Mets Notes

Sporting Goods

The Mets lose three starting pitchers to injury and won't move Aaron Heilman to the rotation. Blah, Blah, Blah. I think this is crazy but maybe, just maybe the Mets think they'll get two of their injured guys back in the next week or so and only have two or three starts by the likes of Jose Lima and Jeremi Gonzalez (shudder). Anyway, rather than belabor my well-documented man-crush for Aaron Heilman, I'd like to look to options for the Mets bullpen.

Today, the Mets called up Heath Bell. A wise move since he has been lights out in AAA (again). However, Bell might be a AAAA pitcher, great in AAA, not good enough for the majors. He certainly wasn't lights out last year. And tonight he looked both great at times and very hittable. It doesn't matter really because he is likely to be sent down when the Mets call up Gonzalez for Saturday.

So where else can the Mets get bullpen help. How about down in AA, where the Mets have a phenom on their hands. A co-worker and I are now in the habit of checking in on right-hander Henry Owens. Owens has 14.2 innings out of the pen, a 1.23 ERA, a .61 WHIP, and 5 walks. Impressive enough but nothing compared to this number: 33 Ks. 33! in 14.2 innings. Unbelievable. Call him up now.

Of course, in writing this article I realized that those stats hadn't changed in a week or so. So I googled Owens. Turns out he has a small tear in his ulnar collateral ligiment in his right elbow. He says he is fine and the team doctors cleared him to play catch again. Let's hope he's okay and keeps putting up nasty numbers.