Sounds like this kid gets it

Humber has one, maybe two years left on the farm before the Mets will be counting on him, and it sounds like he's really focusing on the right things:

"I hate to keep repeating it, but it's consistency..."

"The guys that are up there now, like [Tom] Glavine and John Maine, they
command their fastball, they're not worried about how hard they're throwing,"
Humber said. "I mean, I think I throw hard enough. Glavine throws hard enough.
It's more about your command. Once you have command, you can stop being a
thrower and start being a pitcher."

El duque

Potentially bad news about El Duque. He needs to undergo shoulder tests, and may have problems. Given how well and consistently he's pitched this year it would be an understatement to say we can't afford to lose him from our rotation. That said, did anyone honestly believe given his age and freak injuries both at the end of last year and in spring training this year that he would make it through the whole season? I certainly hope the Mets weren't planning on getting full, uninterrupted seasons from both Glavine and El Duque - that's really expecting a lot at their ages.

Roster updates

From NYPost:

Tests revealed that Lastings Milledge sprained a ligament in his right foot, and he'll be placed on the minor-league disabled list, the Mets announced yesterday.

It's unclear how long the former first-round pick will be out, although the minor-league DL runs for a seven-day period.

.............

On Wednesday, the Mets talked about keeping Pelfrey as their fifth starter, despite his three-inning, six-run effort. If they don't, they will likely turn to someone on the Triple A roster for a replacement.

Jorge Sosa is 3-0 with a 1.38 ERA in four starts for the Zephyrs. Philip Humber, who was 2-1 with a 3.00 ERA in four starts, is the more promising long-term solution. The 2004 first-rounder is pitching in Triple A for the first time, however.

Jose

Congrats to Jose.. While not an official "award", he was recognized as the best leadoff man in all of baseball by ESPN. Well deserved, you'd be hard pressed to find someone who will match his combination of speed, power, vastly improved plate discipline, and bats exceptionally well from both sides of the plate..

Pelfrey

I would think if Pelfrey has another 2-3 bad outings in a row, they need to think about putting him back into AAA to have more time to develop. Keeping in him in majors if he's not yet ready will only lead to losses for Mets, and potentially damage his psyche. Not that we have a lot of good options if we stay within the organization: Chan Ho might be up.

A-rod

Hmmm, A-rod to mets after this season? The rumor had been floating before the season, and perhaps some recent comments by A-rod might support that:

"I want to stay in New York, no matter what," Rodriguez said in the Yankees' third-base dugout before Tuesday night's game at Tampa Bay.

"I love New York. It's the greatest place for me to play."

Interesting that he only referred to "New York", never to the Yankees. My conspiracy theory says that was intentional, leaving himself open to possibility of a little cross-town move.

En-dy Cha-vez

Nice job Endy!

Luckily I was on the phone with Fredo the other day tearing Easley a new one, explaining why he's a waste of a roster spot, literally just minutes before he drilled his first HR. And of course we have last night. I should be a motivational coach!

Burgos...

...is going to cost us a lot of games this year, unless Willie sticks with what seems to be his plan of only bringing him in in situations where: (a) we have a huge lead, and (b) he will face weak part of lineup. Last year he had an atrocious 12 blown saves vs. 18 successes, a 4-5 record, and whopping 5.52 ERA. The year before (rookie) wasn't much better: 4 blown saves vs. 2 successes, and a 3-5 record. Granted, he's young, but he's also a big risk with a lot of downside I'm not sure we can afford, if Braves or Philthies are right on us.

Mets overall pitching is interesting: they have by far the lowest ERA in MLB and are tied for #1 lowest BAA, but at the same time they are #5 in BBs issued. They've done a nice job pitching out of self-imposed jams (particularly by forcing ground balls and relying on tremendous infield D to turn DPs), but it would be nice to see a drop in BBs.

schoenweis and heilman

suck it big time.

Who gives up a 2-out, 3-run bomb to Renteria? What garbage.

Still hate the braves

Tough to lose to the Braves again, especially in that fashion. Hudson's a tough match-up, no question. Didn't expect to win that game, but to lose by suddenly imploding and giving up 7 Rs, reyes E - basically regressing and not playing like the '07 Mets - is tough to watch. It's like every time we face the braves, a different Mets team takes the field, one that forgets that they are the better team.

