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The Game:
The Mets (83-64) conclude their three-game series against the Braves (66-83) today at Shea Stadium, starting at 1:10 pm.
The Lineup:
- SS Jose Reyes
- LF Daniel Murphy
- 3B David Wright
- 1B Carlos Delgado
- CF Carlos Beltran
- RF Ryan Church
- 2B Luis Castillo
- C Brian Schneider
- P Oliver Perez
The Pitchers:
LHP Oliver Perez (10-7, 4.15 ERA) starts for the Mets.
RHP Jorge Campillo (7-7, 3.70 ERA) starts for the Braves.
How To Catch It:
Today’s game can be seen on CW11 and heard on WFAN.
The Bleachers:
For a live chat, head over to The Hot Foot Bleachers.
…enjoy, and as always, Let’s Go Mets…
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I hope Castillo contributes something. obviously Jerry wants to give Easley some rest too but at this point, I’d rather see A Reyes in there. since we can’t control if Castillo is in the lineup, let’s hope he does something good.
Apparently, Easley’s quad is giving him problems again. Expect to see more Castillo or A. Reyes.
have to watch the braves feed today…their game callers are freakin clowns
Castillo in the seven hole? If anything he should be batting eighth. He should be on the DL still rehabbing his knees.
minus castillo this is the mets best lineup
i expect a win 2day to win the series
let’s go mets!
2 fishing pole commercials on the braves channel so far
haha
MUST Win today, can’t lose 2 out of 3 against the braves
nice start ollie
uhh?
one the 1st batter…2nd one not so much
Come on, Ollie.
poop
nice catch…saved a run there….i hope ollie can settle down and go 6 at least
oliver makes me really angry. i’m glad I won’t be listening to this entire game due to other commitments.
they just need to come out and send a message. it needs to start with jose.
i hate larry
I hope OP can cut down on those walks. Please o Please. He’s been great sine June this year, but if he can’t pitch this September then we can’t give him the $$ he wants.
David Wright – 30 HRs. Nice job!
DAVID WRIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GETTING THE STROKE BACK!!!!!!!!!
Love these big two out hits.
frenchy should’ve had that one
Brewers 2, Phils 0
too early
I know. Just saying….
still better than 2-0 phils.
It’s ok…don’t belittle MetsFan or anything.
nice inning
Nice – 3Ks from Oliver to set down the second. Pitch count a little high though.
time for a hideous bunt
Stepped out for a cigarrette, what did ‘Slappy” do?
nothing…slapped a weak grounder to short after faking bunt on the first pitch
Oh, Oliver – lol.
double poop
Well that was ugly. No doubt about him misjudging that one…
out of the jam, whew!
Murphy is looking good.
WRIGHT AGAIN!
OMG – David Wright is just on fire!
DAVID WRIGHT IS BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11
WRIGHT!!!!!!!!! Holy crap! Brave Killa!
Man, Wright is SO unclutch.
ok when can the wright-4-mvp talks officially resume?
Damn it Wright, stop taking MVP votes away from Delgado!
Ha. Awesome…
too bad Wright doesn’t get any big hits…
no kidding…i get tired of him padding his stats all the time
pitcher to 3b to 1b groundout…interesting….just watchin on gameday here…
it was a bullet through the midle that would have been a single, but it bounced off his foot straight to Larry
ahhh thanks for the clarification.
Right off the pitcher’s leg to Chipper…couldn’t have planned it much better (well, I guess it could’ve bounced right to first).
did Castillo just hit a ball out of the infield?!??! He’s improving at least! Go Castillo!
Guess Wright might be out of his slump. Maybe he can have a few more games in the 3rd hole.
Just logged in, so I haven’t seen Ollie yet, but from the line score doesn’t look like he is dominating.
Just saw Church get a single, which is nice. But, with Castcrapo hitting behind him, you need to turn church loose on 3-0. Let him look for a BP FB, and swing from the heels, since why work out a walk in front of Castillo? At best, you are leaving it up to Schneider to get a hit to drive you in!
Yeah, I still want Castillo off the team…
Nice. Gary just mentioned the Naqts pitcher taking a no hitter through 5. Guess that is as good as done!
man im having a hard time being confident in perez today (well the last few games, really). it seems they’re just teeing off of him. and cohen said something along the lines that he hasnt gotten a groundball out in 3 games…
Nice quick inning for Ollie there
holy crap! an oliver perez hit?!
HAHAHAH – Ollie and his slide. But he scored. Good for him.
YES!!!
i can watch ollie slide all day long…that was hilarious
That’s Ollie Baseball right there baby.
I love that guy, he cracks me up. Great hustle
All of a sudden, this ump’s zone shrinks to nothing…
nice play by Luis
what’s going on here?
Oh, stop. Ronnie guessing the Braves want to check Delgado’s bat????
by the way is anybody else listening to the braves broadcast…these clowns have not stopped b***hing about the stadium yet…we get it you don’t like shea…got it
100 pitches already
chase utley is a chump
Utley with another clutch HBP.
I swear, I’d give anything to see an ump enforce the HBP rule.
Which states that the batter must make an effort to get out of the way of the pitch. Not just that he can’t lean into it.
Utley…the only chump in history to perfect a clutch HBP. If there ever was one.
he needs to be HBP in the head or maybe the elbow and avoid a fatal injury…just something. Because an Utley HBP (BS itself) and a Howard HR is total BS.
nice at bat luis
can someone please explain to me why luis is in the lineup? i cant think of a weaker bat who strike outs so much. he never hit for power in his life but he used to be one of the most toughest guys to strikeout. if you have no power, you strike out a ton, you have no range in second base and can’t run, why are you in the lineup???
Easley’s leg is bothering him, and he’s really old.
The day off is fine, and Argenis is somehow worse than Luis at the plate.
Can the Brew Crew do anything against these guys??
nice catch luis!
excellent play again luis
You have to give Ollie credit. Not necessarily his best stuff today. Managed to limit them to 2 runs and get thru the 7th for the BP.
Got a hit, paid attention on the bases and actually scored.
He deserves this win.
Besides, I love watching him. It’s always an adventure -lol.
Thatta boy, Ollie!!!
Seven strong!
nice ollie!
Way to go, Ollie.
crap…mota in for the brewers
we need some more runs…this is the staff with the worst era since the all-star break
come on already
sweet
khmustache – off-topic – I believe you suggested a week or so ago to try Stub Hub for tickets. I did and I was able to get two tickets Loge Box seat to the Marlins game on 9/26. They said that I should bring the confirmation email to Shea when I go in case there is a problem, at which point I should call them. Have you ever had a problem and the tix should be together, correct? Thanks again…
ok, one out rally here, lets go david just get a hit
there it is, come on carlos’ put this game out of reach
top of the 8th in philly 3-3
Cliff Floyd – always liked him with the Mets. But yet another LF that couldn’t stay healthy for us….
That’s getting it done, David.
Keep it going, Carlos.
Let’s go Delgado! put this thing away!
Balk?
dang…chased that one
all we needed was a fly ball
come on church let’s get a big hit here
Chill out, Julian Tavarez…you’re a joke
Still the worst stats with the bases loaded. Sigh….
Up to the BP now. 6 easy outs guys.
Gameday is stuck on the Delgado AB. Did Beltran get a hit?
Intentional walk. First base open b/c of the balk when Delgado was up. Delgado struck out.
And so did Church. Top of the 8th. Schoe in.
nevermind…finally updated…8 pitches in 2 seconds…
calm down tavarez…your team is 18 games out
and that’s going to be the turning point in the game as here comes the show
mets cannot lose this game
paranoid?
a bit, i saw the first game yesterday
Julian Tavarez was pretty excited there. I’d be excited too if I escaped a jam for the first time in 3 years.
ryan church looks terrible today
No.
Next….
here we go, bets on a two run homer by chipper here?
lost that bet thankfully, how about a dp ball here
With 7439329707 pitchers in the bullpen, why was schoenweis in there to start the inning against the righty?? Unbelievable
My guess would be his dominant numbers against Chipper and McCann, but we’ll see.
damn…leadoff hit again…cmon double play…crap larry is up
That’s a big out…but we’re not out of the woods yet…
castillo has looked good at 2nd the past couple days…i wish he knew how to bat
they should come up with the designated fielder for the NL
lol…that would be great
spoke too soon
I SAID next….
Schowenweis sucks!!!!!!
This guy should never pitch again. I don’t understand how they can keep running him out
He just blew the season for the second straight year
wow
What? Little over the top, dude. Step back from that ledge.
They’re gonna get this done. Watch.
Your joking, right???
Wait…. do you post on Mets.com?
poor show, that’s three groundballs that have found holes in his last 4 hitters. so lame.
Jerry,
Show cannot be allowed in a game. Were you watching yesterday?
Alright, Joe. One more, bud.
big out, one more to go…come on joe
1st and 2nd for the phills with one out in the 8th
I don’t like the looks of this. Francouer kills us
Remember when Braves fans would compare Franceour to Wright?
Anyone paying attention to the Philly game? If so, why the hell is Yost leaving Shouse, a LOOGY sort, in to face Burrell and then Victorino.
Yeah, there’s the go ahead hit. You suck, Yost.
even if the brewers do make the playoffs ned yost should be fired…the guy is just awful
HUGE K!!!!!!!!!
I’ll tell you the obvious. If the Mets want to win the world series
they have to score runs when they have 2 or more men on
base, and they need someone to come out of the bullpen
without letting the first batter on base.
yes and yes for smith
philly 4-3 lead
Make that 7-3… Victorino 3 run HR
Thanks Brewers, you worthless pieces of s**t
Anywho, nice job by Smith……
Burrell kills the Mets even when he’s not playing them
YES, JOE SMITH!!!!
SMITH !!!
And I keep forgetting how young Joe is. He’s a keeper.
Joe’s the MAN
Of course, Ned Yost leaves Shouse in to face Victorino, a switch hitter who is better against lefties.
And he hits a home run.
I hope the Brewers don’t make it, so that Yost gets fired. With the talent they’ve got over there, Milwaukee deserves better.
YEAH SMITH!!!!!!!!! SCREW SHOWINBALLS HE SUCKS!!!!!!!!!
Thank you Joe Smith. Now 7-3 Phils, the Mets need this one. The Phils are going to win again tonight. The Brewers can’t stop the bleeding ever.
7-3 phillies game over, brewers are getting swept, at least the wild card is still an option and the cubs will clinch by the time we play them
i
hate
victorino
Seconded
A friend of a friend from Hawaii went to High School with Victorino and he said the guy is a cocky skumbag.
not suprised…some people just have a bad vibe..(jeff kent, bobby cox, victorino…)
“Smith finds sunshine on the outside corner”
A brilliant call by Gary Cohen
well even if the phils win that’ll give us a chance to build more of a lead over the brew crew. Personally id much rather face he Dodgers than the Brew Crew in the playoffs. Sabathia’s a huge weapon.
he can’t pitch all 7…and their bullpen is actually much worse than the mets…plus i want no part of a post-season contract year manny ramirez
well the brewers won’t win the wild card. I’m almost positive.
you gotta point there
What a rope by Castillo!
Yay Slappy!
Freakin’ finally Castillo!!!!!
now gagne is in…it’s official…i hate the brewers
Can’t worry about the Phils guys, Mets control their own destiny.
you’re right but it’d be great if they’d lose one of these two games
Most likely they will, I remember seeing a stat that said splits of doubleheaders are freakishly common.
its actually only 60-40 for the splits
Yes and yes. Doesn’t matter if they win as long as we keep winning.
And to think we have the pleasure of three more years of Castillo!!
Nah. Castillo will get paid for another 3 years. But don’t expect to see him collect it in a Mets uni.
castillo with a hit and a sb?
anybody here seen overboard? that movie made in the 80’s with kurt russell and goldie hawn…well corky miller looks just like the fat friend of kurt russell
Yes – lol.
yeah, if the Mets want to win the division, it looks like they are going to have to win a lot of games, since the schitzo phils look like they are going on another winning run. Might not do as well as last year, but don’t expect them to make it easy.
The Brewers do seem to be falling apart though.
and heck, the WC is better than staying home!
Wow, A Marlon Anderson sighting! what a rare “treat”
and he shaved!
reyes never gets a hit in these spots
it’s official. Marlon should be buried for the rest of the year.
The Brewers seem like a 2nd division team to be honest. They have a crappy lineup, a crappy bullpen, and a crappy rotation with the exception of Sabathia and Sheets. Next season they’ll be worse than the Nats when Sabathia and Sheets ditch them.
i was about to post something very similar, they’re going to be bad for a while
Has Chavez gotten a hit since the all-star break?
screw the defensive replacement. I want Murphey up with 2 RISP and 2 outs, not Chavez.
now the pen needs 1 more inning, so let’s do it!
we have to win this game, those filthbags from philly wont lose!
let’s go luis ayala a nice and easy 1-2-3 inning
no chance for that now
here is where all those wasted opportunities are going to come back and haunt us
Jesus Christ
crap crap crap…come on guys
Oh, COME ON.
crap!
this team is just unbelievable
thats why we shouldn’t have used Ayala yesterday
See, told you yesterday not to waste Ayala with a 5 run lead. but does anyone listen to me? No.
I’ll start: if they blow this game, they won’t win the division (hey, someone had to do it, right?)
i wouldn’t go that far just yet this year the mets seem to have 2 doors into the playoffs and have a lead in both.
OMG, this is not happening again.. I don’t know what to do with myself right now.. F*** me!!
aaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
You have got to be kidding me…….
crap!!!!!!!!
god dammit
game over, season over chockers
A bit early for that.
whats a chocker?
hmm…no clue
The Mets are working very hard to give the division to the Phillies. They should have swept the Braves in this series but have worked their hardest to hand the lead back. They haven’t been hitting and the bullpen is the worst in the majors. Only the Dbacks are more frustrated right now I think.
brewers are too
True I forgot how horrible they are. They really have a hard time playing the Phillies at home. Citizens Bank Park should be forced to change its dimensions. You would think there would be a ban on Little League parks in MLB.
Talk about a meatball.
son of a …..
