Closer Wanted, Playoff Experience Necessary
A real gut wrencher tonight. Ruined my dessert. Billy Wagner owes me dessert.
The Mets come back and take the lead in the late innings. Wagner gets two outs and then collapses just enough to give up the lead. Terrible performance. I can’t fault Wright for the game ending DP because he already racked up three hits in the game.
As I said in the latest podcast, this Mets team needs to start thinking about the players that will get them through the playoffs. I believe that this team is going to the playoffs with the talent they have but how far into the playoffs will they go? You can’t win a championship without a lights out closer. And right now the Mets don’t have a lights out closer in Billy Wagner. This dude is scary.
I’m not one to be rash but I think there needs to be a plan to solidify the back end of the bullpen. Comments anyone?
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Can I just say that every time I see Billy Wagner I cringe? This guy is driving me crazy. After a great comeback, he just ruined it again. Then again, I also think that David Wright could have let that ONE ball go foul… but I still think Wagner would have walked someone.. or hit them in the knee again. I couldn’t even watch after he walked the first couple of guys. We’re gonna need a new closer or something, because Wagner was cramping the Mets’ style tonight.
Comment by Mets Lover :) | June 21, 2006
Actually. Forget what I said about Wright. He had a lot of the hits, and even if he had let it go, it probably would not have changed anything.
Comment by Mets Lover :) | June 21, 2006
I didn’t see the play, just heard it on the radio. The announcers made it sound like the ball would’ve stayed fair. In any case, Wagner gave up the base hit with two strikes. Hasn’t he heard of throwing way out of the strike zone 0-2 to catch a guy going after junk?
Comment by Rob Safuto | June 22, 2006
hmm..
Looper comes to mind. Remember when Zambrano was in the pen a little while last season?
I think we need to send Wagner to the Brooklyn Cyclones for some re-evaluation.
Comment by Gary | June 22, 2006
I was watchign the game on stat tracker and I saw wagner had loaded the bases and had 2 outs.. next thing I know we were loosing.. I think I would have offended a lot of people with the choice words I had for Wagner… But I’m off to the games in Toronto… First time getting to see the Mets play.. Going to Friday for sure an dpossibly the saturday game
Comment by Ron | June 22, 2006
I want to break his f*ing kneecaps! I was still sore from the loss against the yankees. Send that country bumpkin to a dive bar in queens and let me and the boys handle him.
Comment by K | June 22, 2006
Tensions running high for sure. You hate to lose a game when Reyes hits for the cycle. Hopefully Pedro can put a smile on our faces this afternoon.
Comment by Rob Safuto | June 22, 2006
I’m as frustrated as the rest of you, blowing such a great performance at the plate last night, but let’s not go overboard. Seriously, comparing Wagner to Looper??? Wagner was just missing his targets last night but still throwing at 98-99 MPH. Reds were very lucky to get walks and tiny pieces of these pitches that they couldn’t even see. Wagner is really a closer, as much as anyone in the league is. He throws the ball harder than anyone else, opposing playes have trouble even standing in against him. If that last pitch was a couple inches higher the game was ours.
That said, I hope we don’t need him this afternoon!
Comment by Dan S | June 22, 2006
One more thing – is there a single bullpen in the majors that compares favorably with the Mets? The bullpen ERA is something like what, 2.80? Wagner has 43 Ks and 15 walks in 34.2 innings, I’d say that’s pretty damn good.
Ah, I see we got a win today, hoorah. Let’s see summore and salvage this home stand before venturing into unknown AL territory this weekend.
Comment by Dan S | June 22, 2006
David Wright for President! Really nice to see Pedro get a win and some run support. You know he is fighting through his toe issues to pitch these games.
Yeah, David Wright is having an MVP season. Where would the Mets be without him?
The Mets bullpen as a whole has done great, buyoed by the solid work of Duaner Sanchez, Feliciano, Chad Bradford and Darren Oliver. Heilman has been weak. And Wagner has blown two saves (against the Yanks and now the Reds) that were really inexcusable. Bottom line, Wagner is back on double secret probation.
Comment by Rob Safuto | June 22, 2006
There’s no turning back now, we put all are chips on him and we have to ride it out four good o four bad. (Could somebody please get on his face (Wagner) and straight this guy of?)
