Tonight’s Pitching Matchup (7/26/2011)
Tonight’s pitching matchup between Jonathon Niese and Johnny Cueto:
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Notes From Last Night’s Game (7/25/2011)
- R.A. Dickey had a good outing. Though he allowed 8 hits in his 6.2 innings of work he only allowed 2 runs while walking 1 and striking out 7.
- David Wright committed his third error in 4 games back from the DL. Four games is a small sample size and is no cause for alarm but it’s worth noting.
- Jason Isringhausen pitched a wild 9th inning on his way to the save. A single, walk and error (not in that order) loaded the bases but Izy didn’t allow any runs in closing out the game.
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Mets/Reds Stat Comparison
Here’s a short breakdown/comparison of the Mets and Reds heading into this week’s four game series:
Here’s a comparison between tonight’s starting pitchers R.A. Dickey of the Mets and Mike Leake of the Reds.
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Well Wishes for Gary Carter (And His First Mets Home Run)
With Gary Carter’s recent health issues (bronchitis, walking pneumonia in addition to brain cancer) I’ve been more nostalgic for the powerhouse Mets of the mid 1980s. The recent hiring of Davey Johnson as Washington Nationals manager accentuates this nostalgia.
I remember Carter’s Mets debut in 1985 like it was yesterday. This is the hit that made me forget they traded Hubie Brooks for him.
As Carter passes the halfway point of his radiation treatments we continue to wish him well and hope his health is headed in the right direction.
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Video: Reyes Goes 4 for 5 Against Texas
The 4 for 5 performance by Jose Reyes on Sunday:
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My Response on Beltran and Wright
Last night I was called to task when, on Twitter, I said that Carlos Beltran was not as good as his hype and endorsed the opinion that David Wright is not a superstar. The challenge came in the following form:
Let’s take these issues one at a time.
When the Mets signed Beltran he was looked at as the prized free agent of the 2004-05 offseason. Not just by the Mets and Mets fans but by everyone in baseball. Beltran was, indeed, an excellent player and it was a feather in Omar Minaya’s cap to have signed him. Beltran was coming off a year in which he had 121 runs, 38 homers, 104 RBI, 92 walks, 36 doubles and 42 stolen bases while player for Kansas City and Houston. He also had a monster post season in which he batted .435 with 21 runs, 8 homers and 14 RBI in 12 games.
In looking at his numbers previous to that point in his career I must admit that my use of the term ‘hype’ when refering to Beltran may have been a bit of an exaggeration. He had, indeed, compiled a nice resume in the years leading up to his free agency making him worthy of being the prized free agent that year. What I meant was that Beltran had had an excellent year and was on the top of his contract value when he was signed. I don’t hold it against Beltran for cashing in when he was on top of his game but there was nowhere for him to go but down from there. And his first season for the Mets was, in fact, a very down year. But he followed that with 3 very good (okay, excellent) years that lived up to the promise we fans sought when he was signed. Though the last couple of seasons have been ravaged by injuries Beltran is on track to have another excellent year.
I’m not afraid to say it: mea culpa. (Though I don’t agree with any ballplayer making the kind of money Beltran does. But that’s a different discussion.)
The Wright question struck me as odd because my comment said nothing of how I would rank Wright among other third basemen of his time. In fact, to my discredit, my comment was more subjective. Would I consider a particular player a superstar? This question has nothing to do with how the players stats compare to his contemporaries but how I see the player myself.
Indeed the numbers Wright has put have have been great. Per 162 games through his career he’s averaging 103 runs, 41 doubles, 27 home runs & 106 RBI. Given these numbers it’s hard for me to argue that Wright is not a superstar. And if you’re a follower of sabermetrics (which I am not) this conclusion is even stronger.
But for some reason I feel that he has not fulfilled the expectations I had of him. Yes, he’s been great on the field. But I expected more from him as a team leader. Yes, he’s always there with a quote and has handled himself very well in the wake of Fred Wilpon’s recent criticism of everything Met as well as other situations that have come up over the years. But I had stronger expectations. Perhaps that he’d be a more vocal leader and cheerleader in the mold of Gary Carter or even Paul Lo Duca.
Perhaps it’s unfair of me to rate a superstar based on my own expectations or even personality. Barry Bonds failed on both of those fronts as well but he was a superstar (regardless of the steroid question). But like I said above this is a subjective question and at this point in time this is how I see it. My opinion, as with most open minded people, is subject to change. Please feel free to try and convince me.
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Wilpon Has Lost His Marbles
There was a time when I really liked Fred Wilpon. And in the last few years, as his popularity as Mets owner has waned, I still comforted myself with the fact that he was smart and had a passion for baseball and managing a baseball team despite what seemed like a dwindling sense of reality. But now it seems like he’s totally lost his mind.
