40 Wins and No Excuses

Posted on June 29, 2009 by Joe Janish

In the New York Post, Joel Sherman brought up an eye-opening, and valid argument for Mets fans living in their Mets-centric cocoon and thinking that it’s only their beloved orange and blue getting struck with injuries and other forms of “bad luck”. In truth, many other teams in the NL have problems of their own.

Feeding off that article, and taking an unbiased perspective, let’s take it a step further and look at the adversity faced by all of the National League teams that have won 40 games. Continue reading →

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Mets Game 74: Loss to Yankees

Posted on June 28, 2009 by Joe Janish

Yankees 4 Mets 2

That whisking sound is coming from a broom brushed against a floor.

The Yankees retrieved bragging rights to New York City by sweeping the Mets in their home park and dominating them in five games out of six. And despite the fact that it was a close game for most of the nine innings, it never once felt as though the Mets had a chance.

Livan Hernandez was certifiably good against a tough Bronx Bombers lineup, going seven innings and allowing three runs on three hits and an uncharacteristic five walks. For a guy who barely made the roster out of spring training, and is supposed to be a fifth starter, that’s not too shabby.

Mariano Rivera joined Trevor Hoffman as the only pitchers to save 500 games, as Mo notched his 500th on this evening. So although the Mets lost, at least we were able to witness history. Yee ha.

Notes

Is Livan the Mets #2 starter? (Fernando Nieve doesn’t count until he makes at least six starts.)

Gary Sheffield stroked two of the Mets’ four hits. Luis Castillo (single) and Fernando Martinez (double) collected the others. Sorry, I meant five Mets hits … Danny Murphy fisted a bloop into left in the final inning.

In case you missed it, Frankie Rodriguez intentionally unintentionally intentionally walked Derek Jeter to load the bases in the ninth inning, then walked Mariano Rivera to force in a run. It was Rivera’s first career RBI.

500th save and first RBI. Not a bad night for Rivera.

Speaking of K-Rod, Luis Castillo did NOT botch a pop fly while he was on the mound. But Alex Cora did.

Danny Murphy (.310 OBP, zero footspeed) was the leadoff batter in this game. Perhaps Jerry Manuel is buying in to my belief that Murphy will one day evolve into Mike Hargrove.

Murphy has really looked great at first base. Except for the dropped balls and poor decisions in regard to chasing grounders and throwing balls across the diamond. But hey, those minor defensive issues are excusable when you have a powerful, productive bat such as his in the lineup.

Tonight’s words of wisdom from my father-in-law:

“I think it’s time we became Yankee fans”.

Tempting …. tempting …

Next Mets Game

The Mets travel to Milwaukee to face the Brewers on Monday night at 7:05 PM. Fernando Nieve faces Braden Looper.

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Mets Game 73: Loss to Yankees

Posted on June 28, 2009 by Joe Janish

Yankees 5 Mets 0

It wasn’t even that close.

The Yankees won the game by only five runs, but it may as well have been fifty.

Following up his fine start against the Mets two weeks ago, A.J. Burnett was even better. He was brilliant, and nearly unhittable. Nearly, because the Mets were able to scratch out one measly base hit against him in seven innings, whiffing ten times in the process. Once he left the game, you’d think the Mets might fare better against Bob Bruney and David Robertson, but it was not to be — that one single off the bat of Alex Cora would be the only one of the evening for the Metropolitans.

Mets starter Tim Redding was mildly effective through his first five innings, but fell apart facing the Bombers the third time through the order. Redding allowed four runs in the sixth and five runs total in his five and a third innings of work.

Notes

Brian Stokes, Pat Misch, and Elmer Dessens — aka “the bottom of the barrel” — shut out the Yankees over the final 3 2/3 innings. I think the Yanks simply lost interest, perhaps sent into a state of depression from watching the feeble Mets’ “offense”. Or maybe that was me.

In the words of my father-in-law, who had the sense to be viewing a rerun of Deadliest Warrior on Spike TV instead of the Mets game (William Wallace vs. Shaka Zulu, I believe):

“Only one hit? One hit? That’s embarrassing. A disgrace. You can’t do that as a New York team, especially playing against the other New York team.”

Yeah, well, it was, and, they did.

At the time, I doubted his decision to watch a repeat of overgrown D&D ubergeeks simulate fantasy battles with war hammers, spit poison, and ball and chains while there was a very REAL battle going on at Citi Field, but on second thought ….

Next Mets Game

The series finale begins at 8:05 PM, with Livan Hernandez going against Chien-Ming Wang — and with the way things are going, Wang is suddenly a pitcher that could give the Mets trouble. To add insult to injury, the game will be broadcast on ESPN.

I may have Spike TV running on the “picture in picture”.

