Daily Archives: March 9, 2009
Pedro Martinez is quoted by the Daily News as saying he would like to return to the Mets, “but I’m not going to go chasing the Mets.”
“I have my goals and I have my things that I want to achieve in life,” Martinez said. “If it’s not with the Mets, it will be with someone else. But if they want a fifth starter who’s been there – I don’t know how much they want me – I’m available.”
Jerry Manuel, on Martinez, while talking to reporters following today’s game in St. Lucie, said:
“Pedro is a Hall of Fame pitcher and one of the greatest pitchers of our time, but I feel very confident in the people we have in camp that they can get the job done. Do you like Pedro? Of course, you love Pedro. But you have to be fair to the people that we have here.”
This morning, in a poll to MetsBlog.com, 58 percent of people said the Mets should sign Martinez to be their fifth starter, while the rest preferred to give the job to either Livan Hernandez, Jon Niese, Tim Redding or Freddy Garcia.
Tagged Pedro Martinez |
Following today’s game, Jerry Manuel announced that Johan Santana will make his first start of the spring this Thursday night against the Marlins.
Santana threw a successful side session today, in which he used all of his pitches, including his slider.
Thursday night’s game will air live on SNY.
Speaking of starting pitchers…
David Lennon of Newsday and Adam Rubin of the Daily News both write that Mike Pelfrey could return to the rotation on Saturday, following a side session on Wednesday.
According to SNY’s Kevin Burkhardt, if all goes well for Pelfrey on Wednesday, he will start on Saturday.
That said, the Mets have yet to confirm Pelfrey’s schedule.
In St. Lucie, I spent time with John Maine 
asking him questions about how to make a pick off throw to second, and keep a runner honest at first, his awareness of his infielders while focused on the game, and where and when you make the throw over.
Here’s one Q&A in text from the discussion:
- Matthew Cerrone: The other one you always see, and one fans always boo when you’re on the road, is the fake-to-third, throw-to-first move – does that ever work?
- John Maine: (Laughing) You hear the boos when you do at a visitor’s park. Actually, it works sometimes.
- Matthew Cerrone: Have you ever picked any one off that way?
- John Maine: I picked one guy off that way, yeah. I’ve only done it a hand-full of times. But, again, what people need to realize is that it’s about not letting that runner on first get a big jump stealing second. Or, maybe it’s because we want to see what the hitters going to do, if he’s gonna bunt or swing…
- Matthew Cerrone: I always thought, if I ever get the chance to throw out the first pitch for a game, I would do that. You know, do the fake, see how people react. I’d probably get made fun of for it, but…
- John Maine: Well, you know in New York if you bounce a pitch you’re gonna get booed, so…
To watch my entire interview with Maine, click play below:
For more Mets spring training videos, click here.
The Mets beat the O’s, 9–8, today in Tradition Field.
- Rene Rivera won the game with walk-off, 460–foot home run, which landed way, way up in the middle of the center-field scoreboard.
- Casey Fossum and Brandon Knight let up the bulk of the Mets runs, getting hit hard and falling victim to two errors in the field.
- Duaner Sanchez pitched one inning, but let up three hits and a walk while striking out two. His fastball hit 89 once, but mostly it was in the low-to-mid 80s. His change-up looked strong, but he has all over the place with his fastball and breaking pitches. Following his outing, Sanchez acknowledged to reporters that his velocity is not where it needs to be, adding, “I can reach back and put more on it. But that’s not my biggest concern right now.” Instead, Sanchez said he is working on placing his pitches better.
- Bobby Kielty got a two-out base hit, pinch hitting as a right-handed batter against George Sherrill, a left-handed pitcher.
- Luis Castillo had a two-RBI single, which he pulled over the second baseman, batting left-handed. Castillo slammed his knee in to the catcher’s shin guard on a play at the plate.
- Nick Evans hit a pinch-hit grand slam.
- Jerry Manuel was quite active with his in-game moves, putting on two hit and runs, sending runners with one out, a full count and men on second and third.
- Daniel Murphy worked a long at bat against Sherrill, and got a hit up the middle to keep the inning going.
To see the complete boxscore, click here.
The Mets play the Nationals at 1 pm tomorrow in Viera.
Apparently Chase Utley will be back in the Philadelphia lineup by opening day after all.
Phillies General Manager Ruben Amaro Jr. said Utley is recovering well from surgery and could see some game action in Florida by the middle of the month.
