Duaner Sanchez

g of situational hitting, and he can be a solid singles' hitter to all fields.

Now, bringing back Duaner Sanchez -- especially as a seventh inning man -- well, that's a totally different story. Here's a guy with an 85-89 mph fastball with a terrible slider and deteriorating change-up, and yet, here we are, saying, "Hey! We can't wait to bring you back and throw you out there in critical situations! Who cares if you can barely reach the plate?"

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Minaya on board.  Other useful acquisitions include Paul LoDuca, Darren Oliver, Jose Valentin, Duaner Sanchez, John Maine, Oliver Perez, Endy Chavez, Ryan Church, Damion Easley and Fernando Tatis.

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arly reliable enough.  The Luis Ayala experiment at closer backfired in its first attempt, and Duaner Sanchez can't seem to get anybody out anymore.  Pedro Feliciano is only useful against lefties, and Joe Smith is only useful against righties, but 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"

Moises Alou, Ryan Church, Luis Castillo, Pedro Martinez, Marlon Anderson, John Maine, Billy Wagner, Duaner Sanchez, Brian Schneider, Ramon Castro, Damion Easley, Claudio Vargas, Endy Chavez, Angel Pagan, Trot Nixon, Tony Armas, and Matt Wise.  But the Mets are in first place now, in large part due to contributions from the likes of Fernando Tatis, Argenis Reyes, Daniel Murphy, Nick Evans, Robinson Cancel, and the core of players who have remained healthy.  Excuses don't win games, but a solid bench does.

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an into some trouble after walking Lastings Milledge and Austin Kearns, so Jerry Manuel called upon Duaner Sanchez.  Sanchez got out of the inning unscathed and the Mets had a 5-3 lead after eight.  The suspense mounted.

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.  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.

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oumit followed with a sacrifice fly to chase Feliciano and pull Pittsburgh to within one run.  Duaner Sanchez came on to retire Andy 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.

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ut his work to more than one inning.  Right now the entire bullpen is in a bit of a rut.  Duaner Sanchez seems to be in a dead-arm period, Pedro Feliciano has been inconsistent since the All-Star break, and Scott Schoenweis and Joe Smith have had their ups and downs as well.  But Heilman's two innings yesterday, coming off his three innings on Saturday, might give Jerry Manuel the assurance that he can pitch the sixth and seventh, or seventh and eighth, in a tight game in front of Wagner.  Now of couse, knowing Heilman, he could pitch terribly his next time out and struggle to get through even one inning.  But if the starters can continue to go a little deeper into games, like they have been more frequently of late, and Manuel uses Heilman expediently, he could pick up his share of two-inning holds and be effective in that type of role.

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

antana still pitched a phenomenal game and Manuel made a sound decision in turning the game over to Duaner Sanchez.  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"

nandez of the Mariners.  Santana has only pitched into the eighth inning once this season, and Duaner Sanchez ultimately blew that game in the ninth.  Tonight is an opportunity for Santana to turn his sub-par season around, and show Mets fans that he is worth his exhorbitant contract

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ivotal four-game series with the division leaders.  After Johan Santana gave up a 2-0 lead and Duaner Sanchez allowed the winning run in the ninth, the horizon looked bleak for the orange and blue.  However, since that devastating defeat, New York has racked up six straight wins and the Mets now find themselves just 1.5 games back of the Phillies in the NL East.  During the winning streak the Mets have scored an average of seven runs per game while yielding only three per contest, including back-to-back shutouts of the Giants on Tuesday and Wednesday.

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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"