R.A. Dickey Might Not be a Bad Idea for New York Mets

Flushing Baseball Daily

Apr 25, 2010

Despite the fact that that starting pitcher John Maine said he’s healthy enough to go during his next scheduled start on Tuesday, it might be a good idea for the Mets to call up R.A. Dickey anyways.

Here me out on this one, Dickey has been pitching well so far this season for Triple-A Buffalo. His stats: W-L: 2-1, 3.03 ERA, 4 GS, 1 CG, 29.2 IP, 5 BB, 16K.

His numbers are good, but the biggest thing here is the innings. He’s had no problem going deep into games with an average of 7.1 innings per outing. He’s doing it in the Minor Leagues so it’s not too impressive, but Dickey is a knuckleballer which doesn’t tax his arm much. So there should be decent translation to the major leagues.

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Now normally that’s not a big deal, but he’s the thing, the Mets bullpen is the hardest-worked bullpen in the Major Leagues. So far this season they’ve thrown 67 innings or just over 3.2 innings pitched per game. This has been all right so far because their bullpen ERA is 2.81, second in the National League, but eventually the heavy workload will come back to bite the Mets if they keep it up. Putting Dickey in the rotation could help ease that burden.

Right now might be the time to give him a quick shot in the rotation. Think about it, normally it would be hard for the Mets to justify removing Maine from the rotation from the few fans who still have faith in him. His injury could be an excuse to get Dickey a start or two to see if he can pitch in the National League.