I do also have to say that Perez + Pelfrey both as starters worries me. Assuming Pelfrey develops into the solid starter everyone projects, I understand he will take some time to develop pitch control and confidence. The problem is that along the way we're going to rack up Ls, and this is not necessarily a luxury we can afford with: (a) Perez in rotation, and (b) resurgent Braves right on top of us. Hopefully the two of them can put together enough solid starts to keep us in it, and Pedro returns healthy on schedule. Otherwise, we'll probably need to dump Perez and trade for another starter.

But man, it really, really sucks to be a Yankees fan today! Two A-rod homers and they still blow it, thanks to Mo.

Looks like we'll be promoting from within...

...when Green and Alou hang it up/leave town.

Milledge is focused down at AAA, just had a 4-for-4 night, and is killing the ball over the past week.

Carlos Gomez is going absolutely bezerk at AA Binghamton. If you can hit .386 at AA, and are supposedly faster than Reyes, that sounds like a combination worthy of a call-up at some point.

F-Mart is improving steadily as well. If Martinez keeps improving, that could free us up to trade Milledge this season.

Ratios

Mets runs scored and runs against is just silly. They are top 2 or 3 (#1 in most cases) in nearly every statistical category of importance: runs/game, BA, # runs yielded/game, Opp. BAA, E, ...

I know it's early, but considering we've played the major teams in NL (except Dodgers), that says a lot. It would be interesting to see how we'd do against Tigers, Yanks, and BoSox..

Looks like..

..Jimmy Rollins should've kept his mouth shut. And now, Howard might be injured. If so, that's a massive blow to the already reeling philthies.

Congrats to D Wright

Now the all time Mets record holder for longest hitting streak, currently at 25 games.

It says something about how disciplined and dangerous a hitter the guy is when you consider he's not really been at his best over the first 2-3 weeks of the season, and yet can set a record like this over the same span.

Buehrle

Now that he's gotten his career no-hitter out of the way, he should be all set to come to Mets. Make it so!

Jose, Jose, Jose

Jo-se, Jo-se.

Pretty solid to get 2 hits from each side of the plate. And to start the game off with a solid hit - batting in his less preferred righty position against met killer D-train - was huge.

This guy is scary good, even more considering he still has upside!

HR poll

Which of our 4-5-6 will be first to homer: Delgado, Wright, or Alou?

I vote Wright, and it happens tonight.

Bonus: Will one of them homer before Beltran or Reyes homers again? I say yes.

I'm thinking big offensive explosion tonight against injured Garcia, at least 2 Mets HRs.

Minor league update: Carlos Gomez is on fire, Anderson Hernandez and Ruben Gotay are chewing it.

Surprise, surprise

Didn't see this one coming.

The Yankees Stink

And they're about to get worse with Pavano and Moose on 15 day DL.

Remind me never to doubt

At least not Omar. Jason Schmidt is getting rocked so far this year, and it doesn't sound like a temporary problem. His fastball is being clocked in the low 80s! Wow. Sounds like an injury to me. At his age, arm injuries are not easily overcome. Looks like yet another right call for the GM.

Stats of the day

So far this year, Jose is #1 on team in BA (.351), #1 in OBP (.455), #1 in slugging percentage! (.622), #1 in RBIs (11), #1 in R (11), #1 in BBs (7), #1 in SBs (5), and #1 in 3Bs (3). Brings to mind Charles Barkley's great quote one year on 76ers, "If I'm going to play like two players, I want to get paid like two players"!

I'm sorry, but..

...Perez is not a good pitcher. Good pitchers do not walk 7 batters in two innings, load the bases with 2 outs, walk in two straight runs, then hit a batter. Period. It's time for Mets management to stop this charade of trying to fool themselves and Mets fans that Perez is anything more than he's already proven himself to be. He is the most dangerous of players - he has such raw skills and potential upside that you hate to give up on him. Unfortunately, in not giving up on him you're going to rack up 15 L's along the way. If this were early in Perez' career I might have more patience, but he's started 113 games and been in MLB for 5 years. He's not new to the game, he's not even new to the Mets or Rick Peterson. He simply does not have the control necessary for him to be successful.

In this way Pelfrey scares me a bit too, b/c he's shown a tendency to dance around the plate and throw a lot of BBs. But, at his stage of development that could easily just be chalked up to inexperience. Hopefully he'll grow out of it to be the pitcher the Mets think he can become.

In the meantime, though, I think it's time for the Mets to get serious and realize they need to pick up a legitimate starting pitcher. The loss of Pedro, Sanchez, Mota, and Bradford is too much. They need to make a trade, part ways with some of their minor league talent, and pick up a legitimate pitcher to strengthen the rotation. Otherwise, I just don't see how they beat the best teams in playoffs and certainly the best AL teams in WS.

