Quote of the Day: Jerry on Ollie’s New Role

Posted on July 19, 2010 by loge mezzanine

“Are we down on Ollie?” Manuel said of Perez. “We just think Ollie needs to continue to get better, continue to find himself, try to get back to where he was. I think Ollie could be of value to us in the pen, a little bit more than what we have seen from Ollie lately as a starter.”

-Jerry Manuel on using Oliver Perez in the bullpen (NorthJersey.com)
Posted in Mets 2010 Games | Tagged | 5 Comments

A Stiff Neck Could Be Good for Pelfrey

Posted on July 19, 2010 by Joe Janish

Mike Pelfrey was bumped from his Friday night start in San Francisco due to a stiff neck he suffered on the cross-country plane ride to the Left Coast. Ironically, I would argue that a stiff neck is exactly what Big Pelf needs to return to his first-half form. Well, maybe more a stiff back than a stiff neck.

We briefly touched on the subject of Pelfrey’s mechanical issues prior to the All-Star Exhibition, seeking to dispel the “dead arm” myth. Let’s take a look at more video stills to compare and contrast. Continue reading →

Posted in Pitching Mechanics | Tagged | 7 Comments

Catching: How (Not) To Frame

Posted on July 19, 2010 by Joe Janish

There was a lot of jibber-jabber from the Mets bench on Sunday afternoon as home plate umpire Phil Cuzzi was inundated with a number of borderline pitches. It’s very hard to tell from the TV screen whether Cuzzi was right or wrong, since the off-center angle of the centerfield camera can make pitches that are balls look like strikes, and vice-versa. The best angle is directly behind home plate, of course — and it is the only angle that matters.

Toward that end, it is extremely important for the catcher to be skillful at properly receiving the baseball. For years and years and years, baseball coaches at every level have huffed and puffed about “framing”: the idea of catching the ball in one place (off the plate), but “easing” it into another (the strike zone). It’s considered very savvy to do so, and it seems to be taught even to little leaguers; everyone who “knows anything about catching”, knows about framing.

Despite popular belief, it’s absolutely wrong.

The catcher’s first job is to Continue reading →

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Mets Game 92: Win Over Giants

Posted on July 19, 2010 by Joe Janish

Mets 4 Giants 3

In ugly fashion, K-Rod blew a save, was saved from a loss by a bad call, and wound up with a win.

Johan Santana set down the Giants through eight innings, allowing only one earned run on eight hits and a walk, striking out five. He was in line for his eighth victory of the year as he handed the ball over to fellow countryman Francisco Rodriguez.

But K-Rod did not close out the ninth.

Instead, he walked Pablo Sandoval to start the ninth, then gave up two hard-hit singles, a sacrifice bunt, and a double as the Giants tied up the game before you could say “Santana”. With one out and Travis Ishikawa on third, Freddy Sanchez bounced a ball to David Wright, who quickly flipped the ball home as Ishikawa came charging home. The throw was high and Ishikawa slid under Henry Blanco and across the plate well before Blanco could apply a tag. That was it — game over, and a crushing loss for the Mets and Rodriguez.

Except, home plate umpire Phil Cuzzi called Ishikawa OUT — and the game resumed.

Somehow, K-Rod managed to get the third out, and Ike Davis doubled home Jason Bay to give the Mets the lead once again. Rodriguez finished up the bottom of the tenth in his usual shaky fashion — allowing a two-out double to Edgar Renteria — before striking out Eli Whiteside to end the game and take home the “W”.

Game Notes

Cuzzi had a rough time all game as the Mets bench razzed him on several close ball/strike calls. It came to a head in the ninth when both the bench and K-Rod complained on a close ball call to Ishikawa. First Blanco turned around to argue with Cuzzi, then Cuzzi motioned toward the Mets bench, then he walked out to the mound toward K-Rod, then yelled again at Blanco, before finally having a discussion with Jerry Manuel. It was bad form on all sides, beginning with Blanco who should have never turned around on a pitch that could have gone either way. Cuzzi should not have been so demonstrative, either, but clearly someone said something on the bench that got his goat, and K-Rod was being his usual obnoxious self, so I guess all that combined caused Cuzzi to lose his cool — not very professional.

A few minutes after Cuzzi’s terrible out call at the plate, he allowed the third base ump to overrule him on a fair / foul call on a ball hit in front of the plate by Aubrey Huff. Cuzzi called fair (correctly) but Mike Estabrook ruled it foul. Eventually, Huff bounced out to Ike Davis to end the inning (Davis had to beat Huff to the bag because K-Rod was late in getting to the bag — tough to do considering his follow-through takes him to 1B).

According to various reports, Cuzzi admitted to Giants manager Bruce Bochy that he blew the call, but couldn’t do anything about it. Ouch.

