Mets Game 91: Loss to Braves

Posted on July 19, 2009 by Joe Janish

Braves 7 Mets 1

So much for the split.

Things were looking bad right away, when starting pitcher Fernando Nieve left the game in the second inning with a pulled muscle in his leg trying to beat out an infield grounder — and was replaced by everyone’s favorite “long man” Tim Redding. Redding immediately served up a solo homer to Yunel Escobar to give the Braves a 1-0 lead, foreshadowing more dismal events to come.

Somehow, Redding worked through the rest of the second without allowing a run, and things were looking up for almost 15 minutes, because the Mets fought back to tie the game in the top of the third and Redding shut out the Braves in the bottom of the same. But Escobar beat Redding again in the fourth, this time with a broken-bat single to drive in the go-ahead run. Then in the fifth, the roof caved in as the Tomahawkers trounced Redding and Elmer Dessnes for another five runs to put the game away for good.

Notes

Not much good came from this game. It’s hard to fault Nieve for running hard and trying to beat out a hit — pitcher or no pitcher, I like to see the game played right. And with this team it’s a pleasure to see someone giving 100%. Unfortunately that “stunt” will likely put him on the DL — he was diagnosed with a strained quad and no word yet on how severe is the injury. What makes it worse is it provides an example of why someone (particularly a pitcher) shouldn’t go all out. But I don’t buy that — had he not run hard through the bag, maybe he would’ve turned his ankle hitting the bag, or been wonked on the head by a wild throw. Injuries happen — usually for no reason other than bad timing or dumb luck.

Luis Castillo went 2-for-3, the only Met with more than one hit. The Mets mustered six hits all afternoon, and David Wright drew the team’s lone walk.

Brian Stokes threw a scoreless inning of mopup relief, as did Bobby Parnell — though Parnell walked two batters in his 21-pitch stint. Redding, Dessens, and Pat Misch continue to prove the other 29 teams right for having no interest in their services. Where’s Nelson Figueroa?

In the three hole, Daniel Murphy went 0-for-4 with a strikeout and is now hitting .238 with a .307 OBP. He’s 3 for his last 22 with 6 Ks.

Brian Schneider had one of the Mets’ three hits in his second start in the past week. I believe he and Fernando Tatis are the only Mets to go over the wall this month.

Yunel Escobar went 3-for-4 with 4 RBI and a run scored.

The Phillies beat the Fish 5-0 behind the arm of undefeated JA Happ, sending the Mets 9 games back. The Phillies are now 13 games above .500; the Mets are 5 below. But hey, there’s still a lot of season left, and the Mets have the benefit of playing the Nationals over the next three days.

Next Mets Game

The Mets embark to Washington DC to play the Nationals in a three-game series that begins Monday night at 7:05 PM. Livan Hernandez pitches for his job against J.D. Martin (not to be confused with J.C. Martin). Martin is filling in for Scott Olsen, who is being placed on the DL with an elbow injury.

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Mets Game 90: Win Over Braves

Posted on July 18, 2009 by Joe Janish

Mets 5 Braves 1

It took them 90 games, but the Mets finally learned how to play small ball.

Johan Santana and Kenshin Kawakami engaged in a pitchers’ duel for the first five innings, before the Mets scratched out two runs on a bases-loaded walk and a groundout. Then, in the top of the ninth, the offense turned the clock back to 1910 — singling, tripling, walking, stealing, and suicide squeezing their way to three more insurance runs.

Santana shut out the Braves through seven innings of stellar spinning, allowing just five hits and two walks, striking out five. It took four relievers to get through the bottom of the eighth, and Frankie Rodriguez pitched a perfect ninth to not earn a save.

Notes

Angel Pagan went 3-for-4 out of the leadoff spot, including a triple, an RBI, and a run scored. Alex Cora went 2-for-4 with a run scored hitting in front of the pitcher. Who needs Jose Reyes?

Jeff Francoeur also had two hits, as well as an RBI.

Luis Castillo and Pagan executed a textbook suicide squeeze in the top of the ninth. Personally, I find the squeeze much more exciting than the homerun, and would like to see them more often.

