Pitchers Wanted

So, it's taken two starts from Chris Schwinden (plus however many forgettable outings he had last September) for me to decide I've had enough of him. I realize that his line today was pretty much the same as Jonathon Niese's was last night, but I'm willing to give Niese a mulligan, primarily because he a) has talent and b) has a stinker every once in a while, but for the most part, he's pitched well. Schwinden, on the other hand, inspires a Wayne's World catchphrase moreso than he inspires confidence. It was bad enough in his first start when the Mets handed him a 4-run lead and he handed it right back to the Rockies. Today, with the Mets already reeling and in need of a solid outing, Schwinden stepped up and basically gave the Mets a mostly noncompetitive effort. After the Mets had to empty their bullpen behind Niese last night, Schwinden did the Mets no favors in his 4 innings.After his 4 innings, the Mets found themselves down 5-1. Not an insurmountable deficit, particularly in the hitter's haven that is Houston's Park of Many Names, but the problem is that Schwinden was followed to the mound by the equally talentless Manny Acosta, whom the Astros promptly torched for another 3 runs to finish off the Mets and send them back to Queens, hopefully feeling quite humbled over their performance.

I hadn't said much about the recent Mike Pelfrey injury and the resulting fallout from his injury. Though Pelfrey has been often inconsistent and often maligned for a lack of mound smarts and sometimes pitching like an idiot, one thing you could say is that Pelfrey was always a likeable player. Though he was never good for entire seasons, when he was good,  he was often very good, and could also always be counted on to eat innings and keep games competitive. But, with him now out for the season, and potentially gone from the Mets for good, it's created a bit of a void in the rotation that the Mets only seem marginally equipped to fill. Schwinden isn't the answer. Hopefully he won't start again, but then, the Mets don't really have any other solid options that are ready to step in. Jeremy Hefner seems the most likely candidate to get the call next. I don't know much about him, other than I suppose he can't be much worse than Schwinden. Chris Young is apparently about a month away. I like C.Y. quite a bit, but he simply hasn't proven himself able to stay healthy for any period of time over the past few seasons, so he may be a stopgap, at best. Jenrry Mejia (remember him?) is also kicking around, having come back from his own Tommy John surgery last year, and it remains to be seen if the Mets haven't totally screwed him up after wasting a year of his development by sticking him in the bullpen. The real studs, Matt Harvey, Zach Wheeler and Jeurys Familia aren't ready yet, and it appears that the Mets are in no rush to promote them, which is fine. None of them are really ready to be promoted yet, and Sandy Alderson in particular has shown a propensity to not rush prospects who aren't quite there yet. I won't argue. Unfortunately, this means more Schwinden, more Miguel Batista, more of the rotating pu-pu platter every 5th day until someone proves themselves capable of holding down a job on a regular basis. Something, eventually, has to work.