Animal in the House

Posted on May 10, 2010 by Joe Janish

Chris “The Animal” Carter is finally a Met.

Carter — who had been acquired for Billy Wagner in a late-season 2009 deal with the Red Sox — has been promoted to the big club. Veteran pinch-hitter Frank Catalanotto was DFA’d to make room for Carter on the roster.

I’m very pleased to see Carter get his just due, after doing everything he could to earn a job and more. At the same time, I’m a little sad to say goodbye to Catalanotto, even if he was hitting only .160 and even if 99% of the fan base wanted him gone. Why? Because Gary Matthews Jr. remains on the roster, complete with his .136 batting average and 18 strikeouts in 44 at-bats. I realize it’s helpful to have a defensive-minded outfielder backing up the starters, but jeez louise — will his glove really make up for striking out nearly fifty percent of the time? I’m still trying to figure out why the Mets sent both Jeremy Reed and Cory Sullivan packing, in return for the right to trade Brian Stokes for GMJ.

But this is about the Animal, who suits up on Tuesday in Flushing. With Scott Olsen starting for the Nats, it’s unlikely we’ll see Carter in the starting lineup, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see him get a start on Tuesday against righthander Craig Stammen — particularly if Jason Bay and Jeff Francoeur continue to slump. The outfielder corners would appear to be the only opportunity for Carter to get semi-regular playing time, considering how well Ike Davis is doing at 1B. Let’s hope he isn’t used the way Catalanotto was — strictly as a pinch-hitter. It would be a waste to give him only three swings a night. If given a chance, Carter might prove to be one of those late bloomers, in the same mold as Travis Hafner, Carlos Pena, and Nelson Cruz. We’ll never know until he gets a fair shot.

Posted in Latest Mets News | Tagged , | 5 Comments

Mets Game 32: Loss to Nationals

Posted on May 10, 2010 by Joe Janish

Nationals 3 Mets 2

Another close game, but the Mets fall short.

Game Notes

John Maine pitched fairly well, tossing 6 innings and allowing 2 runs on 7 hits and 4 walks. I couldn’t tell by the off-kilter angle of the outfield camera, but it looked like Maine might’ve been rotating his upper body a little less than normal — it’s so hard to see what’s going on from the view of my living room couch. He threw about 95% fastballs, mixing in a handful of changeups. Velocity was around 86-88 MPH, occasionally hitting 90 MPH. All in all, encouraging. There looks to be the possibility that Maine can be a legitimate #5 or possibly #4 MLB starter, if he can keep opposing teams from sitting dead-red on the fastball.

Jose Reyes was thrown out of the game for arguing a called strike three to end the inning with Angel Pagan on 2B in the bottom of the 7th. Can we please end this ridiculous experiment of Reyes batting third? It’s clearly messing with his head.

Jerry Manuel was also thrown out after supporting Reyes after the fact, leaving Dave Jauss in charge of the club.

Alex Cora replaced Reyes and made a spectacular play in the 9th to save a run, then drove a base hit to set up a heroic opportunity for Jason Bay in the bottom of the frame. However, Bay struck out to end the game.

Ike Davis hit a single off LOOGY Sean Burnett in the 8th. He’s now 8-for-14 vs. LHPs, and has an OPS of over 1.800 against them.

Pedro Feliciano had another disappointing outing, allowing three hits and a run in 1/3 of an inning. His 1.88 ERA is deceiving, because he’s allowed 12 hits and 10 walks in 14 IP, and allowed 10 baserunners in his last 7 outings, spanning 3 1/3 innings. One must wonder if he’s getting worn out from overuse.

Pudge Rodriguez went 4-for-4 with a double and an RBI. He’s hitting .393 on the season with a .417 OBP.

Miguel Batista earned his first save of the year, and only his third since 2005. Matt Capps was given the day off after saving both games over the weekend. Imagine Jerry Manuel resting K-Rod after pitching in back-to-back games?

Six out of the Mets’ last seven games were decided by one run. The seventh game was decided by two runs. Talk about keeping things tight.

The Mets had 12 hits but struck out 11 times, and were 1-for-12 with RISP. They left 11 runners on base.

Next Mets Game

The Mets and Nationals do it again on Tuesday night at 7:10 PM. Jon Niese faces Scott Olsen, who has been lights out in his last four starts.

