Archive for April, 2011

For as long as I can remember the Mets always seem to struggle against a pitcher who was recently called up from the minors. Isn’t anyone scouting the minors?

Pelfry made need to go the Trachsel route and spend some time on the farm to get back in sync. Warthen made a comment that about seeing something good in the pen, and he would like to see about twenty five games or so to come to a conclusion. The Mets don’t have twenty five days to spare.

Last nights game was emotionally draining and demoralizing. Mets do not have that bad a record against Halliday, lets hope that Niese keeps Howard off of the bases.

That one step the Mets took up the ladder of success was a tenuous one at best. After spending a day out of the basement, they are back at the bottom again. At least it wasn’t a long fall, and it appears that the team knows the combination to unlock the cellar door.

Even though it is still early in the season, this is a very important weekend for the Mets, and they need to take at least two out of three games from the Phillies. If they take two out of three, they will still be on the dark side of five hundred, yet two games closer to the Philadelphia. (Most people want to get as far away from Phillie as possible.) If they lose, they will be about eight games out of first on the first of May, that would not be pretty, and would surely blot out all the excitement and hope that built up over the last week. If they win, two out of three, they will be about three games out on the first of May, a much rosier picture.

Paulino is supposed to come up this weekend, not sure if they are going to send Nickeas down, or keep three catchers and can Hairston. Thole helped his cause last night.

Just a week ago even the most optimistic fans were beginning to come to the conclusion that their team was crap. The summer of 2011 would be a waste of time. Soon, the GM would be begin to sell positive assets for spare parts and possibilities. One of the biggest ‘surely to be traded’ chips showed last night how valuable their energy and passion can be.

Reyes sent a ball into left center that had triple written all over it.  Jerry Hairston Jr proved he is a better actor than a third baseman, and convinced the third base umpire to call Reyes out, when he was clearly safe. While Jose was back in the dugout still fuming about the call, Daniel Murphy had one of the most professional at bats that you will ever see. Murph’s job was to atone for the bad call, and he did that by knocking one out of the park.

While Jim Riggleman managed like a sixteen year old playing Sratomatic, all of TC’s moves worked. After allowing the Nats to score in the next frame with a few mental lapses and apparent bad luck, the Mets came back and scored four in the top of the ninth. K Rod kept the Nats from scoring in the bottom of the frame, and got the Mets to climb an important rung on the ladder of success, they got out of last place.

How far out of last remains to be seen. The important thing is the Mets did not surrender the way they have the last two seasons. They responded with grit and passion and won a game that just a short week ago, they would have certainly lost.

On Sunday, Terry said that Gee would be better off starting in the minors than relieving in the majors. The major league reliever goes to the minors to start, and the minor league starter stays up to relieve. So far Sandy is not afraid to eat his mistakes, now he has a minor league pitcher making $2.4 million a year. They need Gee to fill in during the two weeks rest that Chris Young needs between starts.

Gil Hodges had a big hand in starting the trend of five starters, maybe Terry Collins will begin the trend of six starters.

Pridie will have to have more games like the one he had on Sunday, because it looks like F Mart is going to play his way on to the big club very soon.

While on the subject of center fielders, Lenny Dykstra is in the news again. He is accused of asking a prospective house keeper to give him a happy ending massage, guess that is why the ad was on Craigs List. If you ask me, the biggest crime is his haircut.

Had the pleasure of being at CitiField for Sunday’s game. My impression about the place is that it nothing feels real. I watched baseball being played, saw fans scattered in the stands, but it just didn’t feel like I was at a real Mets game. (The San Francisco Giants/ Baltimore Orioles outfield coloring sure doesn’t help the cause.)

Even though the crowd was sparse, there was life in the stadium.  There was no sense of here it comes again when there were two outs, or when the Mets could hear the rattle of the Diamond Backs getting ready to take a bite out of the lead. The crowd  witnessed the Mets taking advantage of someone else’s mistake and creating scoring opportunities for themselves, and for the most part, taking advantage of those opportunities. Outside of D.J. who punched his ticket to Buffalo, the pitching looked good, as did the defense and the situational hitting. Everything fell into place.

Maybe the popup bunt double play that ended Wednesday night’s game was the bottom. Since that night, things have been falling into place. For the first time in two or three years, the Mets are scoring runs, and getting hits with two outs. On top of that, if they lose their lead, you no longer see that dejected look in the dugout, the look that says ‘we have to score two runs to win, and we know that will never happen’ look. They actually make an attempt, and have been succeeding at getting those runs back, and then tacking on some more.

Since the number 7 express got me to Port Authority in record time, I had a few minutes to do a bit of shopping. I stopped in the Duane Reed inside the terminal, and purchased a packet of Terry Collins flavored Kool Aid. Not quite ready to add water yet, but I will spend some time this afternoon reading the back of the package.

Mets played a nice game all around last night. Pelfry looked good, even though he did not feel good. He moved his pitches up and down, and in and out effectively. He also got out of an early scare, with a man on third, no one out in the first.

For five innings on Thursday, the Mets were playing their projected starting outfield on the field.  Pagan goes on the DL; Pridie gets called up; the ball finds him immediately; and once again, when an opportunity with the big club is available, Fernando Martinez is hurt. A day after Pagan goes down soon after getting caught up in Justin Turner’s arm, Beltran and Murphy have a near miss. If the Mets outfielders were airplanes, the FAA would be investigating.

