Monthly Archives: April 2006
…Mets OF Carlos Beltran is not on the disabled list, and not in tonight’s starting lineup…
The Game…
The Mets (14–7) take a five game lead into Atlanta to take on the Braves (9–12) for the first of a three game series beginning tonight at 7:10 PM EDT…
The Pitchers…
RHP Pedro Martinez (4–0. 3.04 ERA) starts for the Mets … Left-handed batters are hitting .191 in 47 at-bats against Martinez this season, while right-handed batters are hitting .133 in 45 at-bats … If four starts this season, all wins, Martinez allowed four runs in his first outing, one run in his second, three runs in his third and one run in his fourth … Last week against the Braves, Martinez allowed three runs on six hits in 6.2 innings while striking out eight and walking two …
RHP John Smoltz (1–1, 4.15 ERA) takes the hill for the Braves … In five starts against the Mets last season, Smoltz was 3–2 with 2.31 ERA, with 31 strike outs in 35 innings pitched … Right-handed batters are hitting .356 against Smoltz this season … Against Smoltz for his career, Carlos Delgado is 7–for-14 with three HR and 10 RBI, while Cliff Floyd is batting just .211 in 38 at-bats…
The Notes…
The Mets were 1–8 in Atlanta last season…
Mets OF Endy Chavez is batting .320 in 25 at-bats during the team’s current road trip, sporting four RBI, three runs scored and two stolen bases…
Mets 1B Carlos Delgado has four HR and five walks in his last seven games…Delgado has five HR and 21 RBI in 51 at-bats at Turner Field for his career…
Mets C Paul Lo Duca has just three hits in his last 22 at-bats…
Mets 2B Kaz Matsui is batting .320 in 25 at-bats since starting in place of the injured Anderson Hernandez…
Mets RHP Chad Bradford has allowed two on six inherited runners to score…
The Mets bullpen has allowed just one earned run on the team’s current road trip…
The Mets are 11–0 when they outhit their opponents…they are 12–3 when they hit a home run…they are 10–2 when they score first…
In 12 at-bats against the Mets this season, Braves OF Andruw Jones is five hits, four of which are home runs, with seven RBI…
The Braves have scored nearly 25 percent of their runs in the eighth inning this season…
The Bleachers…
To chat during the game, go to MetsBlog’s Bleachers … or, to access the chat room through IRC, go to server name irc.echo34.com and channel #metsblog…
…enjoy…
According to Adam Rubin in the Daily News, Mets RHP Brian Bannister has been placed on the 15–day disabled list, while OF Victor Diaz has been promoted from Norfolk…
Meanwhile…
…get this…
Rubin also reports that Tides RHP Yusaku Iriki has tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs and has been suspended for 50 games…
…so, i guess he will not be the one starting in place of bannister…
…by the way, still no word on whether OF Carlos Beltran is starting tonight…
…the early buzz from atlanta is that Mets OF Carlos Beltran will not be put on the disabled list…whether or not he’ll be in tonight’s starting lineup remains to be seen…
Readers,
Many of you have emailed me over the last few days asking questions about this site’s comments section, which appear at the end of each post…
Some are confused at the posting policy, while others simply want to know how to sign up for a username and post…
To help answer your questions I have set up a Comments FAQ Page…
This link will remain in the left-hand sidebar for future reference…
Good luck, and if you have other questions not in the FAQ please let me know…
Matthew Cerrone
MetsBlog.com
Former Bobby Valentine favorite and ex-Mets OF Tsuyoshi Shinjo will leave Japanese baseball 
after this season to become a nude model, writes Mainichi Daily News…
…yes, you read that right…no need to repeat it…
“I’ve decided to take my uniform off at the end of this season,” Shinjo told the papers…
…if there was an emoticon where the smiley face was rolling its eyes, i’d use it here…
…thanks to david s for the link, i think…
At InsideSTL.com,
a great new Cardinals blog, Josh Bacott details a series of rules that
he feels must be followed by all fans who wear a player jersey
to a baseball game…
…for what it’s worth, i
only agree with half of his rules…but it’s interesting to think about,
