Last night the Mets took Rookie Alay Soler out the game in the seventh inning. He pitched well and had a lead going into the inning. Mets Manager felt that he wanted to protect his rookie by making sure he had a successful outing. So he brought in his seventh inning go to guy, Aaron Heilman. Heilman gave up 4 runs, including a two run shot to Melvin Mora, to blow the lead and eventually the game. Now if this was the first or second time, I would not be posting this but this is not the first time as of late. So lets address the situation.
Since his outing against the Yankees when he tossed 3 perfect innings Heilman has not been the same. That was on May 19th. Before May 19th Heilman had a 1.48 ERA without allowing a single HR. Between May 19th and June 17th Heilman's ERA is a staggering 11.37 ERA. He has allowed 3 HRs within this period. Heilman's season ERA is 4.86. Obviously something is wrong, so what is it?
There are many theories so lets take a look at all of them...
- Confidence? - Many people feel that Heilman has lost his confidence. We all know that Heilman wants to start and it seems that every time a chance opens up the Mets continue to go back on their promise to him. The Mets promised Heilman that he would get the shot to start if he impressed in Spring Training, he went out and did that yet they choose Bannister instead. When the Mets had to get replacements for Victor Zambrano and Brian Bannister the Mets did not consider Heilman. When they needed replacements for Lima and Gonzalez the Mets again did not consider Heilman. I think all of these things are a shot to a young guys confidence.
- Over Used? - Many feel that Heilman has been over used over the past year. It seemed at the beginning of the year to now that Heilman was being used just about everyday. Maybe that has finally caught up to him.
- Arm Angle? - Over at MetsBlog.com the writers feel that Heilman's arm angle is not as low as it used to be. His angel now is making him throw fat pitches and hitters are taking advantage of it. Mets pitching coach Rick Peterson has made a similar assessment. If this is true or not, I cannot say. I'm not a pitching coach but Rick is and if he says it it's probably true.
- An interesting idea... - Now this is a theory that is a bit unorthodox but might be the answer. A good buddy of mine (Sid) suggested that Heilman may not be able to pitch on back to back days. Now one may ask, "why is this?" My only possible answer is that Before coming to the big leagues Heilman was always a starter and many starters do not have the ability to pitch on back to back days. Starters usually have a pattern that they work with: Start, rest, bullpen session, rest, and start. After the end of last year Heilman dedicated himself to becoming a starter again. He went to winter ball and trained as a starter. He went to Spring Training as a starter. His arm may have adjusted to a starter's pattern. Earlier in the season the Mets would use Heilman for two innings and then go to Wagner. The next day they would use Sanchez for two innings and then go to Wagner. They usually didn't use Sanchez and Heilman in the same game unless it was absolutely necessary. This continued the pattern that Heilman picked up over the Winter: pitch, rest, pitch, rest, pitch, etc. The answer would be to let Heilman have a day off between every outing.
I don't think that Heilman is over used. He is a young kid and should be able to hold up well over 37 innings pitched. I do believe that Heilman's problem could be a combo of the other three theories. The one thing I do know is that the Mets have to find the problem, fix it, and fix it fast. |
