3 Up And 3 Down August 7-14

3 Up

• Bobby Parnell
• Billy Wagner
• Anderson Hernandez

Today Bobby Parnell went 6 shutout innings, notching his first major league win as a ,

walking none, and striking out seven on 80 pitches, which is quite effecient, throwing 61 of them for strikes. In the sixth inning h

e looked tired, but was able to get through it without any runs allowed, and at one point had stricken out four consecutive batters, and was as poised and intimidating as Johan Santana or Roy Halladay, which for the young converted reliever Bobby Parnell is a good sign, he did a good job of scattering the only three hits he allowed, all of them came in different innings, so the Giants never got started, so they could not get on a roll, which is another young Mets starter's issue (cough Mike Pelfrey cough). He is developing his secondary pitches that are not fastballs because he is starting, so even if he ends up back in the bullpen it will be good for his development.

Billy Wagner has thrown 4 innings at St Lucie, allowing one baserunner, and striking out 6, and walking none, he has allowed one hit, dominating the hitters and looking good the whole way, and he is projected to be with the team and availible for Jerry Manual for Sunday's game, which has to be a record for speediest recovery from Tommy John surgery, as it will be about 11 months frmo the surgery, and he will be availible to pitch, Jerry has said he will use him as a lefty specialist at first, and then stretch him out. We should try to get him to Type-A free agent status so we can get two picks for him, which would end up giving us in effect, 3 first rounders, and considering the last time we had a first rounder was 2008, and we did not have one in 07, or 05, it would be a great thing for our farm system if we could add 3 first rounders to it.

He played just three games for us this week, after being acquired from Washington for Greg Veloz, but he was our hottest hitter. He had eleven PAs, reached base 6 times, on two walks and four hits, including two multi hit games, and has been another one of those small bright spots us Mets fans need to keep us from watching Jets preseason games, he played good defense, not giving up anything, and had a .444/.545/.556 line for the week. His BABIP was .800, and the reason his batting average was so low was because of his four strike outs for the week, but that is only a minor problem. He was acquired from Washingon for a lesser version of himself, almost Anderson Hernandez 0.0, because Veloz has less plate discipline...

3 Down

• David Wright
• Jeff Francoeur
• Mike Pelfrey

David Wright had a bad week, and truly is having the oddest .320 season ever, as he will have a career high in Ks by a long shot.

The honeymoon is over.

Send him down?

Could Parnell Start?

With Niese going down today, the Mets need to get creative with the starting pitching, as they do not have anyone left to call up, and are running out of healthy starters.

Minor League History

Untill last year Bobby Parnell was a starter, starting with Brooklyn in 2005, making it to Double-A in 2007 with a WHIP .1 higher than his career average of 1.3, so he struggled at first, and was sent down, his second time up he was .2 higher than his career average, and started 2008 at Binghampton, where he would get back down to his career average, and then in 2008 with a horrible bullpen and Parnell on the 40-man they called him up in September and used him in some critical spots out of the bullpen which slowed his growth as a starter, and when he started this year in the bullpen he added something that we did not have last year, a hard thrower at the back end of the bullpen.

One problem presented is that he would have to stretch out his inning so he could not start, but then again he pitched 3 today, and he could throw an 80 pitch bullpen session sometime between now and when Niese's next start would have been, and then limit him to just 80 pitches, or hopefully about 4-5 innings of work, or just shift the rotation so we give him an extra day or two.

If he were to do this it would be pretty impressive, as other pitchers have tried and failed, like Jonathon Papelbon.