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Phillies (18-14, 1 LB):
The Phillies will face ’some serious piching’ in Arizona as the begin their seven-game west coast road trip, writes Jim Salisbury of the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Salisbury also notes SS Jimmy Rollins may be ready to play this weekend in San Francisco.
At his blog Beerleaguer, Jason Weitzel praises the Phillies ’surprising good’ pitching staff and credits them with the team’s early season success.
…their bullpen, which has pitched to a 2.66 era (2nd in the nl), has been outstanding this season, but their lineup is full of grinders…from Chase Utley to Jayson Werth, they never seem give up, no matter the situation…the thing is, their ability to come from behind is actually quite impressive…and yes, i just complimented the Phillies and i hated every second of it…
Marlins (17-14, 1 LB):
Clark Spencer of the Miami Herald profiles the eclectic group of relievers that make up the Marlins bullpen.
this is a great piece and worthy of a look…also, check out the article’s accompanying photo…anyone know why a man in a sombrero and donkey would the Marlins bullpen…
Over at FishStripes, Craig wonders why C Matt Treanor, despite having better numbers than his counterpart, Mike Rabelo, is only starting on Sundays?
Braves (15-15, 2 LB):
David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reveals a startling disparity in the Braves production at home and away in his recap of the Braves 14-7 rout of the Reds yesterday.
Nationals (14-18, 5 LB):
Mark Zuckerman of the Washington Times takes a look at Nationals starting rotation, which was a weakness at the beginning of the season is now becoming one of their biggest strengths.
What “serious pitching” will the Phillies face? They get Max Scherzer making his first ever major league start today, Randy Johnson tomorrow, and Micah Owings on Wednesday. They miss thier best two (by far) starters. What the Mets dealt with this weekend was “serious pitching”.
It’s a four game serious, they face Brandon Webb on Thursday.
and keep an eye on scherzer.
My bad, thought I checked the thursday schedule. My response was more out of frustration that the Mets got two of the best pitchers in the league and it looked like the Phillies were missing them. I feel better knowing that they have to deal with Webb on Thursday.
Don’t forget, it’s Max “The Next Lincecum” Scherzer.
Welcome to the hype!
Also, his first appearance, while not a start, did last 4 1/3 innings, in which he allowed 0 baserunners and struck out 7.
I’m glad the Mets aren’t facing him… we tend to struggle a lot against rookie pitching.
And old veteran pitching. the mets just seem to suffer against pitching.
You’re right. This team would go 162-0 in wiffle ball…
Hopefully we can lock up some quality pitchers… like Sheets, CC is prob a long shot.. but Mets are going to have a good amount of money coming off the payroll…
Carlos Delgado 16,000,000
Pedro Martinez 11,813,351
Moises Alou 7,500,000
Orlando Hernandez 7,000,000
Oliver Perez 6,500,000
48,813,351
I’ll take it.
The Phils have done a great job of getting players who approach the game the right way. Anyone who didn’t see the difference in head-to-head matchups last year wasn’t paying attention. Fortunately at times this year, it’s looked like the Mets learned a lesson.
yes, serious $ will be available. We are still going to need Pelf to progress this year and be a reliable starter next year, so I hope he can show some improvement and hold on to his spot this year.
Hopefully most of that $48 Mil goes to Texiera
I dunno… we currently have four 1Bs putting up pretty good numbers between Binghamton and Port St. Lucie.
Maybe going after CC might make sense after all… at the start of the season it seemed highly unrealistic, but the way things are progressing it might just work out. For it to happen, we would probably need Niese and Pelfrey both to look like major-league pitchers in ‘09, and to fill at least one of 1B and LF from the farm, preferably both. So, it’s still a longshot, but right now it’s kind of plausible.
If we get Tex, the back end of our rotation next year might look a little shaky.
Well the problem is that there really is no solid pitching that will be available via free agency this year, and I don’t see CC as an option. I think Opie stays with the team, and I think Omar makes a run for Tex.
Don’t forget that with a new stadium next year, the Met revenue stream figures to increase even more next year, which is great news, considering that they were they had the highest net profit of any team last year.
no thanks on sheets. not giving beaucoup bucks on a guy with his injury history and he’s not even 30 yet.
i’ll take teixeira or cc and use a couple of the 1b wannabes as trade bait.
Is there really a chance at getting Tex? The Yankees will also be shedding millions of dollars off their payroll next year and are already in need of a firstbaseman. The Red Sox wouldn’t mind putting him at first and using Ortiz as the DH, especially with Manny getting older. Oh, and it wouldn’t hurt them to keep him out of the Yankees hands. Tex will make millions from these two fighting over him, going way beyond what we should be willing to spend. The money has to be used for pitching. Pitching seems to be doing fine for the D’Backs and was very big for the Braves run of NL East championships. The offense has a solid core, with the THM in the near future, all we really need is a solid bat and glove at firstbase. Besides, we all know the Phillies will be looking for pitching next off-season and I’d rather see us keep them from getting any.
