Putz Diagnosed with Unrare Ailment in Latest Mets Loss

It's called Heilman-itus: the inability to retire borderline major league hitters in late innings of ballgames. Heilmanitus is a severe and devastating disease that some consider incurable and manifests itself with baseballs flying off bats and runners crossing homeplate. It's not pretty... and J.J. Putz has it.

And unfortunately, it's not a rare ailment in the history of Mets middle relievers. In fact, the disease used to be called Looperism, followed by Benitez Syndrome, Rojasitus, and Franco fever. The worst part about Heilanitus is that even if you leave the team, you're never the same player again and perform equally as badly for the next team you pitch for. (you think Chicago fans are happy with Aaron Heilman's 3 blown saves, 3 losses and his 5.08 ERA in the 24 games he's tortured Cub fans?)

But in all seriousness, the decline of J.J. Putz leads me to 2 possible conclusions: One, he's injured and isn't telling anyone (the most likely scenario). Or two, Seattle pulled a fast one on the Mets knowing Putz has declined into a shell of his once-closer self and can't be counted on to get the simpliest of 3 outs.

Either way, his 8th inning meltdown made him the major culprit in the Mets blowing a 5 run lead and eventually losing 8-5 to the Pirates last night in Pittsburgh. Putz allowed four runs in the loss as his ERA jumped to 5.08. (which eerily is the same ERA as Aaron Heilman). Pedro Feliciano did not fare much better. The team wasted a nice night by Wilson "Exxon" Valdez, who had a double, a triple, and 3 rbis.

So let's assume something's really wrong with Putz. There's a big difference playing hurt and playing injured. If you're hurt, and you're playing, you're a gamer and a good teammate. Playing hurt doesn't bother me and in general, most players will do that - after all, you're bound to be hurt somewhat in the course of a 162-game schedule. However, playing injured is another story. If you're injured, you'll never perform to the level you need to in order to help your team win. Tell the manager, and sit out for the benefit of the team. I think J.J.'s injured. And the best part of injury? You still may be able to recover without Heilmanitus becoming permanent...

Let's recap: HURT - play, INJURED - sit.