Peflrey to the Pen

According to Mets.com, which means there's a 50/50 chance he's starting tomorrow.

But seriously, the article says he'll be in the pen until Sosa is reactivated, and then it's a question mark what the team will do. Would they keep up Pelfrey and demote/designate Sele or the Scho? I doubt it, but it's hard to argue Pelfrey couldn't pitch just as badly as those two, with a much higher ceiling. And it's a chance to keep him in the bigs. I'm not saying he couldn't benefit from more time on the farm, but the biggest obstacle he's facing right now seems to be his general fear level of facing ML hitters. He looks so nervous and uncomfortable on the mound, pacing, huffing, answering LoDuca before he's finished his sentence, etc. Enough armchair analysis for now.

Sometimes You're the Hero, Sometimes You're the Gotay...

Although I'm firmly in the camp of playing Ruben on an everyday basis (Valentin is turning to dust before our eyes) last night was an abomination.

This guy's got a worse glove than Ty Wigginton displayed at 2nd.

I still think he's the future at the position, barring the pickup of a proven vet (aka Mark Loretta?), but last night's travesty set him back a few notches in the eyes of the critics.

During the radio broadcast yesterday, Howie made a few comments on the Mets naming HoJo as the hitting coach and the reasons for the move. Apparently the idea is for HoJo to work with the younger players (specifically Wright, Reyes, and Gotay) to teach them about developing their approach at the plate and situational hitting--WHAT THE F??? These are the only guys in the lineup that can get a hit with men in scoring position and Wright and Reyes are top-ten in the league in walks. Once again, let's find what works and put the kibosh on it...

How about we make force some of the vets to put down the buffet plates and get into the cage for a bit. Yeah, I'm talking to you Beltran, Delgado, LoDuca, Valentin, and Green. These guys are the freakin' problem, not our young guns...

Interesting about face

Mets.com has a different story up now than before.

Time for some Rickey Hits

Followed up by some Rickey Steals and some Rickey Runs.

It's just Rickey being Rickey.

Rick down (& out)

Well, minaya clearly reads this blog b/c I've been calling rick down out for a long time now. Looks like Mets agree, since Down was canned and HoJo or Rickey Henderson is in. I think the Mets need to start having a team batting mentality, rather than purely individual, and I'd like to see a hitting coach who is clearly getting them to think about making in-game and even in-pitch adjustments. I believe both HoJo and Henderson are well respected enough by the players that they should listen to hitting strategy/advice from either of them. I think this will only help the offense.

Billy billy billy

Well, unable to screw us thus far in the regular season, wagner decided to save his best for the all-star game. By pulling a vintage wagner and giving up the bomb, he destroyed the Mets chances to have home-field advantage should they make it to WS. Well played billy, well played.

On the other hand, Jose Jose Jose did all he could, both at bat and in the field. What a game he had.

Milledge

This is promising:

Lastings Milledge is raking at Double-A Binghamton and could be recalled before too much longer. Milledge is 8-for-19 with a double, triple, homer, five runs and five RBIs after a 3-for-5 game yesterday.

"I'm sure by the time we get back from the [All-Star] break, he'll have a good six or seven games under his belt," Randolph said. "Then we'll look at it and see where he is."

With Alou out forever who knows how long, and green stinking, it would be great if milledge were ready to come back to majors. That will also put less pressure on gomez and allow him to keep developing in AAA.

2B (or not 2B)

Hate to have a post simply reference another site and contain no original content, but this wrap-up on Metsgeek was pretty funny so I thought worth copying here.

The only silver lining in this dark cloud of a game was that it provided Exhibit 45 in the case against Jose Valentin, who went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts, stranding six...He’s not hitting, which would be okay if the Mets had a stacked lineup and he was getting it done with the glove. But the Ol’ Gray Lineup, she ain’t what she used to be, and she can’t absorb another player whose on-base percentage is on the wrong side of .300. And Valentin’s defense is about as sharp as you’d expect from a 37-year-old playing with a leg brace.

Really, what more does Ruben Gotay have to do to win the job? He’s hitting .333 with pop, and he’s not doing it with bloops and bleeders – his line-drive percentage rate is 25%, says Fangraphs.com. He’s the only one on the team who seems aware that you’re allowed to foul off a two-strike pitch.

