Rookies are Rosey

I'm feeling rather chipper, excuse my pun, about the state of the Mets right now. Specifically about Mike Pelfrey, and Daniel Murphy. It's still too early to know anything about Murphy, but so far he's looked spectacular. He may not be the greatest outfielder, but he's not an outfielder. He's shown the willingness and ability to play anywhere however, and if the Mets decided the best way to fill left field, for now and the future, is to keep going with the conversion process for Murphy, I'm sure he'd turn out to be more than serviceable out there.

Pelfrey has got enough major league innings under his belt now to say that he's not a flash in the pan. Pelfrey is looking more and more like the real thing the more he pitches. The Mets organization, even without uber-conservative Peterson, wants to try to keep an eye on Pelfrey's inning count as the latest viewpoint is that it's important to keep the young pitchers from throwing too many innings too fast. Pelfrey is pitching too well for that. Manuel was probably thinking that he'd let Pelfrey pitch a solid six or so innings, and go to the bullpen. Pelfrey was too economical and too dominant to make a decision like that anything but stupid. With less than 100 pitches, Letting Pelfrey finish out the game for his first complete game was good for the bullpen's stamina, Pelfrey's confidence, the fans entertainment, and most importantly, It was good for the Mets.

Church looks like he could return soon, and where a month ago the Mets were desperate for a _second_ outfielder, now they're trying to figure out how to have playing time for five of them...not to mention Endy, who really has been a big help, despite the horrible start he got off to. Assuming Church comes back soon, there should be enough playing time for Church, Evans, Murphy, and Tatis among the two corner outfield positions, including the possibility that some of them could give Delgado a day off. Hopefully Endy can find some playing time also, to stay sharp, and maybe Beltran can get a day off here and there, depending on the playoff race.

Everything's coming up roses for the Mets lately.

E. T. Phone Home

Tonight reminded me of the movie E.T., when E.T. and Elliot are both in the hospital and seem to be linked. The link is broken and Elliot begins to recover, but E.T. doesn't, being out of his element. So went tonight.

After eight innings of baseball, the Mets were deflated by Billy Wagner giving up the game tying home run, and Chase Utley drives in the tying run in the top of the 9^thin Florida for the Phillies. Things seem as bad as they could be, but then that link is broken and the Phillies to whom first place is as alien as Earth was to E.T., will soon be back where they belong.

The Marlins storm right back and set the Phillies down with a walk off grand slam. The link has been broken and it takes a little time before the Mets recover, in the bottom of the 13^th, with Beltran's sixth walk off home run of his career. Beltran's last walk off two run home run was against those very same Phillies back on May 23^rd of 2006. This was a long time ago, back when players like Steve Trachsel were still on this team,but we've been looking for turning points all season and maybe all the symmetry associated with this win is what they truly needed.

There was energy, determination, fight, and all sorts of good qualities during this game. Don't forget that Castillo was on base and Beltran at the plate because of a fielding error at third base, so the Mets were capitalizing on errors too. Beltran also had a key two-run single, on a clean line drive to center, earlier in this game to start the scoring. This hit also came after an error charged to Brandon Webb allowed Castillo to reach base after Reyes got the call from the ump on a close play at first. You take what breaks you can get and do the most with them.

Team chemistry? It's something that's not easy to tell from the outside, but teams that don't like each other don't pass out papers with formulas to make the playoffs. Do you think fans could stop getting on Carlos Beltran? The guy is great, I don't know where we'd be without him. He had a little power outage, and he had a little bit of a struggle getting runners in from scoring position lately, but so did everyone. Beltran is as vitally important to this team right now as Wright and Reyes.

Wagner's blown save may have been a punch to the stomach as Gary Cohen said, but Carlos Beltran coughed up the disappointing start to the season and booted it out of the ballpark in the 13^th.

Is the Magic Back?

Have the Mets finally reached the point where we can stop worrying about them after every single loss? Maybe not. Maybe we need a win Sunday night to complete a 5-2 home stand and two series wins. Luckily Santana is on the mound going for his 100^th win, a number I'd sure love to see the Mets reach for this season. They don't even have to get there, I just want it to be a possibility on September first.

