Delgado's officially on a tear. He has 6 HR's in his last 7 games.
Dave Williams chipped in solid innings for his second straight start. He's not part of the future, and probably won't be on the post-season roster, but he's evidence of how Omar's little moves at the margins, the kind that go unnoticed by the papers, bear fruit over the course of a long season. When we acquired him early in the season he was viewed as just spare parts. But now, with Duque, Pedro, and Glavine all missing starts, AAA starters have to fill the void and save the bullpen from getting taxed. Williams has filled in admirably. Unlike Lima-time, which costs you the game and puts your pen behind the 8-ball for a week, this guy has pitched well enough to stake the Mets to leads. If not for his leg cramps, hewould have pitched deep into both starts.
Brian Bannister starts tonight. It's the final step in the long road back from his April injury. I loved the kid's guts and his success when he was up here early in the year. After the injury, he had to rehab his leg in Florida in virtual solitude, and watch the spot in the rotation he'd waited for his whole life for go to someone else. There was the setback of his aborted AAA rehab start when it became clear the injury was serious, and the thoughts of "will I ever be the same" must have been creeping in. The nerve in his leg apparently still kicks off pain, but he fought through it, had a bunch of minor league rehab starts over the past 3-4 weeks, and has shown consistent improvement. Now he's getting his shot with the big club again.
Bannister always refers to this season as his "rookie year" in the papers, which is hard to agree with since he'll probably qualify as a rookie again next year, given his limited number of '06 appearances. But still, he's had his (would be) rookie season robbed from him and showed tremendous resiliency. I hope Mets fans give him a warm welcome tonight.
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Delgado's on fire. So are Beltran and Reyes. Chavez and Lo Duca also continue to do their thing, making this line-up one of the best in majors. Once Wright officially breaks out of slump, and if Shawn Green plays well, we'll be right up there with the best.
Steve Phillips was making similar points about Minaya last night on Deuce. His pickup of seemingly useless or second-tier pitchers and players has really paid off huge dividends. This way when inevitable injuries occur (or we want to give guys extra rest) we can keep on rollin'.
Bannister back will be outstanding. It will also force each pitcher to push their game since they will be competing for spot in playoff rotation. The only thing to watch on Bannister is how long it takes him to directly challenge hitters. As DC pointed out the other day, Maine seems to trust his stuff enough to do this which is great to see. Bannister early on gave a lot of BB, because (in his own words) he wanted to avoid giving up hits by not throwing hittable pitches. But otherwise he looked awesome, and as part of his maturation process he'll improve.
Watched most of Bannister's outing last night, except I missed the first where he gave up two of his four runs.
It was a darn fine outing for his first big league start in 4 months. He challenged Howard and got burned, even though Howard didn't even get the good part of the bat on the ball (you could see he wasn't sure it was going out). That Howard kid is so powerful, it's sick.
But, as far as Bannister goes, he got right back on his horse. He got out of a man on third and nobody out jam without yielding a run. And his last inning in the 6th was the strongest. Struck out the last hitter to complete a 1-2-3 inning.
Good first outing back for Bannister - to only give up 4 runs to hungry Phillies team with hottest hitter in the game is not bad.
I'm also glad he challenged hitters - sure he'll pay for it once in a while, but in the long run he can't have a career giving up a walk every two innings. Ironically, check out these comments in the Post(compare to my comment above from 8/25):
The 25-year-old looked promising at times and inconsistent at others. He blamed the problematic first inning on a decision to go after hitters, something he often didn't do enough in April while walking 17 men in 28 innings.
"It's not easy to come back," he said. "I just wanted to come out and throw strikes right away.
(From nypost.com)
Philly could be a dangerous team next year. They were supposed to be in the race this year, but never quite got started. But we're only 9-8 against them, so if they play better next year it could be an interesting race. Marlins have a ton of young talent, but almost certainly will trade it once it comes time to up contracts.
Hard to see how Beltran won't get MVP at this point...
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