Congratulations, Mookie
Congratulations to Mookie Wilson on being named the manager of the Brooklyn Cyclones for the 2005 season.
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Cameron Out
OK. It’s been a long time since I blogged on the Mets and I’m feeling ready to get back into the fray. I’ve missed some important stories such as Al Leiter‘s departure and last week’s signing of Pedro Martinez (which I find to be risky but at least the Mets are being active and actually trying). But today’s news on Mike Cameron woke me up.
I have a pet peeve about people who suffer injuries and then wait until late in the off season to discover they need surgery. Let me backtrack this story a little bit so we can get the full flavor of what happened here with Cameron.
Cameron sat out the last 2 games of the 2004 campaign with a wrist injury which was suffered in the third to last game of the season while batting against Montreal. The, during workouts last week, he felt discomfort in the wrist (the left one). It turns out he had cartilage damage and had to have arthroscopic surgery to repair it yesterday. My question is why wasn’t the wrist examined more thoroughly immediately after the season ended? This could have been discovered and remedied much earlier in the off season instead of causing Cameron to miss the first month of the season (he will not be ready to play until May).
To his credit Cameron had surgery on his right wrist earlier in the off season. But when a guy is quoted as saying “My hands bothered me most of last year and I don’t want to go through that experience again” you have to wonder why a more detailed examination wasn’t done earlier.
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Still Looking for New Web Host
I’m still looking for a new web host for my website so I can get this blog off of blogspot again as well as do some other things with my website. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
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The Wright Stuff?
David Wright‘s first day in a Mets uniform was not bad despite going 0 for 4. In the interviews that I’ve seen and the quotes that I’ve read he’s certainly talking the right talk. On the field he made a couple of nice defensive plays.
Relief pitcher Dan Wheeler turned out to be the odd man out as he was sent to the minors to make room for Wright. Catcher Tom Wilson was designated for assignment.
Another note to fans: don’t be too hard on Wright. We don’t want another Alex Ochoa on our hands.
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The Wright Move?
David Wright will make his Major League debut tonight for the Mets against the Expos. This comes in the wake of Mike Piazza‘s wrist injury but I hope that wasn’t the reason for the call up. I’d like to think that this was a planned date based on the schedule and level of competition and how Wright was progressing at AAA. I mean, it can’t be a coincidence that they’re bringing him in between Florida and Atlanta for a series against the Expos. The idea being to bring him in against lower level competition at home to break him in easy.
Ty Wigginton will be moved to first base until Piazza is ready to return and then he’ll be relegated to the bench or traded. He’d probably go straight to the bench in favor of Todd Zeile at first base were it not for the fact that they’ve been trying to trade him.
Anyway, the move brings up a big question. How exactly will the roster be managed in the meantime? I mean if Piazza is not put on the DL (which is what it looks like right now) then someone will need to be sent down or designated for assignment. With Karim Garcia already having been traded Wright cannot take his roster spot (it’s already been taken by Mike DeJean). How about Jason Phillips? Considering how he’s been hitting this year he would be a logical choice but then you could get caught short at catcher if something should happen to Vance Wilson while Piazza is hurt. So who goes? I don’t know. It’ll be interesting to see what Duquette and company decide to do.
Regardless of how the roster shuffling end up the reality is that Wright is finally here so I’ll end this post with a word of caution. David Wright is here to learn how to play at the Major League level. Although he has done very well at all levels of professional baseball before today you can’t put too much pressure on him. Don’t over analyze every move. Don’t second guess every mistake. Don’t put him under too strong a microscope. Otherwise we could end up with another Gregg jeffries on our hands.
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Erickson Is Coming
Has it really been 15 days since my last post? Wow. A lot of things are going in my life right now (mostly good things) and I’ve been busy with them. I’m going to try to post as often as possible through this.
Scott Erickson is scheduled to start on Sunday. I haven’t read much commentary about this story but I figure most fans are not going to be happy about it. That’s ok but I choose to think of it this way. Decent pitching (even for the back end of the rotation) is in very short supply right now. The laws of supply and demand being what they are makes the price for these few pitchers that much higher. Obviously you have to try to work out a deal but you don’t want to overpay. In the meantime, while you try to cut a deal for whatever is out there, you need to make the best of what you have. Erickson hasn’t exactly been sharp in the minors but he is what the Mets have right now.
