July 30: Friday Mets Links (Wilmer Flores Edition)
The Daily Stache – The Mets seem to be shying away from making any moves as the trade deadline approaches.
OnTheBlack – Kerel Cooper shares his favorite Strawberry/Gooden memories.
Mack’s Mets – The Brooklyn Cyclones won again last night, thanks in part to a 9th inning suicide squeeze. The Cyclones now have a five-game lead on the second-place Staten Island Yankees.
MetsBlog – Matt Cerrone quotes Mike Newman from Scouting the Sally on Wilmer Flores’ potential as a hitter. I have to say I agree with Newman – Flores’ swing is somewhat underwhelming. But mechanics can be taught and improved – especially if Flores has the God-given talent to work with.
Check out the videos below. Hopefully, Joe can chime in on this topic:
Interview with Ted Berg
Ted Berg, senior editorial producer of SNY, was nice enough to answer some questions for us at Mets Today. Ted is a modern-day renaissance man with a broad cultural interest, ranging from baseball to buffalo wings to sandwiches, which you can read all about on his blog, TedQuarters.
Matt Himelfarb: Mets fans are mindless sheeple brainwashed by Nazi-esque propagandists such as yourself and Matt Cerrone. How are you so good at hiding the truth?
Ted Berg: It’s not easy, and it requires Andy Kaufman-esque dedication to staying in character. My career would be ruined if they found out I’m a secret Phillies fan and just doing this for the paycheck. WAIT, ARE YOU PUBLISHING THIS?
MH: Take us through how you got the SNY gig
Read the rest of this entry »
Phillies Acquire Roy Oswalt
Why do the Phillies get all the Roys?
The Phils sent JA Happ, Anthony Gose, and Jonathan Villar to Houston in exchange for Roy Oswalt and a considerable amount of cash — the Astros will be picking up about half of the $22M left on Oswalt’s contract.
This gives the Phillies a starting rotation that starts with Roy Halladay, Roy Oswalt, and Cole Hamels — not too shabby.
Meanwhile, the Mets did nothing — and why would they? After a full day of meetings on Monday, they came to the conclusion that the team is just fine the way it is, with enough talent to get into the playoffs. They proved that beyond a measure of doubt by taking two of three from the Cardinals in their first series after the pow-wow.
Everyone criticizing the Phillies for this deal claims that Oswalt is old and stinks. Let’s hope that’s the case. And let’s hope he’s not one of the top ten pitchers in the NL (WHIP and Ks aren’t really indicative of a pitcher’s value, right?). Though, pitching isn’t everything in baseball — you still have to score runs. And we know the Phillies struggle mightily offensively.
If nothing else, this trade sort of fulfills at least one of my predictions from this year — though, it does appear Jayson Werth is still in Philadelphia. One out of three ain’t bad, right?
In other news, the Marlins jettisoned Met-killer Jorge Cantu to Texas, the Orioles sent Miguel Tejada to San Diego, and the Nationals traded Matt Capps to Minnesota for young catcher Wilson Ramos.
I wonder if the Mets considered acquiring Tejada to play 2B? That’s really the only position where the Mets had an opportunity to upgrade. He was playing third in Baltimore, and likely will do the same for the Padres, moving Chase Headley to the outfield.
Mets Game 102: Win Over Cardinals
Mets 4 Cardinals 0
The mighty Mets continue their domination of the National League.
Due to my “real” job I missed seeing the game live, so thanks to Paul and Mic for helping out with the recap in the comments section.
Game Notes
R.A. Dickey flicked floaters for eight-plus frames, holding the Cardinals scoreless on four hits as he cruised to his 7th win of the year. Rather than finish the game, he let Francisco Rodriguez come in and get the final two outs for his 22nd save.
The Mets received all the runs they needed when Ike Davis delivered a monster blast over the centerfield wall to give the home team a 3-0 lead in the third inning.
As Mic noted in the comments section, the Mets beat the Cards without regulars David Wright, Jason Bay, Luis Castillo, and Rod Barajas.
At some point in October, when the Mets are in the middle of sweeping the Padres in the NLCS, we will all look back at the closed door meetings from Monday and this series win over St. Louis as the turning point of the season.
