Posts tagged AaronHeilman at FanHouse

It wouldn't be the dog days of summer without a good old fashioned panic attack in the Northeast, where baseball fans live and die with the outcome of each night's game. In almost perfect symmetry, the Red Sox, Yankees and Mets all got bad news on the injury front Wednesday.

Considering where the big three sit in the standings, fans in New York and Boston have plenty to be concerned about. Let's look at each team's situation and try to assess how bad things are right now and how bleak they could get.

Red Sox designated hitter David Ortiz has already missed almost two months this season with a torn tendon sheath in his wrist. Now the slugger is reporting that he's hearing a "clicking" sound in the wrist he injured back on May 31 in Baltimore. The good news for Boston fans is that, on its own, the clicking sound isn't a concern. Indeed, Ortiz was back in the lineup for Wednesday night's game against the Royals.

However, as injury guru Will Carroll points out, the problem could be more mental than anything. If Ortiz's swing gets less violent and vicious because he is afraid of getting injured, it could hurt his productivity -- a frightening proposition for Boston in the wake of the Manny Ramirez trade.

It as if being the Mets manager has enabled the ghost of Casey Stengel to overtake Jerry Manuel's body and make him say some strange things. Consider the following out of Manuel's mouth on Sunday when asked about the harsh treatment that reliever Aaron Heilman has received this season:

Asked how the struggling Heilman was holding up under constant booing at Shea this year, Manuel said: "It's very, very fertile ground for growth in Shea Stadium. It's fertile ground for a team's growth and development. Sometimes, fertile ground has fertilizer." (...)

"Fertilizer is a good thing," Manuel said before the Mets' afternoon contest against the Rockies. "It's a good thing. You get the greatest results - get the most beautiful plants - when you put it in that type of fertile soil. That's what we have the opportunity to do."

Wow. I can't tell whether I should be insulted or praised. Am I helping to grow the beautiful plant that Aaron Heilman hopes to be? Or am I a big pile of ... fertilizer? I don't quite know how to take that. I do know that Mets fans should feel proud that they're helping New York to "go green" with all of their fertilizing. I also know that the Jerry Manuel era at Shea (otherwise known as "Gangsterball") is going to be quite entertaining.

Monday was a pretty nice day for Cubs reserve shortstop Ronny Cedeno. He only found out thirty minutes before gametime last night that he would be getting the start ahead of Ryan Theriot, and he made the most of his playing time by driving home two key runs off of Aaron Heilman in the 8th inning of what turned out to be a 7-1 Cubs victory over the Mets.

The win was the Cubs 12th in their last 15 games, and improved their record to 13-6 on the season, good enough for first place in the NL Central at the moment. Still, I think he was getting a bit too far ahead of himself afterwards when he started talking World Series.

"We're thinking about the World Series," Cedeno said. "I think we'll be OK if we keep playing like that."

The Cubs do realize it's still April 22nd, right? I mean, after Sunday's win over the Pirates, Aramis Ramirez was more concerned with finding out what the Cardinals had done to see if the Cubs gained any ground on them in the division standings. While there's nothing wrong with having high expectations for yourself, or your team, this is a bit ridiculous.

You can have those types of hopes, but at this point in the season it's better to keep them to yourself, especially if you happen to play for a team that hasn't won a World Series in 100 years. (You do realize, Ronny, that if you don't win the World Series Cubs fans will probably place you up there with every other "curse"?) You've only played 19 games of the 162 you have scheduled, and using my extraordinary mathematical powers, I think that means you still have 143 left to play. Save the World Series thoughts for September and October, for now just focus on doing your job everyday.

If you're new to these proceedings, click here and here to catch up on what you've missed.

If you're not into the extended catch-up, you've missed a six-run Mets fourth and a two-run Josh Willingham home run and some entertaining fat men dancing. Johan Santana's on his way to his first Mets win, we'll see if he can get it after the jump.

The Orioles have made no progress in their attempt to lock up Erik Bedard to an extension, which will undoubtedly fuel rumors that GM Andy MacPhail will listen to trade offers at next week's Winter Meetings in Nashville. In fact, according to the Baltimore Sun, the O's have already been contacted by interested parties:

The Orioles already have gotten several trade offers for Bedard, who went 13-5 with a 3.16 ERA last season and set a franchise record with 221 strikeouts. They figure to get more next week in Nashville, Tenn., though MacPhail said that the cooling of talks shouldn't be taken as a sign that the Orioles are ready to unload Bedard.

Several teams have reportedly expressed interest, but he won't come cheap: even if Bedard doesn't agree to an extension, he won't technically be a free agent until after the 2009 season. The Mets are rumored to have offered outfield prospect Carlos Gomez, Aaron Heilman and Philip Humber, which the O's turned down.

That looks like an outstanding return from where I sit, but MacPhail is holding out for something better, then it should send a message that any team hoping that Bedard will be less costly consolation prize to the Johan Santana sweepstakes is sorely mistaken. Bedard may not be Santana, but he is left-handed, posted a marginally better ERA and struck out nearly as many people -- and most importantly, he's one more year removed from free agency.

Having backed out of a deal with Yorvit Torrealba at the last minute, the Mets are still in the market for a catcher. Re-signing Paul Lo Duca is one option, but the Mets still think he's asking for too much money and too many years.