What the hell is with this crap!!!!!!!!!!! This bullpen sucks, nobody is consistant at all!!!!!!!!!!
Still don’t think we need a big-time closer for next year?
Sigh….
fdfjksadgsssaebgtq34sjs
unreal.
F—U—-C—–K
Thanks Ayala, you worthless piece ofn sh*t.
whoever didn’t see that coming for the Braves last game at shea is blind
Can we PLEASE take down the magic number watch?? Did we not learn anything last season? Jesus!
TAKE IT DOWN! TAKE IT DOWN! TAKE IT DOWN! TAKE IT DOWN! TAKE IT DOWN! TAKE IT DOWN! TAKE IT DOWN! TAKE IT DOWN! TAKE IT DOWN! TAKE IT DOWN! TAKE IT DOWN! TAKE IT DOWN! TAKE IT DOWN! TAKE IT DOWN! TAKE IT DOWN! TAKE IT DOWN! TAKE IT DOWN! TAKE IT DOWN! TAKE IT DOWN! TAKE IT DOWN! TAKE IT DOWN!
I can’t be too pissed at Ayala. He’s been as good as you can ask for, if not better. At the end of the day, he’s still Luis Ayala.
Man, this is the most frustrating thing ever… We still have NO BULLY!!!!
and Omar wanted to make Ayala the closer next year??? Give me a break Minaya!!!! Give money to people who have a track record not some random retard.
Omar should lose his job. He is a horrible GM. Mets need to gut their bullpen. Almost everyone is horrible. Keep a few guys like Smith but the rest are garbage. Just play with young guys, at least then you have excuse. Instead the Mets keep throwing money at horrible relievers that just fall apart. Schoenweis, Feliciano, Heilman. All three need to be tossed to the curb. Ayala was a horrible pitcher long before Omar picked him up. You can’t pick through other teams garbage and expect to find good pitchers.
Was this a tough loss? Yes. Is it doubly painful that it coincides with a Philly win, maybe even 2 before the day is done? It is. But I have to disagree with your little bullpen analysis. First of all, were you calling Luis Ayala garbage before today when he had saved, what was it 6 games in a row for us? Unfortunately, even Mo Rivera blows saves now an again. It happens. Secondly, you have to know that the bullpen is the most fickle aspect of baseball today. Guys like Feliciano and Heilman were a big part of the 2006 playoff run. There’s absolutely no way to know how these guys are gonna perform from year to year. You can’t blame Omar for their collective underperformance. Maybe you can argue he didn’t go out and make a more significat trade, but I don’t think there are too many teams clamoring over our minor league prospects either…
How hard is it to get three lousy outs in the 9th w/o giving up the lead. I mean, COME ON.
Take down the magic number!
TAKE IT DOWN!!!! WE HAVE NO BUSINESS PUTTING UP A MAGIC NUMBER WHEN OUR BULLPEN ARE A FLATOUT DISGRACE AND BUNCY OF PU**Y’S!!! Seriously, do we need a magic number?
hmm. take it down?
Yeah, take it down. Its a joke to have it up when this team could lose their tiny lead in a couple days. The way the Mets have given up in this series is a sign of the year they have been having. They are pussies that give up if any resistance is given by the opposition.
Mets should have stomped on a crappy team like the Braves. The Braves are a garbage team, they have ONE player that doesn’t suck. Instead the Mets play like crap, they didn’t hit and their relievers pitched like crap. Omar should be thrown out on the street after this season. He knew going into this year that the bullpen was a joke and his idea of fixing it was to bring in ONE guy Wise, who did absolutely nothing. Then he tried to fix the bullpen by bringing in a bunch of guys that couldn’t pitch for horrible teams.
beware the ides of September.
that’s tomorrow.
I’m starting to believe that the magic number thing has everything to do with it! Unbeliveable. Matt, take that crap down!!!
OMG, i’m physically ill… This f****** team.. . Same old Mets.. Same old f***** Mets!! Disgusting,
for all those people (yes you therealsince86) that say that this is a different team i’d like to point you to the last two mets losses today and yesterday. this is the same way the mets lost all those games in september last year. early lead, bullpen blows it and the offense goes to sleep.
this was a MUST win game, no way you lose 2 of 3 to the braves at home
this team is going no where, same $hit dfferent year
Totally agree. Though metsblog will try to put a positive spin on things because the site is basically owned by the Mets.
how bout all those people this year who declared the season over after every loss?
Didn’t you make a post back in May about how the season’s over, there’s no hope, and the team should get rid of everyone??
Ah….. It’s good to be famous. Do you dream about me too?
think Jerry would have learned after last year you can’t pitch the same guy every day. Ayala should not have been in last night.
wht a flashback.
Looks like a 1 game lead into tomorrow, since I would bet (if I did that sort of thing) that the Phils will destroy the brew crew in the nightcap.
Oh well. Maybe they can slime into the WC?
Vomit tastes bad.
I’m so glad we put up the magic number.
Take. Down. The. Magic. Number.
what does the magic # on this site have to do with anything??? The Mets know what the magic # is and it’s in their heads, this site doesn;t have anything to do with it.
deffo take down the magic number!!!
meet the muts
The lack of a ‘Real” closer is going to haunt this team in 2008.
How hard can it be to close out a game? Well, we’re seeing it. Closers like Mariano are priceless.
this team is really goddamn pathetic. I’m surprised chipper didnt go yard
As others said, this is partially on Manuel for pitching Ayala last night with a 5 run lead with a day game today.
Where have we seen this scenario before? Repeated opportunities to put the game away are wasted and then the bullpen gives it away.
this is a sick joke…
i really feel ill right now
the jets look nice ~5 plays in :)
Take down that F@#&ING magic number sign!!!!!
definitely want to walk this guy
and who believes the mets are coming back in this game?
me…heart of the order coming up
Feliciano still can’t stop the bleeding, at least give us a chance
cool. now the BP will allow the Braves to blow it open and pad the lead, since there is still the chance the Mets cold come back from a 1 run deficit. Let’s make it 3-4 just to be sure.
this would be (per Gary) the 7th game they lost after leading at the end of 8. amazing. The phils probably have 1, if that, with Lidge.
the phils are unbeaten, have come back from more than a 3 run deficit to win, and can come back from any deficit at any time…look at the expressions on the mets when jerry went out to take out ayala they knew it was over it doesn’t matter if its 1 or 101 runs behind
This team is horrible…
TAKE
IT
DOWN
Yes you can blame Ayala, whom by the way had been doing a decent job his last several save ops. A lot of people seem to selectively forget that.
But the blame gain goes to the Mets who could not break open the game late with bases loaded.
Second day in a row, if you count game 1 yesterday.
The blame mostly goes to the closer who couldn’t win with a 2 run lead. He is the friggin closer! Its not a good team, its the Braves. Ayala is garbage though so I completely expected him to lose the game. He should get shot after this game.
Unbelievable.
We should be used to it by now.
jesus
You must be kidding me. This is unbelievable.
Very believable…or were you not paying attention last year?
I guess I was finally convinced that Jerry Manuel was going to change all that.
this team is NOT NOT NOT any different
uh, for those of you who were raised in a family that believes
in voodoo. The Mets don’t lose games because an announcer say’s something on the air or because a number is on a blog.
They lose because they have lousy pitching.
LOSERS
i feel like i’m going to throw up.
jeff suppan better be the jeff suppan of 2005 tonight, that’s all I gotta say.
*2006.
The Mets have to fix this pen and add guys to the offense that don’t fall asleep late in the game. The rotation is fine with the exception of pedro. Just resign Perez make Niese the #5 guy. Get k-rod and a big bat for the line up. Thats all we need next season, just 2 more quality guys
i don’t want Perez
if we can, let’s get Burnett
I wouldn’t be surprised if Perez signs with the Yankees after this year. They want pitching and he wants big money. Plus he is a horrible batter. The Yanks might get Burnett though if he is available.
Perez did a good job, he left with a 2 run lead. The bullpen choked and the offense couldn’t tack on. Our rotation is good and so is our offense. We just can’t score late in games. The bottom of the order needs to be fixed. Castillo completely screws it up. Just sign a quality closer and a good bat.
big time choke
I can’t take this. I’m turning on the Jets game.
Are you all happy that the magic number is up now? I don’t care if it is BS, superstitions are a baseball tradition and that magic number is bad karma. The bullpen sucks too, of course.
yes, it is BS.
This never works – walking the bases loaded.
Shoulda just left Joe in.
setting up the Corky Miller (.086) Grand Slam
guess it’s time to put the Jets on.
Glad we’ve needed three pitchers to get out of this inning after starting with a two run lead.
Nope, no choking here.
Just 2 fu**king games the team GAVE AWAY by not showing up prepared to play.
Letr a sh*t team hang around, always great strategy.
But you people keep defending them….fu*king chokers
CHOKERS
Uh, I think everyone not living under a rock pretty much knows this BP needs major fixing.
Question is: Is Omar one of them????
We all knew it last year, and the year before that. Santana fell into our laps and Omar decided they pen was good enough as it was. He deserves to go after this year.
Even if this team somehow manages to make they playoffs they will get swept. It is as if they are terrified of September baseball.
screw the mets, im moving over to the jets.
Like the Jets aren’t going to suck this year. Even though they have Favre they are still the Jets.
what a joke of a game. this is making me sick. no kidding though, as soon as that damn magic number was up there, we started looking like the 07′ mets. seriously, no joke…TAKE IT DOWN!!!!!! Come on matt, for real. you really need to get rid of it.
(blank)
Sign Corky Miller. He knows how to get it done.
now it’s over. I’m done watching for the day.
this is sad. This weekend totally deflated my hopes. I now feel pretty sure that they will fold up and likely miss the playoffs again. And Friday, I was real confident that they were going on a hot streak and would easliy make the playoffs.
They need to go to DC and stomp the Nats. If they lose a couple down there, free fall II is well under way.
Instead of the magic number, Matt should put up a pool for “which day the Phils go back into 1st”
i take tuesday
The Nats basically stomped on the Mets at Shea so I am not very comfortable playing any team right now. The Mets can’t even beat the bottom of the NL.
Matt is not going to do anything to tick off the Mets. He is basically paid by them so why kill the golden goose?
Corky Miller? Please someone just put me out of my misery.
TAKE DOWN THE FREAKING MAGIC NUMBER. Do you see the Phillies putting it up on their site? They are basically only a game behind us.
JEEZUS
Gary – ‘he started this mess’.
Uh, no – that would be our wonderful BP.
TAKE DOWN THE GODDAMN NUMBER NOW
As if guaranteeing wins was only that easy.
i know that after every brutal loss the mets have come back and gone on a nice streak, but this time seems different because
1. its september
2. and they already had a brutal loss yesterday
and 1)
its against a dreadful team,
2)a Braves team, and
3) the phillies are playing a team that can’t get out of their own way twice today.
I’m joining the Shea faithful:
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.
You!? Booing??!! I’m surprised
The Mets deserve to be Booed. They gave up 5 freaking runs in the 9th!
Yeah, that half inning pretty much sucked.
But they still can do this. (I know, I know – delusional).
Here comes the 1-2-3 ninth. Good night!!
and Chipper scores the final Braves run at Shea. Oh the irony of it all!
same old s**t
guys, there was no way we were going to deny the immortal corky miller from driving in a run. He now has 4 more RBIs than me this season
Well after another epic collapse this year with the Mets not making the post season, maybe Mr. Wilpon will wake up and show Omar the way to the door. Maybe he will realize the importance of a good bullpen and go out and sign K-Rod and Fuentes as a set up man. He should resign OP and let Neise take the 5th spot. Mets also need to add a LF bat, such as Manny Ramirez. You have Pedro, El Duque, and Alou all coming off the books. Given raises to Wright, Reyes, et. al., and the pay cut Delgado will get, that gives you around 20 million freed up. Give the 20 to K-Rod and Fuentes and hope Wilpon is willing to drop another 20 on Manny.
Reyes – SS
Beltran – CF
Wright – 3B
Ramirez – LF
Delgado – 1B
Church – RF
Murphy – 2B
Schneider – C
Pitcher
Johan
Perez
Pelfrey
Maine
Neise
Sanchez
Smith
Feliciano
Stokes
Schoenweis
Fuentes
Rodriguez
You just spent around 60 million dollars.
Looks like I was wrong about Fuentes. I had thought he was getting shelled lately and lost the closers role. Also, I forgot about the raise OP will be getting. Either way, get Manny and K-Rod and the team changes entirely.
I think we can afford that though. Rather then getting Ramirez id try to go more after Holliday if possible, he’s much younger and if we give manny a 3 year contract he’ll be 40 by the end of it.
maybe trade Heilman, Show, and Castillo for Holliday, not exactly prospects. But still 3 for 1. Put Omar in that deal 2 that makes it 4
Mets have no bullpen.
Jets have no kicker.
Nets don’t have Jason Kidd
U have no base. They all belong to us.
*clap* *clap*
Matt., I’m not superstitious.
But please, for the love of jesus…
FIRE OMAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
IM CALLING THE SPANISH “INS” ON THIS WHOLE TEAM…
FIRE OMAR AND HES LOS METS!!!
SICK OF THIS CRAP!!!!
Let’s face it; there is no way the Phillies let this golden opportunity we’ve given them slip by. They’re not going to start losing to bad teams. They are just too tough. The Mets have plenty of talent, but they lack a killer instinct. They’re fragile.
The Mets only real chance is the Wild Card. Mark my words.
This loss is on Manuel. WTF was Ayala doing in last night’s game when they had a 5-run lead going into the 9th?
And then they ask Ayala to come back in less than 24 hours? And doesn’t he have balky groin injury?
They need to bite the bullet and go after K-Rod. And totally revamp this bullpen. Get rid of Show.
The Mets and Brewers are both repeating 2007. Groundhog’s Day all over again.. You’d think that both teams would have done something, ANYTHING to change their fortunes after last yr.. But NOPE, we have Omar doing nothing as far as the bully goes.. Yes, the Mets did have many chances to put up some runs and that is disturbing. But you’d think going into the 9th we’d have someone that could put these Braveless away… I’m really sick and sad at the same time… This is just insanity!
