No Pressure, Aaron

So according to the soon-to-be-today's Times, the Mets will figure out what to do with Heilman after soon-to-be-today's start. And Willie's not interested in sending Zambrano to the bullpen, even though in 2001 and 2002 he made nearly 70 appearances out of the pen. Curious, I'll grant you, but I'm having trouble getting up in arms about it. I don't think Minaya and Willie care that exiling Zambrano to the pen would be a back-page embarrassment and make everybody yell about Scott Kazmir again — after all, one of the other possible outcomes is that Zambrano goes to the minors, which is even worse from a tabloid-avoidance perspective. This isn't their deal, for one, and anyway Kazmir's 0-4 with a 4.60 ERA. (I cursed him by making him a member of Jaison D'Etres.)

The visceral fan reaction here is that Zambrano should be sent down, released or shot. But actually I agree with Willie's dues-paying mentality here. It's wonderful that Aaron Heilman's made strides, but the idea that anyone would give a fig about Aaron Heilman being in the rotation, the bullpen, Norfolk or on the waiver wire would have reduced Metdom to horse laughs a month ago. He's earned the right to get a real look as a member of a major-league pitching staff, but that's all he's earned — his big-league resume suggests promise at best, and while that's a lot better than not so long ago, it's still just promise. Zambrano clearly needs more than 10 minutes to fix — How many minutes are we up to now, Dr. Peterson? — but he's shown far better stuff than Heilman, his upside is obviously higher, and he's proven that he can succeed as a starting pitcher for stretches at a time. And where did he come from to make that case as a starter? The bullpen. Besides, while it's fun to twit Peterson, Zambrano's been obviously better since a 10-second conversation Peterson had with him on the mound in Milwaukee. He's still been annoying, goodness knows, working Leiteresque counts and letting a misplay unsettle him into a horrific inning, but at least to these eyes he's not the disaster he was.

(This is different from the idea of David Wright hitting eighth — has that actually happened, by the way? There, Willie seemed to be hazing a young player who'd demonstrated he had better skills for hitting elsewhere in the order than those being pencilled in there, and whose attitude has always been above reproach. I still think Wright should be hitting second.)

Besides, it's May. There's time yet to settle Heilman/Zambrano/Ishii. I'm more concerned about the bullpen: I hope Scott Strickland's recalled and Manny Aybar dropped down the memory hole, particularly since it seems likely that we'll have a real long man out of the pen. I also wish they'd try anyone besides Nameless Koo in the dedicated-lefty slot, since he's been miserable at getting lefty hitters and helpless against righties.

What's that? We played a game today? Yeah, we did. One of those topsy-turvy affairs whose place in memory says a lot about what kind of non-baseball day you had. The Mets came from three runs down twice, Wright had a big day at the plate, Cammy made a great play in right, Matsui earned some redemption at the plate and in the field. After coming back to take the lead, Reyes made a moronic baserunning decision, we gagged on the chance to get insurance runs, Roberto Hernandez walked the leadoff hitter and paid for it, Beltran and Cammy failed to deliver, and one that should have been a thrilling W wound up a dispiriting L. Let's play two!

Maybe it was just the sunshine, but I choose to be inspired. Roberto got Edmonds and Pujols to hit weak little pops. They both fell in. It happens. Go get 'em tomorrow. And Aaron? No pressure.