Delgado

I think Delgado's return to 4-spot was perhaps a few games early.. It wouldn't hurt to keep him in #5 or #6 until he strings together at least 1-2 good weeks.. A few solid games does not necessarily equal out of slump.

Humber

Humber's #s in AAA not looking impressive at all:

5-4, 4.5 ERA, .251 BAA. Only good # is KK/B of 53/18 in 60 IP.

Great

Nice to see barry zito, he of the 4-5 record and 4.41 ERA, making an ass of our anemic lineup. Seriously, can this team score any runs other than when: (a) opposing pitcher balks twice in an inning, or (b) opposing team commits several errors in the game, such as throwing the ball off their shoe while falling backwards?

Mota

Mota's return should hopefully help bullpen. Or at least help them drop Sele or Suck-en-weis.

more thoughts

There's my man armando benitez to pick us up. At some point you have to feel bad for the guy, but here's a great quote from delgado:

"It's not my problem. His job is to pitch and my job is to hit." -- Delgado, on Benitez

thoughts

Reyes is so fast it's just not right.. He scored from first as easily as if from 2nd on beltran's double.

Anyone notice how red sox have shredded best teams in AL? They took their series against detroit, they're about to take cleveland, and what they've done to the yankees goes beyond any of the old standby phrases. "Took them out to the woodshed", "beat them like a rented mule", "abused them in unspeakable ways", and "tore them a new one" don't even begin to cover it!

Chan Ho Park getting it done at AAA

Here's the line on yesterday's outing:

Chan Ho Park (L, 3-4)

4.2 IP, 14 H, 7 R, 7 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, 2 HR, 6.34 ERA

Nice WHIP, Chan Ho.

Los bravos

Apparently the mets are the only team that can't handle the braves. Braves = 28-21, Mets = 31-17. Take away the 9 Mets-braves games, and you have Braves = 22-18, Mets = 28-11. Braves are barely over .500 excluding their 6-3 whipping of us to date. And phillies are having no problems figuring out kyle davies today.

Maine

Great quote from Maine:

"I didn't really change anything mechanically," Maine said, regarding his turnaround. "[It was] more of an attitude thing. I was just fed up with the way I was pitching."

If only it were that easy, Schoeneweis, if only...

Injuries

Starting to get a little lean in OF, hopefully Gomez' strained hammy is only a day-to-day thing. Otherwise we've got Green, Alou, Milledge, and Gomez all injured, only leaving Beltran, Chavez, and ???.

Pedro

Pedro talking some serious smack here about how good he thinks he'll be when he returns, saying he'll be even better than Clemens. I just hope he can back it up - this pitching staff desperately needs a consistent ace. Great stuff from Duque tonight and I believe that as long as he's healthy we will get consistently solid outings from him; however, I would put money he's injured again this season. IF Pedro is at full strength, a playoff rotation of Pedro - Glavine - El Duque and Maine or Perez could be good enough. BUT that assumes a lot: Pedro returns solid; Glavine/El Duque stay healthy; and Maine and Perez retain control of their pitches.

I still think trading for a legit starter is a good idea. Keep in mind Glavine and Duque don't have many more seasons, and Pedro only has two more. Getting a legit starter now would allow us to add that to whoever of Maine / Perez / Sosa / Pelfrey / Humber turn out to be real deal.

As for Beltran, his lack of hustle definitely rides me, especially because he has the talent. Not many CFs have the talent that he does, but I'd say most of them out-hustle him. I'm still waiting to see Beltran's first all-out, diving catch. He is either unwilling or incapable of going full speed, and then laying out for it.

I agree with Fredo earlier comment about D. Wright, and I think it applies to Delgado as well. Forget about power for now - it will naturally come, just focus on getting hits. We need .300+ BA in 4-5 slots, with RISP.

Who had a worse inning?

Mets v. Marlins, 8th inning

0-0 game, great pitchers duel, heading into the inning.

Mets have a chance to take the lead when Carlos Beltran comes to the plate with two outs and the leading run on 3rd base. But, failure strikes, and Carlos hits a broken bat routine grounder to second. But wait! The Mets scratch out a run when Dan Uggla boots Beltran's routine grounder, allowing the leading run to score.

