Thursday, July 30, 2009

Can't Have It All


A six game winning streak. A four game sweep of a team in front of us in the Wild Card hunt. A gem by Jon Niese. All pretty much extinguished with a David Wright strikeout followed by yet another botched delayed steal of home in the first inning.

That was the chance for the Mets. It was a chance to jump out in front early and give the sagging Rockie confidence another Flushing blow. They've lost like 20 of their last 22 here. Put them down early and they stay down. If Pagan somehow scores, maybe the Mets squeak out another run and have a bigger lead than the 1-0 lead they held for a little over an inning later on.

As it is, you have to be happy to take three out of four. Now comes yet another four gamer, vs. Arizona. Winning these series is tough. Winning them back to back is tougher. I'd like to be confident coming off Livan's last start in Houston, but the prospects of Livan-Ollie-Pelfrey-Redding? in the next four makes me think we are not winning three of four again.

See what happens when you give Castillo a day off? 0-for-3.

I kid.

Sweet Sunburn


The streak is over. The Mets won a workday afternoon game with me in attendance.

All it took was one big inning, where there was hit after hit, the highlight coming from Angel Berroa (Angel Berroa!) knocking a double into right center field. With Johan being Johan, that's all the team needed.

The weekdays matinees have been memorable for all the wrong reasons in the last couple of seasons. Up 7-0, with Tim Redding pitching the 9th, and then Alex Cora dropping a toss from David Wright for a force out creating runners on 1st and 2nd with one out, of course I was thinking the worst. Blowing a 7-0 lead with be the cherry on top. A double play by the next batter put all those fears aside.

If you sit on the third base side, it does not take long for the shade to come over you and allow you to enjoy the rest of the game in comfortable fashion. Not quite as fortunate for the noon start time. No sunscreen today. Ouch. And to think I watched the first couple of innings in shaded standing room areas to kill some time to allow the sun to move some. Didn't wait long enough.

The Shake Shake line was just as bad at 11:35am as it is at 6:45pm.

Five in a row, with game 2 of the day-night double dip underway in just a little over two hours.

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Phillies get Cliff Lee

One step closer to the dreaded Yankees-Phillies World Series. It would be like 1999 all over again.

Scoreboard Watching


When you're hot, you're hot- all things go your way. I could've called Luis Castillo out from the Promenade Level. What was Razor Shines thinking when you are up 3-0 with no one out in the 8th inning? Sure enough, Francoeur struck out and Tatis popped up in the following at bats, so maybe Razor knew something we all didn't.

It didn't matter in the end. Sean Green did his best to prevent us from catching the 10:17 out of Woodside, but failed. You gotta love that 7 express with 61st as the next stop. If you can get from your seat in the Promenade at 10:00 and be on a train at 10:17 (in addition to having a little luck on your side), you know traffic flow leaving the park has greatly improved at Citi.

One thing that was not an improvement was the second scoreboard in right field. Gone were the lineups and pitch count. At least the pitch count could be found on one of the auxiliary scoreboards. If you didn't keep a scorecard, your only hope for knowing the lineup was memory or checking who's in the on-deck circle. Instead they made the second scoreboard in right a stretched out copy of the left. I know they are trying to satisfy the fans with obstructed views down in the left field reserved, but having two giant scoreboards almost side by side showing the exact same thing is a waste of resources.

Thankfully, the second board went out in the third inning. Zap. It was gone. Not sure if it was intentional, or a malfunction, but I'm glad it happened. I'm sure many others in the park would appreciate the return of the lineups. Don't you miss that giant Shea board now?

In order to please those who can't see Citivision is it too much to ask for that feed to be piped into all those TVs down there instead of the SNY broadcast? I'm sure they can make that happen. Leave the SNY broadcast on the TVs in all of the concessions, and have Citivision run on all the screens for the audience in the lower levels. Now everyone can watch the Kiss Cam. And we can have our lineups back.

Four in a row with Johan up next. Maybe there's some hope.

