Daily Archives: June 2, 2009

The Mets lost to the Pirates, 3–1, in PNC Park tonight.

For a full recap, and boxscore, go here.

The Least You Should Know:

• Due to injuries and illness the Mets sent out a spring training lineup against Zach Duke, which scratched out one run on eight hits.
• Filling in for a flu-ridden Carlos Beltran, Jeremy Reed tied a career-high with three hits.
• Johan Santana cruised through the first 10 batters he faced, however the next eight out of 12 batters reached.

Other Observations:

• On June 2, the lineup resembles something close to an expansion team.
• I don’t understand how Fernando Martinez gets a start against a left-hander over Daniel Murphy.
• Game time was 2 hours and 11 minutes and you would think Johan threw a complete game two-hitter.
• Jose Reyes, Ryan Church and Beltran can’t come back fast enough.

The Game Ball:

• Tonight’s game ball goes to anyone who can disinfect the Mets clubhouse.

The Mets look to get back on track tomorrow night with Mike Pelfrey facing Ross Ohlendorf at PNC Park.

Tagged News | Tagged Mike Nichols |

Update, 6:26 pm:

“An SNY producer has been sent home with the flu,” explains Adam Rubin, in a post to his blog for the Daily News.

According to Rubin, Mets assistant GM John Ricco said nobody on the team is currently experiencing flu syptoms.

Update, 5:25 pm:

In a post to Twitter, Newsday’s David Lennon says the Mets may have been exposed to some strain of flu, adding, “a member of their traveling party has come down with it.”

According to Bart Hubbuch, of the New York Post, also on Twitter, the person in the traveling party, who works for SNY, may have ‘swine flu.’

Yesterday, Mets GM John Ricco told the Daily News that Beltran and John Maine do not have a flu because they do not have a fever.

…forgive me if i don’t trust their doctor’s ability to read a thermometer…

Update, 4:45 pm:

Ryan Church and Jose Reyes were both unable to play in an extended spring training game today due to heavy rain in St. Lucie.

Original Post:

Yet again, Carlos Beltran will not be in tonight’s starting lineup, missing his third-consecutive start due to a stomach bug.

(more…)

Here is the latest edition of New York Baseball Today during which Matthew Cerrone is joined by Alex Belth of BronxBanterBlog.com to discuss the stat of the day, errors (or lack there of in the Yankees case) and how they affect tonight’s matchups for the two New York ball clubs:

Tagged SNY |

Tom Verducci of SI.com spoke with Indians GM Mark Shapiro, who said despite his team being in last place in the American League Central, it’s still too premature to deal away players like Mark De Rosa, as Shaprio is optimistic his team will compete for a playoff spot.

Verducci also notes Shapiro would need a king’s ransom before considering trading players like Victor Martinez and Cliff Lee.

Speaking of De Rosa, Anthony Castrovince of MLB.com reports the Cardinals are seeking a De Rosa-type player, if not De Rosa himself.

If you’re expecting the A’s to deal their veterans, such as Matt Holliday, Jason Giambi and Orlando Cabrera anytime soon, don’t count on it, writes Ken Rosenthal of FOXSports.com.

According to Rosenthal, A’s GM Billy Beane is determined to develop their young pitching prospects at the Major League level and trading their veterans would only put more pressure on his pitchers.

While the Phillies are actively shopping for a starting pitcher to replace the recently injured Brett Myers, David Murphy of the Philadelphia Daily News wonders if the Phillies have enough payroll flexibility to acquire a pitcher signed to a significant mulit-year deal, such as Jake Peavy or Roy Oswalt.

Murphy also notes Peavy will discuss the possibility of accepting a trade after Peavy’s start against the Phillies tonight.

…from what i can gather, the Phillies certainly have the prospects to acquire an ace such as peavy, but their payroll flexibility is their major obstacle…this is total speculation, but i would not be shocked to see the Phillies strike a deal with the Astros for oswalt…former Phillies gm Ed Wade is now with the Astros and was in charge when the Phillies acquired Brad Lidge for Michael Bourn, plus oswalt’s contract is more manageable than peavy’s…

…that being said, the Phillies acquiring a pitcher with the resume of peavy or oswalt is a scary thought…

Lastly, Michael Silverman of the Boston Herald reports the Red Sox are ’50/50′ on the idea of trading Brad Penny when they can do so after June 15.

Penny is 5-1 with a 5.63 ERA in 10 starts with the Red Sox this season.

Tagged Mike Nichols |

The Nationals have fired pitching coach Randy St. Claire and replaced him with Steve McCatty, who was the team’s pitching coach at Triple-A Syracuse.

St. Claire was in his 7th year as the Expos/Nationals pitching coach. He was the NL East’s longest-tenured pitching coach.

Steve McCatty is most known for his pitching days in Oakland during the early ’80s. Over the past 14 years, McCatty has coached mainly in the minor leagues with the exception of 2002 when he was the pitching coach for the Detroit Tigers.

…I don’t think there’s any question now that the writing is on the wall for Manny Acta. Pitching and defense have been the biggest problems with this team, and the front office is now taking action to attempt to fix the former.

With the First Year Player Draft next week, don’t expect the Nationals to make any other big moves just yet. Acting GM Mike Rizzo and his staff will be focusing their attention on Stephen Strasburg and amateur players over the next 7-10 days.

