.

The teams will meet tomorrow night in the rubber game of the series when Oliver Perez faces Jon Garland. Initially I thought this matchup favored Garland since he doesn't pitch very well at home, and has not looked anything remarkable lately. Then I heard that the Angels record against lefty starters is something like 12-3 this season, and with Perez' propensity to walk batters even in his GOOD starts, the Angels are a team with speed that will create problems for Perez.

This may end up being a battle of which pitcher sucks less. Considering the Angels scored 6 runs each in the first two games, the Mets pitching staff is going to have to come through Wednesday night, or the team will continue to slide, no matter who the manager is.

As mentioned in the last entry, we stayed down in San Diego for the weekend to see the Mets play the Padres on Saturday night and Sunday day at PETCO park for the final 2 games of the 4-game series.

I decided to stay at the Manchester Grand Hyatt for a night, which is also where the New York Mets team stays when in San Diego. It's about a 15-minute walk to PETCO park, and I was told (whether true or not, who knows) that David Wright had walked to the ballpark himself without any entourage on Saturday.

I'm not an autograph hound nor a groupie, and I don't bother pro athletes, or even Hollywood celebrities, and lord knows I've worked with many through the years. But I thought it would be fun to, on the off chance, hang out with millionaires in a hotel bar as well as other Met fans. And well, we didn't really "hang out" with them, but did see a lot of the team after the 2-1 loss on Saturday night at the hotel.

If you're looking for crazy gossip or wild tales of 1986 Mets-like partying, you will be disappointed.

Here's how it went down:

The 10-inning game ended at about 10:15pm. Got back to the hotel around 10:35pm, and hung out in the hotel bar area for a while.

Some other Met fans were there as well, trying to get autographs and pictures. One guy was in town from NY for a conference, and was very eager to get autographed baseballs for his daughter back on Long Island. Speaking of Long Island, his accent made me want to plug my ears with shot glasses.

There were a few other fans milling about, but not a lot by any stretch.

Moises Alou was the first person we saw, just meandering about the hotel lobby before the team bus came by. He apparently told some other fan, who later told me, that he'd be back playing on Tuesday against Arizona. We'll see...

Then we saw Keith Hernandez and some other SNY folk who I'm not really familiar with since I don't get SNY in L.A. I imagine Gary Cohen was one of them.

I then saw Brian Schneider with his parents. I also saw Oliver Perez walking through the lobby with cellphone attached to ear. I told him, "Good pitching tonight!" and he thanked me but kept walking.

Then the team bus came in at around 11:15pm-ish? It was a lot of the team including Jose Reyes, Luis Castillo, Raul Casanova, Ramon Castro, Endy Chavez, Damion Easley, Carlos Beltran, etc. I imagine there were others but we either didn't see them, or simply didn't recognize them.

I think every player who got off the bus went into the elevators up to their rooms. I can't say with certainty they didn't go out later, but we didn't see them leave, and didn't hear reports from any other people that they were seen again.

I heard later on that David Wright showed up and was apparently one of the few who was willing to sign things for a couple of fans. The other players didn't stop, although to be fair, I didn't see anyone try and stop them either. The aforementioned Long Islander showed me an autographed baseball that was made out to his daughter personally by David. Not something you can sell on Ebay, so his heart was in the right place. Success!

After the players contingent, we then saw Willie Randolph, Jerry Manuel and Sandy Alomar walk through the lobby together. A couple of fans told Willie "We'll get 'em tomorrow!" and of course Willie could only agree. I told him "No friggin sweeps!" and he chuckled.

They also went off to the elevators, presumably up to the rooms, never seen again that night.

At the hotel bar, the following Mets personnel...

• Carlos Delgado was at a table with his parents. Papa Delgado is morbidly obese in his mid 60's. I hope Carlos doesn't follow down the same path. Pedro Feliciano later joined the table and remained after Carlos had left. Feliciano ended up talking to Papa Delgado for a bit, and later spoke with Scott Schoeneweis before calling it a night.
• Brian Schneider was at a table with his parents.
• Hitting Coach Howard Johnson and his wife were sitting at a table with a bunch of people. I'm not positive, but I think Mets media director Jay Horowitz was among them.
  