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

A Winning Streak


Oh, and there was a baseball game last night. After the soap opera that was the afternoon, it was good to just watch a game for a change. Good for the Mets that they did it in dramatic fashion.

Fernando Tatis came up with the bases loaded and one out in a tie game in the 8th, double play city. But the Rockies forgot that Tatis was also Mr. GrandSlam. He hit his eight career slam, and it was on an 0-2 pitch.

The bullpen was solid. Four shutout innings, two by Brian Stokes and one each by Pedro Feliciano (who faced righties, and got them out!) and K-Rod (who threw only 11 pitches!) shut the door.

The ball was flying out of the big ballpark today. We have not really had many of those nasty, humid days in the city. Maybe some power numbers creep back up as the dog days descend upon us and 2/3 of the next month is played at Citi.

In one second the Mets have three runs in a game, the next they have seven. I'm still amazed. Word of warning: my 1-5 record this season is in play tonight as the Mets go for four straight. And the dreaded weekday afternoon game, which the Mets are winless when I attend the last couple of seasons? That's scheduled for this Thursday.

Flushing Circus


The Mets finally got it right on Monday afternoon, announcing that they had fired Tony Bernazard. Then, they managed to screw it up.

This is how I interpreted Omar's comments:

Tony was a good friend of ours and we had to make a decision. The negative press gave us no choice. The fans were ripping us apart and asking for this guy's head. I feel so bad I had to do this to my good friend Tony. But you know what? We're not going to take this quietly. It was Adam Rubin- Adam, who lobbied for Tony's job. Adam- your stories gave us no choice but to do what we had to do. You wanted a man's job and you know what, you're not going to get it you son of a bitch! You still want to cover our team? We'll make your life a living hell.

Mission accomplished? Yet to be determined. I can tell you I will be reading the Daily News the rest of the season, so if anything, Omar did the paper a favor.

Return of the Triple


And the game was not even played at Citi Field.

This one was over in the first inning. Houston was up 3-0, Livan Hernandez was being battered around and then it was the Astros who shot themselves in the foot. A boneheaded play by the third base coach sending the slow-footed Geoff Blum on a base hit short-circuited a bigger inning. Then Underpants got caught stealing second. The Mets had life and they actually took advantage. Livan went from one step out of the rotation, not making it out of the first inning, to a solid 7 inning effort for the win. Aside from that bottom of the first inning (before the last two outs), the Mets actually looked good in this game.

*****

Texas still loves a former Met who was on our opening day roster:

Darren O'Day. He continues to impress. Amazing the club got him off waivers earlier this season. The Mets have to be regretting that.

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Flash in the Pan


No, I'm not talking about Jon Niese, who pitched well last night. Niese had been on a roll in his last several triple A starts and was ready for a promotion to the big leagues this time around. This kind of pitching could be something we should get used to seeing, unlike that of remove-the-S-and-place-a-V Nieve. I'm talking about the Mets offense.

10 runs? Three homers? David Wright finally has come to the realization that Omir Santos passed him in the homerun department and does something about it. Can we see more of that please? Also that play late in the game where he made a nice pickup on the backhand- and then actually fired the ball to first with authority instead of lazily flinging it over. More of that, please.

Despite pitching in a non-save situation, an issue with most closers, K-Rod's ERA has now climbed over 2.00. It's only going to get higher folks.

A win overshadowed the decision to put Gary Sheffield on the DL, when he insisted he was fine. The Mets now have 13 pitchers to 12 batters on their roster. The insanity continues.

Saturday, July 25, 2009

It's Why He Left in the First Place


A decision that should have been made because of his bat. Mike Hampton hit a homerun vs the Mets last night. It's nothing new for the pitcher/slugger. A poor decision by Bobby Valentine back in 2000 helped seal Hampton's ticket out of the town the following winter.

Hampton came off an NLCS in which he went 2-0 with a ERA of 0.00 in 16 innings pitched, giving up only 9 hits and 4 walks. That's a WHIP of 0.81. It got him MVP of the series. Hitting-wise, on the season he hit .274 and drove in 8 in 34 at bats (a pace of 129 RBI in 550 ABs). Al Leiter went 3 for 58.

Yet it was Al Leiter who was tabbed to start game 1 of the World Series when it was clear Hampton was the ace of the staff at the moment and was on top of his game. The clincher of the LCS was a Monday night. Game 1 of the series vs that other team in the city was on Saturday, giving Hampton the normal four days of rest. Leiter had a very good season and was fine in his only LCS start giving up 3 runs in 7 innings, striking out 9. However, the game 1 starter would be slated to pitch in game 5, the final game under National League rules where the pitcher hits. The game 2 starter does not have that benefit.

Al Leiter went 0 for 3 in that game 5, despite a valiant pitching effort that led him to be on fumes in that fateful ninth inning. All three of his plate appearances came with runners on base. I think we all would have rather had Mike Hampton up in those spots. Also, if Mike Hampton pitches game 1, maybe he isn't interviewed after game 2, the one which he did start- you know, the Clemens bat-throw game. Maybe he isn't asked the question in which he responds the following:

"Different people react in different ways," he said. "Somebody throws a bat at me, I'm gonna fight. But some people aren't that way. Me, I'm a hot-tempered guy."

He didn't exactly endear himself to his teammates with the comments. He came off an MVP performance, was on full rest and yet was not given the ball in game 1. Plus, Colorado has a great school system for his children. Why should he have stayed? The Mets offered a boatload of money for him to stay. Maybe, just maybe if he had started game 1, the school thing would not have been enough for him to leave.

Thursday, July 23, 2009

The Yankees Also Lost Two of Three to the Nats


So we should not feel so bad. By the way, have the Yankees lost a home game since that series?

Late post on this one as I took the drive back home from Montreal today. A GPS is a must for anyone driving. Make a wrong turn, no problem. "Recalculating," says the handy device, and an alternate route is computed for you. Keep making wrong turns. Explore the countryside. You'll always be headed where you need to go. Just avoid starting the car while it's plugged into the cigarette charger. Had a scare a few weeks ago when I thought I fried it, but it just needed a hard reset.

That's all I got on this game. Which is nothing. I got back to the room and fired up gameday audio in the 9th inning and it was not long after 9:00. Just saw a note in the boxscore that Luis Castillo was ejected in the second inning. The Mets sure know how to make these stinkers quick, which is a good thing.

Got tickets to four of the ten games on the homestand next week. Should be good times at Citi.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

N.Y. Killer

John Lannan has now won three straight vs teams from New York, going into the 9th each time. Two of those games he went the distance in which he gave up 0 earned runs. Can you take a guess which games were against the Mets and which were against the Yankees?

Oliver Perez was...ugh. Instead of Bad Ollie or Good Ollie, let's just say we're seeing Typical Ollie. Six innings, six more walks. He has walked 8.84 batters per nine innings this season!

Despite getting a hit, David Wright is falling into one of those slumps again. When that happens, the Mets put up zeroes. He should have had a couple of hits today though, as Nyjer Morgan made a nice play to take away an extra base hit.

Newsflash: Bobby Parnell faced three batters and retired all of them.

Ranger players report to training camp for physicals on September 12.

If you're not a fan of bacon in every meal, avoid St. Hubert's in Montreal.

It's the Nats


I heard the score was 5-0 after a couple of innings. Livan was on his way out of the rotation. But no, it was the Mets who were ahead. And they held on for the win.

Biggest play of the game was the double play ball hit by Adam Dunn, who was the tying run in the 8th. Great play by Daniel Murphy, who as we see, can pick it at first. With him it's just a matter of instincts and a little more flexibility to stretch. Pedro Feliciano was stretching indeed, looking like a natural first baseman on the return throw by Alex Cora to complete the twin killing.

When ordering coffee from Tim Horton's here in Montreal, when they ask you if you want cream and sugar, you say yes, then they go 1 and 1, they mean 1 cream and 1 sugar. The cashier during the AM rush hour seemed quite annoyed at my lack of understanding. It's probably because I spoke English.

Monday, July 20, 2009

Catastrophe


Yes, a Mets game was airing in Canada! And it was in French no less. Had flashbacks of watching the Montreal Expos. They were using the ESPN video feed, but play by play and analysis was done in the native language. I guess I timed the trip here pretty well, seeing that RDS airs the Sunday night game of the week.

What was there to see anyway? Fernando Nieve, yet another replacement, has been added to the walking wounded. You can't make this stuff up. Tim Redding was Tim Redding. Everyone else gave up some runs. Even Bobby Parnell brought up some agita by walking two batters after retiring the first two in a game where the outcome was set.

Now comes the series we have all been waiting for. The last time the Mets played the Washington Nationals, we said "no more softies"- the schedule was going to be tough for the next month and half, and boy was it ever. This upcoming three game series with the Nats is going to reveal a lot. It's already a hopeless situation, but this matchup could be the final nail in the coffin.

Sunday, July 19, 2009

That Would've Sucked


Greetings from downtown Montreal, where the only sign of sports is advertisements of the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League. Everyone on their hockey team played with someone else last season, so how can you expect pictures of them anywhere?

Word comes from back home that the Mets won yesterday. The score was 5-1 and the gist of it was 1. Santana was pitching and 2. the Mets did not hit any homeruns.

I only got internet access today after a mix-up with the wireless here. What they call wireless is not exactly that- you use a cable they provide. Anyway, after seeing some highlights of the game, you realize the Mets could have easily blown this one, and it would have been bad. Our lefties in the pen could not get an out, yet Sean Green and Brian Stokes someone managed to get just enough to preserve the 8th for Francisco Rodriguez in the 9th. And what a 9th that was. A nice clean 10-pitch-two-strikeout performance. Of course, by that time the score was already 5-1, thanks to some more smallball by the Mets which included a suicide squeeze.

Just looking at the highlights on mlb.com made me glad I did not have to endure the Fox telecast. Use your mute buttons when watching the ESPN feed tonight. I'll check in with the Gameday audio feed.

Friday, July 17, 2009

"Let's Go Beat the Mets"


Boy, they sure did. Maddux gets what he wants just by saying something, even in a retirement ceremony.

Is this game a final yet? This post is coming with the score 11-0 in the 9th. The only question is whether it will be yet another shutout.

Mike Pelfrey was absolutely smacked around today and was left in there to suffer some more growing pains. Is there going to be any more growth? Have we seen the best of Big Pelf?

Gary Sheffield looked like he pulled a hammy in the outfield, but the Mets say it's only cramps in his leg. He'll be out four to six weeks.

Enjoy the stellar Fox and ESPN broadcasts while I get out for a few days and head up to Scott Gomez's new digs in Montreal. Is there anybody currently on that team other than Carey Price who was there last season? Assuming the wireless in my hotel works, I'll be checking in with my first blog posts from outside NYC.

Nice at bat here by Jeremy Reed, staying alive despite being down 11 runs. Never mind. Ground out. Game over.

7 1/2 With 76 to Play


Hey, if 7 1/2 with 17 to play can be overcome, 76 games left is plenty of time. That's where the Mets are at after another loss, the first in the Jeff Francoeur era. What's next, Ryan Church getting a game winning hit in one of the next two games?

We got the "state of the injured" address from Omar yesterday. While it's encouraging to see Jose on the field, he's still a few weeks away and by then it could be too late. He's the one we need the most. Alex Cora has hit an absolute wall and is just about an automatic out in the bottom of that lineup.

