Blogging Mets

Wow! There’s not much more to say. That the Mets swept the Phillies is incredible in and of itself. But shutting them out three games in a row? Nobody could have expected that. And coming off winning two out of three from the Yankees, and you can safely say the Mets are on a roll.

Of course, we’ve seen this before, just last month when the Mets won eight in a row. But then, the Mets were beating the likes of the Cubs, Braves and Dodgers. But these are the two teams that met in the World Series last year. Two offensive juggernauts. And the Mets shut them down.

After two months, it seems like the Mets will be a streaky team with streaky players. Jason Bay is notorious for his streaks. They say when he’s on, he’s unstoppable. I think we’re seeing that now. Jose Reyes seems to be putting things together and being the sparkplug the Mets need. Now if Jeff Francoeur can get back to the way he was hitting the first couple of weeks of the season, and David Wright can stop striking out, maybe we’ve got something here.

And how about the revamped rotation? R.A. Dickey and Hisanori Takahashi (left) are making us forget Oliver Perez and John Maine — an easy task, yes, but still a crucial development for the season. And of course Johan Santana and Mike Pelfrey continue their strong seasons.

The Mets are now just two games behind the Phillies after climbing out of last place. Every team in the NL East is at .500 or better. If this keeps up, it’s going to be a very interesting pennant race.

Say what you want about the Mets, but they’re certainly not boring. Whether it’s an eight game winning streak or playing a 20 inning game or their owner flying down to Atlanta to talk to the manager, it’s always something interesting. The latest twist in Metsland is John Maine being pulled from Thursday night’s game against the Nationals after just one batter (naturally, it was a walk).

It seems Jerry Manuel and Dan Warthen didn’t like the way Maine looked in pre-game warm-ups. Then when the game started, they were concerned about Maine’s velocity, or should I say, the lack of velocity – his fastball reached only into the mid-80s. R.A. Dickey throws knuckleballs nearly that fast. So they took him out and will send him to the doctor. It’s unclear what the doctor is supposed to be looking for.

Maine was clearly not happy as he stood on the mound surrounded by Manuel, Warthen and his teammates.  It looked like Maine was begging to stay in the game, but Manuel wasn’t listening. When Manuel signaled to the bullpen for Raul Valdes, Maine looked disgusted. But so did Manuel. After they both got back to the dugout, the cameras were focused on them as they argued until Maine stormed off towards the clubhouse. Manuel has never looked that angry since he’s been the Mets manager.

My guess is that we’ve seen the last of Maine in a Mets uniform. If he is indeed injured, he’ll disappear onto the disabled list, joining Sean Green as an MIA. If there’s nothing physically wrong with him, that means he is unable to throw a fastball that would break a pane of glass. The Mets have no use for a pitcher like that, and it says here that they will just release him.

It’s a sad state of affairs. Maine looked so promising as recently as two seasons ago. He had the look of a pitcher who would develop into a very solid number 2 starter. But then he hurt his shoulder, his 90s+ fastball was gone, and Maine couldn’t figure out how to pitch without it.

So now the rotation is in shambles. Johan Santana and Mike Pelfrey are still there. Jon Niese is expected to miss only two or three starts. Dickey did all right in his first start as his replacement. Hisanori Takahashi gets his first start in place of Oliver Perez Friday against the Yankees. And now the Mets in all likelihood will need someone to replace Maine. Dillon Gee and Pat Misch are candidates in Buffalo. I thought Misch looked really good last season, and hopefully he will get another chance.

So the Mets may not be winning as much as we’d like, but at least there’s always a reason to tune in. Boring is all right if you’re winning, but boring and losing — that’s a deadly combination.

I’ve been watching the Mets for decades now (man, I’m old). There have been many ups and downs over the years — unfortunately more downs than ups. But I’ve got to say, I don’t think I’ve seen them play a worse series than the one just concluded in Florida. It’s not that they lost four games, which was bad enough. It’s that they played poorly, were managed poorly, and they lost two, although I would say three, of their five starters.

