Rick Petersen

[TonyStarks]

I gotta ask this.
What is the Mets love affair with Rick?

Why are they so sold that he's some sort of Pitching guru?

I mean who has he developed for the Mets?

[metfan13]

Two 26 year old SPs who were each 15-10 this year.

[NYMets523]

I gotta ask this.
What is the Mets love affair with Rick?

Why are they so sold that he's some sort of Pitching guru?

I mean who has he developed for the Mets?

Peterson developed Zito, Hudson, and Mulder so he knows a thing or two about developing young arms.

He helped Maine and saved Perez's career. Granted they both lost 10 games but I'm sure you'll find at least 5 games a piece they didn't deserve to lose.

[milladrive]

Imo, Rick Peterson is easily the best pitching coach the Mets have ever had. ..at least on the Major League level.

[TonyStarks]

Peterson developed Zito, Hudson, and Mulder so he knows a thing or two about developing young arms.

He helped Maine and saved Perez's career. Granted they both lost 10 games but I'm sure you'll find at least 5 games a piece they didn't deserve to lose.

I'll give you Maine, but Perez always had stuff.
I always thought he had just lost confidence....and in Pittsburgh can you blame him?

All in all, you guys are talking about 2007....what else has he done for the Mets?

[metfan13]

I'll give you Maine, but Perez always had stuff.
I always thought he had just lost confidence....and in Pittsburgh can you blame him?

All in all, you guys are talking about 2007....what else has he done for the Mets?

And who helped him get that confidence back?

[NYMets523]

He made El Duque into a junkballer who has had great success with the Mets. He got through to a stubborn Kris Benson. He helped Glavine extend his career by pitching inside.

Peterson deserves the least of the blame. Why not try blaming the pitchers for underperforming instead of the pitching coach?

[Dalkowski110]

Also, for those who heard Wagner's quote complaining he doesn't know what pitching out of the bullpen is like (in the Minors, Peterson was a starter), he even grudgingly threw in "he'll help you with your mechanics." Besides, I expected Wagner to blow his gasket at somebody. But even the rather head-strong Peterson realizes he's a hothead that irregardless of feeling the team needs.

[scott1965]

He needs to work on the bullpen. Being good with the starters is fine, but he needs to concentrate on his relievers.

[sds416]

Also, for those who heard Wagner's quote complaining he doesn't know what pitching out of the bullpen is like (in the Minors, Peterson was a starter), he even grudgingly threw in "he'll help you with your mechanics." Besides, I expected Wagner to blow his gasket at somebody. But even the rather head-strong Peterson realizes he's a hothead that irregardless of feeling the team needs.

Wagner's comments were right on. If the front of your rotation is strong, the back end isn't as crucial. If you look at average innings per start, the Mets are shockingly bad in terms of how deep the starters went each time out. That tells me that either the starting unit was well overmatched (it was) or that teams are able to pick apart the starters stuff the second and third time through the line up (which happened regularly). To me those speak of 2 things, first that Omar did not do a good job assembling a starting rotation. Secondly, that Peterson, for as much as he loves to run pitchers into the ground doing sprints in ST, didn't use his staff well or exhausted them with his program.

This bullpen wasn't talented, but it was also asked to do a task that few bullpens in baseball could have done, and that was to pitch on average nearly 4 innings a night, every night. It doesn't work like that. Never has, never will.

[milladrive]

sds416 makes some very good points.

Of course, let's not forget how pitching is managed (or mismanaged) in the 21st Century. It's not just relegated to one team. This pitch counting and relief specialist crap has me baffled. Realize how many more starters would go much further into the games were it not for a high pitch count? Or how many would come out earlier if it weren't for that 100-pitch quota?

The bullpen is almost by default now called upon in the 6th or 7th innings regardless of how well or how poorly the starter is doing. This was NEVER the case in the past.

So, now we have a starter, then four or five more pitchers (one or two per inning). What kind of baseball is this? Tom Seaver would be rolling in his grave... if he weren't alive.

I just think that the current means of managing pitching is a huge part of the problem.

[JohnCropp]

According to Paul Lukas from ESPN.com, the reason the equipment manager outfits the team in black so often is because Rick always wears a jacket and the jacket has black in it.

That means that Rick is the reason the Mets where black as often.

That means that Rick is my enemy.

Fire Rick.

Or give him a blue and orange jacket.

Whichever.

(Serious reply: the pitching qualiity was not the downfall, it was the quantity. Simply not enough arms to pitch 162 x 9. Give him some young arms in the starting rotation so he can save the bullpen and this thread would be irrelevant).

[NYMets523]

My only gripe about Peterson is he seems to be too much "It's my way or the highway, punk."

Instead of embracing all young talent, he just wants the guys he thinks he can work and will listen to him.

[Mr. Met]

Hmmm... seems like Rick is a bit of a publicity hound too. After being mostly unavailable to the press the past 2 weeks he was front and center after Maine's outing Saturday. :think: