Hello again everyone. I have one question to ask all of you before we get into the baseball chatter. Where the heck is Guinness hiding? He hasn't posted here in over a week and I'm starting to worry. It's not like him to miss chances to send digs, jabs and backhanded comments my way. LOL.
Ok, now on to the business of the Mets. Unless you have all been hiding it's been kind of a mixed bag around Shea lately. I'll deal with the bad first and then hope to end on a positive note if possible. LOL.
The bad can be summed up in three phrases. God awful bull-pen, lousy situational hitting, injuries that could change the season.
I called into the SNY show "Loudmouths" today and actually got on the air. Now seeing that the outrageous tends to get on the air, and the sane don't, I stated what I've felt for awhile and I'm sure others have too. I told them that if I never saw Heilman, Sanchez, or Feliciano in a Mets uniform again it wouldn't hurt my feelings. I ment it then and I mean it now. They suck, and can't be relied on. If it's not one of them screwing up, it's the other. The only way to solve it it to get rid of them. Send them to AAA, trade them, do something besides take away wins in NY. I told Schein and Carlon I wanted Neise, Parnell, Figgy, and Kunz in NY. Neise would fill Maine's spot in the rotation, Parnell and Figgy could pitch out of the pen, and Kunz could team with Wagner and Ayala to close games out. Of coarse they went crazy, but them did agree Neise and Kunz should be called up.
The hitting at times is also God Awful. The Mets had longs streaks of hitless innings against the Astros, including ones of 20 batters, 15 batters, and 13 batters without a hit of any kind. It's hard enough to beat bad teams hitting like that but it's damned near impossible to beat any decent team when not hitting for those prolonged stretches. This isn't something new either. The Mets despite scoring the most runs in MLB in the 1st inning, and being one of the highest scoring teams in MLB, have been doing this all season. Beltran will never be the player he should be. He seems entirely too meek and too entirely happy to be a .270 hitter for his career. Delgado is streaky to say the least. Just when you think he should have a day off, he goes 5-5 or drives in 6 runs like tonight. Jose' and David are also streaky, but in different ways. David may not look like he's doing much at times, but he's hitting over .290, and has 99RBI with an OBP of over .380. His problem is that sometimes all too frequently he doesn't get that hit in the middle innings to drive in some insurance runs. Reyes before tonight was hitting .188 this home stand. He takes too many pitches down the middle and swings at pitches near his eyes. Sometimes I wonder if he's concentrating as well as he should at the plate.
The injury news just keeps coming and doesn't seem to stop. The latest news is that John Maine is back on the DL and probably won't see the mound again this season. As I've been saying for some time in John's defense, he's been pitching hurt for most of the season. I know from personal experience with bone spurs, that they don't form overnight. I'll guarantee that John left spring training with them and that they caused his rotator cuff strain. John's a tough pitcher and is never one to complain, and I bet he changed something in his delivery because of the bone spur and that caused his rotator cuff issue. I now how much Guinness and others love to bash John, but this latest news goes to my point about him playing hurt, and not being destined for the pen due to lack of talent. If you believe as I and others do, the return of Castillo from the DL is not welcome news. He may be healthier now, but he did nothing in this game to prove he deserves to play over Easley or A. Reyes. Some old Castillo. Trying to bunt in the 1st inning, striking out, and not making a difference at the plate or in the field.
The positive can be summed up in 3 words. Defense, Starting pitching.
Pelfrey and the rest of the starting staff have been great. Big Pelf tonight became the 1st pitcher since Brett Saberhagen [13 yrs ago] to pitch back to back complete game wins. Santana and Pedro are pitching great and Johan is continuing his habit of being lights out in the second half. Pedro is pitching deeper into games and has dropped his ERA almost 2 runs this month. Ollie is also doing his best to keep the Mets in games and rarely shows the helter-skelter pitcher he was early this season. Maine had even managed to pitch 10 innings without giving up a run before Saturday's game. Even with a compromised Maine the Mets have the best staff in the NL if not all MLB. They'll need to be on the top of their game in the coming weeks. With the Phillies, Marlins, Brewers, and Cubs all in the Mets future it's not going to get easier. With the pen collapsing every other game, If I was a starter, I wouldn't come out of the game unless my arm was falling off. Ollie said so much today. I read a quote from him saying that the starters are going to have to throw 150 pitches if they want to win games.
The other thing that's been stellar is the defense. I believe the Mets have now gone 30 games and only committed 4 errors in that stretch. David Wright is headed for his 2nd Gold Glove award. He only has 13 errors and is looking more and more like a Robin Ventura clone at 3rd base. He makes the barehanded plays with boring regularity and gobbles up everything else. His throws are better and rarely does Delgado need to move off the bag anymore. Reyes also is headed for his 1st Gold Glove. Ever since Castillo went away, Jose' has shined in the field. Whether it was Castillo causing the problems, or the fact that Jose' got to play with his friend Argenis, who knows. But the fact is that Jose' has stepped it up and deserves the Gold Glove for his work in the field this year. Delgado is playing a more effective in the field, and the kids Evans and Murphy are holding their own in left field too.
So, there is reason for hope this upcoming week or so. If the Mets can get some better hitting in the middle innings, and keep the pen playing cards we may all be better off. The Mets didn't get any help from the club managed by "The Greatest Manager Ever", so now they face the Phillies with only a half game lead. Time for the Mets to man up and put the Phillies down these to games, and to break their necks. Don't let them have a hope and beat them until they are nothing but a stain on the stadium grass. No more messing around, time to show the Phillies who's division this is.
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3 comments:
Sorry I've been absent but work and family have been getting in the way of my blogging! I am working on a post regarding my grades of the Mets players that I hope I can finish today.
As for your post, come on Dan. The bone spurs are no excuse for Maine and he did not have them early this season. He actually had bone spurs last season and had them removed in the off-season remember? So the bone spurs aren't the reason for his recent failures. Besides, he was hitting 96 mph on the radar gun when the Astros killed him. John's problem is that he ONLY HAD ONE EFFECTIVE PITCH. He's always going to have issues with pitch counts and will never last long in games because it's too easy to foul off his pitches.
As for Reyes, his defense has improved with Willie gone. It has nothing to do with Argenis since Reyes has been playing with superb defense with Easley at second as well. I think a lot of the mental issues went out the door at the same time that Willie did. By the way, Castillo looked MUCH better in the field last night than prior to his DL stint. Let's hope he gets back to hitting!
At least Castillo could move more than a step or two in either direction.
As far as John's Bone Spur, if that was rubbing on his 'cuff, that could definately cause his location issues this year. And I never heard anything about it last year. The spurs in my knee helped to tear up the inside of it and made the cartilledge repair impossible.
hey Guinness, I was re-reading your comments about Maine's bone-spurs last season. Seems to me you proved my point.
Everyone was wondering why Maine was faultering down the stretch last year. Sounds to me that the pitching you saw last August-September was the same as you saw June-August this year. As the pain grew worse, John's results went south. If you can't see that or admit that, you have issues with John that will never be solved. John started out 10-2 before the All-Star game last year, and was untouchable in the spring this year. As the seasons went on his results started to become more uneven. Sounds to me like he needs a better Orthorpedic doctor, not a trip to the pen or trading block.
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