Much Ado About Heilman

By Shari "7 Train" Forst
Posted Tuesday, May 8, 2007

I had a completely different topic in mind for this week, but while I was driving to my bus stop at the awful hour of 5 am I had WFAN on and a caller talked about how he wouldn’t mind Heilman getting a chance to start at this point. He said he isn’t much worse than Park or anyone else thus far. If Heilman gave up a home run during the course of a game as a starter it didn’t mean the game is lost. It would also probably make him happier since he never wanted to be an 8th inning set up guy to begin with.

I was opposed to Heilman starting towards the end of last season , and my co-writer on the 7 Train, Kevin Collazo, and I had debated this issue back and forth for the longest time. However, now after hearing that caller make those points this morning I think I have changed my mind.

Flashback to October 2006, Game seven of the NCLS, it’s anyone’s game at this point and the Mets bring in Aaron Heilman who had been stellar since Duaner Sanchez was injured. He gives up a home run, the Mets go home and the Cardinals go on to the World Series. I don’t think mentally he ever got over it. I was starting to think there may be something physical going on with him this year but I think the shadow of that loss in the NLCS is the bigger problem.

If we remember before Sanchez went down with his injury in that cab accident, Heilman wasn’t so good. He wasn’t awful, but I would much rather see Chad Bradford come in than him if Sanchez wasn’t available.

Heilman was brought into the Mets organization as a starter, in fact I remember his less than spectacular first start during the awful Art Howe era. I had basically given up on the team but I was still watching every game and I was excited to see the Mets newest prospect make his debut. Of course I was disappointed.

Then he started to get it together after Rick Petersen changed his arm angle back to the ¾ delivery that he used in college, and all of a sudden Heilman looked good and I was apologizing to him on the 7 Train blog.

During Spring Training in 2006, he was barely beaten out for the 5th spot in the rotation by Brain Bannister. if you look back now Bannister wasn’t that much better than Heilman was.

Think how Heilman must have felt when Bannister went down and he was maybe going to be a starter anyway last season. When they needed a spot starter they kept bringing up Jose Lima or going to Darren Oliver. They went on to use 13 different starters without giving him another shot. I would be pissed too. He was trouper though, and didn’t look to be traded, and didn’t mouth off much, at least not to the media.

Now the starting rotation in 2007 once again has issues-El Duque most recently missing his last start with bursitis in his shoulder. Mike Pelfrey has been shaky most of the time since the season got underway.

The Mets opted to bring up Chan Ho Park who stunk up the place, and they will probably go to Jason Vargas next if need be. They may even go to Aaron Sele if they really have to-still passing over Heilman. At this point in time I don’t see a downside to giving him a chance to start a game, if anything this early in the season it may bolster his confidence.

Most recently he put the Mets in a further hole in Tuesday night’s game by giving up a home run. The same scenario keeps biting him in the rear end. I think there may be too much pressure on him as a reliever. Like I said before as a starter-giving up a home run during the course of a game is expected, and doesn’t mean you will necessarily lose.

If you give up a home run in relief you are booed off the field and a goat until further notice.

The Mets should think about it before Heilman gets encased in self doubt and it’s too late for him to fight his way out of the funk he is in.

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