It was nice to see Pelfrey settle in and get the win last night. He looked comfortable and threw more strikes than balls. I believe the fact that El' Duque is gone from the pitching equation will help Mike's confidence and keep him focused.
All too often this spring it looked like Omar's and Witless Willies talk about Hernanadez hurt Mike. It looked like he was nervous and worried too much about the little things when he was pitching. I mentioned earlier this year that because of Willie and Omar running their mouths about Hernandez being the starter, that it was hurting Mike's pitching. It must have seemed to him that no matter what he did on the mound he was going to New Orleans. With young players confidence is very important to their success on the field. I never got the feeling that Omar and Willie wanted Mike in the rotation. And I bet Mike felt the same way. Now that is no longer an issue. Hernandez is done until at least the All-Star break, and the job is now Mike's.
There's an old saying "Better lucky than Good". Well the Mets were luck last night. Reyes is still stuck in September, and Beltran has a habit of looking at perfect pitches. David is slumping and Delgado had a decent night. He actually THREW HOME FOR THE FORCE PLAY instead of doing what he did Tuesday. If he had done that in Tuesday's game, maybe the Mets don't lose their last home opener.
I noticed something last night. Without Castillo in the line-up Pagan hit in the 2 hole. Easley played 2nd and proved he can get to balls that Castillo isn't capable of getting to. He got to a pop up in the same area where Castillo got hurt. And because Castillo wasn't in the 2 hole tapping balls to the infielders, the Mets actually scored some runs. Pagan can hit the ball to all areas of the field, and Castillo can hardly get the ball out of the infield. I fail to see where he's an asset to the offense. Ever since he got in the 2 hole, the Mets offense has suffered. When Lo Duca was there the Mets scored runs by the bunches. They consistently put up crooked numbers in multiple innings. That has become as rare as Unicorns since Castillo's arrival in NY. Unfortunately, all the "experts" are in love with Castillo and Omar signed him to a 4 year contract. Don't you think if the Twins thought he was so good, they'd have gotten more than a couple of lower level minor league players for him? They saw he was used up and not worth keeping. I trust the Twins scouting dept. more than the Mets. The Twins seem to find talent all the time, and the Mets tend to trade away good talent and bring in junk.
Here's hoping for a good game from John Maine tonight. I want to see 7+ innings and 8+ strikeouts. I don't trust anyone in the pen except Muniz at this point. For someone that Willie refused to use last year, he sure seems to get people out. The last two games he's gotten 6 outs with 12 pitches I believe. So that means Willie will soon be sending him back to New Orleans. If Muniz is in NY, Willie won't be able to trot out Schoeneweis and Heilman to blow games. I like Muniz, and hope he can stick around for the season.
1 comment:
Muniz had a 7 era last year, let's calm down about him. 2 good outings a career does not make.
Castillo can get to everything Easley can and more. You can make the argument that castillo has hurt them offensively but he is solid defensively and a huge improvement over that clown gotay! why they hung onto that loser as long as they did is beyond me!
Also, castillo did well in the 2-hole last year, he is the prototypical 2 hitter AS long as Reyes is on base. His outs are productive, he is a good bunter, and he is able to run a little.
Pelfrey looked pretty good last night. if you consider that he was facing the phils with their talented lefty hitters than he did really well. I would like randolph to listen to schneider when deciding to remove pitchers. schneider made the point that perez could've kept going and indicated that pelfrey could have done likewise.
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