All's well to ending Todd Wellemeyer?

I can’t take any more of this.

His velocity is down and his control has gotten worse; those things tend to be caused by injury or other mechanical problems. He should either be on the DL or in the minors right now working on whatever is wrong with him. Right now, he is clearly not helping the club at all by being on the staff.

Really annoying quote in the Post this morning from Wellemeyer, like there seems to be after every bad start. Always something to the effect of “Nothing went my way, what are you gonna do?”

What we’re going to do is call up Mitchell Boggs and stop conceding every fifth game. Wellemeyer can take over Hawkworth’s role on the team and if Boggs can get through 5 innings giving up 3 runs of less, he’s an improvement. Not a good one but you have a chance.

has been nothing but frustration for me, every game that i have seen him as the probably starter i just pray we have enough offense to win the game, and seeing as we just left KC which that sunday game was amazing to be at, the mets are not the royals…

seriously.

He’s our fifth starter when everyone’s fit. Fifth starters, as a group, totally suck. As with pinata last year, we’re completely over-reacting to the fact that OUR fifth starter sucks. He’s still about average for a fifth starter.

Yep, he’s lost about 1mph in average FB velocity, which is fairly important, but he’s not pitched THAT much worse than last year, taken as a whole – half a K less, half a BB more, as Dan says – it’s significant, but I think there’s an argument that he just maybe over-achieved a bit last year.

I wouldn’t be aversed to seeing Boggs up in his stead, and I think Welly might be better off as a long man (perhaps) or given some time in AAA to work through a few things (his repertoire has changed a bit this year too – he’s been throwing that curve and change a bit more, maybe thanks to his inability to pitch to lefties and the fact that other teams have been stuffing their lineups full of them), but really, I’m not losing a lot of sleep at the fact that our fifth starter is about a league average fifth starter (in fact, a bit above). You could just as easily complain about the fact that our number 2 (Waino) is, as per his 2009 results, a below-average major league #2.

If pinata hadn’t become effective all of a sudden this’d be more of an issue but seriously guys, most of our AAA pitchers are likely no better than Wellemeyer and he’s our #5. Fifth SPs suck. I am surprised we’re not used to that fact by now…

1. Is Boog officially now everyone’s favorite player, in the “Non-rookie, Non-Pujols” division?

2. Albert was hitting moonshots in BP – easily in the second deck. Just monsters. We are going to be talking about this guy for a few more years, methinks.

3. Just how bad is his elbow? A couple times between innings and when T. Greene entered the game it was almost like a game to see if he could throw it past the defenders during warmups. He was throwing short-hop bullets…makes me think he is feeling pretty good.

but did anyone notice the rotoworld thread on the left of the main page, that glaus might be starting a rehab assignment soon but still can’t throw from 90 feet? What do we make of that?

I’m not at all sure about trading him away – I can’t see that any team will give up anything for less than half a season of a recently-injured 1B/DH who might not hit as well as he did in ’08….

I would argue that Wellemeyer has been substantially worse this year than last. It makes me wonder what last year’s workload did to him physically. As noted above, he seems to have symptoms of an underlying injury: drop in fastball speed and a little less control. (Not that Wellemeyer ever had great control.) Last year, The Colonel pitched 191.2 innings in his first full season as a starter. His previous career high was 79.1 in 2007 when the Cards plucked the discarded Royals reliever off of the scrap heap and began having him start. In fact, from 2003 through 2007, he had thrown a total of 240.6 innings. In 2008 and 2009, he has tossed 277.3 innings.