It's also a bit troubling that so far the offense seems incapable of scoring runs except when the opposing team gives them a 4th out in an inning. Hopefully Delgado and Wright break out soon, but even if they do, it's hard to see a repeat of the staggering #s that Beltran, Delgado, and Wright put up last year. That was some massive production.

Weaver

Looks like moving back to AL has been anything but kind for Jeff Weaver. BoSox did to him today what metties couldn't do in playoffs last year - pile on the runs. 7 runs in 1st 2 innings, knocked him right out of game.

Los Bravos

Nothing I enjoy more than losing a series to the Braves at The Ted. Good stuff. Seriously.

Especially when the Braves spent all the time before the series talking up the Mets, how good they are, and we'll just have to see how we "the lowly Braves" measure up against the Mighty Mets.

You can't strand 31 runners on base in a 3 game series. And you definitely cannot leave Reyes stranded on 3rd base with 0 outs in the top of the 1st. That's just ridiculous.

One weakness I see in the Mets that carried over from last season: except for LoDuca, they don't really have any guys who keep spoiling a pitcher's best breaking stuff to get the pitch count up and force him to throw the fastball they feast on. It seems like every Mets at bat goes to no more than 4-5 pitches, and they don't have the ability to keep fouling off tough pitches until they get the one they want. Instead, they swing meekly through low inside breaking stuff and whiff. And someone has got to tell Wright to start swinging at the first pitch sometimes - it is so predictable that he takes pitch 1 that everyone just throws him a strike to start him out 0-1 every at bat. Of course, for most of last season he was toughest out in MLB with 2 strike count; if he could recapture that it would be huge.

4-5

We really could use Delgado and Wright to start turning it on.. Watching Wright's K count rack up is a little troubling, also not much out of him with RISP.. Hopefully one or both of them catch on fire soon, that will help a lot. Especially since I don't see Shawn Green continuing to bat .450.

Truly Amazin'

It's hard to determine what is more amazing this year: balanced production through lineup, each starting pitcher throwing a better game than the person before him, or Jose Jose Jose.

And to think, we've done all this with our clean-up hitter batting .158! Once Delgado turns it on soon, damn!

Barry Zito is 0-1

In the words of Fredo, that is all.

Talk about your money quote

From the "things that make me optimistic file":

In his short tenure with the Mets, the veteran Alou has been impressed by the team's defense and doesn't think it's a fluke.

"This is the hardest working team I've ever been around," Alou said. "You look around the clubhouse after the game and no one is in here, because they are all working out or doing something to get better."

Even harder than McGraw's Giants squads? That's high praise from someone who's been in the league since the Christy Matthewson era.


http://newyork.mets.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070402&content_id=1874438&vkey=news_nym&fext=.jsp&c_id=nym

And we're underway!

One game played, one win. Obviously, the most standout performance of last night's win was the defense. Four DPs, nice catch by Alou, very nice throw from Reyes deep in the hole to first, and great throw by Beltran. Also nice was the fact that the lineup production was so balanced top to bottom. It was great to see every batter do something yesterday to get involved.

Glavine's performance was great, a little shaky in 6th inning but that's par for the course with him. Feliciano was underwhelming compared to last year and spring training, but I'm expecting him to be solid. Not the best first appearance for Joe Smith, but not a disaster either, thanks to Heilman + Valentin. I definitely like Smith's delivery, velocity, and pitch movement. He'll turn out to be a very important part of bullpen..

Good Milledge News

From ESPN The Magazine's 4/9 issue, pg 97, in its preview of the '07 Mets (who BTW, they predict for 1st in the NL East):

Lastings Milledge reported to camp a different guy from the one who arrived last season with both expectations and a sense of entitlement so outsized that teammates posted a sign in his locker: "Know your place, Rook!" Now the 22-year-old says he's all grown up, and he looks it. He shed the dreads, hit the weights and gained 13 punds over the winter while cutting down to one burger a week. On his first day of BP, the righty hit a homer over the right-centerfield fence. "I couldn't go that way last year," he says.

To me, that's even better news than the lofty stats he's put together this spring. My problem with Milledge last year wasn't his numbers, it was his attitude. If he's going to approach the game the right way, he's got the talent to be a solid (and maybe better than that) major leaguer. I don't know if it will take him 1 year or 3 years to progress to the point where he's an everyday player, but if he works, it will happen.