Daily Archives: June 9, 2005
The Game…
The Mets (31–28) look to take the rubber game of a three game series against the Astros (3–6, 3.47) tonight at Shea Stadium…the Mets have won their last three series, while the Astros have not…
LHP Tom Glavine (4–5, 4.63) starts for the Mets…Glavine is 3–1 with a 1.88 ERA in his last five starts…Earlier this season against Houston, Glavine allowed one run over six innings while striking out six in a no-decision…
LHP Andy Pettitte (3–6, 3.47) starts for the Astros…the Mets are batting .306 against lefties this season, highest in the National League…Reyes is batting .353 and Ramon Castro is batting .429 against lefties…Against the Mets earlier this season, Pettitte allowed three runs on nine hits over 5.1 innings pitched…
The Good…
Mets starters have allowed just 23 earned runs in their last 90 innings pitched…Marlon Anderson is 5–for-15 on the team’s current homestand…David Wright has an eight game hitting streak…Heath Bell and Aaron Heilman have not allowed an inherited runner to score all season…
The Bad…
The Mets are 9–17 when their opponent scores first…Mike Piazza’s last home run came exactly one month ago…the Mets have used four different people at first base this season, 12 if you count last season…
Writing for ESPN.com, Bob Klapisch details the adjustment, growing pains and potential that is Jose Reyes and his ability to get on base…
…this is an amazingly well-written column, first of all…it is also very intriguing to read a few of his key quotes…
…however, while i appreciate the premise, the follow up story needs to deal with the following…
Klapisch writes, “The Mets need to score more runs and privately concede they won’t do it with Reyes in the dugout 70 percent of the time.”…
…i concede they won’t do it until someone behind reyes actually hits the ball…
…in the dugout or on first, unless reyes becomes the next one-man-scoring-show, like rickey henderson, he will never score if the ‘big boys’ behind him stand idle at the plate, carlos beltran excluded…by the way, beltran is batting .359 with runners on base, and .500, 15–for-30, in close-and-late games…outstanding…
…mike piazza and cliff floyd are another story…
…granted piazza is batting just .254 overall, with runners in scoring position he’s hitting lower, .237, same spot with two outs even lower, .194, and close and late even lower than that, .185…since ending his 20–game hitting streak, about the same time reyes started hitting, floyd has hit just .266 with runners in scoring position…
…so, while i agree that reyes needs to get on base more, it’s only half the story when talking about this team’s recent lifeless offense…
John recently emailed me the following question…
“Any news on Bob Keppell? Can’t find anything out. Did he sign somewhere else?”…
…not yet…but it sounds like he’s close…
Drafted in 2000 out of high school, Keppel was a highly touted prospect a few years ago for the Mets. In his stint with Norfolk last season, however, he faltered going 3–7 with a 4.71 ERA, allowing 111 hits over 93.2 innings, all while complaining of arm pain…
This season, at 22–years-old, Keppel started off well, going 2–1 with a 3.29 ERA, although he continued to complain about the shoulder tendonitis that plagued him much of last season…
Having not pitched since April 30 due to pain in his shoulder, Keppel was released two weeks later, following Kaz Ishii’s return to the 25–man roster and the demotion of Victor Diaz to Norfolk from Shea…
…so where is he now…
I recently spoke with Dave Rosenfield, general manager of the Norfolk Tides, regarding Keppel’s whereabouts. According to Rosenfield, Keppel cleared waivers and had surgery on his shoulder. Though he isn’t pitching, he is said to be close to signing a new minor league deal with the Colorado Rockies…
…hope this helps, john, and thanks for the question…
Matt Loughlin takes a minute from his duties as roving television reporter for the Mets on MSG and FSNY, and pens a column at MSG’s website about David Wright’s love-affair with New York City…
…this one’s for you, sandy…enjoy…
Stephen Hadley emailed in the following question…
“With Minky struggling/hurt and Anderson/Woodward being nice role players who should not be starting at a power position like 1B, have you heard anything about bringing Daubach up.”…
…i haven’t…from what i can gather, the mets will only bring up daubach in an extreme situation…an injured mientkiewicz isn’t enough…should woodward, or anderson look foolish, promoting daubach is a possibility…but, even still it’s doubtful…
…daubach was recently activated from the disabled list after tweaking an oblique muscle…he’s a solid hitter and decent fielder who’s full of attitude and would probably fit in well on this club…
