Willie's Guide to the Bullpen

Billy Wagner: Billy. Can't say enough about Billy. He's my closer. He comes in when we need three outs. Not four, not five, not two. He's a future Hall of Famer. Shuts the door for us when we're leading by one, two or three runs. I used to use him when the game was tied or we were behind by one or ahead by four runs, but Billy put a stop to that. Hopefully we'll play some more close games with us on top so Billy can get more than seven innings every 20 games. But sometimes that's how it is with a stopper like Billy. You save him until you really need him. It might not be today, it might not be tomorrow, it might not be until next week. But when we're up 6-4 on the Pirates in the ninth, there's only one man I want out there.

Aaron Heilman: Aaron's my guy in the eighth inning. He can be shaky at times, but he's solid out there, and I trust him. Yea, so what if he wants to be a starter? Not on our team, not on these Mets. He's too valuable in the bullpen. He just needs to get into a nice little rhythm, stay consistent and he'll be fine. Yea, the other night he caught some bad breaks and he almost got out of it, but he's fine. Don't worry about Aaron.

Jorge Sosa: Yea, Sosa, he's my workhorse. He can start for us if we need it, he can go one inning, two innings, three innings. I like to bring him in around the sixth or seventh, let him get a couple innings. He's solid against both left and right-handers, so I don't need to worry about that. He's a good setup guy, a useful guy to have out there. What's that? In 1478 plate appearances, left-handers have hit .297/.385/.509 off Sosa? Sosa turns every lefty into some combination of John Olerud, Paul Konerko and Chase Utley? I don't think so. He has a very good changeup that he uses against left-handers. Plus, he's a workhorse. I can use him every day. He can go out there every day. Why not use him every day?

Scott Schoeneweis: He's my number one lefty setup guy. The fans have been a little upset about him because he's struggled in spots, but as long as he stays confident, he's the man out there. I use him around the seventh and eighth when some lefties are coming up, but the good thing about him is that he's tough on righties too. There's a reason he's making $3.5 million a year. What? Not again! Look, baseball isn't played by computers, and I don't care that you say right-handers have hit .292/.364/.465 off Scott in 2697 plate appearances. He's my guy out there.

Pedro Feliciano: Pedro's a nice little lefty to have in the pen. You can bring him in to get a couple lefties out, maybe every once in a while get him a whole inning or two and let him face some righties if we got a big lead or we're behind by a lot. You don't want to mess with his confidence though, so right now Sosa and Schoeneweis are going to get the big spots. Nice little pitcher, though; he can be useful.

Duaner Sanchez: Duaner's been good so far. Don't want to rush things coming back from all that time off, but we'll get him an appearance here and there. I wouldn't get too excited. He's still a baby.

Matt Wise: I don't know too much about Matty, but he's a proven arm and whenever he comes back we've got a spot in the bullpen for him.

Joe Smith: Yea, Joe's been real good for us in some tough spots this year. He's still just a kid and he's got to pay his dues doing some mop-up but he's a good guy to get out there for a little change of pace against a right-hander. We'll probably send him down when Matt Wise gets back, but he's a nice kid.

Carlos Muñiz: Who?