Next Mets Game

The series concludes in Atlanta on Sunday night at 6pm. Fernando Nieve faces Javier Vazquez. The game will be broadcast on ESPN.

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Mets Game 89: Loss to Braves

Posted on July 17, 2009 by Joe Janish

Braves 11 Mets 0

So much for Mike Pelfrey building on his previous strong start.

The game was over within a half hour after it began, as the Braves pelted Pelfrey for three runs in the first and another three in the third, finally chasing him from the game in the fifth in the midst of another scoring spree.

I could go on, but why?

Notes

While the Braves banged out 14 hits, you can count the number of Mets hits on one hand. In fact, Three-Finger Brown could have counted them on one hand, and still have had one finger left.

It should be noted that the Braves have been struggling to score runs all season. Looking at their top four starting pitchers, it’s hard to believe they’re only in third place. But Derek Lowe, Javy Vazquez, and Jair Jurrjens in particular have been victimized by remarkably poor run support.

After the fifth inning, I was fantasizing that the umpires would invoke the 10-run rule and mercifully end the game.

Elmer Dessens is an older, more Mexican version of Carlos Muniz.

On a positive note, Jeff Francoeur was roundly cheered by the Atlanta home crowd every time he came to the plate. Or is that a negative?

Prior to the game, a ceremony took place to retire Greg Maddux’s number. How fitting. After the game, there was a fireworks display. Again, how fitting.

Gary Sheffield left the game in the fifth with a hamstring cramp. He suffered it while running after one of the myriad missiles blasted off the bats of Braves during the game. Sheff walked off the field on his own power and all reports indicate that he will not be placed on the DL. Stinks for him — there is no escape from this travesty of a ballclub.

So tell me, how would Carlos Delgado, Carlos Beltran, Jose Reyes, and JJ Putz have made a difference in this game? Even with the “cavalry” intact, these Mets routinely stuck their collective heads up their butts and quit after falling behind by 4-5 runs early in games. Can’t blame this loss on injuries — it’s all on Peflrey.

Pelfrey, by the way, lost his cool early on and never regained it. We mentioned that he got away with losing his composure in some previous outings, but those were against inferior clubs (the Nationals, the Orioles). Pelf has a stunning skillset but does not have the otherworldly talent needed to overcome his own undoings. He needs to learn how to control his emotions if he’s ever to reach his full potential.

Although Pelfrey was charged with 3 of the 4 runs in the fifth, he didn’t get any help from reliever Tim Redding. Redding allowed both of his inherited runners to score, and then another one of his own responsibility. He did strike out two in his 2/3 of an inning of work in his “long man” role. Funny, isn’t it, that the “long man” didn’t even pitch a complete inning?

Hate to nitpick in a game like this, but Omir Santos was the starting catcher. Santos, as you know, is a RH hitter. Lefthanded hitters are pummeling Jair Jurrjens to the tune of a .300 average this year (righties are hitting .190). I am aware that Santos hits righties better than lefties, and that his average is 40 points higher than that of Brian Schneider (though, remarkably, Schneider’s OBP is 30 points better), but against a guy with a sub-3 ERA you have to find and expose any vulnerability you can find. In the end, of course, it would not have made a difference — but I feel like being extra critical this evening.

Next Mets Game

The Mets attempt to avoid a sweep when they play the Braves again at 4pm on Saturday afternoon in Atlanta. Johan Santana faces Kenshin Kawakami. If they can’t win that one it may be time to pack it in. The game will be televised on FOX. Yee ha.

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Mets Game 88: Loss to Braves

Posted on July 16, 2009 by Joe Janish

Braves 5 Mets 3

Oliver Perez got off to a strong second half start, but unfortunately it wasn’t enough to do the same for the Mets.

In a matchup pitting the two top free agent pitchers coveted by the Mets last winter, Perez pitched his most effective game of the year. Of course, when your ERA was nearly in double digits a week ago, that’s not saying much. But still, we have to be happy to see baby steps from the enigmatic lefthander — perhaps by Year Three of his contract, the 36-Million-Dollar Man will begin earning his dough.