Beltran

Well, I'll give it up and say Beltran finally laid out for a catch. While not the all-out dive I'd like to see at some point from him, he certainly deserves credit for hauling ass up The Hill in houston and making the over-the-shoulder game-saving catch in the 14th. A great display of talent + hustle.

Maine

While it went by without comment, the only two of the last six games the Mets have won came with Maine on the mound. Over at MetsGeek, the daily recap boys had this to say:

Maine looks more and more like an old-school ace with every start. You need him to stop a losing streak? He’s there. Bullpen worn out? He’ll go eight. Defense lets him down with an error? He’ll bear down. Hitters leaning over the plate? Chin music time. He’s a white Bob Gibson, lacking only a Tim McCarver-style publicist.

Maine threw down the gauntlet immediately, striking out the side on 15 pitches in the first; he’d already missed more bats in 10 minutes than the rest of the Met rotation had in the prior four days. He struck out another pair in the second, and the Astros didn’t get a runner to second base through the first five. Dude.

Maybe a little much, but Maine's certainly elevating himself quickly.

Good for Willie

While Reyes is the best the Shortstop to ever grace a baseball diamond, he has been dogging it. For the second time in three games, he didn't even bother to run out a ground ball that turned out to be fair. Instead, he stood in the batters box last night, watching the Astros' 3B Lamb run a ground ball from the third base bag all the way over to near first base (where I think he made a short toss) while Jose Jose Jose looked on stupified. That was the third out of the inning, and Willie immediately pulled Reyes from the game.

"I won't tolerate that from anyone," Randolph said. "It doesn't matter who it is."

"If you can't get out of the box," Randolph said several times, "you don't play."

Reyes' quotes were a little less satisfactory:

"Yeah, I think the ball was going to be foul," Reyes said. "But we still have to run. That was my fault there.

"But that thing could happen to anybody. Hopefully it [doesn't] happen the next time."

Hopefully? Try this one Jose: if there's a chance it can be fair, just run. Then you won't need to hope.

Pelf

Now, I'm certainly not going to blame last night's L on Pelfrey. When the Mets only give up 4 runs and score 0, I have to hang that on their pathetic offense. But, I have to say that Pelfrey's remarkable Trachsel-like consistency is very worrisome. If his #s were up and down that would be one thing - but they aren't. EVERY one of his outings is exactly the same: 3 or 4 runs yielded in 5-6 innings with 100 pitches. Both the high pitch count, and the fact that he consistently pulls a trax and gives up exactly that number of runs in that number of innings is odd at best, worrisome at worst. I know he's got a pretty nasty arsenal of pitches, particular the heater, but I haven't seen any progress in how he uses them as well as his confidence.

Roster

Old players are killing us. They are either getting injured, or their career stats have hit a brick wall. Glavine, El Duque, Delgado, Green, Valentin, and Alou. Young players doing well: Reyes, Wright, Maine, Perez, and Sosa. I'm not sure what Beltran's excuse is, other than general suckiness.

And I hate to say I called it, but looks like indeed Mota's first season back after the juice is indeed an enormous bust.
(11/16/06) Mota's tougher, but I wouldn't be broken up to lose him. First, he's out for 50 games. Next, I have yet to see a player come off the juice and play well the following year. So he likely has a down year next year anyway.

Fun with spreadsheets

Did you know?

That since the Mets torrid offensive April came to a close (therefore, including only May and June, for those of you in Rio Linda), D Wright is leading the Mets in:

Runs (29)
Doubles (14)
HR (13)
Total Bases (113)
RBI (36)
SLG (.579)
OPS (.957)

and tied for the team lead in:

Hits (60) with J. Reyes

Oh no

It's the top of the 11th, and the Mets just brought on Heilman, who's first pitch was a 92 MPH 2-seamer that was just above belt high. Nothing says "coughing up the lead via the extra-inning jack" quite like seeing Heilman starting his outing up in the zone.

SHK has left the country

Congrats and enjoy the honeymoon.

I'm sure the Mets will have righted the ship by the time you return.

Quote of the Day

From NYPost as always.
It's actually probably beyond a big slump now, too. They've now lost nine of 10 and dropped 11 of 14 after last night's 9-1 rout in which they were again hammered by the bottom of the Dodger lineup and again looked terrible defensively.

