I dunno, everything I've read says he doesn't throw the fastball enough, and instead relies too much on a splitter that he can't control.
Supposedly he threw his fastball 75% of the time last year, 85% of the time on the first pitch. As with most of these types of pitchers I'd suspect command overall was the issue. If he's not getting his fastball over consistently then no one is going to be biting on the splitter.
This is the first real bad news of the spring. That drunk driver in Miami has definitely had a long-term effect on the team (although if Perez comes around it's not entirely a negative effect).
I don't think either of these guys is intended to make up for or replace Sanchez. Sanchez is a pretty valuable reliever, but I don't think the Mets were counting on him too much coming off the injury, so this isn't as bad as if he had been healthy last year and this came out of nowhere.
Sanchez out until August? Mota gone for the first 50 games? I love the Mets, but I think we gotta forget about that "Best Bullpen in the NL" tag we had from last season. Is it me or does it seem like Aaron Heilman is going to have to be the guy who pulls this bullpen together. He's has a vastly under rated and under appreciated arm. I'm willing to forget the home run to Yadier Molina I don't want to sound alarmist or pessimistic, but as Mets fans, we might have to accept .500 baseball until August and then hope our pitching staff will get healthy at the right time. With such a great offense and mediocre pitching, we might turn into the Texas Rangers of the NL
Heilman was the guy who had to pull the bullpen together after the trade deadline last season, too. And he did a damn good job. I have confidence.
Schoeneweis should be good. The bullpen this year was going to be about Wagner, Heilman, Schoeneweis, and the roid guy. So I'm not crying about Sanchez.
They need one out of the group of Park, Sosa and Burgos to not completely suck at least until steroid boy comes back. It could happen. No one was talking about how great the Mets bullpen was going into last year, Bradford, Feliciano and Oliver all had great years basically out of nowhere.
