Trust me, it was that easy to see what they were going to throw... at least from the TV angle. There are a couple of reasons I'm still not playing though: 1) I never had the skill those guys had, hence I only played A ball. 2) I had 3 knee operations and I was a catcher However, noticing those things is something an experienced ball player does. FOr instance, even the Cardinals noticed Reyes was tipping his pitches (game 4 starter). They told him to pitch from the stretch the rest of the game so he wouldn't. Molina was doing the same thing yesterday, BUT Wainright's curve is that nasty it didn't seem to matter.
Heilman is not an excellent pitcher. He is up & down, very inconsistent. I would love to see his #s in two inning outings but it seems he always has trouble in his 2nd inning of work. I do think it was the right move by Willie but only because Wagner was horrible in the series.
Wagner was good since the end of July for 1 reason... No BIG spots to pitch in. Wagner is a very good pitcher, but tends to crumble under the pressure. Heilmann? Put him into the rotation next year. It's where he wants to be. and he's better suited for it. He's another one... no pressure, big performance... pressure, little performance. Sanchez was clearly the 8th inning man until he went down. When Heilman took over, the mets were virtually locked, so no pressure. Wainright was tipping his pitches the entire inning, not just Beltran's AB. Beltran's AB was inexcusable. Now, he should NOT be looking for ANY particular pitch with 2 strikes. That was the problem.