I’d think at this point Wright has used up all his hits in this game.
okay, maybe not.
there ya go david…baby steps…games not over yet
phils make comebacks
mets give up comebacks
That extra run they just got is huge right now.
You guys all wanted Wright to hit, well he hit last September too. I guess it does not matter if your bullpen stinks.
Wow!!!
It takes just one bad inning for the usual idiotic comments to come out. Last I look, they were still 2 up in the loss column. Way to throw in the towel, guys.
Pathetic fans.
Yup the team and the fans are the same as last September. Your team is in the middle of a pennant race and you boo instead of trying to cheer them on. Losers.
Do you really think the comments here have an effect on the team’s performance? And what were the people in the stands to do after the 9th inning, give the team a standing ovation. The comments here have as much effect on the team’s performance as the magic number being posted. You take out your frustrations on the other posters. You’re really no better than they are.
And Kid Bart your comment “Last I look, they were still 2 up in the loss column.” Isn’t that a repeat from last year?
Do you guys ever stop complaining about the other posters? Take some Prozac and get a life.
Yea, the champagne will just taste that much sweeter.
they’ve been saying the same things all year now…everytime the mets lose it’s “the worst loss of the season”…the only difference is now they say it everytime the mets fall behind
I’m sure the Phillie fans were all excited about their team when they lost 2 out of 3 to the Marlins earlier this week.
True. This was a horrible, horrible loss (and I was there to see it, unfortunately), but we should remember that it wasn’t that long ago that the Phillies lost 2 of 3 to the Nats, so it’s not like the Mets are the only team to lose a series to a team they should beat.
The fact is, the Mets have had problems with the Braves all year, for whatever reason. And, frankly, it seems like the Mets can’t just lose a game in normal fashion–they have to blow a late lead, or something equally dramatic–so that makes the losses seem even worse. They are all only one loss each, though, no matter how devastating the particular loss may be (yes, Tom Glavine, I used the word “devastating” for a baseball game). So far, the team has been resilient, and bounced back from bad losses. They have to keep that up. If they do, they will be fine and will end up winning the division. If they let a bad loss affect subsequent games, though, it could be September 2007 all over again.
Hey Bart, do u seem to forget that we went thru the EXACT SAME BS LAST YR? We have the same damn problems that we had last yr and the only thing Pathetic here is the Mets lack of execution in the later innings along with a HORRIFIC Bullpen…. This is mind boggling and yeah, we’re freaking sick of it..
The problem is people thrown in the towel so quickly. Instead of rallying behind their team, you start piling on it.
And as Two-by-Four mentioned, some people are much to quick to jump on anybody who “dares” to be critical of the Mets’ terrible performance. When the Mets play like they did today, they deserve boos–particularly the “main culprits,” such as Ayala and Feliciano. If you want to ignore the terrible performances, and cheer them anyway, go for it. Similarly, I will continue to criticize the Mets when they play badly. Doing so does not mean I am “throwing in the towel” any more than criticizing the current President’s administration would make me “un-American.”
I don’t like the extreme, “jumping off a bridge”-type comments either, but some criticism of the Mets *is* warranted, and should not be automatically criticized itself, and lumped in with the extreme comments like tends to happen here.
You’re right. We are all overreacting to a perfectly normal situation that every team goes through. We should all just be pleased that they have a lead for one more day and ignore what we’re watching right now.
I’d be overreacting if i jumped out of my window right now.. Fortunately i’m not going there.. But honestly, you can’t say that this wasn’t a redo, or a flashback to last yr.. Untimely hitting with bases loaded, and the bully blowing a lead to a BAD TEAM with everything on the line.. You just can’t ignore the holes in this team.. Im just frustrated.. And the Jets don’t have a kicker STILL!!!
what is this homo pitcher on the braves doing, with that gay rocking back and forth crap. give it a rest jerky
let’s gives stokes a chance in the closer role!
I would consider it since Ayala have already blown a couple games. Stokes seems to be pitching well but I don’t know how he would do with the pressure of closing games.
agreed, but at this point he has shown the most consistency in the pen, right?
Omar’s approach is to sign 25 pitchers who have been cut from awful teams and hope one of them gets lucky on any given day.
Stokes was fine today–unfortunately, he allowed an inherited runner to score on a sac fly, but he was certainly better than Ayala and Feliciano–but he has been far from strong lately. The only reliever that has been anything resembling reliable lately is Joe Smith, but I’m not sure he would be able to do the job against lefties, too, since he only faces righties now.
My question is: where is Al Reyes? He is the only reliever on the team with any regular experience as a closer, and he is never pitched *at all*. I’d love for him to get a shot as the closer but, since he hasn’t pitched at all, he can hardly be thrown right in there, can he?
TAKE DOWN THE DAMN MAGIC NUMBER!!!
here comes a double play
Come on Beltran!!!! Need a good AB here, not a 3-pitch strikeout!!
what’s wrong with gay people??
c’mon offense, prove the naysayers wrong!
COMEON BELTRAN
Let Castro hit!!!
Take down the Magic Number jinx!!
season is over…when the going gets tough, the phils get going and the mets turn into craptastic chokers.
cerrone – take down the magic number
all the good feeling/resurgence is gone
2007 all over again
way to ruin thiousands of people’s day mets
i will now sh-t my pants
bat Castro for Castillo. We need a home run!!!!!
brother
bunt!
Good thing they took out Church!
How do you let Slappy hit here. Bad call.
Precisely. You guys still in love with The Gangsta?
Wow. Unreal. Awful strike 3 by Tatis (not that Church did anything today with RISP)
LETS THE 2008 COLLAPSE BEGIN FOLKS!!! LETS JOIN THE BREW CREW JUST LIKE LAST YEAR!! HOW BOUT TRAGIC NUMBER MATT?? CHOKERS!!!!
Let’s not.
They pinch hit for Church, who can hit, and let Castillo bat when he is the worst batter on the team. I would rather have had Perez out there.
FUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!
TAKE DOWN THE MAGIC NUMBER BEFORE THE PHILLIES MAKE YOU DO IT YOURSELF!!!
why in gods name is castillo still batting? WE need a HOME RUN HERE NOT A MINI SINGLE. MANUEL IS RETARDED. BAT CASTRO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OR EVEN EVANS FOR GODS SAKE!!!!
just terrible
Ugly. Ugly. Ugly.
It’s getting harder and harder to believe, but I’m NOT giving up on this season yet.
there you go
What an absolute choke job.
HORRIBLE call to let crapillo hit there! just terrible
Absolutely. When he’s going well, Luis is only getting cheap singles that barely leave the infield. And he’s barely played at all recently, so it wasn’t even reasonable to expect him to do that! (I know Castro just came off the DL, but his best is *a lot* better than Luis’, so it’s a different situation.)
SEASON’S OVER.!!!!
FIRE OMAR!!!!
FIRE JERRY!!!!
FIRE EVERYONE!!!!
SELL THE TEAM!!!
OUR ONLY HOPE IS THE WILD CARD!!!!!
Does that make everyone happy?
You left out “Cancel the Citi Field construction.” :)
f–k
With Easley out, this will just repeat on and on again with Castillo in there. He is completely awful.
Luis was only an issue at the very end, and he should have been pinch-hit for then. The problem was, yet again, the bullpen and an inability to tack on runs.
TAKE THE GODDAMN NUMBER DOWN
Keep that magic number up Cerrone!!!!
Go sell-out and get another sponsor for this site!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Magic Number brought to you by Papa John’s!!
Nope, no choking here
AGAIN
no lead is enough with this pen
WHERES HEILMAN TO CLOSE TO TODAY??
You are kidding me, right? That’s a joke, correct?
This team was unprepared this weekend.
Took the Braves WAY for granted.
And look at the result
WHEN YOU GET SOME FUKKKING SCORING CHANES HOW ABOUT YOU TAKE ADVANTAGE NEXT TIME CHOKERS
I wonder if ownership is forcing Jerry to play Castillo instead of using someone that can still play the game? Anyone would do better at 2B now than Slappy McKnee Surgery.
So, how does everyone feel about the Magic Number being up? I bet Philly loves it. Damn this is a funny game.
I have no faith in this team to keep the lead…its why I refuse to ever watch a Mets game past the 6th inning…bullpen sucks and the offense goes to sleep
There is not much point to watching a Mets game beyond the 6th inning. The Mets hardly ever score after then anyways.
THIS IS SICKENING!!! THE FREAKIN DEAD BRAVES COME IN AND WIN 2 GAMES!! AYALA IS A BUM
Attention Geico; Papa John’s; SNY.TV; and all other metsblog sponsers… I am calling for a boycott of all products sponsered on this site, until Matt takes down the magic number.
I would call for a boycott of Geico anyways because of their stupid commercials.
what a gut wrenching loss and what a gut wrenching weekend. this just breaks my heart. very tough to get over this one…how many more times is this team going to blow a lead in the 8th or 9th innings? i hate to say it, but if and that is a BIG if, the mets make the playoffs, any time any reliever comes in, we can all basically kiss the game goodbye. we’ll all have heartattacks! just a shame omar couldn’t do something with that pen when he had a chance…
that has been Omar’s most glaring oversight. His offseason moves for the pen – Wise and Register – had ZERO impact. The only reason the pen is *marginally* better than last year is due to Smith improving and Duaner coming back (more or less). Picking up Ayala was not a bad move, but it was too little too late.
If Omar survives as GM (and that’s a very big if if the Mets don’t make the playoffs), his first priority should most definitely be the bullpen.
He needed to do something last offseason. His big moves were to wait for Sanchez to come back from a broken shoulder and then trade for a pitcher who was so awful the Nationals no longer wanted him.
Bunch of over paid no talent chokers
it’s really hard to be a fan of this team.
maybe trade Heilman, Show, and Castillo for Holliday, not exactly prospects. But still 3 for 1. Put Omar in that deal too that makes it 4
You couldn’t trade those three for a bag of balls and a bag a Big League Chew.
Sure, and maybe the could trade Feliciano and Smith for Carlos Zambrano.
Join us here in the reality based community.
Rollins, I do not know what is more pathetic, your name, or the fact that you have posted this absolutely ridiculous trade idea at least twice.
i’d love to see the sugar coat of a post game post on the site
tough win we’l’ get’em tomorrow blahblahblah
at least the Giants won today…a real Championship team that knows how to keep a lead late in a game…..
No post game today until they get a new sponsor and after a mets win only
FIRE WILLIE!!!!! THIS TEAM SUCKS!!! FIRE OMAR!!! SEASON OVER!!! MAGIC NUMBER!!! LOLOLOLOLOL!! THATS SPONSORED BY IO DIGITAL CABLE
and this isn’t a joke, but why not play a. reyes at 2nd over crapillo? he is a better hitter AND better defensive 2nd baseman. it’s a no brainer!
Yeah, but can he pitch -lol?
The question should be, Can he pitch any worse than the bullpen right now?
probably better than half our pen…
I agree with that Argenis Reyes is way better than Slappy McGroundout………..but unfortunately some idiot decided that a 4 year deal was a good investment….duh!!
either way, that’s one thing that was different between willie and jerry. willie would play vets. no matter what, just because they are vets. screw that…jerry plays the hot hand. screw crapillo and put a. reyes in. it’s obvious to everyone on this planet that he’s better
Please. Take. The. Coitusing. Magic. Number. Down. Please.
I bet half of you gave the organization an “8″ and Manuel a “9″ last week.
Nevertheless the confidences polls should be fun tomorrow.
i’ve been giving it a 5 all year
Ah, no.
But the team IS sputtering. It’s a turning point. They can go into Washington and serve notice, or they can pull a 2007 and tuck it between their legs (pardon.) We will see. That’s why there’s horror after every hideous ‘07-like implosion and incredible optimism after a gritty win. The team seems to be at a critical juncture.
Good to know you are half of everyone.
The Mets bullpen made the woeful Braves look like the 1927 Yankees. The office squandered opportunities but hey the optimists are happy. We are still in 1st place, Ollie with a fine performance, and we lost because the umps are against us. :)
no, because of a number
You have the gaul to blame the game on the umps!!!! This team’s pen just sucks and the CAN NEVER GET A BIG HIT LATE IN GAMES!!!
Re-read the post. I was being sarcastic.
This may be weird. but maybe the mets can release Castillo move Jose over to 2nd and sign Rafael Furcal and put him at shortstop.
Mets are not moving Jose. They are only signing pitchers in the offseason I think. No reason to sign anyone else. Reyes would be horrible at 2B.
are they at least gonna dump Castillo?
There’s talk of them shopping Castillo (and eating a lot of his contract in the process). Murphy is definitely playing 2nd during the AFL this fall.
If they are able to move Castillo, they could go after Orlando Hudson.
What a shame it would be if they close out Shea with back-to-back late season meltdowns. What can you say at this point? On to Wilpon’s Shiiiiiti Field!
Magic number should definately come down until there are less than 7 games to win it. If the magic number was 2 then I would be okay with it but now its a joke.
While some of what’s being written is rational, most of it is irrational
Yesterday, after the Niese game, the Mets were talked about as being “resilient”, “tough”, and how this year was different.
One game later, it’s “2008 collapse”, “chokers”, “losers”…
So which is it??? If they win tomorrow, are they back to being different from last year??
There’s no such thing as a 2008 collapse, unless the Mets are not in the playoffs on September 28, period.
It’s schizophrenia.
The Mets lost to the Braves today by a score of 7-3. Today’s loss is brought to you by Papa John’s. Better ingredients, better pizza, papa johns. The Mets magic number is still at 13 brought to you by Geico.
Church is brutal out there. He comes up in huge spots and does nothing.
the Mets just keep on deepthroating dick!
Move over Wordsworth.
don’t worry about the magic number, there won’t be any after tuesday.
remember that philly has a joke (sort of like ours) for the rest of the season
maybe papa johns wants the magic number to stay up
Manuel….we’ll rub a rabbits foot and hope we win tomorrow”
What a genious!!
After he explains why he pinch-hit Chavez for Murphy (.360) with guys on base, Jerry needs to put these guys in a room and remind them in very colorful language that they are not going anywhere unless guys not named Wright, Beltran and Delgado start to step up.