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

Offseason Strategy Working So Far

Posted on May 10, 2010 by Joe Janish


Based on the knee-jerk reactions displayed by the Mets front office the past few years, one might compare their offseason strategy to that old saying, “close the barn door after the horse has bolted”. In other words, the Mets are continually playing catch-up, patching the most obvious issue that went wrong the season before (and hoping everything else falls into place).

Last year, of course, the Mets did not make the postseason due to two reasons: injuries and lack of home runs.

At least, that was the general consensus.

So, the Mets went out full-force in the offseason and addressed those two issues. For example, they evaluated and overhauled their Continue reading →

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What To Do With Oliver Perez

Posted on May 10, 2010 by Joe Janish

After yet another painful showing, it’s time to wonder what in the world the Mets should do with Oliver Perez.

Perez pitched into the fourth inning only because of a combination of great defense, sheer luck, and illogical managing by Bruce Bochy. In truth, Perez never should have made it out of the second frame.

Ollie has now walked 25 batters in 30 innings, and looks completely lost on the mound. His presence on the mound has reached comical heights, marked by Gary Cohen’s reference to Nuke LaLoosh after one of his pitches sailed a good 15 feet wide of home plate.

Perez’s mechanics are inconsistent, and never optimal. As a result, his release point is all over the place and his command is nonexistent. His confidence is shot. When he does throw a strike, it is such a surprise that the home plate umpire is baffled into calling it a ball.

To top it all off, his velocity is now hovering barely above 85 MPH — so you can’t even hope that somehow he’ll find the plate, because if he does, the opposing hitters will feast on those BP fastballs and send them long distances.

So what can the Mets do with their Thirty-Six-Million-Dollar Man?

The obvious step is to send him down to the minors so he can “figure it out”. But what exactly is it that he will be able to “figure out”? Will a mechanics makeover bring his velocity back into the low- to mid-90s? Will it give him pinpoint command — something he never had even when successful? If such a thing is possible, do the Mets have a guru who can make it happen? Can Ricky Bones, Rick Waits, or Al Jackson fix Oliver Perez, or would the Mets have to find someone outside the organization?

Worse … what if he CAN’T be fixed?

That might be the reason the Mets don’t send him down to the minors — the fear that he’ll never show enough down there to justify returning to the big leagues. Translation: $36M down the drain.

Oliver Perez pitched his best — in a Mets uniform — under the guidance of Rick Peterson. Say what you will about “The Jacket”, but his hands-on approach was the right one for the all-over, undisciplined, unfocused Ollie. Peterson is now in Milwaukee, but clearly, Perez needs someone to tell him exactly what to do, and exactly how to do it. And Perez needs to buy into that person’s shpiel 100%. A guru needs to come in and be Oliver Perez’s personal pitching coach, to remake his mechanics, change his mindset, and force him into a disciplined routine. It may sound ridiculous that the Mets should install anyone as a “personal coach”, but the expense will be negligible compared to the $24M left on Perez’s contract.

Or, the Mets could keep sending Perez out to the mound every five days, cross their fingers, and hope for the best. So far, though, that strategy is not working.

Posted in Opinion and Analysis, Pitching Staff | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Jeff Pearlman on Wally Backman and the ’86 Mets

Posted on May 10, 2010 by Joe Janish

It’s time for another installment of “Playing for Peanuts,” starring current Brooklyn Cyclones manager Wally Backman. Of course, “Playing for Peanuts” is a TV show about Wally’s team in 2007 – the South Georgia Peanuts. It’s a quirky, crazy story about Wally’s attempted comeback as a professional manager. In retrospect, it was a pretty good comeback attempt (Cyclones, remember?), but anyone who watched the show on SNY knows it was a very rocky road back for Wally Backman. Which leads us to…

“Peanuts” producer John Fitzgerald is offering Mets bloggers a $5 commission for every 3-DVD set sold on the web. Not a bad deal for us bloggers, but it also gives you the chance to help support some of your favorite Mets blogs, including OntheBlack, BrooklynMetFan and MetsToday.

The DVD set contains all 10 episodes of “Playing for Peanuts” on 3-DVDs. Also included are bonus scenes and interviews with Ron Darling and Conor Jackson. Click here for ordering information.

Since Backman will be back with the Mets organization this summer, John Fitzgerald will be sending me some of the bonus footage that he has released online, along with some commentary. Here’s the latest:

Playing for Peanuts – Jeff Pearlman on Wally Backman and the ’86 Mets
Buy the Playing for Peanuts 3-DVD Set

John Fitzgerald: Jeff Pearlman has a really interesting perspective on Wally Backman and the ’86 Mets – if you haven’t read his book, “The Bad Guys Won,” you should do it. Immediately. It’s one of the best Mets-related books, ever.