Next Mets Game
The Mets host the Arizona Diamondbacks at Citi Field on Thursday night at 7:10 PM. Mike Pelfrey pitches against Ian Kennedy.
July 29: Thursday Mets Links and Open Thread
MetsBlog – Apparently, Jerry Manuel opted to pitch to Pujols last night because Pujols had no hits in the game. Yeah, except for the two hits he had earlier in the game… but those don’t count, right? Way to go Jerry!
NY Post – The Mets faked interest in Cliff Lee, Roy Oswalt and Dan Haren. And now it looks like they have no intention or shot at acquiring Ted Lilly. To be fair though, they do seem hellbent on bringing quasi-racist female boxer Brett Myers into the fold, proving once again that Omar Minaya and Jeff Wilpon really know what they’re doing. Unfortunately for Omar and Jeff, the Astros seem to be holding on to Myers.
Fire Wayne Hagin – No news here, but an absolutely fantastic blog dedicated to getting Wayne Hagin fired. Hey, if Wayne is fired can somebody PLEASE allow Howie Rose to call games by himself, a la Vin Scully? Howie might be the only announcer left that can do that. Hell, he practically calls the game himself as it stands now. It’s not like Hagin is adding the perspective of a former player – unless you count Hagin’s high school career.
And here’s the latest from Kerel Cooper, who was on the field yesterday during batting practice, along with several other Mets bloggers:
TODAY’S GAME
The Mets (51-50) take on the Cardinals (56-45) in the rubber game of a three-game series. R.A. Dickey (6-4, 2.55) will face Blake Hawksworth (4-6, 5.23). First pitch is at 12:10pm EST.
Mets Game 101: Loss to Cardinals
Cardinals 8 Mets 7
Deja vu all over again.
The last time Johan Santana and Jaime Garcia hooked up, the result was a 20-inning snorefest. Both starters were absolutely spectacular, each leaving after 7 frames of shutout ball.
This time, the matchup was kind of the same, only different. Like the last time, Santana and Garcia had similar outings — except, they were both the opposite of spectacular. OK, that’s not fair — Garcia wasn’t that bad (though Johan was). Santana allowed 7 runs on 13 hits and a walk in 5 2/3 innings. Garcia went one more out, finishing a full six, and he gave up “only” 3 runs on 6 hits and 3 walks. Immediately after Garcia left the game, however, flamethrower Mitchell Boggs came in and allowed four scores to make it seven-all. Then, the snorefest began.
There was another difference contrasting this extra-inning game and the one from mid-April: Francisco Rodriguez made an appearance BEFORE tossing 100+ warmups in the bullpen.
Oh, one other difference — the Mets didn’t win. Shame, really, because they tried so damn hard, fighting back and all.
Game Notes
We already posted Johan’s numbers, and he did look pretty awful. His velocity was around 89-91, but he was laying his fastball over the middle of the plate, belt high, during his entire outing. Eventually, Major League hitters will hit a 90-MPH fastball over the middle of the plate — and hard. When he wasn’t serving up meatballs, he was missing the strike zone completely on all pitches. My eyes saw him getting under the ball frequently, particularly on the changeup — meaning, his elbow was lower than normal, and his fingers were underneath or to the side of the ball at release. The result is something that looks like “pushing” the ball, and poor command.
Prior to this start, Santana had allowed only eight runs over his last 44.0 innings dating back to June 26th. The 13 hits he allowed were a career high — his previous high was 12 hits, accomplished twice, most recently on July 24, 2009 with the Mets at Houston.
Mike Hessman is a big dude — like, Troy Glaus big. He’s a monster. He’s so big, Ike Davis looks small standing next to him, and Ike is a pretty big dude himself. Discussing his size with friend and fellow blogger Matthew Artus , Matt put it best by saying: “the Empire State Building looks small next to Hessman”. No argument here.
