Pitching and/or Defense?
Click here for a recap of Friday night’s game.
Click here for a recap of Saturday’s game.
Click here for a recap of yesterday’s game.
Over the weekend the Mets proved the age old adage of baseball that pitching and defense wins games. Unfortunately they proved it by losing 2 out of 3 to the Yankees. In the two games they lost they made 5 errors and squandered a very good start by Pedro Martinez yesterday. Yesterday’s loss in particular showed that you not only need pitching and defense but you need them both in the same game and throughout the whole game. If this team is going to take the next step then perhaps some drills on fundamentals may be in order.
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10,000+ Hits
Today the Mostly Mets blog fnally passed the 10,000 hit mark. I want to thank all those that have contributed to this milestone. It may not be much compared to other blogs but I still appreciate your visits.
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Saddam In His Underwear
The world is up in arms about published pictures of Saddam Hussein in his underwear. His lawyers said “In our opinion this is a violation of all international agreements and human dignity”. People are upset because the pictures could have broken the Geneva Convention. While I agree that publishing these pictures is not right, I have to wonder where all these people who are springing to Hussein’s defense were when he was violating other people’s rights. I’m generally a believer in treating people the way you would want them to treat you. This means that no matter how bad a person is you still extend them common courtesy and treat them humanely. But if someone is as bad a person as Saddam Hussein then what’s the big deal? He’s dehumanized so many so why can’t he be knocked down a peg or two publicly? It’s still not right to publish the pictures but it’s not really that big a deal.
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Subway Series Stinks
The big Subway Series starts tonight as the Mets take on the Yankees for a three game weekend series that’s sure to be exciting for players and fans alike. Or so the MLB hype department and media would have you think. The bottom line is that the subway series stinks. Why?
For one thing it doesn’t count in the standings any more or less than any other regular season games do. A win or loss in any game of this series doesn’t count for any more than half a game within the divisional standings. I’m not suggesting that it should count for any more than any other game. I’m just trying to keep things in perspective.
The subway series also represents everything that is wrong with interleague play. Sure it’s fun to see the Mets and Yankees duke it out 6 games a year. But while the Mets draw the Yankees, the Marlins draw the Devil Rays. This wouldn’t be a problem if the Mets got their chance with the D-Rays and the Marlins would get a shot at the Yankees. But they don’t.
To me this situation illustrates what is wrong with interleague play and scheduling in general. I’m a strong supporter of a balanced schedule in which all the teams in each division play the same opponents across the 162 game season. I long for the days of my youth where every team played 18 games (9 home, 9 away) against teams in their division and 12 games (6 home, 6 away) against every team in the rest of their league. It was a fair and balanced way to see how good a team was in relation to the other teams in their division.
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Star Wars Bound
Sorry for no real post today. I had a late morning and am going to Star Wars this afternoon. Aint’ life grand?
In the meantime talk amongst yourselves. I’ll give you some topics. Aaron Heilman in the bullpen. VÃctor Zambrano starting against the Yankees. Pedro Martinez got a cortisone shot. Discuss.
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Koo, Koo, Ka-choo
Click here for a recap of last night’s game.
I haven’t had a chance to read very much today but I’m sure that many people are questioning Willie Randolph’s call to have Dae-Sung Koo come in to pitch the 9th inning instead of Braden Looper. I actually have no problem with this call outside of having to listen to Fran Healy say “Mr. Koo” a couple of hundred times. (If I hear him say it one more time I can’t be held responsible for my actions.)
Randolph is almost in a spring training like mode when it comes to his pitching staff since he’s got a surplus of arms and must decide very soon how he’d like to deploy them. So naturally Randolph would want to see the arms in question as much as possible before having to decide what to do. Given that Koo is on the bubble and there were 3 left handed batters up Randolph chose to pitch Koo. Yes, the game was on the line but what better situation could you find to see if Koo has the stuff you need? I’m thinking that Koo will probably stick despite his performance last night simply because he’s the only lefty in the pen. If that’s the case then the lesson learned from last night is that the team desperately needs another lefty reliever.