Bottom of the frame, one out. Line drive hit by Miguel Olivo into the left centerfield gap. Beltran is able to cut it off before it gets to the wall. But then he slips. He gets up quickly and lollipops the throw into third, not thinking Olivo will go for 3. Olivo gets the triple, diving in just ahead of Beltran's lazy throw. He eventually scores on a sac fly tying the game, but interestingly enough almost gets thrown out when the hitter in the on-deck circle fails to tell him to slide. The on deck hitter...Dan Uggla. The replay catches Olivo sharing an unkind comment for Uggla on the way to the dugout. Then, with a runner in scoring position and a chance for the Marlins to take the lead with 2 outs, Uggla comes up and strikes out looking on 3 pitches.

So who had the worse inning: Uggla or Beltran?

Just to catch up on last winter's hot stove,

Ed Haren, the guy the Mets were trying to acquire, is now leading the AL in ERA at 1.74. The #2 guy in the AL is John Lackey at 2.34. Gil Mesche is #3--that big contract doesn't seem so silly now, does it?

*!#&*! Braves

For what seems like the 4th time in the past 2 weeks, Jose Jose Jose comes up to the plate in a key situation: a 7th inning at bat with a chance to even up the game. The Mets were losing 2-0, 2 men on, 2 out, and the first sniff of a rally since the 3rd inning. Smoltz has been cruising.

Perfect time to ground out meekly.

UPDATE!!

That AB was the worst of the game, until Jose's next one. 9th inning, 2 outs, with the tying run 90 feet away. Perfect time to take a strike, then pop up meekly to SS. Luckily that ended the game, and it was only the rubber game of a series against our arch rival. No worries though. Jose Jose Jose will hit for the cycle against the Marlins this weekend in a game that means nothing.

Schmetties Fan: The Next Generation

Couldn't resist...Let's Go Mets!

Perez

Well, with last night's yeoman's effort (122 pitches, 7 innings) Ollie is now 3-0 vs. Braves, and in fact has our only 3 wins against Braves. I think last night's game was a critical victory for Perez for two reasons. First, I think it gives him confidence to realize that as long as he stays calm and in control, he can dominate. Regardless of whether he doesn't have perfect stuff that night (2 hit batters, 2 BBs, only 5 Ks), and regardless of whether Mets aren't giving him any run support, he needs to have the composure to realize his stuff is so good that he can still dominate and win. You can clearly see some of Glavine's influence rubbing off on him in this respect of maintaining focus and composure at all times. Second, he is really in the Braves' heads now. This could prove critical down the stretch, and particularly in playoffs.

Thank you Willie

For dropping Delgado to 6 hole. Definitely needed to happen, long overdue. More important than that, though, is I think the following:

"Sometimes when you're a big power hitter you fall back into who you are instead of doing what's necessary," Randolph said afterward. "We talked before the game about taking little bites, about taking advantage of what they give you, taking advantage of that big hole.

I'm surprised someone needed to explicitly tell this to Delgado, since this has been obvious to anyone watching the Mets. Don't worry about the power for now: if you're as deep in a slump as Delgado, focus on even just getting a single. ESPECIALLY when chipper is opening up a hole a mile wide on the 3rd base side just mocking your inability or unwillingness to go the other way. Luckily, Delgado made them pay for that overshift twice last night, I was very glad to see that. Even if his power #s drop Delgado can still be a potent contributor to offense; but what we can't have is someone batting .209 and constantly killing rallies.

where is the offense?

Mets doing another great job of turning a mediocre set of pitchers into apparent stars. Where is the offense? Wright and Lo Duca are both heating up nicely, but other than that it's pretty much ice. Reyes, although he's drawing a lot of BBs lately, he's been 8 for 39 in his last 10 games or so. Beltran is tanking, as are Green and Easley. And of course, Delgado is nowhere to be found.

I might go: Reyes - Lo Duca - Wright - Beltran - Green - Delgado - Chavez - Easley. Or if you want a straight dose of speed, Reyes - Chavez - Beltran - Wright. If Gomez is starting, Reyes - Gomez - Beltran - Wright - Delgado - Chavez - Lo Duca - Easley.

Rants other than mine

I enjoyed this rant about last night's game from editors at Metsgeek.com. Certainly can't be happy about getting our asses handed to us by the braves AGAIN.

