The Marlins beat the Mets, 16–8, tonight in Tradition Field.
- Johan Santana threw 47 pitches to 12 batters, let up four hits, a home run to Dan Uggla, struck out two, hit a batter and was charged with three runs. He was pulled mid-way through the third inning. Most important, Santana used his slider and change-up, and pitched inside, and though he clearly ran out of gas, losing velocity and command in the end, he is healthy and strong.
- Tim Redding let up nine runs, yes, NINE, in just two innings of work. Get this, he has a 40.50 ERA in two appearances.
- Pedro Martinez is still a free agent.
- In the first inning, Luis Castillo led off the game with an opposite-field double, then moved to third on a ground ball to the right side, then scored on a sac fly from Daniel Murphy.
- Nick Evans hit his second home run of the spring.
- Kevin Burkhardt likes Skittles.
- I prefer Sour Patch Kids.
The Mets play the Tigers in Lakeland tomorrow at 1 pm.
to quote the great joe beningo
“OH THE PAIN” !!!!
For those following my every move, I’ll be at the game in Lakeland tomorrow. Look for me, I’ll be the guy in the Beltran shirt with the Santana jersey.
dont think it will be televised ceetar but i will use my illusion
good one!
thanks fongy i try lol
Always nice to sneak a Guns N Roses reference in there. I’ll be in Lakeland tomorrow as well. Not sure what Mets shirt I’ll be wearing, though. Sign Pedro, we may be longing for his five inning, three-run starts by the looks of this spring’s results…..
and to think i was never a gnr type of guy – mostly dead kennedys metallica slayer anthrax carnivore and blue oyster cult among many others lol
Rusty and here I thought you were an ABBA fan. (LMAO)
Lakeland’s nice………..but it’s not Paradise City. I hear the grass is green and the girls got big……… :)
A Beltran shirt AND a Santana jersey? I don’t think that helps us, as you will probably be wearing one over the other? Assumably, the jersey over the shirt. Therefore, all we have to go by is a Santana jersey.
MATT U ALWAYS STRUCK ME AS EITHER A NOW or later or a jolly rancher kinda guy – sorry bout the caps btw matt having any mets blogs get togethers planned for this year?
Looks like someone is reconsidering his outlook on Pedro
Pedro is the new Manny!
Get Pedro!
era of 40.50 – what ?? was he channeling Mark Bomback?
Wasn’t his ERA like 135.00 the other day? That is a huge improvement :)
lol
Or Rich Rodriguez, possibly the worst Mets reliever ever…..
I’m in for $20 w/ Rich Sauver,
remember him?
I’ll take Toby Borland for 200, Alex….
How dare you mention his name!
O.K. so is anyone listening to that blog radio link Matt gave us? Listening to these two talk right now. I don’t think they realize they’re on the air right now – lol.
Oops, they finally disconnected the feed after about 7 minutes.
good nite my lady 4decades – gotta get up at 415 am for work
i wonder if this paves the way for figgy to be the 5th starter lol
Wow, that is early. Get some sleep, Rusty.
And right now, I’m open for suggestions on anyone for that 5th starter. ‘Cause no one I’ve seen so far has distinguished themselves. Hopefully, someone steps up to the plate and pulls away from the pack in the next couple of weeks. Otherwise, I wonder what their Plan B is….
ok for decades – btw our plan b is to prob give redding and livan and garcia enough rope to hang themselves then either figgy or neise gets the job – i honestly cant see pedro back in a mets uni
plus u never know sullivan or machiviak might be traded for a 5th starter type of pitcher like joe hanrahan of the nats – the nats dont have enough outfirlders lol
Hey we joke, but is Figgy really much worse than the other options right now? If they don’t get Pedro, I say just hand the No. 5 spot to Niese and let him run with it, unless he performs poorly the next couple times out. Livan wouldn’t be too bad either. He eats innings (and everything else) but will give up a ton of hits with low strikeout totals….
I don’t know – Figgy has looked real good in the S.A. leagues, the minor leagues and even in the WBC. He gets to the Show though and it somehow hasn’t translated that well….
