Wow. Great to see Jeff Suppan, of the 5.00 ERA, shut us down. Although I don't think this lineup needs much help to shut down - it's pretty much in a permanent coma. In the NL, mets are #6 in BA, #7 in OBP, and still #9 in runs. In the NL. Ruben Gotay, where are you??
Making it worse of course is a wasted gem from Glavine.
If we make the playoffs this year, Mota should not be on the roster. Wayyyy too undependable this season.
Assuming we make playoffs and Pedro is good, who are your starting 4? Pedro - Duque - Glavine - Maine? Do you put Perez in and have starting 5? Or do you put Perez in the roster instead of someone else? Which of those 5 do you see as most valuable out of the pen? It seems to me that the person who has given up the fewest runs at the start of a game is Perez, so he might be best out of bullpen. Plus, he brings some nasty stuff.
2 comments:
This game was brutal. I watched all 4:30 of it. Despite some defensive gems from Milledge, Castillo, and even Green, the lack of offense and stranded RISP was just frustrating beyond belief.
On the upside, Heilman looked great and was throwing hard (pinged 96 on the gun a few times), and the hit against him leading off the 8th was just one of those lucky "Stick out the bat and happened to bloop one in" types.
Reyes did a great job generating the tying run in the 6th, and really deserves credit for the 2nd run as well, b/c that rally doesn't happen if the IF's not playing in after Jose's double and getting SB'd to 3rd base. That's exactly what I want to see out of Jose, ginning up a run on a night when no one is hitting.
Wright of course got the tying rib and scored the leading run.
Castillo managed to get down a key SB in the 6th and bunted for what could have been a key hit in the 12th or 13th, getting on as the leadoff man.
On the downside, Castillo and Wright both failed to deliver with the bases loaded in the 7th (or 8th, I can't remember now). Castillo particularly, up with one out and a man on 3rd. That insurance run would have saved the game.
Feliciano: terrible. Brought in specifically to face one batter, and hits him.
Mota: terrible. Game on the line, and his very first pitch is a changeup (no fastball yet thrown) which is right over the middle, and promptly got deposited in the left field corner. Lead gone, Glavine win gone.
Sosa and Sele: marginally terrible. It was sheer luck that it took 5 innings for these guys to lose the game, since the bases seemed like they were loaded in each inning (with the exception of Sosa's second inning, which was 1-2-3).
My lasting impression of this game was the look on Glavine's wife's face after Mota gave up the game tying run. The camera just panned to her and the announcers were dead quiet. She looked like she alternately wanted to cry or throttle Mota, and was using every ounce of her energy to sit their perfectly still and not lose her composure.
Someone needs to sit this lineup down and tell them point blank their plate approach stinks. Not a little bit, but A LOT. Apparently willie & co are unwilling to do this, so i'm not sure whether it comes from minaya, but they've got their heads in the clouds if they think changes in their plate approach don't need to be made. I don't want to see one more wright quote about how good this lineup is "on paper". Sorry, but games are played on the field, not on paper. And on the field, when you have RISP with 2 outs, you adjust your swing for CONTACT, not power, although apparently they didn't get the league memo that every swing does not have to involve a massive uppercut.
If you have runners on with 0 or 1 outs and you want to swing for the fences, go for it. But runs are too precious to waste when you have RISP and 2 outs. Slap at the ball, level out your swing, choke up, or whatever, but start thinking SINGLES. Over the long run this will generate more runs than what they currently do.
Bullpen meltdown was hard to stomach I'm sure, but (except for Mota who is hideous this season) I can't even consider them until the offense changes. Over the season the bullpen has put up top #s in NL, whereas the offense is not even close. Mets are making these games WAY closer than they should be, and demanding way too much from their starters and relievers. This team was supposedly built for run production, yet it's done anything but.
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