Don’t forget the bumps in salary to Wright, Reyes, & Beltran. Not sure what the final number is, but that will detract from some of the $48MM. Still, the Mets will have a good chunk of change to play around with this winter.
I was going to make the same point…Also, don’t forget that Santana will see a bump too.
And there’s a ton of deferred salary that they will start paying out. Plus we need 2 starters…man…good luck with getting top tier guys….
IT’s actually alot less than $48 mil. Wright and Reyes get big raises, Maine will get a decent raise, Santana will make alot more next year, and Beltran’s deal is really back loaded.
Do we need Tex? what if we went after someone more like Adam Dunn who can play 1B and LF. If we have Dunn on the team, we can hope that one of THM, Carp, Murphy, Evans is major league ready for next year (not impossible) instead of needing two of them to be ready (not likely). All the while, saving some coin to fill out the pitching staff.
Also doesn’t Church become a free agent this year, or becomes arbitration eligible one of the two. At the rate he’s hitting he’ll be getting a big raise.
Plus at this point it looks like we’ll have 2 or 3 spots to fill in the rotation.
He only has 4+ years of service time, so he won’t be eligible for free agency after this year. Still, a few mil in arbitration isn’t out of the question, but I am not really sure how much he is making this year.
Hes making 2 mil this yea, I think witht eh kind of start hes off to you have to expect 5 mil next year.
we are going to probably sign Perez and Wright and Reyes’ contracts will increase their pay for next year
on a smaller note Valentin and Matt Wise will also be gone
However it is to early to be thinking about players to aquire and say goodbye to…save that for the trade deadline and the winter
yeah, I’m sure the phils pitching will hold up, too.
how are they so proud of themselves for their pitching holding up this week? they played 6 against the GIANTS and the PADRES
Really? I mean, the DBacks are a better hitting and pitching team overall, and i dunno, i’m looking forward to them playing better hitting teams, overall its done well, but I can’t think its overall “good”
Nearly everyone, myself included thought the Phillies pitching and their bullpen was going to be a disaster. The longer they keep winning games on the strength of this perceived weakness, as well as without Rollins in their line-up, the more of a headache they’re going to become for us as the season progresses. I don’t know how but these guys find ways to win and we still have a tendency to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory on occassion.
when their bullpen regresses, it’s going to be so much fun :D
It’s called being a good team. The Mets were that way in ‘06. I still think the Phillies pitching is more smoke and mirrors than anything.
we’ll see how good the Phillies are when they get away from that softball field they play in.
Problem is, that will help their pitching more, but their hitting will also suffer…
It’s all about expectations. They expected their 3-5 to be terrible, and they haven’t been so far.
Plus Hamels and Myers have eaten a bunch of innings.
hamels hasn’t been pitching well lately at all and myers’ velocity is down. the shoe is going to drop soon.
the phillies are going to be very tough all year. the mets are not going to run away with this division. there was a small chance of that if pedro, el duque, and alou were healthy all year, but that was a dream scenario.
the phils have an excellent line-up, a #1 starter in hamels, and lidge has been great (15ip 0runs)
i think the mets take the division, but it will be within 3 games all year meaning lots of stress, but a lot of fun too.
how long can Lidge keep that up though? just like Wagner… I mean, its awesome hes doing so well, but he will hit a rough spot… difference with wags and lidge being Wags has the balls to get through it…who knows w/ Lidge
lidge has been good for 4 of the last 5 seasons. he’s also better than who they had last year. their rotation is better too with myers in it.
how could you under-estimate the phils after last season?
they are a good baseball team and will challenge the mets until the end. santana makes the difference this year with the mets taking it by a game or three.
And say what you will about Charlie Manuel, but he gets the most out of his players. Outside of Church and maybe Figuerora, there’s no one on the Mets roster who I think “wow they’re playing better than I thought they would.” The Phillies seem to have a whole lineup and rotation of those guys.
man, constanza, you’ve certainly changed your tone over the past year. Anyway, I seem to remember these same kind of comments coming out of this blog in ‘06, about how Willie was getting a lot out of players you never expected it from…the Endy’s, the Valentin’s, etc..
Charlie Manuel also makes strategic moves that make Art Howe look smart.
And man oh man, was Art Howe an idiot.
By far, my favorite (or least favorite) Art Howe moment:
In a pregame interview before playing the DBacks and Randy Johnson, Howe commented that Johnson was “not as dominant as he used to be, but still someone to worry about.” Surely Johnson heard this, because he went out to throw a 14K shutout.
