Stop Putz-ing Around

What a lousy way to lose a game and waste a good (but not great) start by Livan Hernandez. Hernandez followed up his complete game against Washington last week by holding the Pirates to 3 runs in 5.2 innings last night. It was not his best start of the year but it was enough to keep the team in the game (which is as much as you ask out of the guy at the bottom of your rotation).

J.J. Putz, however, could not keep the team in the game. The guy who was acquired to own the 8th inning actually gave it and the game away. This is the latest in a series of bad outings for Putz and the trend does not bode well. In his first 7 appearances (through April 18) Putz allowed 3 hits and 0 earned runs through 7 innings. It would have been foolish to think he could keep that kind of streak alive through the whole season but the fall since then has been tremendous. Through his last 20 appearances he’s allowed 23 hits and 14 earned runs in 21.1 innings for a 5.91 ERA.

He wasn’t helped last night by Gary Sheffield who made a lazy play in right field. But the play would not have changed the outcome since, even though it turned a single into a double, a subsequent hit would push the runner forward anyway.

The bottom line is something must be done about Putz. There was some talk that he was tipping his pitches so he came out for some early bullpen work yesterday so he could make some changes designed to hide his pitches better. It obviously didn’t help last night.

We know Putz is tough and will play through injuries. But if he is hurt the injury must be identified and dealt with before he blows any other games.

If he is not hurt then whatever mechanical issues he may be experiencing must be dealt with. Whether that means saving him for mop up duty (low pressure situations where he can try to work things out in games) or going to the minors the Mets owe it to themselves to move him out of the 8th inning role temporarily until he can work things out.

A couple of weeks ago Putz supposedly said that he was having trouble getting pumped up for the 8th inning. If this is the case then he needs to be traded before his market value drops any lower. Coming in with the game on the line in the 8th inning is no different than coming in for the 9th except that you don’t get credit for a save. This tells me that Putz may not care so much for his current job since he won’t be getting the coveted save very often hence putting his own numbers ahead of the team. I hope I’m wrong about that.

Another thing that annoys me about the alleged inability to get the adrenaline rush for the 8th inning is that this guy is supposed to be a professional ball player. As a professional you have to be up for every outing. It doesn’t matter if he’s called on in the 9th, 8th or even the 3rd. It’s his job to come in a get guys out and he’s got to get himself psyched for it regardless of the inning.

And one more thing. If anybody has any doubt as to what all the talk is about with Putz’s current situation, if there are any people out there who don’t think there is a problem with him, then just look at the intentional walk he issued to Nyjer Morgan last night. He almost threw two wild pitches while issuing the intentional pass. He just couldn’t hit Brian Schneider‘s target. This is definitely a problem and whether it’s medical or mechanical it needs to be addressed.

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