You know Carlos Delgado, I know you’re mired in a slump and are sucking. But when the opposing team puts on the shift, why don’t you suck it up and stop thinking about your pride and bunt down the goddamn open third base side. I care about hits, I don’t care how you got them, or that you’re not paid to bunt. You’re certainly not paid to suck like you are right now, either. So put it down the third base line. If Papi can do it, you can do it.

los bravos

glad to see we're getting handled by the braves. I was a little uncomfortable with all the winning lately, it's good to be back in a more familiar situation - the braves putting us in our place. nice to see both the hitting and pitching vaporize.

Lineup time

With the day off and the subway series behind us, it's the perfect time to revisit the lineup. Willie's done some tinkering, but if I were the manager I'd do a little more (hope you're listening Fred):

Reyes
Chavez
Wright
Beltran
Alou
Delgado
LoDuca
Easley/Gotay

Trade Green now! He will never have value again, and an AL team can move him from OF to DH. Besides, if Chavez had been in RF against the Stanks that blooper to right would never have fallen in. And the guy's hitting .370, so it's tough to argue against putting him in the lineup.

D Wright

Came to play against the Yanks. Not only did he hit three HR's, but they were all game changers.

M-E-T-S

Barring unforseen injuries I think it is a safe bet to say Mets will win NL East this year, and if not, certainly will get the wild card. It's hard to see a team as talented as Mets not making playoffs in the weak NL.

That said, here are a few things I've seen this year carry over from last year that I think are going to cause the Mets problems in big games, such as the playoffs. These definitely frustrate me to no end.

1. Jose Reyes' disappearance in big games. The fact that he is hands down the best player on the Mets 9 nights out of 10 makes his lack of production in big names that much more noticeable. Beyond what you saw over this weekend series with Yankees, we can look at last year's series with Yankees (6 games, 5-24 = .208 avg), last year's playoffs (10 games, .250 avg, .298 OBP), and last year against Red Sox (3 games, 1-13 = .077 avg). Somehow he has got to find a way to be more of a factor in big game series.

2. Beltran's defense. Beltran has got a great arm and certainly above average speed, range, and fielding ability. The problem is he never seems to want to lay out; I always feel like he's playing injured or "safe". I've never seen a gold glover who has fewer spectacular catches than Beltran. Twice this season already, including last night's game against Yanks, I've seen him not hold onto balls in his glove that he really should have caught. Certainly Andruw Jones or Coco Crisp (a guy with a cereal name for F's sake!) easily make those catches as well as ones 10 times harder. See for example the 2B David Wright should've had in game 3 against Sox last year but was robbed by Crisp on a #1 web gem of the week diving catch. I've never seen Beltran even attempt anything close.

3. Approach at the plate. The mets never really seem to have a team plan when facing a pitcher. They rarely drive up anyone's pitch count, and also never seem to modify their swing depending on the situation. There are definitely spots and pitch counts where it makes sense to try to go yard. But far too often, when the situation clearly calls for something else, I almost never see any adjustment. Two exceptions are Chavez and Lo Duca, they definitely adjust their swing depending on who's on base, # of outs, and pitch count.

4. I think not re-signing Bradford and Oliver is going to haunt the Mets. Bradford is getting $3.3 M/yr and Oliver got $1.5 M. Instead we've got Schoeneweis ($3.6 M) and Sele ($1 M) at almost same amount.

Good stuff

Key to pick up W against pettitte, even better that perez looked excellent.

Barry zito: 3-5, 5.13 ERA. Good stuff. I think everyone was in agreement he was not worth the king's ransom they drove from the market; I'm glad Minaya agreed and held strong.

Larrrr--rrryyyyy

is right on with his complaint of modified set-up for interleague play. Definitely hurts mets and braves. We should go back to original interleague schedule from several years ago.

Gomez

Wow, how good does Gomez look? Seems like the real deal. We could have a trio of Carlos' soon.

Sosa also appears to be solid, with three great MLB starts and all his AAA starts. I really hope he is for real with his modified delivery, since he would be an unbelievable addition to our rotation the way he's pitching.

Two mets minor league pitchers suspended for drug violations, one for 50 days (1st offense), one for 100 days (2nd offense).

Well, We All Knew it Was Coming...