Last year, he struck out 6.29 batters per 9 innings. This year, he’s K-ing 5.53. Last year, he walked 2.91 batters per 9 innings; this year, 3.75. Not surprisingly, his K/BB rate fell from 2.16 last season to 1.47 this season. His falling K rate appears to be indicative of a loss of stuff as he has already allowed 107 hits this season in 86.1 innings pitched. (This number is in bold face on Baseball Reference, which leads me to conclude he has allowed the most hits in the league.) For context, last year Wellemeyer allowed 178 hits in his 191.2 innings pitched. If Wellemeyer throws 191 innings this season, he is on pace to surrender 224 hits. Not surprisingly with the uptick in walks and the leap in hits allowed, Wellemeyer’s WHIP is astronomically high, going from 1.252 last year to 1.656 this year.

There’s no question that Wellemeyer’s 3.71 ERA did not represent his 4.51 FIP. However, who expected a 4.85 FIP and 5.53 ERA as the 2009 regression? I think there is unquestionably reason for concern. However, if we look to the 2008 staff, haven’t Wellemeyer and Jo-El merely switch roles? The problem, of course, with this suggestion is that the overperforming Jo-El Pineiro does not have the K rate of 2008 Wellemeyer. It makes me wonder how much longer it can be until we have two starter getting peppered around the yard every fifth day.

As a fifth starter, we shouldn’t expect moonbeams out of ass good. He’s better than avg as a 5. As boilertiger points out, Welley will throw a decent game from time to time. What more can you ask of a 5th starter?

Dare I say that it’s almost common knowledge that a dude who substabtially ups his innings one year comes back to the pack stuff-wise the next?

I like the build from within philosophy a whole bunch, but the guys we have at AAA are from the “building depth in the system” days. In other words, if those guys are “the future,” well, I just got depressed. The true pitching upside guys have just begun to be drafted. Until they develop, I don’t think we can expect much impact from our system’s starting pitchers.

Given all that, I say the Birds should ride the Colonel until he completely breaks down, kinda like my first car.

Kent Brockman: Professor, without knowing precisely what the danger is, would you say it’s time for our viewers to crack each other’s heads open and feast on the goo inside?
Professor: Yes I would, Kent.

Obviously it hasn’t been fun to watch Wellemeyer this year, but I think a big question is whether we can afford his 5th starter production going forward. Thompson is filling in for Lohse for at least a few more starts, and Piñeiro is doing a Wellemeyer 2008 impression as the surprisingly effective starter. I have no idea what to expect from Lohse when he comes back. Is this an injury that could hamper his pitching, or is he a good bet to just heal up and be effective again? I’d say, then, that at least 2 other members of our rotation are somewhat question-mark-ish and maybe it is a good idea to do something about Wellemeyer soon. But as fifth starters go he’s not exactly the worst thing in the world.

I’ve now watched two televised games of the Mets’ new stadium. I have come to the conclusion that is ugly in a boring way. I hate the black outfield walls. The inner architecture sticks out to me as dull in an unaesthetically pleasing way. I also hate their “Inaugural Season” jersey patch. It is ugly and looks like a Domino’s Pizza ad. If I were a New York taxpayer, I’d be very angry that they used my money for such an ugly monstrosity. Of those in the community who have visited the other new stadium in New York City, what did you think of it?

DanUp, wouldn’t “All’s Well That Ends Wellemeyer” be more…euphonious? Or would that sound too much like VEB wanted to fit the Colonel for some cement shoes?…

1. I hate Brendan Ryan. Always have. It’s irrational, but give me Tyler Greene every day and twice on Sunday.

2. I ordered MLB.tv premium yesterday with the hopes of avoiding Dan ‘n Al while outside the Cardinal Viewing Area. The only problem (this week) is that the other team’s announcers are even MORE insufferable. I hate Keith Hernandez more than I hate Brendan Ryan.

3. I’ve always been a Boggs believer and would like to see him over Wellemeyer and even Thompson, though Thompson is performing very well lately. I don’t care for Thompson either.

4. I have a lot of pent up anger, I guess.

5. What’s this I read about not wanting to trade one of Motte, Perez, or McClellan for Mark DeRosa? Do it yesterday, any one of them. Particularly McClellan, even though he’s one of those rare players I don’t hate.