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Joe Janish of Mets Today examines the recent brush up between the Mets Mike Pelfrey and Marlins OF Cody Ross and comes to the conclusion Ross is a ‘madman.’
New York Mets Daily criticizes the Mets for the way they handled the promotion of Jon Niese and wonders if his rough first start will effect his future performance.
Meanwhile, The Eddie Kranepool Society provides more love for Carlos Delgado.
Over at Mets Fever, Ed Ryan says Endy Chavez seems to flourish when his playing time is diminished.
While debating who the National League Cy Young Award winner should be, Jayson Stark of ESPN.com provides an interesting note on Johan Santana’s season, writing:
“Not sure anyone has noticed this, but he leads the entire sport in quality starts (with 23, one more than Lincecum). He has five blown saves, as many as Lincecum, and five CUS, one fewer than Lincecum. But in overall run support, he and Lincecum are very close. Santana is at 4.87 a game (64th in the big leagues), and Lincecum is at 4.81, right behind him at 68th.”
Sadly ‘W’s and ‘L’s prevail amongst the bonehead sports journalists.
It seems like people are getting really high on Niese all of a sudden. A couple of months ago he was a 4/5 starter with 3 upside at best, now all of a sudden he has 2/3 stuff? I’m not sure what’s hype and what’s reality.
Ok… I will clear it up for you. Here’s the hype: Jon Niese will solve all of our problems this season (not true, of course). Jon Niese is “untouchable” in a SOLID trading situation.
Here’s the reality: Jon Niese has an above average fastball (when he doesn’t aim it, that is) that tops out around 93 and sits at 90-91, a slow, knee-buckling 12-6 curve that can fool even the best hitters, another knee-buckling 12-6 curve similar to the last one except this one is about 7-8 mph faster, a heavy change-up, and great command (which was obviously not present last night, but he’s 21 and was clearly nervous). Not to mention he has a great ground ball/fly ball ratio.
I’d say he’s definitely got the stuff of a #3 guy, but considering we’ve got Santana and Pelfrey for a few more years, he’ll never be a #2 (not on this team, anyway).
I don’t think you have to actually pitch second to be a number 2 pitcher. Dan Haren for example is clearly a number 1 pitcher on most teams. My question was whether he has 2 stuff.
But anyway thank you for the break down.
In that case, then maybe…he might have #2 stuff. But it depends on the team. If it’s somebody like the Rangers or Orioles, then yes. If it’s the majority of big league teams, then probably not. But who can predict the future, right?
His faster 12-6 I’m pretty sure is really a splitter.
You know what’s really crazy about sweeping the Brewers?
We’re putting Philly that much closer to the wild card…
but it also gives the mets a safety net if anything were to happen in the nl east
And if we beat Philly at home, it puts them further behind the Brew crew again. So everything should even out. Put it like this: One team, and one team only, will go to the playoffs from the east. period.
That’s not necessarily true. The Phils still play 4 against Milwaukee, and the Brewers still gotta play Chicago 6 times. Plenty of time for both NL East teams to make it in…
Okay, fine. They we get to face Arizona or LA in the first round. Awesome!
I was thinking the same thing, but NYMetsGrrl94 is right–if it brings Philly closer, it brings us closer, too, and provides another potential road into the playoffs.
Id actually rather play the Phillies in the Playoffs then the Brewers. Think about it C.C first game, Sheets in game 2. The Phillies don’t have any really good SP other than Hamels.
In 1999 the Diamondbacks were supposed to have an advantage with Randy Johnson and in 2000 the Giants were supposed to have an all around advantage. In 2006 the Mets lost all their pitchers and many an expert started leaning toward the Dodgers.
Bottomline, just get in.
JUST GET IN!!!!!
I’d rather face Philly in the playoffs, to be honest with you. With added arms in the bullpen, we will dominate them. They have beaten us, what, 5 times this year? At least 3 of those were because our bullpen couldn’t close it out, twice with enormous leads. With arms like Pedro, Maine, Niese, Parnell, etc. in the bullpen, it gives Jerry more options and reliability late in the game. I’d rather face the Phillies than this right-handed hitting team in Milwaukee any day. We were somewhat lucky to pull off a sweep with three left handed pitchers.
just so we’re all aware, the Mets can’t play the Phillies in the first round. Amazingly, though, if Philly wins the Wild Card, the Mets end up with the D-Backs (or the Dodgers) in the first round. So, as much as I hate Philly, it might not actually be the worst thing for them to win the wild card.