This last stretch of games has been different, the Mets have looked good, hungry, and like they're ready to have some fun. They struggled with runners in scoring position on Friday, but they won't get them all in every time. Sometimes the hits just don't happen, and when it's sandwiched with wins, it's easier to take. Even still, the game was theirs until they brought Heilman in, who apparently is trying to lend Willie and Omar a hand. Since Pelfrey and Vargas have both made cases for staying with the team, Heilman is ever so kindly offering himself up for demotion. He no longer should be allowed to pitch with runners on base, and it's getting to the point where he shouldn't be allowed to pitch at all. I don't care that the balls weren't really hit that hard, and that they just happened to find holes. He can't afford bad luck right now.

Sitting in the stands for my usual Saturday game, I was starting to feel a little sick with the Mets performance through seven innings. Not as sick as a girl a little bit to my left, who was physically sick at the sight of the Mets failing to score. More likely it was the ice cream, or something else entirely, but her actions mimicked how many of us were feeling. She stepped outside, and presumably started feeling better; probably right around the time Beltran's blast was clearing the fence. That's when something snapped. I realized the game wasn't as vomit-inducing as the usual Shea fare of food in the stands. (An aside, as much as I like the idea of restaurants displaying the calorie counts, I didn't need to know that a bag of peanuts has 960 calories or my footlong hot dog had 560, roughly one cent per calorie) Reyes made an error in the first, but Pelfrey did manage to get out of it after that, with help from a solid play at the plate. Reyes later made a terrific double-play in the game to help him out. Pelfrey buckled down and got seven strong innings, and Wagner is freaking scary good. Billingsly was apparently just pitching really well, because as soon as he left, the Mets released all their pent up aggression in the form of a go-ahead 3-run inning. The biggest deal was seeing Luis Castillo come up to pinch hit. Up until that point we all thought he was going to have to be placed on the disabled list, and we were all cringing at the idea of Easley playing any extended time there. However, it looks like Castillo is not that bad. He could pinch hit and while he didn't exactly fly, he got down the line fairly fast and didn't limp or cringe doing it. Church should be back shortly, and even Pedro will be back on Tuesday.

Speaking of Pedro, Matt Kemp was at the plate, and fouled off a pitched that bounced hard into the corner of the Mets dugout. Pedro started wagging his finger at him, gesturing that he's supposed to try to hit it between the lines. Assuming it's not just old age catching up with him, Pedro should be nice and recovered from his only leg injury ever and ready to contribute to this team again.

Do you feel that? That's the magic coming back.

Also, I don't care what anyone says, especially Joe and Evan on WFAN, who are so worried about being pro-Mets, that they overrate them at every turn, the Phillies suck. They're an 85-90 win team, just like last year, and that's just not good enough.

Ups and Downs

As harrowing as Tuesday's game was, last night's game was pleasant. It was basically against a minor league team, but it still counts. Oliver Perez still pitched well, and the offense still swung the bats well.

One thing it was good to see was runs in the top of the 9^th to make it 13 to 0. There was no mailing it in, or signs that anyone thought 'Hey, maybe we got enough tonight.' Excepting Casanova, the rest of the bench and bullpen got their first appearances out of the way. Billy Wagner managed to come into a non-save situation and not pitch like me.

The news about Pedro is not good. Four to six weeks plus rehabilitation. The biggest impact this has is on Mike Pelfrey. If Pelfrey can figure out how to be consistent and pitch like he seems to be capable of, Pedro will barely be missed. We'll see how that goes, against Glavine of all people, on Saturday. Maybe Pelfrey will make his case that it's him that will replace Glavine's innings from last year, and that Santana's are just icing on the cake.

The baseball season is here, and it's even been christened with it's first wrinkle. You didn't really think the entire season was going to be as easy as Monday did you?

Angel in the Outfield

Everyone else is doing it, so why not me?

I'm actually surprised that Angel Pagan, Joe Smith, and Mike Pelfrey made the team over the veterans that have a combined age approaching infinity. I hope it they made it for themselves, and not because of injuries or failures on the part of the older options. At least now we have an Angel in the outfield as well as a Church. (And as I've mentioned earlier, how many variations of those headlines do you think the papers are going to use?)