From foxsports.com:

http://www.benmaller.com/archives/2007/may/16-mets_outfielder_in_trouble_over_rap_song.html

Apparently, even while on the DL, controversy will still find Lastings Milledge.

Jankees

Well, assuming no rain-outs this week, Mets will have Perez, Glavine, and Maine against Janks this weekend. Couldn't have asked for a better shot.

Taking 2 of 3 from Brew Crew was good statement this weekend. It would be nice to take at least 2 of 3 from yanks, considering how atrocious their pitching is, their sub .500 record, and the fact that Sox have taken 5 of 6 from them. Then we just have to start beating the Braves.

Glimpse of the future

How'd you like the look of Chavzez, Beltran, and Gomez in left to right? Future looks pretty good, what a combination of hitting, power, speed, and defense. Of course, the way Alou and Green have been killing the ball, it would be nice to keep these vets healthy as long as possible.

By the way, has Beltran been on fire recently or what? .319/8 HRs/29 RBIs/24 R. Once Delgado heats up, look out.

Pelfrey

Pelfrey sent down to AAA. Mets had little choice given his record, ERA, and BB:K ratio. That said, the replacement options they are throwing around (Sele, Vargas) are not exactly getting me fired up with excitement.

On the upside, what a gem for Perez today! Nearly a complete game shutout, almost no-hitter. Great stuff.

What's up with Jose's glove?

As well as Reyes has been hitting, his fielding has been really touch-and-go for the past two weeks. Today, on back to back plays, he booted a routine grounder, and on the play before, he dropped an easy fly ball (but luckily managed to re-catch it on the bobble). 3 times in the past two weeks I've watch him drop throws from the 2B-man when attempting to turn the DP. Twice it lead directly to runs scored when the inning would have otherwise been over. Luckily for Jose, it doesn't affect his fielding %: no error since the FC is completed, even thought the DP could have been completed.

I don't believe it's a problem of technique. Could it be that, now that he's finally focusing for most pitches of most AB's, he's making up for it by day-dreaming at short?

brew this

Well, today's loss is my fault. Whereas in the past when I've bad-mouthed perez and easley they've stepped up, i pulled the opposite today and was on the phone with my dad talking about how good feliciano and joe smith are. Specifically mentioning that joe smith's pitches have crazy movement and i don't see anyone hitting him for a while. surprised that both of them had their first bad days in the same game, but that's how it goes sometimes.

i think pelfrey's heading back to AAA. i agree with an earlier comment by fredo that at this point AAA will not help pelfrey; he needs to find his confidence and rhythm at MLB level. That said, mets can't afford to have trachsel back in the rotation - that is, every outing is the same 5 or 6 innings with 3 or 4 ER yielded. No more, but no less.

Sosa

Another strong start for him, this time against one of the better NL lineups through the early part of the season. I didn't realize his velocity was so good, nor that his slider was so sharp.

Can't get too crazy after two starts: there's a reason why this guy had no value a few months ago. But still, you've got to like what you've seen so far.

He got bit by his old bugaboo, the long ball, hanging a backdoor change that came back over the middle. The second HR against was just a great piece of hitting, where the hitter golfed it from below his knees a la Reyes.

If nothing else, Sosa's tightening the noose on Pelfrey's ML stay.

Burgos demoted

Seems I missed this story.

Apparently they want Burgos to get more "polished" at AAA since he was rushed up to the majors by the Royals. Hold runners on better, field his position better, etc.

Something tells me that if that 96 mph fastball was going by hitters and not getting turned around his poor fielding would be quickly forgotten.

Still, he's the kind of kid that at 23 years old still has a long career in front of him. If they straighten him out in a year or two, he could still be closer material for a long time.

Brew crew

Brewers heading into town this weekend... As Post points out (copied below), pitching matchup wouldn't seem to be the best. Hopefully Sosa and Perez keep stepping up..

Tonight the Brewers will throw righty Jeff Suppan, who was last season's NLCS MVP with the Cardinals. Suppan is 5-2 with a 2.63 ERA, and he goes against Mets righty Jorge Sosa, who had an eye-opening first start with the Mets on Saturday against the Diamondbacks.

