Recently, Aaron Heilman has spoken out over his desire to be a starting pitcher or a closer for the Mets or any other team. The 27-year old Met knows Billy Wagner is the Mets permanent closer, and he also is aware that the rotation will be basically set if Glavine is re-signed and they enter the free agent market to improve a weak basement. Minaya and Randolph, ideally, want to keep Heilman as their seventh inning stopper, with Sanchez and Wagner leading the way in a very formidable bullpen. Fortunately for the Red Sox, Heilman wants to take a different path.
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| AARON HEILMAN /SCOUT.COM |
Theo has tried to get Aaron before. He was involved in the talks in a Manny Ramirez swap mid-season 2005, and even some other separate occasions. Could this be the answer? Would Heilman ever be able to take the role of closer in Boston and capitalize? First, let??s look at some cold hard stats:
2005: 108 IP, 87 H, 37 BB, 106 K, 3.17 ERA, .223 BAA, 1.15 WHIP, 132 ERA+
2006: 87 IP, 73 H, 28 BB, 73 K, 3.62 ERA, .231 BAA, 1.16 WHIP, 119 ERA+
Not bad. Heilman had some outings this season that resulted in complete disaster to inflate the 2006 numbers a bit, but overall this guy has been one of the premiere bullpen pitchers in the NL when given the opportunity. His WHIPs and BAA are encouraging. The strikeout numbers going down that much in 2006 may have something to do with the lower innings pitched, and that is a bit of a concern, but no stat like that is holding me back from snagging Heilman.
The ideal situation would to have a bullpen consisting of Timlin, Foulke, Heilman and Closer. That would be a comfortable situation for Red Sox fans heading into the season. And he can handle the pressure of Boston: he??s played in New York for the last four years.
Let??s discuss: Should Theo push strong to trade for Aaron Heilman? Are there any trade scenarios between the Red Sox and Mets that could work? And would he be the answer at closer?
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