When Jeff learned that I was filming a TV series on Wally’s managerial comeback attempt, he was happy to help out by doing an interview. Jeff’s participation set the stage for the first segment of the TV show (Editor’s Note: you can see the first segment here).

In this clip, Jeff explains why Wally Backman was so popular with Mets fans. Jeff compares Backman to former NY Jets wide receiver Wayne Chrebet and he also tells the story of how Backman refused to report to AAA when he was sent back to the minors early in his career.

Buy the 3-DVD Set (10 episodes + Bonus Content)

By the way, you can see all of the Jeff Pearlman interview below. Use the left/right arrows next to the Play button to skip from one clip to the next:

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Mets Game 31: Loss to Giants

Posted on May 9, 2010 by Joe Janish

Giants 6 Mets 5

The Mets almost won … but fell a hair short. Still, they took a series they needed to take.

Early on, it didn’t seem possible. Mr. Hyde Oliver Perez was walking the ballpark, and the Mets hitters couldn’t touch Tim Lincecum.

Then, the wind changed.

Thanks to idiotic management decisions, terrible fundamentals, and a few wind-blown balls, the Giants completely blew golden opportunities to put the game away and gave the Mets extra chances to gain a win — and the Mets made the most of them.

Then, the wind changed again. Rookie Jenrry Mejia, pitching in the setup role and protecting a one-run lead, walked John Bowker in the 8th, then allowed a two-run homer to Aaron Rowand to give the lead back to the Giants.

Jason Bay had a wind-blown double to lead off the ninth, but was stranded there when closer Brian Wilson struck out the side.

Game Notes


Oliver Perez was terrible. Absolutely terrible. At one point he had 3-ball counts to nine straight batters, and 11 out of 12. By the time he left, he allowed only 3 earned runs but walked 7 in 3 1/3 innings. It could’ve — and should’ve — been a lot worse. Only the horrendous managing of Bruce Bochy kept him in the game.

Bruce Bochy has a great reputation as a manager, but he had me baffled in the top of third, while Oliver Perez was on the mound and unable to throw a strike. With a runner on first — due to a walk — and Pablo Sandoval at the plate with no outs and a 3-1 count, Bochy called the hit and run TWICE in a row. These calls came just moments after Perez threw a pitch 20 feet outside — causing Gary Cohen to channel his inner Bob Uecker a la “Bull Durham” / Nuke LaLoosh. As a result of this stupidity, Sandoval swung at two pitches out of the strike zone, and eventually popped out for the first out of the inning. Didn’t seem like a big deal, but the Giants eventually loaded the bases thanks to another walk and a hit-by-pitch. A pop out and a great catch at the wall by Angel Pagan ended an inning that Perez should never have escaped.

An inning later, after Perez walked the leadoff man, Bochy had Tim Lincecum sacrifice — this despite the fact Perez had gone to a three-ball count to 9 straight hitters and the fact that Lincecum walked his previous at-bat. As it turned out, Lincecum’s bunt was right back to Perez, who — ironically — threw wildly to second base but got the out. Why Bochy would give the Mets, and Perez, an out under those circumstances is beyond comprehension. As it was, the Giants again loaded the bases, knocked Perez out of the game, and scored only two runs. Between those two innings, the Giants should have scored at least 4 or 5.

Maybe that sounds like me not being a Mets fan or being negative but I’m a baseball fan first and stupid baseball makes me insane — and that was stupid, stupid, stupid baseball by Bochy. Sometimes managers should step out of the way and let the other team beat themselves, rather than forcing their genius into an opportunity.


Tim Lincecum was unusually fabulous against the Mets. I say “unusually” because he was winless in 3 career starts vs. the Mets, allowing 30 baserunners in 19 innings and posting a 5.68 ERA. This time, Mets fans saw the “real” Tim Lincecum. OK, now we get it.

Strangely, though, Lincecum’s fastball sat around 90 MPH, only occasionally going as high as 91-92. This is a pitcher who regularly threw 97-101 MPH not so long ago. Cold weather, lack of strength, or possible injury? Time will tell.

