Guinness, whether you like it or not, John will be a starter in the post season. He deserves it, and El Duque can't be trusted to stay healthy. And what game were you watching? Maine struck out 9, and only walked 2 batters. His fastball was in the mid 90's all day. How is that struggling? At one time he struck out 5 in a row!!! You also forget that the #1 hitter is Rameriz [.333 ave, 203 hits,45 doubles, 28 hr, .565 slg], the #2 hitter is Uggla [.246 ave, 150 hits, 47 doubles, 30 hr,.481 slg], and the #3 hitter is Hermida [.283 ave, 113 hits, 28 doubles, 17 hrs, .486 slg. in only 116 games]. They put Reyes' and Castillo's number to shame. Only David Wright's numbers are better than any of theirs. I wish the Mets #1 and #2 hitters had those numbers.
The only problem with Maine is Willie's lack of consistency. In John's last game, Witless Willie didn't pull him soon enough, and in this game Willie might have pulled John too soon. I wish he left John in for another batter or 2 to see if John could get out of the 6th inning. But, if things had gone badly, then I'd be yelling at Willie for not taking him out. John's pitch count was over 100 and Willie thought it was better to get him out while John was still in the mix for a win. Remember, the game was tied at 2 when he left. John is still working on his secondary pitches. They are much better now than earlier in the year, but he still lacks the confidence in them to use them as put away pitches. This means he throws more fastballs when he gets behind, and good hitters can hit fastballs. That's why John gets high pitch counts so quickly. I saw at least 3 Marlins have 8-10 pitch at bats. This is only John's 1st full year in the big league. He'll get more work on his slider [a new pitch this spring], and do some more with his change-up [another new pitch]. With Pedro around him for a full season, he'll soon master both. But I guess you'd rather pin your postseason hopes on an old brittle pitcher who can't be counted on after August.
David Wright now has 184 hits and 105 RBI. He's now tied with Beltran for the club lead in RBI. His throw to 1st base that Guinness thinks should have been an error, wouldn't have got the runner out. His wide throw arrived after the runner [Rameriz] and Delgado threw Rameriz out at 2nd. So things worked out fine. David saves more runs than he ever cost, so I'm not going to beat him up about it. He's 24 years old and has carried this team all year. He's done the interviews and handled all the tough questions when others in the locker room have disappeared. Nothing he ever does in the field will ever matter to me. Because of all that he is burdened with, due to the lack of leadership on that team, I'll never doubt his effort. He is the leader, so he deserves some slack from unappreciative fans.
Beltran is still sore and Castillo needs a rest. Neither is getting anything done at the plate, and you have to wonder if their knees are bothering them in the field too. Delgado had a 3 run home run to put the Mets ahead, and Lo Duca had a 2 run home run to tie the game earlier. I believe that is now 21 RBI this month for Pauly. That's called clutch hitting.
The pen's performance today proves my point in some respects. Willie has overused certain pitchers. Heilman didn't need to pitch yesterday, but he did. So Willie brings him back again today, and Aaron couldn't find the strike zone. He threw 28 pitches, and only 12 were strikes. But Mota with some rest, pitched well. Joe Smith had a clean inning and got the win. He only needed 12 pitches to get out of the 10th. Then Willie brings in Sele for the 11th and gets 2 outs on 3 pitches. Wagner showed some gas today, but one fastball hit Uggla's bat and ended up way back in the bleachers in left field. You know Uggla, the terrible #2 hitter in the Marlin's order. I guess in Guinness's world, Wagner shouldn't even be on the post-season roster. How could Wagner give up a home run to the #2 hitter in the Marlin's line-up? I guess that means Maine should be the new closer for the Mets, and Wagner can head for the AAA team. Maine didn't give up any home runs, and he had to pitch to Uggla 3 times. He struck him out in the 1st, gave up a double in the 3rd, and got Dan to foul out in the 5th. Maine only gave up 4 hits to the #1-3 hitters on the Marlins while pitching to them thru the 5th inning. If the offense had come awake sooner, John could have won his 15th game.
But the important thing is that the Mets won, and the Phillies lost. So the Mets are inching away from that historic collapse that we all feared was coming. It also means that Witless Willie may survive the off season too. It's funny though, David wright drove in the winning run on a Hit & run Play. Something Willie rarely calls for. It makes you wonder if Willie is finally starting to learn NL style baseball.
And Guinness, at least I try to come up with a headline that describes my blog entry. " The Mets win a Series !!! The Mets win a Series !!!" sounds like "The Giants win the Pennant, The Giants win the Pennant". lol
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3 comments:
It's been soooo long since the Mets have won a series that I couldn't contain myself. Maine did strike out 5 in a row but he always has trouble getting through the lineup the second and third time around. I think hitters are better able to predict the high fastball after they see him. He usually mows them down the first time around though which would make him better suited for the pen than Perez. That's what I was talking about, if it was between Perez and Maine, Maine should be in the bullpen.
But it's not. El Duque is not healthy, so both of them are going to start. El Duque is headed for the pen, not John. I think the reason he has problems is because he runs up high pitch counts. His fastball tends to run away from lefties and into righties. As long as he keeps it by the knees, or up around the letters, he's fine. If his pitches are around thigh high, the batters tend to hit it or foul it off. That runs up his pitch counts. If he's around 70 pitches in the 5th inning, he's good for 7 innings. He has I believe 166 strikeouts for the year, and 183 innings. That's a lot of pitches when he uses 5-7/strikeout.
There is no way that Willie will move El Duke to the pen if he can pitch at all. You know how Willie is with respect to veterans. He will always choose them over the young guys.
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