To Start Or Not To Start?
Okay, in New York there has been a whole lot of debatin' going on concerning Aaron Heilman, a relief pitcher for the New York Mets. The topic of the debate is whether he should be tried as a starter or kept in the bullpen. The Mets have kept him in the bullpen this season, stating they wanted to keep the roles in there set, not upset anything. This has worked out for the Mets, as they have the best bullpen in the majors, with an ERA of 3.24, or thereabouts. Many, many fans, especially as a reaction to the Mets' attempts to revive the dead career of one Jose Lima, think the Mets should use Heilman as a starter. These fans who favor Heilman as a starter feel he would be a good one, going so far as to say that he has shown that he can be a good starting pitcher.
The information below is so startling, so spine-tingling.... okay, it's not, really. However, I do find it to be interesting. The information I am about to give will be especially important to those Mets fans who have already anointed Henry Owens as major-league ready and think the Mets can start Heilman and trade off another reliever or two. What is revealed below is Aaron Heilman's record as a major-league starting pitcher. This information courtesy of Retrosheet.org, a wonderful group of people who do fantastic work gathering the records of baseball games, present and past, and a nod to Yahoo! Sports MLB page. Okay, without any further delay, here are the numbers for Heilman's career as a starting pitcher:
25 starts, 133.2 IP, 144 Hits, 22 HRs, 106 Ks, 66 BB, 5 W, 13 L, 5.93 ERA
Well, what do we think of that? If we saw any other pitcher with these kind of statistics, would we say this pitcher is good or bad?
Now, let's take a look at his career as a reliever, as of 07/17/2006:
88 G, 118.1 IP, 109 Hits, 6 HRs, 114 Ks, 43 BB, 3 W, 3 L, 3.20 ERA
Hmm…. That looks interesting, doesn't it? In fact, couldn't one surmise from these numbers that, perhaps, this pitcher would be, at this point, better suited for a relief role over a starting role? I, for one, could see why the Mets would want to leave Heilman in the bullpen.
What do you, the "Heilman Should Start" groupies, think?
The information below is so startling, so spine-tingling.... okay, it's not, really. However, I do find it to be interesting. The information I am about to give will be especially important to those Mets fans who have already anointed Henry Owens as major-league ready and think the Mets can start Heilman and trade off another reliever or two. What is revealed below is Aaron Heilman's record as a major-league starting pitcher. This information courtesy of Retrosheet.org, a wonderful group of people who do fantastic work gathering the records of baseball games, present and past, and a nod to Yahoo! Sports MLB page. Okay, without any further delay, here are the numbers for Heilman's career as a starting pitcher:
25 starts, 133.2 IP, 144 Hits, 22 HRs, 106 Ks, 66 BB, 5 W, 13 L, 5.93 ERA
Well, what do we think of that? If we saw any other pitcher with these kind of statistics, would we say this pitcher is good or bad?
Now, let's take a look at his career as a reliever, as of 07/17/2006:
88 G, 118.1 IP, 109 Hits, 6 HRs, 114 Ks, 43 BB, 3 W, 3 L, 3.20 ERA
Hmm…. That looks interesting, doesn't it? In fact, couldn't one surmise from these numbers that, perhaps, this pitcher would be, at this point, better suited for a relief role over a starting role? I, for one, could see why the Mets would want to leave Heilman in the bullpen.
What do you, the "Heilman Should Start" groupies, think?
posted by zyphryn at 12:57 PM
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