Church deserves to sit after his completely garbage at bat with the bases loaded. Absolutely no excuse for it in that situation.
The problem down the stretch is that none of the supporting cast have had to perform under this kind of pressure before, and Jose Reyes’s disappearance isn’t helping. Once again, Ollie was OK but inefficient, he was at 90 pitches after five innings.
Ayala was due — he was probably overachieving anyway — we’re not talking Lee Smith here.
We’ll see what happens — let’s face it, they have weaknesses and they played a team that had a winning record against them this year. It’s going down to the wire but everybody knew that.
Sleep tight.
Stop. No one on this team hits with the bases loaded. Two rare exceptions all year: Church’s grand slam against the Brewers and Beltran’s against the Marlins. Last I checked, we had the second to last worst stat with bases loaded.
So we can’t sit them all down……
It’s one thing to post the magic number. It’s totally another to use the same darn graphic with the phucknatic up there. Readers were polled whether they wanted to see the magic number, and a majority did. The opll said ZILCH about the philly mascot though!!!
wrong a majority said to never put it up
It was a plurality if i recall correctly, more readers wanted it up at some point. Fine. But get the phanatic off there. Why tempt fate again, matt!!!!!!
. . . and the Jets are down 6-0 in the first quarter. This is turning out to be just a lovely Sunday afternoon.
I just cannot wait to get into work tomorrow (here in beautiful Philadelphia) and run into all my Phillies fan friends.
Thank goodness there is a great website like this for fans to take out their anger.
Matt, you do the community a wonderful service by giving upset fans a target, and thus reducing spousal and family abuse throughout New York City.
Thank you for all you have done here.
(and keep the magic number up. jinxes don’t exist, and it sure as heck didn’t make the bullpen suck or mets awful with runners in scoring position. although do we have to see that green misfit in the background? so ugly…)
The voice of sanity…..well said.
I’m begging you, Matt. Please take down the magic number. I had nightmares last night about it with that stinkin’ Phanatic holding Mets fans hostage, and even kidnapping my cats. Please, Matt, please!!!
where is the postgame report matt
Here it is:
7 gritty innings for Perez.
Clutch Wright.
Delgado is MVP.
Bullpen looked really OK in the 8th.
Keep calm, it’s not last year.
How is Omar Minaya guaranteed a job for next year if they blow this division again and the bullpen that he ignored does them in again? What a joke.
TAKE DOWN THE MAGIC NUMBER!
No one even wanted it up when it was over 10. Maybe if it was less than 10 you’d have a case, Matt. Just take it down.
FIRE OMAR!!!!!!!! DUMP CASTILLO!!!!!!!!!!!! KILL HIELMAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!DUMP SHOWINBALLS!!!!!!! DEPORT FEILICIANO!!!!!!!!!!AND SEND AYALA BACK TO WASHINGTON
Take the Magic Number DOWN.
Save yourself the grief Matt. Of the 4 choices the most people voted for NEVER. Do I believe in jinxes? No. Do most baseball people? Hmmm. Ask the Cubs fans or anyone who wears a rally cap. I’d say baseball fans are a superstitious bunch. I’m not here to defend it…The fact is…It seems to be a FACT. Does that mean, you posting the number caused our bullpen to blow two leads to an inferior team, immediately after we left the bases loaded with less than two out. When the days BEFORE the number appeared we had clutch hit after clutch hit. Of course not. Or does it? Fans will be in panic mode until this team proves otherwise as of September 28th. Take the number down. save yourself the grief and take this crazy debate off the boards.
Thanks.
I CANT DO THIS AGAIN
Neither can I. My migraine started when that stinkin’ home run was hit in the 9th. I really do feel sick.
Welcome to a 1 game lead
I bet Matt is trying very hard to find a positive spin on this game. I wonder if the post game will be up before tomorrow? They suck at updating this site on time. now.
Matthew help!
Jose Bernabe Reyes, September, 200:
.182 avg., .270 OBP, .273 SLG.
Any questions?
Oh, and they are not blowing leads and failing to score runs because of a frigging graphic on a blog.
“Oh, and they are not blowing leads and failing to score runs because of a frigging graphic on a blog.”
It ain’t helping.
Um, right, but neither is a road sign in the middle of Ohio.
Reyes was on base 3 times today.
Oh, so I guess he’s having a great September.
I blame the magic number
I really hope most people are just having fun, using it as a way to blow off steam, etc., but you get the sense that there are some genuinely superstitious people here who honestly think it has something to do with the Mets’ losses.
I mean, looking past superstition, is it CONCEIVABLE that, say, Jose Reyes logged in, saw the magic number, and thought “NOOOOOOOOOO!!! Too much pressure!!!”? and that this set off a chain reaction through the clubhouse and into the bullpen that had the team walking on eggshells and serving fat pitches to Greg Norton? It doesn’t defy the laws of physics, sure, but looks pretty stupid when you read it, doesn’t it?
of course I’m kidding. when a guy with an ERA over 5 is your closer, regardless how good he has been as of later, the honeymoon has to be over pretty soon.
Which means you blame Matt?
If it wasn’t for the bullpen, the Mets would’ve swept the Braves because all our starters pitched great and left with leads. I also agree that the magic shouldn’t have been placed yet. Whether the Mets win the division or not, the magic number shouldn’t have been posted yet with a small 3 game lead when the Phillies are playing good baseball. I’m don’t want to call it a jinx but it makes the fans anxious and nervous wrecks as we see.
Where are the Omar lovers today. We are going to lose a pennant because of this god awful bullpen that Omar did NOTHING to improve. FIRE OMAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank god for My Giants, at least I got to watch a REAL team play today and win.
K-Rod, we don’t need him, are you freaking kidding me. I don’t give a damn that you are paying Wagner next year, no my freaking problem. You give K-Rod a blank check and you say fill it out pal, whatever you want is yours.
Phillies really think they deserve the division – only because they believe they are a better club.
The truth is we don’t have a good bullpen – they would be at least 7 games back if it weren’t for the pen. Steal games, divisions even, you obnoxious Phillies – they are only getting by because our pen’s stinkin’ up the place.
I’m screaming at the tv – watching Ayala groove one to ‘whatishisname’ seeing the game and (possibly the season) go right over the fence.
My girlfriend’s teling me to stop yelling – how can’t I?
Tomorrow’s NY Post backpage: “MAGIC BLUNDER,” with a big picture of the Metsblog magic number graphic.
It gets better tomorrow, Pedro and his 85 mph fastball is going, we will be in the pen by the 5th inning.
Well it’s taken me while, but I’ve resigned myself to the fact that this is not a “Very” good team. They are a “Good” team, a first place team (for now), but just not a VERY good team. Very good teams have a defined set-up man and closer. You cannot possibly be a VERY good team with a BP by committee. A VERY good team would have had no problem winning at least 2 out of 3 from a “Bad” team like the Braves this weekend. A good team is basically a crap shoot, like we just witnessed. As long as we put this team into perspective and admit that they are what they, a good team and no more, then we can enjoy the rest of the season and not expect TOO much from them and get down on them when they lose games like today.
I partial agree – I always say “even good teams lose every once in a while” but this team doesn’t equal my definition of ‘good’.
“Good” teams, score with the bases loaded (especially with no outs), close games with the lead late and keep the other team from gaining momentum.
Team Tightrope is hampered by cyclical events by the bullpen (50% good/50% bad) – you don’t know what you’ll get game to game.
X-Man is giving us good advice folks – just let them play and see if they can surprise us.
I know the bullpen sucks, but what was Ayala doing pitching in the 9th last night with a 5-run lead when there was a day game to follow?
Why waste your closer’s bullets, imperfect as they are, in a pennant race?
I love Manuel’s personality but I would love a better tactical manager next year even more. And sign that fella named k-Rod! I heard he was good. :smile:
Because Manuel was going for the proverbial ‘Jugular” last night. Can you blame him with our PB? (or lack there of). If he had not used Ayala and the Braves would have beaten up our BP and come back he would hve never heard the end of it. We would have been saying things like, “He should have sent in the closer, these are too important games to leave it up to the BP, he should have not taken any chances, etc.” Hindsight is 20/20.
I had no problem with him secruring a vistory and a big win in Sept. by bringing in his closer and shutting the door.
Yea okay don’t expect too much from the team with what the second highest payroll in MLB. This is a DISGRACE, we are turning into jokes like the 08 Yankees, except this is worse because we have a pen where NO ONE can get three outs with a two run lead.
I didn’t say it wasn’t a joke, of course it is. But look what happened to the Yankees, they have a much higher payroll than we do. Huge payroll and a team of Superstars does not guarantee anything. What’s Tampa Bay’s payroll?
But at least the Spanks have a BULLPEN, moogman said it best we don’t have a good bullpen, if we had ONE GUY that could get three freking outs, we would have a freaking 7 game lead by now, we would have ran away with this division. Mets lead all of baseball in blown saves.
They don’t lead all of baseball with blown saves but they are like the 3rd worst in all of baseball (only the Rangers and Cards are worse) and it’s a disgrace with this team’s payroll.
The Detroit Tigers say hi.
But, including this year, the Yankees have been in the playoffs for 13 out of 14 years while this will be the 1st time Tampa Bay has a winning record in its history.
I’ll gladly take my chances with the higher payroll. But of course there has to be some intelligence behind the higher payroll and the players signed.
If you need to waste your closer going for the proverbial “jugular” with a 5-run lead in the 9th, then the team is not playoff-worthy. Certainly not WS-worthy.
Use someone else to start the 9th, and if there’s trouble, then bring in Ayala. But don’t waste bullets with a 5-run lead.
I’ve always believed that closers should only be brought in only in save situations — or only if the first reliever brought in with a larger lead gets into trouble — especially late in the season in a pennant race.
If Jerry had brought in someone else last night and then they got into trouble and had to bring Ayala in, I would not have criticized him if the game got away.
You’ve hit the nail on the head, this is not a WS series team. Playoff team? maybe. Look at the Cardinals in 06. If you get an a hot streak, any team can go all the way I guess.
in Ayala’s defense, greg norton is a heckuva ball-player
Do I denote a sense of sarcasm there? LOL
this is why we shoulda checked out parnell before the rust set in…
Heilman is wright, you really didn’t need to use Ayala there, but lets be honest people, this team is not making the playoffs, and even if it does, how far can it go with this bullpen? Not very far at all.
i don’t necessarily believe that we will NOT make the playoffs. i mean, at this rate, the phils will win tonight and we could have the wildcard. either way, conventional wisdom would tell you that the mets won’t go very far in the playoffs because of our pen…BUT, as we’ve seen all season, this pen can be as horrible as it was the last 2 days, and as great as it was last week. problem is, it’s a crapshoot. so in the playoffs, it’s basically a coin toss. if the pen is having a “good week” then we can win the world series. but if the pen is anything close to what it was this weekend, then the mets will get swept in the first round. it sucks but the problem with all this falls on omar’s shoulders. i’m not one of those omar haters, but the bottom line is that we are in a pennant race with a subpar bullpen, and that clearly is omar’s fault. you can’t blame jerry for putting this guy in, or leaving this guy in too long etc. He really doesn’t have much to work with. so basically, we as mets fans need to just pray for the most part and just hope it happens to be a “good week” next week so we can make it into the playoffs, then hope it’s a “good week” after that, etc. what a shame to think that the mets success basically hinges on luck…cuz that really is the case here guys.
Mike, I totally agree with you, it’s not Jerry’s fault, Jerry is using the guys that OMAR got him. That’s why Omar has to be fired if and or when the Mets don’t make the playoffs.
just to be clear, i’m not saying firing omar is the answer. just saying that in this particular case, it is his fault. oh yeah, that and the fact that crapillo is playing…get him OFF the field forever!
If Jerry is going to use Ayala to not only protect 3-run leads but 4- and 5-run leads, then you can kiss the playoffs goodbye. This team is sunk. Ayala’s arm will fall off. Even Mariano Rivera is never asked to do this.
It was nonsense to bring Ayala in last night and they paid the price for it today.
And once again, Bobby Cox (and Larry) laughing their way back to the clubhouse – watching their Braves stick it to us again.
Yeah, it stinks. The only consolation is that the Braves are in 4th place this year. And hopefully, the Mets will get the last laugh by making the playoffs at least,.
Probably doesn’t ease the pain of the Texieria fiasco, which set the franchise back three years. At least Omar didn’t do that.
And how about a post-game report for the Geico Mets Blog. The Mets may not be playing like it but we are in the middle of a pennant race!
You’d think with the increased sponsorship there’s be an increase in service on this blog. Instead he puts up the Magic Number that nobody wants and takes the weekends off.
I am not happy about this loss. But I can’t believe the amount of posters who are writing the season off because of it.
What do you want to people to say, this is not the first times that this has happened, the bullpen has been bad all year. If you can’t hold a two run lead against the FREAKING BRAVES, who last time I checked aren’t an offenseive juggernaut, how are you going to beat a team like the Cubs who are a really good offensive team.
May be a bit difficult to type when you’ve got a Mylanta in one of your hands.
I don’t like the number up there either, but lets be real people the reason we are losing is a bullpen that has stunk all year and an offense that scores runs early and then disappears for the rest of the game all year. What’s funny to me is that every loss it is debateable betweeen the pen and the offense. For example, yesterdays loss was the offense fault while todays was the pen.
Yep. Too many weaknesses for a ‘So Called” playoff team.
It’s like the house built from “Straws”.
The offense isn’t blameless in this one. They had loads of chances which inevitably came back to haunt them.
IMO, it’s primarily the pen. The offense ranks 2nd in the NL in runs scored. Sure, you can ask them to do more to make up for the shortcomings of a stinky pen, but that’s not fair. Overall, they are doing their jobs.
The pen ranks just 9th in the NL in ERA and is the second worst in the league in # of blown saves. So it’s the pen that’s lagging — just like last year.
Just like last year, and Omar did NOTHING to fix the pen that’s why he needs to be FIRED!!!!!!
I hate to say it, but Omar and the Mets seem to have made the same exact mistake they made last year. Not improving the BP will bite us again. And if that’s the case, then you HAVE TO talk about Omar’s departure because it’s utterly in-excusable to make the same mistake twice and have the same outcome.
