Rotating the Rotation

According to MetsBlog,

The Mets have set their rotation for the start of the second half on Thursday.

Oliver Perez will start Thursday night against the Braves in Atlanta, followed by Mike Pelfrey on Friday, Johan Santana on Saturday, Fernando Nieve on Sunday, and Livan Hernandez on Monday against the Nationals in Washington.

Jerry Manuel told reporters that Jonathan Niese would take the place of a starter who has “three bad outings in a row”, which seemingly would apply to Hernandez who in his last two starts is 0-2 with a 19.29 ERA, allowing 21 hits, 8 walks, and 15 earned runs in his last seven innings and has lost his last four starts.

For now, the rotation will remain in tact, with Manuel saying:

“We’ve had some success with the rotation we have, and you gotta kind of give guys the benefit of the doubt.”

…as much as I think Hernandez has been beneficial and durable, his last two games in particular have been really alarming and with Niese pitching as well as he has been in the minors, it might be wise to consider this change as the team has lost eight of his last nine starts overall…

…if the team is going to make any sort of run in the second half, then I think Manuel simply must make changes from within as he cannot rely on ownership making a deal…in reality, things couldn’t be much worse…