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Scoreboard Watching

Posted on June 27, 2009 by Joe Janish

manuel-ghandi-smJerry Manuel’s “positive” spin on the 9-1 loss to the Yankees on Friday night:

“I’m satisfied that everybody else in the division lost. It’s scoreboard-watching for us because we’re trying to survive.”

Scoreboard watching in June, eh? Just “trying to survive”, huh? Whatever …

Every day this team gets closer and closer to first place, and yet Manuel continues to tell the world how terrible his team is, presumably because of all the injuries. (News flash: other MLB teams have lost players to the DL as well!)

And so goes the Jerry Manuel for NL Manager of the Year Jedi Mind Trick Hype Machine. Keep telling everyone what a challenge it is to win with the current roster, and you’ll look like a genius if your team finds its way to any kind of success.

Funny, this same Mets team was good enough to score eleven runs a few days ago, and good enough to beat a red-hot, NL Central-leading Cardinals three out of four. But I guess those achievements were the result of luck mixed with managerial wizardry not commonly found in this galaxy.

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Mets Game 72: Loss to Yankees

Posted on June 26, 2009 by Joe Janish

Yankees 9 Mets 1

Not a great evening for Mike Pelfrey, nor the Mets.

Focusing on going the other way, the Yankees pounced on Pelfrey in the second frame, and the defense behind him resembled the Keystone Cops, as four runs — two unearned — crossed the plate in an inning that was one hit away from complete disaster.

Pelfrey allowed four hits and a walk in the frame, while David Wright, Alex Cora, and Nick Evans all made key errors to give the Yankees a lead that would never be threatened.

Pelf did settle down after the second, retiring nine of the last ten batters he faced, but the damage was done. Down by four with C.C. Sabathia on top of his game, the Mets had little chance to mount a comeback.

Sabathia did not allow a hit until the fifth frame, when Gary Sheffield led off with a line drive bullet into the left field stands. By the time he left the mound, Sabathia threw seven stellar innings, allowing only three hits, one run, no walks, and striking out eight.

Notes

Although only four runs crossed the plate, the Mets were completely devastated in the second inning. Pelfrey in particular lost his cool, and the team as a whole looked tense, confused, or beaten for the remainder of the game.

During that fateful second inning, Mark Teixeira ripped a rocket of a ground ball right at Nick Evans, which Evans mishandled, allowing Brett Gardner to score and Teixeira to reach first safely. What’s interesting is that even though the ball was hit so hard and directly to Evans, Teixeira nonetheless busted it out of the box. Since the ball only bounced a few feet away from the bag, there’s no way Teixeira would have been safe had he not hustle all the way. So in two straight series, he demonstrated to Mets fans what good can occur when players go all out, all the time.

In the top of the seventh, with Alex Rodriguez on first base, Robbie Cano hit a liner to left field that was stretched into a double when Fernando Tatis did not make a direct throw to second base. The SNY crew couldn’t figure out why Tatis didn’t throw to second base, but had we seen a wider view of the field, we would have seen that cutoff man Alex Cora had positioned himself between Tatis and third base, as A-Rod was going from first to third. So I would guess that Tatis was somewhat confused about where to go with the ball, since he doesn’t play left field very often and in that split second decided to get the ball to the cutoff man.

Elmer Dessens and Sean Green combined to allow 5 runs out of the bullpen.

No one in the NL East won this evening, so the standings remain status quo. Does anyone want to take this division?

Next Mets Game

The Mets and Yankees do it again at 7:10 PM on Saturday night. Tim Redding faces A.J. Burnett. Those outside the NY-Metro area can see the game on the MLB Network or listen on XM 183, while us locals have the choice among WPIX, YES and WFAN.

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Series Preview: Mets vs. Yankees Part Deux

Posted on June 26, 2009 by Joe Janish

yankeeslogoThe crosstown New York Yankees traverse into Flushing to face the Mets for a three-game series this weekend at Citi Field, putting an end to the blasphemy known as “interleague play” for the year. Each team comes in to the series settled in second place in their respective divisions, with the third- and fourth-place followers biting at their coattails. That said, this weekend means more than TV ratings for MLB and ticket revenues to the two teams (or does it? according to reports none of the games are sold out).

Game one: Mike Pelfrey (5-2, 4.74 ERA) vs. C.C. Sabathia (6-4, 3.71 ERA)

Sabathia was pulled out of his last start in the second inning due to bicep tightness, but is reportedly 100% and ready to go against the Mets. He only has one career start against the Mets, a 9-1 win in which he threw 8 innings, but it was so long ago it doesn’t matter. After a solid May, Pelfrey has taken a step backward in June, struggling to pitch to and through the sixth inning. He was ripped by the Rays five days ago, and has been hit hard in three of his last four starts. Mark Teixeira is 4-for-10 lifetime vs. Big Pelf.

