Posts tagged AaronHeilman at FanHouse

Our MLB editor files dispatches from the Winter Meetings in Las Vegas in Notes From Sin City.

I've seen quite a bit of Mets general manager Omar Minaya here at the Bellagio, so I'd like to think he's reading my posts. Even if he isn't, he did respond to my suggestion that New York needs more bullpen help, by pulling off a three-way deal for closer J.J. Putz.

Minaya, along with Indians GM Mark Shapiro and Mariners GM Jack Zduriencik, made the trade official moments ago and he had a simple message for the folks in New York who keep bothering him when he goes out to get his morning bagels.

"To you Mets fans, we've addressed the bullpen by getting Mr. Putz," he said.

Indeed he has, and he's addressed a few other areas of need with this deal, further adding to the bullpen depth by acquiring Sean Green, a guy who is very tough on right-handed hitters, and filling the hole left by Endy Chavez with Jeremy Reed, who is a capable fourth outfielder.

But this deal is mostly about Putz, who, if healthy, could be an even more devastating weapon than the recently signed Francisco Rodriguez.

"To win championships, you have to have a good bullpen," said Minaya. "We had Putz and K-Rod as one and two on our list [coming into the offseason]. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine we'd have our No. 1 and No. 2 closer."

Update: This trade is now official.

So you thought the Mets were out of the running for a J.J. Putz trade after signing Francisco Rodriguez. I can't say I blame you ... I thought the same thing. But apparently there are discussions of a three-team, twelve player deal were first reported by Ken Rosenthal and updated by Castro Turf:

Under terms of the deal, the Mets would get Putz, outfielder Jeremy Reed and reliever Sean Green from Seattle. The Mariners would receive reliever Aaron Heilman, outfielder Endy Chavez and first baseman Mike Carp from the Mets. They'd also get Franklin Gutierrez from the Indians and minor leaguers. The Indians would get reliever Joe Smith from the Mets and infielder Luis Valbuena from Seattle.

Double whoa on this one. It's a lot to give up for the Mets to get a guy that struggled through injury last season (and by a lot I mean Smith ... since Chavez has been invisible for the Mets lately and Aaron Heilman is ... well, Aaron Heilman), but if Putz returns to his injury free form of '07, and if he becomes cool with pitching the eighth instead of the ninth (Rosenthal's recent update is that Putz's current answer to that question was "no"), this is a huge get for them to further improve the bullpen after the acquisition of K-Rod.

When the New York Mets drafted Aaron Heilman out of Notre Dame in the first round of the 2001 amatuer draft, they did so with the hope that Aaron would one day be a starter for the team. That day came in 2003 when Aaron made his MLB debut, and over the next three seasons he started 25 games for the Mets, and went 5-13 during that span.

Then in 2006 the team moved him to the bullpen after toying with his arm angle, and suddenly Heilman became a valuable asset to the Mets. Well, until he gave up that home run to Yadier Molina in the 2007 NLCS because last season Aaron posted a 5.21 ERA and walked a career-high 46 hitters in 76 innings. So now Aaron has had enough of life in the bullpen, and would like to return to the starting rotation. Of course, the problem with that is that the Mets don't really want to move him, so now Aaron wants to be traded.

"The object the entire time has never been to get out of New York," Heilman's agent Mark Rodgers told the Daily News. "The object is to get out of the bullpen. The most success he's ever had as a pitcher has been as a starting pitcher. He was drafted by the Mets as a starting pitcher."

A source with knowledge of the Mets' internal discussions suggested there's an organizational split about Heilman - with chief operating officer Jeff Wilpon wanting him to remain and other key front-office personnel favoring a trade.

I waited for the inevitable "Mets fan sells his fanhood on eBay" story after the second late season collapse in a row by the team. Instead, what we got was so much better. A memorabilia dealer wanted to get rid of a spare Aaron Heilman autographed baseball on eBay, but made no pretense as to its actual value ... he just wants it out of his sight. The listing reads as such:

I paid $40 plus $7.50 shipping for this garbage from Steiner Sports and sold them for $70 when no one knew he was a loser. Now Steiner is selling it for 50% off at $39.95 just to get rid of them also. (...)

For the 1st person to buy this signed baseball- I will give you the following:

FREE SHIPPING!!
AN UNSIGNED PHOTO OF JOSE REYES
AN UNSIGNED PHOTO OF BILLY WAGNER
AN UNSIGNED PHOTO OF JOHN MAINE
ANOTHER DIFFERENT UNSIGNED PHOTO OF JOHN MAINE
STILL ANOTHER DIFFERENT UNSIGNED PHOTO OF JOHN MAINE
IF MY FAMILY LETS ME, I WILL GIVE YOU MY DOG, KIDS, AND GOLDFISH.
I WOULD GIVE YOU MY WIFE BUT THAT MEANS YOU ARE BUYING TWO THINGS THAT ARE WORTHLESS AND THEN YOU WILL REALLY HATE ME.

Aaron Heilman: Ending marriages since 2006. And yes, someone bought it. No word as to whether the winning bidder is getting a dog, some kids, and some goldfish in the deal (not to mention his wife), but he will also get to go to a Mets home game next season as part of the deal. With his luck, Heilman will blow that game too.

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.