Perez walked four, struck out six, and allowed three runs on five hits in six innings. Two of those five hits, however, were solo homers blasted in the second inning that gave the Braves a quick 2-zip lead. The Mets mounted a comeback in the fourth, scoring three runs off a shaky Derek Lowe, but that was all they could muster in the contest. After Dan Murphy’s double scored Gary Sheffield, the Mets offense produced just two singles through the remainder of the game.

Notes

Ironic, isn’t it, that the starting pitchers spun similar performances, yet for Lowe, it was a mediocre outing, but for Perez, it was a good outing?

Garrett Anderson was 3-for-4 with a homerun for the Braves. Ryan Church pinch-ran for him in the 8th and eventually scored the insurance run.

Jeff Francoeur was 0-for-4 with an RBI. The Mets are 2-1 with him in the lineup.

Luis Castillo was the only Met with more than one hit.

Pedro Feliciano was victimized by Bobby Parnell’s inability to strand runners. Parnell faced two batters and allowed two hits, with one of them scoring the go-ahead run, which was charged to Feliciano. In turn, Feliciano was also charged with his third loss of the season.

The Mets are now 42-46 overall, 7.5 games behind the first-place Phillies.

Next Mets Game

The Mets and Braves do it again at 7:30 PM on Friday night in Atlanta. Mike Pelfrey faces Jair Jurrjens.

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Mets Promote Angel Berroa

Posted on July 16, 2009 by Joe Janish

angel-berroaYou know it’s a slow news day when the headline is Angel Berroa.

The Mets — who signed Berroa on July 11th and assigned him to AAA Buffalo — have added the veteran infielder to the 25-man roster, replacing Argenis Reyes.

I liked the idea of Berroa as far back as late May, and still think it’s a low-risk move that isn’t going to hurt anything.

Berroa is a slick fielder with a cannon of an arm, no plate discipline, but has shown occasional pop in his past history (none of it recent, unfortunately). I doubt he can come in and replace Alex Cora at shortstop, but there’s an outside chance he can be more productive than Argenis Reyes off the bench as a pinch-hitter. Going along with Mets’ train of thought and scouting analysis, I imagine the next paint for the wall would be Wilson Betemit, assuming he can be pried away from the White Sox (maybe they’d take Angel Pagan? I mean if the Braves took Ryan Church for Jeff Francoeur …).

Back in 2003, Berroa was the AL Rookie of the Year Award, hitting .287 with 17 HR and 73 RBI as Kansas City’s starting shortstop. He hit .270 with 11 HRs as recently as 2005, but his career went downhill quickly ever since. I’m sure it’s only a coincidence that steroid testing began around that time. And I’m sure that Dominican birth certificate is legit, and he’s really 31 and not 34 or 35. In any case he’s ours now so woot-woot!

In other news Omar Minaya said Carlos Delgado won’t be ready to come back until August, there is no update on Carlos Beltran, and Jose Reyes “might” be back before the end of this month. For those wondering, the Mets do not play at home until July 27th against the no-draw Rockies. I’m sure the information about Reyes had nothing to do with potential ticket sales — so stop it, all you conspiracy theorists!

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Mets Halfway Point: Predictions

Posted on July 16, 2009 by Joe Janish

OK, it’s a little beyond the “halfway point” of the season, but MLB marks the midpoint by that farcical event produced by Bud Selig and his merry men. Now is as good a time as any to take another look at the wild predictions spewed by MetsToday on April 6th.

Here they are, in total, one by one:

The key to the Mets’ success this year will be tied to health and the production of Carlos Delgado.
There’s at least some argument here that I was on target. The Mets were 17-13 and in first place after the last game Delgado played. Since then, they’re 25-32 and have sunk to fourth.

Jose Reyes will hit 25 triples, 17 of which will come at home in Citi Field.
Um, I meant in 2010?

Johan Santana will win 21 games, and take the Cy Young.
This was looking good in early May. Johan does have 10 wins right now, which has him in a four-way tie for second place in the NL. If he fulfills his usual pattern of strong second halves, he could pull it off.

