Monthly Archives: May 2005
…now they have to win the next two…
…a few thoughts…
…carlos beltran better start driving in some of these runs, or the boo birds are going to hunt him down very soon…
…beltran, mike piazza and cliff floyd left 11 runners on base…this can’t continue…
…dae-sung koo is a mess…the thing is, i can’t tell if he’s downright awful, or just not pithing enough…frankly, i’m getting tired trying to figure it out…
…speaking of the bullpen, can mike dejean pitch like that when the mets are winning…
…i was impressed by jose reyes taking strikes and getting hits, miguel cairo’s ability to move reyes around the bases, and mike cameron defense in right field…in fact, on back to back plays cameron single handedly kept two runs from scoring on the way he tracked down and got to the ball…well done, mike…
…ugh…
…have a good night…
Mets RHP Steve Trachsel threw for roughly ten minutes off of flat ground before tonight’s game. According to MSG, Trachsel plans to increase his workload over the next few weeks, and hopes to be back pitching for the Mets before August…
Game Notes…
The Mets (26–25) return home for a 12–game stretch starting tonight against the Diamondbacks (29–22) at Shea Stadium…
RHP Kris Benson (3–1, 3.86) takes the hill for the Mets…Benson has allowed just five runs over his last 20 innings pitched…Last year, in one start against Arizona Benson allowed six earned runs over seven innings…
LHP Brad Halsey (3–2, 3.24) starts for Arizona…Pitching for the Yankees last season, Hallsey allowed seven runs against the Mets in just 3.1 innings pitched…
The Good…
The Mets are batting .303 against left handed pitching, helped by Mike Piazza batting .361 and David Wright’s .353…
The Mets are 18–3 when leading after the sixth inning…
Carlos Beltran will be in the Mets starting lineup tonight…
The Bad…
During their last road trip, Arizona went 7–3, and have won four of their last five road series…
Outlook…
With the way the Mets have played at home this season, there is absolutely no reason this team should win any less than two of three from Arizona…
Oddly enough, the Mets bullpen hasn’t been nearly as bad as people believed it would be. In fact, it’s actually pretty good. The thing is, it isn’t good enough for a team that hopes to be playing in a pennant race down the stretch…
Most Mets fans feel the team isn’t fielding it’s best pen from all of its resources, and that’s what is sparking the majority of reaction. Earlier this season, when Felix Heredia was twiddling his thumbs on the top step of the Mets bullpen, the blogosphere ran rampant with calls to ‘Free Heath Bell.’ And while Manny Aybar, Mike DeJean and Dae-Sung Koo allow hit after hit, and walk after walk, fans can’t help but notice Royce Ring, Blake McGinley, Jose Santiago and Juan Padilla all pitching well for Norfolk…
The apparent confusion doesn’t help, either. Fans asked for Scott Strickland, only to watch him walk from the Mets minor league system and sign with Houston, and report to their minor league system, instead. Roberto Hernandez looks like the best reliever in the league on one day, but then can’t strike out the opposing team’s pitcher a few days later. And, when asked about the roll of Aaron Heilman, Mets GM Omar Minaya told WFAN the former-starter would be the team’s long-man, only to be stumped when the radio show’s hosts reminded him they already had Aybar for that roll. Minaya just gulped and took the next question…
What we are witnessing is the creation of the modern bullpen. It doesn’t take an off-season, it takes all season. It’s just the way it is. Have you looked around baseball? It’s a mess out there. In addition to lacking any sort of structure, few teams have any sort of talent. The goal it seems is to just wait it out until the market shapes up. Relief pitchers, such as Billy Wagner, Jose Mesa, Danys Baez, Octavio Dotel, and maybe even Brad Lidge, will all be available. When and for how much remains to be seen. The key, apparently, is to just stay in the game, figuratively and literally, until the market opens. For all of their faults, it feels as though the Mets have the pieces to create a solid bullpen, the question is who comprises it? What I think we are seeing is that they just don’t know…
Pedro Martinez is a dream to watch, Tom Glavine is a professional and anyone who thought his career was officially over has not paying attention to him, and Kris Benson is the ideal number three starter…
After that, it gets interesting…
Word is that Steve Trachsel could realistically be back by August. If this happens, a trade will have to be made. Though Kaz Ishii is a wild man, he is also effective and he throws with his left-hand so moving him will not be a problem…