• Scott Schoeneweis was at a table with his parents. One Met fan was talking to them because she grew up in the same town of Medford, NJ that Scott did. I think she may have talked to his parents more than Scott, but they were all very nice from what I heard.
  
• Oliver Perez was at a table with a bunch of people no one recognized, presumably people he knew from his days of playing with the Padres. I remember glancing at their table at one point and saw a lot of empty beer bottles all around. But hey, he pitched well and deserved a little relaxation time.
• Duaner Sanchez provided the closest thing to "gossip" that night, as he was talking up this very attractive Latina at the bar as he was drinking white wine. We couldn't figure out if she was his girlfriend, or he had just met her. It was funny because just like real life for the rest of us poor people, when talking to a hot broad, you still have to deal with her ugly friends. Poor Duaner. No idea if Dirty did the deed.

All the players had wrapped up their socializing by around 1am, and called it a night since they had to be at the ballpark by 10am the next morning. I've since read that Ramon Castro didn't make it there on time and was benched for sleeping late.

From what we witnessed at the hotel bar, fans were very respectful of the players and didn't bother any of them.

We did not see Billy Wagner, Mike Pelfrey, Joe Smith or Aaron Heilman at any point in the hotel. Actually, if I haven't mentioned their name already, I didn't see them nor hear that anyone else did. Or maybe simply didn't recognize them.

We were told by other fans that they got autographs from Pedro Martinez and Johan Santana prior to them leaving for the ballpark on Saturday.

All in all, it was a nice experience, which would've been a lot nicer had the Mets swept the Padres, and not vice versa.

Jim Leyland is as hard-as-nails a manager as there is in the game.

He currently manages the Detroit Tigers, the worst team in the AL, a team that is underperforming far more drastically than the NY Mets.

Ozzie Guillen is fiery and emotional and wears his heart on his sleeve. The Chicago White Sox have been in decline since their 2005 World Series, currently a game below .500 in the AL Central standings. They finished 2006 with a very respectable but ultimately playoff-missing 90-72 record, and finished 2007 with an inverse record. 72-90.

Joe Girardi, your 2006 Manager of the Year with the Florida Marlins, is currently at the helm of the last-place Yankees.

If Girardi was Manager of the Year with the 2006 Marlins, will Fredi Gonzalez be manager of the millennium if the 2008 Marlins win the division outright? Keep in mind, Fredi Gonzalez also managed the 2007 Marlins to their NL East last-place finish of 71-91. Did Fredi Gonzalez magically become a better manager during the offseason? Or maybe his players are finally producing as a team?

Jeebus-freak Clint Hurdle, after toiling as manager for years with the perennial 4th-place NL West Colorado Rockies, led his team to the 2007 World Series after an unprecedented win streak that began in September and ended after they swept the Diamondbacks in the NLCS.  The Rockies are now back in 4th place and will likely battle with the San Diego Padres to stay out of the basement.

Speaking of the San Diego Padres, with Bruce Bochy at their helm, the 2005 and 2006 Padres won the NL West each of those years, only to lose to the Cardinals in the NLDS each of those seasons. Bruce Bochy then went to manage the Giants in 2007, which finished the season 71-91 at the bottom of the NL West.

Oddly enough, with mostly the same core of players as the 2006 Padres had, the 2007 Padres, then led by former Angels coach and MLB rookie manager Bud Black, lost to the Rockies in the NL wild card playoff game. The 2006 Padres (Bochy) finished 88-74. The 2007 Padres (Black) finished 89-74.

Joe Maddon, much like the unpredictable Lou Piniella before him, managed the Tampa Bay Rays to a last-place finish over the last two years. But this year, Tampa Bay is atop the AL East, and most people believe they're for real.

Did Joe Maddon all of a sudden become a better manager? Or does he have the right makeup of talent on his team, young and old, to win games like they've never done before?

If you feel at the heart of the team, that Willie Randolph is truly the problem with this team, then how come I've yet to read a reasonable explanation anywhere, how the same terrible clueless Willie Randolph led the 2006 Mets to a 97-65 division win, a sweep of the Dodgers in the NLDS, to a thrilling game 7 loss in the NLCS, with what is primarily the same core of players (Wright, Reyes, Beltran, Delgado, Wagner, Heilman) that he had at that time.