Tomorrow, Brewers ace righty Ben Sheets is on the hill against Mike Pelfrey, who's 0-4 with a 6.39 ERA and may be in trouble in the rotation when Orlando Hernandez returns from the disabled list. On Sunday, Oliver Perez goes against lefty Chris Capuano, who's 5-0 with a 2.31 ERA.

Good ol' Armando

Great haiku from Metsgeek.com:

Hello Armando
Just as we remembered you!
Choking when it counts

Crisp summary of last night's game.

Definitely missing Valentin's D at 2nd base, with errant Gotay throw preventing DP.

Tough L

Tough loss to take last night.. Easley certainly delayed any criticism of himself with a few game winning theatrics early on, but unfortunately I think the longer Valentin is out, the more you're going to miss his defense. He and Reyes really make a very smooth, sure middle infield.

Perez only picked up 2 ER, but how do you give up two HRs to Bengie Molina in the same inning (even if one of them was bogus)? That's just like letting So Taguchi or Jeff Weaver beat you...

Jorge, Jorge, Jorge

Sosa basically pitched 6 1/3 scoreless last night had not the fielding let him down. Joe Smith induced the tailor-made DP grounder, but Reyes dropped the ball on the transfer leaving 2 on and 2 out instead of ending the inning. Next hitter doubled off the wall driving 2 in, both charged to Sosa (earned runs b/c they got the FC on the 4-6 play, even though it should have been a 4-6-3). But by all rights Sosa should have ended the day with no runs charged while pitching into 7th.

I don't want to get carried away, b/c there were points in the game where Sosa could have gotten hurt. The D Backs are terrible and didn't cash in on his mistakes. Tony Clark flied out to center on a middle middle hung slider that should have been T ball. Drew missed a 3 run homer by 2 feet in the first inning because he got in front of a slider. And Sosa had erratic command. Some innings he was hitting the target, and some he wasn't even close.

All that said, Sosa is worth taking a hard look at. His fastball repeatedly hit 94 on the gun and I saw him hit 96 on a couple of occasions. And his main pitch, that slider, is nasty. It has sharp and late down-and-away breaking action to righty hitters, especially when he stays on top of it. And it comes in at 6-10 MPH slower than the fastball, which really keeps the hitters off balance. Apparently Sosa also has a splitter and a change, but I can't see I saw either of them displayed last night.

A very positive start for a guy who's a young 30 (only became a pitcher 7 years ago apparently, so his arm probably has the wear and tear of typical 25 year old who came up as a pitcher). We'll see where he goes from here.

BTW: who kidnapped Shawn Green and gave us this imposter? Attaboys to whoever pulled it off.

Ahhh...

Nothing like a little relaxing down time once you drop the kids off at Shea.. Although, I guess at least he wasn't in the bullpen, right David Cone??

On another note, that left field wall in Arizona must be tough - made both Byrnes and Endy look awkward last night trying to rob HRs. I'm surprised Endy didn't come away with it, since it was in his glove. Tough to pull off though, which makes his catch in last game of NLCS last year even more impressive - definitely the best catch I've ever seen, especially considering the game situation.

Next

Chan Ho Park just got "Alay Soler-ed" and is likely to be buried so deep in the organzation that it will be Lima time before we see CHP again. Couldn't have helped his cause that Minaya was in the booth during his meltdown. Looks like Sosa will get the next start. You have to go with the streak, and Sosa has certainly been overwhelmingly dominant in AAA this year. Hopefully he keeps it up and doesn't return to his prior MLB form. I also hope Mets do not bring Humber up this year - that would be a big mistake. Give him at least one more year to develop without being pressured in majors.

SP

Mets need to trade for a starting pitcher. Period. The only guaranteed 6+ innings guy right now is Maine. Glavine looks like he'll be very dependable for 5 innings, but usually starts to fall apart in 6th. More importantly, we can't bank on him and El Duque to be healthy all season. Perez + Pelfrey are of course also huge question marks.

We all knew heading into the season that CHP is garbage, and he couldn't have reinforced that point more strongly than with last night's crapola. I don't for a second believe Jorge Sosa is a reinvented pitcher. Humber - while extremely exciting and likely to be one of our horses for years to come - is still too young to pull.

Bottom line - with Delgado and Wright ice cold, and Green/Alou/Reyes/Beltran having to cool off at some point, we are really going to need more dependable starting pitching.