Daily Archives: June 8, 2005
Inside Pitch Magazine’s Bryan Hoch caught up with Russ Bove, the Mets director of amateur scouting, to talk a little about the team’s recent draft selections…
…interesting quotes…
…from the sounds of it, this kid pelfrey is more refined than humber, and could actually beat him to the mets major league roster…
…back off, chuck lamar…
Ben Jacobs finds a few flaws with each team in the National League East, in a great column at the Hardball Times, a fantastic site for intelligent baseball discussion…
Most notably, Jacobs contends that the Nationals and Braves lack of offense, Philadelphia’s sketchy starting pitching and a weak Marlins bullpen, coupled with a fundamentally sound team at Shea, means the Mets should be taken very seriously as contenders for the pennant…
…i always knew i liked you mr. jacobs…
…fact of the matter is, all stats aside, it’s gonna be a horse race right down to the finish…man, imagine if they all had the same record when the season ended…i wonder how baseball would handle that…
Appearing on WFAN’s midday show a few moments ago, Wichita State baseball manager Gene Stephenson talked about his former starting pitcher, and Mets first-round draft pick, Mike Pelfrey…
Stephenson described Pelfrey as the most consistent starting pitcher he’s ever had, noting that on an average day Pelfrey’s fastball will reach 94– to 96–mph…
“He’s got great make-up,” Stephenson said, when asked whether he feels Pelfrey will be able to handle the the pressures of pitching in New York. “He has great confidence, but is in touch with reality. He knows there’s gonna be good days and bad days, and he’s not gonna let the bad days overwhelm him.”…
…to listen to stephenson’s entire interview, check the audio archives at wfan.com…
…i typically avoid all-things-yankees on this site, but this is to good to pass up from a sociological stand point…
When asked by the New York Post about his skills, 19–year-old shortstop C.J. Henry, who the Yankees selected in the first round of yesterday’s draft, said, “I am a five-tool player with a high ceiling and unlimited potential.”…
…alrighty then…so much for modesty…
…thanks to noah kaye for emailing in the quote…
In his recent column regarding Pedro Martinez, Joel Sherman of the New York Post writes, “Martinez is pitcher and pied piper, leader of the staff and leader of the band.”…
After attending last night’s game, I can attest that he is leader of the fans, as well…
I grew up in an era of Shea Stadium excitement. I know what a shock from blue-n-orange electricty feels like…
Last night, though, I am proud to say I witnessed something I’ve never seen as a Mets fan: pure, unbridled enthusiasm coming from every seat in the building – and not just in the filled 40,000 seats in the stands, but also in the dugout, in the locker room, on the field, in the press box and, most importantly, on the other team’s bench…
All of us were in awe of Pedro…
It’s difficult for me to conjure up memories of the electricity that Dwight Gooden created, because my mind is also smeared with his failures. And with Darryl Strawberry and Mike Piazza the excitement was limited to a few at-bats per game…
Last night, though, there was Pedro standing center stage for nearly the entire game, all for New York to see. And the fans cheered him non-stop. Every two-strike count sounded like the last pitch of a game. Fans would stand, repeatedly cheer his name, clapping and hollering as though it were October. But it wasn’t. It was June. On a Tuesday night…
Every time he showed his face – be it walking from the mound to the dugout, running to first, scoring a run, standing calmly in the on deck circle, or pointing to the sky in satisfied victory – the fans honored him with animation, appreciation and amazement…
Kaz Matsui turned a double play during the game. It was nicely done. Before stepping back to the mound, Pedro looked Matsui directly in the eyes and pumped his fist, as if to say, “Pedro believes in you.” Matsui smiled, pounded his fist in his glove and geared up for the next pitch, looking slightly more confident…
“It’s great, just what an energy he brings here,” Mike Piazza said of his battery-mate. “Aside from that, too, we always feel like we’re in the game.”
