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Braves LHP Mike Hampton was scratched from his scheduled start against the Pirates tonight, which would have been his first major-league start in two years.
Meanwhile, at his blog for the Journal News, John Delcos asks his readers, “As a fan, do you fear the Braves? Do you think the Mets are beyond the Braves mentally?”
…yes…in fact, i am more worried about the Braves in 2008 than i am worried about the Phillies…a) because of pitching…b) because of Bobby Cox…i like atlanta’s pitching far, far more than philidelphia’s, and as long as cox is in the NL East he will concern me…there is just something about this Braves team that alarms me…maybe it’s Mark Teixiera in a walk year, with Scott Boras as his client…maybe it’s Chipper Jones, lingering in the comments section of a blog taunting David Wright…maybe it’s young hitters like Yunel Escobar and Brian McCann, plus a veteran pitching staff…whatever it is, like i said, they worry more than the Phillies…
…of course, i essentially said that last year as well…so, you know…
I respect the Braves, but I fear them no more. And I think the Mets don’t either. Last I checked, the Mets over the last two seasons, pretty much passed all the tests to enable them to put this “Turner Curse” past them, including winning the season series from them in 2006 and sweeping/destroying them at Turner field late in that season. In fact last year, in September, the Mets needing to take a series from Atlanta to keep one step ahead of the Phillies, did just that, highlighted by Pelfrey’s improbable dominating performance at Turner field.
And I feel the Mets players themselves feel confident going into Atlanta with no monkey on their backs.
Respect the Braves, yes,…probably more than the Philies. The history doesn’t go away. But fear them? I am over it.
Especially with Ollie” East the Braves for Breakfast” Perez on our side.
Orlando Hernandez made his first rehab start tonight, and top prospect Jon Niese took the ball in Binghamton’s season opener.
I followed each game until Niese and Hernandez were taken out. http://www.metsprospectus.blogspot.com
FINAL LINE:
Orlando Hernandez: 5 IP, 3 Hits, 2 ER, 6 k’s
Jon Niese (stands to get the win): 5 IP, H, 0 ER, BB, 5 k’s
St. Lucie:
8:45: El Duque is done for the night after 5 innings pitched.
8:38: Another solid inning by El Duque. He didn’t give up a hit, and allowed just one base runner on a HBP. Not sure if he’s done, but I’ll keep you updated. Meanwhile the St. Lucie Mets have tied up the game at 2, thanks to doubles by Lucas Duda and Wabick.
8:15: Nice bounce back inning for Orlando Hernandez, who retired Vero Beach 1-2-3. His line so far: 4 IP 3 hits 2 ER 5 k’s.
7:55: Ruff third inning for El Duque.. He gave up 2 runs on 3 hits, including a solo homerun to Matt field. He also walked a batter and had a wild pitch in the inning.
7:30: Hernandez’s second inning, much like his first, no hits, no runs, and a strike out. 2 IP 0 hits 3 k’s so far.
7:20: Orlando Hernandez threw a 1-2-3 first inning, while striking out two batters.
Binghamton:
7:50: After another scoreless inning, Jon Niese may be done. If he is, he’ll end with a final line of 5 IP, H, 0 ER, BB, 5 k’s.
7:30: RBI ground out from SS prospect Emmanuel Garcia to give the Binghamton Mets a 2-0 lead. Niese continues to roll, as he just finished pitching a scoreless 4th.
7:20: Jon Niese has thrown 3 scoreless innings, and has struck out three batters. Meanwhile, 1B prospect Mike Carp has hit a homerun in his first at bat off of lefty Chase Wright.
paging fairweather mets who will now have mike carp back on their favourite player list!
great user name
Down in the SAL Savannah starter Mike Antonini went 6 no hit innings allowing just a walk before coming out of the game.
Francisco Pena’s repeat of low A ball is off to a good start, he is 2 of 4 with a double and an RBI.
The B-Mets finished off the 2-0 win for Niese, Kunz got the save with a scoreless 9th.
FM had just a single in 4 AB’s batting leadoff.
