Ted Robinson Credits Art Howe
Over on MSG’s website Mets announcer Ted Robinson has posted a little article called “Credit Howe for recent resurgence“. This is a subject that I have wanted to write about for a little while but have not been able to gather up enough evidence to support the point. Robinson goes out on a limb here with no real evidence to support it. It’s not a great article or a particularly enlightening one. It’s just nice to see Ted go against the grain and give us something to think about.
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Seo Good (or Getting Wiggy With It!)
A couple of bullet points on last night’s 4-1 win over the Marlins and a service note:
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Marlins Come To Town
Jae Seo (2-4, 4.97 ERA) takes the mound against A.J. Burnett. This will be Burnett’s first start since April 25, 2003. Burnett underwent Tommy John surgery on April 29, 2003.
Though winless in his last 2 starts, Seo has gone 2-1 with a 1.52 ERA in four outings against Florida. He pitched alright against the Marlins last Saturday allowing five hits and two runs over six innings en route to a no decision. The part of his line that troubled me about that starts is that he walked five batter while striking out two. Something about that strikeout to walk ratio doesn’t sit well with me.
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Sunset At Dawn?
Today’s New York Post included the following ‘gem’ in it’s recap of last night’s Todd Zeile heroics:
“If he keeps going like this, he’s going to have a hard time convincing me he’s walking into the sunset,” Art Howe said after Zeile’s incredible night delivered the Mets a dramatic 5-3, 10-inning win over the Phillies. “Because I’m going to be right there at dawn waiting for him.”
I have some bad news for you, Art. If Zeile leaves at sunset and you’re first going to come out at dawn you’re going to miss him by several hours.
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Zeile Does It Again!
Todd Zeile saved the day again hitting a homer in the 8th inning to tie the game and another one in the 10th to win it 5-3 and complete the sweep against the Phillies. Tom Glavine pitched well but didn’t figure into the decision. More comments later.
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Glasses For Matsui?
I didn’t pay much attention to Peter Gammons the other day when he wrote the following in his ESPN.com column:
Don’t be surprised if the Mets ask Kaz Matsui to switch places with Jose Reyes next year. But first they think they can address Matsui’s vision problems; part of his problem defensively is that he hasn’t been able to pick up the catchers’ signs and set himself.
It sounded a bit odd to me that an issue like not being able to see the signs would go so long without being resolved. But when I saw an article in the New York Post discussing the same issue in a little more detail it finally caught my attention. It turns out this is yet another Mets issue that is taking far too long to resolve.
I have only one question. How much longer will management take to resolve this issue? Kaz is already leading all MLB shortstops in errors. Even if the vision issue is not a complete solution it still needs to be resolved quickly. Only then will we know how much it was affecting him and what his true value is. If the vision issue is putting him out of position then we can throw away all we know about him. All of our opinions could be proven wrong. Maybe he really is a Major League shortstop. But we’ll never know for sure until this issue is resolved.
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Zeile Makes Like Hernandez
On the surface it would look like another frustrating start for a Mets pitcher. The starter only went 5 innings. But in this case it was alright since it was Al Leiter‘s first start since coming off the DL. The Senator allowed only 3 hits but walked 4. Overall Leiter looked good. The bullpen held it together too, allowing 6 hits, 1 run and 1 walk over the next 6 innings en route to a 4-1, 10-inning victory over the Phillies.
But the hero of the night was Todd Zeile. Zeile hit a home run in the eighth inning to tie the game and then won it in the tenth with a double. The thing that impressed me was what Zeille did before he hit the double. With Kaz Matsui on first base Art Howe called for a hit-and-run play. The Phillies anticipated Matsui running and called for a pitchout. Zeile, realizing that as the batter in a hit-and-run play it was his responsibility to protect the runner, threw his bat at the ball. The move caused just enough of a disruption to allow Matsui to slide safely into second base. I remember seeing Keith Hernandez do the same thing in the late ’80’s. This allowed Matsui to score the game winning run easily on Zeile’s double.
Vance Wilson added a 2 run homer to ice the game.
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Another Minor Adjustment
An addendum to my previous post. I changed the background color and the text color that goes on that background. I was getting sick of the bright orange so I figured I’d try to mimic the black uniforms. Let me know what you think using the methods of contact listed in the previous post.
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Minor Adjustments To The Blog
If you haven’t noticed I’ve made a few minor changes to the blog. I got rid of the calendar (bloglendar) on the left sidebar. It seemed redundant to have that now that Blogger supports a recent post list which I’ve been using. If you want to look up a posting from further back you can always use the archive links which are still in the left sidebar. I also set the limit of posts on the main page to the last 5 days instead of the last month so the page should load quicker now. Also, the list of blogs has two new additions to the bottom of the list.
Use the comments link at the bottom of this post or the email link in the contact box in the right sidebar to let me know if you like these changes or if you have any questions, comments or suggestions for this blog. You can also contact me via IM using the screen names listed in the contact box in the right sidebar.
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Fielding Problems
The Mets have the second most errors in the game with 44 through yesterday’s action. Only the Detroit Tigers have more errors (48). Kaz Matsui leads all shortstops with 11. They also have the second worst fielding percentage in the league (just a shade above the Tigers again). So much for putting together a good defensive team (as management said they would do).
Thank you, Mr. Wilpon.
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