In Adam Rubin’s column today, it was suggested that the Mets might shake up the starting pitching rotation, and/or consider adding an eighth reliever to fit the role of long man:
Manuel mentioned after the Mets’ fourth straight loss that the club may be forced to add an eighth reliever, to guard against overworking the current bullpen with the starting pitchers not going deep enough into games.
Hmm … who might the Mets have who can fill that role? Continue reading
Matt Cerrone of MetsBlog believes time is running out on Gary Sheffield, and suggests that his presence on the roster could depend on his performance tonight:
“… Sheffield better have a good game, if he hopes to stay with the team beyond May 1.
Personally, I think he is causing confusion on the roster. …
He’s looking better at the plate, but he’s just not getting the results … he must also be making life difficult for Jerry Manuel, who has two outfield corners and four players to fill them, one of which is a rookie, in Murphy, who does nothing but hit and who needs to play every day if he is going to get better on defense, and another in Church, who is the second-best defensive outfielder on the team and who is also hitting .333.
I realize it has only been 15 games, but if he continues to struggle, and Manuel needs the roster spot for a relief pitcher, I say cut him and let Murphy, Church and Tatis find order in their well-earned and necessary roles on the team.
Is Sheffield the crux of the problem with this team? And you’re ready to drop him after 18 at-bats? Really?
I admit to being slightly biased toward Sheffield — I have a thing for righthanded hitters with remarkable bat speed, power, a .310 career average with RISP, and a World Series ring (I also like the fire in his belly, but that’s an overblown factor according to the statheads). It’s true that Sheff might be done, but I think it’s irresponsible to make that decision based on 23 plate appearances — particularly since he’s never been in a bench role before. Further, if Sheffield goes, who takes his place on the roster? Cory Sullivan? Nick Evans (who by the way is hitting .102 after 49 ABs in AAA)?
The answer to the Mets’ pitching problems is not to add more arms to the roster — the team needs quality, not volume. And as mentioned earlier today, the Mets’ best shot at finding that quality might be to trade Ryan Church — in which case Sheffield becomes all the more valuable.
Oh, and I agree wholeheartedly — all Danny Murphy does is hit. He certainly doesn’t field, his fundamentals are shaky, and he’s been sporadic on the bases. If Murphy stops hitting, he has zero value to the team.
There is something really, really frightening about the Mets’ current struggles — the hot streaks of the Carloses.
Carlos Beltran is absolutely on fire, in one of those “zones” that he finds 2-3 times per year. Similarly, Carlos Delgado is blistering the ball to all fields, driving deep bombs over fences, and, for a while there, was looking like the guy who carried the Mets on his back for the second half of last year.
So why is this a problem?
Because despite both Carloses hitting the bejesus out of the ball, the Mets are still losing. Which begs the question: what happens when the Carloses cool off, which considering each’s past history as red-hot / ice-cold streak hitters, is a guarantee? Further, if the Mets can’t stay above .500 with their two most dangerous hitters on fire (and David Wright and Jose Reyes both over .300), how in the world can they win when the Carloses go cold?
Don’t look now, but Delgado is already cooling off — his average has dropped nearly a hundred points in the last eight days. Beltran looks like he can stay warm for at least a few more weeks, but will it matter?
Adam Rubin dropped a bombshell this morning, and his headline says it all: “Slumping Mets eye major shakeup: Coaches on firing line; Pelfrey, Perez or Maine may get demoted”
Wallace Matthews says the Mets and Yankees misread the market, pointing out “… they are turning fans away at Citizens Bank Park, and in New York, at least 10,000 seats go unoccupied every game”
MetsGeek previews the pitchers in this weekend’s series with the Nationals.
The Mets Report says the Dan Murphy Experiment Should End Now
Brooklyn Met Fan says it’s time for Omar to place a call to Pedro
You may have noticed during the St. Louis series that the Mets hitters were hitting the ball hard, but “right at people”. The Cardinals defenders seemed always to be at the right place at the right time — to the point where Matt Cerrone quipped, “… either Brendan Ryan is psychic, or the Mets are really unlucky, because the kid seems to be in the exact spot of every ground ball hit to the right side.”
Of course, Brendan Ryan is not psychic — but, neither are the Mets unlucky. The reason the Mets seemed to hit so many “at ’em” balls had much to do with the psychotic preparation of Tony LaRussa — a dugout warrior who leaves no stone unturned and reduces each game to a painstaking process of execution.
