I was all set to give a rant on What Me Willie’ over use of Aaron Heilman but Joel Sherman beat me to it:

 

{Willie Randolph seems so determined to prove that he is in Aaron Heilman’s corner that he is going all Joe Torre-to-Scott-Proctor on him. Heilman leads the NL in appearances (12) and his 225 pitches are among the most of any NL reliever. Heilman has pitched in five of the Mets’ past six games. This comes at a time when Joe Smith is pitching very well and Duaner Sanchez has come off the DL in a very effective manner. Obviously, Randolph doesn’t want to overuse that duo, especially Sanchez. But he needs to find a way to back off Heilman a bit now. Heilman is just not accurately pounding the bottom of the strike zone as well as he has in the past. }

  

The thing that hurts about last nights performance, was Heilman almost got out of a huge jam. He gets out of that then he’s a bulldog if not you get guys like me ranting on his over use. Heilman has now pitched in 4 of the last 5 games all big situations. Meanwhile Dirty Duaner, who we were told was fit to pitch in back to back games, has not done so since his return. Also John Maine finished strong in the 6^th and while he was past that mystical 100 pitch count (109 with a spilt of 64 K/45B) couldn’t Maine come out for the 7^th?  In the top of the 7^th the Mets hand the 5-6-7 batters coming up (Delgado, Church, and Casanova) and they went out three up three down. Why not let Maine come out for the7th and warm up Sosa who is was rested to come in case Maine got in trouble? Even with the way What Me Worry Willie went, why not bring in Sosa and hold Dirty back until later? Why does What Me Willie have such a hard time working this bullpen? The way he’s misusing his relievers half the staff will be at the NYU Medical Center Orthopedic Unit by Memorial Day.

 

Now on to the lineup. Carlos Delgado is 3 for 14 with 6K’s vs. Ted Lilly so he has to get the day off (use the old day game after a night game excuse) now who plays first base. You could use Marlon Anderson but he’s a lefty so all you’re really left with is Damien Easley so he gets the turn at first today. Here’s the lineup I would use today:

 

Reyes

Easley

Wright

Beltran

Church

Pagan

Casanova

Castillo

Figueroa

 

Match that Willie! Oh and Omar,  go find a righty hitting first baseman pronto!

   

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