Billy Wagner settled into his corner locker this morning and fired away to reporters like he already was in mid-season form. The Mets closer, though thrilled with the Johan Santana trade, doesn't believe he's an automatic ticket to the playoffs this season.
"Definitely it’s an improvement," Wagner said. "Johan is definitely a huge step in the right
direction. Butwe’ve got to put it in perspective, too. He’s coming from Minneapolis, where there’sone of you [reporters]. I mean, we can’t put a lot of pressure on him to do more than he can do. I think that once he settles in and gets comfortable, and relaxes around us and the fans of New York, then he’ll settle in. If he starts out and does well, it’s a bonus for us. But our bullpen, that’s the whole key."
To read the rest of Wagner's 10-minute chat with reporters, featuring last season's meltdown and the status of his ailing back, click here.
"I think even if we didn’t have Johan, We had a staff definitely better than my first year here, so I mean it wasn’t like we were taking that big of a step back. Still, the key is our bullpen. We have to honestly find our roles and find our niche quick and stay healthy and that’s going to determine if we win or division or come in third or come in second. It’s how our bullpen is going to perform -- and with the potential it has, yeah, we can win our division."
Q: Does Santana help move on from last year?
BW: "I think as far as looking past last year, I don’t think we should look past last year. We were terrible. We should use that to motivate us. We shouldn’t look at Johan for him to make that go away. We should feed off that. As bad as we played and didn’t show up for the last two weeks, that should motive us to really step up and come here with some excitement and enthusiasm and really pick it up from Day 1."
Q: What's the immediate impact of Santana?
BW: "Hopefully that’s a couple of complete games and a little less taxing on our bullpen. Anytime you get that type of quality pitchers healthy and here, you’re looking at 225, 230 innings. It’s going to take a lot of pressure off our bullpen. It's going to take a lot of pressure off some of the younger starters that are going to have to scrape. We’re not going to have to push them into doing that extra inning or doing something they’re not capable of doing right now."
Q: Is the back fully healed from last year?
BW: "My back? I’m 36 years old. I'm going to be 37, I don’t know what tomorrow brings. All I can do is go out there and pitch. I can’t even answer those questions."
Q: Anxious to see Duaner Sanchez pitch again?
BW: "Yeah, I am. Shoot, he’s a huge key to our bullpen. I don’t think we can expect him to go out there and throw 22 scoreless to start the season, I don’t think we can expect that type of dominance early after not pitching for a year and a half. I think what we have to do is use him in a way that’s not going to hurt him. By September, he’s going to really make a difference in that bullpen that we didn’t have last year. Him being here, if he can get back to his old form, that allows Willie the comfort of having the roles that we want with Aaron [Heilman], Duaner and myself. I think that really takes a lot of pressure off [Pedro] Feliciano and [Scott] Schoeneweis to have to pick up and pitch in situations they really shouldn’t be in."
Q: Can you rank where the Mets are in the division?
BW: "No, I don’t think so. We definitely have a chance to be in that No. 1 spot, but I don’t think that you can honestly say that we’re the odds-on favorite because what New York and the pressure of New York brings to the newcomers. I think that you have to let things kind of go, and I think as the year goes, I think we’ll be able to see what type of team we have in spring training. I think if we come in here and play like we did in the first year I was here, with that excitement and enthusiasm coming out there, planning on winning and not just going through the motions, we’ll definitely see what type of team we have before we leave spring training."
Q: Are the Mets the team to beat?
BW: I don’t think you can do that because I don’t think we are. I don’t think you can sit there and overlook Philadelphia, I don’t think you can overlook Atlanta. I think they’ve all made big improvements and I think that we have to worry about our business because we have a lot of things we need to go right, a lot of key players that have to get adjusted and back into form, and that’s including myself. We have to worry about ourselves and not what Philly and Atlanta are doing right now. They’ve got to be excited about their chances. We are too."
Q: What happened last year during the collapse ...
BW: "On days we didn’t show up? Yeah. And I think it was the overconfidence of us saying we’re good and we’re going to get in the playoffs, we’re just going to play these games and … we’ll win. Teams weren’t intimidated by us. They weren’t worried about facing Billy Wagner in the ninth. They weren’t worried about facing [Carlos] Beltran, [David] Wright or [Carlos] Delgado. They didn’t have that worry. They didn’t have that worry you should have when you have this type of team. When they walk into Shea Stadium, they should be going, '----, I hope we don’t get to this guy, I hope we don’t have to face that guy.' Instead of going, 'Aw, he’s having a tough year, I can get this guy out.'"
Comments (4)
I know it must be great being a reporter and seeing Billy Wagner in the room, but can someone tell me when he became the Mets spokesperson?
Someone on the Mets needs to tell this guy to keep his trap shut or to get lost.
His act got tired real fast a few years ago when he was insulted going into a Mets/Yankee game in a non-save situation and blew the game.
I think he might be a cancer on this team.
LETS GO METS!
You don't speak for everyone Kevin86. I, for one, think Billy tells it like it is. You may not like what he says but any true Met fans knows that what he says is accurate. Can't fault the guy for being real. We played like chumps during September, we deserved everything that was thrown at us.
Signing Santana is HUGE, possibly the biggest signing we've ever had, but we still need to go out there and play the game. And, as it stands, Philly is defending NL East Champs, not NY. So we need to buckle down and play with a chip on our shoulder all year long. Philly took it from us and it's time we take it right back.
Preach on Billy, I couldn't agree more.
LETS GO METS!
kevin86, should billy say "we tried real hard and too bad we didn't win..." (i.e., a beltran kind of answer?) no, he's saying it like it is, THEY STUNK, kev! with a (hopefully) shored up pen in '08, maybe willie can get billy into a ROUTINE this year (come on duaner!)
willie, please put the hammer down from day one...make an example of the first guy who doesn't run one out...keep those hot-diggedy-dog-slap-slap-ten-feet-from-the-dugout-high-five celebrations to a minimum...
KEEP TALKING YOUR WAY OUT OF TOWN BILLY. I SEE K-ROD CLOSING MET GAMES IN CITI FIELD NEXT YEAR,