Daily Archives: August 16, 2007
The Mets (67–53) lost to the Pirates (50–69) by the score of 10 to 7 in Pittsburgh tonight.
For a recap and boxscore, go to Yahoo! Sports.
…that was was just brutal…
…i mean, seriously, guys, do you, or do you not want to win this division…
…frankly, i’m not sure i can go through it all again, but, basically, the Mets blew a 7–3 lead to the last-place Pirates, and lost, in a weak, bumbling fashion…put another way, if this was the only game you watched this season, you would have though the Mets were the last-place team, and the Pirates were destine for greatness…
…a few complaints…
…it’s kind of hard to totally rip the bullpen, which deserves ripping, when the team’s starting pitcher has not pitched passed the sixth inning in an eternity, and not passed the fifth inning in two days…
…also, it’s tough for me to get on Marlon Anderson, who botched a key catch in the sixth, which could have ended the inning, but allowed it to continue, because anderson is not a right fielder…of course, who is on this team…i mean, i am still not totally sure why the Mets are carrying four second baseman, and one legitimate back-up outfielder, who, at this point, is a starter anyways…
…the real botched plays, the ones worth noting, are Mike DiFelice, who dropped a throw from right field, and could not peg the lead run coming home, and David Wright’s throw by first base…
…Pedro Feliciano is a mess…he looks tired, and has no command of his slider…
…also, Guillermo Mota is a waste right now…he, too, has no command, and is basically just slinging the ball, while looking like he has no plan…
…and then there’s Aaron Heilman, who i support, and still trust, but, wow, how many fastballs did he groove with two strikes last night…again, like the other two, it looked like he was just slinging the ball, no plan, just hoping they’d hit it…and they did…over and over and over again…
…so, basically, the bullpen is a mess…
…for what it’s worth, the seventh inning was inches from being over, with the Mets still clinging to a lead, but a line drive was literally inches out of reach from Jose Reyes, who, had he made the catch, would have been a savior…the thing is, with the way the Pirates were scoring with two outs, i feel like they’d have scored the missing runs the following inning anyways…
…in other words, this just wasn’t the Mets night…
…yes, the Mets won the series, which is always the goal, even though the goal is also to win every game you can,especially ones when up four runs, and not look like little leaguers in the process…
The Game:
The
first-place Mets (67-52) go for the sweep vs. the Pirates (49-69) 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, LF Moises Alou, 1B Shawn Green, RF Marlon Anderson, C Mike DiFelice and starting pitcher Brian Lawrence.
…Lastings Milledge was scratched because of flu-like symptoms…
The Pitchers:
RHP
Brian Lawrence (1-0, 4.09 ERA) takes the hill for the Mets. Lawrence was solid in a loss vs. the Marlins over the weekend, allowing two runs on eight hits over six innings while walking three and striking out six. He has allowed five runs on 16 hits over 11 IP spanning two starts as a Met. Lefties are hitting .444 vs. him in limited at-bats (8-for-18). Lawrence hasn’t faced the Pirates since the 2005 season as a member of the Padres — he allowed three runs, two earned, on eight hits over 6.1 IP.
RHP Tony Armas (2-3, 6.13 ERA) hopes to salvage one for the Bucs. Armas won his last start vs. the Giants, yielding three runs on six hits over six innings. Armas has won consecutive starts, allowing four earned runs on 10 hits over his last 12.1 IP. He has appeared in 22 games overall, nine of them being starts. Righties are hitting .325 against him this season. He has pitched 3.2 scoreless innings in two appearances vs. the Mets this season.
The Notes:
A couple notable Mets have feasted on Armas in the past, including: LF Moises Alou, who is 7-for-15 (.467) with two doubles and three RBI and CF Carlos Beltran, who is 7-for-15 (.467) with a homer and three RBI.
The Mets haven’t swept a series in Pittsburgh since the 2001 season.
Since Moises Alou’s return on July 27th, he leads the team with six homers and 15 RBI.
CF Nate McClouth has hit safely in each of his last nine starts. He has a home run in each game of the series thus far.
For more insight on the Pirates, check out 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…
Shawn Green will start at first base tonight in place of Carlos Delgado, who will get the day off to nurse his hyperextended knee.
Lastings Milledge will start in right field.
…update…
Turns out, Milledge has pulled at the last minute due to ‘flu-like symptoms.’
…or, as i like to call it, the flu…
Today, at 6:30 pm, Anthony De Rosa and Mike 
Nichols will be talking with Ryan McConnell from Always Amazin for roughly 15 minutes during The MetsBlog Podcast.
De Rosa, Nichols and McConnell will discuss the state of John Maine and Oliver Perez, the bullpen, and ‘still’ being in first place.
To listen live, click the icon below.
To subscribe to The MetsBlog Podcast, and receive new and old editions directly to your iPod, use this url, or simply search MetsBlog on iTunes and click subscribe.
Today, at his blog for the New York Post, Joel Sherman continues his Award’s Wednesday series, by listing who he feels to be the current leaders, if the season ended today, in the race for Cy Young, MVP, and so on.
According to Sherman, if the season ended today, David Wright would finish third in the National League MVP voting, he writes…
“Throughout this season, we figured if a Met contended for the MVP it would be Jose Reyes. But Wright, slow and steady, has crept, crept, crept into this picture.”