Thursday, May 13
Marlins 2, Mets 1
Johan Santana pitched a gem — 7 innings, 1 unearned run (thanks to his own error). It was the only bright spot of the series. The offense could only muster one run off of an equally brilliant Josh Johnson. Marlins manager Fredi Gonzalez did the Mets a huge favor by pinch hitting for Johnson in the bottom of the 7th, getting him out of the game. But then Jerry Manuel returned the favor by pinch hitting for Santana in the 8th. Santana had only thrown 98 pitches, and was still pitching well. The Marlins couldn’t hit him. There was no reason to take him out. Santana usually wears down at about 110. He could have given the Mets one more solid inning.

Then in the ninth with Luis Castillo on second and no outs and the score still tied at one, Manuel orders Reyes to bunt. Reyes failed in his first two attempts, then flied out to left. Now, I am not a fan of sacrificing in general, but in this case, it was unnecessary. Castillo was already in scoring position. Reyes was the number three hitter — let him hit. If Jason Bay or David Wright were batting third, I doubt very much that they’d be asked to bunt. In the end, it was Reyes’ failure to get down the bunt. But it was Manuel’s poor decision to order it.

Then in the bottom of the ninth, with Fernando Nieve entering his second inning of work, he allowed a walk and a single. It was first and third with one out. The game was on the line. So Manuel did — nothing. He allowed  Nieve to pitch, and he promptly threw a wild pitch that scored the game winning run. Why not bring Francisco Rodriguez into the game? The game needed saving. Isn’t that his job? Manuel, and to be fair, many managers, only bring in their closer in save situations. I think they should come in when the game truly needs saving. And it needed saving in the ninth inning on Thursday, and K-Rod was sitting in the bullpen.

Friday, May 14
Marlins 7, Mets 2
Oh Ollie, we hardly knew ye! Or, we got to know him too well, entirely too well. And now he is gone — from the rotation, anyway. Oliver Perez was in rare form, or should I say, his usual form, allowing seven runs in 3+ innings. He served up four home runs — three of them in the third inning while Manuel and pitching coach Dan Warthen just sat on the bench and watched. Manuel finally ended the misery and took Perez out of the game. It will be Perez’s last start for a while, maybe forever. He’s been banished to the bullpen. Perez said he has no intention of agreeing to be sent down to the minors. For a guy who says he cares so much, going down to the minors to work out his problems would be the best thing for him. Instead, he’ll languish in the bullpen with his $36 million dollars.

With the Mets down 7-0 in the fourth, this turned into the most tedious game of the year. The bullpen was good, not allowing any more runs. But the offense couldn’t mount anything. Just a boring, brutal game.

Saturday, May 15
Marlins 7, Mets 5
John Maine followed Perez to the hill, and could be following him out of the rotation. Maine began the game with 12 straight balls — that’s three walks for the math-challenged. With the bases loaded, Maine managed to get an out. Then he forgot again where the plate was, walking in a run. A two-run single made it 3-0 after one inning.

The Mets actually managed to tie the game at three. But they couldn’t overcome Maine’s continued cluelessness in the fifth, when he allowed three more runs. Maine has proven once again that he is not a major league pitcher. He’s got no velocity left, and at the first sign of trouble, he loses all control of himself. Maine is known as a guy who gets down on himself when things go wrong, and that is not helping him at this point. How many more starts will Manuel give Maine before he is banished somewhere, too?

Sunday, May 16
Marlins 10, Mets 8
Jon Niese took to the mound, hoping he could salvage the final game of the series, and put stop to the bleeding for the rotation. Instead, he did neither. Fielding a bunt in the third inning (and making a throwing error to boot), Niese aggravated his hamstring — the same one that snapped and put an end to his year last season.  He’s going to miss at least one start, if not more. So that leaves the rotation with two of its original starters, a promising Japanese guy (Hisanori Takahashi) who nonetheless has never started in the majors, a minor leaguer, and Maine. Hardly a dream rotation.

