The Mets have signed left handed pitcher Casey Fossum to a minor league contract. Fossum has been both a starter and a reliever in his career.

In 31 relief appearances for the Tigers last season, Fossum was 3-1 with a 5.66 ERA and a 1.500 WHIP.

In 2007 he was 3-5 with a 7.89 in 10 starts for the Rays, and was 2-3 with a 7.30 ERA in 30 games as a reliever.

So basically, this guy blows... I hope Omar doesn't view him as the left handed reliever we need in the bullpen.

However, one interesting note on Fossum is that his repertoire features an Eephus pitch, which Mets fans have seen from Orlando "ElDuque" Hernandez the last few years.

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The Mets are reportedly close to signing free agent pitcher Livan Hernandez. Livan, who is El Duque's half brother, has a long time reputation for being a workhorse, pitching over 200 innings in 8 straight seasons. (would have been 10 straight if he retired just one more batter in 1999).

Livan does have problems getting players out, his WHIP with the Diamondbacks in 2007 was 1.595 and his ERA was 4.93. His ERA has increased every year since his career low in ERA of 3.20 in 2003.

While Livan has almost never missed a start in his career, he'll officially be 33 this year, and one has to wonder how much longer he can keep up the role of workhorse.

I really hope we never come to a point in 2008 where we need Livan Hernandez to have a good game. It may be possible that Omar is just creating a backup plan (albeit an emergency plan) if we don't get Johan Santana.

Random Fact:
Livan Hernandez leads all of baseball for the most pitches thrown since 2000 at 29,485.
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With the Mets bullpen in desperate need of some relief, the Mets called upon veteran Orlando Hernandez to pitch out of the bullpen Wednesday night. El Duque pitched a scoreless 7th, before the Mets turned it over to Heilman and Wagner to finish out the game.

Yet even ElDuque's outing was anything but easy, Hernandez walked two batters and struggled with his location. This shouldn't be much cause for alarm, as El Duque was pitching for the first time in 15 days.

Manager Willie Randolph said following Wednesday's game, "For him to be a starter as we move forward, it's a long shot". This is interesting, since most Mets Fans were expecting John Maine to potentially be moved to the bullpen for the playoffs.

Hernandez actually has had experience pitching out of the bullpen in the playoffs before, as he did so for the Chicago White Sox during their championship run in 2005.

Hopefully ELDUQUE will spell RELIEF as the Mets try to hold off the Phillies down the stretch
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We all need something to laugh about since we've been pulling our hair out and losing sleep for much of the past week. I must apologize for being a day late, having a job and going to grad. school doesn't leave a lot of down time. But I did come across this early today that I would like to share. Baseball is full of far too many awards now. It's almost like those senior awards in high school where they made up 15,000 awards to make sure no one felt left. Well stack another funny one to the pile. Courtesy of SI, the Mets lone representative is El Duque, unless you count the glam shot of Mike Piazza from the Shea Stadium seats.

On a serious note, the Mets have to keep fighting tonight in Miami. Hat's off to Pelfrey for getting the job done last night. Let's go Mets!

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Over the last two nights the Mets have won as many games at PNC Park as they have in their team history. Coming into the series the Mets were 2-7 all time at PNC, including being swept last season in mid September; which temporarily denied the Mets in clinching the NL East. While El Duque and Maine have pitched decently over the last two days, I don’t think beating the Pirates should get Mets fans excited.

Yes, we have won two in a row, yes the offense has come out, and yes we have lowered the magic number; these are all givens. However, last night was a golden example of how our offense decided to “sit back” and not push for more runs until they definitely needed some. While having a five run lead is great, if you are held scoreless the rest of the game, one big inning can get the other team back in the game. Fortunately for the Mets, they were able to score another five runs in the top of the 9th, thinking they were on their way to a laugher. Luckily, the Pirates could only muster four runs instead of six.

The most important thing is that the Mets got wins. However, the Pirates won’t be the type of team that will be in the playoffs. In order for the Mets to be successful in making a run to the playoffs, they need to work the kinks out against the bad teams. This means getting good pitching, constant hitting, and good defense. I know a win is a win, but the consistency is still not where it should be. Hopefully, beating the weaker teams, will lead into a consistency that will carry the Mets into the tough part of their remaining schedule. Read More...

I never thought that someone I loathed during the 2000 World Series would be so important to the Mets 7 years later. The man I am referring to is none other than Orlando “El Duque” Hernandez. Since joining the Mets last year, he has gone 16-11 with an ERA of 3.50.

While we are not sure of his age whether it is 37, 41 or 55, Duque has not shown any signs of old age by keeping the Mets in the game every time he pitches. Two nights agowas no exception, as he was great for 7 innings allowing 3 runs on 4 hits and striking out 7. He has been the most consistent starter throughout the season which leads me to believe if the Mets make the playoffs, he will get the ball in game 1.

So make sure you tip your hat to Mr Hernandez (and I don’t mean keith). Because he’s very quietly been superb all season Read More...