McCarroll21
03-19-2007, 07:54 PM
http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070319&content_id=1850673&vkey=spt2007news&fext=.jsp
His extended workday complete, Billy Wagner developed a sense of accomplishment from something as routine as an appearance in a simulated game on Monday. Nameless hitters with brief Minor League resumes had come and gone, failing against Wagner's expanded repertoire -- low 90s fastball, hard slider and his new pitch, the split-finger changeup.
A foreign thought occurred to the Mets closer as he ran in the outfield: "Three innings, three pitches," he said to himself. Three and three might equal five, in Wagner's case. It was pure fantasy, and hardly one he fancied.
"It's not that far to five innings," he said aloud later at his locker. "Now that I've got three pitches, I could be a starter. I could be our No. 5 starter."
The idea had appeal for as long as it takes one of his mid-summer fastballs to make the trip from his left hand to Paul Lo Duca's.
"But maybe they'll ask," Wagner said. "I've seen worse."
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Whether he's saying it jokingly or not, when your closer has this running through his mind you know you're in a very bad situation.
His extended workday complete, Billy Wagner developed a sense of accomplishment from something as routine as an appearance in a simulated game on Monday. Nameless hitters with brief Minor League resumes had come and gone, failing against Wagner's expanded repertoire -- low 90s fastball, hard slider and his new pitch, the split-finger changeup.
A foreign thought occurred to the Mets closer as he ran in the outfield: "Three innings, three pitches," he said to himself. Three and three might equal five, in Wagner's case. It was pure fantasy, and hardly one he fancied.
"It's not that far to five innings," he said aloud later at his locker. "Now that I've got three pitches, I could be a starter. I could be our No. 5 starter."
The idea had appeal for as long as it takes one of his mid-summer fastballs to make the trip from his left hand to Paul Lo Duca's.
"But maybe they'll ask," Wagner said. "I've seen worse."
--------
Whether he's saying it jokingly or not, when your closer has this running through his mind you know you're in a very bad situation.