Daily Archives: June 23, 2005
After IM’ing with Scott Lauber, the B-Mets beat reporter for the Press & Sun Bulletin, who told me he now feels RHP Brain Bannister could be a front-end starting pitcher in the Major Leagues, I packed up and headed to New Britain last night to catch Bannister in person, as Lauber claims it is tough to understand the pitcher’s success without actually seeing him in action…
A few comments from the game…
I sat amongst several scouts, two of which had heard of MetsBlog, which I found quite funny. I spoke most often with two scouts, one from the Marlins and the other from the Giants, both sporting hefty Championship rings. The Mets coordinator of professional scouting, Bryan Lambe, was also in attendance, which I was told most likely indicates that the scouts in attendance were there for a specific reason…
Bannister is impressive, and it’s hard to pinpoint why. Baseball America is correct when they continually write that he lacks dominant stuff. However, rarely if ever did an opposing batter make solid contact on him. More times than not, when they did connect, they topped the ball or swung off balance. Most all balls coming off their bats were weak, and lacked any kind of pop…
He also keeps the ball moving around the zone. Batters swing a lot, but rarely make contact, which is odd considering his fastball only topped out around 90-mph, according to a scout with a radar gun…
He’s an average-sized pitcher, holds the glove up high to his face while standing way, way over to the furthest left corner of the rubber. His delivery is compact, a tad mechanical but he keeps the ball back well and releases it quickly, rarely giving the batter a solid look at it…
Both scouts seemed highly impressed with Bannister’s cut-fastball, noting it is already of Major League caliber. They also liked his fearlessness on the mound. He’ll throw any pitch at any time and seems to retain his command throughout the game, one scout mentioned…
On Mike Jacobs, the catcher-turned-first baseman with a beautiful left-handed swing, one scout said, “This is their one kid with real power, but he really should go back behind the plate.” The scout may be right, as Jacobs looks very awkward and timid when fielding the ball at first – on one occasion, he overreached when receiving a catchable throw from third, which tipped off his glove, ricocheted to the wall and allowed a run to score…
Bobby Malek hits the ball very hard, nailing it square on the nose when he connects. “He’s a strong doubles hitter,” the scouts discussed, but agreed, “he needs more power.”…
On Anderson Hernandez, who I was quite impressed with when watching him in action on Monday night, and was equally impressed last night, as well, one scout admitted that, “This kid is opening some eyes.” On Monday, while playing second base, he made a lightening fast, backhanded stab on a short-hop from his knees. Last night, on a ball hit deep between short and third, while playing shortstop, he glided to the ball, back-handed it Jeter-style, but unlike Jeter he chucked the ball to first, with his momentum still pulling him away, while never leaping from his feet. The ball zipped to first and the runner was out. Both scouts grabbed their pens, each said, “wow,” as they started scribbling notes on their charts…
Lastly, it should be noted that the scouts watched the player’s wives and girlfriends section in the stands nearly as much as they watched the game. And so did I. It was just so tough not to…
Tagged Minors |…very nice…
…not only do the mets take two of three from the phillies, but hopefully this sends a signal to the n.l. east that the they are far from dead…
…hat’s off to marlon anderson for hustling down the line to keep out of a double play…and to roberto hernandez for being heads-up enough to take charge of the pop-up off to the side of third base, immediately recalling that david wright was playing far from third on a shift and would never get to the ball in time…
…it’s true…if reyes hits, this team wins…
…keep it up against the yankees, starting tomorrow in the bronx…
The Game…
The Mets (34–37) close out
a three game series with the Phillies (39–33) this afternoon in
Philadelphia…the series stands at one game each…
LHP Kaz Ishii
(1–6, 5.40) starts for the Mets … Though Ishii has held left-handed
batters to a .174 average, he’s allowed three homers to lefties in 46
at-bats, compared to four homers to righties in 152 at-bats … Earlier
this season against the Phillies, Ishii allowed five runs on six hits
over five innings … He’s batting .357, 5–for-14, on the season…
RHP
Cory Lidle (6–5, 4.02) starts for the Phillies … Lidle has allowed just
over four runs per start at home this season … if four starts this
June, he has a 5.45 ERA … Mike Cameron is 7–for-24 lifetime against
Lidle, while Cliff Floyd is 5–for-13…
The Notes…
The
Mets lead the National League with 51 stolen bases … the Mets are just
8–27 when they score three runs or less … the Mets are 9–13 during day
games … the Mets have allowed nearly twice as many runs in the first
inning as they’ve scored and are 11–23 when their opponents score first
… Carlos Beltran is just 5–33 on the team’s current road trip …
I’m sick of reading comments about how the Mets aren’t built to win this year…
I’m
sick of hearing about trading Mike Cameron and Braden Looper for
prospects, and I’m super sick of hearing ridiculous trade proposals
like ‘Dae Sung-Koo, Kaz Ishii and Kaz Matsui for Ichiro.’…
I’m
sick of talking about prospects like commodities, and talking about
trading for players who the Mets can turn around and trade once they
mature, again, for more prospects…
The Mets are built to break
.500 every year until Jose Reyes runs out of arbitration years.
