It took two weeks, but Keith Hernandez finally broke out the Tootsie Roll pops last night during last night’s game.
All odds were on the Tootsies to appear this season before Raul Casanova, but no one could have guessed neither would show up until game eight.
Since the unknown backstop has been described by Nelson Figueroa as “my personal catcher”, there’s a chance we’ll see Casanova in the starting lineup this evening when Figgy takes the mound against the Brewers.
During the sixth inning of last night’s telecast — while John Maine was struggling — Keith Hernandez and Ron Darling suggested that the Mets pitchers have a tendency to lose focus at times, and Darling added that sometimes the pitchers gave too much credit to the opposing batters. Well, I have to completely disagree on both counts.
First, I don’t think John Maine lost his focus during his tough sixth inning — I think he simply ran into some trouble, and needed a chance to work out of it. “Back in the day”, a pitcher would run into one or two innings like Maine’s, and were expected to bulldog through it en route to a 7- or 8-inning outing. These innings of struggle are more noticeable today because pitchers are generally not allowed to pitch beyond the sixth — so the evaluation of their performance is more concentrated and more closely scrutinized.
Maine got two quick outs (one thanks to a throw out on a SB attempt) in that sixth inning, then Chase Utley hit a crazy single that bounced off the first base bag. Maine should have been out of the inning, but instead had to face Ryan Howard with a runner on and a slim 2-0 lead. Predictably, Maine was ultra-careful with Howard, and similarly careful with Pat Burrell, before inducing a grounder from Geoff Jenkins to end the inning. Personally, I don’t see walking Howard and Burrell as “a loss of focus” but rather smart pitching. And I disagree with Darling’s insinuation that Maine gave “too much credit” to those Phillies sluggers — both Howard and Burrell (and Jenkins for that matter) have the ability to blast one over the fence at any time. I’m curious to see (not hear) how Darling would have approached such a situation.
We can excuse Ronnie, though, because today’s game is very different from the era in which he played. Darling didn’t have to face a lineup like all teams have today — if he was in a tough spot, it was unlikely he’d have to worry about pitching around more than one or two guys. Most lineups in the late 1980s / early 1990s had only two guys with 20 homers or more. Today, teams have sluggers from top to bottom, and as a result a mistake by a pitcher is more costly.
But don’t listen to me — check for yourself. Take, for example, the 1988 Mets. Their 152 HRs were by far the most in the NL that year — 30 more than the second-best Reds — and the Mets lineup was considered a powerhouse. Their .256 average was good for second in the league (the Cubs hit .261), and pitchers feared the fact they had three guys (HoJo, Kevin McReynolds, Strawberry) with more than 20 homers. However, if you put those stats into the 2007 season, you have a mediocre offense — about on par with the Washington Nationals or Pittsburgh Pirates. In 2007, ten NL teams hit more than 152 homers (the eleventh hit 151), and all but two teams hit better than .256. It’s no wonder that Mets pitchers give opposing batters credit — the majority they face are dangerous in one way or another.
Ironically, I’m an “old school” baseball guy, who usually agrees with the throwback ideals that Darling and Hernandez spout about during their broadcasts. But on this one point, I have to disagree. The game has changed, and Ron and Keith need to understand that — and adjust their analysis accordingly.
Mets 4 Phillies 3
It took 12 innings, but the Mets were able to finish on top, beating the Phillies to take the game and the series.
Jose Reyes led off the 12th with a double off the centerfield wall, then came home on a single up the middle by Angel “Moises Who?” Pagan.
The Mets took a 3-0 lead thanks to RBI singles by Ryan Church and Carlos Beltran in the fourth and sixth, but eventually allowed the Phils to even it up.
Starter John Maine cruised through the first five and two-thirds innings, allowing no baserunners until running into a bit of a jam in the sixth, when he loaded the bases with two out before retiring Geoff Jenkins on a ground ball to end the inning. Maine gave up a homerun and a double to start the seventh, so Pedro Feliciano was brought in to relieve him.
Feliciano walked pinch-hitter Jayson Werth, but struck out the next three batters to retire the Phils without further damage.
However, Aaron Heilman immediately gave up a leadoff homer to Ryan Howard — a tremendous blast over the wall in dead center, a good 450+ feet. Heilman proceeded to load the bases (the details are too painful to reproduce here) and eventually allowed the tying run to score before inducing three outs. It was another bad outing for Aaron, but I refuse to blame him … another post on why is coming soon.