Personally, I’m all for seeing teams play each other at full strength so let’s hope Utley is back in time to start the season.
Speaking of injuries, the Braves got a scare yesterday when Chipper Jones felt a slight pull in his right side after taking a swing in the fifth inning of Team USA’s game against Venezuela.
The injury was diagnosed as a mild oblique strain, and it will keep Chipper out of the lineup for several days.
And if that news wasn’t bad enough for Atlanta fans, Garret Anderson is out indefinitely because of a pulled right calf muscle. Speculators believe it will be a few weeks before Anderson is able to return.
Finally, the baseball world is buzzing over Florida Marlins prospect Mike 
Stanton. Stanton is in camp with the Marlins and launching monster home runs during bp.
Peter Gammons recently had an opportunity to watch the 19 year-old and came away very impressed…even comparing Stanton’s power to Mark McGwire and his presence to Derek Jeter and David Wright!
For more news, notes, analysis and statistics from around Major League Baseball, be sure to visit Baseball Daily Digest.
Tagged MetsBlog |
The Game:
The Mets (4-6) continue their Grapefruit League schedule versus the Orioles (6-4) today at Tradition Field, starting at 1:10 p.m. EDT.
The Lineup:
- 2B Luis Castillo
- LF Daniel Murphy
- SS Jose Valentin
- C Ramon Castro
- RF Ryan Church
- 3B Andy Green
- 1B Marlon Anderson
- CF Jeremy Reed
- P Brandon Knight
The Pitchers:
Brandon Knight will get the start for the Mets. Duaner Sanchez, Brian Stokes, Bobby Parnell, Jon Switzer, Casey Fossum, Rocky Cherry and Matt DeSalvo are also scheduled to pitch.
Koji Uehara is scheduled to start for the Orioles.
How To Catch It:
Today’s game will be televised locally on
.
You can also follow the live GameDay boxscore, by clicking here.
The Mets have a Major League high 16 players participating in the World Baseball Classic this spring.
The following is an update on Mets players in yesterday’s WBC action:
- David Wright was 3-for-5 with two runs scored in USA’s 15-to-6 rout over Venezuela.
- Oliver Perez allowed four runs on seven hits, whiles striking out five over 2.0 IP in Mexico’s loss to Australia.
- Jose Reyes and Fernando Tatis were hitless in each of their four at-bats in the Dominican Republic’s 9-to-0 win over Panama.
According to multiple reports, Johan Santana threw a bullpen session this morning and told reporters following the session he ‘feels pretty good.’
Adam Rubin of the Daily News reports, Santana worked on his slider, which ‘places greater stress on the elbow,’ while noting there was no trainer or front-office personnel, other than Jeff Wilpon, in attendance.
Santana told reporters he would not commit to making his first spring training start on Thursday against the Marlins, but did state his mindset is still on starting opening day.
For Santana’s complete quotes following his bullpen session, check out the blogs of David Lennon of Newsday and Steve Popper of the Bergen Record.
Tagged Mike Nichols |
According to Phil Mushnick in the NY Post, ProCede will no longer sponsor SNY’s Mets telecasts this year. Mushnick writes:
For the first time in four years, the MLB season will open without Giuseppe Franco‘s “ProCede” hair replacement elixir serving YES’s Yankee telecasts and SNY’s Met games as a primary sponsor. According to sources, ProCede has sustained some setbacks.
Hey, when your generosity is such that you sell a $450 product for only $19.95, that’s bound to happen.
While Mushnick’s reporting here is valuable, his words are a bit misleading — he refers to the product as “Giuseppe Franco’s ‘ProCede’ hair-replacement elixir” when, in truth, Franco doesn’t own anything about it.
Giuseppe Franco was a divisive figure among Mets fans, so this is either a sad or happy day, depending on who you ask.
Anyway, to commemorate the many great years of sponsorship or to celebrate the end of Giuseppe Franco’s reign of terror, I present, one more time, the video of when Matt and I met the man at Shea in August:
In case you missed it from the weekend…
Mike Pelfrey will miss today’s start against the Orioles, while resting a strained leg muscle.
Pelfrey told reporters yesterday that he feels better, yet is still wearing a protective wrap and medical boot.
He is scheduled to throw a bullpen session Wednesday, after which he hopes to return to the rotation.
Lastly, Angel Pagan was sent to New York for an MRI on his elbow.
Tagged Mike Pelfrey | ← Older posts
