The Mets begin a two-game series with the Cardinals tomorrow night in Citi Field, with Johan Santana (12-8, 2.96 ERA) facing Joel Pineiro (9-9, 2.84 ERA).
Santana is tied with four others for the NL lead in wins.
He is 3-0 with a 0.43 ERA in his last three starts in Citi Field.
Pineiro is 3-0 with a 2.91 ERA in five starts against the Mets.
Update, 3:28 pm:
Carlos Delgado is doing light running, according to David Lennon of Newsday.
To follow Lennon on Twitter, as he provides other information about today’s pre-game activities, click here.
Steve Popper also has information about Delgado jogging, in a post to his blog for the Bergen Record.
Update, 4:15 pm:
Angel Pagan will bat leadoff tonight, followed in order by Luis Castillo, David Wright, Gary Sheffield in left, Daniel Murphy at first base, Jeff Francoeur, Alex Cora at short and Omir Santos behind the plate.
Update, 4:50 pm:
Jerry Manuel told reporters that Nelson Figueroa will be available as a relief pitcher for tonight’s game.
Manuel said the team adjusted its curve-ball machine to throw sinkers, since a) they’ve struggled against sinker-ball pitchers, and b) tonight’s starter, Joel Pineiro, is a sinker-ball pitcher.
Lastly, he said the team is not focused on the Wild Card, the pennant race, etc., they’re just focused on trying to play good baseball.
“The whole thing is good pitching, and we have gotten any of late,” he explained. “We have to get back to getting those guys on track, to run off five, six, seven games in a row. But, they have to pitch better for that to happen.”
**If you love groundouts to the second baseman, plenty of tickets are still available!!**
i think its time they slash ticket prices.
It’s probably quibbling given the state of this team but why not flip-flop Frenchy and Sheff?
I hope to god they come up with a new game plan tonight against this guy, cause I am sick of watching him dominate us
At this point since we have ZERO chance of making the playoffs… is it wrong for me to want the team to completely TANK so Omar is definitely fired and the Wilpons lose more money????? Is that wrong???? lol
I want this team to do poorly down the stretch for the simple reason that it’ll give us a better draft pick and enable to sign a Type A without forfeiting a first-rounder. Of course, my guess is thanks to Bernie Madoff, we won’t be signing any first rounders, nor offering any of our Type As or Bs arbitration in fear that they might accept in a down market, but a boy can dream right?
My guess is the Wilpons have already made up their minds about what to do with Omar and their record the rest of the way is irrelevant. I’m probably wrong, but I’m banking on them sliding Omar over to team “president” and either hiring a new person, or promoting Riccio to GM. That way, they take Omar out of the day-to-day stuff, while still keeping a guy they seem to personally like on staff without having to eat his contract extension.
Either way, we’re screwed. If we, the fans, are lucky enough to see the Wilpons sell the team to recoup their losses at Madoff’s hands, then we’re three to five years away from being competitive, with the dearth of talent in the farm system. If they keep the team, and try to continue to worship the Brooklyn Dodgers while owning the New York Mets, we’re an unknown number of years away from being competitive.
First off, if the Madoff scandal cut that deep that it meant the Wilpons needed money they would sell the franchise immediately, the franchise is worth $300MM more than even the highest estimate that Larry King(really not a great source) dropped out in the news.
Second, if they were sold, what makes them 3-5 years away from anything. Unless they are sold to schmuck, they have at least if not more talent than the Red Sox when they were sold in 2002, or the Marlins who won the next year.
I don’t even the Wilpons know what they “lost”. is the number including interest and supposed value? or is it the actual value of what they deposited into the accounts over the years?
There were several very prominent investors that tried to say they lost millions, but actually made millions off the withdrawals over the years…
I find it hard to believe that the Wilpons wrote a check for 300 million much less 700 million and asked Madoff to deposit it.
I bet a good portion of those numbers is the inflated earning that they were supposed to have made.
The reason they aren’t talking is because the SEC is still investigating and recouping the missing funds from past withdrawals, and they are also banking on the pity factor.
Does it really make a difference that there would be three right handed batters in a row? Why in the world is Francoeur hitting behind Murphy?
@Lorenzo23: yes but no one can really argue against you at this point. Good thing some of the youngsters at AA are raking right now. The next regime will inherit some talent that’s only about a year away.
I’m setting the over-under on groundball outs at 19 1/2.
I will take the over, no question.
Way over…
so these machines have only been throwing curveballs?
more than half the season is over and they finally decide to practice on a different pitch???