Comment by joey | June 22, 2006
Its funny how when he blew the save against the Yankees he claimed Im not used to coming in with that much of a lead, this time comes in with a one run lead and blows it after he had already gotten two outs. All he needed to do was take a little off his fastball pitch a strike and let the defense do their job. No excuse at all for this. This year i thought for the first time ever I wouldnt get all squeemish when the closer comes into the game, but this year is even worse because he is supposed to be so much better than every other closer the Mets have had. I can just see him blowing game 6 or 7 later on in the year, I have no faith in the dude anymore.
Comment by Dan | June 23, 2006
Not comparing Wagner to Looper?! Why the hell not? Did Looper not blow saves? Was he not brought into the game with a save opportunity…and not save it?
I don’t care if Wagner throws a goat 99 mph. If he doesn’t get the job done, he’s not our guy. I don’t care about his past, his future, anything. He has a duty to SAVE games. If he doesn’t do that, he’s not worth it.
Comment by Gary | June 23, 2006
I think you are either delusional or very forgetful. Last year Looper issued 22 walks vs, only 27 Ks. This was in 59.1 innings. Batters hit .252 against him, .500 against him with the bases loaded. His overall ERA was 3.94. Wagner so far has 15 walks and 43 Ks in 34 innings. Batters are hitting .194 against him.
I give a lot of the blame for Looper’s failure to Willie’s style – he is very uncreative in his use of the bullpen, copying Torre’s manner of going to a “closer” regardless of the situation, just because it’s the ninth. At least Torre had a closer all those years,. Looper was not that guy. Wagner may not be a Rivera (at his peak, far better than Rivera is now) but he is much closer to fitting that type than Looper ever was, or pretty much anyone in the league for that matter.
He blew a save, it was his fault, and I am pissed too. But as long as Willie insists on sticking to the “book” – setup man in the eighth, closer in the ninth – Wagner is better than anyone at filling that role. I didn’t say perfect, I said the best.
Comment by Dan S | June 23, 2006
Sorry, just checked the stats, batters actually hit .271 against Looper last year. I truly hope we face this guy in the playoffs.
Comment by Dan S | June 23, 2006
Do you get a warm feeling when Wagner gets on the mound. The same feeling when Looper came from the bullpen? I pray that we get a big enough lead so that we don’t have to see the closer. Not all of the time. But in a game where we have a lead, say 5-4, it worries me.
In October, when we’re leading by a run or two, you going to feel happy when he gets on the mound?
I’m not saying we trade him. Just take him out back with a phonebook. We don’t have time to wait for him to become the closer we paid for.
I’m taking the same stance with Wagner as I did with Beltran last year. I lost count as to how many $119 Million dollar strikouts,flyouts and double plays we paid for.
Comment by Gary | June 23, 2006
I think that Wagner is better than Braden Looper. So far the jury is still out for me on Wagner’s overall effectiveness. There’s no doubt that he can be scary when he comes in to close a tight game. The velocity is there but he’s got these control problems which is what we saw in the poor performances against the Yankees and the Reds.
Losing it completely with two out and no one on base is bound to drive fans batty. It brought back nightmares of the Mets closers from the past few seasons. I think that Willie needs to consider having a backup for Wagner if he loses control and walks two batters in an inning.
Comment by Rob Safuto | June 23, 2006
I agree with Rob’s comment above. Willie should have a backup for when it’s obvious that Wagner has lost it. When have we seen him walk 2 batters then work his way out of it? Less frequently than when he walks 2 batters and blows it, I’ll bet.
I don’t care about his confidence or feelings. He can go home and roll around in millions of dollars if he wants feel better. I just want wins.
Comment by Kevin | June 23, 2006
I don’t know if it’s the front office that has entirely too much pride to admit when it was wrong. Kazmir/Zambrano, we stuck by that. Looper as our closer, they said he was the man for the job.
If we get a backup for Wagner, we would be admitting that maybe this guy isn’t the plug for our leaks, and that we *gulp* might’ve made a mistake.
I’ll stand by whatever we do, maybe just because i’m as dumb as the people telling me that these were all good ideas, or just because I have enough faith in them.
Maybe we could start putting Wagner in, in the 9th with 2 outs already. Just an idea.
Comment by Gary | June 24, 2006
Good idea Gary except I think most of the time he blows it, I believe, are when there are already two outs. So maybe we should pull him when there are two outs.
Comment by Dan | June 25, 2006