John Maine will struggle so mightily in the first half that he will be sent to the minors to work out issues with his mechanics and command.
Well …. he didn’t get sent down, but he did get sent to the disabled list. I stick by my belief that his problems — both his injuries and his control issues — are due to poor mechanics.

Livan Hernandez will be the tortoise and Oliver Perez the hare, and Livan will quietly emerge as the Mets #3 starter by year’s end, posting 13 victories.
Before his last two starts, Livan was making me look smart. He needs 8 wins in the second half to make me look the genius.

Maine and Perez will combine for less than 20 wins.
The current tally between them is 7.

Darren O’Day and Sean Green will combine for 20 decisions in middle relief.
How was I to know the Mets would flake out and waive O’Day? So far I’m 17 decisions short. Oh well. By the way, O’Day has a 1.93 ERA with a 0.93 ERA and 28 strikeouts through 28 innings in Texas, which is in the American League. You know, that league which is supposedly more difficult for pitchers.

Mike Pelfrey will take a no-hitter into the 9th inning, but settle for a one-hit shutout.
This could still happen.

Tim Redding will throw less than 50 innings all season.
Busted! Redding has already thrown 51. But how many more?

Luis Castillo will receive consideration for the All-Star Game, and finish the year with a .295 AVG., .375 OBP, and 28 SB.
OK, no one was talking about him for the ASG. But, he is currently hitting .285 with a .386 OBP and 11 SBs. Fingers crossed …

Danny Murphy will have trouble keeping his average above .250 in the first six weeks of the season, and Gary Sheffield will take over as the starting leftfielder.
As mentioned in late May, Murphy was at .246 in week 8, and Sheff had already taken over in left. Not much has changed since — Murphy’s at .248 and Sheff’s still in left.

Sheffield will be a key run producer for the Mets, and finish fourth on the team in RBI.
He’s currently third in RBI. So there.

Very few “Putz” jerseys will be sold by the Mets, for obvious reasons.
Count ’em up. .. you can do it with one hand.

Not one “Shawn Green” jersey will be sold to a patron thinking it’s a “Sean Green” jersey.
Anyone want to argue this one?

Jeremy Reed will substitute for a disabled starter at some point in the season and go on a tear, making fans almost forget Endy Chavez.
Well, I was half-right. Sort of.

Reese Havens will rocket through the Mets’ minor league system, and be considered for a September call-up.
Havens is hitting .228 through his first 53 games. Not exactly “rocketing”, though there’s still plenty of time for this to play itself out. Maybe I confused Havens with Ike Davis.

Ryan Church will be traded to the Rockies.
I was half-right.

Aaron Heilman will struggle against the Mets, but will otherwise succeed in Chicago. He’ll get a few starts when Rich Harden goes down and prompt the Cubs to move Sean Marshall back to the bullpen.
He hasn’t yet faced the Mets, and hasn’t yet gotten a start. Heilman has, however, combined with Harden to stink at least once. Heilman needs to go to St. Louis and meet Dave Duncan to be Braden Looperized, I think.

The Mets’ lack of a second LOOGY will be a major point of concern, and trade rumors will swirl around the names Eddie Guardado, Matt Thornton, and Alan Embree. The Mets will wind up with Bobby Seay, against whom lefties hit .303 lifetime.
This one really isn’t all that far off … only the names are incorrect. Replace Seay with “Takahashi”, for example.

The Mets will have a strong record outside the division, but will be only a few games above .500 against NL East teams.
Oops … just the opposite, kinda. The Mets are 18-15 against the NL East (thank GOD for the Nationals!) but 24-30 vs. everyone else. Though, take away the Nats and the Mets are 11-13 in the division.

Jose Valentin will make it back to the 25-man roster before the end of the season.
Had that silly man reported to Buffalo this one might’ve rung true. Surely he’d have been a better option than Ramon Martinez or Wilson Valdez.

Bobby Ojeda will start doing commercials for the Hair Club for Men.
There’s still time!