How about that bullpen? Bobby Parnell cannot get anybody out. The batting average against is in the .300's and rising. It's not supposed to go that way. I'm not going to go crazy on Pat Misch- he actually did a nice job and the only hard hit ball he gave up was an out. Remember this fella, who was on the roster earlier this season? Here's what one Dallas news columnist had to say about him:

O'Day has been one of the best stories of the season for the Rangers, pitching 28 innings (20 H, 7 BB, 28 K, 3 HR) in a legitimate setup role, rather than as a specialist. He hasn't dominated left-handed hitters, but he's collected enough big outs against them to succeed for full inning stints late in games.

Sounds like someone we can use right now.

Oliver Perez, was, eh. Not great, not bad. Not worth the money, though. It was nice to see him get out of that first and third one out spot.

As long as we're 7 1/2 with 17 to play we have a shot.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

All-Star Snooze

The game lasted only 2:31 and still managed to finish well past many kid's bedtimes, as well as mine. Gotta love DVR. Although I gotta get used to this new Navigator system that Time Warner zapped me with yesterday. Breezing through the game this morning, I think it's ok. The delayed response I feared after seeing it in other systems was not there. I can now go through a game in 3x ffwd and still manage to cut back to every at-bat result after seeing the base/out state change on the scoreboard. Not an option for a crucial situation if you don't want to get spoiled, but a nice way to catch every at-bat in a reasonable amount of time.

I love how they hype the starting pitchers before the game like they have anything to do with the end result. Lincecum and Halladay gave up most of the runs in this game, so they did influence the result in some way, but it's not like they're pitching 6+ innings.

K-Rod needs only six pitches to get through one inning, his lowest output all season. In the all-star game. Go figure. Jayson Werthless helped out, making a nice catch that was sure to fall in. This guy is not so worthless- go through the Phillies lineup position by position. Scary. And Rollins is having a bad year.

***

Pedro has signed with the Phillies (if you asked why I linked the Vancouver Sun of all newspapers, it's because I googled pedro phillies and that was the most recent hit). Watch him have a solid second half of the season- should be very interesting if he's slated to pitch in one of the games at Citi later this season.

***

The Korpedo for Lisin? The kid looks like he's got some moves, but then again so did Josef Balej.

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Big Apple Circus


The trick is to put the apple up for the seventh inning stretch. By doing that the Mets get homerun happy and start hitting them. OK, not quite- as far as I know the apple is always up for the seventh inning stretch. Sure enough, it was the focal point on the telecast this time, and then two of the next three Mets at bat hit homeruns to bring up the apple when it counts. However, it did not go up the for the second homerun, hit by Fernando Tatis. It takes 45 seconds to "recharge." No support for back to back homeruns (and this pair was not even back to back)? What kind of contraption is this thing? The old apple probably would have went up and down with no problem. Get that thing out the bullpen plaza and bring it back where it belongs.

Enough about fruit. What looked to be a laugher was anything but. A win is a win, and all of a sudden the Mets have a two game winning streak. Daniel Murphy is even figuring out how to stretch for balls at first base. Alex Cora looks comfortable in the 8-hole. The Mets pounded out 16 hits!

David Wright looked like he wanted to rip Mike Pelfrey a new you know what when he had that conference with him in the 5th.

That Joey Votto ejection was just waiting to happen. He's been hosed with the strike zone and was very respectful in not showing up the umpire when making his thoughts known the previous two games. Today he had enough.

Just when Sean Green had his ERA go down to a decent 4.9 he allows the first and only three batters he faces to get on. They all eventually come around to score. ERA now up to 5.54.

Welcome Back Johan


Now that was the type of outing from the Johan Santana we all know and love. He threw strikes, made it look easy right throughout, then hung in there when things were getting dicey and he was well over 100 pitches.

Jeff Francoeur contributed in his first at-bat with a 2-rbi single, not the prettiest of hits, but a hit nonetheless. The Mets are 1-0 with him in the lineup, what's not to like?

Maybe, just maybe a reserve player can step up to be a solid player who deserves to be an everyday player. Angel Pagan, can you possibly be the one?