Bay looks good, his swing is nice and even, with no wasted motion. SNY had a nice graphic on Bay and the Mets winning percentage when is in the line up, and his effect on David Wright as well.

While not a fan of instant replay in baseball, I was glad it was available last night. Ike Davis is one strong guy, two nights in a row he jacks home runs to dead center.

If and when Paulino ever comes up, I would rather see the Mets carry three catchers than have Scott Hairston on the bench as a fifth outfielder.

Izzy is giving a clinic on how to pitch with every outing, I’m rooting for this guy.

Once Terry Collins was ejected, I knew that the Mets would win the game. There is a reason this guy did not even get a sniff at a major league job for twelve years. The job he had prior to this managing gig was perfect for him, a roving evaluator and instructor. His energy can only be tolerated for so long. He is a good guy to come in, plant a few seeds in a youngsters head and move on. You can’t continue to put the pedal to the metal every second of the race. The Ed Kranepool Society blog really hits the nail on the head on the whole Sandy/Terry issue. This is what I have been thinking since day one.

Nice to see David knock one out of the park, it was even nicer to see his second hit. Congratulations to Mike Nickeas on his first major league home run. Chris Capuano looked very good, on the mound and at the plate. Jason Bay got his Christmas gift from Hunter Pence a few days before Easter with a four base error.

I’m thinking about getting a ten dollar ticket from stubhub fro Sunday’s game.

Big Pelf now has a single digit ERA, lets hope he shaves a few more points off of it tonight.

Went to Citi Field last night and saw the Mets and Rockies. The good news that with the exception of Shake Shack, you could walk right up and to any concession stand.

Even though it is still very early in the season, anytime your team loses six out of its last seven games there is a cause for concern.

Pelfry threw 113 pitches last night.  He would consistently take an 0-2 or 1-2 count and before you knew it, the batter would take him deep in the count. He can not find a pitch to put the batters away.

You keep hearing that with the exception of one game, they have had a chance to win. Last time I looked at the standings, there is no category for had a chance to win.

I do not know what is it about third base. Once they get a runner on third with less than two out, it seems that only an act of God can get them in to score.

I was a little surprised that Beltran swung 3 and 0. It worked because of smart base running by Wright. He ran back to first and got in a run down long enough to let the run score. Pagan made the biggest blunder of the night, trying to stretch a single into a double. When he kept going past first, I thought that some one must have bobbled the ball, he was out by the time he made it half way to second.

Murphy made a nice play, and had a key hit as well. He earned another start at second with his play last night.

Issy got a nice hand when he came in, and he looked pretty good. He threw a 93 mph fastball for a strike, and followed that up with a 78 mph curve over the plate. Welcome back Issy.

A few more games like last night and Parnell will be a Bison.

A lot of people are saying that all of Pelfry’s problems are in his head, they really could be. If you take a good look at the way he behaves on the mound, he could well be one of the major leaguers who actually needs Adderal. He has a lot of symptoms of ADD on display: he often appears to lose concentration in a split second; the compulsive hand licking and fidgeting with his hat; the way he shrugs his shoulders; the flashes of brilliance, followed by being totally ineffective. It looks like his brain and body are not very good friends.

Last night’s game appeared to be one that Mets fans would talk about for years to come. Coming back after being down by seven runs and sticking it to the Phillies, who have stuck a few sticks in the Mets’ hearts a few times in recent years.

The nice thing about last night is that they tried to win as a team. In the last two or three years, someone on the team would have tried to hit a six run home run, with no one on base. Last night, it was single, after single, after single. Everyone did what they needed to do, no one tried to be a hero and rise above the team.

Blaine Boyer was cruising along, when a check swing double with two outs, started everything to unravel. The Phillies did what they had to do, after the Mets scored five, much like the Mets did what they had to do after the Phillies had them by seven runs. You can’t win em all. After the game, Boyer shaved off his viking beard, and will now be sporting the Mark McGwire signature red and gray goatee.

Heading out of town this weekend, will not have that much time to check in and put my two cents in the kitty. However, once I get back from the busy weekend, I will be heading straight to Citi Field on Monday for my first game of the year. Guess who is scheduled to be pitching for the Mets? I think I still have a few doses of Ritalin in my medicine cabinet, if I could be assured that I could sneak them past airport security at Citi Field, I would bring them with me.

If Chris Young hadn’t spent so much time on the base paths, he may have pitched seven innings. Chris snuck into the Mets record books in unusual fashion, he became the first Mets pitcher to ever get two hits in one inning. He showed that he knows how to pitch, keeping a tough line up off balance. Tom Seaver often says that there are two or three outs that you have to get to win a ball game, last night Chris Young showed that that theory is spot on.

It is early in the season, they haven’t even set foot on their home soil. There has been a lot of hype about the importance of these three games in Philly. It would make for a sour home coming if they limped home, without taking a single game from the Phils. Now, the worst that could happen is they come home a.500 team.

For me, the game started off a bit scary, two men one, no one out, and it felt like 2010 all over again. Wright strikes out, and in a flash, inning over, with two men left on base. Last year, the Mets would have stuck their tails between their legs and sulked for the remaining eight innings.

The Mets are 3 – 1 with Pagan and Beltran batting under .200. After his strike out, Wright, used the whole ballpark and collected four hits.

Bob Klapish has a nice take on the Mets new outlook on life.

Two more games before the home opener, 5 – 1 would be a nice welcome home.