Four Reasons – Aaron Heilman Edition

One of the perks of working for Redlasso is that I am constantly patrolling baseball blogs for all teams. This no-doubtedly keeps me apprised not just of the statistics but also some of the inner workings of teams I would otherwise not be familiar with. One of the articles I came across this morning, over at Mets Fever, initially confused me. The post discussed Adam Rubin’s assertion that the Mets were seriously thinking about sending Aaron Heilman to AAA in favor of Carlos Muniz.

Now, Heilman has not gotten off to the greatest start in reliever’s history, but here are four reasons why the Mets should not send him down.

1) HR/FB
David Appelman wrote about home runs per flyball a few hours ago, explaining that pitchers will generally be in the 10% range. In 2006, Heilman gave up 5.4% HR/FB; last year, 9.1%. This year it is currently 17.9%. It is not very likely he will sustain this pace. He might not regress to the 5-9% range but even something around 12% will cause some of his barometers to drop.

2) Rates of Balls in Play
From 2005-2007 Heilman had an average LD/GB/FB breakdown of 21%/45%/34%. Right now he is at 15.8%/47.4%/36.8%. He has given up ~5% less line drives yet his BABIP of .327 is much higher than the .290, .283, and .263 of the last three years. More of his flyballs are leaving the yard and more of his grounders are finding holes. Additionally, his BA against has been between .222 and .229 the last three years, nowhere near the .274 clip at which opponents are currently hitting him.

3) Mets Starters Are Not Helping
The starting rotation is averaging around 5.81 IP/start, just slightly over 5 2/3 innings. Last year the rotation came in at around 5.95. The bullpen is needed more because the starters are not going very deep into games, giving the Mets three relievers with 23+ games: Pedro Feliciano (26), Heilman (24), and Joe Smith (23). Unlike Feliciano and Smith, Heilman is not a specialist reliever and therefore has accrued more innings.

4) ERA Can Be Misleading for Relievers
Heilman has a 5.81 ERA and a 5.38 FIP, meaning his controllable skills have not been much better than the earned runs results; however, his ERA and FIP numbers are likely to regress when his HR/FB goes down. Additionally, of his 24 games, 17 have been good, or at least not terrible, meaning his high numbers are a direct result of just 29% of his outings.

Now, in defense of those considering the option, Heilman is walking 4.44 batters per nine innings, way up from the 2.09 last year. Still, though, he is striking out 9.23 per nine innings, way up from 6.59 last year. Due to the double increase he still has a respectable K/BB ratio. Another area of concern is his velocity. No, he isn’t throwing slower but rather has increased speed on all of his pitches. His slider has jumped from 83-84 mph to 87.1 mph. With a fastball at 92 mph the difference in speeds might not be large enough to make the slider effective.

Heilman may not repeat the successes of the last few seasons but he is not very likely to finish this season the way he has started it. If the Mets want to make a move to shake up the bullpen, perhaps they should bring up a starter that can go deeper into games rather than send down he who has been a consistent key cog over the last few seasons.