Daily Archives: August 14, 2007
The Mets (66-52) defeated the Pirates (49-68) by a score of 5 to 4 tonight at PNC Park in Pittsburgh.
For a full recap and boxscore, check out Yahoo! Sports.
...a few things real quick and i’ll let you guys have at it…
…el duque was the definition of effectively wild tonight, walking five and striking out eight…even with the walks and the all the base runners duque managed to get out of jams…i was shocked to see Willie Randolph and Rick Peterson allow el duque to come out for the sixth and throw 130 pitches…
…even though they capitalized in the eighth with a two-run single from Moises Alou, the Mets continue to struggle to string hits together after getting men on and the seventh inning was a prime example…with a Mike DiDelice single and Ruben Gotay double with one out in the inning, Jose Reyes and Luis Castillo were unable to drive in the go-ahead run…in my opinion that has been the most frustrating part of this team this season…
…great to see Billy Wagner come back, look dominant and convert a ‘clean save’ after blowing his last save opportunity on friday…
…the Mets are 7-0 in el duque’s starts since the all-star break…
…good come from behind win gentlemen, especially with both the Phillies and Braves winning tonight to keep the lead at three..
Marlon Anderson has been activated from the bereavement list.
As such, David Newhan was sent back down to Triple-A.
The Game:
The
first-place Mets (65-52) kick off a three-game series with the Pirates (49-67) tonight at PNC Park, starting at 7:05 pm EDT.
The Lineup:
SS Jose Reyes leads off, followed in order by 2B Luis Castillo, 3B David Wright, CF Carlos Beltran, 1B Carlos Delgado, LF Moises Alou, RF Lastings Milledge, C Mike DiFelice and starting pitcher Orlando Hernandez.
The Pitchers:
RHP Orlando Hernandez (7-4, 3.05 ERA) starts for the Mets. El Duque took a no-decision in his last start, holding the Braves to three runs on four hits in 7 IP while striking out seven. He hasn’t lost a decision since July 4th at Colorado. Opponents are batting just .197 against El Duque this season. Hernandez was effective in his only career start at PNC Park last September, allowing two runs on six hits over 7 IP while striking out seven.
RHP Ian Snell (7-10, 3.87 ERA) takes the hill for the Pirates. Snell took a no-decision in his last start, allowing two runs on six hits over 6 IP while striking out seven. He has lost five consecutive decisions. The Pirates have lost six consecutive games in which Snell has started. Snell has a 7.31 ERA in six starts (including seven home runs allowed in 32 IP) since the All-Star break. The Mets battered Snell around on July 24th, scoring six runs on ten hits over four innings.
The Notes:
SS Jose Reyes is 3-for-8 with a double and a triple vs. Snell.
LF Jason Bay is 3-for-9 with two homers vs. El Duque.
The Mets took two of three from the Pirates at Shea Stadium, July 24-26. The Pirates swept the Mets at PNC Park last September the weekend before the Mets swept the NL East.
Over the past two seasons, the Mets have spent 282 days in first place — the most in the majors. The Red Sox are second with 229.
The Mets have 33 wins on the road this season — the most in the NL.
2B Freddy Sanchez is batting .420 (21-for-50) this month.
For more insight on the Pirates, check out today’s Blogger Beat.
The Bleachers:
To chat during the game, head over to The Hot Foot Bleachers. If you are IRC savvy, log on to irc.echo34.com and enter channel #metsblog.
…enjoy…and as always, let’s go mets…
This season, at the beginning of each series, MetsBlog will attempt to get the perspective of the opposition and their fans. From this, we hope to be better educated on the opposition going into a series. It also gives us a fine opportunity to highlight some of our favorite team blogs.
As the Mets roll into Pittsburgh, we chat with Cory Humes, Director of Baseball 
for Most Valuable Network and writer of Pittsburgh Lumber Co.
With a winning record in the second half of last season, there was a lot of optimism with this year’s club. What went wrong? Is there a reason to believe that one year from now the Pirates will be a in a better position than they are today?
