So El Duque heads for the DL (disappointing, but this happens with him) and Chan Ho Park comes up. Park has a 7.29 ERA at AAA New Orleans and has allowed 6 home runs in 21 innings. What is odd is bringing him up when teammate Jorge Sosa, also an experienced major league starter of at best uneven recent accomplishments, has a 1.13 ERA there and a 29/4 K/BB ratio. I mean, I don’t trust either of them but for a short-term assignment I’d rather pick the hot hand.
UPDATE: Commenters point out that Sosa just pitched and thus the choice of Park is dictated by availability. Of course, if Park gets bombed the Mets may need to rethink their choice if El Duque is out a while.
6 thoughts on “Park Violation”
Comments are closed.
1) Jorge Sosa pitched six innings yesterday.
2) It is likely that Chan Ho Park, who was rewarded for an excellent performance at the end of spring training by not making the team, was promised by either/both Omar Minaya and Willie Randolph that he would be the first choice should they need a starting pitcher.
Blastings beat me to the punch on why Sosa was not called up. It basically boils down to bad timing.
So we’re now faced with a situation where we have to root for a guy that just about nobody wants here. Considering how poorly the offense supported two great pitching performances over the weekend by Glavine and Maine, you just know Park’s gonna get a Steve Traschel-like level of run support tonight. 9-8 score, here we come.
If you look at Park’s minor league outings, he has gone good start, horrible start-OK start-horrible start. The worst start was in New Orleans (park stats?), the second worst (and latest) at super-offense-friendly Albuquerque. I don’t know what all this adds up to, but just thought I’d throw it out there.
Sosa pitched yesterday, but the Mets already knew El Duque was doubtful, and allowed Sosa to start anyway. The apparent reason is that Park is on the 40-man roster and Sosa is not, although I can’t see how taking Park off the roster to make room would be any great loss. As of this writing, Park is doing a good job, but I still think it’s a very dubious decision.
Dubious, indeed. Park blew up in the 3rd and looked, frankly, overmatched by the entire Florida lineup.
I was more encouraged by Pelfrey’s work today. He gave up three in the first, so I can’t really say he pitched well, but he wound up pitching well enough that the Mets can continue to view his turn as useful on the job training, rather than having him out after three innings and losing confidence.