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Pedro Martinez is a Bad Guy?

Posted on July 16, 2009 by Joe Janish

pedro-philliesAs you may have seen, Pedro Martinez signed with the Philadelphia Phillies.

Interestingly, he signed a $1M contract only after passing a physical, yet was immediately placed on the 15-day disabled list with a sore shoulder. Go figure. Well, whatever. The point is, Pedro is now a Phillie. And last I checked, the Phillies were still in the NL East (and still in first place).

What’s more interesting was the negativity thrown around by the local media just prior to the announcement. I’m speaking specifically about Tuesday afternoon, on 1050ESPN Radio, when Seth Everett called in with his thoughts on the Pedro signing. His direct quote:

“I don’t value chemistry a great deal, but Pedro Martinez is going to tear that clubhouse upside down. Someone is going to have to put him in his place really quickly.”

Don La Greca went on for several minutes explaining why he agreed with Everett — agreeing that Pedro could be a big problem in the Phillies’ clubhouse, and wondering why the Phillies would want to mess up that “winning chemistry”. Huh?

Apparently, the reason given as to why Pedro would be disruptive was this: “because let’s face it, he’s Pedro Martinez”. Um …. ok …. and that means …. ?

Very strange, no? Am I the crazy one? Because I don’t remember one — NOT ONE — report or quip from anyone in the New York media describing Pedro Martinez as anything but an absolute joy in the clubhouse, a leadership figure, and a wonderful teammate from 2005-2008. I do remember some talk of Pedro being something of a prima donna PRIOR TO his arriving in Flushing, but from the moment he donned the orange and blue, all we heard was how he was a tremendous teammate and positive force in the clubhouse. If I missed something, please direct me to evidence to the contrary.

So how in the world did Pedro go from good guy to bad guy? Hmm … isn’t it incredibly coincidental (or convenient) that news of Pedro being a clubhouse cancer and his signing with the Mets’ #1 rival came simultaneously? The conspiracy theorist in me wonders if someone in the Mets front office offered a few favors to some people in the media to spread some filth and malaise regarding Pedro, to help explain why they didn’t re-sign him. After all, there are many, many Mets fans who purchased “Martinez 45” jerseys over the past four years. And, to steal a phrase from the late Desi Arnaz (as Ricky Ricardo), Omar Minaya has “some ‘splainin’ to do” as to why Pedro went to the Phillies when his heart was still with the Mets.

If there was any confusion as to where Pedro wanted to pitch in 2009, he cleared it up at his press conference in Philadelphia:

I was hoping the Mets would make a move and they didn’t, so I decided to wait. It wasn’t my decision to not be in New York. It was someone else’s.

Look, I’ll be the first to question whether Pedro can help an MLB team right now. And, my opinion is clouded by my bias for him — I love watching him pitch and compete, and that may make me feel he’s better than he really is at this point of his career. Being as objective as possible, it’s hard to say that Martinez can be more than a 5-inning pitcher right now. Though, for a “measly” one million bucks, I find it hard to believe that he’s more of a gamble than Tim Redding was at $2.2M. Even if Redding can outperform Martinez in on the mound, I doubt highly that anyone outside of Rochester bought tickets specifically because Redding was the scheduled starting pitcher. And I haven’t seen too many “Redding 44” Mets jerseys in Citi Field (or Modell’s, for that matter).

Maybe Pedro Martinez could have helped out at the back end of the Mets rotation. Maybe not. But of all the factors going into the decision, I’m not getting the “bad clubhouse guy” thing. If the Mets are trying to smear his reputation — heck, if anyone is looking to smear it — it only makes me want to pull for Pedro all the more, even in a Phillies uniform. I might have felt differently if Omar Minaya didn’t string him along — as well as all the prospective season-ticket buyers — with news in late January suggesting that the Mets were still considering bringing him back.