After ragging on Omir Santos a couple of posts in a row, he comes out and gets three hits. Who should I trash today? That Pelfrey kid has been horrible, how many innings will he last today?

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Churchy for Frenchie


Last night's game was another typical Bronson Arroyo start in Flushing. He shut down the Mets for a complete game and the Mets were once again shut out, the third time in a week.

The story of last night was not the game itself, but a trade between divsion rivals. We get Jeff Francoeur for Ryan Church. Does anything else need to be said about the fact that Church was just not a popular guy in the clubhouse? You can listen to Omar spin it all you want. The only defense you get is a better arm- and Church's throw's from right were not too shabby, either. Hitting wise you get a free swinger who's on-base has been hovering around .300 for his career. I guess the Mets don't believe in on-base percentage. See Omir Santos.

That being said, Church might have reached his ceiling, while Francoeur might have some potential. Maybe a change of scenery will do good for him. Maybe we'll be dazzled by all the guys he throws out from the Mo-Zone and cheer for every wide turn by baserunners who's brakes come to screeching halt when he retrieves a base hit. All we do know is Church was not liked here, whether it was by Jerry or teammates, and was the one who had to go.

Friday, July 10, 2009

Batting Practice


That's about what Livan has been throwing lately. More of the same early inning trouble last night.

It's a shame to see such a brutal call from an umpire cost the team two runs. And to think, the Dodgers complained about the play at third to end the inning. Do you realize the gift you got just a couple of batters prior?

I would like to see guys like Brian Schneider and Daniel Murphy get more of an opportunity vs lefties. The Omir Santos Cinderella clock has struck midnight. The guy has an on base of .290 and can't throw anybody out. Murphy only gets most of the hits in a winning effort the night before, makes an unreal play at first and gets rewarded with a seat on the bench.

Tim Redding is getting knocked around even in garbage time.

Randy Wolf was one of the free agents available in the open market this past winter in case you forgot.

What the heck is that thing on Don Mattingly's lower lip?

***

I'm liking the Rangers signing of Ales Kotalik. We have one of the best shootout goalies in the league and now one of the best shootout snipers. Those type of guys have been out the door the last few seasons but it's nice to get one back. Plus he can play the point on the power play. And he could (for 3 mill a year we hope) and should match Zherdev's production.

With the Rangers taking steps to improve their power play, you wonder how this will affect their penalty killing. Chris Drury and Ryan Callahan can't be expected to play the full two minutes- who else will be the specialists there now that Sjostrom and likely Betts are gone? I guess we'll depend on the old saying, your best penalty killer is your goaltender.

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Bad Ollie


Don't drink the Kool-Aid the Mets are trying to give you about Oliver Perez's performance last night. Aside from getting the "big" out, is there anything to be encouraged about? You realize the last time we see him on an active major league roster he was demoted to the bullpen. The mystery knee injury was a cover up and gave him time to clear his head. Faked another injury during a bad rehab start to give himself some more time. Was encouraged by two mediocre performances to keep on pitching. The Mets were so encouraged and desperate that they called him back up. What do we get? Seven walks in five innings, including a typical four pitch walk to start off the game!

It's not going to change. The Mets have invested too much in him. He has to pitch and has to find his 2007/second half 2008 version real soon. Otherwise we're going to see more of these 3 1/2 hour games. Ollie was lucky to get the W last night thanks to the Met ground balls finding holes during the third inning. Nothing to get encouraged about.

Sorry to harp on the negative, as a win is a win. It's going to be negative until you start seeing crisp baseball being played on the field and some balls hit with authority, not extra base hit fly balls that are hit toward Manny Ramirez and would be caught by any average outfielders.