An array of Mets relievers held the fort from innings nine through 12, with Jorge Sosa the last of the mohicans and the eventual winning pitcher.
Notes
John Maine was throwing some nasty breaking balls tonight, that were dropping straight down, but I can’t tell what they are. They appear to have too much downward break to be sliders, and are too fast and low to be overhand curves. I’m going to guess it’s his splitfinger fastball / forkball, which he had previously used as an alternative change-up (Aaron Heilman uses one similarly).
Is it too early to award Shane Victorino with a Gold Glove? He’s catching every … friggin’ … fly ball out there.
Speaking of the Flyin’ Hawaiian, Brian Schneider made a PERFECT throw to nail Victorino attempting to steal in the sixth.
Angel Pagan — who went 3-for-5 and is batting .370 — is doing everything, quickly becoming a vital cog in the everyday lineup. He’s smacking the ball the other way for extra-base hits, taking pitches, dropping down perfect sac bunts, running the bases well, and fielding his position better than most. Keep it up, Angel!
Next Game
Mets host the Brewers in a 7:10 PM start at Shea. Hometown boy Nelson Figueroa makes his first start of the year against Manny Parra.
Yesterday when I saw the post headline on MetsBlog that said “Mets Close to Vargas, Johnson DFA’d” I thought for sure that Jason Vargas was having a splendid comeback from surgery and that Ben Johnson was being released. That Heath Bell deal was starting to sting again.
But alas, it was CLAUDIO Vargas and DAN Johnson that Matt Cerrone was talking about. Most of you know my feelings about Dan Johnson — I like him a lot as a hitter for his strike zone judgment, patience at the plate, and ability to drive the ball. Unfortunately, my opinion hasn’t helped him hit more than .250 in the bigs. And as Matt lamented, if he were a righthanded hitter he’d be a perfect fit for the Mets. Ironically, Johnson hits lefties and righties almost identically (.247 vs lefties; .249 vs. righties). With singles-hitting Carlos Delgado starting out hot, I don’t see a place for Johnson right now. Too bad, I think he’ll be helpful to someone if given the opportunity.
As for Claudio Vargas, I’m completely indifferent. The Mets need an arm — any arm — so I’m glad they’re looking at Vargas. I don’t see him being a savior but also don’t see him as any worse than Brian Lawrence.
But, since I haven’t seen enough of him with my own two eyes, I called on Jeff Sackmann of BrewCrewBall for his opinion:
Vargas is what he is — a back-rotation innings eater, probably more or less what Steve Trachsel is at this point in his career. There’s nothing there waiting to be exploited, but the flip side of that is that I wouldn’t expect him to implode and give you a 7.00 ERA for two months a la Jeff Weaver.
The Brewers just have too much better-than-Vargas starting pitching–even with Vargas gone, we’ve got a tough decision in front of us with Yovani Gallardo coming back from the DL within the next week or two. I’m a little surprised that Claudio hasn’t found a home yet. Maybe he’s holding out for more than the minor league deal with an out clause that a handful of teams are probably offering him.
During the SNY broadcast last night, Ron Darling brought up the fact that Major League teams have a “systematic way” in spring training of deciding that every one of their young pitchers throw a good changeup. He added that he never was able to throw a good changeup, and therefore “might have fallen by the wayside” — and suggested that pitchers should work on the pitches they already have.
Interesting to hear this from Ron, who was quite successful because of changing speeds — though, instead of using a straight change, used instead a forkball and an overhand curve.
On the one hand, I agree that it is important for young pitchers to work on their current pitches — the idea being that one can improve more quickly by focusing on strengths rather than spending time bridging the gap between strengths and weaknesses. However, I’m 100% behind the idea of forcing youngsters to work on a change-up in this day and age — mainly because so few of them have an offspeed pitch.
In Ron’s day, pitchers were more complete with their repertoire — if they didn’t throw a change, they threw the forkball or a palmball or “foshball” or some other variation of a changeup. Further, while the slider was prevalent, many more pitchers threw an overhand curveball back then than they do now. So back then, it wasn’t as vital to teach a kid to change speeds — he already had a pitch that was significantly slower than his fastball. Today, however, we see a number of “shortcut” pitchers — guys who have a blazing fastball and mix it with a cutter or a slider, but have no curve nor change.
