New SNY Ad With Keith Hernandez
Gotta love the new SNY commercial with Keith Hernandez.
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Putz Not Impressive
I’m not very impressed by J.J. Putz. One week ago he blew a tie game in the 8th inning (against the Cardinals). Then yesterday he blew a one run lead in the 8th inning. This is the kind of game he was brought in to hold. Overall he’s 1-2 with a 4.09 ERA in 11 innings. He’s got 4 holds and 1 blown save. Certainly not the stuff of a closer, which is essentially what he is even though he’s the 8th inning specialist on this team.
You can talk from now until doomsday about the odd decision to pinch hit a cold Omir Santos, who had been warming up relievers in the bullpen, for Ramon Castro, who already had 2 hits on the day, with the bases loaded and two outs in the ninth. That was definitely not one of the wisest decisions Jerry Manuel has made. But if Putz hadn’t blown the lead in the 8th it would not have been an issue.
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Weekend Pitching Mathups Vs. Phillies
Friday – Mike Pelfrey (2-0, 6.32) vs. Chan Ho Park (0-0, 7.16), 7:05 p.m., SNY
Saturday – Oliver Perez (1-2, 9.31) vs. Jamie Moyer (3-1, 5.09), 3:40 p.m., SNY
Sunday – John Maine (1-2, 5.40) vs. Joe Blanton (0-2, 8.41), 1:35 p.m., PIX-11
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PIX Choke On This Ad Should Be Banned
Any ad that hearkens back to the collapses of the last two seasons should be banned. We keep hearing that the team has learned from the experience and want to put it behind them. The fans want to put it behind them too. I know it’s being used as a motivational tool here but that’s no excuse.
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Today’s Lineup 4/29/2009 & Notes
The Mets are having Oliver Perez pitch batting practice today. It’s not usual for pitchers to throw live batting practice between starts. I guess pitching coach Dan Warthen is thinking that if other teams take batting practice against Perez then why not the Mets? John Maine will also throw BP today.
Here’s today’s lineup:
| # | Name | Position | ||||
| 7 | Jose Reyes | SS | ||||
| 3 | Alex Cora | 2B | ||||
| 28 | Daniel Murphy | LF | ||||
| 15 | Carlos Beltran | CF | ||||
| 5 | David Wright | 3B | ||||
| 19 | Ryan Church | RF | ||||
| 17 | Fernando Tatis | 1B | ||||
| 11 | Ramon Castro | C | ||||
| 57 | Johan Santana | P | ||||
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Poll: How Does Santos Fit In?
Last week’s poll about what to do with Daniel Murphy saw 67% of respondents wanting Murphy to continue to play left field every day. 17% want him to platoon with Fernando Tatis and/or Gary Sheffield and another 17% want him sent to Buffalo to learn the position in a less pressured environment.
This week’s poll regards what to do with another player. Rookie catcher Omir Santos.
Santos has been turning heads with his play since coming up to replace the injured Brian Schneider on the roster. With hits in each of his 6 starts Santos is batting .281 with 1 home run, 4 RBIs and 5 runs scored. He also has a double and a triple. He has started 5 of the last 6 games and seems to have supplanted Ramon Castro as the primary catcher with Schneider out.
But Schneider will not be on the DL forever and the Mets will be faced with a decision on how Santos fits into the catching picture at the major league level when Schneider’s ready to return. What do you think the Mets should do? Answer the poll below.
[poll id=”3″]
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Tonight’s Lineup 4/28/2009
Carlos Delgado‘s sore hip and Luis Castillo‘s back spasms will keep the regular right side of the infield out of the lineup tonight.
Also out of the lineup is Daniel Murphy. I find this curious. If the team is committed to Murphy in left field then why has he been on the bench for 3 of the last 5 games (tonight will make it 4 out of 6)? My only guess is that Gary Sheffield is still and unknown and they want to play him a bit to see if he’s worth keeping. Sheffield is only hitting .154 so maybe it’s worth it to start him for a few games to see if he gets any better.
In any case here’s the tentative lineup for tonight’s game:
| # | Name | Position | ||||
| 7 | Jose Reyes | SS | ||||
| 3 | Alex Cora | 2B | ||||
| 15 | Carlos Beltran | CF | ||||
| 10 | Gary Sheffield | LF | ||||
| 5 | David Wright | 3B | ||||
| 19 | Ryan Church | RF | ||||
| 17 | Fernando Tatis | 1B | ||||
| 9 | Omir Santos | C | ||||
| 61 | Livan Hernandez | P | ||||
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Freddy We Hardly Knew You
Rumor has it that the Mets have released Freddy Garcia. (I saw this blogged somewhere but don’t have a solid source yet.) After a terrible outing for Buffalo last night Garcia seemed to indicate that he may retire. His agent has denied the retirement rumor but it seems like that may not matter if no other club shows interest.
I had said during spring training that I hoped he regained his form because I always liked him and thought he’d be a good addition to the starting rotation. I was rooting for him to win the fifth starter position that ended up going to Livan Hernandez. I hope he gets it together and rebounds (just not for an NL Easy team).
Update: This has now been confirmed via Adam Rubin of the New York Daily News. Rubin reports in his Surfing the Mets blog that the beneficiary of this move is Nelson Figueroa. After starting for the Mets on April 19 Figueroa was designated for assignment. He opted for free agency when he cleared waivers but had no takers and the Mets re-signed him over the weekend.
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Corrected Lineup From Last Night’s Game and Other Notes
Those of you who saw last night’s game or have seen the box score know that the lineup I posted yesterday afternoon turned out to be incorrect. Carlos Delgado was taken out of the lineup due to a hip problem and this caused some reshuffling. Most notable was that Fernando Tatis was moved from second to first base and shifted to the 7th slot in the order with Luis Castillo being inserted at second base and no. 2 in the order. Castillo proved that my faith in him was not misplaced by going 1 for 2 with a walk and a run scored.
John Maine pitched 6 innings of shutout ball for his first victory of the season. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come for Maine.
Also last night rookie catcher Omir Santos became the answer to a trivia question when he belted the first grand slam at CitiField to put the game away in the first inning. Yes, you read that correctly. The slam gave the Mets 6 runs in the first inning en route to a 7-1 victory.
The order that started last night’s game is as follows:
| # | Name | Position | ||||
| 7 | Jose Reyes | SS | ||||
| 17 | Luis Castillo | 2B | ||||
| 15 | Carlos Beltran | CF | ||||
| 5 | David Wright | 3B | ||||
| 10 | Gary Sheffield | LF | ||||
| 19 | Ryan Church | RF | ||||
| 17 | Fernando Tatis | 1B | ||||
| 9 | Omir Santos | C | ||||
| 33 | John Maine | P | ||||
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Tonight’s Lineup
Another odd choice by Jerry Manuel in tonight’s lineup. Fernando Tatis will be batting second and playing second base. With Luis Castillo still batting well I have to wonder why he’s not in that slot of the lineup.
| # | Name | Position | ||||
| 7 | Jose Reyes | SS | ||||
| 17 | Fernando Tatis | 2B | ||||
| 15 | Carlos Beltran | CF | ||||
| 21 | Carlos Delgado | 1B | ||||
| 5 | David Wright | 3B | ||||
| 10 | Gary Sheffield | LF | ||||
| 19 | Ryan Church | RF | ||||
| 9 | Omir Santos | C | ||||
| 33 | John Maine | P | ||||
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