They didn’t sign Pedro Martinez so he can lead the staff three-years
from now. Some individual players are on an upswing, others have
seen better days, but overall Mets GM Omar Minaya and VP Jim Duquette
have built a core that can be reasonably expected to win at least 80
games this year, next year and the years after that…
With
Wednesday’s loss, the Mets sit four and a half games behind the Wild
Card leader. That’s it. And all with more than half the season
remaining and 14 games until the All-Star Game. A 10-4 run from
here until the All-Star Break probably puts them roughly two or so
games behind the Wild Card leader and four or so games behind the
division leader…
Think 10-4 is impossible? Then look at this string of numbers…
0-5…6-0…5-4…0-4…6-1…2-5…4-1…0-4…8-3…2-9…
Add them up into one continuous stretch of baseball, and you’ve got the Mets season through Sunday…
Notice
how every time the Mets bust out of a slump they do it in a big
way. Now look at their upcoming schedule: they face the Yankees,
Phillies, Marlins, Nationals and Pirates…
Also keep in mind…
On
June 22, 2004, the Braves sat at 32-38, 6.5 games behind the N.L.
East-leading Marlins and 7.5 games behind the Wild Card-leading Cubs…
On June 22, 2003, the Marlins were 7.5 games behind the Wild Card-leading Dodgers…
On June 22, 2001, the Astros were seven games behind the NL Central-leading Cubs…
And, on June 22, 2000, the Giants were 5.5 games behind the NL West-leading Diamondbacks…
These
are just examples from recent years, just in the National League,
thanks to UltimateMets.com for having day-by-day standings
archive. And, of course, all of the teams I mentioned ended up
making the playoffs. I’m not saying the Mets will make the
playoffs, but I’m saying to stop saying they won’t…
The Met
world is in its usual chaos – but keep in mind, so is every other world
in baseball. The Phillies recently rode career-best streaks from
Bobby Abreu, Kenny Lofton and others to dig their way out of last
place, but if they lose tonight they’ll have lost three series in a row
while their starting pitching is in shambles. The Braves are
barely afloat with rookies, the Marlins can’t get their heads on
straight and the Nationals…well, living in Washington, D.C., I’ve got
plenty to say about the Nats that I’ll save for another time – but to
be brief, count me among those who expect to see them in fourth place
before long…
Let’s just keep our heads on straight, fans, and see
what happens to the team over the next two and a half weeks.
There’s a very important stretch of games coming up, and we’re
competing with very vulnerable teams. Just calm down and have
some faith. Have we learned nothing from Tug McGraw?
Elliot
Smilowitz is a 21-year-old journalism student in Washington D.C.
Earlier this year he ran a poorly managed but charmingly-optimistic
Mets blog called The Eternal OptiMet before joining up with MetsBlog…
Wanna be in the New York Times and go to a Mets game for free? Kira Phillips from the NYT sent me the following email, help her out if you can…
The New York Times Magazine is preparing a photograph of 700 fans at Shea Stadium prior to the game on Wednesday, June 29 between 3:00 PM to 4:30 PM…
Everyone that participates will get free tickets to that night’s game…
The NYT will organize buses to leave from different locations at 2:00 PM, so we can insure that everyone arrives at the Stadium on time. We’re trying to get a head count by Thursday afternoon or Friday morning by 9am…
You can also provide your own transportation to Shea, but YOU MUST ARRIVE NO LATER THAN 2:45PM.