Standing quietly to the side, with their hands folded and a hint of patience and poise are Aaron Heilman and Jae Seo. I’m not sure if they are even friends, but they are certainly joined at the hip in the Mets lexicon. While Heilman has looked tremendous this season, as a starter and as a reliever, nobody has been able to figure out what the ceiling is for Jae Seo. In either case, both will make ideal trade bait. Not highly valued, but valued just enough…
In the end, it all comes down to Victor Zambrano. It’s as though he is the pivot point of the team’s starting rotation, and yet he’s also their weakest link. The ghost of Scott Kazmir will forever haunt this team it seems, regardless of whom the administration is. Therefore, until his arm falls off or the Mets sign Kazmir back as a free-agent, Victor Zambrano will apparently always be apart of this team’s starting rotation. I can handle this, though I’m not happy about it. If for no other reason than watching him pitch feels like torture, even when he is going well…
Many make the case that he can not be a reliever due to his control problem. I disagree. He has a short delivery from the stretch, a strong fastball and rarely throws high strikes. In fact, when he does miss the strike zone, it’s typically down and away with his slider or change-up. Maybe the ten minutes Rick Peterson used on Zambrano as a starter, would have been better spent teaching him how to just rip back and throw low fastballs for an inning…
Martinez, Glavine and Benson will be just fine. Trachsel will return and add stability. In the meantime, I think it’s good to have a little competition for the last spot…
My one concern with Willie Randolph and the relationship he has with his position players is the developing trend of giving guys a day off when they submit to the suggestion. This is a minor concern, mind you. But, is it so much to ask that the players I root be as passionate about being on the field as I am about watching the game. I understand baseball is a marathon, not a sprint. However, in the case of Sunday’s game against the Marlins, Randolph asks Mike Piazza if he wants to sit down for the day, being that it’s extra-hot in Miami and he caught the night before. Piazza, of course, accepts. Am I crazy for thinking Piazza should realize the significance of potentially sweeping the Marlins, knowing he’ll have the next day off thanks to the schedule makers, and, instead, grab his mitt and tell his manager that he wants in the game…
For whatever reason, I have a feeling this another one of Randolph’s assessment tests. He asks a player if he wants out, the player says yes, and Randolph makes a note of it. This mentality, based on the way Randolph played during his career, and having watched Joe Torre, cannot be acceptable to him. My thinking is that, while he tolerates it now, the players who bow out today will be the guys no longer here come next season…
This past weekend I was asked by a relative if this was the best Mets outfield I’d ever seen. It could be. I grew up watching the Mets with an outfield combination of Darryl Strawberry, Lenny Dykstra, Mookie Wilson and Kevin McReynolds. It was impressive. Though, never as impressive as it should’ve been. From that point on, I had been fed a steady diet of over-hyped prospects, aging veterans and bench-players turned starters who I desperately wanted to believe would be better than they were. It was painful…
This season’s outfield, though, seems legit. We panicked, of course, when Mike Cameron balked at playing right field, and assumed Cliff Floyd would carry last season’s struggles into this season. It’s all worked out, though. So much so that the emergence of Victor Diaz is a problem equal to owning too much real estate. Life could certainly be worse…
Problems can be seen on the horizon, though…
Will they trade Mike Cameron and start Victor Diaz? Outfield depth is part of this team’s strengths. But, its not that deep. With Carlos Beltran suffering an injury that is notorious for being worse than people say, and the historical frailty of Floyd, should they trade Cameron, start Diaz and one of Beltran or Floyd gets hurt, then what happens. How great is that outfield when it becomes Victor Diaz, Cliff Floyd and Chris Woodward…
Because the Mets have more pitchers than they can count, my guess is that they’ll try and trade from this end of the pool, instead of tinkering with the outfield…
Also, Cliff Floyd hit just .239 against left-handed pitching last season. This year he started off hitting lefties well. He’s returned to his normal pace, though, and currently sports a .250 average against southpaws. And, as impressive as Cameron’s stats have been since returning from the disabled list, for him to keep up the pace he is on would be unheard of. He will eventually pull back a tad…
This outfield may be the best I’ve seen at Shea in years, but it feels as though it is functioning better than it should be…
