Bannister appears to have been re-injured during his rehab start. Giving Lima another start is almost impossible. What do you do?

Soler's done well in AA:

2.75 ERA, 15 hits, 22/3 k/bb, no homers in 19.2 IP.

I'd call him up.

Willie said that Lima will "most likely" be making another start. He had this to say about Lima's performance today:

“I thought he did a pretty good job. He had one or two innings there where he was a little bit shaky…but, he kept us in the game and did a pretty good job.”

Well, we weren't going to win, but two of the runs weren't really Lima's fault. Allowing Rolen to go to second was a bad play that led to another run, and Delgado's error.

Just saying is all.

I forgot to put in there that Bannister only made it through 5 pitches today.

Any news on Maine? Has he even resumed pitching?

I think it's obvious that one of us is gonna have to set ourselves on fire in protest of Lima.

NOT IT!

C'mon, Chris, Lima is terrible. Highest ERA (min 1000 IP) in baseball history with the good part of his career at the beginning and only getting worse. An ERA close to 9 in 3 starts this year. There's really nothing to recommend this guy. I doubt Soler will be great but I also doubt he could be worse. He's worth a shot.

Giving Lima another start is almost impossible.

I agree with this, yet I would say that we don't know anything about Lima that we didn't know before these 3 starts. Given him just one start seemed almost impossible so, if you were willing to give him a 1st, why not a 4th?

What has gone Right

You should change this title to 'What has gone Wright'

Soler is 26, there's really not much more he can gain by sticking in the minors, unless they trade him to the Fish for Willis. and i can't believe that'd happen.

OK. Call up Soler. I'm sold.

Ditto. I didn't realize he was 26.

Soler is 26, there's really not much more he can gain by sticking in the minors

Actually, there is. As I argued in the Bannister thread, his numbers at AA are deceptive. His first start was against New Hampshire, which has the worst group of hitters in the EL. His second start was at Altoona, which has a pretty good offense, and he was decent but not overpowering. His third start was at Norwalk, which is a hitters' graveyard.

He has a 2.75 ERA through three starts in a league where eight *teams* out of 12 are at 3.33 or better (and that includes all of the mopup pitchers as well as the front line pitchers). That's good, but in context hardly dominant - and pitchers who aren't dominant at AA rarely jump to the majors and pitch well.

Evan MacLane (who's 23) is scheduled to pitch against Toledo tonight, for the second time. He's pitched 14 innings with an 0.64 ERA in two AAA starts, allowing 7 hits and posting a 16/1 K/BB ratio. He wasn't especially good at Binghamton earlier, although he did post a 25/2 K/BB ratio in 33 innings in four starts for the BMets, but he's posted respectable numbers in his minor league career and he's (so far, at least) getting AAA hitters out. I'd try him before I'd try Soler.

-- MWE

MacLane actually made five starts for Binghamton, not four. Three were good (including a 5-inning, 2-hit performance against Akron, which has the league's best offense), two were not.

-- MWE

Well, Mike, I don't think we're claomring for Soler or anything - and I am a believer that what he'll learn at AAA he can learn in MLB.

For him to work in MLB, he has to manage more than 13 IP with <9 ERA over three starts. That's not some showstopper- it's really just stopping the guy we've got going.

And as he is 26, he isn't likely to be a long-twerm investment critical to the success of the franchise.

Tom Glavine. 6-2 with a 2.43 ERA? That’s the Tom Glavine we paid for a few years ago. Now he’s going to be extended? Sweet.

Hopefully, this is really Glavine figuring something out, and not just one last hurrah.

I'm serious, BTW. I am a Glavine fan, even if he is pitching for the Mets, and want there to be no question as to whether he makes the HOF.

Well, Mike, I don't think we're claomring for Soler or anything - and I am a believer that what he'll learn at AAA he can learn in MLB.

First of all, he's pitching in AA, not AAA.

Second, "better than Lima" shouldn't be the standard. What should be the standard is "how likely is this guy to pitch 5-6 innings every fifth day and give us a chance to win?" Right now, I agree, Lima's about as close to 0% as you get. But do you want to replace him with someone who "right now" isn't much better than an average AA starter? How much above 0% does that push you?

At this stage in his development, I believe that Soler isn't likely to push that number very much higher. He needs to pitch in environments where he's likely to succeed for a while longer - and not be pushed into one where there's a fairly high likelihood of failure. The Mets have other options available to them; Soler would be about option 4 or 5, IMO.

-- MWE

Yeah, but what kind of a name for a major league starter is "Evan"? How can he be expected to succeed? He should go be a camp counselor and leave the baseball to guys with cool names like Pedro, Roger, Tommy, and Randy.

We interrupt this family nightmare of a "vacation" to send this simple message to the Mets hierarchy:

Every start you give to Jose Lima is a message to your team, your competitors,and your fans, of non-seriousness.

The Mets have better options. Alay Soler is a better option (Mike says he's # 4 or # 5; I don't see the better three, and I certainly don't see the four that are better. But however many there are, Jose Lima is NOT one of them.) Mike Pelfrey is a better option. Gen. Hayden is a better option; at least he'd listen in on the phone calls between the opposing advance scouts and their hitters and he'd have some clue what to throw. Even MacLane is a better option. Shirley MacLane is a better option; she has more lives left than Jose Lima.

Omar Minaya has no excuse for not being able to find some AAAA pitcher in some other system he can acquire cheap who can at least go 5 innings once in a very great while. It is just GM 101, ain't it? Even he gets held up to some extent because of the circumstances, that shouldn't cost him all that much.

Back to tending to family nonsense. See you guys later.

The Mets have better options.

His name is Aaron Heilman, folks.

Mets have called up Soler, according to game notes on Binghamton's Web site.

-- MWE

Come on, Mike, didn't you know Omar reads this column?

Soler to pitch against the Phils, either Wednesday or Thursday. Whichever day Soler starts Jeremi (God Help Us) Gonzales picks up the other start.

I think J(GHU)G is keeping a seat warm for the next week or so, and then we'll see Mike (Bats In The) Pelfrey up here soon.