…at 33–years-old, it’s not as though he is over-the-hill…over the last few seasons, he’s hit .256 against right-handed pitching, .222 against lefties, though he does show a bit more power against southpaws…
…the thing is, as good as he’s been against minor league pitching, which he should be since he’s a major league hitter, brian daubach is not the difference between the mets having a good offense or not…
…the difference will be having carlos beltran and cliff floyd driving runs in, and mike piazza acting as a no. five hitter…age, knees, whatever…if mike’s going to hit in the middle of the order, he has to perform…reputation and catching records don’t drive in runs…hits do…
For a review of whom the Mets selected in the MLB Draft, Jordan gives a quick breakdown at FlushingsFuture.com…
…looks like they took a lot of catchers, including preston paramore, “a switch-hitting catcher with a good line drive stroke and good power projection,” as jordan writes…
…nice work, jordan…
…something was missing last night…i felt different watching the game, than i felt the night before…obviously, it was the lack of pedro…all night long, it was lack i was in a pedro-hangover malaise…
…made me wonder if the mets experience the same thing…
Spanning Pedro Martinez’s 12 starts, the Mets have scored four runs or more nine times and are 8–4…
The following game, the Mets are 4–8, and have scored four runs or more seven times…
…hmm…maybe they do…
…the thing is, even if there is no correlation between the two games, the fact that the mets have dropped the same number of games after pedro pitches as they’ve picked up when he does, neutralizes how well they play when he’s on the mound…
…win half of those games, and this team’s tied for first place right now…
In a review of the top prospects who have ‘raised their stock’ so far this season, Dayn Perry of FoxSports.com lists B-Mets RHP Yusmeiro Petit amongst the top 10, writing, “
…wait ‘till they get a hold of mike pelfrey…
…and thanks, kelly, for providing us with the link…
Though he has a locker at Shea and a Mets uniform, Danny Graves is still not officially on the team…
“We’re pretty close to something,” Graves told reporters about his ststus with the Mets. “Having two workouts and having a uniform on when it’s not even a done deal, is definitely kind of weird. But in my eyes, I definitely feel like I’m a Met. It’s not really official, but I definitely feel like I’m a part of this team now.”
…according to graves’s agent, alan nero, as well as several talking heads, the mets and graves are still working on the terms of his contact’s option year…
…i have a different theory…
…i’m guessing they are simply struggling on what roster moves to make…
…especially given the day-to-day status of mike piazza, thanks to a wrist injury last night, and doug mientkiewicz’s and miguel cairo’s prolonged absense, both of whom are technically the team’s third– and fourth-string cathers…as it is, the mets are playing significantly short-handed, while an extra pitcher sits useless in the bullpen…
…if you’ve been keeping tabs on the last few seasons, you’ve come to realize that when the mets are forced to make a roster move, weird things happen…random players come up with bizarre injuries; prospects get demoted, sometimes even from one minor league level to another; popular players get released and young guys end up in other organizations that are often needed later in the season…
…take your time, team…make the right move…
Don Burke of the Star-Ledger reports that Mets fans in the left-center field bleachers tried to do Yankees-style ‘roll call’ during last night’s first inning…
…for those unaware, for years now, the bleacher bums at yankee stadium will cheer each infielder’s name in the top of the first inning of every home game…they continue until the player waves and acknowledges the cheer, at which point they’ll move on to cheering the next player, and so on, until all eight position players have been honored…they do this every night…
In last night’s case at Shea, each of the Mets outfielders, as well as David Wright, acknowledged the cheers. However, when it was Jose Reyes’s turn, he appeared clueless and the effort died…
…good…
…way to be original, fans…
…ooh, ooh, i have an idea…next time the team is in need of a rally, why don’t you get out styrofoam tomahawks and wave them in unison and sing an old native-american chant…or, how about we get a rally monkey or invent a curse…
…so sad…
…and, while we’re at, can you stop the ‘yankees suck’ chants…in addition to sounding creepy and jealous, the remark technically makes zero sense…if getting to the world series six times in nine years constitutes sucking, then, man, i wish the mets sucked…please stop saying this, it embarrasses the entire fanbase and you sound foolish at the same time…
…oh well…
