Ah, it seems like it was many moons ago when we first ran this piece, which came with a chastising from what I can only assume is someone related to Nelson Figueroa. Naturally, the one player I gave the 0% chance to made the club and pitched a significant number of innings, repudiating that lone fan even as Figueroa’s smoke and mirrors act was unraveled by the rest of the National League.

As I said last year, there seems to be a few players every year that the Mets bring to camp that end up making it to the show at some point. This year, things will be a little different. After back-to-back years of bullpen woes and injury-prone starters that required backup, the Mets have focused on building depth up to the point that there are a few clear-cut candidates of the NRIs and everyone else is essentially in showcase mode. Last year’s pitching NRIs gave up Nelson Figueroa and a few innings out of Tony Armas and Ricardo Rincon, following up on the proud tradition of Pedro Feliciano and Roberto Hernandez.

There were a lot of questions when I did this last year about who qualified and who didn’t. I am going to simplify it in advance this year. If a player is one of Toby Hyde’s Top 41 prospects, he’s not eligible for the list. If a player is on the 40-man roster, he’s not eligible for the list. Anyone else is fair game. Sadly, this means I don’t get to write about Rocky Cherry.

Assuming the Mets go with twelve pitchers again, you can put Johan Santana, Mike Pelfrey, John Maine, Oliver Perez, Francisco Rodriguez, JJ Putz, Pedro Feliciano, Sean (not Shawn) Green, and probably Duaner Sanchez and Brian Stokes onto the opening day roster in pen. They’ll be there as long as they aren’t injured. This leaves the NRIs with one spot in the bullpen and one spot in the rotation to chase after. Tim Redding and Jon Niese are the 40-man roster competition in the rotation and there probably isn’t a clear favorite on the 40 for the last bullpen spot at this point.

Tony Armas, Jr.

Background: Son of Tony Armas, but he’s now officially old enough that most people drop the “Junior” suffix. The former top Yankee and Red Sox prospect was sent to the Expos in a package for someone named Pedro Martinez. After holding his own in the majors over a three year span from 2000-2002 at ages 22-24, Armas lost his “A” stuff to the surgeon’s knife and didn’t throw 100 innings again until 2005, at which point he became a wandering piñata for several bad teams.

Summary: Appeared in three games for the Mets last year, notching another ugly crooked number for his big league ERA. However, he was pretty good for New Orleans, posting a 5-7 record with a 2.54 ERA and 88 strikeouts in 102.2 innings. At this point, Armas is quality depth for the Bison. As he agreed to come back, I think he realizes that this is his upside at this point. It would take a rash of injuries for Armas to see the field in 2009.

A completely useless fact: From his MLB.com player biography, 2004:

Was scheduled to start on 8/3 at St. Louis, but was scratched minutes prior to first pitch when he could not get his right shoulder loose in bullpen - according to the Elias Sports Bureau, Armas was credited with having played in the game (on lineup card), but not a game started.

I really wish Elias would pay me to decide things like that.

Chance of MLB Appearance: 3%

Adam Bostick

Background: A throw-in with Jason Vargas in the disastrous Matt Lindstrom trade after the 2006 season, Bostick has spent time on the Mets’ 40-man for the last couple of years. He came over following a solid 2006 between Double-A Carolina and Triple-A Albuquerque where he had a 3.74 ERA, but 80 walks in only 142 innings. After he failed New Orleans in 2007 (5.66 ERA, 1.55 WHIP), he was injured most of last year, and not much changed (6.04 ERA, 1.53 WHIP) when he did pitch.

Summary: Bostick pretty clearly has zero chance to stick as a starter, so the Mets have mostly been grooming him as a LOOGY in camp, probably with a corresponding invitation to Buffalo to see if that can improve his control enough to make him a serviceable back-of-the-bullpen idea. He does strike out a ton of batters, but that doesn’t mean so much when you keep giving out the free passes.

A completely useless fact: Has such great passion for the game of baseball that he passed up a scholarship to play quarterback…at Division II Slippery Rock University.

Chance of MLB Appearance: 2%

Valerio De Los Santos

Background: A long-tenured LOOGY that originally came up with the Brewers in 1998, De Los Santos is perhaps best known for being the guy that hit Cubs outfielder Adam Greenberg in the head during his first big league plate appearance, leaving him with a mild concussion and vertigo. Other than his 2002 season, De Los Santos has been very hittable at the big league level. He allowed 15 homers in just 73.2 innings in 2002: to put that into perspective, Aaron Heilman allowed 10 last year. He spent 2007 in the Mexican League before catching back on with the Rockies in 2008.

Summary: Both De Los Santos and Elmer Dessens seem to be in camp as part of an effort to strengthen ties with the Mexican League, as the Mets are expected to announce a player development agreement with the Red Devils, which sounds much better as the Diablos Rojos. De Los Santos was horrendous even for Colorado Springs this past year, and it’s debatable at this point if he would even make sense on-field for Buffalo, let alone the Mets.