Was losing Chad Bradford or Steve Trachsel more devastating to the clubhouse than anyone ever realized?

If there is a leadership problem with Willie Randolph, and you believe that the manager of the team is so incredibly vital to the success/failure of the ballclub, then you also have to give props to Willie for the 2006 team.

But the anti-Willie loonies can't put up a cogent argument for that. It's... beyond their understanding. It's much easier to create a scapegoat.

I'm not necessarily AGAINST a managerial change, but short of a Jack McKeon, I'm not remotely convinced it's going to make an iota of difference.

The team as a whole, wins and loses on their own merits and talents. The manager plays a part in the overall success/failure, but it's on the players to execute. When they don't, it's on them, not the manager.

Aaron Heilman throws the pitches, not Willie. Jose Reyes fails to hit, not Willie. Carlos Delgado and Carlos Beltran continue to struggle at the plate, not Willie.

And conversely, Ryan Church and Brian Schneider, you know, the two guys who Omar Minaya got in that TERRRRRRIBLE trade... continue to hit and play very well, not Willie.

Going with the supposition that Willie Randolph is a terrible manager (I've always maintained there are better managers in the game, just as much as there are many who are worse), if Willie gets fired and ________ is his replacement, how long a time will fans give _________ before calling for his head when the team performs no differently than before?

Random thoughts from tonight's game.

- As often as it is noted that Oliver Perez can be erratic, the same goes for Chad Billingsley. Unfortunately for the Mets, the good Chad Billingsley showed up, so did the crappy Oliver Perez.

- What's the story of the game? Furcal HR, Dewitt's first MLB HR, Kemp's HR. Perez sucked, Billingsley was great. I suppose the silver lining was that Perez didn't leave in the 2nd inning like last time?

- How great was Billingsley? He threw 1 ball in the first inning, and was hammering the 1-2-3 batters with fastballs. I THINK he threw 12 total pitches that inning, 11 strikes. He only got in one real jam the whole game, and got out of it easily. He also K'd Wright twice.

- The Mets biggest threat was in the 2nd when they had Delgado on 2nd and Beltran on 3rd with 1 out. Billingsley got Schneider to K, and Castillo to ground out weakly to 3rd. This was also probably the early turning point in the game for the Dodgers as the Mets never had any runners reach 3rd again until Beltran's triple in the 6th.

- From my view, Brian Schneider was having a lot of trouble throwing guys out at 2B. 2 balls went into CF, one of them charged as an Error since Russell Martin was able to take 3rd as well.

- Andruw Jones is beyond awful, but this is known even to scumbag Dodger fans, who (deservingly) boo him at every AB. This team is lucky to have 4 out of 5 OFs who can hit.

- Conversely, all this talk about the best SS in the NL. Whether it's Hanley Ramirez, Jimmy Rollins, Jose Reyes, OH NO. Wrong Wrong Wrong!
The correct answer right now is Rafael Furcal, who is hitting up a crazy storm, and his arm for a SS is second-to-none.

- Beltran probably would have scored safely on his triple, had he went for the inside-the-park HR. But when you're down 5-0 in the 6th inning with 0 out, why risk it? It wasn't a sure thing that he'd be safe, and holding him up at 3rd was the right call. If it had been 2 out instead, you send him and hope for the best. Good thing Alou got his first RBI this season and broke the shutout. You think I wanted to leave that dump being shutout?

- Speaking of Alou, is it me or is he not hitting the way we had hoped? I know it's VERY early to judge him, but he's 2-for-11 so far, and those 2 hits were singles up the middle. He hasn't hit the ball HARD yet. Maybe he'll bang Kuroda around tomorrow.

- Dodgers bullpen was lights out. Beimel the 7th, Big John Broxton the 8th, Takashi Saito the 9th. Their pen has been very impressive over the last two seasons. It's their starting pitching past Penny, and I guess Billingsley on occasion, and lack of power bats (though you wouldn't know it tonight) which are their weaknesses.

- I thought it was... odd that Sosa pitched an inning tonight instead of Aaron Heilman. Sosa pitched Sunday against Arizona and got the club-leading 4th win. Heilman did not pitch. Either way, Sosa was fine, so I can only guess that Willie is hoping to use Aaron in Tuesday's game in the 7th or 8th, which I do believe is a game the Mets will win.