Nick Evans and Dan Murphy were each 0 of 3.
Well said. This talk about being worried about or afraid of the Braves is ridiculous. Do they have a good team? Yes, but so do we. Too often, the atmosphere at Shea is one of worry and fear. Our players shouldn’t play scared and we as fans shouldn’t act scared or worried every time adversity faces the team.
Plus, being worried about the Braves isn’t going to help the Mets beat them. If things go bad, we have no choice but to pick ourselves up off the canvas and dust ourselves off. That’s what being a fan is all about; celebrating our team’s triumphs and bouncing back from our team’s losses.
The Braves will be feared this year because of there great young talent along with the veterans .
I agree with you Matt. The Braves make me nervous as well
I don’t get it.
Two guys over 40, a guy who hasn’t pitched in 2 years, and a rookie don’t exactly strike fear into my heart. I’ll give them Hudson, and Smoltz is a good pitcher as well (but as his age, for how long?) but everything after that is pretty mediocre.
They lost Jones and added Kotsay in his place, which is a laugher.
I’d be much more worried about the Phils, who have a great offense that never quits and keeps fighting back. You can’t every count them out of a ballgame, and that’s much more scary than anything the Braves have.
Top to bottom they have a better lineup than the Mets. Smoltz and Hudson are always very good. As much as I hate Glavine he’ll still be fairly solid. Their bullpen is shaky, but then again, ours wasn’t great last year either. Relative to the Phillies, I would fear them more.
I’ll give them the lineup, but not by much. And with staple players like Smoltz and Chipper riddled with injuries, I don’t think it’s a long shot to imagine one or both of them going down for an extended period this season.
As for Glavine, he’s not getting any younger, and the amount of innings he can pitch is steadily declining. I’d be shocked if he went 7 more than a couple of times this year. He’s becoming a 5 inning pitcher, which is great if you have a lights out bullpen, but the Braves don’t have that luxury.
They’re just one Chipper injury (…And that isn’t exactly something that would be unexpected…) from that not being the case.
It’d be decent, but the Mets and Phillies lineups are far superior to that.
next day, but you’re wrong. Braves lineup is totally solid, and chipper missing time won’t cripple it. Top to bottom, Braves lineup definitely rivals ours and the Phils.
I AGREE!! Glavine is done and Smoltz is OLD, Hampton is hurt and the rookie…IM RUNNING AWAY IN FEAR>>NOT!!! Lets compare;
Santana > Smoltz
Maine > Glavine
Ollie> Hudson
Pelfry> ?
?>?
Well short of #5 I think we come out on top. I am not affraid of “Larry” and without Andy anymore they just dont scare me. I think the 2008 team has more fear of the Phillies. They proved in 2006 that the Braves where has-beens and all they have to do now is kick Phillies butt. I am more worried about the first place Nats than any other team.
i would take jurrjens over pelfrey
Hudson is more consistant than ollie and i would also take jurjens over Smoltz
Maine lost tonight he looke awful .
I agree the Braves are scary .
People keep mentioning injuries with regards to Smoltz but the guy is a machine and had near cy young numbers last year. Despite constant injury talk he has had over 30 starts for three years in a row now. Sure he has been out here and there, but he has been consistently awesome despite that. Is there any reason to expect this to change?
Hudson is damn good too.
Hampton could be solid.
Glavine is pretty cool as a 4th or 5th starter.
Pecota has their pitching as 5th over all in the NL and they are offensively stronger then the mets.
The Phillies just arent a threat this year either. They have zero pitching and a slightly degraded offense.
I agree completely! why is everyone so scared of their pitching? it’s OUR pitching everyone should be scared of, we still have a great rotation, even without pedro. I’d say Maine is better than Ollie, so I’d say we are set. And the Braves have a bunch of old men, prone to injury in their rotation. screw them, they don’t scare me one bit. and the Phillies…their pitching is so bad, who cares about how good their offense is? I’d say we are the team to beat, just as carlos said, lets go mets!