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Cameron in Center?
According to Lee Jenkins in this morning’s New York Times former Mets center fielder and current Mets right fielder Mike Cameron offered his center field services to Willie Randolph should Randlph choose to give current center fielder Carlos Beltran a day off. Randolph commented about this by saying “What Mike did says a lot about him as a team player”.
No it doesn’t but Randolph said the right thing. I’m not doubting Cameron’s team spirit but what it really means is that Cameron really misses center field and covets a return to his favorite position. He understands that center is Beltran’s spot and not his so he offered his services there on the off chance that Randolph would take him up on it. He’s figuring even a little center is better than no center at all.
If I’m Randolph I’d only put him in center if he’s being showcased for a trade. Why? It’s not easy for players to change positions especially at the major league level. When a player makes a change like that you don’t want them going back to their old positions while they’re still adjusting to the new one. It could impede their progress at learning their new position and hurt them mentally when they go back to the new position. I’m not saying that this would happen with Cameron but why take the chance?
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Dontrelle Willis
In his latest insider column on espn.com Jerry Crasnick has a great profile on the dominant force that is Dontrelle Willis.
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Decisions, Decisions
It’s going to be an interesting next week or so for the Mets brass as they have alot of decisions to make. A couple of roster moves were made yesterday but they cloud the picture more than they clear it up. Kazuhisa Ishii was activated off of the 15-day disabled list to start tonight’s game against the Reds. Ishii will start in VÃctor Zambrano‘s slot in the rotation. Zambrano will be available for relief work in case Ishii falters and will start either Saturday or Sunday against the Yankees depending on if he gets into tonight’s game.
Also yesterday, Scott Strickland agreed to extend his roster deadline by one week. Strickland’s contract states that he could opt for free agency if he wasn’t on the major league roster by May 15. By agreeing to extend that deadline he throws another ingredient into the mix of options the team must consider.
Willie Randolph has said he will not go with a 6 man rotation (a move I support) so the team will be forced to make a decision on the starting rotation by early next week. Here’s a list of some of the possibilities:
- Aaron Heilman, currently one of the 6 starters, or Zambrano could go to the bullpen.
- Strickland could be added to the major league roster with either Manny Aybar, Heath Bell or Dae-Sung Koo being sent to Norfolk. Koo is the longshot here because he’s the only lefty in the pen.
- Strickland could be added to the major league roster with either Heilman or Zambrano being sent to Norfolk.
There are more variations here that include the possibility of a trade going down between now and Monday but those are far more speculative so I won’t get into them now.
It should also be noted that Strickland does not automatically become a free agent if he’s not promoted. He merely has that option. He could, for reasons I can’t think of, decide to stick it out at Norfolk in the hopes getting a call up later. If I were him I’d go the free agent route. I think he’s proven that he is fully recovered and could contribute to any teams major league bullpen.
To make room for Ishii on the roster the Mets optioned VÃctor DÃaz to Norfolk. DÃaz had a good run filling in for Mike Cameron in right field when Cameron was on the DL. Since Cameron has returned Randolph has struggled to find the young outfielder playing time.
The Mets also placed Ramon Castro on the DL yesterday and purchased the contract of Mike DiFelice from Norfolk.
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Benson Shuts Down Reds
Click here for a recap of last night’s game.
Alot of people in the media and the blogs are refering to last night’s Mets victory over Cincinnati at Shea as revenge for the Reds season opening sweep of the Amazins’. Forget revenge. These guys are professionals who try to win every time they go out on the field.
Anyway, highlights from last night’s game included:
- Kris Benson (7.2 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 8 SO) showed the stuff he was acquired for.
- Mike Piazza broke out of a slump to provide 2 hits.
- Cliff Floyd hit a home run.
- Jose Reyes hit his first triple of the year to lead off for the Mets in the first inning.
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