Daily Archives: June 7, 2005
The Game…
The Mets (30–27) take on the the Astros (21–34) in the first of a three-game series starting tonight at Shea Stadium…
RHP Pedro Martinez (6–1, 2.62) starts for the Mets…
RHP Roy Oswalt (6–6, 3.06) starts for the Astros…
The Notes…
The Mets are 9–8–2 in series play this season, and have won the last three series they’ve played…
The Message…
….i’m going to the game tonight, wearing my ‘vote for pedro’ t-shirt with pride…
…the thing is, i’m 0–for-3 in my last three attempts at going to a game…thanks to a rainout, traffic and another rainout…it’s actually comical, at this point.
…if it rains again, i expect all of the team’s beat writers to meet me on the tarp for a game of wiffle ball.
…someone’s playing a game on that field tonight if it kills me…
…wish me luck…
The Denver Post lists Mets IF Chris Woodward as a possible fit for filling the whole at shortstop on the Rockies made vacant by Clint Barmes’s recent injury…
…hi jason jennings…
Andrew from Chuck ‘n’ Duck writes that if the Mets are going to trade for a player to help them further contend in the N.L. East pennant race, maybe they should go after Sean Casey…
Andrew points out that the Mets can afford to take on all of Casey’s $7.8 million salary, meaning they would not need to part with their top minor league talent, instead trading away a Jae Seo or Royce Ring…
…casey’s salary will jump to roughly $8.5 million next year if he reaches 356 at-bats this season…even still, he’s a great fit offensively because he can hit for power, is lefty and is very tough to strike out…
…however, he is average on defense…and as we’ve seen from the arms of david wright, jose reyes and kaz matsui, this team needs a vacuum at first…
…word is that the mets feel they need a lefty-reliever and a consistent bat for the middle of the order. something they’re seemingly always in search of…
…i am sure this trade will be explored…
Newsday’s Ken Davidoff reports that the Mets and RHP Danny Graves have agreed to a one-year contract…
…good night manny aybar…
Davidoff writes that the Mets can exercise a $5 million option on Graves for 2006, or they can buy out the option for $500,000…
…good night braden looper…
With the ninth overall pick in the MLB Draft, the Mets selected Mike Pelfrey from Wichita State…
…best pitcher in the draft…
…i’ll take it…
At MinorLeagueBall.com, John Sickles writes of the pick, “Some risk due to his holdout but good upside.”…
…it’s funny, i’ve im’d with a few draft experts and asked them all, ‘what are the odds the mets and boras agree on a deal for pelfrey before next year’s draft,’ and not a single person will give a real answer, though everyone is eager to watch how it goes…
Luis from Connecticut recently emailed me the following question…
Isn’ today supposed to be Victor Zambrano’s turn in the rotation? He pitched the 8 inning game last Wed. and Pedro followed it up with the win on Thursday. Instead of pitching Victor on his regular turn and giving each 5 days rest, the Mets are putting Pedro out there on 4 days rest. I’d hate to think that they are only doing this because it would line Pedro up for the start on Sunday and they would be able to cash in at the gate one more time before the long road trip. Makes no sense to put his arm in danger (or give him less rest) in exchange for a couple thousand extra tickets to be sold. If this is in fact accurate you may want to open up a thread to discuss…
…hmmm…
Martinez has been slated to pitch tonight against the Astros since the middle of last week, just as Zambrano was always scheduled to pitch tomorrow night…
…at any rate, you may or may not be right as to what the team’s motivation is by giving zambrano five days rest, while only giving pedro four days rest…
…interesting…however…
Martinez has pitched eight times on four-days rest, while only twice on five-days rest. He’s pitched more than seven innings in all starts coming on four-days rest, while allowing one run or less in five starts and three runs or more in the other three starts. In his two starts coming on five days rest, he allowed five runs in six innings and one run in seven…
As for strikeouts, he’s averaged seven per nine innings pitched when he’s started on five-days rest, while he’s sat down 10 per nine innings in games started on four-days rest…
…counter to what we all thought the plan would be, it seems he’s doing better on short rest…so maybe they prefer to keep him on schedule and not mess with what’s working…
According to ESPN News, the Mets have singed RHP Danny Graves…
…details to come…
…and thanks to ryne for the tip…
WFAN, however, reports that Graves and the Mets are in last minute negotiations, with nothing having been finalized yet…
The Marlins can’t seem to harness their talent, the Nationals have allowed more runs than they’ve scored, Mike Hampton and Chipper Jones are hurt, and the Phillies and the Mets look good one night and not-so-good the next…subsequently, only two losses separate all five teams in the N.L. East…
That being said, how confident are you that the Mets will make the playoffs this season…
Look to your left, and vote…
According to the New York Post, “the Mets went into last night thinking they were the leading candidates to sign [Danny Graves].”…
Last night, Ken Rosenthal updated his Inside Dish column to say the Braves had pulled out of the running, leaving just the Mets and Marlins…
…graves is simply weighing his options, literally, and probably thinking overtime, like the rest of us, to determine how the n.l. east will shake out the rest of the season…
Lee Jenkins of the New York Times, doing what he does so well, writes a fantastic profile of Mets 3B David Wright…
“He portrays this image of being the guy every mom wants to take home to her daughter, but he really isn’t all milk and cookies,” Doug Mientkiewicz tells Jenkins of Wright. “He is kind of cocky, but not so cocky that he would ever seem arrogant. The Mets are extremely lucky to have him. They can promote him in front of 6-year-olds and 60-year-olds and it’s all smiles. You can send him to Chuck E. Cheese or a Fortune 500 company and he’ll blend right in.”…
…jenkins offers up a slew of little tidbits about wright’s world…if you’re a fan of the mets third baseman, this article is an absolute must read…
…and props to the new york times for allowing jenkins the freedom to write these types of columns…they are sorely missed in this era of tabloid journalism, and he’s the perfect writer, mixing sports smoothly with humanity, for the job…well done, man…