As far as the rest of the poorly played game, David Wright committed an error before Niese’s ill-fated play, and should have been given a second error on a missed backhand in the same inning that was scored a double.

Both Reyes and Niese were doubled off first on a fly ball and a line drive respectively, putting the brakes on what could have been promising innings.

The offense came alive, making it 7-6 before Nieve allowed a three-run homer.

*****

All in all, a wasted weekend. Worse than wasted, actually. They lost more than just games. Hopefully, they won’t let the season slip away the way these four games did. And it appears management won’t let that happen — it was announced that Omar Minaya will accompany the team on the road trip to Atlanta. That can’t be a good sign for Manuel, as the managerial death watch that took a break during that eight game winning is back. It’s going to be an interesting week.

Did you ever know someone, or see someone on television who just made your skin crawl? I mean, every word out of their mouth? Glenn Beck and Mitt Romney do it for me. Just so there are no cries of partisanship, left-leaners Keith Olbermann and Rick Sanchez are also skin-crawlers for me. And Nancy Grace.

So how does this relate to baseball? I was watching a clip of commissioner Bud Selig today, and I forgot how much of a horrible human being he is. He is, in this man’s opinion, one of the worst people out there. And it had nothing to do with what he was saying — in an answer to a question about whether MLB should pull the All-Star game out of Arizona because of the state’s new immigration law, he yammered on about baseball’s fine record of minority hiring.

The exchange was an example of what kind of despicable person Selig is. Instead of simply answering the reporter’s valid question, Selig smugly avoided it, and answered a question no one asked.

Smugness and arrogance is Selig’s MO. Lying too. Remember when he was called to testify before Congress about baseball’s finances, he looked the members straight in the faces and lied, saying everybody was losing money? It was during this hearing that New York Rep. Anthony Weiner said the best thing ever uttered during a boring Congressional hearing. Speaking sarcastically about Selig’s less-than-successful stewardship of the Milwaukee Brewers, Weiner said, “Yeah, when the Brewers come to town — that’s a  good time.” That wiped the smug look off of Selig’s mug.

And when he graced Congress with a second appearance, this time during the steroid hearings (left), Selig said he had no idea steroids were running rampant in his game. No, of course he didn’t. How could he? It’s not like balls were flying out of ballparks in record numbers, and players looked more like massive bodybuilders than baseball players.

Of course Selig knew. Everybody knew. But owners were making too much money to care, and Selig does whatever the owners tell him to do. Of course he does — he was one of them. Even when he was a commissioner. How is it that the commissioner could also be the owner of a team, yet act independently for the good of the league? There is no way. Of course, Selig told the world that he had nothing to do with running his fine ball club, that his daughter was taking care of things. Another lie. It was absolutely shameful that Selig’s “daughter” owned the Brewers for 13 season while Selig was running the league.

Selig knew how to take care of his friends. When his buddy and fellow owner Jeff Loria wanted out of Montreal and couldn’t sell the team, Selig said, “don’t you worry about a thing.” The league bought the team, Loria was allowed to buy the Marlins from Selig’s other pal John Henry, and Henry was allowed to buy the Red Sox from his longtime friends, the Yawkeys. The league ended up owning the Expos/Nationals for four and a half seasons. How can a league own a team and allow the team to run independently? It can’t. Another shameful episode under a shameful man.

Have you noticed everything Selig did helped small-town teams, like his own team? How much money did Selig’s “daughter” make before Selig finally did the right thing and sold the Brewers? And with all of the revenue sharing and other small market improvements, Selig’s team was much more valuable, allowing him to make even more money on the sale.