Jason Bay and Adam LaRoche suffered through a horrific slumps. Xavier Nady and Freddy Sanchez hit well when healthy, but both missed a good bit of time to injury. The bullpen — believed to be a strength, even after losing Mike Gonzalez — was home to a carousel of Triple-A relievers. Inexperienced players thrust into prominent roles — Chris Duffy, Ronny Paulino, Jose Bautista — didn’t do anything to cement their futures as starters. What went wrong? Past the pitching of Tom Gorzelanny, Ian Snell, Paul Maholm, Damaso Marte and Matt Capps, just about everything.
At the same time, the Pirates do have a decent core to build around. Bay, LaRoche, Nady and Sanchez are big-league bats. The young pitchers should continue to develop. The team has a little financial flexibility, and with a new chief executive officer to be hired, the possibility exists for that chunk of payroll to be invested wisely for a change. Steven Pearce, Neil Walker, Andrew McCutchen and Daniel Moskos should all be arriving from the farm within a season or so.
It’s hard to imagine that 2008 could be worse than 2007, but better? With the Pirates, I’ve learned to never hold my breath.
Matt Morris is the highest paid player in the 121-year history of the Pirates franchise. Are you cool with that?
Sort of. You can almost see where Dave Littlefield was coming from: He needed to find a middle of the rotation, veteran pitcher if he wanted to compete next year, and the going rate for an arm like Morris’ (think Jeff Suppan, Gil Meche, Ted Lilly) is something like four or five years at $10 million per. To get Morris for a year and a half and $10-20 million isn’t all that unreasonable, especially when you understand how unattractive an option Pittsburgh must be for free agents.
When you consider that the Pirates had earmarked $10 million this year for a mid-season acquisition after passing on Suppan, Jeff Weaver and others in free agency, and that Jack Wilson‘s contract is likely to come off the books this winter, and that the Pirates will finally stop sending payments to the A’s for Jason Kendall this year — it’s not as if Morris broke the bank. There’s still wiggle room to further improve the club.
At the same time, Littlefield desperately needs to add a bat to his lineup and impact talent to his farm system. If he’s unwilling to spend on a hitter and refuses to take the best player available in June’s draft, the Morris trade will look considerably worse.
Jack Wilson is still on the team. So are Salomon Torres, Damaso Marte and Shawn Chacon. Are you surprised by that?
Wilson, yes. I think he’ll be moved sooner rather than later, though — I can’t see Jack in the Pirates’ starting lineup on Opening Day 2008. Admittedly, his contract would’ve been tough to move at the deadline. As teams set their rosters in the off-season, you’d assume there’d be more interest.
I can understand keeping Torres and Marte to some extent, as they’re under the team’s control and have been productive. If the Pirates are looking to compete next year, they’re two valuable, late-inning arms. At the same time, their stock will never be higher — Dave Littlefield missed an opportunity to add a legitimate prospect or two to a weak minor-league system.
Not trading Chacon, an impending free agent, shocked me. The Pirates have made no effort to re-sign him despite his expressing interest in an extension, and if I were in charge, I’d be worried about offering him arbitration — what if he accepted? It seems silly to let him walk for free.
Who is the leader of this team in the locker room? Who is the guy that beat reporters go to get a good quote?
Jason Bay leads by example, but he’s not a vocal guy. Apparently, Xavier Nady and Shawn Chacon are two veterans with strong clubhouse presences. Jack Wilson was a prominent figure in the past, but he talked too much and performed too little. I would assume that going forward, Matt Morris is someone that will have an influence on the younger pitchers.
Ian Snell runs his mouth — probably more than management would like — so he can be counted on for a sound byte every fifth day. Adam LaRoche, surprisingly enough, has come to the forefront over the course of the season. When he was acquired from Atlanta, I heard he was an introvert. You couldn’t tell it from his interaction with the Pittsburgh media. Even through a rough April and May, he never shied away from the microphones. I guess on a perennial loser it’s harder to hide.
Is Zach Duke close to coming back?
Duke threw a “seamless” bullpen session over the weekend, and it looks as if he’s on pace to make a couple of rehab starts before the minor-league season concludes. I imagine he’d be in Pittsburgh when rosters expand in September, though the Pirates have shown recently that they won’t hesitate to shut down a pitcher at the first sign of trouble. There’s no reason for him to hurry back if he’s not 100 percent.