Damn straight! Our #3 and #4 (OP and Maine).. before the injury to Pedro… are half the leagues #1 and #2s!
my post below was supposed to be here, my bad!
yeah, the Braves pitching scares you why?
SMoltz is 50, and is showing signs of chronic injuries, so expecting him to be a horse all year is a stretch.
Glavine? which one do you get, and can he last a season? I vote a poor one, and no.
Hampton may never pitch again.
So, they are then rolling with young unproven guys, or retreads, like most other teams!
Oh, and I think their pen still stinks too, doesn’t it?
and yes, I did forget about Hudson, but even he is erratic these days.
The Phils with Myers and Hamels (vs. Smoltz and Hudson), with the poo poo platter 3-5 for each, are probably just as good.
Oh, and with Seanez, 25% of the Phils pitching staff is 39+.
DO the Braves have any ancient relievers? They already have 2 40 YO starters!
Hudson was solid tonight when it counted but i’m not sure if he had a real test against a good team yet .
*scott boras as his agent
maybe it’s Chipper Jones, lingering in the comments section of a blog taunting David Wright
anyone know what that’s about? must’ve missed something
Click on “Chipper Jones” on the left sidebar of Metsblog. The top post says “Blog: Chipper posts on Blog”, follow the link.
I don’t get the deal with Chipper. He seems to have gotten whinier with his old age
big lips…small brain
fine. i’ll be the first to say it… last year was a fluke. The Mets will regain their title in ‘08.
damn right :P
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA….He hurt himself again….HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA….amazing…HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA….amazing truly amazing…Mike Hampton has spent the last 7 years stealing money…this year will not be any different. Just wonderful HAHAHAHA!
hey man, it’s all about the kids getting a good education…..
People talk about Pedro being injury prone. When was the last time Hampton pitched?
Your right Braves does not need Hampton . What has he done for them anyway so they will not miss him .
I always had an affinity for Hampton. Think about it, he got the Mets to the World Series and was the NLCS MVP one season, and then he delivered David Wright the next.
Didn’t Bobby Jones win the NLCS MVP? Don’t get me wrong, I liked Hampton back then, and was crushed when we didn’t resign him. In hindsight, that really wasn’t all that bad a move.
I do think he outhomered Zeile the following year with Colorado. Ouch.
no, hampton won. i’m pretty sure he pitched 16 innings without giving up a run.
like wolverine said, i’m a fan of hampton… he pitched one great year for us, and even though we were pissed when he left - especially about the school system crap - his departure was the best thing that happened to the mets in the last ten years, thanks to that sandwich pick. so i feel bad for him and all his injuries… the guy’s a warrior, you know he wants to be out there (unlike, say, Pavano).
Speaking of pitching … lets talk rotation for the next couple days. I am in ATL on business and plan to go to the game Sunday … which should be JOHAN’s turn, and is also Smoltzie’s first scheduled start. Jealous, anyone?
However … forecast is for RAIN Friday night, probably enough to rain it out… with a FOX game on Sat @ 4pm and the get-away game on Sunday, there’s no room for a double header. Do they push everybody back, and I get BIG PELF on Sunday, or do they skip Pelf and go with Maine-Santana in a 2-game set?
Thoughts?
I live in Atlanta but unfortunately I will be out of town. I’m not sure if they would schedule a DH this early in the season. Maybe.
I was hoping to get to that Sunday game in Atlanta too, but it just ain’t gonna happen…damn.
There is some serious, if not severe weather forecasted for this area on Friday evening so a rainout is most certainly a possibility. Unsure what they’ll do with the starters if that happens.
Good luck…hope you get the Santanta/Smoltz matchup…should be a great game.
I expect that Santana, Maine and Perez will be kept on normal rest, Pelf will only pitch if Santana isn’t going to be on normal days off.
with a couple of rain outs, Figgy won’t evenpitch at all!
AWESOME.
Bobby Cox just took a relief pitcher (Resop) and after pitching, he stuck him in left field while a new relief pitcher came in. I’m expecting he will pitch to 1 or 2 guys and then Resop will come back in and pitch.
It’s the Braves, but I still like it.
Can Show do this?