Since making his managerial debut with the White Sox in the early 1980s, the cerebral LaRussa has treated ballgames like chess matches, using every means necessary to gain an edge on the opposition. He was using computers before people knew what they were to churn out statistics and probabilities, a pioneer in the practical use of situational percentages (and a prelude to modern day sabermetrics — LaRussa was Billy Beane before Beane was playing high school ball). His teams have always been fundamentally sound, and benefitted from extensive, detailed advance scouting. These past three games were not unlike those of the 2006 NLCS, when David Eckstein seemed to be everywhere, except when balls were hit right at Ronny Belliard. LaRussa’s teams pore over the scouting reports, then act on them: the pitchers throw to specific locations, in specific counts, to specific batters, and the fielders position themselves accordingly. The results are not always perfect, but LaRussa makes certain that the odds are always on the Cardinals’ side, on every pitch. If the pitcher makes the intended pitch for a particular situation, there’s a good chance the batter will hit the ball to a general location. Many give the bulk of the credit to Dave Duncan when the Cardinals pull a pitcher off the scrap heap and turn him into a winner, but in truth, at least part of the success can be attributed to LaRussa’s intensive system.
LaRussa didn’t event this approach to the game — fielders have been “cheating” a few steps one way or the other depending on the batter and/or pitch since the 1880s, and all teams use scouting reports and preparation to some degree. And there are a few other managers who employ similar “systems” of success — Ron Gardenhire and Bobby Cox are two that immediately come to mind.
Point is, the sweep in St. Louis had little to do with a hex, luck or any other hocus-pocus. The team on the winning side had better scouting and better preparation, and did a better job of translating both into execution.
The Cardinals completed a three-game sweep of the Mets, by a score of 12-8. It wasn’t even that close.
Mets starter Livan Hernandez went 4.1 innings, allowing 7 ER on 9 hits and one walk. Reliever Sean Green allowed 5 ER in just two innings of work.
After six innings, the Mets trailed 11-3, but they were able to mount something of a comeback, scoring two in the seventh and three in the eigth on home runs from Ryan Church and Carlos Beltran.
Wow … where to begin? If there’s a silver lining, it is that the Mets didn’t roll over and play dead. Despite being down 11-2, they continued to chip away, scoring five runs in the 7th and 8th frames. But it was too little, too late.
Carlos Beltran is as hot as he can be, and putting him in the #3 spot now is absolutely the right move — he is, hands-down, the Mets’ best hitter right now. If only he could stay this hot for more than a two- or three-week period (fingers crossed).
I made fun of Jerry Manuel’s decision to bat Alex Cora second in the order. Naturally, Cora gets two hits and reaches base four out of five times, so it’s my turn to eat crow. That Jerry Manuel is some kind of genius, eh? (Though, I vaguely remember Argenis Reyes pulling a similar feat out of his butt last year, never to repeat it, yet finding himself entrenched in the two spot.)
Beltran is currently the Mets’ best hitter, but Ryan Church is not far behind as second-best.
I keep looking at the averages of Jose Reyes and David Wright — both of whom are over .310 — and shake my head in wonderment. Must be the new math, because it feels like they’re both closer to .250.
I’m purposely not discussing the specific details of the game … how about we just turn the page?
The Mets return to Citi Field to host the Nationals in a weekend series beginning on Friday night at 7:10 PM. Johan Santana takes the hill against Scott Olsen. If the Mets don’t win this “gimme” then it’s time to panic.
Duke Carmel is neither a candy bar nor a nemesis of cartoon superhero “Underdog”. In actuality, New York native Leon James “Duke” Carmel was a Major League OF/1B who trudged through 47 games for the Mets in 1963. He also is one of the rare ballplayers to have played for both the Mets and the Yankees (strangely enough, the Yanks stole him a from the Mets in the Rule 5 draft in November 1964). Duke was born on April 23, 1937 — happy birthday, Duke!
Other former Mets born on this day include Hall of Famer Warren Spahn (1921), singles hitter Jason Tyner (1977), and flamethrowing catcher-turned-reliever Henry Owens (1979).
According to MetsBlog, this is today’s starting lineup:
Jose Reyes, SS
Alex Cora, 2B
Carlos Beltran, OF
Carlos Delgado, 1B
David Wright, 3B
Gary Sheffield, OF
Ryan Church, OF
Omir Santos, C
Livan Hernandez, RHP
That’s right, Alex Cora — he of the career .312 OBP — bats second.
Both Danny Murphy and Luis Castillo get a rest. Strange to see Murphy sitting today against RHP Kyle Lohse and not tomorrow against LHP Scott Olsen. Would Jerry Manuel sit Murphy two days in a row?