Roll of the dice

This season, the story for the Mets has been that of a rollercoaster ride after their starting pitcher leaves the game. The performance of the bullpen has been so erratic, there really is no way to be comfortable with any lead these days. Now with Billy Wagner injured, they are trying desperately to find someone to fill in the closer's role. The first choice was obviously to try using Aaron Heilman, as he's been a pretty solid setup man for the Mets for a while. Well, after blowing a two-run lead to the lowly Pirates on Monday, Jerry Manuel decided, rightly, to switch to using Pedro Feliciano. Feliciano has been one of the few consistent pitchers in that bullpen this year. He's had his down periods, as any pitcher will have, but they've been quickly corrected. I've been waiting for them to use Eddie Kunz, a young pitcher that has lots of experience closing games in college and in AA Binghamton, but Manuel keeps saying he doesn't want to throw his young guys into the fire so quickly. Well, he's starting to change his tune now that the bullpen is looking like it's going to kill the Mets' season once again. There's also talk of converting John Maine from a starter to a close, which is something I think he would be well suited for given the high velocity of his pitches and the good movement he has on his fastball. The only problem with that is the lack of depth they already have in the starting rotation, meaning that move would make the team weaker overall.

Call me cynical, but I really am already looking at what next season will bring. It's going to be a very interesting offseason given how many members of the team will be at the end of their contracts. I just hope Minaya doesn't continue his trend of signing aging and injury-prone veterans.