Daily Archives: June 11, 2009
According to David Lennon, on his blog for Newsday, John Maine and Livan Hernandez will switch places this weekend, with Maine pitching Saturday instead of Friday, and Hernandez pitching Friday instead of Saturday.
Following Maine’s last start, during which he allowed seven runs in four innings, Jerry Manuel told reporters he believed his pitcher was suffering from a dead arm.
Earlier in the week, Maine experienced tightness due to breaking up scar tissue in his surgically-repaired shoulder.
…dead arm, scar tissue and a stomach bug, all in a week or so, sure, that will probably result in a rough outing and a decrease in velocity… hopefully the extra day will get him back on track…
Tuesday, in Citi Field, I was able to sit 
down with Jerry Manuel and relay questions from readers of MetsBlog.com for a web-exclusive interview for SNY.TV.
Instead of reading direct questions, I tried my best to give a sense of the three most popular subjects that were sent to me, so to hopefully cover more ground.
Manuel has agreed to do this type of discussion once every home stand.
The following is a transcript of the interview, or you can watch a video of the discussion at the end of this post:
Matthew Cerrone: There’s been a lot of talk among fans and reporters about whether Omar Minaya should go out and get a power bat because of the perceived lack of power… Talk to me a little bit about how you adjust to that and maybe play a little bit of a smaller ball type of game, in the case he doesn’t make a deal.
Jerry Manuel: Well, I think, the way we can adjust to that, is that, if we continue to win games here, where we have played very well and not hit a lot of homeruns, that style can be conducive to winning on the road. What we know in baseball, in the industry as a whole, is that pitching and defense wins its share of games, or most of the games. So we have to focus on that part of the game more than we have to focus on whether we have power or not.
Matthew Cerrone: If you had a choice, do you .jpg)
enjoy managing that type of team, do you feel it’s more consistent, or do you need a dash of power here and there?
Jerry Manuel: Well, you like to have power. Power is an important component of a team. It gives you instant offense. It takes a lot of pressure off of trying to manufacture all the time. But if that is something that’s lacking, it’s lacking. But, in order to be good without power you have to have consistent at bats. You have to have grinding at bats. You have to have Luis Castillo type of at bats, see a lot of pitches, Alex Cora type of at bats, see a lot of pitches, work the count to get to a lesser pitcher in the bullpen – and that’s kind of the mindset we have to take.
Matthew Cerrone: I took questions from fans, and a lot of them think they can do your job better than you, as I’m sure you know…
Jerry Manuel: They probably can (laughing)…
Matthew Cerrone: …and everyone likes to fill out the lineup card. So, explain to me how you go about who’s going to play the corners, who’s going to play first, what’s the decision process like?
Jerry Manuel: Generally, I’ll watch the opposing pitcher for most of the day and I’ll also look at the history of matchups. If there’s no history, then I try to matchup who will have good swings off this particular pitcher or whose swing matches up with this guy. I go that way, but lately it hasn’t been that, it’s been who’s healthy, and then you just try to mix and match.
Matthew Cerrone: When it comes to things like mental mistakes and base running errors and things like that, how do you work on that between games with these guys, these are veterans. How do you communicate with them and how do you work on that stuff game to game?
Jerry Manuel: When a guy makes a mistake, makes a mental mistake, at some point, you don’t have to point it out at that particular time, you can wait for the right time but keep that in your mental bank and say, ‘Hey, I need to remind you that this is not a good play,’ and why. If we are to be good, we need to eliminate or downsize these mistakes. But you never let them go or not talked about or don’t face them with those errors, regardless if you win or lose.
This morning, at Mets Minor League Blog, Toby Hyde recaps all of yesterday’s Mets minor-league action, including strong performances from catcher Josh Thole, who went 3-5 in a win for Double-A Binghamton; as well as SS Wilmer Flores, who went 2-3 with a double for Single-A Savannah.
In 51 games, the left handed hitting Thole is batting .351 with 23 RBI’s and 28 runs.
Meanwhile, the 18-year-old SS Flores has hit safely in four of his last five.
For more, check out Toby’s Mets Minor League Blog.
Tagged News |
The Mets left 16 men on base in their 5-4 loss to the Phillies, with Carlos Beltran, Gary Sheffield, and Omir Santos being responsible for 12 of those 16.
Despite that lopsided number, the Mets lead the National League in hitting with runners in scoring position with a .282 average and are second in Major League Baseball to the Baltimore Orioles, whom the Mets will face next week.
However, the Mets rank just 13th in the National League with two outs and runners in scoring position with a .245 average and 24th overall in the Major Leagues.
In addition, the Mets rank 13th in the National League when hitting with the bases loaded with just a .235 average, 25th overall.
…this, in a nutshell, is pretty much what we saw last night…
Tagged Stats |Jayson Werth of the Phillies made a spectacular, game saving catch in the bottom of the 10th inning to rob David Wright of a double.
Jerry Manuel, regarding that catch said, “That was a big play… we had many, many opportunities… but couldn’t seem to get the big hit.”
…that is pretty much what this game came down to – offensive execution… no matter what the lead, if the Mets or any team leave 16 runners on base against a first place team, eventually they will catch up to them…
Despite the loss, Manuel was pleased with the performance of the pitching staff, saying, “Pelfrey pitched well. I thought our bullpen was OK. Frankie was obviously good, Feliciano was good… We didn’t catch the ball that well that inning as I thought we should have but it was a good ballgame.”
…yeah it was a good game, very exciting all the way through… i’d hate to see plays like Carlos Beltran‘s dropped flyball at the wall in center and the error by wright on a good hustle play determine the outcome of the game, but it’s those little things against the first place teams that always seem to hurt…
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