Aaron Heilman

Aaron Heilman, who was traded by the Mets to the Seattle Mariners as part of the J.J. Putz deal, was flipped to the Chicago Cubs for Ronny Cedeno and Garret Olson. Many suspected that Heilman was going to be the closer for the Mariners since Brandon Morrow was going to move to the rotation. The trade is great for Heilman because his competition for the fifth spot with the Cubs are Jeff Samardzija, Sean Marshall, and Chad Gaudin. Only Samardzija really has a higher ceiling than Heilman, but he has yet to play a full season.

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they never seem to pitch well on the same day.  Scott Schoenweis is inconsistent at best, and Aaron Heilman is either brilliant or terrible.  Last night Heilman gave the Mets three scoreless, albeit difficult, innings, but who knows what to expect his next time out?  In my August 12 blog, I statistically broke down Heilman's appearances to that point.  He actually hasn't allowed a run since then, and has overall looked best when he pitches on back-to-back days.  Jerry Manuel will need to find the right mix with the pitchers he has now, but to this point he hasn't found the right pattern.

Continue reading "Seven Runs: Too Little, Too Early"

ng, allowing a sacrifice fly to Mark Loretta and a two-run homer to Hunter Pence in the fourth, but Aaron Heilman couldn't hold the one-run lead in the seventh.  He allowed hits to both batters he faced, but was credited with recording an out when Fernando Tatis gunned Geoff Blum out at the plate in the seventh.  The homers Feliciano allowed in the 10th came from two players who had combined for a total of three taters all season until their extra-inning blasts.  You know you don't have your best stuff on a particular day when you give up a go-ahead home run to a defensive replacement (Brad Ausmus).

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Brain Stokes- Got cut from Tampa Bay last year, enough said. 

10,831. Aaron Heilman- Doesn't attack the hitters, bad control, not even that great of stuff.  Walked a relief pitcher the other day.  A Relief Pitcher!  Probably his first at bat of the year and he walks him.  In fairness, if he didn't, I'm sure Aaron would have served up yet another of his patented back-breaking home runs.  It is getting to the point that if the Mets know Heilman is coming into a game they must be winning by at least 3 runs.  Any less than that and it is a guaranteed loss, as he will most certainly blow the lead.  I call it the Heilman factor, just edging out other names such as the Victor Zambrano factor or the Eli Manning against the Vikings factor.  In a way it is almost amazing that the Mets win at all with what appears to be an obvious mole working for another division rival pitching in our bullpen.  If he signs a huge contract with Philly in a couple of years I would be anything but surprised.  Even more amazing, he somehow leads the team in bullpen innings.  It appears that as bad as he is as a pitcher is as good as he is at convincing whoever is running the team to put him in.  Why does he have to get into every game?  O well, at least you can count on him in a big spot.  Like Game 7 of the NLCS.  In the ninth inning of a tie game.  With a crappy defensive-minded catcher at the plate.  Yea, you could trust him then. 

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fante with some chin music, and then retiring Infante and Brian McCann on successive pop-ups.  Aaron Heilman escaped a jam in the eighth without allowing a run, and Scot Schoenweis tossed a scoreless ninth to nail down the victory.

Continue reading "Delgado, Easley Spark Comeback Against Braves"

ley's pinch-hit two-run single and Washington's sloppy defense, to put the game out of reach.  Aaron Heilman pitched a scoreless ninth, and the Mets avoided a save situation.

    If the Mets keep winning big like they have the last two games, they may not need to bother sorting out their closing situation, because Billy Wagner's rehab is going right on schedule.  He pitched a scoreless inning Thursday for Double-A Binghamton, and is slated to return to the Mets when he is elgible to come off the DL before Monday's game in Pittsburgh.  The Mets will roll into Pittsburgh tomorrow riding a three-game winning streak, and sit alone atop the NL East after Los Angeles finished off their sweep of Philadelphia.

Continue reading "Mets Finish Off Sweep in D.C."

    Well, it's become quite obvious that the Mets desperately need to find someone else to close in Billy Wagner's absence.  When Wagner had to miss a game against the Phillies three weeks ago with forearm stiffness, Duaner Sanchez dropped the ball.  Since Wagner was placed on the DL last week, Heilman has been awful in two of his four ninth inning chances.  In order to put an end to the bullpen's pattern of implosion, Jerry Manuel offered two other options after yesterday's game:  Eddie Kunz and John Maine.

Continue reading "Mets' Season May Depend on Kunz"

y LaRoche to end the seventh, and tossed a hitless eighth to keep the 5-4 lead in tact.  Enter Aaron Heilman.  After striking out McLouth, Heilman looked like he might cruise to his third straight save.  But he then fell behind 3-0 on Rivas, who singled to left, and walked Mientkiewicz to put the go-ahead run on base.  Doumit smacked a line drive off the right field wall for the game-tying RBI single, and Heilman hit LaRoche to load the bases.  5-5.  Enter Scott Schoenweis.  Damion Easley threw home on a hard smash by Brandon Moss to nail Mientkiewicz at the plate, and it looked like Schoenweis might preserve the tie.  But Steve Pearce had a different idea.  With the merry-go-round in motion on a full count, Pearce lined a single into left center to score two runs.  7-5, Pirates.  Exit Mets.