Classic AAAA Pitcher.
Typical AAAA Pitcher But a New Yorker
so I’ll root for him.
Bring back Pedro! We’ve got 4 Jose Lima’s competing for the 5 spot right now. Plus I could wear my “Got Pedro?” Mets T-shirt to games for another season.
VOTE FOR PEDRO!
SIGN PEDRO NOW PLEASE OMAR PLEASE and put livan in bullpen and cut redding
Livan in the what?????
hey rabbi will you do the art shamsky version of the kaddish?? lol and stop with the pedro crazyness – if anything it pushes neise into the rotation which cant be bad
We need to unite as one loud voice and scream and beg for them to sign Pedro. The Cost:Benefit is ridiculous at this point.
jeez where is the mercy rule when u need it lol
i wonder is omar is sweating bullets right about now
“he clearly ran out of gas, losing velocity and command in the end, he is healthy and strong.”
im not saying he’s not gonna be fine but how does losing gas after two innings look healthy and strong?
First spring outing.
are u talkin about johan? pelf it was his frst start he is a little behing the pack right noww jeez man u cant expect him to go 4-5 innings on 45 pitches – and he did pitch well desalvo screwed him
i think he’ll be fine, but losing gas in the third inning isn’t looking strong. it’s just a contradiction. i still think he’ll be fine for opening day but he is not there yet.
My goodness, you do realize that most starters only go 1 inning in their first ST game? Thus going 2+ innings is strong.
And the hitters have been facing live
Pitching for two weeks now.
Do we love to whine, complain, and panic or what?
Not talking about you lilpelf just in general.
?
I guess the quantity over quality method isnt working out so well for the 5th spot eh Omar.
ok im really goin to bed now nite guys and dont fret
its only s.t if this was sept i’d be tearin my hair out
If it was september and we are still looking for a #5, I wouldn’t be pulling my hair out, I’d be swigging a 5th of the cheap stuff, because by then I’d be too poor to buy the good stuff and living on the streets.
In other updates
Roger Clemens, Churt Schilling and Oil Can Boyd are still FA.
???
Oil Can Boyd – lol. He still thinks the Red Sox would have won it all in ’86 if there wasn’t that rain out and he made that second scheduled start instead of skipping over him.
He is a live wire – case in point thinking he can still pitch effectively at like what – 49?
What’s the difference? They are all just as much of a sure thing as Pedro.
Oil Can was actually talkin’ comeback
a couple months ago.True story.
So on blog radio, Ted Burg is guessing right now that Livan is apparently the front runner right now for that 5th spot. Is saying the Red Flag really has to be raised on Redding at this point.
I like Niese, but there is no way he can make 28 or so starts in what would be his first year. I can see him coming up sooner rather than later though.
i thought we were going to get two starters!!!!! now we are begging to get back a washed up injury prone pedro who we can’t afford to get anyway because it’s a guaranteed contract. a sad state of affairs that we only have four starters and we are already playing pitching roulette and the season hasn’t even started yet! what happens when one of our four pitchers goes down? then what?
technically I think it’s his grandma that likes the skittles.
Can we stop with the Pedro talk already… the guy has been terribly and/or injured the last three years… yeah he had a great WBC but both of his outings where against the Dutch. Christ I think I could have thrown 3 scoreless against them
Right. If he would take a contract like he deserves, similar to Livan and Garcia, then sure add him to the mix of washed up pitchers to compete with Redding and Niese. Otherwise, move on.
The Dominican team could have used
you.
lmao!
I don’t think people are getting it. It’s not the scoreless innings but the increased velocity and movement that should have teams intrigued. With that said, Pedro’s asking price is probably too high, especially given all the injuries.
We shall see, if he signs with someone soon then maybe someone sees something. But right now all it is a nice story with still no one willing to sign him.
ding ding ding…we have a winner.
trutler if you could throw 3 scoreless innings against the Dutch that would instantly move you ahead of Garcia, Hernandez and Redding. What are you waiting for? Posthaste contact Omar. This could be your big chance at stardom. (lol)
I don’t care that Pedro pitched a few good innings against the Netherlands and Redding has a 40something ERA- I still have more faith in Redding to be the 5th starter…
I mean its 2 spring training starts- too early to start worrying.