Agree. And in this day and age, A good (or at least decent) BP is essential to making the playoffs.
Exactly X-man, and our bullpen is neither good or decent. Forget Wagner, the bridge to Wagner has been bad all year, if we had a good steady 8th inning option maybe we would have been all right with Wagner going down, lets be real, Ayala isn’t a closer. Doesn’t that say how bad our pen is that a guy from another team comes in and is our closer because there isn’t ONE guy in there that can do the job.
Yep, that’s all you need to know about the Mets BP this year. and not just another team’s guy, but one of the WORST teams in baseball, period. LOL
You really have to laugh if you think about it. Unfortunately, it won’t be a laughing matter if the Mets don’t make the playoff. I’m really starting to jump on the “OMAR MUST GO” band wagon if they end up missing the playoffs for the same exact reason they missed it last year. In-excusable.
I’m sorry but this loss is the pen’s no matter what, 2 run lead with 3 outs to go, have to have it, no excuses.
The Mets are a walking “Contradiction”. They are among the league leaders in runs but if you actually watch the games and follow the team, it seams like TOO many games they stop scoring and let the other team chip away and eventually beat our BP.
It’s a good formula against the Mets. I’m sure EVERY team around the league already knows that no matter how far they fall behind the Mets, They still have a chance to win once they get into their BP. And the bigger problem is…………………………..the Mets know this as well!
All teams fail when it comes to tacking on runs. Or scoring runs for that matter. It just sticks out more for the Mets because they score so many of their runs in the first inning.
Really, it shouldn’t matter when they score the runs — as long as they score them. Theoretically, it should give the starters more of an edge by enabling them to relax.
No, the offense isn’t perfect, but they are not the primary cause of last year’s collapse or this year’s bad losses (with the exception of a couple of games).
Agree, 2nd in the league in runs should be enough. Again, it’s coming down to the BP. Same exact problem we had last year.
As I said in the post above, Omar and the Mets seem to have made the same exact mistake they made last year. Not improving the BP will bite us again. And if that’s the case, then you HAVE TO talk about Omar’s departure because it’s utterly in-excusable to make the same mistake twice and have the same outcome.
He will be brought back next year regardless, according to news reports. But if he puts together another crappy pen for 2009, he has to be fired. This current Mets pen isn’t even league average.
Im not one who buys into jinx’s or curses or silly superstitions, but Matt seriously you need to take the magic number down, you put it up before this series and look at this garbage, last year we all know what happened when it was up and stopped going down.
I know it’s almost a sure thing that Omar will be brought back next year (according to the media) … but if he puts together another crappy pen for 2009, then he must be fired at the end of next year. And if the Wilpons don’t do that, then they are hopeless. Just hopeless. And they can’t ever expect to win a WS if they are so clueless about hiring executives to run their operations.
I don’t understand how Minaya can be brought back if the Mets don’t make the playoffs. He was the GM of the collapse of last year and the GM of this mess. If the Wilpons don’t fire him then it just another example of stupid Mets ownership that has plagued this franchise for many years.
I actually like the Wilpons. Their intentions are good. They open up the wallet too. But they are the ones who hired those superscouts to supposedly help out Jim Duquette and it was those stupid superscouts who instigated the Kazmir trade.
And it seems the Wilpons are still enamored with Omar, though I have to think the bloom has come off of that rose for them a little. Hopefully they are not so blind as to be unable to see where the problems on this team are.
Agree 100%. Can’t add more to that. Unfortunately,, it’s us fans who have to suffer for the GM’s shortcomings or should I say “Short-sightedness”
A lot of people are up in arms about the magic number being posted here, and I can understand it to a certain extent. I am a semi-superstitious baseball fan, but honestly do not believe that this graphic has any effect on the Mets. However, I do think it was posted far too early with too little of a cushion in the division.
I voted to not post the number, and the main reason I don’t want it is that it is one of the lasting, painful reminders of last season’s collapse. Seeing it again for the first time in a year was almost sickening! I’m sure I’m not the only Metsblog reader who feels this way.
Another issue is that the majority of folks who wanted the number, voted to have it put up between 10 and 0 games. Yet Matt posted it at 14. In fact, the between 15 and 10 option received the least amount of votes from readers among the available options. I just find it kinda crappy that Matt went with the absolute minority on that poll he took last week. :/
Not to get too deep, but all the top Theorectical Thinkers in the world believe that history and the future are on a straight timeline and if you change just one minor thing in that “Time-Space” thread, you have forever changed every future event from that point on. SOOOOOOO……………LOL
By putting up the “Magic” number on this site, Mat has changed all future events from that point on. For good or bad, he has changed the outcome of the Mets season from what it would have been if he “Hadn’t” put u[p the Magic Number in the first place (Different Time-Space Thread).
LOL
Not superstitious. Just science.
anyone notice that when the pen does great we forget about the previous woes, but when it sucks, we want to fire everyone. we lost one game not the division. we’re still in first, and we still have a lead on milwaukee to fall back on
Pen does great, it’s been good at times, great, don’t think so. By the way this bullpen has been bad all year. We have a chance to lose a game and a half in case you didn’t know the Phillies are playing a doubleheader. Wildcard, I want the division, not the freaking wildcard. Granted I would take the wildcard to get in the playoffs, but the division is there for the taking and if we had a somewhat GOOD BULLPEN we could have ran away with the division.
Ran away is right, at least 7 or 8 games up by now, if not more.
Johnny Bandwagon says PUT THE MAGIC NUMBER DOWN
The reason I am angry about the magic number is because Matt ran a poll last week saying when he should put it up The majority said 0-10 games and never yet Matt goes with the minority. What is the point of running a poll if you go with the minority
Very true. I’m still scratching my head on that one. M<aybe HE was part of the Minority and thus gave more wait to the minority opinion since it coincided with his! LOL
weight….
I mentioned it in a previous post, and I wonder what the heck is up with posting it so early. He actually went with the option that received the LEAST amount of votes, between 15 and 10 games…
I mean, it’s his blog, he can do what he wants, but then what’s the point of even running the poll if the results mean absolutely nothing?!?!?!?
This is off-topic, but Tim Lincecum’s pitch counts are outrageously high for someone so young, small of stature, and NOT in a pennant race.
He threw 138 pitches last night and 132 on August 27th. And he threw 127 in the start before last night. Don’t be surprised if he comes up with arm problems or has a sub-standard year in 2009. If he does, both Sabean and Bochy should be fired. Why play with fire when there’s nothing at stake?
I believe Rick Peterson is right about being conservative with pitchers’ pitch counts and IPs.
If those numbers are accurate it’s realy amazing they would do that to a young pitcher with so much upside and nothing at stake. Goes to show you that baseball is NOT made up of Geniuses.
get over it… so lincecum is throwing a lot of pitches… meanwhile Little Baby Joba who the yankees won’t let tie his own shoes was down with tendanitus … jon maine has a bone spur and he never logged 200 innings in a season … pah lease… when should lincecum be allowed to throw deep into games? when he’s 37? When will Joba be allowed to throw more than 110 pitches? when he’s old and brittle?
Hey, do you think Marlins fans are over Annibel Sanchez losing a year and possibly an elite career?
The limitations on pitch counts and escalations in IPs for young pitchers is based on hard data. Lincecum is at the point right now where he’s exceeding the recommended annual rise in IPs for young pitchers. Pelfrey is at that point now, but he’s in a pennant race. Lincecum is not, so why risk it with such a talented pitcher?
And no one’s asking them to baby Lincecum like they might have done to Joba. Just use common sense. As for Joba, his problems may have come more from switching him over to a starter too quickly than anything else.
why don’t they just put him in an isolation chamber until the Giants can get a good supporting cast together in three years … i mean, that’ll save him some wear and tear for when it matters.
Why baby him? There’s no need to do that. Just don’t abuse him and take unnecessary risks.
I’m sure there are many Giants fans who are not happy or are at least very concerned with how he’s being used now.
Or the whole “pitch count” propaganda is really propaganda….
This is a fan base that can swing quickly from one side of the pendulum to the other!
From reading the doom and gloom posts, you wouldn’t realize that, even with as many games the pen has blown, they will be either one or two games IN FRONT when you wake up tomorrow. So they must be doing something right5 (or just as much, the Phils can’t really be that good).
And if you are right that they will blow the lead, the magic number will be gone soon enough (unless Matt leaves it up when the phils MN is lower!)
I don’t believe in the jinx, but I thought it was silly to put it up that early in such a tight race, since there was a very real possibility the lead could change at some point (and the Mets could still get it back)>
we’re still in first place, the champagne will taste sweeter, etc…
Stick it’s not a matter of swinging from one side to the other, we all want the team to win and are tired of watching this bullpen blow game after game. If we had somewhat of a good bullpen we would have a 7 or 8 game lead right now.
Omar is completely to blame for last years collapse and for this years mini collapse. Last years biggest weakness was the bullpen. So how does he upgrade the bullpen??? He didn’t. So we are exactly where we were last year without Wagner.
I have no faith in this bullpen ever closing out a game, so why bother investing my time and energy when this teams untimate demise will be another crushing loss by the bullpen?
Good Point… don’t invest your time.
Bye
Enjoy the football season.
It’s been like 3 hours and I still can’t get over this loss….
Only thing I keep telling myself is that no matter what happens tonight, we’ll still be in first tomorrow. But what about tomrrow??
All the baseball analysts predicted this NL east race would go down to the wire, possibly the last game or two of the season. I’m just wondering if my heart can take it…..
And OMG, who are we trying next as a closer?
This was a tough one to swallow today, and too soon after essentially the same thing happening in the first game yesterday. I was following the game on my Blackberry and my heart sunk when Norton hit that HR in the 9th.
The bright side is the Mets seem to have the ability to bounce back after these types of losses. It was a trying week for sure, winning 1 of the 3 from Phila (bouncing back after losing the first 2), taking 2 of 2 from Wash (even if the outcomes were in doubt — for sure those 2 games are losses last year), then winning game 2 yesterday after blowing a late lead in game 1.
We have four games at Wash this week and three at Atl — gotta take 5 of the 7. Can’t think about the way we lost 2 of 3 w/ Atl this weekend, and certainly can’t dwell on the troubles the Nats gave us last year down the stretch and even last week.
It can’t happen two straight years, can it? Let’s get some payback for what the Nats did to us last year, and for what the Braves have done to us ever since they came into the NL East.
Let’s keep the faith. Ya gotta believe!
what i want to know is, where the hell is the postgame? i’m never one to criticize anything matt does, but come on already.
Philly up 4-0 in the 2nd. Granted, they play in Williamsport Stadium, but what are the chances of them just rolling over and not score again? A sweep obviously is not good but there is the silver lining with Milwaukee losing.
I’d sign up right now for the wild card.
Getting into the postseason keeps Omar’s job – winning the Division keeps Mets fans’ confidence.
So, who’s “to blame” for the Mets actually being “in” this pennant race at this point in the season? Who’s “to blame” for this team becoming what it is, compares to ‘02 or ’04’s teams? Who’s “to blame” for us actually having Santana when know one said we would?
Everyone wants to blame for a measily stupid loss, yet there’s never any praise for the successes. Phuck the Phillies, we’ll be there at the end, as will they, blow outs are the waste of time, not the close, exciting games.
Root for this team, or jump off the dang bandwagons. You bandwagon fans are a pain anyway.
“Who’s to blame” is working with the largest payroll in Mets history. It is at least $35 million more than the next largest payroll in the NL East (the Braves).
I don’t believe any recent Mets GM has enjoyed as large a payroll advantage over the rest of the competition as Omar has.
Don’t you think fans can expect a bullpen that is at least league average for that amount of money? Which to a large extent comes from us?
And just because some of us critique the decision makers doesn’t mean we don’t root for the team or are bandwagon fans. It’s better to be critical fans than to be blind loyalists.
Great post Heilman, couldn’t of said it better myself. Stop with the self righteous act Dreamer, you don’t have the right to judge people.
Well said Dreamer. I prefer to root for the team myself.
So what are you saying Gland you are okay with the loss today, didn’t bother you at all, we will go get them tomorrow, is that your attitude Gland.
No, EV, I’m not saying I’m okay with the loss and it didn’t bother me at all. Quite the contrary. But, EV, what I’m saying is that when this team wins a game I’m not going to start setting the World Season roster and when they lose a game I’m not going to say the season is over.
They should have won that game, period. Ayala shouldn’t have pitched Friday night and they should have picked up a few more runs when they had their loads of chances. But I’m not going to start ranting after every loss about the Payroll and Omar’s failings. The same as I’m not going to annoint Omar after every win. I personally don’t think it’s time for that but hey however you want to root is your deal. For me I’m going to focus on the games right now. The bottom line is that they can win this thing, so I’m going to hope to hell they can.
Dreamer-
Go f**k yourself.
I love the fans who have nothing better to do than to find that the problem with the team…..is other fans.
Seriously, don’t it out on us because the team is gutless. Because the BP is a league-worst *(or close to it) joke. Because bases loaded is kryptonite to the offense.
You’re damn fu*king right there’s never any praise for the success. Why the f**k should there be? You know when you get praise? WHEN YOU WIN SOMETHING.
Last check, this team hasn’t won anything.
This team is on a short leash faith and paitence-wise, and justified is that leash.
THEY CHOKED LAST SEASON AND UNTIL THEY PROVE OTHERWISE IT’S HAPPENING AGAIN
But the problem is other fans, gotcha. Creep.
Take the f-ing Magic Number down.
Matt you do realize that if the Mets don’t make the playoffs you are going to get so much criticism. You should save yourself by putting that number down and not facing so much criticism.
i love the magic number.
than again, i’m not stupidstitious
Thank you Brewers for not even winning ONE FREAKING GAME to help us out. Nothing like losing a 1.5 games off your lead in a day.
In other news, Carlos Zambrano is trying to make history
Everyone relax for a second. I got that side of me too that can turn bi-polar on the Mets. I didn’t get to see the game because I didn’t watch it, so maybe that’s why I’m a little less emotional.
A couple things to note here though.