I liked Gotay, but truthfully he didn't have a lot of places to play on this team. You can argue about sign Castillo, but they did so Gotay really was only going to be a pinch hitter and he didn't do amazingly in that role last year. However I wish they could've traded him for something rather than gifting him to the Braves. I wonder what it says about the Braves confidence in their guys that they felt the need to pick up Gotay though?

I think Pelfrey will turn it around, maybe Perez can give him some head-case advice.

Only about 24 hours until this is all secondary stuff to the actual baseball anyway, and I can't wait. I'm planning to attend the Metsblog.com happy hour in the city to watch the game, even though I expect it to be a zoo. If you come, look for me. I'll be the one in the Santana shirt. Can't miss me.

Look for my 5^th “Letters to the NL East” letter late tonight or early tomorrow, which will basically be a rallying cry for the Mets.

Oh, and if you know anyone that is looking for a single ticket to all 13 home Saturday games..send them my way, I probably don't need to spend $300 to have a seat to put my bag on.

Those 13 wins

I think Johan Santana can cover those 13 wins from Glavine, don't you?

And we didn't have to give up Pelfrey, or F-Mart. It seems to good to be true. Let's get this contract done and hurry up and get to Spring Training.

This season is going to be sweet..

Over/Under on how long it takes someone with the Phillies to complain about the Mets having the money and advantage, salary cap, buying championships..etc?



It's a good day to be a bartender in Philadelphia.

I Trust Omar Minaya

“To me, it’s about quality. It’s not so much getting a guy. We will not be afraid to give our young kids a chance to pitch instead of going out there and paying a lot of money for a guy who gives a lot of innings - but they’re not quality innings. There’s a lot of demand for those guys. I’ve gotten a lot of hits on our young guys.”

This quote from Omar Minaya means a lot to me. Despite some issues I've had with him and some of his decisions, I'm actually pretty comfortable with him as a GM. I'm not afraid of starting the season the way the Mets are now. Pedro, El Duque, Maine, Perez, Pelfrey is fine to me. I think Pelfrey continued to grow last season, and his September was good. I think he's a good player with confidence being one of his bigger issues last year. Maine, in my opinion, is excellent, and I'd actually lean towards him as being the 2nd starter, as little as those designations really mean anything. It's not even so much talent, as it is that El Duque's not going to pitch 33 starts next year, he never does. Maine could, so it makes sense to designate more starts to him before the season, as he's more likely to meet the expectations.

Billy Wagner, among others, questions the replacement of Tom "I wouldn't call it devasting" Glavine's win total from last year. Number one, I don't think Glavine is the one that's going to match that total anyway, and number two, I think Pedro is capable of that. Even being babied, he showed me a lot last year near the end of the season, and I really feel he has a lot left. If I could put money on Pedro having a better season than Glavine, I would.

So do we need that Livan Hernandez type guy, who would be able to pitch a good amount of innings to relieve our bullpen? I still think so, but I'm not sold on overpaying these guys either. I think it can be done with what we have.

On another note of confidence in Omar Minaya, has anyone noticed how many second-hand pitchers he's signed? He's gotten a bunch of guys who have fallen out of favor, for almost nothing. Maybe we find that diamond in the rough with one of them, or maybe one of them really gels with how Peterson teaches. If not, it's so easy to cut them loose, you may not even remember they were Mets.

Still over two months until spring training...

P.S. Would it kill the Mets to actually market and make John Maine and Oliver Perez Jersey's? I want a Maine Jersey, but it requires actually getting a custom one made with 33 and Maine on the back, unless someone has seen one somewhere? I certainly haven't.

Brooms a Flying

Brooms Flying

I said the Mets would sweep the Braves, and now they have. Anyone that doubts that the Philly series was the exception rather than the rule needs to look again. The Mets are again four games up, on the way to being five up as I write this. Assuming the bullpen hangs on, the Mets will again be going for five wins in a row.