Royce Ring came in and got out a Righty. Resop came back in to pitch to Xavier Nady. I love it…
(they did announce that Resop used to be an OF, but still.)
And Nady gets a go-ahead hit. That makes this even better!
I have seen this done before (I believe Davey Johnson did it while manager of the Mets) but not recently. It would seem to me that if you tried this in the AL you would lose use of the DH for the remainder of the game.
yeah, that’s true. But don’t really see the point. AL..pffffft…
Correct. Davey did this with Roger McDowell and Jesse Orosco, and then with McDowell and Randy Myers.
thats pretty neat, but its well overdue for someone to let a baseball player be a baseball player. Keishnick couldnt hit or pitch well enough to keep his job, but it would be excellent if baseball tried to develop a few of these two way talents rather than making a signed baseball prospect spot working on half of his talents.
I believe Kotsay (or was it Hermida?) was a pitcher in college, maybe Cox will find a way for him to get a lefty or two out.
Wow.. I’ve never seen this before. Interesting idea. I wonder why it isn’t used more. I’m sure it can’t be too hard to teach a pitcher to catch a few balls in the OF. Can’t be worse than Manny. :-D Most baseball players have probably played all positions before even if they were in little league!
I listened to the game on WGST. Cox was sort of forced into this. He’d pretty much used up his bullpen thanks to Hampton having to be scratched. In the pre-game Cox said he wasn’t going to use Moylan and he didn’t. He put Resop into the OF for one batter while Ring pitched to LaRoche (and K’d him too). Looked like the strategy was going to work until Resop gave up the hit to Nady.
Johnson did use McDowell and Orosco in RF, but that was in a game when a number of Mets had been ejected. I think he was just too short on players to make the normal substitutions as the game went deep into extra innings.
I think it was in Cincinnati.
Anybody else remember it more clearly?
i like it too i have never seen nor thought of doing this.
pretty creative!
Nady RBI single. Pirates lead…NOW I REALLY LIKE COX’S MOVE!
Davey Johnson did it in the Ray Knight/Eric Davis game
pirate catcher has yellow gear. Looks like a freakin Power Ranger!
That’s the ballgame. Pirates take 2 of 3 in the ATL
That kid McLouth is pretty good. Thank you Pirates , you’ve exposed many Brave weaknesses this week. Now for the Mets to go in there and take advantage of them.
if anyone is looking for seats to the sold out mets phillies game on april 19 in philly, i have two extra in section 310 (where most of the mets bloggers will be sitting). would rather sell them to a mets fan obviously so if your interested respond to this post with an email address and i’ll get in touch
still available? drop me a line… rs9251979@yahoo.com
Atlanta loses 2 of 3 to Pittsburgh in their building.
Mets better do the same or better….Atlanta’s bullpen is horrible. Just get to that pen.
Lets go Orange and Blue
Hampton just got placed on the 15 day DL, retroactive to March 30th.
Jo-jo Reyes has been called up from AAA and Chuck James will come off the DL to replace Hampton.
I’ve been saying since the Braves signed Glavine that they have a top tier rotation…if everyone stays healthy, but everyone won’t stay healthy.
(also, haha!)
Even if they stay healthy they will be out of gas by Aug.
Thats why I am OK with Pedro and Duque having April off. Let them start the season in May when it will be warmer and the season will be shortened.
I don’t see whats so scary about Bobby Cox. He’s just a grumpy old man. Honestly, he’s entertaining.
Anytime I read the Braves fans’ comments on AJC.com you get the feeling that they cannot stand Cox. Stupid old man is a constant refrain.
no offense to the people who are going to the game in ATL on Sunday, but I TRULY hope the Mets have Santana go Saturday and push Pelf to Sunday. He still gets his normal rest as he would all season long if there was no off days and a 5 man rotation…and it sets him up to pitch against PHI and thats a much bigger thing in my mind than pitching against Milwaukee…
I Hope the mets do that….but somehow the fact they haven’t announced it yet worries me
Dear Mr. Hampton,
Karma’s a bitch.
With love,
Mets Fans