You can tell a lot about a person by the words they choose to say, specifically words like ”I” and “me” and “mine.” Selig paid a visit to the Mets broadcast booth last season, and I lost track of how many times Selig arrogantly referred to himself. Just listen to the guy, and try to get you skin not to crawl. I’d put in a link, but I don’t want him fouling up my site. Bad enough I had to use photos of him.

The Mets are 17-15 so far this season. On one hand, it’s rather mediocre — just two games over .500. But on the other hand (the hand we’ll be chatting about), it is quite remarkable, considering what has gone down this season.

To wit:

– The Mets are missing their best player, Carlos Beltran. Take away most teams’ best player and see what happens to them.
– Jose Reyes, Jason Bay, David Wright and Jeff Francoeur — that’s half the lineup and all of the big hitters – have struggled for the better part of the season, save for a couple of hot streaks.
– The bench is useless. 
– 40% of their games are started by less-than-reliable pitchers, to put it kindly.

Yet the Mets are still two games over .500 and in the thick of things in the NL East. How are they doing it?:

– Rod Barajas
Where the heck did this guy come from? He has nine home runs, just one behind the league leader. He’s come up clutch, slamming game winning homers and other big hits when the Mets really needed them. He’s also good defensively, and apparently calls a good game. If he keeps it up, this would go down as one of Omar Minaya’s best moves as Mets GM.

– Ike Davis
We know where this guy came from. He’s delivering on all of the promises. He seems to really have an idea what he’s doing at the plate, a rare trait for a rookie. Davis is not just a dead-pull power hitter — he drives the ball to left field regularly. His presence in the lineup makes it very deep. Defensively, he’s a very competent first baseman. And those dugout-flipping catches (left) are just plain fun.

 – Mike Pelfrey and John Niese
With two big veteran question marks, the Mets needed Pelfrey and Niese to step up to keep the rotation from becoming a disaster. And they’ve done that in a huge way. Pelfrey has been pitching like an ace. Niese has only one win, but has pitched well enough to have more. But most importantly, he’s given the Mets the chance to win every game he’s started, which two other pitchers who will remain nameless don’t do on a regular basis.

 – Bullpen
The bullpen has been sensational, picking up the slack from a rotation that does not go deep into games. Perhaps the best thing to happen to the bullpen is that Sean Green has not been seen since suffering an injury on opening day. We haven’t heard his name at all. That’s a good thing.

Unfortunately, the Mets can’t keep this up all season. The big hitters have to start hitting. Their struggling starters have to start pitching better. And they need Beltran back. If the Mets can keep winning this way, then their 1980s motto “The Magic is Back” would really ring true.

Oakland A’s GM Billy Beane, who sometimes thinks he invented the game, once broke down a baseball season like this — the first two months, you evaluate your team and see what it needs. The next two months you go out and fill those needs. And the seemingly perfect team plays the last two months. We’re only a month into the season, but let’s see what the Mets need:

Bench

The Mets bench is horrible. Your not going to win when your bench/spot starters are Fernando Tatis, Frank Catalanotto, Gary Matthews, Jr.,  and Alex Cora. I know these guys bring veteran leadership and positive vibes to the clubhouse, but they bring virtually nothing to the actual game. Here’s what I say they should do:

– Get rid of Matthews, and bring up Fernando Martinez. I said at the start of the season that Matinez should be starting in center field until Carlos Beltran comes back (whenever that happens). It’s time to see if the kid can live up to his hype. If not now, when?
– Get rid of Catalanotto and bring up Chris Carter. The guy had a great spring, and is tearing it up in Buffalo — 5 homers, 18 rbis, batting .337. Like Catalanotto, Carter can play first base and the outfield. And it appears he can actually hit.
 – Get rid of Tatis when Daniel Murphy is ready to go. Now that Ike Davis is fully ensconsed at first base, the reason for Tatis — to platoon with Murphy — is gone. The only reason to keep him around now is that he can spell David Wright at third base. Well, Murphy was a third baseman. He can probably handle an occasional game there. He proved last season he’s much better playing the infield than the outfield.
– We’re stuck with Cora because Omar Minaya inexplicably gave him a $2 million contract. Was anybody offering even close to that? Cora is not bad to have around if other bench players are better.