Another thing that we need to stop talking about is the Atlanta ‘jinx’. There is no such thing, and if there ever was, it’s over. The Braves have no more magic, no more sway over the Mets. Chipper Jones may still have the Mets number, but it’s a lost cause. The Mets are very clearly better than the Braves, are the defending champions, and hold a commanding leader over those Braves again this season. So what if the season series is seven wins to eight losses against Atlanta? They were held down and pummeled when it counted the most. This weekend was pretty much must-win for the Braves for any illusions about the division, and maybe even the playoffs.

Now everything probably won’t go as well as it has these last four days, but I think this is closer to the Mets than the Philly series was. Delgado seems to have some power back, and if he can hold on to some of that and Alou can stay healthy the Mets have something that they actually lacked for much of the season, power. Beltran was slumping a bit, and Wright’s not a pure power guy, so the Mets were often resorting to small ball and stringing together hits. There are only so many hits you can string together sometimes. Many of those games in the middle of the summer that the Mets lost would’ve been wins if the RBI singles had become three run home runs.

Pelfrey and Pedro looked good, David Wright’s making his case for 30-30, as well as MVP, Wagner finally earned a save again, and the bullpen has settled down a little.

The magic number is at 23, soon to be 21, and before you know it we’ll be pricing playoff tickets on Stubhub and hoping the Mets clinch at home on the 24^th so that we can be in attendance.

Smith, Delgado, Pelfrey and the trading deadline

At first I was a little upset that Joe Smith got sent down. I know he's been struggling as of late, but I still think he's a good pitcher. I've gotten over it though, and I hope he can work on some adjustments down in AAA that will aid the Mets down the stretch. I feel the Mets need a reliever and contract situations make that tough, so if Joe Smith could be a solid playoff contributor, it would go a long way.

The trading deadline is approaching, and while I feel like we need a move, I'm not quite sure exactly what it should be. There are a lot of underachieving parts on this team, and it's a tough spot to figure out which parts are going to come around, and which could use a backup or replacement. Should we get a decent reserve infielder that can spot Delgado at times? Do we need another decent outfield bat? Another reliever? I don't relish Omar Minaya's job this year, he's got a lot of tough choices. I have faith in him though, based on what he's done so far.

Mike Pelfrey is getting the start tonight, a game in which I'll be in attendance. I have a strange feeling he'll be good. He managed to pitch himself onto this team in the spring against expectation, and he is in that situation again tonight. With Sosa no longer exceeding expectation, I feel like Pelfrey could steal his spot with a gem tonight. Hopefully he'll only be keeping it warm for Pedro, but until Pedro's throw a game or two, It's hard to talk about him.

Carlos Delgado is hitting .333 this July. He's got a .394 OBP this month. Hopefully this is a turning point for him. Whatever the struggles were early, he's looking like he might start turning it around for real. If he plays well the rest of the way, I don't care what happened early this year. Maybe he just struggled to get into his groove, but we're in first place, and if he keeps playing well, it'll stay that way.

This team isn't playing great, but that doesn't mean they can't. Almost everybody is having a poor season, and that just means that they all are capable of playing better. Better than four games up in the division is a good thing, and I expect that at least some of the underachievers will step it up down the stretch and in the playoffs. It's going to be a successful year, I can feel it.

Continuing to Roll

I strongly feel that John Maine got snubbed, but I'm not surprised. He suffered because Billy Wagner deserves to be there too, is a bigger name, and was the 4^th Met selected. I feel bad for Kevin Youkilis too, who certainly deserved to be there. I really feel baseball should attempt to honor guys like this, who would go to the game excited, and not guys like Manny Ramirez, who will go reluctantly, if at all. To make the All-Star game more meaningful, fill it with players that want to be there. We don't necessarily need guys playing all out, colliding with catchers and getting into fights, but these young guys that want to be there will play hard, and enjoy playing. That's what would make it watchable.

The Mets dropped the finale, missing out on sweeping the Phillies. It doesn't matter, they had a bit of a sloppy day and left the Phillies with a little bit of hope. It's misguided hope, as the Mets now have won eight of their last 10, and now hold a five game, six losses, lead over the Phillies. The Braves are four games back and five losses. I'd be happy with picking up one more game on each before the All-Star break. Colorado has been playing badly since sweeping the Yankees, and while they're due to start winning some, the Mets can take two out of three easily, even with Vargas pitching one of the games.