Can Pedro help the Phillies? Who knows? Certainly, he should be at least as effective as Rodrigo Lopez, and we all remember what Lopez did to the Mets in his first start since the Nixon administration. To me, it’s a low-risk move by Philly, and if Pedro can win four or five games in the second half, it makes the Mets look REALLY bad. Can’t you just see this drama setting itself up? The Mets playing the second game of a doubleheader against the Phillies on Sunday, September 13th, 19 games behind the Phillies, and losing to Pedro on national TV (FOX) to mathemetically eliminate them from the NL East title? It could happen.

If you’re interested, my wife looked at the signing, compared it to the Tim Redding, Freddy Garcia, and Oliver Perez contracts, and had this to say:

“The Mets are stupid”

Hard to argue.

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Mets Game 87: Win Over Reds

Posted on July 12, 2009 by Joe Janish

Mets 9 Reds 7

Jeff Francoeur and the Mets are now 2-0.

The Beltranless, Delgadoless, and Reyesless offense exploded for six runs in the third and fourth frames, and later tacked on another pair of much-needed insurance runs as the Mets beat the Reds, won the three-game series, and head into the All-Star Break with their chins up.

Mike Pelfrey tried to give the Reds a chance to get back in the game, but left that gracious gesture to the bullpen. In spite of losing his composure on a few occasions, pitching erratically, and having his usual case of the yips, Big Pelf somehow plowed through 7 full innings and allowed only 3 runs on 5 hits to earn his seventh victory of the season.

Every position player who came to the plate collected at least one hit, as the Mets battered Reds pitching for 16 hits including three doubles and two homeruns. Brian Schneider broke the Mets’ 80-inning dry spell without a dinger by sending a David Weathers pitch over the fence, and Fernando Tatis was so inspired that he followed with another one a few minutes later. Good thing for those two solo blasts, because the Reds scored four runs in the final two innings against Sean Green, Pedro Feliciano, Bobby Parnell, and Francisco Rodriguez.

Though he kept the home crowd in their seats to the final pitch, ultimately, K-Rod nailed down his 23rd heart-stopping save.

Notes

With a 7-run lead, Mike Pelfrey caught the yips in the fifth and nearly gave the game back to the Reds. He walked the first two batters of the inning and committed a balk in between, setting up a three-run inning that could’ve been much worse if Dusty Baker didn’t have an obsession with using pitchers to pinch-hit (yeah, I know Micah Owings is a good-hitting pitcher, but his “good” is only .250 … it’s kind of like using Argenis Reyes as a pinch- … oh, never mind).

Pelf’s sixth balk of the season was so ridiculously inexcusable, I don’t know where to begin. But I’ll try. First of all, he had a seven-zip lead. Secondly, the runner on first was catcher Ramon Hernandez, who is a good athlete but not a stolen base threat (8 SBs total in 11 years in MLB). Third, Dan Murphy had alerted Pelf to the fact that he’d be playing behind the bag, literally seconds before the balk. Fourth, Hernandez was only about three steps off the bag. Yet, inexplicably, Pelfrey looked over at 1B, saw Hernandez’s miniscule lead — and Murphy standing a few feet behind him — and whirled to make a pickoff attempt (but stopped when he realized there was no one at the bag to catch the throw). I shudder to think what is going to happen when Pelfrey pitches in a high-pressure situation — i.e., a postseason contest — if he routinely flakes out on lazy Sunday afternoons with seven-run leads against ordinary competition.

My apologies for the late post and brief notes — I had a doubleheader and watched the game in fast-forward off the DVR so I may have missed some things. Though, I’m kind of glad I missed seeing the game live. Between Pelfrey’s antics in the fifth and the late-game bullpen implosion, I might have thrown something heavy and blunt at the TV.

The Mets and Reds now have identical 42-45 records, and both are in second-to-last place. The Mets, however, are in fourth while the Reds are in fifth. Thank goodness for the Nationals.

Strangely enough, the Mets have the best home record in the NL East, at 25-20.

No, I am not related to Paul Janish, but thank you for asking. And I agree, it’s not a very common name. But yes, I’m sure.

Next Mets Game

The Mets take a break for a few days while MLB puts on the Bud Selig Circus Show in St. Louis. Order is restored on July 16th, when the Mets play the Braves in Atlanta at 7:00 PM.

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