Mike Piazza is an enigma. On one hand, he’s not the hitter he once was. On the other, he’s still amongst the most productive hitting catchers in baseball. On one hand, he should be producing better if he’s going to hit in the fifth slot of the batting order. On the other hand, he’s being asked to put his body through a lot for his age and to demand the performance of a guy a third of his age would be foolish. He’s 36-years-old, and he knows what he is, he accepts it and expects us, the fans and media, to do the same. As one writer, who deals with Piazza on a regular basis, recently told me, “[Piazza] realizes [the game] is over for him, and he knows he’s not going to get better.”…
Piazza may be okay with this, but we are not…
However, if he can adjust to his limitation we may all benefit. For instance, and we saw a bit of this on Saturday afternoon against the Marlins, if Piazza stops trying to pull the ball with his typically powerful wrists, and, instead, looks to poke the ball to the opposite field, he’s still strong enough to rake a double from it or at minimum drive in a run. What’s more, this will entice pitchers to throw inside, which is his wheelhouse. Also, though he’s never been known for drawing walks, he is notorious for his ability to work the count. Maybe it’s time he starts taking ball four. Although, that means he’ll be forced to run the bases – and, as humorous as this may be, it’s a waste of David Wright‘s speed coming up behind him…
The bottom line is that a) he is what he is, and b) he will not be traded, based on the simple logic that if he’s doing well the Mets will want to keep him and if he’s doing poorly nobody will want him…
Therefore, love him or not, Piazza is this team’s number five hitter. The key word here, though, is hitter, which is a concept that Piazza must redefine for himself if he plans on helping this team win now…
Chipper Jones will most likely be the starting third baseman in this year’s All Star game. However, David Wright should be close in the voting. During spring training, I talked with Tom Verducci, national writer for Sports Illustrated. When I asked him what the big story coming from the National League East would be this season, Verducci said, “The emergence of David Wright into the star category.” He was correct…
When I sit down to write about Wright, I just can’t do it because the talent he is showing at such a young age is almost hard to believe. Simply put, he’ll be everything we hope…
The two things that impress me most, though, are his ability to hit balls out of the strike zone for ropes off the wall, and the poise with which he carries himself on and off the field. His hitting, as hard as it is to believe, will only get better. His attitude, I hope will never change. In talking with several people familiar with the inner-workings of the Mets clubhouse, Wright’s respect for the game rubs off on every one, from the youngest rookie to the oldest coach…
For all the big free agent signings, all the hype, all the marketing tools and insanity that tends to surround this team, I hope its fans never lose site of just how special this kid is and will be…
It’s a treat being able to watch him play every day, and the sooner the Mets lock him in with a long-term deal - like the Yankees did with Derek Jeter – the better…
There is a notion amongst baseball fans, particularly those who get the majority of their baseball knowledge from fantasy leagues and stats, that it is a requirement to have a strong offensive player at first base. What they fail to realize is that this is simply a side-effect of the steroid era, when gigantic, muscle bound monsters that were unable to maneuver in the field were stashed at first for the sake of keeping their bats in the lineup. The drawback to this was a bevy of poor play on the team’s infield. In a park like Shea Stadium, where a home run is unlikely no matter who the hitter is, this theory makes even less sense. Runs are way too valuable…
In Doug Mientkiewicz, the Mets have a guy that has saved significantly more runs in the field than he has cost the team at the plate. As we all know, the Mets are short a few wins this season not because they need more home runs in the middle of their lineup, but because several players have hurt them on defense in critical spots. Without Mientkiewicz, they’d have been hurt more…
Is Mientkiewicz the long-term solution at first base? Probably not. Could he be? Well, they could do worse offensively, and can’t do better defensively. How he affects the team as a whole will probably determine his future. If he and David Wright, Jose Reyes and the team’s second baseman of the future gel, and form a cohesive unit that functions like clock work, what Mientkiewicz brings to the plate will be irrelevant. A concrete infield is very underrated…
Until his offensive troubles become the reason the team loses, there is no reason why anyone should be talking about replacing Mientkiewicz on the Mets…
