Mets Relievers on Pace for 40 Losses

The Mets are in trouble.

Not only are two starting pitchers missing from the rotation, two all-star top 20 MVP types missing from the lineup, but the once vaunted bullpen has slid into a funk that can only be described as mediocre.

At the time JJ Putz went down with injury, he was leading the team in appearances.

Right now the Mets have four relievers in the top 20 in appearances in all of baseball.

• Pedro Feliciano leads all of baseball with 40 appearances.
• Bobby Parnell is tied for 2nd with 36.
• Sean Green and Frankie Rodriguez are tied for 19th with 33.

That is staggering and shows how ineffectively Mets manager Jerry Manuel has used his bullpen this season.

They are overworked, overtired, and the result of all of this mismanagement has come to full fruition in their recent showing.

All four of those pitchers are on pace for career highs in appearances...the only thing that will stave off that are the injuries that are sure to follow.

Yesterday Jerry himself admitted he's overused them:

"What I need to do is really refresh the bullpen," Manuel said. "I probably, to a fault, use them too much. I have to do all I can to refresh them and that will help. "What I have to do is trust the other people I have down there."

Jerry, it's the end of June--we're 67 games into the season, and you're just now realizing you've overused the bullpen? Again, those four guys are all in the top 20 in all of major league baseball in appearances.

Staggering.

Pitching Statistics
NAME	GP	GS	W	L	Sv	Hld	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	SO	K/9	P/GS	WHIP	ERA
P. Feliciano	40	0	2	2	0	13	30.0	21	9	4	6	28	8.40	0.0	0.90	2.70
Bobby Parnell	36	0	2	3	0	12	27.0	39	15	2	13	23	7.67	0.0	1.93	5.00
F. Rodriguez	33	0	1	2	18	0	33.2	19	4	1	17	36	9.62	0.0	1.07	1.07
Sean Green	33	0	1	2	0	6	32.0	33	18	4	14	28	7.88	0.0	1.47	5.06
J.J. Putz	29	0	1	4	2	10	29.1	29	17	1	19	19	5.83	0.0	1.64	5.22
Brian Stokes	24	0	1	2	0	1	26.0	29	10	2	7	12	4.15	0.0	1.38	3.46
Ken Takahashi	15	0	0	1	0	0	18.0	16	6	2	9	14	7.00	0.0	1.39	3.00
Darren O'Day†	4	0	0	0	0	0	3.0	5	0	0	1	2	6.00	0.0	2.00	0.00
Casey Fossum	3	0	0	0	0	0	4.0	4	1	0	4	3	6.75	0.0	2.00	2.25
Jon Switzer	3	0	0	0	0	0	3.0	3	3	1	2	2	6.00	0.0	1.67	9.00
F. Nieve	1	0	0	0	0	0	2.0	1	0	0	0	2	9.00	0.0	0.50	0.00
Totals	66	0	8	16	20	42	208.0	199	83	17	92	169	7.31	0.0	1.40	3.59