David Wright was thrown out of the game after striking out looking in the bottom of the 9th with Bay on second base. It was a close call, could’ve gone either way — it was a fastball with a heckuva lotta run, and it ended up looking off the plate by the time it was caught. Had the Mets tied the game, they’d have been in a bit of a fix, because they were out of position players. We might’ve seen Mike Pelfrey playing left field in the top of the 10th.

Fernando Nieve made an appearance, and is on pace to tie Mike Marshall’s record for most games by a pitcher in a season (104).

Next Mets Game

Mets host the surprising Nationals on Monday night at 7:10 PM. John Maine faces Luis Atilano.

Posted in Mets 2010 Games | Tagged , , , | 11 Comments

Mets Game 30: Win Over Giants

Posted on May 8, 2010 by Joe Janish

Mets 5 Giants 4

Same script, different cast.

Following Friday’s storyline, the Mets’ starting pitcher went deep into the game — pitching into the 8th inning — stunting the opposing offense and leaving the game in line for a win. Upon his departure, the bullpen blew the lead, sending the contest into extra innings. Eventually, the catcher sends a ball into orbit and over the fence to give the Mets a dramatic, exhilarating, walkoff victory.

As the Mets World Turns …

Game Notes

I will stop short of saying “Johan Santana didn’t have his best stuff …” because I’m beginning to believe what we’re seeing IS Johan’s best — for now, at least. Despite a fastball that hovered in the 86-88 MPH range for most of the afternoon — occasionally topping out at 90 — and less-than-precise command, Santana trudged through 7 2/3 innings, holding the Giants to 4 runs on 8 hits and no walks. He put the tying run on base but was in the dugout by the time it came around, thanks to back-to-back singles allowed by situational relievers Fernando “Nightly” Nieve and “Perpetual” Pedro Feliciano.

Henry Blanco hit a solo homer to win the game in the bottom of the 11th off Guillermo Mota. Could it have happened to a better person? (Which person? Both!)

Blanco, by the way, was on fire all day, going 3-for-5. No other Met had more than one hit, and the team had only 7 in total.

Hisanori Takahashi took the win after pitching a perfect top of the 11th, striking out 2 and expending a paltry 9 pitches (8 for strikes). Takahashi already has 3 wins in relief for the Mets.

Todd Wellemeyer “held” the Mets to only 4 runs on 3 hits and 5 walks. I say “held” because I can’t figure out how the Mets didn’t score at least 8 runs against Wellemeyer, who was and is absolutely awful. Making matters more painful was Wellemeyer’s pace, which harkened back to the days of Steve Trachsel. His four-inning outing felt like four hours of C-SPAN.

Luis Castillo left the game prior to the 8th inning with a bone bruise in his foot. No word on how long he’ll be out of action.

Next Mets Game

The Mets go for the sweep on Sunday afternoon at 1:10 PM. Oliver Perez (or Mr. Hyde) faces Tim Lincecum.

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Mets Game 29: Win Over Giants

Posted on May 7, 2010 by Joe Janish

Mets 6 Giants 4

The Mets upended the NL West first-place team, and now own sole possession of second place in the NL East.

By all accounts, it was the most thrilling and fulfilling game of 2010.

Game Notes

Mike Pelfrey returned to the “pre-Phillies” form that made him one of the best pitchers in baseball in April, allowing 3 runs on 8 hits and no walks over 7 1/3 innings. Fernando Nieve retired two batters in the eighth to hold the lead, but Frank “The Vulture” Rodriguez gave up a game-tying homer to pinch-hitter John Bowker to set up a dramatic finish.

Despite two long homeruns and nosedive into the Mets dugout to snare a foul fly ball by favorite son Ike Davis, the hero of the game was Rod Barajas. Like Davis, Barajas also blasted two taters, but Rod’s second came in the bottom of the ninth to give the Mets the victory. Barajas has now hit 7 homers in his last 11 games, and is on pace to hit about 50 this season.

Beyond Davis and Barajas carrying the club from the #7 and #8 spots at the bottom of the lineup, the Mets did just about nothing offensively. Jose Reyes was a soft 2-for-4, flailing and failing with runners in scoring position. The other two hits in the game came from Jason Bay — who hit a double — and David Wright, who also stole his 8th base.

Next Mets Game

The Mets and Giants meet again at 1:10 PM on Saturday afternoon. Johan Santana faces Todd Wellemeyer. I don’t care what Johan did in Philly — it’s time for him to step up and give the Mets a series win before sundown Saturday.

Posted in Mets 2010 Games | Tagged , , | 7 Comments