Mike Pelfrey is an ideal example of a shortcut pitcher — someone who is force-fed to the bigs by focusing on his main strength, and adding the easiest pitch to develop quickly (a slider). This strategy gets batters to swing and miss over the short term, but eventually they catch on — see: Jorge Sosa. The most successful pitchers of this and every other era were those who threw at more than one speed.
Yesterday’s game was a good example of how changing speeds leads to success. Mike Pelfrey was pounding the bottom part of the strike zone with his fastball, but was able to get strikeouts because he was mixing in a slider that often was being used as a change-up — I’m talking about the occasions that it was thrown at 84-85 MPH, or about 8 MPH slower than his 92-93 MPH fastball. Pelfrey turned Chase Utley into a pretzel on a strike three slider early in the game not because of the movement of the pitch but because of the slower speed; Utley had been “sitting on” or timing his fastball.
Hopefully, Big Pelf can keep his slider in that 84-85 range while also keeping the fastball around 93 MPH, because a pitcher needs to have around 7-10 MPH difference to keep batters off balance. The only thing I don’t like about the strategy of using the slider as a change of pace is that it flattens — and fattens — when thrown as a strike (the slider is meant to be thrown off the plate, out of the strike zone). To see an example, simply watch Jorge Sosa … he’ll serve up a nice flat fat one for the fences fairly frequently.
Are pitchers graded on different scales, based on what’s expected of them?
In the SNY postgame after the Mets win over the Phillies, Adam Rubin asked Willie Randolph if judging a performance is specific to the pitcher, and why Pelfrey’s 100-pitch, 5-inning effort was being celebrated while Oliver Perez’s 6-inning, 91-pitch performance was termed “inefficient”. Willie’s explanation was that “it was a different feel”, and that Perez “struggled” during his game while Pelfrey “never struggled”.
Hmmm ….
Not sure I agree 100%. I think that a pitcher who doesn’t struggle at some point in a game, simply hasn’t been in the game long enough or has been lucky. Averaging 20 pitches per inning, as Pelfrey did, is far from efficient. I think he was lucky that he had an early six-run lead that took the air out of the Phillies’ offense. Had it been a closer game, the Phils might have been more focused and worked Pelfrey a bit harder. But that’s speculation.
Personally, I would have (silently) agreed with Rubin — that you grade Perez on a different scale than you do Pelfrey, because you expect Ollie to give you six good innings at minimum, while you have your fingers crossed that Big Pelf can make it past the fourth. At the same time, if I’m Willie Randolph, I can’t say that publicly, because lowered expectations can mess with a kid’s confidence — plus, every player must be handled individually. Pelfrey is a kid who needs positive reinforcement more than anything else, while Ollie is a guy who responds well to being pushed toward perfection. Willie is doing right by both pitchers — Perez needs a push, Pelfrey needs a pull.
There’s a lot more to this game than the numbers.
Mets 8 Phillies 2
Mike Pelfrey is the new stopper …. who’d a thunk it?
Pelfrey threw five full innings, allowing five hits, two walks, and two earned runs, while striking out three and expending exactly 100 pitches. Not an outstanding start, but encouraging and absolutely acceptable from a fifth starter. Too bad he’s a fourth starter right now.
But I don’t want to play down the performance; this is exactly the type of game Pelfrey needed badly to regain his confidence. It’s something he can build on. It’s also exactly what the Mets needed, having lost three straight and nine straight against the Phillies.
Pelf was pitching like a man with a purpose; his body language and focus were outstanding.
And believe it or not, the Mets bullpen didn’t blow it — the relievers threw four innings of shutout ball.
Meanwhile, the offense scored eight runs — on five hits. Phillies pitchers walked nine batters, including 6 bases on balls by starter Kyle Kendrick in two innings of work. All those walks lulled the Philly defense to sleep, and as a result they committed four key errors that led to six earned runs.
With such sloppy play, it’s hard to say the Mets’ offense looked great, but at least they were smart enough to take pitches and get on base. Angel Pagan was the most impressive batter, hitting a double, driving in two, drawing 2 walks, and scoring once.
Notes
Pedro Feliciano looked a little rusty, but nonetheless pitched a scoreless eighth. Carlos Muniz pitched another hitless inning … well done.