EV – Even though the Phillies wins don’t help us, the Brewers losses help the Mets. It’s not like the Phillies beat the Nationals or Padres.
The Mets are technically one game up on the division and one game on the wild card.
Good point — we should be aiming for the division but the wild card is still very much in play — Brewers get the Cubs this week, Houston gets Cubs and then a trip to see the Marlins and 600 of their most devoted fans.
I still don’t get how the Brewers got this far — pitching staff is mediocre aside from CC, and for every Ryan Braun or Corey Hart there’s a Craig Counsell or Jason Kendall. Does Yost survive if they go down the toilet?
And Carlos Zambrano throws a no hitter while we’ll wait another 50 years to see one lol
The Mets season will end in one of two ways. (1) Our bullpen will probably blow 3 or 4 more games and the Phillies will beat us out for the division and the Brewers or Houston will beat us out for the wild card by a game or 2. (2) We do make the playoffs and have a 3-1 lead in the NLCS and our bullpen blows the last 3 games and probably to Philly.
So pick which hearbreaking way to end the season you want but I am all done. I can’t take this anymore and Teflon Minaya is completely to blame.
How painful must it be for the brewers fans. Their team is choking big time, they’re booing at home games, and now their division leading rival’s ace throws a no hitter in their own park, days later after their ace C.C didn’t get it.
I still don’t get how the Brewers even got this far — beyond Braun-Hart-Fielder-CC-Sheets, it’s a pretty mediocre roster.
Not as bad as the met fans feel
Now as for the bullpen, let’s take a breath for a second.
Up until today at least – haven’t the Mets had the bullpen in the NL since late August? Right around when Billy went down, they acquired Ayala and they decided to wisely stop using Heilman.
So one game is going destroy the confidence of the bullpen? Probably not, but it didn’t help. Here is how I see it. Since the beginning of the Phillies-Mets series that previous Saturday when it was rained out – the Mets were up 2 games on the Phillies.
The Mets split the double header. Than you look ahead to the week. You get a 2 game set with the Nats. You have to win both. It’s not a 3 game which makes it harder to sweep – it’s only 2. They do their jobs and sweep. Than you get the Braves. The Braves are better than the Nats and winning both in a double header isn’t easy – so let’s say 2 of 3.
They were in position to win 2 of 3. If the Mets had won today, they would have been 4-1. A very good week. That’s winning 80% of your games. Instead, they win 3-2 which doesn’t suck – but it can be better. The Phillies went 5-2 though. This is all about pacing. 4-1 is equivalent to 5-2.
With 17 games to go last year, the Mets were up 7 games. With 17 games to go this year after the games on Wednesday when the Phillies had 16 left to go, the Mets were up 3 1/2.
3.5 X 2 = 7. I don’t think the owner of the site even realized he put it up on that day. If he did, he’d probably say why’d I do this? Maybe he doesn’t believe in curses though. I know I don’t – but it makes you think. The good news is no matter how hot the Phillies can get – the Mets are still in command of the wild card. And the Brewers aren’t looking so hot. However, the Astros are.
In my opinion, to lose 2 1/2 games in three days worth of baseball games – two only in which you’ve played is very sad. The Mets have caught lucky breaks with the Nats and Marlins taking of 3 from them. Here’s how I think of it. It’s like the Phillies won 2 of 3 against the Marlins and Nats and split here.
the muts are done here comes collapse # 2
It’s not going to happen. Don’t ask me how I know – but it’s not. They’ve gotten too far. They’ve got too much momentum. They’re a really good team. Just because the Phillies are kicking at the Mets heals doesn’t mean the Mets are losing it. It just means that the Phillies have gotten a little better. Luckily, that’s why there is the wild card.
I’m not a psychic either – but I see the Mets and Phillies playing each other in the NLCS. And I see the Mets winning in 7. If this all happens, don’t say it wasn’t predicted. A collapse though? So when they win two straight against the Nats and the Phillies lose their opening series game to the Braves will that be your attitude?
i’m a college educated man and i apologize if you think this is rude, but i have no idea what the heck you are talking about. that made no sense at all. you might want to do some editing because your points came across as jumbled words. sorry man, no hard feelings.
Who are you talking to me? A college educated man? So am I? And? That both makes us really big people, right? I mean only like 30-40% of people in New York and New Jersey do. Don’t think your life is any more worth living than anyone else if your online on Metsblog at 11 at night either. Not everything is supposed to make sense.
If anyone’s words ”confuse” you, than don’t read them. And if you aren’t going to read them, than don’t reply to them. Especially if you’re leaving who ever it is (myself or another) a nasty response.
I was responding to a variety of points others had tried making above my post. Like the 10 or 20 above mine. I’m not going to go through every single one and respond neatly to each one. People typically read what’s closest to the bottom – not what’s in between. And not just that, but the more posts you make the more likely it is your post randomly doesn’t land on here for an unexplained reason.
I basically said that the Mets were up 3 1/2 on Thursday morning and now they’re only up a game. So something is wrong. It happened with ”17 games” too. A bad number for this franchise. I’m on the same side as you so don’t think I’m your opponent. If the Mets make the playoffs, do all of these BS analysis and conversation matter?
Nats are a three-game series, not two.
Yes. I mentioned that. I said that it was a 2 game set and not a 3 game set which made it easier to sweep. In general, when you have a 3 game set the other team gets more to figure you out. Hypothetically speaking if the Mets had a 3 game set with the Nats last week, taking 2 of 3 would have been a reasonable goal. Being that it was only two though, taking only one wouldn’t be so hot against that kind of team. They did their jobs which is what counted. At least in that series.
I know it helped for the team to get rest, but perhaps the Mets only playing in 5 out of 9 days (had off Sat, Mon, Thurs, Fri) got them a little lazy. I think they’ll do well from here on out. Out of 14 games, I think they’ll win 9 or 10 of them.
best bullpen* (statistically)
I’m tired of hearing about the Mets making it in as a Wildcard. I want the division tiltle and nothing less for the team with the highest payroll in the entire NL. But the main reason is that I do not want the Mets to be ‘Second” fiddle to the F….cking Phillies again. We have more talent and should be Division Champions if only the BP can hold on to a 2 -run lead with three outs to go.
I’m already hearing allot of talk on this blog about “Don’t worry, we are in good shape for the Wild card”. I know some will use the OLE “It doesn’t matter how we get in as long as we get in”, well, That would leave a bad taste in my mouth again after last year’s bad tatste.
Enough is enough. Time for this team to wake up and step up. Willie is no longer here to blame. Let’s take the division and stop losing to these “want a Be” teams that have no reason taking 2 of three from this team.
Yes. You’re right. If the Mets were to win the Wild Card, I don’t think people would look at this season as much of a success as it could have been. Unless of course they made and/or won the world series.
The Wild Card is not the goal of this team. The division is. It’s a plan B though. In case plan A screws up. The truth is if the Mets screw up on plan A, it’ll probably work hand in hand with plan B. The Mets can’t control if the Phillies win 11 out of 12 though. That’s why plan B is still an option.
I’d rather see the Mets make it as the wild card than not make it at all. Could anyone deem it a back-to-back collapse than?
No, it wouldn’t be deemed a collapse if they make it in as a Wildcard. If they go on and make it at least to the NLCS, then it would feel like a successful season. If they make it as a Wildcard and lose in the first round, I personally would feel like it was another bad season considering the money they spent on Santana who was suppose to bring this team to the next level. Well, I hope not, but so far it’s starting to feel like September 07″ all over again. With one game up, they have their destiny in their own hands. Win every game and it won’t matter what the Phillies do. It’s really a test of their heart and guts at this point, we’ll sure enough see what they’re made of, then again, we saw last year exactly what this team is made of.
Exactly, X-Men is right I want the division too. I’d take the Wild Card but it would mean we gave them the division which would suck.
It’s easy to get on the train when the Mets are doing well. Such as winning 6 in a row. The Mets have still been doing well. There haven’t been no bad skids lately. This game is just one they have to put behind them.
This team needs to handle this in business terms. Have goals and get it done. You got a 4 game set in Washington. There’s no reason why this team can’t sweep them – especially if the Phillies can sweep the Brewers. Anything less than 3 out of 4 is unacceptable. In my opinion, it’s really not even worth watching Met games after this series this season if they can’t do that. If they couldn’t, how can you get it done in the playoffs even if you’re lucky enough to get there? Than you go into Atlanta and have to take at minimum 2 out of 3. It’s sad that the Mets goals may come down to just winning 50% of critical games against the Braves, but this is the reality of it. Go 5-2. Trust me, both the Brewers and Phillies aren’t going to go 5-1 . Maybe not even 4-2. The Brewers got the Cubs coming up.
From a Phils’ fan perspective, you’re still in first place and the Phils took care of the only thing they can control: The Wildcard.
Both of our teams just have to take it 1 game at a time. I honestly think that the Mets and Phils will be in the playoffs and I sincerely don’t care who gets in by which end.
Playoffs are playoffs and it’s fair game from then on.
what this a nl east thing ? screw this team I used to not care just as long as the braves were gone the mets were easy to root for but since 06 this chip on there shoulders
like no other team matters
now I love to see them lose wright delgado maine santana church smith are easy to root for the rest cant enjoy the winter off
Yup. You’re right. Honestly, I really don’t care if the Phillies are the wild card. On one hand it leaves them with a better taste in their mouth knowing the Mets didn’t get complete revenge on them from last season. On the other, it leaves the possibility of playing them in the NLCS – which would be more exciting than any World Series match up you can think of.
The main thing is the Mets need to give themselves any change they can to win a World Series.
the only thing the muts have to look forward to is the wild card your team sucks when will you guys understand this
Seriously man, talk like that doesn’t help the cause. No matter how you slice it, the Mets are in first place, so until that changes (and there is no way of knowing for sure), there is no leg to stand on for gloating.
Yeah, right. Why are you on here? Are you a Yankees fan who’s upset that his team wasted 200 million to not make the playoffs? Or are you a Phillies fan who has ”temporary confidence.” I remember hearing what a Phillies fan had to say Thursday. He said he was burnt out. All the Mets winning on the same days as the Phillies. The hard losses. The J.C. Romero-Chris Coste spat. He said he’d hope they just sweep the Brewers to get into a tie for the wild card – but he still wasn’t feeling it.
This is the Mets division. It’s better off the Mets believing they are not entitled to this. That in a way – they are the underdog. They’ll be be motivated and make the day we clinch all the more sweeter.
MrDudeAndStuff is one of the few Phillie fans I can actually say has some common sense and knows what he talking about.
You on the other hand……….file.e are a complete idiot and only bring down the rest of the Phillie fans like MrDudeAndStuff to the gutter. If the Mets suck like you said and they’re in first place, what does that make the Phillies? Suckier?
Thank you, sir.
I tried posting a longer response, but the blog’s filters for some reason aren’t letting them through.
we will see about that and when the phillies are in first place at the end of the week and the end of the season you will eat your words the phils are on fire and the muts are going down in flames your gutless team might make the wild card and I hope they do only to shut up those idiots on tv that say the central is the best division , the east is still the beast in the nl and the al but the mets really arent representing it well
You root for your team and I’ll root for mine, that’s the way it should be. You guys already proved you can win in eptember, my team on the other hands still has to prove that to me. So far, it’s starting to feel like September 07 all over again. I hope we win the division, but if we don’t, it really wouldn’t surprise me at all, we already have a history of collpsing in Sept and until we actually win something, you guys are still the NL east Champions in my mind.
I know that the Wildcare may be considered “less then the goal” but just remember that once you’re in the playoffs, it is fair game.
I still think an NLCS would be awesome between us. I know it will be heartbreaking to whoever loses, but man would it be fun.
So, where were you just a few days ago when your team was 3-4 games back?
Wow, you’re brave. Your team has a good series, gains some ground, so you pop your head up in a Mets forum to talk trash. Only someone with low self-esteem whose worth is tied to the team they root for would act so cowardly.
If the Mets win the division, I bet you won’t show your sorry a$$ around here.
Ive been posting on yhis site for about 2 months now and last week we had some good debates where were you
I’ve been here for the last 3-4 years, dude.
I’ve never seen you before. And I certainly didn’t see any Phillie trolls the last week.
Name one thread in which you posted the past week.
Yes. I completely agree. Everyone knows all teams have fans who are intelligent and fans who are clueless. MrDudeAndStuff knows all of what’s going on. Everyone gets so caught up in this back and forth thing. Whether it be one day, one weekend or one series. First the Mets gain a couple and than the Phillies do. What can’t be denied is the Mets are on top right now. And they have some red hot hitters with the weak Nationals coming up.
I don’t see the Phillies folding and I don’t see the Mets folding so it’s going to be a wild ride the next couple of weeks. Good ole fashion pennant race. I just hope the Mets keep their end og the bargain and don’t collapse again, I have a strong feeling they will fight to the end this time.
I don’t think the Mets are folding. Our division rivals always play each other with more mustard, so you know how it goes. I think we’ll both make the playoffs, don’t really care who is on top of the division though.
not for nothing but the weak nationals did score 10 runs against the mets and if Im not mistaking they scored like 19 runs in the 3 game series against the phils
I’m more scared of the Nats than I am of the Cubs. They don’t call them the “Pesky Nats” for nothing. They get a “hard-On” when ever they play the Mets.
I have no confidence in Pedro tomorrow against the Nats. If the Mets don’t score 10 or 13 runs again, they will lose tomorrow because Pedro is going to get hit hard.
haven’t the Mets had the (best) bullpen in the NL since late August?
Where did you hear this fairy tale? And what criteria are you using?
I believe over the last 30 days, the Mets bullpen has the most or second most blown saves in the NL — 7 of them!
I would bet that other bullpen stats over that time are mediocre at best.
The word “Best” should not come withing 100 miles as an adjective to describe the Mets BP!
Maybe not today. Maybe as in ”best they can be.” The bullpen we’ve seen of the Mets of the last month – excluding today and what ever isolated moments we tend to remember has been as good as they’re able to be. Compared to other contending teams, maybe that’s not good. It’s not like other teams like the Phillies haven’t blown their games. The 8th inning has been a misery in lots of close games in the last month.
has been as good as they’re able to be
LOL, you can say that about every Mets bullpen for the last few years. It’s hardly an endorsement.