Agreed. The NL West is a joke.
I really liked the part about Ross not getting out of the way of that minimally inside pitch. I would just love to see umpires show some testicles and not give the batter first base when they just stand there.
Ross IS an idiot. How can he claim it was intentional when the Mets were winning, there were two strikes, and he had no motivation in doing so (ie, someone like Wright being plunked)? That guys is truly mental. Sounds like somebody is pissed off about being 8 games out of first….
SI.com ran a fan poll this morning where they asked what pitcher you would want to win a must game. They listed 5 or 6 pitchers and Santana wasn’t one of them. What gives? Prior to this year he was pretty generally acclaimed as being the best at least one of the top 2 or 3 pitchers in baseball. He’s been pretty much lights out for most of this year. Writers from the Midwest like to say that NY players are overrated because of their greater exposure. I actually think it may be the opposite.
santana deserves to finish in the top 5 or 6 in the cy young race after guys like lincecum, webb, sabathia, and dempster.
When guys catch on to Dempsters faux glove waggle which is designed to mask his tipping his pitches he will go back to being a human battering ram.
This is going to sound a little dumb, but I sort of don’t care what stuff Niese has. Sure, watching some of his breaking pitches was exciting, but getting guys out is the bottom line.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to be critical. It was his first start, against a tough team. These things happen.
But honestly, Johan doesn’t strike me as a guy with true ace “stuff”. His change is fantastic, of course, but his fastball’s only pretty good. And yet, he’s the man.
Furthermore, look at Glavine. Good Glavine, back in the day. Again, a great change, but he never had ace stuff and yet made a HOF career out of it. All he had was smarts, great location, and a strike zone three miles wide.
The stuff Johan’s throwing now isn’t true “ace” stuff, but in the past he has, his fastballs pretty good but for most of his career is was up in the 96-98 zone, which makes a pretty good pitch a lot better, same with his slider. Now he just knows how to pitch.
From what I’ve read about Niese he’s sort of the same way as Pedro is now, his pitches themselves won’t blow you away but he uses them well and hides them to deceive batters.
where did people get the idea johan threw 98?
his average velocity in 2005 was 92.4 and his avg velocity in 2006 was 93.1.
he may have TOUCHED 98 earlier in his career, but consistently 96-98? lefties don’t throw 96-98 (unless you’re wagner or clayton kershaw, both freaks of nature).
season ticket holders : check your email..its time for postseason payments…ugh!
about on time. You didn’t really want them to deal with the mad dash for us all to line up outside Shea sometime between clinching/first game to pick them up did you?
Off Topic, I posted this on the game thread……………
Not to put a damper on an obviously festive day with the Mets sweep of the Brew Crew, but did you guys notice Castillo hobbilng to second base? Gary even brought it up. I hate to say it but this guy is done, his knees are shot I just don’t see how he could play 2nd base for us for the next three years? How?
Just how he is. He _is_ still recovering too. Maybe it’s bad work ethic, maybe it’s just he needs some time. I’m just concerned about him playing 2b for us this year. I’ll worry about the future in the future. Let’s get him out there everydya, stop with this easley nonsense and see if Castillo can get into rhythm and stay healthy.
btw, got my request for postseason ticket payments, I’m sure that’ll send some of you into a tizzy.
What’s the damage on the tickets?
$1516 for the UR/Saturday Pack. 4 tickets. I think it’s exactly the same as last year (still got those around here somewhere..)
He wont. Hopefully we can get an AL team to purchase his contract in return for a prospect and some cash. I don’t think Castillo will be a Met for much longer, especially if Murphy can be transformed into a 2B and/or Reese Havens makes it to the bigs within the next 3 years (highly unlikely).
Who cares? it’s not as if he contributes anything. If he can’t play, he can retire. If he won’t retire, the Mets can release him. The mistake of giving him a four-year contract is made. The mistake of letting him play it out can be avoided.’
If we can get a better 2B, or develop one, great.
Until then, Castillo’s better than, say Argenis Reyes. And I like Easley off the bench.
I’m fine with platooning Castillo and Easley, but neither are really playing very well.
“Get into a rhythm?” Are you on crack? Did you see him come in that last time? He was wincing and hobbling the whole way from 3rd to home. I would like for him to play if he’s healthy, and he really looked good when he came back, but damn. He did not look good out there on those bases today.
He’s never really ‘looked good’. As long as he gets around them, and on them, better than the alternative.
yeah ollie was being too cutsey – peterson woulda ripped his 70’s perm out if he was still the coach