Exactly, why would a guy that had very solid numbers last year for a #5 suddenly be the worst pitcher on the planet? He was in the top 35 in Innings, Wins, ERA, WHIP, BAA. That’s very solid for a #5. If he is still pitching like this in a few weeks, DL him and go with Livan or Niese.
Finally someone says it.
He was about league average last year and theres no reason for that to change. And league average is just fine for a #5 starter.
I’m thinking Redding is still hurt. University of Michigan hitters shouldn’t be ripping him for five runs in a third of an inning if that wasn’t the case….
Possible, it’s still a very small sample size. Lets just see what happens. I still think I would rather have Livan in AAA, Redding starting and go with 11 pitchers. Can’t count out Garcia yet either. SO EARLY.
He obviously is still bothered by the toe.
Hmmm,Shades of Duque.
Oh and this might explain him getting
bombed BUT how does it explain
34W-51L 5ERA for his career?
Do players never improve? Why do you give him NO credit for the last 2 seasons?
Wait, the league averaged 5 runs a game?
‘Cause thats what Redding gave up.
AND it was more like 6 after the break.
Depends, league average was 4.32 but that’s not qualified either. Also, league average for a #5 was way over 5.00.
OK so we take into acct all the horrid #5s
and factor them in and this helps your
absurd argument that this 34-51 Pitcher w/
a 5era whos allowed almost 1100 baserunners and 100 HRS in 700innings
isn’t a BAD MLB Pitcher?
Yeah, he was great the last 3months
of last season.While playing for money.
This is silly Fong. Seriously.
Redding is an above average #5 pitcher. Does that make him good? Nope. Like I said, all of his stats last year were in the top 35 of pitchers in the NL which would make him a very average pitcher but very much above average #5.
Is Redding a lock? Nope. He most likely will give you about a 4.80-4.95 ERA, 180 innings and a 1.45 WHIP. Can you say that Livan, Garcia or Pedro will MOST LIKELY give you that?
I’m not beefing with you(no pun while discussing Redding&Livan) But I thought
we’re supposed to be a Series Contender
not the Padres or Pirates. I would think
that w/a 140Mil $ payroll we could do better
than a 34-51,5era Pitcher,whos coming off
a foot injury just operated on a couple months
ago to be our #5,give us 30GS&200IP.
Thats all.I’m not against you but Omar.
Because you can see this is gonna be
a rotating door which will give us agita
all year.
What team has much better than that as a #5 in the NL?
Also, are you not a Pedro advocate?
5era Pitcher,whos coming off
an injury to be our #5,give us 30GS&200IP. Do you really think Pedro has a better chance of doing that than Redding?
What team has a 140million dollar payroll?
And I’m NOT a Pedro Advocate But a Pedro
fan. No I would not give him any other deal
then what Redding,Livan or garcia rec’d.
But I do appreciate how great a Pitcher Pedros been as I appreciate how bad a Pitcher Redding has been.Again, i’m not beefing w/you I just think it ‘s amusing
how strongly you wanna defend Redding
and Omars signing of him.
I just think it’s a good move. I would have still liked to have gotten Garland or Wolf as Redding would have pitched out of the pen.
I can’t understand your dislike for him as a # 5. I love Pedro but I don’t care what he USED to be able to do. IF you ask me to put money on a player having an under 5.00 ERA and 180 innings and I had to chose between Redding, Pedro, Garcia or Livan I am most likely going to be poor either way but I am picking Redding every time. Followed by Livan, then Pedro then Garcia.
And I STILL don’t understand what the payroll has to do with it? So if we already have a better #5 than any other team we should go out and get an evey better one because we have already spent more money? Why not do the same at 1B? Maybe we should have gotten Tex? We did have the highest payroll, why should Delgado be good enough? Poor Murphy, and Church, they are really in trouble. We should go get Manny and trade for Dye.