One major problem with my scheme is that Martinez, Carter, and Murphy — as well as Cora — are all left handed hitters. But there’s still righty Henry Blanco and the switch-hitting Angel Pagan on the bench. And besides, I think the whole righty-lefty thing is a bit overrated.

Pitching

The starting pitching has actually fared pretty well. And the bullpen has been solid. So what’s the problem? Mets starters average less than six innings a start. And that means the bullpen is carrying a heavy workload. Every day. That will mean a burned-out bullpen by the time the stretch run comes in September. And besides, I don’t have long term faith in Oliver Perez or John Maine.

The Mets need to go out and get a workhorse starter who will pitch deep into games, to give the bullpen at least one day of rest. This is a tough task to pull off during the season. It’s much easier to do it in the off-season, but again, Minaya inexplicably did not do it when he could.

Starters

There’s really nothing the Mets can do here — they are pretty much set, especially after Beltran comes back (whenever that happens). But the team is still missing that one hitter to put them over the top. Maybe Jason Bay will be that guy when he comes out of his season-long funk. Or maybe it will be Beltran after he comes back (whenever that happens).

So far in the early going, the Mets have shown they are a streaky team. It would be nice to win consistently, but I think we’re going to have to put up with the ups and downs all season. Nobody ever said this was going to be easy.

The Mets are down to earth. Hell, it was bound to happen. Let’s face it — losing two out of three to the Phillies on the road is not a horrible thing. It’s just the way they lost that was disheartening.

After crushing the Phillies on Friday night for their eighth straight win, the Mets ran into Roy Halladay the next day. It’s no crime  losing to Halladay — he’s arguably the best pitcher in the game. But it would have been nice if Mike Pelfrey (left) could have pitched better. No one thought he would go undefeated with a sub 1.00 era for the season. But after starting out the game well, he collapsed in a nightmare fourth inning that saw Philadelphia plate 6 runs. Pelfrey needs to have a solid game in his next start to keep the questioners at bay.

Then on Sunday, it was Johan Santana versus 97-year-old Jamie Moyer. The Mets jumped all over Moyer’s fast ball — which reached a whopping 19 mph on the radar gun — in the first, scoring three times on a David Wright 3-run job. But Santana just didn’t have it. And in the fourth inning (what is it about that inning?), the Phillies scored 9 runs. You knew it was trouble when Santana walked Moyer with the bases loaded. Shane Victorino followed with the inevitable grand slam, and Chase Utley added a two-run homer before Jerry Manuel slowly strolled to the mound to end Santana’s night and the misery.

The Mets needed a stronger showing this weekend to prove that they can compete with the National League’s best teams. All is not lost, however. They just need to get back to their winning ways to show that they were able to achieve their winning streak because they are a good team — not because their opponents were weak teams.

*****

It was nice to see the Mets on ESPN Sunday Night Baseball for a third straight week. Has that ever happened before? I’m kind of surprised ESPN would do that, considering the horrible season the Mets had last year, and the lousy start to this season. What wasn’t nice was having to listen to Jon Miller and Joe Morgan. Morgan adds nothing to the broadcast except obvious, inane comments. And Miller is just terrible. His odd cadence makes everything he says sounds so affected. And it made me glad Carlos Beltran is out, because I didn’t have to hear Miller pronounce his name Bel-TRAHN, rather than the way everybody else in the world says it. It drives me crazy every time I hear it. He even said TAH-tis at least once Sunday. And Cast-EEE-yo. What is it with him and Latino names? I know he’s going into the broadcaster/writer wing of the Hall of Fame this year, but that doesn’t mean he’s any good. Don’t forget, Peter Gammons is in, too.