nevertheless…
…speaking of jerseys, i’ve
attended two mets games this season…on both nights i saw a guy wearing
an Aarom Baldiris
jersey…baldiris was a highly touted mets prospect, who
petered out, and was cut and picked up by texas…baldiris-jersey guy, if
you’re reading this, are you really that big of a baldiris fan, or is
it your last name or something…just
curious…
…also, since i like to take
note of jerseys, i’ve spotted two of
Bernard Gilkey, one
Butch Huskey,
one Ed Hearn and
three of Gregg
Jefferies…
…now
those are some deep mets
fans…
…if you own an obscure
mets jersey, add it to the comments section of this
post…
…and a hat tip to will at
deadspin.com
for the jersey link…
Mets RHP Pedro Martinez will take the hill tonight in Atlanta against RHP John Smoltz and the Braves…
…oh baby…
Mets C Paul Lo Duca, while appearing on WFAN Sports Radio 660 in New York…
“This is a big series. No doubt.”…
Martinez, however, sees it differently…
Martinez, as quoted by the Star-Ledger…
“They are just games like this one. They don’t have any meaning unless you’re fighting for the division or a playoff spot and the games are limited…
“Maybe that’s because I’ve been through it so much in the last 10 years. But it’s just a game. We’re just following the schedule right now and putting up numbers for the end of the year when it really matters…
“I don’t think we have to show them anything if we play the way we’re capable of. We may have lost two out of the three times, but we still believe they’re beatable. Everyone’s beatable.”…
…i don’t buy it…when speaking to reporters or talk radio, pedro has shown two things, a) he is very aware of how to use the media in his favor, by controlling what he says so he doesn’t put his foot in his mouth, and b) he is too passionate, and too focuses to ignore the significance of any series against a team with as much success as the braves…
…if he truly believes this about the braves, that’s fine…but one person the team does have to prove something to is OF Andruw Jones…
…he is killing the mets…
…in two at-bats against pedro last monday, jones hit a two-run homer…the following two days he single handedly beat new york going for 5–for-12 with four HR in the quick three-game series…
…this cannot continue…
…i’m not saying pedro should plunk him, though i wouldn’t argue if he did…but they do need to push him off the plate…there is no reason why jones should be hitting a change-up off the plate 500 feet as he did against Tom Glavine last week…that is unacceptable, because physically it shouldn’t be possible…with pedro on the mound, this is the ideal situation to knock him down a peg…or just knock him down…either way is fine by me…
According to Baseball America’s Stat Pack, Tides 2B Jeff Keppinger is currently the sixth best in all of minor league baseball when it comes to not striking out…
On average, Keppinger strikes out just once every 20 plate appearances…
In the Bergen Record, Steve Popper provides two interesting quotes from OF Cliff Floyd and manager Willie Randolph, regarding the coming series again Atlanta…
Floyd told Popper…
“We’ve got to beat them. I said that early in the season and I continue to say it. We’ve got to beat them. Until we beat them, it means nothing. We still are always playing catch-up to them.”
Randolph told Popper, regarding Floyd’s comments…
“I don’t ever want that to be on your mind. That’s an attitude that means you feel you’re not as good as they are. We know where they are in the division. That’s obvious. But I want my team to feel like they don’t have to take a back seat to anybody.”…
…i touched on this a few weeks ago, when i wrote that i was tired of hearing how this was the braves’s division to lose…nah, last i checked the mets were in first place, and i hoped to see them start acting like it…
The Mets head to Atlanta’s Turner Field for this first time this season…
The Mets are 20-51 at Turner Field since the stadium was built in 1997…
Since 2002, the Mets are 9–28 at Turner Field. They were 1–8 in Atlanta last season…
They have not won a season series in Atlanta since 2001, which occurred during the season’s first three games…
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