A Healthy Brian Lawrence Giving Mets More Pitching Depth

By Rob Karter
Posted Wednesday, June 6, 2007

If the Mets should have the unfortunate problem of having one of their starters go down because of injury, the Mets may have a better option than Mike Pelfrey next time around.

Enter Brian Lawrence.

As a recent castoff of the Colorado organization, the phrase "one mans garbage is another mans treasure", may hold true in the case of the New York Mets picking up righty starter Brian Lawrence off the trash heap this spring.

Before the positives, how about a quick background on the recent negatives that have plagued Lawrence, the San Diego Padres 2000 Minor Player of the Year over the past year. At the end of the 2005 season when he compiled a 7-15 record with the Padres he was traded to the Washington Nationals, but never played a game for them. He came up lame on the first day of spring training and couldn’t even throw a pitch, it was soon diagnosed as a torn labrum, which put him on the self for the entire 2006 season.

This season he had a fresh start with AAA Colorado Springs Sky Sox, where in three starts compiled an 0-2 record and a 8.91 ERA. So from there his production has been a 180 degree turn around...maybe another Mets project that has turned out for the better?

 

So now lets bring you up to speed on the present day Brian Lawrence.

Before his recent start where he got roughed up a bit, the 31-year old was on schedule to make his third start against that very organization that released him earlier this year. He went in toeing the rubber with two starts under his belt, and a split 1-1 win loss record with a 1.38 ERA for the New Orleans Zephyrs as they took on the Colorado Springs Sky Sox. In those starts he has dished out 10 hits, two runs, while striking out nine batters over 13 innings, so it does appear that whatever was ailing him at the time of his release is not now. He felt good about those starts also saying,

"The first one was good," he said. "The nice thing was that I was throwing quality strikes and making them put the ball in play. That's my game. I'm not there to throw anybody out.

"I threw quality strikes on both sides of the plate and, basically, I had all my pitches. It was the first time I was able to go out there and use all my pitches in a while. It was very positive.

"That was the first start where I went out there and felt like I really didn't have to hold anything back, and I felt like everything was there. I think I'm actually a better pitcher now than the year I won 15 games in the big leagues.

"I can build off of that. I feel more confident now than I have at any point in my career."

He’s also feeling healthier too, even if it may just be on game day."I'm never going to feel like I used to, as far as between starts," Lawrence said. "But when I'm on the mound and I'm good and warmed up, I feel good, and I think the results have been there to show that. So I'm very positive about the way I feel now."

"It was long and tedious," he said. "Things were rough for a while, because you don't know if you're going to be able to throw again. Finally, you just turn a corner and things start picking up from there. I'm probably at a point now where I'm healthy and can pitch again."

By the way he’s pretty sharp too, knowing the age of some of the Mets starters and probably was most likely brought in as an insurance policy just in case of one or more of them get bit by the injury bug. "Basically it means you're here, by best definition, in case somebody gets hurt," he said. "You're the backup. But me, coming off surgery, to be honest, I'm here just to pitch well and prove that I'm healthy and go from there."