Erickson will be taking Matt Ginter‘s spot in the rotation. Ginter had some good starts but was losing his stuff with every start. With Erickson’s less than stellar minor league record this year it looks like this could just be a lateral move but you have to try something and he’s what’s there.
Besides, the worst thing that could happen is we get to see Lisa Guerrero (aka Mrs. Erickson) at Shea a couple of times. It could be much worse.
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To Glavine or Not Glavine Against the Yankees
I’ve been a little preoccupied with real life the last several days so I haven’t been able to post. The real job and fatherhood have kept me busy. But since I have a few minutes now I figured why not chime in on some issues. So here we go.
Art Howe has opted to keep Tom Glavine on rotation to pitch against the Reds this week instead of altering the rotation to have Glavine pitch against the Yankees. I’ve spoken with many people who are upset about this. Whenever I ask them why they say something like “how can you not have your best pitcher pitch in such an important series?”. My next question, naturally, is why they think the Yankees series is so important. The answer is generally something lame like “they’re the best team in baseball” or something along the lines of trying to gain bragging rights in the city. These people are idiots.
Although Art Howe has made some questionable moves that has had fans calling for his head, this move is not one of them. Games against the Yankees (and, to a lesser extent, other non-division opponents) are just not as important as division games.
Think of it this way. With the Phillies playing Baltimore and the Marlins playing Tampa Bay this weekend it’s possible that the Mets could sweep a series and not move up at all in the standing. But a win against the Phillies on Monday would gain a full game in the standings against the division opponent. In the meantime, a loss to the Phillies would drop them another full game back. Clearly the Phillies games have a greater impact. So clearly Glavine should be kept on target to pitch to them.
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Blinded By The Sun
The heartbreaking season of Tom Glavine continues. Glavine pitched into the 7th inning last night allowing 9 hits, 2 earned runs, 0 walks and striking out 5. But with Ken Griffey Jr. up with 1 out and bases loaded a routine fly ball to centerfield would change everything as Mike Cameron lost the ball in the sun and lost the Mets the game.
Will someone please remind me why the Mets acquired this guy? It can’t be for his scintillating offense. I mean, I know he’s been hot lately. In his last 12 games he’s brought his average up 21 points from .193 to a sparkling .214. (Mario Mendoza, eat your heart out.) And in that span he’s only struck out 11 times. That’s not a lot when you consider that during the previous 12 game stretch he struck out 15 times and has struck out 75 times in the 67 games he’s played this season.
No, it wasn’t his offense that brought him to New York. It was his defense. Maybe I’m being a little nitpicky about this but it would seem to me that someone who is as good a fielder as Cameron is supposed to be shouldn’t be losing the ball in the sun. I guess he’s out of practice with playing in the sun after spending the last 4 seasons playing in Seattle. I guess he’s not comfortable playing with sunglasses after spending so much time under Safeco Field’s retractable dome and Seattle’s eternally overcast weather.
Am I being too rough on Cameron? Maybe. But this isn’t the first time I’ve come down on him. Even if Cameron had made that play I’d still be opposed to him being the every day centerfielder. It’s not because I don’t understand the concept of defense in baseball. Quite the contrary. Defense makes the pitching better and helps put you in a position to win games. But it’s my belief that in this day and age you’re not going to win a lot of 2-1 ball games so a guy hitting around .200 doesn’t belong in the starting lineup. Forget all the pomp about not spending all that money on a player for him just to be a late inning defensive replacement. The goal is to win ball games and if benching Cameron helps you score more runs and win more games then so be it. (On the flip side of this, the team has nobody more qualified to play the position right now. That’s the biggest flaw of my argument.)
Anyway, if Cameron needs some help getting used to wearing sunglasses in the field I’m sure Kaz Matsui can give him some pointers. Oops, that’s a whole other rant.
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Roster Moves
As expected the Mets have recalled Tom Wilson from Norfolk. They also activated Orber Moreno from the DL. To make room for the two players Karim Garcia was put on the DL (tendinitis and inflammation in his left wrist) and designated Gerald Williams for assignment.
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Notes
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