Blanco has a great reputation as a defensive backstop but his incessant jerking of close pitches — most coaches call it “framing” — is exactly the reason there was so much drama regarding ball and strike calls during the afternoon. It’s next to impossible to get a good look at pitches on your TV screen from the off-center angle of camera behind the pitcher but I would bet that Blanco is losing more calls than he’s getting by his “framing”. I’ll give you an example of proper receiving in a post coming soon.

Ishikawa might’ve had a shot to score on a double by Andres Torres, but the Giants third base coach held him up as the relay from Jeff Francouer to Davis came in quickly.

Davis, by the way, smashed two doubles and a single, driving in half of the Mets runs. His second double, which drove in the winning run, bounced high off the RF wall and missed a dinger by about six feet. He’s in the midst of a hot streak, so pick him up in your fantasy league.

Jerry Manuel ordered the potential winning run intentionally walked with two out in the bottom of the tenth. It worked out — this time. Blind squirrels run into nuts every now and then as well.

K-Rod expended 47 pitches in two innings of work en route to his fifth blown save and third victory. He looked absolutely terrible, missing his spots consistently and then serving up belt-high pitches with moderate velocity over the heart of the plate. If it sounds like I’m down on K-Rod, well, I am. If he’s not hiding an injury then he’s just plain losing his skills at an alarmingly fast rate.

Next Mets Game

The Mets will hopefully leave their bats in San Francisco and pick up new, more productive ones in Arizona on Monday night. Mike Pelfrey goes against Ian Kennedy. First pitch is at 9:40 PM.

Posted in Mets 2010 Games | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Mets Game 91: Loss to Giants

Posted on July 18, 2010 by Joe Janish

Giants 8 Mets 4

The good news is that the Mets finally scored. The bad news is they have lost their first series of the second half.

Game Notes

Hisanori Takahashi started out well, retiring the first three batters he faced. Things changed in the second inning, however, when Buster Posey led off with a double to start a five-run rally. Posey hit a solo homer an inning later, and Takahashi was removed from the game after 2 2/3 innings. By the time he found a seat in the dugout, Tak had allowed 6 earned runs on 7 hits and a walk, including two homers. Ouch.

In addition to his offensive prowess, Posey impresses me with his work behind the plate. Particularly, I like the way he receives the ball, catching the side of it instead of the back (as most catchers do). It makes a difference in presenting the pitch to the umpire, and negates the need to “frame” or ease the mitt back into the strike zone. A perfect example was his catch of a called strike three against Ruben Tejada in the fifth.

The Mets were scoreless through 24 consecutive innings before Ike Davis dumped one into the drink. They also had scored in only 3 of their past 45 innings prior to Davis’ blast. The last Met to score before Carlos Beltran was Jesus Feliciano, who was sent to the minors a week ago.

Davis hit two homers, both mammoth blasts. Unfortunately, it didn’t matter.

Josh Thole rapped another pinch-hit and is hitting over .500. Any day now we can expect SNY / the Mets hype machine to start comparing Thole to Pete Rose.

Chris Carter also had another pinch-hit single. At least the subs can hit. Which makes you wonder why they’re on the bench and not in the starting lineup.

Carlos Beltran hit a triple and a single. His defense was a little off, though, as a few baseballs zipped past him in center that he normally would run down. It could be more a matter of not being in the outfield against the speed of MLB hitting as opposed to a physical limitation.

Ruben Tejada was hit by a pitch in the ninth inning — it was his sixth HBP in a little over 100 plate appearances. I’m starting to wonder if young Ruben has a problem seeing the baseball — i.e., maybe he needs an eye exam. I’m not trying to be funny, I’m serious — it seems like he is not recognizing pitch location as early as he should.

The Mets mounted a mild rally in the ninth that was extinguished by Brian Wilson, who threw four pitches to earn his 25th save of the season.

My father-in-law watched the game with me and commented, “one thing you can always count on during a Mets game — you’ll see a lot of hitting”. Um …

Next Mets Game

The final game of this four-game series begins at 4:05 PM EST on Sunday afternoon. Johan Santana faces Jonathan Sanchez in an attempt to avoid a sweep.

Posted in Mets 2010 Games | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Midseason Assessment by John Delcos

Posted on July 17, 2010 by John Delcos

When pitchers and catchers reported Feb. 18, I posted five key questions the Mets faced heading into the season. Let’s revisit those questions at the All-Star break.

1) Question: What is this team’s attitude?