That being said, you had to love the Daniel Murphy play at first. Like the David Wright barehand dive a few seasons ago, that's one you won't see again anytime soon. An article with the video.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Lifeless


Talk about dead. Not only the team, where there was another listless performance, an 8-0 loss. How about Citi Field? The fans are frustrated, but the boos aren't as vociferous. And what is there to boo? The team simply stinks right now. It's not even about underperforming high-paid veterans, the target of such boos. There's no hope. The fans know it. Manny Ramirez barely got a reaction in just his fourth game off the suspension for using performance-enhancing drugs. Mike Pelfrey struck out a Dodger in the second inning and there was NO reaction from the crowd. You usually get something even for strike 1 or strike 2. But barely a reaction for strike 3? Wow.

I want to give Citi Field time for some real meaningful games to be played there before you can judge the atmosphere. Gary Cohen made a big deal about the place being juiced up for the Phillies series a couple of weeks ago. I tend to agree with Gary on many points, but not this one. The place has not come close to Shea in the pumped-up-for-a-game environment just yet. Everyone's busy getting tacos in the first couple of innings and then the lower bowl is spending the rest of the game in the Delta/Ebbetts/Caesar's Club. It's sad, but it's the reality of today's world.

As for the latest injury report from Omar Minaya yesterday: expect Reyes, Beltran, and Maine to miss the rest of the season.

***

Chris Pronger signed a seven-year extension with the Flyers. Have fun with that contract in a couple of years when he becomes another aging Derian Hatcher.

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Hopeless


That about describes the Mets situation after being swept in a three game series in Philadelphia. With every runner the Mets put on base (not that there were many), you kind of waited for the rally-killer in the form of a double play or strikeout.

Johan was solid, only giving up the two solo homeruns, although he only had three strikeouts. I'll feel a lot better about him being back once the K's are back to the 5-10 per game level.

Despite being an absolute double play machine, you can't fault Tatis today. He hit that ball hard, and the Phillies defense is sucking everything up. Since when is Ryan Howard all of a sudden Keith Hernandez at first base?

If you are in a fantasy league and have unlimited transactions my advice to you is simply pick up the next starter vs the Mets. That means check for Kershaw, Kuroda and Wolf on the waiver wire this week.

Meager


Yet another inning where the Mets look like little leaguers. The problem here is you have Ryan Church, a regular, making an awful throw to allow a run to score. You have David Wright, a regular, allowing a foul pop up to fall in. And you have Omir Santos, one half of a platoon (so consider that a regular), drop a pop up. All in one inning. Do you really think this stuff gets fixed with the returns of all our injured players?

Jamie Moyer looked like the Jamie Moyer who stymied us last year. This time around it's a little easier. It's not surprising that the Mets might get out of a three-game series in Citizens Bank Park without hitting a homerun. Pathetic.

At this point, even if they get swept today, they will only be four games out. Keep telling yourself that. Reality will strike us in a few weeks when we're ten games behind the Marlins and the Braves. This team is weak. It's got nothing left. We got three guys in the lineup between Murphy, Tatis and Evans that do not have a position in the field. And you wonder why there are missed cutoffs and mental fielding errors? It's on the job training and it's not going to go swimmingly.

It was announced that Oliver Perez will return to the rotation this week. Is that anything to get excited about? He had no command whatsoever in his latest rehab start. I'm not sure if the Mets had any choice in terms of how long they can leave him down there "on rehab" but if he could've he should've stayed there until he had that real quality start. When Ollie gets knocked out in the third inning against the Dodgers after walking five, you'll wonder what the hell is the difference.

Saturday, July 4, 2009

A Little Dose of 5th Starter Reality

Two games, two pitchers who were competing for the 5th starters job in Spring Training. The result? A lot of what we expected- not much.


Thursday:

Tim Redding was knocked out early, and the Mets were in a 5-0 hole in the third inning. This was Pittsburgh after all. However, the Mets came back with some small ball, tying the game. Fernando Tatis came back from the dead to be a star in this one. He homered to give the Mets an 8-5 lead, one they would blow in the 9th inning. Did I tell you we are going to see more K-Rod blown saves? However, Tatis took one for the team in the 10th, getting plunked, stealing second, and scoring on a Ryan Church single. K-Rod stayed in the game and almost threw as many pitches as Redding to hold on to the W. No more games during the work please. I don't know how Cub fans deal with all those afternoon starts.


Friday:

Livan Hernandez was throwing batting practice, plain and simple. Philly plays exactly like the team to beat, as proclaimed by me in their last meeting, despite the fact that they have lost just about every game since then. Rollins hits, Utley hits, Victorino drives us nuts and Werth plays like Barry Bonds in his heydey. To make matters worse, the Mets are wearing Philly-like red caps for the holiday weekend (although the don't look as bad as the Yankees do at home). Can this die next season please? Put a patch with an American flag on the caps and sleeves. Leave the team colors alone.

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Big Pelf, Marian and Donald


Around this time last season, Mike Pelfrey established himself as the number two starter we were expecting him to be this season. Although we would've liked to have seen it from the beginning of the season, hopefully we see a repeat performance. Yesterday was a good start.

The Mets were outhit 7-5. They struck out 12 times. Hey, a win is a win. Right now you take it.

I thought Pelf would get another batter or two in that eight inning, at least for the righties leading up to Prince Fielder, which is Feliciano time. It would've been a shame had Sean Green blown that one, but thankfully it didn't happen.

Fernando Martinez went 0-for-3. Send the kid down. The team should be fine alternating Ryan Church and Jeremy Reed in center.

The black and gold house of horrors is up next for yet another weekday afternoon game, which means more of MLB Gameday and the occasional radio call.

***

As for Day 1 of Free Agent Frenzy regarding the Rangers:

Once you lose Colton Orr, you had to get an enforcer. Donald Brashear, at two years, 1.4 mil per? Not sure about that one. Maybe Colton wanted more years, after all he did get four from Toronto. As much as you hated Brashear (my last memory of him featured one of my rare Garden cussing outbursts) you have to like a guy like that on your team. Age is a concern and you wonder if he can keep doing what he's always been doing. Sather said he's a little quicker to the puck that Orr. Really Glen, did you factor age into this at all and wonder if he might lose a step? One year fine, but two, you can only hope for the best.

Marian Gaborik is now a Ranger. Bottom line is the guy is worth it if he's healthy. But all those groin injuries is A LOT to be concerned about. Sather can talk all he wants about the hip being 100%. It's not about the hip. It's the fragile groin, which is always under stress when skating.

They needed a pure 40+ goal guy. Heatley has attitude problems. Gaborik has injury issues. Hossa wanted 12 years. That's all that was available. I guess you take the best out of your options and hope the injury bug does not strike.

Now let's pick up a mean defensive defenseman and we're ready for training camp in September.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Brewhaha


Didn't that fourth inning just about sum up this losing streak, which is now at five?

Fernando Martinez hit his first career homerun. Too bad is came in the same game where he literally fell on his face in centerfield with the bases loaded, leading to a 4-run play capped by Johan throwing the ball away. Send the kid down.

Speaking of Johan, for how many starts in a row are we going to hear about him not having his best stuff? You wonder exactly how much of a pass he is going to get with every start in which he lacks his one-time pinpoint control, which are coming at an alarming rate. Walking a pitcher? Haven't we had enough of that after Sunday night? I guess some credit goes to Ryan Braun, who really went down to get that low pitch and hit it well to clear the bases.

I want my .300 hitting, 25+ HR David Wright instead of .350 slap hitter David. He hit one that was vintage David, outta here to right-center. The only positive of the night. The kid hitting the homerun in the ninth followed a double play- whoop-de-damn-doo at that point.

***

Frankly, I though Scott Gomez was untradeable, but it happened. This is a great move, even if we got a bag of peanuts in return. No disrespect to Gomer, who I didn't mind in his time here, but the salary was just way too much in this cap era.

However, it's July 1. The worst day of the year. Who will the Rangers overpay this year now that they have a little cap room?