Unfortunately, there's really not many other options on the free agent market, which means if the Mets want anything better than a replacement-level player behind home plate, they'll need to hit the trade market. According to Ken Davidoff of Newsday, the team has Baltimore's Ramon Hernandez and Texas' Gerald Laird in their sights, although a deal does not appear imminent:

At the moment, the Mets view the asking prices for Hernandez and Laird as too high. One official familiar with the Mets' thinking predicted that no moves will be made, for either a catcher or a starting pitcher, before the Dec. 3-6 winter meetings in Nashville.

What's wrong with simply using Ramon Castro as a starter? Nothing, if the team knew for sure that he'd stay healthy. But he's 31 years old and has appeared in at least 55 games in a season just once. Plus, as attractive as his bat may be, his work behind the plate is more than suspect. Davidoff also notes that the Mets are trying to improve their pitching, and are willing to dangle the likes of Aaron Heilman, Phil Humber, Lastings Milledge and Carlos Gomez, among others, to get a deal done.

I highly doubt that it was a tribute to former Met and current Brave Chris Woodward (besides, I couldn't find a picture of Barry Lyons without his hat), but the Mets tried a different look for Tuesday's game against San Francisco, as almost all of the Mets shaved their heads before the game.

Not everyone looks great, but then again, it's probably not that big a deal. After all, I said to Billy Wagner about his 'do, "That is one ugly looking cut." His reply was, "Yeah, but I'm rich."

They must have felt they needed to try anything against Giants fireballer Matt Cain, and it worked early as David Wright (who came up with the idea) and Carlos Beltran (who was the apparent barber) had back to back doubles off of Cain as two runs scored. It should be noted that Jose Reyes, who doubled to lead off the game, is one of the four players who did not shave his head (along with Aaron Sele, who has to take family pictures on Thursday, Aaron Heilman, and the fourth player to be revealed below).

Shawn Green did shave his head, and according to Wright during a pre-game interview, he wasn't thrilled with the prospect since he had to shave the hair that he just had styled in Arizona (I hope it wasn't too expensive). Since Green was fifth in the N.L. in hitting coming into the game, it might not have been the best idea to go bald ... and sure enough he went 0-for-4 (paging Delilah ... white courtesy phone).

Tom Glavine, who was the fourth Met player who did not shave his head (but in his in-game interview said that he doesn't think he's going to escape the barber too much longer), won his 294th career game despite giving up a home run to Barry Bonds (who's been bald for years and is now ten home runs away from Hank Aaron).

Bald is indeed beautiful.

Previously on The Fanhouse:
Barry Bonds Blasts 745

For the first time in practically a year and a half (technically a year and three days), the Atlanta Braves have returned to the tip top of the N.L. East with their late inning 3-2 victory over the Mets. Who knows how long they will stay there ... but beating the defenders of the division two out of three certainly makes a statement. The statement, in case you thought I was just throwing out the "statement" cliché, would be that they now have the bullpen to shut down people in the late innings in Mike Gonzalez, Rafael Soriano, and Bob Wickman. Meanwhile the Mets have to do at least a little bit of worrying about theirs, as it was Aaron Heilman who gave up the lead in the eighth to Atlanta on three straight doubles to help give them their victory.

The bad news for Atlanta is that Mike Hampton's recovery might not be as quick as first thought, as a sore throwing elbow curtailed his bullpen session today...

"We shut down due to discomfort in his elbow," Braves pitching coach Roger McDowell said. When asked if Hampton was frustrated, McDowell said "Probably so. I think anybody would be."

With starters five deep in Smoltz, Hudson, James, Redman, and Kyle Davies who pitched well today, the Braves aren't going to miss Mike Hampton all that much as long as their bullpen keeps pitching as well as they have been. Mike Hampton will merely make a good team better when (if?) he makes his grand return in 2007.

Aaron Heilman is a reliever. His home run to Yadier Molina in Game 7 of last season's NLCS not withstanding, he's a damn fine reliever to boot. But Heilman wants to return to what got him drafted in the first place, and that's starting.

He is stuck, mired in the bullpen with no way out. And no amount of talk from the team or teammates will convince him that he wouldn't trade all of the success in the bullpen for the freedom to do what he wants.

"I can understand the argument both ways," Heilman said. "I'm not saying it's a bad argument, but there's a point when that feeling is there that you know what you want to do and you know you can succeed at it. Until I feel I can't be successful doing it, then I'm still going to feel this way. Nothing is going to change my mind until I come to a conclusion that I'm not able to be successful in that role."

He clings to the successes he had as a starter -- going 15-0 in 15 starts as a senior at Notre Dame or the complete game one-hitter he tossed with the Mets in 2005 just before he was sent to the bullpen.

The facts of the matter are these: Duaner Sanchez isn't going to be ready for the start of the season. Guillermo Mota is down for a 50 game suspension. Ambiorix Burgos is struggling out of the gate for the spring. The Mets need an eighth inning guy, a role that Heilman flourished in last year after Sanchez's season was ended in a taxi cab by Cecil Wiggins. Also, Heilman is still under the Mets control until 2010. So there really isn't anything he can do, right? If Heilman can be passed over for a starting spot by guys like Geremi Gonzalez and Jose Lima, then Aaron is going to have to poison a lot of food to be considered for a starting spot.