Phreedom Phighters

By Taryn "Coop" Cooper
Posted Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Once upon a time, in a land far far away called Minnesota, there once was a pitching staff that was decimated by cobwebs, dust and tired old stories. This pitching staff, anchored by Rick of the Reeds and Kyle of the Lohses, were men of the proven variety, pitchers who had been around for years and were having trouble establishing themselves as a formidable force.

Enter the fan named Aaron of the Gleemans (apparently, a blogging legend), who started an underground movement that became a phenomenon in the Twin Cities. He suggested a grass roots movement to bring up a younger pitcher, to inject some youth into an aging staff and reinvigorate a once proud franchise.

You may recognize this description, who subsequently won the Cy Young Award in 2004 and 2006 by unanimous decision. Yay, the pitcher I speaketh of is Johan Santana.

Back in this land far, far away, Johan Santana was being misused as a middle reliever and languishing in the ‘pen during a tight division race. With a little fan moxie, some buzz and realizing what was languishing there, the powers that be activated Johan Santana and he in turn become what he is today – the pitcher who has become synonymous for bringing back “old-school pitching” into the now. Not to mention, he has brought excitement to the world of pitching once again, which has probably taken some PR beatings over the years with the over-importance of so-called “middle relief” and “lights out” closers who outside of Mariano Rivera and Trevor Hoffman are hard to come by.

Let’s face it – how many complete games are being pitched this year? How many “aces” are actually around these days? And how many middle relievers can a bullpen possibly staff? When middle relievers are starting to outnumber every day players, you can tell there is a demographic shift in baseball these days. Johan is a throwback in the best way possible.

So why that preamble? Well, seeing how successful the Free Johan movement was, a group of Mets fans, who proudly call themselves “The Geeks,” started an underground movement back in 2005 that was brought above ground, simply by getting the buzz going about a middle reliever who was languishing away in AAA. That pitcher, my friends, was Heath Bell. This was called the “Free Heath Bell” movement, and signs were flourishing on the weekends at Shea back in 2005. In fact, when I met Heath Bell in the middle of the season, I asked him about it, and he tipped his cap to The Geeks.

But wow – what a long way we’ve come since 2005, when a MIDDLE RELIEF pitcher is considered our “savior.” Today is not much different though – and now we have to think of the long-term. The bad-ass, throw-it-in-your-face long term change that will make the Mets not only get some respect, but will be a step towards the future. And I think the only way to do that is to do similar to what the Twins of Minnesota did, and inject a youth movement into the veteran mix. To do so, I suggest these simple two words: Phree Phil.

Okay, okay, okay. Now, I know he was recently injured. And after some lackluster performances in the minors during recovery, he is *finally* starting to make his mark in AAA.

But let’s get real with ourselves here for a minute.

Injuries are arguably what have made the Mets take several giant steps backwards already. From Jose Valentin to Moises Alou to Carlos Beltran…to the “whispers” of an Aaron Heilman or Scott Schoeneweis (or both!) pitching-while-injured being swept under the rug or Astroturf… I ask this without any trace of age-ism or ulterior motives here…

When Julio Franco and Ricky Ledee are our saving grace, isn’t it time to inject a little bit of a youth into the mix?

And yes, I am aware that our so-called “Verlander-experiment” – aka Mike Pelfrey – failed miserably.

But Phil is different. Phil has already more secondary stuff in the bag, whereas Pelfrey is still working out those kinks (and should have been still working them out after Spring Training). It was my understanding as a lay fan that the only reason Pelf got the nod over Phil is because of the injury factor. Furthermore, with an ERA so far of 4.45, hardly noteworthy, Phil could easily be tooled around with under the tutelage of Rick Peterson.

Thanks to having a Stat person in the FU community, I’ve enlisted the help of a nouveau look at how Humber is progressing in the minors. Currently, his K/BB ratio is 3.05, currently on par with other developing prospects in the minors. Further, this ratio is indicative of better control, something the Mets staff has not been able to be keep up with this year (though that may have to do with Enrico Pallazzo calling our games).

Now for the fan perspective. During the last run of the 2006 season, Phil Humber was brought up to pitch from the bullpen. I thought it was a great idea, but he was rarely used. The year was a great one, though, due to lack of competition in the NL East. We saw so many pitchers in the five-hole, it was refreshing to this fan that we were able to overcome so much iffy-ness on the pitching front and STILL could win.

That iffy-ness has turned into a curse this season for sure. Jorge Sosa has held his own in the five-hole, but let’s face facts here: we still have an unproven commodity in John Maine who, fresh off his Pitcher of the Month award in April, has been lackluster in May at best, and Oliver “Oh Pea” Perez is slowly turning out to the be the .500 pitcher we suspected him to be (though this Mets fan still believes he has it in him to win at least 15 games this season). And don’t get me started on Tommy “Two Teeth” Glavine and El Duque, who probably keeps his real age from people for a reason -- he might be forced into retirement!

Don’t get me wrong, our pitching has been decent. But when we *just* get decent pitching, our hitting doesn’t come through. This was evident in the Phillies series last week. The pitching really came through but the bats did not. Then our bullpen implodes. Which leads us to Detroit. Great outing by Sosa, you’d think it would carry momentum? Noooooo. Instead the bats wake up, but the pitchers go to sleep.

Must have been the birds.

My point is that activating Phil Humber could awaken a sleeping franchise. While we are hardly languishing starts by using Jorge Sosa to keep a spot warm till Pedro returns, there are other parts ~ahem~ languishing. I’m looking at you, Scott Schoeneweis and Aaron Heilman. Frankly, I think it’s time for Heilman to go, his 15 minutes are up. Schoeneweis, well, we are stuck with him for three years I guess. To bring Phil up to operate out in middle relief, to work on his stuff in the majors…to perhaps become our version of “Johan Santana” (don’t mean it in the literal sense) down the road. The savior, the new pitching god…the new...new guy.

To further prove Omar’s MO of having a younger team…

It could happen. And I believe it will. As fans, we have got to stand up and phight for Phil’s phreedom. It is his time. The time is now. Our year has come.

Coop would like to thank Matt "The Stat" Himelfarb for helping a stat moron in interpreting some new pitching stats to shamelessly plug her idea.