If you’re interested, email Kira Pollack from the New York Times at kira@nytimes.com…
Also, be sure and tell her that Matt from MetsBlog sent you…
Nathan writes…
“Wright
has played 69 games this season and 69 games last season. The
stats are incredibly similar both defensively and offensively…Interesting
note: His power is down this year, but he’s getting on base at a
much higher rate. Of course his strikeouts numbers are also up,
so who knows. But interesting to look at how close EVERYTHING
is.”…
…let’s see…
Last season, in 69 games played, Wright hit .293 with 14 HR and 40 RBI with six stolen bases, 14 walks and 40 strike outs…
This
season, also in 69 games played, Wright is hitting .295 with 10 HR and
37 RBI with six stolen bases, 33 walks and 51 strike outs…
…you’re
right, nathan, it’s nearly a mirror image except for the welcomed
addition of nearly twice as many walks, which probably explains the
decrease in power…
…also realize at 22–years-old, this
means he’s batting .294 with 24 HR and 77 RBI through the first 138
games of his career…for what it’s worth, scott rolen was batting .285
with 16 HR and 78 RBI after his first 138 games played…
…i like where this is headed…
So who’s the biggest name most likely to appear at ESPN’s Rumor
Central, and be moved? Roger Clemens? Preston
Wilson? Barry Zito? Aubrey Huff? Nope. Try Tom
Glavine, writes ESPN’s Jayson Stark…
An
official of one club, who called the Mets and asked if Glavine could be
had, tells Stark that the Mets response was, “Yes. Absolutely.”
However, because of Glavine’s no-trade clause, Stark quotes a ‘baseball
man’ who knows Glavine well as saying the only teams the pitcher will
likely approve a deal to is Boston or Atlanta…
…he has
value…no question…the problem is the 2006 option year on his contract,
which is seemingly going to kick in for next season…at minimum, if he
continues on the pace he is on, glavine should end up locking in a
salary of, at minimum, roughly $8.5 million for next season…
…if
he doesn’t meet his goals, the mets and glavine share a $6.5 million
option, which the mets can buy it out for $3 million…
BMets RHP Yusmeiro Petit and St. Lucie OF Lastings Milledge have been invited to play in the July 10 Futures Game in Detroit. The game will take place two-days prior to the All-Star Game, and is tentatively scheduled to appear on ESPN2…
Milledge will play for the United States, while Petit suits up for the World team…
…i hate that they do this…one of the best things about baseball is integration…all different ethnic backgrounds coming together and working as a team…why break that up…i just don’t get it…
When asked whether Kaz Ishii’s start today could be his last if he continues to struggle, Willie Randolph told reporters yesterday, “No, not necessarily. No, I wouldn’t say so.” The manager paused, collected his thoughts and continued, “I’m just going to go by what I see and what I feel. But, no, it’s not like some type of audition or deadline or something like that, or some type of do-or-die. No, nothing like that at all.”…
…from what i understand, the mets will move ishii if they can find a suitor…teams are looking for left-handed starts and relievers, but several pitchers are higher up on everyone’s wish-list right now…until the market starts to tumble, and ishii becomes a worthy pick-up because of a lack of options for another team, he isn’t going any place…
…as for putting him in the pen, folks out in los angeles have told me the dodgers could never commit to it because ishii is a curve-ball pitcher, and if he doesn’t have ample time to prepare himself, he’s a mess, which doesn’t exactly lend itself to the bullpen, especially for a situational lefty…
“Everyone needs to compete and play well,” Randolph added. “No one has a free pass. He has to do well and I’m hoping that he will.”…
…in other words, good luck today kaz…
“It happens that way with certain pitchers,” Willie Randolph told reporters about Victor Zambrano’s lack of run support. “Sometimes [they] get that support and some guys, every time they go out there, they get seven or eight runs like Benson has lately. That’s just part of the game.”…
The Mets have scored a total of 14 runs over Zambrano’s last seven starts…
He was one win to show for throwing six quality starts, i.e., allowing three runs or less over six or more innings, in his last seven starts…
…i’m still not comfortable with him on the mound…it’s like he’s one gust of wind away from getting shelled…bases loaded and no outs in the first inning and he manages to get out of it…in the sixth innings he flirted with disaster again, and had it not been for an awkwardly great catch by cliff floyd, zambrano could’ve kissed his quality start goodbye…
…he truly is houdini…