Be honest, what do you think of Steely McBeam?
Would’ve rather added cheerleaders than a mascot, to be honest — at least then the pornstar named could’ve been justified. I think I speak for Pittsburgh when I say that the Pirates are supposed to be the team worrying about fan interest. In my opinion, the Steelers should’ve left well enough alone.
…thanks cory…i know i learned a few things…
Tonight, SNY will be hosting a Viewing Party, complete with Ron Darling, ticket give-always, raffles and drink specials, starting at 6:30 pm at the Hawaiian Tropic Zone in Times Square.
…i will be going to the event, along with a few other Mets bloggers, so i hope to see you there…
For more, watch the You Tube clip below…
Today in Port St. Lucie, Pedro Martinez tossed 60 pitches, 47 of which were strikes. He allowed three runs, while 
walking one and striking out three, over four innings during his rehab start for the Gulf Coast League Mets.
…the GCL Mets typically play on one of the small back fields at Port St. Lucie, but today’s game got moved to Tradition Field to accomadate the large number of fans expected to be in attendance, since the St. Lucie Mets are on the road today…
After the game, Martinez threw roughly 20 pitches in the bullpen.
…the recent, pre-mature buzz from shea suggests that if pedro recovers well over the next few days, his next minor-league start could be his last in port st. lucie, which will follow with a fourth start in either double-a or triple-a, depending on the schedule, and after that he could finally re-join the Mets, get this, against the Braves in the final days of august…
…oh, man…here comes willis, and the crowd goes wild…
At BroadcastingCable.com, Alex Weprin describes his experience at Shea Stadium a few days ago, during which 
fans began flinging SNY’s promotional baseball cards on to the field.
According to Weprin…
“It started around the fifth inning, what looked like confetti falling from the upper decks by left field. Then more fell. And more. By the eighth inning, everyone in the stadium had the itch, because they had discovered that the SNY baseball cards fluttered in the hot New York air like ticker tape after a World Series win…
“The Trifecta of Mets game announcers, Ron Darling, Gary Cohen, and Keith Hernandez, as well as legendary player/announcer Ralph Kiner seemed to, for the most part, be spared the indignity of having their cardboard alter-egos hurled out of the stands. The lesser watched SNY talent did not have that privilege. Miniature Julie Donaldsons, Matt Yallofs, Lee Mazzillis and Kevin Burkhardts were everywhere.”
Mets RHP Ambiorix Burgos has begun his minor-league rehab assignment while recovering from a pain in his elbow that did not require surgery.
In two relief appearances for the Gulf Coast League Mets, in Low-A, Burgos has pitched two hitless, scoreless innings, while striking out one batter and walking nobody.
…the buzz from florida is that burgos will be ready to pitch for the Mets in september, if they need him…
According to our friend at the Elias Sports Bureau, the Mets opening day lineup, of Jose Reyes, Paul Lo Duca, Carlos Beltran, Carlos Delgado, David Wright, Moises Alou, Shawn Green and Jose Valentin, has been used only 16 times this season, all during April.
…for some reason, i keep getting e-mails from people, such as the following…
Bill O sent in an e-mail asking…
“Been watching ESPN’s The Bronx is Burning? Oftentimes, at the end of the program, they will run a, “what it was really like” type thing and interview players from the team, writers and the like. Willie Randolph has made frequent appearances decked out in Yankee regalia…
“Now, I certainly don’t
question Willie’s loyalty to the Mets, but I do question the logic of his attire. Anyone know what the deal is with this?”
…folks, the interview with willie is clearly from a few seasons ago, when he was still working for the Yankees…he’s thinner, younger, and talking about the team like he is still on it…he is not talking about the movie, he is just talking about the team, which is probably because it is b-roll used for Yankeeographys…
…also, if you notice, there is another set of randolph appearances that are about the film, and they are obviously filmed recently, since willie looks older, and like he does now…in these, the current ones, he is not wearing a Yankees cap and uniform…instead, he’s in a grey shirt…
By the way, the Mets are 22–21 against the National League East this season.