Darkstar, a disappointing Sept. and way too many games like last week’s 13-1 debacle where this team seems to phone it in can make someone bitter. I’m not ready to call for heads yet, but I’m managing my expectations more this year. I went out on a limb to defend this team, this FO and this manager a lot last year, and quite frankly, I’m not going to go through all of that again until the team does something that deserves the defense. Taking 2 out of 3 in Arizona is a start. It would be very nice to see them come out and play hard and tough tonight. You know, actually ride some momentum against a pitcher who has struggled for most of the early season.
unlike the nfl where team are built around the coach and the best coaches win the superbowl almost every year baseball manager have a small effect on the game.
the best manager rarely win the world series. larussa has 2 ws titles n 34 years; pinella has 1 in ws title in 21 years; leyland 1 title in 18 years, mike scioscia has 1 in 9 years.
torre who was terrible for 15 years came to the yanks and won 4 titles.
people get way too excited over managerial moves especially in philly, boston, and ny. willie is definately good enough to win a ws title. 2006 would have been it if pedro, el duque, and sanchez didn’t get hurt. willie has 6 ws rings already. that’s probably more than the entire mets roster and front office combined save el duque.
Gimme a break. Look up the stats of Howard, Feliz, Jenkins, Victorino, Bruntlett, Taguchi, Eaton, Kendrick, and Madson, and see if you stil think Manuel gets the most of out guys.
If all those players were playing at Shea now, they’d be ripe targets for the boo birds.
Zen, I’m not underestimating the phils, not in the least
Delgado’s numbers are better than Ryan Howards so far this year. I think we all know that Ryan Howard is more talented than Delgado. Wouldn’t that mean that Willie is doing a better job of motivating Delgado than Manual is doing motivating Howard?
managers = meaningless
managers=meaningless? Then what’s the risk of making a change?
The Phillies are probably better than the Mets. It’s going to be an uphill battle. The Mets can win, but they’ll need everyone performing at career norms offensively, improvement from the bullpen, and a lot more resiliency than they showed last year.
because willie has done a good job. #2 winning pct in mets history. #2 winning pct among current manager (min 250 games).
how did firing rick down work out?
if the mets really wanted to shake things up they’d wait until june then do something big to show the players what happens if they don’t perform: cut delgado and put ollie in the bullpen in his contract year.
i think the mets are doing fine and will win the division. they took 2 of 3 from the phils twice, 2 of 3 from the braves, and 2 of 3 from the d-backs.
what do you want? a 10 game lead? that’s not happening this year.
another reason not to make a change is, why would you pay 2 people to do a job if the one that you already have is fine?
I’m OK with what we’ve seen, although the win PCT isn’t great. I think they can win the division, but I think the Phils are more likely to, not that I enjoy saying that. . . .
“Wags” has blown his share of games down the stretch so he is not all that much better.
also, mike, down in philly they call them hoagies
I’m tired of hearing about how Philly is full of grinders and guys who play the game right and blah blah blah.
Utley doesn’t keep coming up with big hits because of his attitude. He does it cause he’s a FANTASTIC hitter.
As more or less pointed out by Firejoemorgan.com a few weeks ago, gritty is just another word for white.
exactly, who would you rather have coming up in a big spot, Mr. Grit, Lenny Dykstra or Manny Ramirez? I would much rather have a good player with no grit than the opposite.
Utley is a great hitter in part because of his attitude. They’re not just born, they’re made. Why are people so afraid of the notion that there’s a mental part of the game?
And can we cram the stupid, pointless, knee-jerk accusations of racism, for once? “Gritty” applies to all sorts of players. Marlon Anderson — gritty. Jimmy Rollins — gritty. Ichiro — gritty. Ron Belliard — gritty. Heck, the ultimate acolyte of grit is Ozzie Guillen. Go snuggle with your Milledge jersey and can the self-righteousness.
I don’t think I have ever heard any of those players referred to as gritty. How about players like David Eckstein, Aaron Rowand, Marcus Giles, Paul LoDuca, and the like??
They sure seem “gritty” to me, and certainly Rollins is referred to as “gritty.” You can’t argue that Guillen isn’t the personification of grit, either.
Anyway, point being, “gritty” is not just a euphemism for “unathletic white guy barely making it in the bigs.” It’s players who are maximizing their talent, taking defense seriously, playing hard all the time, and making smart decisions consistently at the plate, on the bases, and in the field. It’s not rocket science. Those are the players that you want on the fieeld in a head-to-head battle with your division rival.
I have to laugh, Matt was 100% right. In his post of Willie confidence poll. The Mets won the weekend series and now Willie is a Coaching phenon. Last week people couldn’t run him out of town fast enough. Matt you are the man!