That was my very first thought when I read that, Dex. I imagine this is Jerry’s diary entry for August 4:
“Some of the kids were fooling around with the pitching machine today. Pagan took a closer look at it, and found a big knob that said “sinkers.” Who knew? Anyway, the news spread like wildfire. Afterward, Francoeur asked everyone, “What’s a sinker?” and we all laughed. Maybe we’ll get more than 2 hits off Pineiro tonight.”
“…of course, it was infield coach Sandy Alomar who expressed the most excitement over this new discovery. ‘Dios Mio!! I am getting too old to hit fungos. Now, while our outfielders practice slamming sinkers into the ground, our infielders can practice their lack of range and inability to record outs against mildly fast runners. And I get to watch from the bench while me and Sandy Jr. eat tostadas!’”
I prefer pasteles…
being that this is actually NEWS and Jerry had to say “we are not practicing how to hit sinkers” is VERY alarming.
what the heck have they been doing this whole time.
And what happend to Jerrys 60 pitch drill?
what that all the same pitch as well??
no wonder it didnt work.
Opposing teams figured it out.
“ah they’ve been practicing curveballs, we just have to throw them fastballs, sinkers, changeups and they will strike out 90% of the time.”
No wonder we make other pitchers look like Cy Youngs, ie Chan H o Park, the Washington Nationals, etc, etc.
this is exactly why we need new blood on this team.
i bet it was actually Jeff Francouer that said..
“hey guys, how come we dont practice hitting other pitches?”
and then the light bulb went off in jerrys head.
Why is Figueroa as a reliever tonight even a thought in Jerry’s mind? Santana is starting, Santana!!
But apparently Jerry thinks he’ll need some long relief help tonight. Way to show confidence in the boys…
If Omar is getting fired at the end of the season like many members of the media and Metsblog are speculating (including myself) – Why not just fire him now??? what’s the point of having him around the rest of the season. I rather start interviewing for GM jobs now
That’s a good point. I guess the Wilpon’s want to get their ”monies worth” for the first contract before having to eat his undeserved extension. I mean he was literally given the extension like 2 days after the second collapse was completed. Who ever is the GM really won’t be able to do much in August or September though. I say go all clean house in October or November. Get a new GM. New manager. New pitching coach, bench coach, first and third base coaches, ect. A new GM should have a right to a new manager.
My take on things is that the Wilpons were not going to fire Omar, but the backlash from the Rubin stuff was the last straw. Now they need to go through the process of looking at who they should consider. It will take some time, as it should. I’d hate for them to make yet another stupid knee jerk reactionary move.
With the ‘monies’ he is due Omar won’t be fired, he’ll be re-assigned and moved out of the public side of things. But they need a real new GM, not just Ricco being promoted. They need some new voices from outside the asylum…
I think I need to listen to Jerry too and stop worrying about WC or the division. I should tune in hoping for a good baseball game because the big picture upsets me too much.
As for hoping they tank, I’m always torn on that issue. It’d probably be better in the long run, but I’d rather watch the team fight and maybe spoil other team’s chances than pretty much be a Pirate’s fan for a half season.
Now watch Pinero find his stroke and shut down the mets the rest of the way…
Darn, I hate it when I’m wrong….
Man. Just when you’ve settled with mediocrity they knock around a guy who has made them look foolish all year and actually look like a professional baseball team. They just keep sucking ya back in! lol.
Ah, the life of a Mets fan….
That is why I HATE the Mets!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, and I’ve hated them for 35 years…
That sucking you back in had to have required spitting you back out 20 minutes later when Luis was clumsy lol I wonder if it had anything to do with those Phillies shirts under the field.
Who is that backstop?
I know who it is, I wouldn’t run Reyes on him…
Castillo fell down the steps of the dugout? I’m sorry, but that is HILARIOUS! Like it isn’t? We know the season is over so who really cares anymore? They can’t catch balls or walk down steps of ”state of the art” home dugouts. You can’t say you don’t love it! lol Like a week and a half ago I made a comment regarding Omar Minaya’s remarks on here. I said it’s only get more interesting. Well… It will continue to.
Why is Jerry leaving him in? lol He clearly doesn’t have it tonight.
Just to add to the irony, that David Wright play of the Johan kicked ball was incredible… Almost as great as that Daniel Murphy behind the back play.
And then Frankie gives it up….
I just hope prince Albert doesn’t rock one yard///
This is just….just awesome.
Frankie could be credited w/ a complete game, he’s thrown so many pitches.