Browsing Archive May, 2013

Heyman: Tejada to DL

Well, it looks like the decision to keep Ruben Tejada on the major league roster or demote him to Triple-A just got a little easier.

Tejada injured his quad while sliding for a popup in the ninth inning of last night’s 9-4 victory over the Yankees.

Omar Quintanilla was pulled from last night’s Las Vegas 51s game, and will likely join the Mets today to replace Tejada on the roster.

 

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Mets Short on Shortstops

 

Cecchini is still a few years away.

Cecchini is still a few years away.

Ruben Tejada has taken a big step back in his development this year. At times, he’s just been plain bad.

He’s hitting .209/.269/.264. He does have 10 doubles, which is good for second on the team, but that may speak more to the makeup of the roster than it does to Tejada’s extra base hitting ability. As a shortstop, a team will usually put up with a lack of offense as long as you play solid defense. But Tejada hasn’t done that.

He’s already made 8 errors (6 of them throwing) after making only 12 last year. A look at advanced fielding metrics, which is still somewhat of an inexact science, shows his rPM (Plus/Minus runs saved above average) at -7. I’m not going to pretend I know exactly how this is calculated, but it’s not good. His rPM last year was -3.

You don’t need a supercomputer to see how he’s struggled in the field, however.

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Mets Game 49: Win Over Yankees

Mets 2 Yankees 1

Since the next two games are at Yankee Stadium, can Mets fans consider this a home series sweep?

Mets Game Notes

My apologies … in the last post I stated “Savor this one, Mets fans — it may be the highlight of the season.” With this most recent walkoff victory against future Hall of Famer Mariano Rivera, please rewind that quote and read it again. This could very well be the apex of the season.

Yet again, a Mets starter puts up a sparkling performance, only to walk away with a no-decision. But what does it matter? All that matters is that the team wins.

Ruben Tejada must be taking fielding lessons from Ike Davis, based on the Robinson Cano ground ball up the middle he watched go past him in the 8th. Tejada also made a throwing error and was picked off of second base in the ballgame. Taking his lumps, is what one might call that. Ticket to Vegas, someone else might say.

After Tejada was picked off of second base, a wild chicken ran on the field and chased after umpire Adrian Johnson. Or was that Terry Collins?

Journeyman backstop Chris Stewart is the Yankees catcher because he’s purportedly a defensive specialist. I understand that even defensive specialists make mistakes. However, for the second straight night, Stewart couldn’t handle a pitch thrown over the middle of the plate.

Matt Harvey pitched well, but didn’t collect any hits and struck out once. How can a Mets pitcher expect to earn victories if he’s not going to make an offensive contribution?

Six hits from the 2-3-4 combination of Daniel Murphy, David Wright, and Lucas Duda. One other hit from the Mets lineup.

What’s wrong with the Yankees? Why can’t a lineup packed with All-Stars such as Stewart, David Adams, Reid Brignac, Lyle Overbay, and Vernon Wells be limited to just one run? Is Matt Harvey THAT good? Is Scott Rice THAT dominating? I guess so.

Remember this game in late September — we’re going to look back on it and say, “THAT was the turning point of the season.”

Next Mets Game

We’ll call it Game One of the Yankee Stadium series; it begins at 7:05 p.m. on Wednesday night. Jeremy Hefner goes to the hill against David Phelps.

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