Daily Archives: June 27, 2005
…the mets are off today…therefore, i plan to use the remainder of the day to get a jump on the work i will undoubtedly fall behind on as the week moves on…
…if news breaks, i will post it, of course…otherwise, i will not be posting again until tomorrow morning…
…have a nice day, and stay out of the heat…
…how fitting is this…
Tim Marchman, whose New Partisan blogs on politics, culture and the arts, asks, “Is Aaron Heilman the next Keith Foulke?,” in a post that’s also featured in The New York Sun…
…i’ve actually been saying this for weeks, if you recall, regarding heilman’s ability to be a closer…though, marchman adds the foulke comparison, which is quite fair as he shows…
…as the mets start to give heilman more responsibility, if he succeeds while still living off the change-up, this conversation will begin to be had more and more…
…there’s a lot of trade buzz coming from seattle…
Ken Rosenthal reports in the Sporting News, as does the Houston Chronicle and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, that the Astros turned down an offer of Mariners OF Randy Winn for Houston RHP Brandon Backe…
Also, the Post-Intelligencer believes a deal between the Mariners and Padres is inevitable, likely bringing 2B Bret Boone back to his original team…
…for a while, a few people told me that a kaz matsui for bret boone idea was floating around the league, but the m’s now believe in their new shortstop, mike morse, and love jose lopez at second, so if they decide to move boone it will be for pitching, not another under-performing second baseman…
Over the weekend, Newsday’s Ken Davidoff quoted a musing agent who thought a swap of Boone for Mike Piazza could make sense for both teams…
…who catches for the mets, though…i’ll take kaz matsui and piazza over boone and ramon castro or benito santiago, thank you…
…the only player on seattle that makes sense for the mets is eddie guardado, who the mariners are not willing to trade until late july…
Adam Rubin puts forth the following tale in today’s Daily News, he writes… “Pedro Martinez broke up Randolph’s pregame news conference with laughter. Martinez, scheduled to use the same room for a chapel service with other players, mimicked his manager’s Subway commercial, shouting from the back of the room: “I’ve got a question! Are you going to finish it?” Randolph replied, ‘I ate it already,’ then high-fived his ace as he left the interview room/sanctuary. ‘That’s pretty good, Pedro,’ he said while exiting. ‘I like that. Next commercial, me and you.’”… …wit…we like that around here…
“I’m still proud of my guys,” said a sullen Willie Randolph to reporters late last night. “They played hard for me. It doesn’t put a damper on it for me at all. We want to win series and continue to win series. It would have been nice to sweep.”…
…he’s right…fact is, you can’t win ‘em all…and any fan would’ve signed up for taking two of three, especially after the way things went at the start of this road trip…
…i talked with a few people last night and they all told me that willie was pretty down after the game…they added he is usually pretty stoic after a loss, but they could tell last night’s loss bugged him a bit more than he lead on…
…no worries, willie…shake it off…you’ve got bigger fish to fry coming up this week than the third place team in the american league east…
…focus…
“Basically we had a one-run lead and we should have won the game and I didn’t get the job done. I stunk,” Braden Looper lamented to reporters after last night’s loss. “My team had the game won. I let them down.”
Added Mike Piazza, “He’s been doing a great job. No one can criticize him.”…
…than don’t read this site or listen to wfan today, mike…
Of the 29 first-batters that Braden Looper has faced this season 41 percent have reached base…
…i know he isn’t awful…he’s a good closer…but good isn’t good enough…even the mets know this…for what it’s worth, i’ve been told on a number of occasions by several types of sources that the mets like looper, they don’t love him and if they can replace him as they move closer to contention they will…
…granted, he isn’t alone on that one last night…for instance, david wright needs to know that in a situation as it were, he must guard the line, especially at yankee stadium, instead of playing straight-up as he was…
Last night was only the third blown save by Looper this season, who entered the game having saved 15-of-17 this season, including his last 14 straight…
…wonderful…it still doesn’t change the fact that to me, all other fans, his bosses, his teammates and even his manager, we all begin to sweat the minute he walks to the mound…again, i always try and go beyond the stats…and all i know is that i am not confident when looper is pitching, even knowing he’s been successful in the past…in fact, that only worries me more because eventually the odds will catch up with him…
“Loop, we’re going to ride him until the wheels fall off,” Cliff Floyd said with positively. “We need him. He knows that.”…
…well, you need a closer…not necessarily looper…and when this team turns the corner, be it this season or next, the mets will need a closer whose wheels are on tight, with no chance of coming off…
Doug Mientkiewicz was placed on the 15–day disabled list with a strained right hamstring…
To replace Mientkiewicz, the Mets promoted 36-year-old IF Jose Offerman, who was batting .197 in nine games for AAA Norfolk…
In Mientkiewicz’s absence, Willie Randolph told reporters he will use a ‘a round table’ of first basemen, including Offerman, Brian Daubach, Marlon Anderson and Chris Woodward…
…with all the trades and free-agent signings and speculations on lineups and roster moves, every season in a big game it seems at some point i am forced to pull for a rally featuring a ramon castro, followed by a jose offerman and a marlon anderson…
…is it like this for all teams, or just the mets…
…lastly, you’re probably wondering if victor diaz will also be in that mix at first base…
…the answer is: no…
…diaz has not worked out at first base since that one-time in oakland nearly two weeks ago, which subsequently was the same day the team promoted daubach…