"It's not stunning," manager Willie Randolph said of a team of his caliber struggling for such an extended period. "It's reality. It happens."

It happens.

Willie

Read from someone even more bitter than me, especially at Willie's tactical decisions - the editors at Metsgeek.

M-E-T-S

I think I may stop following Mets until all-star break, or at least until June ends. Except for fielding, we stink in every aspect at this point. I see three issues that need to be addressed:

1. We all knew we were playing with fire heading into the season banking so heavily on older players. In particular our #1 and #2 pitchers, alou and valentin. Some of the injuries have been freak bad luck, but some have got to be due to age. But in particular I think it was not a good idea that of our top three pitchers, two are over 40, and one is a complete unknown coming back from major surgery. While it may be acceptable in regular season (if our offense ever decides to show up) it will not be a winning formula in post-season, and I think we're getting a good taste of that in June now that the competition level has been raised.

2. Lineup. Willie, please stop changing the lineup EVERY freakin' night. I can't imagine this does anything to help the offense. We need some stability here. Go to Reyes - Duke - Beltran - Wright - Delgado - Green - ... (Easley / Johnson / Gomez / etc.) I believe this is the lineup that makes most sense on paper and in reality, just lock it in and go with it.

3. Hitting coach. I don't know much about rick downs or his approach, but to be honest I don't see anything positive he's done. This offense has WAY underperformed what it should be doing on paper - the only time we score runs is when other team gifts us errors, or we are already up big so we're just piling on. The offense is nowhere to be found when it counts. Contrast that with our pitching staff - Rick peterson's work has been nothing short of miraculous with Perez, Sosa, and even Maine's relatively rapid progress over just a year. The mets approach at the plate stinks. Except for lack of DH, I don't see why this team should score any less than red sox or yankees, yet we way underscore. The reason is that the mets have TOTALLY different plate approaches than the sox or yankees.

Bottom line - I think if you look at our record against the braves (3-6) and what we've done so far in june (2-8) against much better competition speaks volumes about how good this team really is. Maybe at full health, once Alou and pedro are back that changes, but even in that case we're still back at point #1 - the key contributors are old and injuries just waiting to happen.. I'd like to see us get either Crawford or #1 pitcher.

Meet the Mets, Beat the Mets

Well, as the Yankees rise up, the Metties fall down. Not in the standings, luckily, but in the level of play. Granted, we don't have Pedro, Alou, Green or Chavez, but one thing is clear - this team as-is will not be challenging anyone in the playoffs. June has made it quite clear that we are not ready to consistently play and win at top level. Hopefully that will change once we have our whole team healthy, but I'm not so sure. We really need a legit #1 starter, and a Carl Crawford. And our bullpen is really expecting a lot out of a first year guy in Joe Smith. He's had a couple of rough outings in between his otherwise brilliance, but enough shakiness to suggest to me a team that is serious on going to WS should not have to bank on him as their #1 setup guy. And no one will take this bullpen seriously while Sele and blowenweis are still there.

Jose Jose jose

unfortunately my post from a month ago is as true tonight as it was then:

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.

Apparently tonight's game was not that night. At least Sosa shut stuff down, one of the best performances by any Met this season.

Just a few things

1. Why is Scott Blowenweis still on this team? All joking aside, he is unsuitable to be on the relief staff.

2. Why won't Willie move Lo Duca back to #2 spot? I think his slot machine approach to who bats #2 is very unsettling to the lineup. Lo Duca hit a tiny cold spell several weeks ago, is clearly out of it now, and back to last season's form. Our best lineup is Reyes - Lo Duca. Go back to it. I really have to question some of Willie's strategic moves, both with lineup as well as bullpen.

3. I understand we have a lot of injuries, but we still have reyes, beltran, delgado, wright, and lo duca. Why is this team so miserable at scoring runs? Answer: approach at the plate. Until they change that, this team - despite all of its talent and superstars - will never consistently beat top teams. Which means, a very short life in the playoffs, if we even get there.

June is looking fuglier and fuglier. Looks like (d) is the most likely scenario.