As for how the Mets pen rates compared to the Cubs, Phillies, Dodgers and other contenders, I bet they would be near the bottom in almost every category, along with the Brewers. That would be for the second half or for just the last month or so.
Outside of Lidge, I wouldn’t exactly call the Phillies bullpen ”good.” Average at best. They’ve had lots of problems building a bridge. The reason why some of those problems have been alleviated is because they’ve been getting better starting pitching of late – particularly from Brett Myers.
The Mets bullpen is not a very good one. We shouldn’t expect them to be. You just look at these guy’s names and know they suck. This comes onto the shoulders of Omar. I think he should be held accountable for this and not be given an automatic extension regardless of 2008 results.
I was basing off of ERA and other statistics. The ”blown save category” is not only isolated to the 9th inning which can cause much confusion. Since joining the Mets, I believe Ayala has saved 7 of 9. Which for a closer, you’d expect better. He’s not a closer though. But to go from a transformation of being such an ineffective pitcher to a decent one has been big for the Mets.
Maybe I used the wrong phrase. What I meant to say was that the Mets bullpen has significantly gotten better. I guarantee had the Mets won today, you wouldn’t be been so inclined to refuting that statement. Before what ever point in August it was, the Mets hadn’t had Stokes or Ayala. Feliciano and Smith weren’t doing well in their respective roles. And Heilman was being over used and get roughed up.
The bullpen is not perfect. It’s never going to be. In my opinion, the peak potential of this staff here is mediocrity. The other strengths of the team have managed to lift us and win games. I’m not going to get down on this team. I still believe they can do it. They haven’t went upside down and loss like 4 or 5 straight in a while.
27 freaking Blown Saves by this poison pen 11 blown saves in the freaking ninth inning. Yea, we don’t need a goddam closer next year.
I believe they can do it too, despite their poor bullpen. Because the Phillies have their weaknesses too, as do the Brewers.
But that doesn’t mean that the bullpen remains this team’s achilles heel and will be the biggest hurdle for getting through the playoffs if the Mets make the postseason.
And there is no way the Mets bullpen is near the top of the NL in ERA since Ayala got here. At best they may be mediocre.
And why are you downplaying saves? It’s what wins games. The reason the Mets don’t have a bigger lead right now is because of all the blown saves they have.
As I said, they have the most or second most blown saves in the NL over the last 30 days.
how does it work if the mets and phils are tied at the end of the season and the wild card belong to either the phil or the mets do they have to still play a one game playoff?
we would win the division… they would take the wild card since we beat them head to head
I think it would go by the record against each other.
That’s a good question. I believe it goes to head-to-head. The Mets are 11-7 against the Phillies this year, so they may be the winners of the division. I know if only one of them were to win it and someone else were to make the wild card, that the Phillies get home field. If it just so happened that the Mets, Phillies and another team tied for the wild card – we may see a series of games. This could have potentially existed last year, but the Rockies took care of business.
I don’t know for sure though. I can’t see them playing an extra game if both teams have clinched. A couple years ago the Red Sox and Yankees tied for the division. The Yankees won it. They didn’t play an extra game. It was really sad too because the Red Sox had been up so much on the Yankees that year.
actually the rockies didn’t take care of buisness, the marlins took care of buisness… if we would have won that last game there would have been a one game playoff for the division (mets vs. Phi) and then a three way tie for the wild card (SD, Col, loser of ny/phi). but since the mets lost, the phi won the division and there was only one tiebreak game.
27 freaking Blown Saves by this poison pen 11 blown saves in the freaking ninth inning. Yea, we don’t need a goddam closer next year.
I dont get it. I like what jerry has done with this team but he seems brain dead sometimes….reminds me of Willie. I mean…Stokes and Ayala are in every game, Scho, Heilman and Felicano are always in close games. I just dont get. Rincon? .2 innings pitched since 9/1, Al Reyes? 0.0 innings, Parnell? 0.0 innings. At what point do we say, Sho and Fel you are no longer the #1 lefty have a seat. Reyes…why dont you start pitching..i mean you were a closer at one time right? I dont care what Sho’s #s are…we know the true sho….and in a big spot he always gives up a hit to a left. I mean thats his job?
Jerry? WAKE THE !@$#@ UP!!! Can you use someone else??????? Before Ayala and Stokes arms come off.
What should we expect? He was side by side with one of the dumbest baseball men for 3+ years. Willie’s a nice guy and was a good ball player, but wasn’t cut out for managing. Maybe third base coach managing though. Probably would have been better than Aguayo.
Signing Al Reyes was a pure waste. I don’t understand why he is here. I don’t think they’ve been confident with Parnell. They have over used Stokes and Ayala. They’ve left some guys in their too long. A long time trademark of Joe Torre. Where do you think Willie learned that from?
Unfortunately, who we see in the Mets pen is who we’ll have for the rest of the year. If they don’t revamp the bullpen and get rid of 50%+ of more of it, than Omar doesn’t care. Or doesn’t take it seriously. Let’s just wait and see. We do need a closer for next year. Whether it be K-Rod, Fuentes, Wood or Ryan/Street via trade. Or even John Maine.
Huh? You’re excusing some of Manuel’s lapses because he was Willie’s bench coach for a few years? Huh?
Manuel was a manager way before Willie ever was. How does being his bench coach for a short time make him err in judgment? That makes no sense.
The Mets have a BP by committee. The problem for Jerry managing with a BP by committee is that you are always going to be open for second guessing. You can not possibly make all the right moves ALL the time when managing a BP by committee.
Much, much easier to manage the late innings when you have defined roles with an established set-up man and a “True” closer.
I just don’t see how ANY team (not just the Mets) can advance deep into the post season (or even make the post season) with a BP by committee? It’s just not done.
The Phillies have a lot of faults and weeknesses but they do have a “real” closer in Lidge. That’s a major advantage over the Mets in playoff games.
Dead on X-Man. I don’t know any other team besides maybe Milwaukee who has a bullpen by committee, and guess what the Brewers pen stinks too. You need a pen with definied roles and we don’t have that, and can’t, because Jerry doesn’t know who to turn to.
I totally agree with you as well. I will say though….Where is Reyes and rincon? Maybe Parnell’s heater can work magic down the stretch….
Lets mix it up a bit here. Why every game I have to see sho, fel and maybe even heilman.
I think Jerry is hoping one of the ‘experienced” guys would step up and take over a role in the BP. I don’t think they can go with an in-experienced kid like Parnell in the middle of a pennant race. While Parnell might have an “Out” pitch and it would be interesting to see what he could do, If they don’t plan on putting him on the playoff roster then what’s the sense in using him down the stretch when you need to hopefully establish one of your experienced guys who are Actually going to pitch in the post season?
Maybe Reyes and Rincon who do have experience. One thing is for sure, something has to develop quick because there is only about 14 games left and we still have no clue who our BP guys are? I mean really, we have no clue on September 15th!!!
Yesterday, with a 5-run lead in the ninth, was a good time to try out Reyes, Rincon, or someone else. If they slipped up, then you bring in Ayala. But no use wasting Ayala’s limited and faulty bullets with a 5-run lead when there was a day game to follow in less than 24 hours.
This isn’t the same pot. I couldn’t reply to the other one though. You asked about what does Jerry being bench coach under Jerry have to do? Well, what did Rick Peterson have to do with him? Team chemistry. I understand the bench coach is limited, but he’s still there. It’s both a good and bad thing that Jerry’s been here for it all. It’s nice that he’s apart of this era, but he’s not necessarily a ”fresh start.” I do not undermine the job he has done as coach though. I just say when you’re sitting next to a guy in a decision for 3+ years who’s making decisions like using Guillermo Mota every game down the stretch while being lit up like a Christmas tree – it can linger on you a little bit.
Jerry has put a stop to the Heilman crap though. He had enough of him. He waited a little long to stop using him though, right? And the only reason why he did was because Ayala and Stokes joined the equation. This doesn’t undermine that Jerry’s options weren’t limited previous to that point and still now, but it’s no excuse to use a dud like Heilman.
If they are to make the playoffs over the Mets, this will be the exact reason. The Mets do have their strengths over the Phillies. Johan is above Hamels. Maybe not lately, but Pelf is better than Myers. Ollie is better than Moyer. Blanton is better than Pedro, but isn’t anyone? And John Maine would be better than Kendrick had he been healthy. Likewise to the Phillies, the Mets bats can go dead. Usually for 4-5 innings in a game. There have been weeks when the Phillies just haven’t scored. Utley has gone dead. They just didn’t have it all going.
One of the biggest advantages for the Mets is the Phillies not playing tomorrow. Getting them away from their home park. Getting to play the Braves who tend to play NL East teams tough. That plus the Mets getting a 4 game set against one of the worse teams.
Who do you want him to use, Heilman? He has nobody else to use, because the rest stinks. 27 Blown Saves, 11 in the 9th, just think if we won half of those games where would we be.
Yeah. Some of them were against the Phillies too which would serve as a Phillies loss too. Nothing reminds me more of that than one of Ayala’s blown slaves when the Phillies came back 7-0. Or the game they were up 5-2 after a Johan start when Duaner gave up three identical singles and the rest of them threw the game in the trash. So it’s like even more than 11.
It’s truly sad. You can’t go back to Heilman though. The only other reasonable options you can go to besides Ayala and Stokes would be Al Reyes who has closing experience or Feliciano who’s done alright. Or treating the 9th as you would the 7th using lots of pitchers in one inning.
dont forget Rincon. Right now, he should be the #1 lefty. until proven otherwise. Period.
Hey EV…..Did you read my post? Where is Reyes, Rincon and maybe even parnell? Combined 2/3 of an inning since 9/1 call up. It DOES NOT work with Sho, Fel and Heiman. They should be behind ayala, stokes, rincon and reyes in the depth chart. (except when you have used Rincon then you have no choice but to use Fel or Sho)
If you pitch guys every game, of course they are going to fail. Like when stokes gave up 3 runs the other day. He clearly didnt have it quite possibly because he is over worked.
Hey Met I totally agree with you, what do you have to lose by trying Parnell, Rincon, and Reyes, can’t be any worse than the garbage Jerry throws out there now.
Blaming Jerry here is ridiculous too. The only blame he gets is for not trying Reyes, Rincon, and Parnell, that’s it. This Minaya’s fault.
Blaming Jerry is not fair. If the Mets had one, lots of people would be talking about how he should be manager of the year. And that side of their brain would be the more logical side. I don’t know if Minaya’s telling him not to use Al Reyes though. Or Ricardo Rincon. Why would he put them on the roster? I’d say to give Jerry more options. And Jerry just hasn’t wanted to use them. Now he may not have a choice.
Generally I agree. However, as I said, I believe using Ayala Saturday night in the ninth with a 5-run lead was a mistake.
By the way, I dont even mention Heilman. He should be the last option. At least I hope he is for Jerry…GOD PLEASE!! HAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAA
On a slighly nicer note, duaner looks better recently.
Yeah, but once he gives up a run or two he’ll turn into the worse pitcher on earth on Metsblog. Watching Aaron Heilman pitch is hopeless because you know he’s sucked miserably this season. You know he doesn’t even want to be there. He’ll eventually get someone to give him a chance as a starter. This is it for Duaner. He’s a reliever. And he has been getting it done lately. I don’t know how much you can trust him going into the 8th though, but it may be worth a shot again.
Using Ayala and Stokes night after night is like playing with a hot hand. It’s going to cool down at one time or another. One way of looking at it is that he can go to Rincon, Parnell and Reyes. Give them a chance just like he did for Stokes and Ayala. The other way of looking at it is saying why go with untested guy’s in the last 14 games? Do we want to remember the Mets not making the playoffs because of Ricardo Rincon – a guy who’s name we’ll probably forget by December?
We need to get quality starts from our starters. They can’t be giving up 8 runs a night to the Nats. These last 2 weeks are going to be crazy. What some of you don’t remember is crazy has been good to the Mets this year. Of course it’s stressful. More than it should be. The confidence of this team has to still be high.
I disagree entirely. First off….our bullpen is the reason we lost last year down the stretch. This bullpen this year has been very poor. Sho, despite his numbers, does not get a left out in a big spot. Reyes and Rincon are proven verterans. What does it matter if Rincon walks a left or gives up a double to a lefty verus sho? I would much rather say at least we tried to swtich it up. This going to the well because they are veterans is just stupid.
Hey, Castillo is a veteran career .290 hitter or Marlon Anderson is a career pinch hitting machine…lets keep using those guys.
That’s why I gave you two ways of looking at it lol I didn’t necessarily say which one I liked. I’m more on your side. I honestly think both options suck. I am not a fan of Schoenweis. I feel a little better about Feliciano and Smith, but not much better. Aaron Heilman is the most useless Met. Figgy is okay, I guess. And Ayala and Stokes seem to be our best relievers. Them plus Duaner. So those are the three + Feliciano/Smith for situational who should be used. It’s the other couple – Show and Heilman who have to be out of the picture. And to replace them with Reyes and Rincon is an option worth considering. Parnell’s a starter so it’s hard to know how he’d do here. He probably shouldn’t even be called up. I think he’s more of an extra start pitching option in case someone goes down.
What doesn’t make any sense is Knight’s been used more out of the bullpen and the rotation more than Rincon, Reyes and Parnell have been used in all those areas. And I still don’t get what the hell Ramon Martinez is doing here lol
We need to get quality starts from our starters.
Stop pointing the finger at everyone else but that bullpen.
Both Ollie and Santana gave us quality starts. As well as leads. But the pen blew it both times.
The Mets have the 5th most quality starts in the NL. That’s above average.
The starters are NOT the issue.
You’re right. I was just talking about what was coming up with the Nats series. Look at what the Nats did to our pitching last week. You just don’t look at it negatively because we won the games because we scored an incredible amount of runs.
No one can blame Johan, Pelfrey or Ollie. They’ve been some of the best pitcher’s in the game. Some of the best starting pitcher’s seasons for the Mets this decade. Pedro on the other hand is another story. The Mets should have considered signing Kyle Lohse in the offseason a little more seriously I bet. And Octavio Dotel too.