In the bottom of the 6th, David Wright led off with a rocket off the base of the left field fence, and was thrown out by Matt Holliday trying to stretch a single into a double. Moments later, Carlos Beltran blasted his first homer of the game. Most Mets fans and media likely will point to Wright’s over-aggressiveness as the reason the game was lost, since after all, had he remained on first base, Beltran’s bomb would’ve been a two-run shot and the Mets would’ve eventually scored 8 runs instead of 7 and they would’ve won and the game never would’ve gone to extra innings. However, I am not sure that Beltran would’ve gotten that same exact pitch with Wright standing on second base. Pitchers choose their pitches based on the situation, and oftentimes will go with a “chase” pitch with runners in scoring position. With one out and the bases empty, Garcia tried to sneak a fastball by Beltran, figuring that if he hit it out, it’s only one run. With a runner in scoring position, he may have started Beltran with a breaking pitch, or a fastball in a different location.
The final out of the top of the 13th came when John Jay tried to score from third on a wild pitch. Josh Thole flipped the ball in plenty of time to Raul Valdes, and Jay tried to slide around Valdes. Maybe I’m old school, but if I’m John Jay, I am tearing into Valdes full-force like an offensive guard on a sweep and demolishing him to try to knock the ball loose. As a Met fan, I’m glad Jay didn’t do that, but as a baseball fan, I wonder why players are so soft these days.
With this loss the Mets have dropped three extra-inning games in eight days.
All eight runs scored by the Cardinals came with two outs. The Mets have allowed 170 runs to score with two outs — almost 43% of the total runs they’ve allowed (398). I have no idea if that is a significant stat.
This was the longest game ever at Citi Field, in terms of innings (13).
Next Mets Game
The rubber match occurs on Thursday afternoon at 12:10 PM (huh?). R.A. Dickey will be taking the hill against Blake Hawksworth of the Cardinals.
July 28: Afternoon Mets Links and Open Thread
MetsGazette – Tom Greenhalgh says the Mets will have to go 42-20 to win the division.
MetsLifer – Dave at MetsLifer thinks the Mets need another starting pitcher, but he’s convinced they won’t acquire one.
MetsMerizedOnline – Joe D wishes the Mets were motivated by winning and not by ticket sales. Has anyone else noticed that the Mets seem to make one big ticket acquisition every off-season since Omar took over? Just one… just enough to keep us interested.
MLB Trade Rumors – MLBTR is reporting that the Mets are seeking a reliever who is “overpriced” and “underperforming.” Is this bizarro world?
MyCentralJersey.com – Bill Pulsipher just signed with the Somerset Patriots of the Atlantic League. Neither here nor there… But still somewhat interesting, to me, at least.
TONIGHT’S GAME
The Mets (51-49) look to make in two wins in a row against the St. Louis Cardinals (55-45). Johan Santana (8-5, 2.79) will face Jaime Garcia (9-4, 2.21).
Mets Meaningful Number – 19
According to the formula we used yesterday, the Mets Meaningful Number still stands at 19. The number is closer to 18 than 19, but we are going to round that number up, since it’s not possible to win .05 games. In short, progress was made last night, but more will have to be made to push the number to 18.
The Mets are currently tied with Colorado for fifth place in the wildcard race, 5.5 games behind San Francisco.
Quote of the Day: Wally on Wally
“I saw my picture in the paper (on Tuesday) and I was just glad it wasn’t a police photo.”
-Wally Backman (NorthJersey.com)
July 28: Morning Mets Links
Wall Street Journal – The WSJ analyzes the perpetual disconnect between Mets fans and team management, including a quote from MetsToday’s Joe Janish.
Mets Gazette – Would you rather the Mets make a playoff run or go on a losing streak that results in a major housecleaning?
NorthJersey.com – Bob Klapisch thinks Wally Backman could be the Mets savior.
MetsMerizedOnline – Brett Myers threw a gem last night, striking out 12 in a complete game victory. I feel like I’m watching a car crash unfold in front of me in slow motion.
MetsBlog – Jason Bay will be reevaluated in 2-3 days and a DL stint is possible.
New York Times – Tickets are still available for Sunday’s HOF Cash Grab (via The Mets Police).
And here’s Kerel Cooper from OnTheBlack.com, sharing his thoughts on Angel Pagan:
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