Heilman is the bomb

I mean, Heilman gives up the bomb(s). He's more jekyll and hyde than perez - sometimes he's lights out, but (far too frequently) he comes in and gives up a game-changing 2 or 3 run jack. He's way too inconsistent.

But, you can hardly get spun up about Heilman with the meager offense as an available topic for discussion. Yet again, our "prolific" offense shows absolutely nothing against a hack pitcher that's been destroyed by everyone else in the league, especially recently. Not to mention, we've lost both of our first two June series.

It will be interesting to see if the return of Alou, Green, and Valentin turns the offense around. I wouldn't be surprised, because if you look at the teams that score a lot of runs (Yankees, Red Sox, ..), they typically get better than average production out of their 1-2 and 6-7-8 guys. Assuming for the most part that most top teams have comparable 3-4-5 guys, the difference is the other guys. I'm sorry, but Newhan is an automatic out, and Gomez is not someone we should need to lean on at this point in his career.

Also, I really think they should move Lo Duca back to 2 spot. There is a better match between Reyes-Lo Duca than any other pairing. Two reasons for this: first, Lo Duca doesn't mind taking a strike if it gives Reyes a chance to steal. He strikes out so infrequently it doesn't bother him. Second, he is more likely to come through with a single with Reyes on base than any other guy I've seen Mets put in 2 spot. It just seemed we used to have a much better rhythm with Reyes - Duke - Beltran. I can remember how frequently we used to score in first inning, and everyone would point out what an advantage Mets had to always score first.

Philthies

So far through top 11 Mets have solidly answered my last blog, by showing me more of that steaming pile they call an offense. Yet another outstanding effort by Glavine wasted. All your hopes and dreams - gone.... down the drain.

How much would you like Carl Crawford or Soriano now???

June

Will the Mets step up by sending a message to Philly, and end their "lackluster" play, or lay down by putting up meager offense? And when will Beltran stop coddling his legs? With Lo Duca hot again, I'd like to go back to more typical lineup, seemed to work a lot better. Reyes - Lo Duca - Beltran - Delgado - Wright - Chavez - Easley - Gomez - P. We really need Alou.

When it rains, it pours

I have never seen a team experience as many injuries as Yankees. In the last few days alone, added to the list were Clemens, Giambi, and Mientkiewicz. I honestly can't think of any team in any sport having as many injuries as quickly as Yankees.

Have you seen me?

The Mets offense belongs on the side of a milk carton. Except for the Yankees in the playoffs last year, I've never seen a team with so many actual and potential superstars score so few runs, and strand as many runners on base as Mets. It's almost like no one appreciates the value of three singles in a row.

Perez continues to be pleasant surprise, although he has had at least one meltdown inning in several of his last starts. If he can figure out what changes in his mechanics or mental approach when he suddenly goes from pounding strike zone to hitting batters and yielding BBs, he'll become practically automatic. Sosa also obviously a huge surprise.

Jose

Nice to see jose apparently shaking off his slump, picking up some hits and RBIs lately..

Maine-ly Disappointed...

What was up with last night's line-up? We send our top gun (save the grumblings for a minute) against the reigning NL Cy Young champ and the hottest team in baseball and how do we respond? By loading the order with pure rubbish--Franco, Newhan, Johnson. Webb had to be drooling. Between the additions and some of our struggling regulars it looked like a buffet of lameness. I'm kinda surprised we didn't get no-hit last night.

Now I understand that injuries forced Willie's hand into handing in that card with a straight face, but c'mon! If our roster is that depleted let's put a few guys on the 15 day DL and get some damn reinforcements. Could you imagine if last night had been a 14-inning affair? Granted, that would have been impossible because a bunch of blind, one-armed howler monkeys would have scored before the Mets could muster a run in extras, but you get the point.

Maine was awesome last night. One bad pitch (which he seems to do each start, even when on fire--guess that's the price of challenging hitters) but otherwise 7K's, 5 hits, 0 BB's in 6 innings. I'm pleased as punch with that.

Of course then Willie has to bring in Mota and all goes to the outhouse. Why does everyone love this guy and see him as a bullpen savior? It's become obvious that his success was due to framapaloocical enhancements so let's stop throwing him out there every chance possible.

Red Sox

Ah ha, here is the secret to the Red Sox's success. This video is classic, I highly recommend it.