Very smart play by Brian Schneider in the bottom of the seventh: while on first base, with one out and Damion Easley on third, Jose Reyes hit a grounder to Chase Utley, and Utley went to tag Schneider but Schneider backtracked, forced Utley to throw to first, thereby also forcing Ryan Howard to tag him for the third out. Before Schneider was tagged, Easley crossed the plate with the eighth run. In a six-run ballgame, it means little, but it nonetheless was very heady baseball.
Jorge Sosa pitched two quick, scoreless innings of relief in his fifth appearance of the year. He is on pace to pitch in 116 games this season.
Carlos Delgado had another base hit to the opposite field, and seems to hit very well with no one on base. Maybe he should be moved up to the two spot. (Kidding.)
In the first two innings, Kyle Kendrick threw a first-pitch strike to 9 of the 12 batters he faced … but walked 6 of them.
Next Game
The rubber match pits John Maine vs. Adam Eaton in another 7:10 PM start on Thursday night.
Many of you are aware that I’m a catcher and therefore sending me emails about Brian Schneider’s two passed balls yesterday — how can he be such a great defensive catcher yet drop two balls when the supposedly lesser Paul LoDuca dropped two all year?
And no, it can’t be blamed on drinking too much pre-game “Schardonnay”.
First, let me establish that I know a little bit about what I’m talking about here. I caught at the NCAA D-1 level for four years and been banging around in semi-pro leagues for over 15 years since. Many of the pitchers I’ve caught in my life either are, or were, in the Major Leagues. Dozens of others pitched at pro levels around the world. I’ve caught knuckleballers (Jim Bouton), flamethrowers (Joe Borowski, before the arm injuries), and every type in between. That said, I have some understanding of Schneider’s difficulties.
One thing I can say from my experience: it’s a heckuva lot easier to catch most MLB pitchers than most amateur pitchers, because the pros almost always know where the ball is going — often within 2-3 inches. This, however, is the conundrum: when a pitcher is nearly always hitting the target, a catcher can tend to expect the ball to be near the glove.
The second thing I can say is that it can be extremely difficult to catch a guy in a game who you’ve never, or rarely, caught before — particularly if that pitcher has a lot of velocity, a lot of movement, and tends not to hit his target.
Enter Oliver Perez — a guy who throws a 93-95-MPH fastball with lots of movement, and who would not be confused with Greg Maddux when it comes to control. Add in the fact that Schneider missed the bulk of spring training due to hamstring issues, and you have a recipe for passed balls.
Yes, Brian Schneider is getting paid tons of money to catch in the big leagues, so you might say there’s no excuse for two passed balls in one game. However, given his unfamiliarity with Ollie at this stage of the season, I’m willing to give him a break on that first one. It was a 3-0 pitch and Schneider was expecting a straight fastball somewhere near the middle of the plate. Instead, a swerving fastball went running way inside (a wild fastball is much tougher to block / stop than a breaking pitch, because with a breaking pitch you expect the ball to break down or sideways while a fastball is expected to have a truer, or at least consistent, flight path). After looking at the replay, I’ve decided the official scorer made a mistake — it should have been ruled a wild pitch. Generally speaking, however, most scorers refuse to score a wild pitch on a ball that doesn’t first touch the dirt — don’t ask me why.
On the second passed ball — which I also watched on replay several times (gotta love the DVR) — it looked to me like the blame could have been shared between Schneider and Heilman. Before setting up his target, Schneider was leaning toward the inside, I presume to get the batter Shane Victorino thinking that the pitch was going to be inside. Right before Heilman started his motion, Schneider leaned back over to the outside, where he wanted the pitch, but didn’t move his feet. Heilman’s changeup had more movement than usual, and was a good foot or foot and a half off the plate. Though Schneider was already leaning that way, it appeared that he was expecting (or hoping) the ball to take a turn back toward the plate instead of continuing outside. And the way it popped out (and has been popping out), it looks as if he’s using a new glove — but if that’s the case I’d be surprised.
Remember now, Heilman walked Carlos Ruiz to start the inning, and eventually walked Victorino on that at-bat, so his control was off. Although Schneider had previously caught Heilman and knew how his pitches moved, he hadn’t yet caught Aaron on a “bad day”, and may have expected him to be more precise. No excuse for letting that ball get away, but I can understand how and why it happened.
As the season progresses, and Schneider becomes more familiar with the pitching staff and their pitches, we’ll see that he is indeed an upgrade — defensively. Whether he’ll do anything other than hit weak ground balls to the right side, however, is another question entirely.