Well after tonight Redding certainly looked like one of the worst pitchers on the planet.
But I get your point, though. Give it another two weeks. Hope someone pulls away from the pack for the 5th starter. If not, hope Livan stays healthy and consistent enough to give the innings we know he’s capable of.
I still don’t think giving it to Niese right out of the gate is the best idea. I see him here sooner rather than later though.
But again, look at their stats last year. Redding was much better than Livan last year and ate the same innings.
Agreed.
And from the look of his gut as many
Big Macs.
Remember this is an extended ST, still 21 more games left. Lets see what happens with these guys when they are going 5 innings.
TRS i gave up trying to say anything. Any time anything goes wrong it’s sign this guy cut this guy.
Redding is mart of this team no matter what. Bullpen or starter he’s part of the team.
Pedro wants 5 million and the mets cut Sanchez to save 1.4….. Pedro isn’t coming.
If the season started right now it would be Livan as the 5th starter.
God I hope Redding does get better, my head is still spinning from watching him pitch! It is early for him yet though we’ll see.
A guy like Tim Redding will soon realize his glory days were with the Nats…being a colossal mediocrity.
With the Mets, well, he’s just gonna suck completely. Wait’ll he gets a little Shea (um, whatever we’re calling the new stadium I mean) pressure. Won’t be pretty.
I like Skittles too. And I don’t like Sour Patch Kids, I like the water melons. I think Ron said he likes gummy worms.
I like Pedro, but this is the 5th starter slot. Very rarely is the fifth starter going to make 30 starts. Most teams have a rotating door.
Livan would suffice to some extent. Niese is only going to be getting better. There are other guys that I think will step up as well. Dillon Gee could move up quickly this year.
The bottom line is that most fifth starters are rotating doors. You just want an innings eater.
I think we will be seeing a 5th-starter-by-committee this year, with Livan, Redding, Niese and maybe even Dillon Gee and Figueroa all getting some starts.
I’m fine with this approach. As long as they are willing to change the incumbent if he is not pitching well, there shouldn’t be a big problem. The problem comes when they are not willing to cut bait quickly (ie, Lima, Ishii) or if there are few alternatives. But they do have many viable alternatives this year.
Really. I think it will work out with what they have,
Gotta go, but the Rays are going to have to make a trade to accomodate Price. Either one of their current starters or Jason Hammel or Jeff Niemann.
Obviously I would LOVE to get Sonnanstine but I would take a gamble on Hammel as well. Not bad numbers, has potential but starting to be to old to be a true prospect.
No sense in that when we already have
Niese.
Not if we could get Sonnanstine. He would fill the #5 spot perfectly. Niese has proven nothing. At least Sonnanstine has shown some potential on the MLB level. If Niese pans out then you have too many good starters, LOL.
As for the other guys? If you go with Hammel he is more ready than Niese and could be the #5 or long relief guy.
agreed!
I keep reading about John Neise. WOW, a rotation with three leftys. When was the last time that happened?
For the Mets? I don’t know. I think last year the Marlins had Olsen, Miller and Hendrickson, but I’m not sure if they were all in the rotation at the same time.
Matlack, Koosman and Stone.
i just say we give the spot to figgy
5th spot by commitee is not the worst thing (aka the “hot hand”), as long as the commitee members are better than Lima, etc.
IOW, don’t get that panicky over who starts out as the 5th starter, especially if some of the options aren’t quite physically ready 4/6 (redding, garcia maybe), since quite likely within a month or 2, someone will have gotten hurt, or stepped up to take and hold the spot.
great perspective…
dont worry about who will be the 5th starter because we’ll likely have two of them in the rotation at the same time for most of the year…
ugh
Attention Tim Redding:
Stop reading the blogs for the latest about Pedro Martinez and start trying to make us forget about him. Thank you!
ATTENTION OMAR MINAYA,
PEDRO MARTINEZ IS STILL A FREE AGENT!! DO YOU UNDERSTAND? P-E-D-R-O M-A-R-T-I-N-E-Z IS STILL A F-R-E-E A-G-E-N-T!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!