Continue reading "Heilman Heads Up Another Bullpen Meltdown"

ridge the Mets to the ninth, leading 6-2.  With Billy Wagner on the DL, Jerry Manuel turned to Aaron Heilman, and then the floodgates opened.  Heilman walked the first batter and the second reached on a misplayed pop-up that fell in between Argenis Reyes and Carlos Beltran.  He recorded an out on a fielder's choice, but then Jody Gerut hit a three-run bomb over the right field fence, and suddenly it was 6-5.  Joe Smith and Scott Schoenweis entered to retire a batter each and save the game, but the victory left a bad taste in any fan's mouth because of the continued struggles of the bullpen, namely

Continue reading "Heilman Nearly Wastes Efforts of Pelfrey and Tatis"

;  Sure enough, just after I wrote about how I’d like to see Jerry Manuel try to stretch Aaron Heilman for some more two-inning relief appearances, Heilman blew a tie game in his second inning of work on Friday night.  After getting through the seventh inning cleanly, Heilman loaded the bases in the eighth and gave up a game-winning grand slam to pinch hitter Mark Loretta.  To add insult to injury (literally, considering the ailing arms of John Maine and Billy Wagner), Heilman was tagged with the loss again on Saturday in another collapse of sorts from the Mets’ bullpen.  This one was a group effort though, with Scott Schoenweis and Billy Wagner contributing to the blown 4-1 lead.  After yet another solid, but insufficiently long, outing from Johan Santana, Schoenweis allowed a solo home run to Kaz Matsui, who has killed the Mets, hitting .438 against his former team over the last three years.  Wagner then gave up a bizzare two-run single to Geoff Blum with the bases loaded in the ninth to blow the save, as both runners crashed into one another and Ramon Castro all at once at the plate.  Then, in the tenth, Heilman put the first two runners on base before handing the ball over to Pedro Feliciano.  Feliciano actually did not pitch poorly, striking out the first batter he faced and then allowing the game-ending sacrifice fly on a weakly hit liner by Darin Erstad.  Fernando Tatis made an excellent catch on Erstad’s sinking flare, but was unable to throw Lance Berkman out at the plate.

Continue reading "Shaky Pen Gets Mets Swept By 'Stros"

    For the third time in a week, the Mets showed some moxie last night in winning convincingly the day after a disconcerting loss.  First, it was John Maine's solid performance against the Phillies the day after the bullpen blew Johan Santana's eight-inning gem.  Then, it was Santana going the distance to conserve the worn out bullpen the day after the five-hour, 14-inning loss to St. Louis.  And last night Oliver Perez fought through six innings, allowing just the one first-inning run, after the bullpen blew an eighth-inning lead on Monday.  David Wright gave the Mets an early lead with an RBI double in the first and Carlos Beltran put New York ahead with a rare two-out RBI single in the sixth.  Carlos Delgado jacked a two-run homer in the eighth for insurance, and Heilman pitched two scoreless innings for the hold, before Billy Wagner tossed a perfect ninth for his 27th save.

Continue reading "Heilman Holds Perez's Lead, Delgado Puts it Away"

e lone blemish on his masterful performance was Albert Pujols' seventh inning solo home run, but as Aaron Heilman learned early Sunday morning, you sometimes just tip your cap when that man hits one out.

Continue reading "Santana Goes the Distance, Mets Stay Hot"

The bottom line is that a quartet of major league pitchers (Sanchez, Pedro Feliciano, Joe Smith and Aaron Heilman) absolutely need to be capable of recording three outs without allowing three runs, let alone six runs.  I don't know what it is about the ninth inning, but some pitchers are just not cut out to pitch in those situations.

Continue reading "Billy Wagner Never Looked So Good"

Mets' pitching has come back down to Earth.  The bullpen has started allowing runs again, and Aaron Heilman once again makes any Mets fan groan as he strolls toward the mound from the bullpen.  The key to maximizing bullpen production is keeping the relievers fresh; a main cause of the Mets' collapse in 2007 was an overworked bullpen that was out of gas come September.  In order to keep the bullpen fresh, starters need to go deeper into games.  One starter who has not been helping on that front is John Maine.

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in the second inning before giving up five runs in the fourth, his final inning of the night.  Aaron Heilman lost his command after getting two outs in the seventh, and Scott Schoenweis allowed the big blow, a bases clearing double by Javier Valentin.  But the offense continued to roll, as Carlos Delgado, Fernando Tatis and David Wright each hit two-run homers, and the Mets pounded out 10 runs, including four in the ninth off closer Francisco Cordero.  Wright's bomb tied the game with one out, and Delgado followed three batters later with the go-ahead RBI single.  The victory moves the Mets into a first place tie with the Phillies at 52-44.

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him.  I do not want to trade Endy Chavez, and I do not want to cripple the bullpen by trading Aaron Heilman, Joe Smith, Duaner Sanchez or Pedro Feliciano.  Scott Schoenweis is expendable but probably does not have much value, as is the case with most other Mets players outside their untradeable core, and that will be Omar Minaya's main obstacle in getting an outfield bat before the trading deadline.

Continue reading "Pelfrey and the Mets Finally Make It Easy"