A completely useless fact: From his MLB.com biography, 1997:

Opened the season on the Disabled List with a staph infection in his left groin.

Lets all be glad we haven’t experienced that one.

Chance of MLB Appearance: I was going to wimp out and hedge my bets on this one, but you know what? You don’t scare me, Nelson Figueroa. 0%.

Matt DeSalvo

Background: An undrafted free agent signed by the Yankees, DeSalvo holds NCAA records for Division III career wins, strikeouts in a season, and strikeouts in a career. He spent a few years playing the “adjusting to a new level game” before seeing spot work with the Yankees in 2007 in between turns dominating Scranton/Wilkes-Barre to the tune of a 2.7 ERA and 102 strikeouts in 113 innings. DeSalvo had an abysmal year for Richmond in 2008, going 2-11 with a 4.87 ERA and not even getting a starting audition for the Braves despite a stretch-run rotation consisting of Jair Jurrgens and four hobos from the bus stop.

Summary: DeSalvo’s peripherals were pretty unaffected by the move to Richmond, so he is a reasonable bounce-back candidate. He’ll never have a ton of upside but you could do worse to fill out a non-essential roster spot. He was deemed as having the best change-up in the Yankees system by Baseball America in 2005, and so continues the Mets’ trend of picking up righties with a changeup.

A completely useless fact: DeSalvo wrote a book, Love’s Travels, which has yet to be published. He also, as of 2007, had a very ambitious reading list of over 400 titles, most of which were classics of literary fiction. One example from the list was Myth of Sisyphus. He apparently was halfway through the list at the time of the interview.

Chance of MLB Appearance: 2%.

Elmer Dessens

Background: After being released by the Pirates and spending 1999 with the Yomiuri Giants, the Reds picked Dessens off the scrapheap and watched him morph into a fairly reliable mid-rotation starter under the tutelage of retread master Don Gullett. Dessens finished sixth in the NL in ERA in 2002 and was promptly dealt to the Diamondbacks in a four-team trade for Felipe Lopez. His mediocre peripherals couldn’t sustain 2002’s hit rate of less than one per inning, and he imploded in 2003 and 2004 for the D-Backs before being given away to the Dodgers. Since then, Dessens has re-invented himself as a serviceable swingman. He spent the majority of last year toiling for the Diablos Rojos.

Summary: As I said with De Los Santos, I think Dessens is mostly in camp to help carry favor towards Mexico City. He could probably be a mediocre 12th man or a decent rotation member for Buffalo, but I think it’s much more likely that he ends up being loaned to the Diablos for most of the year, like Ricardo Rincon in 2008.

A completely useless fact: Got $200 burning a hole in your pocket? Well, my first suggestion would be to give it to me. But next on the list would definitely be purchasing a game-used Elmer Dessens jersey.

Chance of MLB Appearance: 2%

Nelson Figueroa

Background: A criminally underappreciated asset around the turn of the century, Figueroa dominated Triple-A for years while teams kept making excuses to keep from giving him an extended trial. He started off with the Mets and was dealt in the Bernard Gilkey salary dump with Arizona, eventually becoming part of the package that went to Philadelphia for Curt Schilling. After washing out of New Orleans (but with the Nationals!) in 2006, Figueroa wandered the world in search of a place that needed his arm, joining up with the Atlantic League, the Chinese Professional Baseball League (which is naturally in Taiwan), and the Mexican League. He came back in 2008 and fooled hitters for a few starts and made me look stupid.

Summary: Figueroa could probably still make a fine swingman at the back of a staff; Omar knows he exists so that’s a point in his favor. At New Orleans last year, he pitched 113 serviceable innings. He’ll probably be headed back there again, as a pitcher/coach for the young’uns.

A completely useless fact: Designs a mean t-shirt.

Chance of MLB Appearance: 5%

Casey Fossum

Background: A long-hyped and untouchable Red Sox prospect, Fossum has shown very little to be excited about at the major-league level since his 2002 season. Theo Epstein and company made him the second person in this article to be involved in a trade for Curt Schilling, shrewdly dealing him before 2002 completely faded out of sight. Fossum was horrendous for the Diamondbacks, lugging a nearly satan-esque 6.65 ERA in 142 innings. The Devil Rays spent a lot of time trying to make him work before they too gave up on him after deciding he could do no better than become a LOOGY, the role he filled for Detroit last year.

Summary: Fossum was phenomenal for Toledo last year, with a 1.96 ERA and only 21 hits in 46 innings. His Detroit performance was much more in-line with his other MLB performances, and at this point I think the fact that the Mets felt it necessary to go out and sign Ron Villone pretty much shows what they thought of his work. I suppose he could get a September call-up with a good year but it doesn’t look very likely at all.

A completely useless fact: With Orlando Hernandez gone, Fossum is now the Mets’ official go-to-guy in the event that an eephus pitch is considered an effective strategy.

Chance of MLB Appearance: 1%

Next week, the pitchers that actually have a shot of making the club!