Vic For The Pen

Today the Mets game was not televised so instead I watched the Dominican Republic All Star team take on the Venezuelan All Star team. My main goal was to watch Mets 3rd coach Manny Acta manage, SS Jose Reyes play, and Victor Zambrano pitch. Manny did a good job with his line up, he did not play Reyes today, but the bigger story is Victor Zambrano.Victor Zambrano (Venezuela) came on in relief of Cubs RHP Carlos Zambrano. He allowed Albert Pujols to get a leadoff single, struck out David Ortiz, walked Moises Alou, struck out Adrian Beltre, who was the MOST potent hitter on the Dominican team, and finished the inning by retiring Juan Encarnacion on a fly out to left field. In his second inning of relief Vic struck out Alberto Castillo, retired Willie Tavares when Willie bunted, and 3rd baseman Miguel Cabrera played the ball very well and threw him out at first. The retired the third batter of the inning, Alfanzo Soriano, on a grounder to 3rd. In his 3rd inning of relief work Zambrano allows a lead off bunt single to Miguel Tejada, throws a wild pitch, retires Albert Pujols on a fly ball, and comes out of the game. Carlos Hernandez allows Ortiz to hit one out of the park and Zambrano is charged with 1 ER over 2.1 innings. Throughout the game Zambrano pitched great. Although he did have that wild pitch that lead to a run, he had good stuff. He threw a nasty pitch that just dropped out the zone every time. It’s the same pitch he used to strike out both Ortiz and Beltre, he also used it to set up Alberto Castillo for a strike out. When the Mets put Zambrano in the bullpen toward the end of last year he did a good job in what was a super small sample size. Maybe it is time that the former Ace of the Tampa Bay Devil Reys moves to the bullpen. As I am sure we all noticed last year Vic’s major problem was definitely not his “stuff”, it was his ability to put that “stuff” in the right spot, and for the entire outing. Usually Zambrano had a great 1-3 inning and then he would blow up in the 4th or 5th. We can stop that by moving him into the bullpen as a long man. If more than 1 pitcher steps up this spring, such as Heilman or Iriki, I truly hope the Mets will move out Zambrano and give these other guys a shot. It’s about time we use a guy for what he can do, and not what he has the potential to do. **The two newly acquired Met bull pin arms, Jorge Julio and Duaner Sanchez, also pitched in this game. Julio came in from Venezuela in the 9th in relief for Carlos Hernandez, and he got hammered, and that’s putting it nicely. The Dominican batters just destroyed him. Manny Acta used Duaner Sanchez to close the door in the 9th inning. He did a tremendous job retiring the side in order. He pitched well, was in the zone and threw his fastball in the 92-94 MPH range.**