Setting My Sites

By Shari "7 Train" Forst
Posted Saturday, June 2, 2007

I really have to laugh. It seems whenever I turn my attention to a player who isn’t doing too well, he all of a sudden turns it on and breaks out of his funk!

Last week I wrote about how Delgado was killing the team with only 3 home runs and barely a .200 batting average, and he has exploded for 4 home runs in as many days, winning the extra-inning affair against San Francisco with his second blast of the game.

Now I think I will go after Scott Schoeneweis, or as I have affectionately nicknamed him - "Scott Schoene-WASTE."

Let's be honest, they guy just plain stinks on ice. It seems as if every time he comes into a game he simply implodes, giving up tons of runs, not only home runs, but grand slam home runs. If a game is close he comes in and puts so far out of reach that it’s ridiculous.

Right now he has a bloated 5.95 ERA in only 19.2 innings pitched. In 2004 with the White Sox, his ERA was 5.59 after pitching 112 innings; in 2006 his ERA was once again over 6.00. He had one fluky year with Toronto where his ERA was 3.32, but this clearly is not the norm for him.

So where is his value? He throws with his left arm. It’s amazing to me how much mediocrity is tolerated in baseball today to begin with, but you can be borderline awful and if you throw left handed you will always find a job, and your career can last for decades.

In an article in the Hard Ball Times, Jeff Sackman comments on how Schoeneweis’ walk rate has hit the ceiling. not a positive quality in a reliever. He also comments on his lack of control which we have witnessed first hand. He even goes on to comment that if Schoeneweis was a starter, he might be a notch above Jose Lima but not much better. I have to agree here; from what I have seen he's been nothing short of vomitacious.

When Willie Randolph brought him in to pitch in that extra inning game against the Giants on Tuesday night, I had to watch the game the way I watched horror movies as a kid - my hands over my eyes only peeking through my fingers occasionally so not to totally witness a hatchet murder. Luckily he didn’t implode like he did in his last prior appearance.

I understand how a good lefty can be a big weapon in a bullpen, but I see no redeeming value in this guy whatsoever. He clearly never had great stats - it’s not like this season is a fluke and he has to get himself together. He is not injured that I know of; I think he just plain stinks. I would have kept Royce Ring if you want a lefty in the pen that badly, but I think Pedro Feliciano has done a fine job setting things up for Wagner.

I would much rather have a really good solid right hander come in to pitch than put a sub-par lefty like Schoeneweis in there. I always believed that good pitchers can get outs no matter what arm they throw with. If the hitter is that good, he can hit anyone, it doesn’t matter if the pitcher throws left handed or right handed.

In this era of “specialists” and set-up men and long relievers, guys like Schoeneweis can have a long, lengthy, mediocre at best career.

I just don’t want him to have it as a NY Met!