Mike Pelfrey looked good, I've thought he looked good all year long, just not quite ready. He looked more ready this time, if not quite there. I feel like one of these days he's suddenly going to develop some confidence, make a small adjustment with his pitching, and suddenly will start winning. I'd like him to start throwing more innings, but even three runs in five innings at a ballpark like that keeps the team in the game. Maybe if he keeps pitching like that, the offense will feel last pressured to score nine runs to win for him, relax a bit and just start hitting, and making plays behind him defensively.

I don't know what's up with Oliver Perez. We all know he's pretty much a head case, and when he's made such good progress this year I'm not sure I want him pitching injured either. We've in a good situation right now, with a good lead. If he's really hurting, we could DL him retroactively, he'd be eligible to come off by the games after the break, and we could get some help up here in the meantime.

Carlos Gomez has picked up a bit of a reputation as a hot dog, which is why Joe Smith asked Carlos Beltran how to say “hot dog” in Spanish. “Perro caliente,” Beltran replied. Gomez seemed to like the new nickname. I like it too.

Speaking of the All-Star break, I hope Ricky Ledee doesn't see the other side of it. Lastings Milledge has starting playing rehab games, and I see no reason why he shouldn't be with the team by then. Whether to try to contribute, or to showcase to be traded. Willie seems to be alternating Ledee and Gomez anyway, and I don't know anyone that looks forward to seeing Ledee's mangled picture up on the scoreboard.

Oakland Athletics Arrive

This weekend Oakland is back at Shea Stadium for the first time since August 20th of 1975. The Yankees won that game 3-2, the difference being an 8th inning Bobby Bonds home run. On an interesting coincidence, the Yankees this weekend are in San Francisco playing against Barry Bonds, who homered last night for the loss.

Oakland lost again last night, as the Mets again showed signs of breaking out of their month-long slump. Obviously one game isn't enough to proclaim it over, but it looked good. The Mets got hits with runners in scoring position, they tacked on runs throughout the game, Shawn Green hit a home run. Reyes made a great defensive double play and Glavine pitched into the 9th.

Starters going long is going to be important, as the Mets play a long stretch now without a day off, and have two games on Friday, both of which I'll be at in Philadelphia. Keeping the bullpen from burning out is important, and it looks like we'll get another shot at seeing Pelfrey on Friday. Probably for only one start, unless Sosa has actually run out of magic powder.

I don't want to wait until Sunday for this series to be over, and for what it's worth, the Mets are 5-7 in rubber games. The Mets need to go out tonight, while I'm in attendance, and slaughter the A's again. The Mets have 10 games left until the halfway mark, and I'd like to see them win at least seven of them, which would put their record at 46 and 35. That's back to a tolerable 11 games over .500 and on pace for 92 wins. I do think they'll win a handful more of that, but for now, lets start stringing some wins together. El Duque is due for a good start again. I'm predicting David Wright and Carlos Delgado back to back home runs tonight, be watching!

The First Stumble

Apr 12, 2007 05:03 PM

The Mets are now 5-3, two games out of first and one day removed from Oliver Perez's Walk-a-thon. The pessimists are all pointing and saying “See? How are we going to compete with starts like this?”, but I'm not panicking. Perez pitched well in game 7 under pressure, he pitched well in the spring and in his first outing this year. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and blame this on the cold. Maine's situation was similar, he struggled with his control, but he kept it manageable. This was a lot like how he pitched last year; struggling and then getting out of it. I have confidence that they'll both improve over the course of the season. It will be interesting to see how Pelfrey does on Friday, but I think he's ready to make an impact. The Mets bats started out well, but now they seem to have lost that groove, but only fools think that they're suddenly not going to be able to hit. Atlanta won't stay this hot, and the Mets are not going to struggle like this for long. If anything can get the Mets hitting going strong, it's the upcoming series against Washington Nationals pitching.