The bullpen was used a lot last week which will only burden the problems if the same has to happen in a 4 game set. They weren’t that abused last week because it was only a 2 game set and they were of 4 out of 9 days.
You really want to get upset, read Newsday were according to mets insiders there closer candidated for next year are: Ayala, Stokes, and Parnell. Are you FREAKING KIDDING ME. You are going to go into your spanking new stadium with an UNPROVEN closer.
Screw Newsday. In the last 4 seasons, the Mets have come out with big prizes in the last 3. And in two out of those 3, multiple prizes.
2005 – Beltran and Pedro
2006 – Delgado and Wagner
2007 – No one (no wonder why we regressed)
2008 – Johan Santana
Why wouldn’t 2009 be someone? K-Rod? Or even Fuentes? This team has money to use. They got loads of money coming off the payroll. They got a decent amount coming off after next season too. There’s a chance Luis Ayala won’t even be on the Mets next season. If his arm is fully healthy, the best option for the closer’s role is Duaner Sanchez. Or eventually Eddie Kunz or Ambiorix Burgos.
Are you kidding me Sanchez, or better yet the guy who beats up women Burgos, or Kunz, again we need an ESTABLISHED CLOSER unless you want to go through this garbage again next year, I sure don’t.
Hopefully this is just a ruse to keep the eventual bidding for K-Rod or someone else down.
At best, I can see Ayala as a backup closer or 8th inning setup guy. There’s no way I can see Stokes closing for the Mets. And if Parnell were a viable candidate, why hasn’t he seen even 1 inning yet? I don’t think so.
I really don’t consider Parnell to be a reliever even if there is no logical space for him in the rotation. He’ll probably sit down in AAA or AA next season waiting for one of the SP’s to get hurt. Niese is much better than him and you never know if they actually would give Heilman a shot. I just hope they don’t re-sign Pedro. Parnell will probably be used as a trading chip somewhere down the road. They probably should have used him at this year’s deadline for some bullpen help.
The best Brian Stokes will be on the team next year would be as a long man. He deserves it considering how he’s done. I hope he’ll do better than Sosa, but I can’t expect him to be as good as Oliver in the role. This is a mixture of my hopes and expectations for the 09′ opening day pen. It would include trades of Show and Heilman.
Stokes – long man
Smith – righty specialist
Feliciano – lefty specialist
Kunz/Burgos or a FA – middle relief
Luis Ayala – set up
Duaner Sanchez – set up
K-Rod – closer
Omar does big things. Signs big players. Trade for them. What he doesn’t do right is hold onto guy’s like Lindstrom and Bell. He should be banned from trading relief pitching prospects. Aaron is not that by the way lol
Or as the Mets call it low budget choices.
I’d give them all up for Rodriguez and throw in Heilman and Sho as well. You are right. With a couple of more pieces to the puzzle next year (starting pitching) this team should really be a solid ball club. It would all be a waiste if we don’t have a ‘real” major league closer.
I like the way you think X-Man.
Yup. It would. The anxiety would only get worse. It’s not like this team sucks. If there weren’t so many save opportunities, it wouldn’t hurt so much. They need to sign either K-Rod, Fuentes or Wood (probably not him because of his injuries and the Cubs will want him back).
Who out there besides the Angels could give K-Rod more than the Mets who needs a closer? The back up plan is Fuentes and if not from there you look at B.J. Ryan who’s got a high salary the Jays may want to unload.
I said if Duaner can get healthy. You do remember him in 2006, right? If that’s the pitcher who we can have back, than sure he can be our closer. I don’t know if that Duaner’s even coming back though.
Burgos throws hard. You never know. I didn’t say as an 09′ option. I meant more down the road. Same thing with Eddie Kunz who throws hard too. I never said these options are good. They suck. They’re horrible. But those three guy pitchers look better than Show, Heilman and the rest of the junk down there. Ayala and Stokes have given us all they this year. Stokes will probably turn into the Jorge Sosa of 08′. A solid pen guy in 07′ who couldn’t keep his ERA below 7. Sounds like Stokes last year. They’ll give him a shot as the long man I’m sure.
The only other thing I can think of if the Mets are not to sign a closer on the market or acquire one via trade would be to make John Maine a closer. He may actually do well there. They’d have to replace him with a SP on the market though along with re-signing Ollie. That could include a list of Lowe, Garland and Randy Wolf.
As I said before, Pedro goes tomorrow, so we should be in the pen by the 5th or 6th inning.
Yes. It’s a problem. It’s what we should expect. The way how the Mets offense had roughed up the Nats pitching, Lannon might be out of there too. Pedro might not even make it 3 innings if the Nats hit crazy too. What makes the problem even worse is that Brandon Knight (or someone who’s no better) will be going out on Wednesday likely giving us the same amount of innings. At least it’s not back to back days though. Pelfrey and Johan need to come up big in this series so the main bullpen guys can get a little rest.
I’m guessing from your name that you had rough day between the Mets and the Jets lol. For me, thank god for the Giants, who helped save my day.
Yes lol I managed to compensate for that by doing good in an office pool though. I took Miami to cover the 3 1/2 spread last week and they didn’t. And I took the Jets this week and they just sucked.
If this were basketball season, it would have been a 3 day sweep for me lol I don’t think I have to say what team it is I like.
I hear ya because I like the same b-ball team lol., though if the Nets ever move to Brooklyn, I think I will become a Nets fan.
Yeah. I like the Knicks and Nets… the Knicks a little more. It’s weird because I’d say to people in other sports how the hell do you like the Yankees and the Mets? But I’m able to hold both teams. I think it’s because once the Knicks stopped winning, the Nets started to immediately… Now it looks like they both suck lol
I’ll always like the Knicks more than the Nets though… Even if these Knicks aren’t the Knicks of the 90’s, they’re my name. Moving to Brooklyn isn’t really an excuse for me because it just makes the drive longer lol I’m from NJ and considering moving to Brooklyn though because I like it there and don’t want to own a car so you know… If they get King James, than that’s my team.
The issue is having this ‘08 team “make up” for the disappointment to; 1) themselves 2) their fans 3) the organization.
Falling flat AGAIN in September would be outrageous! Doubling ticket prices to see a 2nd Division team is not what behooves New York in a 900 MM stadium. We’re already getting screwed on that front.
Seeing the Phillies come in 2nd is what we, as Mets fans, want to see – not dignifying Rollins with a verbal response to his b*tch*ng of what happens in the Mets dugout or punk@ss Brett Myers’ hateration.
Beating them on the field and in the standings.
How much disappointment and bad luck is this team, this franchise have to suffer? How much does this fan base have to endure? The Lovable Losers moniker has to be dropped.
When will this team – this organization – get some respect in this town?
When they win. And win. And win.
Show success, show pride and exude confidence. Drop the “Wild Card Winner” banner. Pick up “Champions”. If that’s the path to a championship – fine. But that’s a means to an end if the competition is playing great.
The Mets are but lose because some pieces aren’t there. If the Phillies are soooooo great, why don’t they have a better record? Because they aren’t. We don’t for a reason. And the Phillies and their fans are falsely believing they are better.
However, this team has to make the Braves and Nationals remember they are OUT OF IT this week. Otherwise, the Phillies laugh last with ANOTHER NL-E Championship banner. Or WC.
See, that’s good enough for them. An NL-E Championship is gold, NL Championship is a dream, World Series? They can’t fathom that.
In 2006 nothing seemed out of reach. Until our bullpen, practically the same one for the past two years, made it a nightmare. And they are falling asleep behind the wheel again – the bullpen that is. Ayala and Stokes are new to this – so they can’t get killed.
I’m not seeing a bunch of wicked curveballs for strike three called during these losses. I’m seeing reasons – two on the left, one on the right.
In all seriousness, would you guys be content if you made the playoffs by the Wildcard or is it Division or bust in your eyes?
There’s no way that if you make the playoffs it’s a negative in any way. But if we get in through the wild card, it would be a bitter pill in a way because that means we lost a division title that was there for us to take.
So pretty much the Mets organization and you guys as fans would feel vindicated with a division title over us then?
Just trying to get a feel of how you guys feel in that regards.
Excuse me, more vindicated in reference to Wild Card vs. NL East Division.
In my opinion yes. We won the season series from you this year, and if we had a halfway decent bullpen that did not blow 27 saves including 11 in the ninth, I think we would have an NL East crown and you would be battling just for the wild card.
Okay, fair enough. I definitely understand where you’re coming from.
There is no denying though that you guys stepped up big against us this year. I’ll be honest, as exciting as I think it would be to have us face in the playoffs, it scares the living daylights out of me the thought of facing you guys more.
You guys brought pure emotion and adrenaline to us when it counted most and man handled us.
So I totally dig where you’re coming from. I don’t know if it helps, but we’d be just happy to make it through the division or wild card.
That’s not a knock on the Philies, out of those 27 blown saves, I’d take 12 Wins from those, so it would be 15 blown saves, where would be, we’d probably have the best record in the NL and or all of baseball.
I feel you, man. In the past month, we had the same opportunites you did and blew our leads in the 8th inning. The 8th haunted us there and I think came out to 8 games total in the past month, which obviously right now could be deciding now also.
It is certainly frustrating, but that’s baseball, I guess.
The key thing for players and fans is to just not hang your head and throw in the towel too early.
I wouldn’t want to face you either, your team has alot of fight and heart. I learned after 88 playoffs against dodgers where we beat them 11 out of 12 or 12 out of 13 in regular season then lost to them in playoffs, regular season record against a team means NOTHING. I also just want in too, whatever happens in the playoffs happens.
Right on, man.
Don’t discount your Mets either, because I believe they have a lot more fight and heart this year then you give them credit for. That may be because they have had some big wins against us in dramatic fashion.
I honestly think you guys get the division and we get Wildcard and I’m ok with that potential outcome.
Cheers to October baseball (hopefully)!
Yes. Cheers. If we’re playing you in October though, it may be hard to be nice to each for like a week lol
The Wild Card is the best friend to both the Mets and the Phillies. It’s saying you can flip a coin and it doesn’t have to land flat. We’ll see what happens. This is one of the few years that I just really don’t care about the NFL. I’m forcing myself not to. Last year I had no other choice because concentrating on the agony of the collapse was torcher. What a horrible September. Especially being a Jets fan last year too lol
Feeling’s mutual, for sure.
Well, on a side note before I head off. I do apologize on behalf of the bad posters that come here to stir the pot and get a rise out of you guys. Please don’t account them for how the majority of us are. I only come here every so often to help and try add some balance to the bad apples.
Don’t worry, I understand. I live in Burlington county, New Jersey. The heartland of the Phillies and Eagles lol I know Phillies ”phans” are human-beings lol I work and live with them. If you’re a Phillies fan living in the NY area you probably feel as out of place as I do. There’s a few sour apples in every basket. Usually people who go out of there way to come onto a blog with intensity are not as sensible as yourself… I’m sure Mets fans who have made their way onto Phillies blogs aren’t the best representations of us either. I just hope these Phillies fans can keep the intensity that they do for the Eagles… Maybe if they lose tomorrow they will.
I’m in Gloucester County, however, my girlfriend is in Bergen. So I’m friends with tons of New York fans.
Anyway, goodnight and nice chatting with the good bunch as always!
No problem. Nice chatting with you too. Take it easy
At this point if you were to tell me I could wake up Monday morning 2 weeks from now knowing the Mets are in the playoffs – I would take it anyway. Sure it’d suck to play the Cubs, but we’d have a chance to win the world series. Plus you know the Cubs with all of their own superstitions. They’ll probably be some sort of Bartman thing this year.
A) Win the division B) Win the Wild Card C) Don’t make anything and be pissed for 6 months.
A and B are my friends, but A’s just a better one.
If you were to ask the same question about the Monday morning reference, Mets fans would probably yes. If they were logical and not too cocky. Just like the Phillies fans.
backing into the playoffs just because the Brewers suck is no solace. I give you the 2007 Phillies, backing into the playoffs because the Mets sucked…3 game sweep.
I think a big difference between the Mets and the Phillies is that the Phillies succeed better off the Mets failures. They get more pumped. They’re used to looking up at the Mets. Whether it be in 06, 07 or 08. They were up in a decent amount 08, but the Mets and Marlins were right there. Even in the Mets-Phillies one-on-one games. The Mets get on top like 80% of the time and the Phillies have to work there way back and somehow find ways a lot.
In 2006, the NL East sucked. The NL was less competitive period. The NL and NL East have caught up to the Mets in the same way how the Pistons and Heat caught up to the Nets after they made it to the NBA Finals twice. We need to win. They hold much better banners for those who win divisions over those who win wild cards.
I don’t think people in Miami particularly care if their Marlins won the division in 97′ or 03′ though, do you? There’s always two sides to everything. It still isn’t a bad consolation, but it’s in no way satisfying. There would only be two ways to recover the bad taste of not winning the division. One, win the world series. Or two, beat the Phillies in the NLCS to make it to the world series. I do believe this team will win the division though because they’ve bounced back so many times. Plus, just look from this point – they got a better record.
The saddest part is we have the baseball stage all to ourselves, the Spanks are DEAD, and we are BLOWING IT. I give the Mets credit for one thing, they bounce back after tough loses, but how many times can they bounce back, there might be a time where they won’t bounce back from a tough loss, that is what concerns me.
Why isn’t there a post game board? lol
Anyone who thinks the Mets don’t need K-Rod next year is nuts. Omar already screwed up at the 07 trading deadlie by not gettting Lidge. Wait Omar screwed up by trading away Heath Bell and Matt Lidstrom for garbage. Wait Omar screwed up by signing Schoenweiss and letting Bradford go. Wait Omar screwed up by not trading for Dan Wheeler at the 07 deadline.
Confidence in the Mets Organization?
Confidence in Jerry “Gangsta” Manuel?
By the way, time to show the Phanatic in total clarity, he ain’t blurry anymore.
Thanks allot MAT for jinxing the TEAM with YOUR magic number posting….
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice…
Yeah, it’s been down hill ever sense. Get that number off.