Game two: Tim Redding (1-2, 6.08 ERA) vs. A.J. Burnett (5-4, 4.24 ERA)

Burnett has been a huge disappointment for the Yankees, but he found his stuff against the Mets two weekends ago, shutting them out for seven frames. Burnett lost his next start vs. the Marlins, but held the Fish to only one earned run over 6 1/3. Meantime, Redding put together his finest performance and first win as a Met — though, I still don’t trust him nor that possum on his chin. Mark Teixeira is 4-for-9 career against Redding, and all four hits are doubles.

Game three: Livan Hernandez (5-2, 4.05 ERA) vs. Chien-Ming Wang (0-6, 11.20 ERA)

Livan has been pitching well enough to merit consideration as the Mets’ second-best starter, but he didn’t fare too well in his game against the Yankees. After a five-inning, six-run drubbing by the Bronx Bombers, Livan rebounded with back-to-back, nearly identical, 7-inning, 8-hit, 2 ER performances vs. the Orioles and Cardinals (he is obviously a bird lover). Similarly, Wang’s last two starts were just as identical, but not nearly as impressive — 5 IP, 6 H, 3 ER — against the Braves and Nationals. The scary thing for Yankees fans is, those two most recent performances by Wang are his best of the year — by far. Considering how well the Yanks lineup handled Hernandez, and Wang’s apparent turning a corner, this game is not as much a slam dunk for the Mets as it might’ve looked two weeks ago.

Oh, and Mark Teixeira is 3-for-6 career vs. Hernandez, including two homeruns. But it doesn’t stop there. Nick Swisher (.357), Alex Rodriguez (.579, 3 HR, 5 doubles), Derek Jeter (.421), Robinson Cano (.444), Melky Cabrera (.400), Jorge Posada (.333), and Hideki Matsui (.429) all enjoy teeing off on Livan Hernandez.

Final Thoughts

Which Mets team will show up this weekend? The one that beats the Cardinals three out of four or the one that lost the four series previous? The one that can’t manage more than two hits off of journeyman Joel Pineiro or the one that pounds St. Louis pitching for 16 hits and 11 runs? The one that loses heartbreakers in the final innings or the one that shows grit and intestinal fortitude when times get tough? It’s anybody’s guess, and they’re going into a series against a team with an ironically similar split personality disorder. Sit back and enjoy (and keep the hard alcohol / meds / happy thoughts nearby, just in case).

Notable milestones: Mariano Rivera’s next save will be #500 for his career. Argenis Reyes’ next walk will be #5 of his MLB lifetime.

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C.C. Sabathia vs. the Mets

Posted on June 26, 2009 by Joe Janish

cc-sabathia-indiansTonight, the Yankees send C.C. Sabathia to the mound at Citi Field against the Mets. It’s been a long time since Sabathia started against the Mets, and the last time didn’t go so well for our hometown favorites.

On June 16, 2004, Sabathia threw 8 solid innings of six-hit, one-run ball, as the Indians molested the Mets 9-1 at Shea Stadium in front of a paltry crowd of 29,512.

How long ago was that game? The Mets’ starter was Matt Ginter, Gerald “Ice” Williams was the leadoff hitter, Mike Piazza was the first baseman, Jason Phillips was behind the plate, and Art Howe was the manager.

Here is the entire Mets starting lineup on that ugly night:

Gerald Williams CF
ice-williamsKaz Matsui SS
Mike Piazza 1B
Cliff Floyd LF
Todd Zeile 3B
Ty Wigginton 2B
Jason Phillips C
Mike Cameron CF
Matt Ginter P

Makes one wonder: how much different will tonight’s lineup look five years from now?

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Albert Pujols on Steroids?

Posted on June 26, 2009 by Joe Janish

Bloggers get tarred, feather, beaten, demoralized, and spit upon when they write something without doing their due diligence — particularly in the case of PEDs suspicion. But somehow it’s OK for a professional journalist? See this must-read about an LA Times columnist who wonders if Albert Pujols is using something.

Another absolute “must-read” is this insightful article on TV camera angles and how they affect you, the viewer’s, perception of the strike zone. Loyal MetsToday readers know how much I love “modern” video production of baseball games.

NYSportsDog has some positive vibes and relays a report from Brian Moritz that prospect Jenry Mejia recently hit 102 MPH on the radar gun.

Our favorite source for graphs and charts, The ‘Ropolitans, asks Johan Santana “where have the strikeouts gone?”

And also hat tip to The ‘Ropolitans for finding a reason to acknowledge Michael Jackson’s death (the pop singer, not the former Georgetown point guard). Keep your eyes peeled, and you should see a Mets cap in this video:

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