Assessment: By all accounts, it has been superb. There is a different chemistry in the Mets clubhouse than I have previously seen. The Mets have shown a remarkable resiliency to bounce back from adversity and Sunday’s win is just another example. There have been no issues about a lack of hustle, and no finger pointing. Both Jeff Francoeur and Angel Pagan said the right things about the prospect of reduced playing time as Carlos Beltran is about to be activated from the disabled list. The only sour note was Continue reading →

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July 17: Weekend Mets Links

Posted on July 17, 2010 by loge mezzanine

An abbreviated list of links for the weekend. There may or may not be an open thread for tomorrow’s game… Gotta take care of some stuff first. Stay tuned for Joe’s Janish-y recapanalysis after tonight’s game. Let’s go (Get a Starting Pitcher and an 8th-Inning Guy) Mets!

MetsBlog – Suddenly, and as we predicted, the Mets are cooling to the idea of acquiring a starting pitcher. Of course, they are still “interested” in several options and they insist they can add payroll “within reason.” But for some reason, they don’t seem to want to pursue a pitcher. Amazin!

ESPN New York – Jose Reyes may not play at all this weekend. Yet, he’s still not on the disabled list and the Mets are still carrying three catchers. Amazin!

NY Daily News – Wally Backman’s Brooklyn Cyclones are on fire. Predictable!

NY Daily News – Mike Pelfrey’s next start has been pushed back to Monday, due to stiffness in his neck, resulting from his flight from Kansas to San Francisco. So, tonight is when the Mets would be starting Cliff Lee, Ted Lilly, Roy Oswalt or some other quality veteran pitcher, had they acquired one… Instead, we get Hisanori “Oughtta Be in the Bullpen” Takahashi. The season is slipping away, folks…

TONIGHT’S GAME

The Mets (48-42) try to get on the scoreboard tonight against the Giants (49-41). Hisanori Takahashi (7-3, 4.15) takes the mound against Matt Cain (6-8, 3.34). First pitch at 9:05 EST.

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Mets Game 90: Loss to Giants

Posted on July 17, 2010 by Joe Janish

Giants 1 Mets 0

On the one hand, I greatly appreciate these two-hour games — especially when they are played on the Left Coast. On the other hand, it would be nice if it were the Mets on the winning end of these quick contests.

Game Notes

Jonathon Niese pitched a beauty, allowing only one run in seven innings (why does that sound so familiar?). He allowed 6 hits and 3 walks and struck out 4 in a 104-pitch effort. Despite this great outing, I’m still concerned about his low arm angle, but more particularly, how his fingers are getting to the side and under the baseball at release. First, because when a pitcher does that, the ball will generally only move laterally and not downward. Second, because it puts significant pressure on the elbow. But as long as he’s pitching as well as he is, it’s hard to argue with success.

Niese was good, but Barry Zito was just a little better. Zito limited the Mets to two base hits in eight frames, walking two and striking out ten.

Though, one could argue that Niese never had a fighting chance, with .225-hitting Ruben Tejada in the leadoff spot and half the lineup hitting .250 or under. It resembled, um, a San Francisco Giants lineup.

SF’s Aubrey Huff went 3-for-3, but it was historical Mets nemesis Pat Burrell who drove in the lone run of the game. With Huff on third base and one out, Pat the Bat bounced a ball to Alex Cora — who was playing back — and Huff beat Cora’s throw home. Why was Cora throwing home in that situation? Not sure; maybe he sensed that the Mets wouldn’t score all night. But then why wasn’t he playing in? To get Huff, Cora had to make a fast and perfect throw, and Rod Barajas had to block the plate while receiving the ball. None of those things happened, so Huff scored.

Speaking of Huff, so weird that he, a LH hitter, was perfect against LHP Niese. Jerry Manuel will be awake all night trying to figure out how that happened.

Manuel, by the way, promised Jeff Francoeur starts against San Francisco’s lefthanders. Why, we’re not sure. And why he felt it more important to fulfill a promise than start a legitimate leadoff hitter such as Angel Pagan, is even more mind boggling. OK, I get a manager feeling the need to keep his word. But when your most dynamic player and leadoff hitter cannot play, and your second-most dynamic player and top hitter for average is healthy, the manager has every right to rescind his promise — or offer a rain check. And if it meant so much to Manuel to keep his word, then why not sit Carlos Beltran? Wasn’t the plan to EASE Beltran into regular duty, by getting plenty of days off and not playing back-to-back games at the outset? Meh.

Francoeur did make a difference in the field, however. The respect for his arm prevented Huff from scoring earlier in that same fourth inning, and he doubled up Zito at first base on a nice running catch and throw in the fifth.

Next Mets Game

Luckily this is a four-game series, so the Mets have a shot to even things up. Game three is on Saturday at 9:05 PM. Hisanori Takahashi faces Matt Cain, as Mike Pelfrey will be bumped to Monday in Arizona. The long plane ride to the Left Coast gave Big Pelf a stiff neck (no kidding).

Posted in Mets 2010 Games | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments