The Fifth Starter Revisited

You’ve got to love it. El Duque has yet to pitch this spring. He may very well start the season on the disabled list. He has not been able to stay healthy for a whole season. Still, he is insisting that he was obtained as a starter and that is what he will be doing this year.

For the money that these ballplayers get paid, and for getting paid to do something they love, you would think they would be more willing to be flexible. The fact is, despite yesterday’s performance, Mike Pelfrey has looked sharp. My guess is that Pelfrey is physically capable of pitching deeper into a game than Hernandez. Pelfrey is younger and it is time to establish himself. The more I follow things this spring and the more I read, the more I believe Pelfrey belongs in the starting rotation come the start of the season.

If Pelfrey doesn’t cut it, then you slide El Duque in the rotation, in place of Pelfrey. If Pelfrey does make it, then you have a long man out of the bullpen. Obviously the Mets cannot use Hernandez out of the pen, in long relief, on successive days, still if you have him in the pen and you have an ineffective starter, you have a player in the bullpen who can pitch six innings as a starter, so presumably he can pitch three, four or five innings in relief if you need him.

I think that is the best way to go and I actually think this is what you will see come the start of the season.