In the fifth inning, as Carlos Beltran stepped to the plate with Pedro on third, he gave the same confident fist pump to Beltran, as if to say, “Come on friend, you can do it.” Beltran slapped a single and Pedro hustled home…
“Once every five days, there’s something special about watching us,” Willie Randolph said of Pedro prior to the game. “I like to think it’s my young kids, too, and the way we play. But Pedro gives us that buzz.”…
The game had been long over, and fans spiraled down the concrete walkways that wrap around Shea Stadium. At that point, Pedro was probably primping in the mirror of the clubhouse, off the field and nowhere to be found by fans. Yet, the cheering continued. “Pedro, Pedro, Pedro,” continued to echo from the ramps, to the walkway around Shea to the parking lots scattered around Flushing…
Two tall, lanky guys in their mid-twenties walked ahead of me. They wore matching Martinez jerseys, Mets hats and Jeri Curl wigs to honor their idol…
Pounding the pavement walking towards the lower level of Shea, an older man walking behind me leaned into his wife and said, “Hey, stop when we get to the bottom, I wanna buy a Pedro jersey.”…
And I was thinking the same thing…
Following the seventh inning stretch, the Shea Stadium entertainment team posed a question to fans on the Diamond Vision, asking when the last no-hitter was thrown in a National League park in New York…
The next batter of the game, Chris Burke, clocked a ball into the night, breaking up Pedro Martinez’s no-hitter…
…guys, you can’t put the words ‘no-hitter’ on the enormous screen in the outfield when a guy is actually throwing a no-hitter…
…have you no ethics…
…come on, man…
In the bottom of the eighth, with a runner on first and two outs, and a struggling Mike Piazza on deck, Roy Oswalt hit Cliff Floyd with a 2–0 fastball in the forearm…
It is widely believed that Oswalt opted to bean Floyd, instead of just pitching around him to face Piazza, which was his ultimate goal…
‘The Don’ was rather vocal after the game, saying…
“I know one thing, [Roy Oswalt] hits people in situations like that…His pride is too high for him to throw four balls.”…
“He hit me in the same situation, the same spot last year. You know me. I play the game hard. I don’t disrespect anybody. He has good stuff. That’s why it ticks you off when he does something like that. Really, he’s an unbelievable pitcher. But in my mind, he ain’t sh$t.”
“I’m not saying retaliation is going to come from this team. Sooner or later, somebody’s going to hurt him.”…
“It’s going to get him or someone on his team hurt…When you do stupid stuff you take a chance of hurting someone. What if he had hit me in the elbow and ended my season?”…
“You have to go out there and do something about it and I chose not to. I really don’t know why. But every dog has his day…I didn’t [charge the mound]…but he’ll get his. It’s unfortunate he goes that route. Every idiot like that deserves to not only lose the game, but deserves to get a ball hit off him somewhere.”…
“When you’re doing stupid stuff like that, you’re taking chances on hurting people, losing people for games, just [because] I don’t want to face you. For just the sake of what – I don’t want to face you? I’ll put you on on four pitches. That’s how simple it should be. But when our egos get in the way of a lot of things, that’s how people end up in prison, end up dead.”…
…wow…
When asked why he didn’t charge the mound right then and there, Floyd said…
“I work too hard to give up my hard-earned money. I’ve got kids to feed. I’m not going to let him take money off of my table.”…
Oswalt responded…
“He’s his own man. He can do what he wants to.”…
…don’t cross the don…
Eric Valent cleared waivers and was sent to AAA Norfolk…
“[Pedro Martinez] doesn’t have the career record that he has because of his talent. That has a lot to do with it, but he doesn’t throw 96-97 miles an hour anymore. He’s pitching at 87-88-91, sometimes 92, but the thing I think about is his deception in the strike zone. You see the swings off him – it’s 88, and they’re late on the fastball.” – Mike Cameron
“[Martinez has] got two great swing-and-miss pitches: a Bugs Bunny changeup and a Bugs Bunny curveball.” – Rick Peterson
“He’s just really an artist when he’s on. There’s really a lot of improve out there. There’s really no game plan. It’s what he’s feeling and what he’s seeing.” – Mike Piazza
“Without Pedro, who knows where we’d be?” – Cliff Floyd
…i believe that’s what’s known as an m.v.p…
Jose Reyes has fallen out of the top five in N.L. voting for the All-Star game at shortstop. Nomar Garciaparra, who has 51 at-bats this and hasn’t played since April 21, leads the voting, followed by David Eckstein, Rafeal Furcal, Cezar Izturis and Clint Barmes…
Mike Piazza steals leads amongst catcher, and Carlos Beltran tops a long list of outfielders…