However, don’t rule out an Acta firing by the All-Star break if this team doesn’t show at least some improvement. The question is, if Washington does fire Acta, who will take over the on-field duties next? And does anyone really want that job working for the Lerners?

Tagged News |

Hanley Ramirez had 2 hits, and Jorge Cantu drove in 2 runs as the Marlins rallied for 5 runs in the 6th inning to come from behind and beat the Brewers, 7-4.

The Florida bullpen gave a stellar performance, pitching 4 2/3 scoreless innings in relief of the ineffective Andrew Miller.

Milwaukee had 11 hits on the night, but they were all singles.

The two teams play the second game of their four game series on Tuesday with Manny Parra getting the start for the Brewers. He’ll be opposed by Anibal Sanchez who is making his first start since injuring his shoulder back on May 7.

The Phillies continued their winning ways on Monday by knocking off the San Diego Padres, 5-3.

Chase Utley and Shane Victorino each had 2 hits and drove in 2 runs. Utley and Ryan Howard both hit solo home runs.

Joe Blanton threw 7 solid innings, allowing 3 runs on 6 hits, walking one and striking out 5. One of the hits allowed by Blanton was a home run, a solo shot by San Diego’s Adrian Gonzalez, his league leading 21st of the season.

On Tuesday, the Phillies will give the ball to rookie Antonio Bastardo. Bastardo will make his Major League debut by facing former Cy Young Award winner Jake Peavy. Bastardo is replacing the injured Brett Myers.

Coincidentally, the National League co-Players of the Week squared off against each other in San Diego on Monday. Ryan Howard of the Phillies and Adrian Gonzalez of the Padres received the honors.

Howard and Gonzalez tied for the National League lead with four home runs, 10 RBIs and a 1.000 slugging percentage last week.

In other news, the next home run hit by Florida’s Dan Uggla will most likely make him the fastest (in games) second baseman in history to hit 100 home runs.

And as if the Nationals didn’t have enough problems, Washington resumes action on Tuesday against the San Francisco Giants and gets to face none other than Tim Lincecum.

For more news, notes, analysis and statistics from around Major League Baseball, be sure to visit Baseball Daily Digest.

Tagged MetsBlog, News |

SNY’s Ted Berg and I just had an entire discussion about J.J. Putz that sounded exactly like the discussion he and I had last season about John Maine, who, at the time, was pitching with a bone spur, just like Putz is now.

Let’s assume Putz’s problems stem from the bone spur in his elbow, which he received an anti-inflammatory shot for last week…

Typically with a bone spur, be it the elbow, shoulder, wherever, the pitcher will not make it worse by throwing.

In the end, it’s a matter of pain and effectiveness.

If Putz is effective, my bet is he will take the ball until he can’t.

However, if he’s totally ineffective, whether in pain or not, the Mets will have little choice but to shut him down – just like they did with Maine, who then went on to have season-ending surgery.

Yesterday, just like with Maine last season, Dan Warthen worked before the game with Putz on his delievery, likely trying to find a pain-free, fluid way to return the sink on his splitter, which has been ineffective for weeks.

Maine essentially did the same thing last season, in an effort to regain the tail on his fastball, which did not return.

This is total speculation, but I bet Putz gets rest, pitches here and there over the next week or so, all while the team works to find a pain-free, effective way to get acceptable results.

If he’s effective, wonderful.

However, if he’s ineffective, and nothing is working, I suspect we’ll begin to hear more and more about the bone spur, and alternate ways of dealing with it, just like they did with Maine, who eventually had season-ending surgery.

In the end, the Mets need find a way to replace Tim Redding in the rotation, so he can slot in to the bullpen as a long-man, freeing up Brian Stokes to become a situational reliever, allowing Ken Takahashi, Pedro Feliciano and Sean Green to do the same, thus filling out the bullpen in a way that allows Bobby Parnell and Francisco Rodriguez to pitch in just the eighth and ninth innings.

This morning, at Mets Minor League Blog, Toby Hyde recaps all of yesterday’s Mets minor-league action, including strong performances by Jenrry Mejia, who allowed one run on six hits in a win for Single-A St. Lucie; as well as Nick Evans, who stole home for Double-A Binghamton.

In nine starts for Single-A this season, the 19–year-old Mejia is 4–1 with a 1.97 ERA in 50 innings, during which he has 44 strike outs.

Meanwhile, Evans is batting .200 in 10 games since joining Binghamton.

For more, check out Toby’s Mets Minor League Blog.

Tagged Nick Evans |

Last night, Livan Hernandez pitched five and two-thirds innings and allowed three runs and seven hits while walking two and striking out five.

Manuel pulled Hernandez from the game in the sixth inning, after he let up two singles, with two outs.

“I think I could have pitched more, but I don’t make the decisions here,” Hernandez told reporters following the game.  “I felt I could finish and go seven innings, easy.  I only had one bad inning.”

…like i said, i think i would have left hernandez in the game to face Jack Wilson, up 5–3 at the time, even though the Pirates had the tying run on base, instead of going to Bobby Parnell so early, despite wilson hitting the ball well his previous two at bats… of course, parnell did the job… it’s just, i trust livan’s instincts enough to see him through, the third time against wilson, keeping parnell available for later in the game…

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