2 Guys Talking: The Mets Bullpen No Longer Scares Us

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Clik here to view.Mike:

Stress is a terrible thing. It can really wear you down. When it came to watching the Mets early in the year I had two major stress points. One was the Mets horrific bullpen, the other was the awful “anti-smoking” commercial reminding me three or four times a night of all the horrible things that might kill me. And I don’t even smoke!

Thankfully that commercial seems to have run it’s course. Better yet, the Mets bullpen has gone through a metamorphosis, evolving from a major weakness to a team strength. The turnaround has been dramatic.

Jimmy:

Yes, and leading the way has been the emergence of two young pitchers, both formerly labeled #1 prospects in the Mets organization, Jenrry Mejia and Jeurys Familia. They are not only effective, but fun to watch, in part because they are both still unrefined and unpredictable.

Mike:

It’s common in the modern game to dismiss the importance of a solid closer. Getting saves is not statistically difficult, and closers usually enter games to begin the ninth inning, with no inherited runners to deal with. Many nights by the time they appear someone else has already done the heavy lifting. And I can’t argue any of that. But it has been my experience as a Mets fan that when the team cannot find a reliable closer the entire bullpen becomes a disaster. I sometimes lie awake screaming at night, unable to get Luis Ayala’s entrance music out of my head. When Bobby Parnell went down on Opening Day the closer situation became a full-blown mess, with no real successor on board. That’s why I think that the day Jennry Mejia was moved out of the rotation was a critical one for this team. He has the stuff and the mentality of a closer. Even his minor histrionics play better late in the game. His success changed everything.

Jimmy:

He handled the disappointment of that shift to the pen with grace and professionalism. I give him — and his agent, and the Mets organization — a lot of credit for that. If he didn’t embrace the role, it could have gotten ugly very quickly.

I think back to that first appearance against the Yankees, the full house, and Jenrry moonwalking off the mound. At that moment, you felt, “This could work.”

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Mike:

You correctly touted Familia’s arm as a breakout candidate all spring, and he came pretty fast. Both of the J&J boys have been great. But it’s not just two guys. In the winter the Mets had hoped Vic Black could be an important part of the bullpen, but his spring training was so dreadful he was sent to Vegas. Since his return he is still a little erratic, but the fastball is major league quality. Black has been a positive.

Jimmy:

Yeah, not sold on Vic. But with that arm, he’ll keep getting chances.

Mike:

Josh Edgin showed up and has been a surprising revelation. Edgin has been the perfect Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.lefty out of the pen. Teams save a roster spot for these guys to get a special out when it is needed. Edgin has been perfect in this regard, retiring the first batter he faced twenty times in a row. If Josh is for real he could be an important Met for a few years as there are very few quality left-handed arms in the system.

Jimmy:

I’ve always had doubts about Josh, largely because I didn’t like his off-speed stuff. Gary Cohen  keeps talking about Josh’s fastball, how he regained some of the speed he’d lost, but to my eyes it’s the secondary pitches that have made all the difference. Either way, yes, he’s been doing the job. He’s got a little bit in him of one of my old favorites, Dennis Cook. In that he’ll take the hill with an air of aggressiveness, a go-get-‘em quality. When Josh was just throwing gas, that didn’t work in the MLB. The good hitters catch up to it. But now that he mixes it up better, that’s a formula for success.

Mike:

I haven’t forgotten Carlos Torres. Torres has been the mainstay, he is the link to Valverde, Farnsworth, Rice, and Lannan. Carlos has been good all year, as he was asked to do just about everything during the evolution. Now he finally has some help.

Jimmy:

You are right. I like this guy a lot. In an age of increased specialization, which often translates to severely limited pitchers, Carlos Torres can do it all. It’s so important that he can pitch to batters on either side of the plate. To that end, we have to look at addition by subtraction. Scott Rice, whom I often defended here, did one thing — and only one thing — very well. For a while, at least. He got out lefty hitters. A classic one-out guy. We quickly learned that under no circumstances could he ever be trusted to face a RHH. That limitation, combined with Terry Collins’ standard mismanagement, often put the team behind the 8-ball, burning assets too quickly in late, close games that (all too often) crawled into extra innings.

Mike

Overall, this bullpen now features young, hard throwers. There might still be some growing pains, like Monday night when Familia hurried a throw to second, but the talent is there. Better yet, pitchers like Mejia, Familia, Edgin, and Black will still be under team control for a few years. For the first time in a long while this team could enter an offseason with more answers then questions in the pen. Combined with a solid rotation that is a nice start to a good team.

Now if we could just find some hitters somewhere . . .

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