Also, as an extra feature, Sherman lists the Five Ex-Mets Pitchers Having the Best Seasons, which includes Devil Rays LHP Scott Kazmir, Royals RHP Brian Bannister, Cardinals RHP Jason Isringhausen, Padres RHP Heath Bell, and Reds RHP David Weathers.
…i tend to get a bit of tunnel vision when writing this site…so, for those like me, who have not looked at the rest of the league’s standings lately, i 
just realized the Cardinals are two losses back of first place in the NL Central, despite being three games under .500…
…if they win the World Series again, i may have to give up baseball altogether, since it will be clear, at that point, that i have no idea what it takes to win in this league…
The National League East since May 11th:
Phillies 48-37
Nationals 46-40
Mets 46-40
Braves 42-44
Marlins 40-46
…but hey, the mets are still in first place, right…
…Manny Acta for Manager of the Year, anyone…
Tagged
Stats |
Sandy B. sent in an email asking a few questions…
“I know this would be a pain to track but do you happen to know how many innings did the Mets score more than one run this year vs. 2006? I assume it’s far fewer this year and may explain the Mets relative lack of success on offense this year.”
…sandy you’re right, this was a bit tedious to track, but the numbers indicate that your thinking is correct…
In 2006, 51 percent of the Mets run-scoring innings were multiple-run innings.
So far this season, that number has declined to 43 percent.
…but after going through every box score the past two seasons there is another notable trend…the Mets had significantly more run scoring innings in 2006 than they are on pace for this season…
“Also, can you tell us what Jose Reyes‘ batting average with runners 
in scoring position is this year vs. 2006?”
In 2006, Reyes hit .336 with 65 RBI in 137 at-bats with runners in scoring position.
This year, he is batting .296 with 36 RBI in 108 at-bats…
…even more notable is the more significant decline in reyes’s production with two-outs and runners in scoring position, in which reyes batted .414 with 44 RBI in 70 at-bats in 2006 compared to just .238 with 18 RBI in 63 at-bats this season…
…this is just not a reyes issue though, the whole team has struggled in this spot all season…
“Can you tell us what the Mets W-L record was with Endy Chavez on the roster and what it’s been since he went down? Obviously, it would be an over-statement to say his injury is the cause for the decline in their overall play but I believe his energy is contagious and I believe many Mets fed off of it.”
Chavez went on the 15-day disabled list on June 7, at which point the Mets were 35-22. They are 32-30 since.
…you’re right, sandy, it would be an overstatement to say his injury is the cause for the team’s struggles, but i do think this team misses his energy…that being said, i really do believe this team’s issue this season has been from the inability to string hits together or make productive outs with runners in scoring position…
“Finally, your reader’s observation about Lastings Milledge vs. some of the best pitchers in baseball is striking but I wonder 
how much worse it is than everyone else’s BA vs. those same pitchers.”
…earlier this week on Metsblog a reader noted l’millz’s struggles against ‘playoff-caliber’ pitchers…after researching some of the top hitters in the national league against these same pitchers, in which milledge is a below average hitter against…but, out of Albert Pujols, Ryan Howard, Miguel Cabrera, Chipper Jones, Derrek Lee, Alfonso Soriano, Prince Fielder and Lance Berkman, only pujols is batting over .300 against those same pitchers in his career…
…as cerrone stated in the initial post, i don’t know if milledge’s struggles against number one pitching is so black and white…remember milledge hasn’t played a full season in the majors yet and has limited at-bats versus those pitchers…
Tagged
Mike Nichols |
On Mets.com, Marty Noble writes how Billy Wagner was hoping to finish the latest Harry Potter book between the end of Tuesday’s game and game time Wednesday. Wagner tells Noble that he was offered the services of a ‘relief reader’ but declined.
“No, I want to finish it, but I’m going to hate that it’s the last one.”
…i never would have pegged billy as a harry potter fan, but i guess you have to find some way to kill time out there…i’ll continue to petition to have one of billy’s alpacas in the bullpen to keep him company…
The deadline for Major League clubs to sign their draft picks passed at midnight. This year marked the first time that a midnight deadline was put into place.
According to Jim Callis of Baseball America, who was blogging the deadline, 4 players went unsigned through the first five rounds, up from four in
2006. In the first 10 rounds, 28 players went unsigned, up from 20 a
year ago.
In an ESPN chat on Wednesday, Callis
called
the Mets “silly” for being one of the teams who refuse to
sign
draftees for above slot deals. It doesn’t
appear that the Mets signed their 17th rounder, Brandon
Efferson,
whose status prompted the question.
Fifth overall pick, C Matt Wieters signed at the last second with the Orioles. He received a $6 million bonus.
Wieters’ bonus is the second-highest in draft history. The Detroit Tigers signed 27th overall pick, Seton Hall Prep RHP Rick Porcello to a four-year major league contract worth $7 millon dollars, matching Josh Beckett’s record guarantee for a high school
draftee.
Baseball Analysts has a full recap of first round and other notable signings.
..its always a crap shoot with these guys, it will be awhile before we know who was worth the money, which was being thrown around quite liberally this year…
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