Brilliant observer of the jaw-droppingly obvious, yes.
“their ability to come from behind is actually quite impressive”
Remember when the Mets were like that? Seems like a million years ago…is is my imagination, or were they one of the best come-from-behind teams in 2006?
I know they are 16-13 on the year, but how many of those 16 wins were of the ‘gift’ variety like last night? Like in Philly when the Phils issued 9 walks and made 4 errors. There have been quite a few like that so far. I’d feel a little better if they were at least ‘earning’ their wins.
I wouldn’t call last night entirely a gift. Church made a game saving play (on a somewhat foolish running choice, I’ll admit.)
And sure, the winning run was handed to us on a silver platter. But if nothing else, the Mets had to play well to be in the game, and putting up two runs against Haren isn’t exactly easy.
one prediction I know will come true…no one will be counting up the “gift” wins at the end of the year if/when we win the division…either way, EVERY team gets wins like this, as a team you have to be able to put the team away when it happens, and we did. But I mean, yesterday’s game, we could have easily gift wrapped it for the Dbacks as well when Feliciano threw the ball away, same exact thing, but no, we made the play to get out of it. To me at least, that showed me something, hopefully moving in the right direction.
see Conor Jackson’s throw to second.
You have to have a real good bullpen to have a lot of come-from-behind wins. The Mets had a much better bullpen in 2006 than they had in 2007 and so far in 2008. If they had more come-from-behind wins in ‘06, it’s probably because of the bullpen.
Remember last year down the stretch? The offense came back not once but twice in games? Only to see the bullpen blow the lead each time? This is why they had so few of those wins last year.
how many of our losses were of the ‘gift’ variety? it goes both ways.
not really…give loses are the Mets playing poorly…gift wins are the Mets playing poorly and getting credit for a win.
The Phillies are a better team than the Mets right now, they just are…
so i guess you’re the new spy from beerleaguer.com?
ummmm…right…
Because they just won 4/6 from the padres and giants? and before that they took 3/4 from Milwaukee and Colorado (not even facing Milwaukee’s best pitching)
Oh or is it the fact we have won 4/6 from them this year?
They havent even played a real division schedule yet, we’ve played pretty well in division….jesus man
what i find funny is that everyone is smoking hot on philly besides howard and the mets have shown sub par play and yet the phils have not gained a hold of the division, so once things start to come together for the mets in the lineup and rotation, they will be fine
Exactly. There are two ways to view the Mets right now.
We’re playing poorly, and we’re 16-13. The 16-13 is luck, we won’t play any better, and we’ll be bad.
We’re playing poorly, and we’re 16-13. We’ll start playing better, and when we do, we’ll do even better than 16-13.
I’m of the latter camp, as I can’t see beltran hitting 210 all year.
can anyone believe that delgado has a hight BA, more HRs and RBIs than beltran? wow.
still only 1 month in, and the Phils have basically played most of it without Rollins or Howard, and they are in first. So, that has to be a concern.
However, I think their pen has definitely over-achieved so far and will come back to earth.
Mets pen is what I worry about the most…I think Alou coming back bolsters the lineup, so the bats will come around.
This pen cannot hold a team scoreless in the late innings when they fall behind. I don’t buy it that they are over-worked.
It’s a valid point that rollins hasn’t played…however, utley, burrell, and werth have more than made up for him and howard, and their pitching staff has pitched extremely well…they haven’t really had any bumps in the road, and yet they are in the middle of the pack with the rest of the nl east. The mets have a few things going for them…1) pedro will be back, and although he is injury prone, he could be a big difference maker 2) Alou makes the mets lineup very balanced and allows protection for beltran, which he has not had and is prob why he is struggling 3) they have exercised the demons from the phillies of 07 by their play against them…
I hate the Friggin’ Phillies!! … Thanks, I feel better now.
Don’t forget they are doing all of this without the services of the great Shane “I’m game on” Victorino.
didn’t he come back last week?
Just a little sarcasm… He’s been replaced for the most part by Jayson Werth anyway. He’s not an every day player which I think was my point. Albeit a weak one made worse by the joke.
I’ll shut up now. Good night everyone!! ha ha ha.
Victorino’s an everyday player. The guy is RIDICULOUS defensively in center. I mean, absurdly so.
He’s got great speed on the base paths, too. I’ll admit he hasn’t hit at all this year, but he hasn’t been too far behind Geoff Jenkins, who isn’t hitting much either. Both just under 300 OBP, Geoff ahead about 60 points of slugging at 359.
Play Werth in right and Victorino in center.
Lucky for us, we’ve got Charlie Manuel throwing out terrible lineups. People think Willie makes mistakes…