- Tuesday night's game pits Nelson Figueroa vs Hiroki Kuroda.
Kuroda has been mediocre for L.A. so far, Figueroa has been good enough for the Mets this season, although I am still of the opinion that once teams develop a book on him, he's going to fall off sharply come June if not sooner.

Won't be seeing this one in person, but I'll record it on the DVR and maybe end up watching it at some point riding the FF button. Although if they lose, will I really want to?

Gil Meche signs with the Kansas City Royals for $55 million over 5 years. Career ERA? 4.65
Ted Lilly signs with the Chicago Cubs for $40 million over 4 years. Career ERA? 4.60
Vicente Padilla signs with the Texas Rangers for $34 million over 3 years. Career ERA? 4.06

3 mediocre starting pitchers with career ERAs above 4, are getting paid $10-$11 million per year.

Is it any wonder that middle relievers like Aaron Heilman wish they were starting? MLB owners are overpaying players (and especially starting pitchers) left and right to the point of insanity, and it only results in higher ticket prices for fans. This may work fine in the major markets where money really is no object because people in NY, L.A., Chicago, St. Louis, Boston and the Bay Area will turn out in droves. But small market teams already have enough trouble competing as it is, and now it just gets more ridiculous.

And for Kansas City to shoot their load on Gil Meche of all people, what the fuck?

Today, Jason Schmidt just signed a 3-year deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers for $37 million. Except Schmidt is a bonafide ace in the game, with a career ERA of 3.91 and will now be the top of the Dodgers staff.

Tom Glavine signed a one-year deal with the Mets for $10.5 million, and at least for the first half of the season, he WILL be the team's ace, unless the Mets can land Barry Zito or Mark Mulder.

It's quite frustrating to not be able to see the games, because on the West Coast, these games start at 5pm, which is when some people are JUST getting out of work. Most of us don't get off work till much later than that, and can never see the games when it's played on East Coast time.

I'm kinda complaining, but I'm quite used to this as a fact of life by now. It is what it is.

ANYHOO, THE FUCKING METS WON GAME 6!!!!

John Maine, despite walking too many guys as usual, pitched 5.1 IP of shutout ball, outdueling Cardinals' ace Chris Carpenter, who only gave up 2 ER in 6 IP (one was a Jose Reyes solo homer, the other a Shawn Green single RBI).

The Mets scored two more runs off of their former closer Braden Looper, when Paul Lo Duca singled in two runs in the 7th.

The Mets bullpen (Bradford, Mota, Heilman) were all very solid.

Then with a score of 4-0 in the 9th, Willie went to his closer Billy Wagner. Wagner then proceeded to give up 2 ER on 3 hits before getting the third out with the tying run at the plate.

There are many things one can say about Billy Wagner, but that's another blog entry for another time.

The issue tonight was that Willie did not need his closer. It wasn't a save situation, and there were other options available in the bullpen (Roberto Hernandez, Pedro Feliciano). Aaron Heilman threw a total of 12 pitches in the 8th inning. He should have started the 9th inning, and you only bring in Billy Wagner if trouble brews.

Instead, Wagner comes in, throws 24 pitches in one inning, gets himself into trouble, causes all Met fans across the country to get bleeding ulcers. Wagner is going to be (as will every arm on the team) on call during Game 7, even moreso if it's close. The Mets have every advantage in the world going into Game 7, so why did Willie create a disadvantage for his team by using his closer in a situation that didn't call for it?

Game 7 will have Oliver Perez taking the mound for the Mets, against Jeff Suppan.

The one thing about the Cardinal pitching staff that is just frustrating the everloving fuck out of me is that the Mets can't seem to score much off of Suppan and Weaver, two pitchers who are normally not ace material, but yet can handle their actual ace, Chris Carpenter.

As for Oliver Perez, he didn't exactly pitch well during game 4, as he gave up 5 ER in 5 IP, but the Mets gave him enough run support for the win. You can bet Darren Oliver will be ready to go by th 3rd inning if need be, as Willie is counting on HIS left-handers for the advantage.

LETS GO METS!!!!!!!!