John Maine has stated that he is willing to start closing if Billy Wagner is on the shelf for the year. Wagner was supposed to come back for today's game, but stiffness last week has backed him up.
The likelihood of this happening is pretty low because Wagner will likely need just one more week - but hey, you never know!
Additionally, the role that the Mets starters have been on (0 runs in first 6 innings the past few starts) will surely end very soon and Maine will be needed in that rotation.
Yaros
Maine is too valuable as a starter to convert him to relief so late in a successful season. i'd stick with the combination of Heilman etc a little longer to try to get the right formulatio with those guys.
ReplyDeleteHal,
ReplyDeleteI really disagree! when you are in such a tight race for the NL east (and that is the only avenue to the playoffs as both the cubs and brew crew will be in the post season) you can't continue to let the bullpen blow countless games. Adding the closer responsibility to this awful crew just compounds the problem. However, putting a starter there when you have 4 other solid starters won't hurt you too much. Bringing up a kid to make 1 start every 5 days (and no starts every 5 days if there is an off day) will hurt less than having a horrible pitcher close games.
Yaros