Smart At-Bats

I only want to talk about one specific at-bat here.  It happened in the 9th inning, while Ryan Church was at bat.  I was watching the defense and I saw before the final pitch that the second baseman and shortstop had moved in dramatically, to the front edge of the dirt.  I was curious why, but then I realized.  They were setting up Church for a ground ball with the bases load.  Sure enough, ground ball, fielded, throw home for the force.  Couldn't someone in the dugout, or Church himself, seen this and adjusted accordingly?  I'm not a baseball player but that made me see the Mets as overmatched.

On the (W)right Track

Does it get any better than this? The Mets continue to demonstrate that they are the class of the National League East. Braves dominate the Mets? Braves won seven of nine this year? Guess not. Better luck next year Braves.

The Phillies fall another game back, and now face the Dodgers, while the Mets face the Astros. The Dodgers are a better team, but their records aren’t that far apart. Then the two teams meet up for two next week. There are no real goals; just play better than the Phillies do. I’d like them to finish with the Phillies and be further ahead then they are now.

This was one of those games where you almost expect the Mets to drop one. They’ve been hot, they can’t win them all, Pedro can be hit or miss sometimes, and the bullpen hasn’t blown a game in a couple of days. Instead, the Mets pull one out, and now have Santana on the mound tomorrow. It doesn’t matter that it’s against Oswalt.

Now only are Ace’s supposed to stop losing streaks, but they’re supposed to string together winning streaks. All of a sudden the Mets have another winning streak, and Johan has a chance to make it longer. The Mets are on pace for 90 wins for the first time in ages. Johan on the mound, an emotional walk-off win, coupled with the return of Ryan Church, and the Mets will be rolling tomorrow night.

Things have to be looking bad for the Phillies. They lost ground despite playing the Nationals and winning two of three. They’re going into another four game series against the Dodgers, against whom they were swept recently. Could the Phillies fold under the pressure and go away so soon? Only time will tell.

Headliner Ryan Church

Now that the trade of Milledge for Church and Schneider has become a minor deal behind the acquisition of Johan Santana, I think we need to think back and remember how good the deal was for New York headline writers. Lastings Milledge has a unique name, but nothing can parallel the headlines the papers can write with Church.

If Church has a good day at the plate or a key hit, we could be 'blessed' with headlines like,

“Church is in session!”

“The Savior!”

“Hallelujah!”

“Church Crusading for All-Star Team”

If Church is quoted saying something notable, we could get something more like,

“Church Sermon”

“The Sermon on the Mound”

Or if Ryan makes a play at the wall on a fly ball,

“Thou Shall Not Homer”

Maybe whether the Yankees or Mets get more back cover stories is not dependent on the teams at all, but who can think up the most headlines.

Mets make a trade. So Long Milledge

The Mets officially announced that they have acquired OF Ryan Church and C Brian Schneider from the Nationals for OF Lastings Milledge. Originally I was disappointed and thought this was a bad trade. However, it's grown on me and I'm going to present it optimistically.

Obviously we needed pitching, but it seems like Milledge wasn't going to get us that. His value seems to have been down leaguewide, and that includes with the Mets as a right fielder. Maybe he'll turn out well, but with Gomez and Martinez in the minors also projected to be good outfielders, it's not like we're lacking outfield prospects, and it's probably the easiest position to fill.

Brian Schneider, Paul Lo Duca.. They're probably not going to be much different in 2008. Schneider is probably cheaper, and more expendible which gives the Mets more flexibility to make a change later in the year/decade. Church is a decent player, and he'll definitely be serviceable for us. It's likely he'll be better than Milledge, but you never know either way. Between him and Alou, players like Endy Chavez and even Gomez and Martinez may be able to get some playing time.

Another thing is that after the disasterous end to 2007, the Mets desparately needed a new look. With certain obvious exceptions, I wasn't really looking for anyone's head afterwards though, so where would this fresh look come from? This should help with that new look.

And, on a different note, Ryan Church has a cool personal chant. When he got up last year, the Nationals fans chanted "hallelujah" which I thought was cool.