In an article by Jeffrey Toobin for The New Yorker Wilpon appears to be a bit more forward than a savvy business man should be. Though the article is centers on the Bernard Madoff issue Wilpon is quoted in the article as making a frank and unflattering statements about his players.
I realize that ownership must have more critical views of their players than many of us fans do. In fact if the owners had the same view of the players that the fans do I don’t think we’d have much of a league to watch. As an owner you must be critical about your players. Fan favorites are fan favorites for a reason. But as an owner you must be able to look at that fan favorite, whose value to fans is obviously inflated, and break him down to what his true value is. In this article Wilpon has done just that.
Some of the things he says are best served for negotiations (on Jose Reyes: “He thinks he’s going to get Carl Crawford money. He’s had everything wrong with him. He won’t get it.”). Others for front office talk (on David Wright: “A really good kid. A very good player. Not a superstar.”). Though self deprecating (on Carlos Beltran‘s contract: “We had some schmuck in New York who paid him based on that one series.”) he also commits what most people would call a mortal sin by publicly saying his own club a “S***ty team”.
I’m not the deepest thinker in the world but I’m no dummy. It’s already known that this is a rebuilding year (in fact a pre-rebuilding year) for the Mets. A year after which some big contracts will expire. A year that the front office is taking it’s time to decide the direction the club will take next year. In such a year the team cannot expect ticket sales to go so well. The fans already have very little incentive to go to games and then the owner comes out and says something like this.
When Wilpon’s connection to the Madoff scandal first became known I had said to many people that he should make the problem go away as soon as possible. There’s nothing to be gained by prolonged talk and negotiations. Since that time the Madoff trustees have inflated the amount of money they’re after and have come just short of accusing Wilpon of being an accessory to the ponzi scheme. The longer this goes on the worse the Wilpon family as well as the team looks. At this point I wish he’d either sell the team or do whatever needs to be done to make his part in the Madoff case disappear… or maybe both.
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Player Shuffle In Wake Of Wright Injury
News came yesterday afternoon that David Wright has a stress fracture in his aching back. He’ll be out at least 10 days but will likely not need surgery. Almost immediately after hearing the news I thought the Mets would move Daniel Murphy to third base and call up Nick Evans to play first base. Turns out only a small part of that thought is right.
In my post about the Ike Davis injury, which prompted the team to move Murphy from second base to first base, I mentioned how I’m a bit ambivalent about moving Murphy to different positions. Considering how he’s been moved around in recent years (before his injury last year) I would have liked to see him stay in one place and get comfortable there. Though I thought they’d move Murphy to third due to Wright’s injury I was actually pleasantly surprised to hear this morning that they will keep Murphy at first and move Justin Turner to third base.
Chin-lung Hu has been outrighted to AAA Buffalo to make room for Evans. But instead of playing first base regularly, as I thought he would, Evans is expected to add some depth to the bench, which appears to be getting thinner and thinner.
Ruben Tejada, who was playing SS at Buffalo as a backup plan for the possible exit of Jose Reyes (either via trade or free agency), was also called up. Tejada will play second base now that Turner, who had been manning the keystone since Murphy moved to first, will be playing third.
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Ike to DL, Muprhy To 1B
After further examination Ike Davis has been placed on the DL with an ankle sprain and bone bruise. Fernando Martinez was recalled from AAA Buffalo to take Davis’s roster spot. Daniel Murphy will move over to first base and leave second base to Justin Turner and Willie Harris.
Though Murphy has experience at first base I don’t like the idea of moving him there from second. You just can’t keep moving a guy around like that and expect him to perform. On the other hand there really are no other options within the organization right now so there’s no much of a choice. I just hope this doesn’t set Murphy’s development at second base back very much.
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Davis To Have MRI
The Mets have sent Ike Davis back to New York for an MRI on his ailing leg. Davis injured the leg last night in when he collided with David Wright while both were attempting to make a play on a popup in front of the mound.
This is both bad news and good news. The bad news is that Davis is hurt (duh!). The good news is that the Mets are taking a no nonsense approach in an effort to understand and treat the injury. Under former GM Omar Minaya Davis would likely be penciled in to tomorrow’s lineup after rain provided a day off for the team and an opportunity for Davis to rest the leg. But current management is taking no chances with the team leader in HRs and RBIs.
On a related point I hope Sandy Alderson’s front office team is taking a closer look at conditioning. The recent string of injuries that also includes Wright’s sore back and Jenrry Mejia‘s elbow (which will require Tommy John surgery to correct) may be coincidence. But with the way this team has been suffering injuries the last couple of years the Mets owe it to themselves to examine their organizational approach to conditioning and training and see if and changes may help keep the players healthy.
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