New York Mets Baseball Blog » David Wright

Mets Drop Two of Three to Braves

Bernalda — Sat, 16 May 2009 15:54:45 +0000

Game 1: Braves 8 Mets 3 After a three game sweep against the Pirates, the Mets faltered against the Braves. It is no secret that the Mets have always struggled against the Braves and I was hoping the would not lose momentum especially in the first match up between Johan Santana and Derek Lowe. The game was a nightmare. Pitching, outside of Santana was terrible, the bats were dead and the defense was dreadful. I know that when Santana is on the mound the Mets don’t score a lot of runs, I don’t know why that is; but I do think it is worth noting that when Santana is on the mound the Mets face the other team’s ace as well. Plus, it seems that everyone steps it up a notch against Santana, of the two runs that scored with Santana on the mound, none were earned; actually of the eight runs the Braves scored, only three of them were earned. David Wright and Jose Reyes have got to step up their defense-they have had periods of times where they have played well, but too often they make errors in big spots they have caused the Mets some games. The Mets were without Carlos Delgado who sat because of a sore hip.

Game 2: Mets 4 Braves 3 (10 innings) Mike Pelfrey pitched seven strong innings, he allowed just two runs on six hits, he walked only one. JJ Putz came into the game in the eight and stunk up the joint-he allowed one run on one hit while walking two. Amazingly, after saying in spring training that he had no problem being the set up man Putz has changed his tune; apparently, he has admitted that he is having trouble getting excited to pitch the eighth inning-the adrenaline isn’t there! This is the kind of crap that annoys me to all hell. Seriously, just shut up and do your job-by the way-I think it is worth noting that when you did have some adrenaline last year in Seattle you still weren’t all that great. He claims that he is healthy but that, I believe will remain to be seen. This was a great extra innings game; the Mets had not scored a run until they scored two in the bottom of the eighth off a Jose Reyes double-too bad Reyes was thrown out at third trying to stretch it into a triple. In the ninth, the Mets tied the game, Carlos Beltran hit a double and with one out stole third-Chipper Jones was very unhappy with the call-but early in the game David Wright thrown out at second on stolen base attempt earlier in the game (and he was clearly safe) so I guess the game sometime hinges on bad calls, Chipper. Oh and by the way, he was safe. Anyway, Beltran scored on a sac fly by Luis Castillo. In the bottom of the 10^th the Mets loaded the bases on a single by Reyes who stole second, Alex Cora was intentionally walked, Ramon Castro walked to load the based. Carlos Beltran came to bat with the bases loaded, Braves reliever Jeff Bennett walked him which scored the winning run. For a second straight night, Delgado was not in the lineup.

Game 3: Braves 8 Mets 7 (12 innings) This was a classic Mets Braves battle. The Mets had Jonathan Niese on the mound and lets just say, he didn’t pitch as well as the Mets would have liked. The Braves put up a two spot in the top of the first, but, the Mets came back and scored two in the bottom of the inning. The Braves would take the lead to make it 4-2 but in the bottom of fourth, Fernando Tatis hit a Grand Slam to put the Mets ahead 6-4. The Braves scored the go ahead run in the top of the eighth but the Mets fought back and tied the game in the bottom of the eighth on a homerun by Gary Sheffield. The game went into extra innings but in the end the Mets couldn’t pull it off. Ken Takahashi gave up a solo homer to Martin Prado to lead of the 12^th. The Mets had a chance, Reyes lead off with a double and Castillo moved him over with a sac bunt, but with a guy on third, both Beltran and Sheffield stuck out to end the game.

The worst part about dropping two of three to the Braves is that the Mets could have won all three of these games. I think Jose Reyes had the worst series of his life. His defense, his base running, his show boating…this kid needs to get his head on straight.

Also worth nothing, for a third straight game, the Mets were without Carlos Delgado. The Mets have come out and said that if Delgado isn’t feeling better by Friday they will put him on the DL. This could spell trouble for the Mets. Delgado’s power can’t be replaced by a platoon at first; as much as I like Tatis, I would be remiss to believe that he could take over for Delgado.

Mets Blog

Mets Sweep Bucs, Run Winning Srteak to 7

Bernalda — Tue, 12 May 2009 23:53:40 +0000

Game 1 Mets 7 Pirates 3 Carlos Delgado knocked in 5 runs to pace the home team in a 7-3 win over Pittsburgh. Jonathon Niese started for the first time this year in place of Oliver Perez and looked good. Niese tossed a solid six , only giving up two earned. In fact, he shouldn’t have even given up those two. The Mets looked like they were playing with iron gloves early on as balls ricocheted off of Reyes, Wright, Beltran and Reyes again. Can’t anybody catch? Beltran and Church also lost a McLouth pop-up in the lights resulting in a run scoring double. The Mets pulled away late with 5 in the eighth to to earn Bobby Parnell his first big league win.

Game 2 Mets 10 Pirates 1 Jerry Manuel served a one game suspension but his managerial expertise wasn’t needed today. The Mets set a season high with 17 hits and cruised to a 10 -1 win. John Maine gave up only one run in six but it annoyed him. Know why? Because Pirate pitcher Pat Maholm took Maine deep. The look of disgust on Maine’s face afterward was plain to see. It’s alright John. Everybody gets lucky sometime. Jeez..even YOU have a HR. Speaking of HR’s Beltran became the first player to reach the second deck in LF. A BOMB. Manuel was suspended one game by MLB for making contact with Bill Welke over the Victorino incident. It’s not like he chest-bumped him or anything. The bill of Manuel’s cap touched Welke’s nose. Sandy Alomar Sr. had control of the team and obviously, the only decision he had to make was where to eat after this laugher.

Game 3 Mets 8 Pirates 4 With Livian Hernandez on the hill the Mets fell behind early 2-0. Livian had loads of trouble early and couldn’t locate his pitches well. But he managed the game, never let an inning get away from him. The Mets took the lead in the bottom of the fourth on a run scoring single by Wright and a two run single by Omir Santos. Santos has played well and shouldn’t be sent down. When Brian Schneider comes back, the team will have a decision to make. The Mets blew it open with a single run in the seventh and four more in the eighth. This is what the Mets are supposed to look like. Score early, pile on late and beat up the teams you’re supposed to. With Mets now at 17-13 and in first place let’s hope they stay there.

Mets Blog

Mets Complete mini-sweep of Phillies

Bernalda — Tue, 12 May 2009 23:48:28 +0000

Game 2 Mets 7 Phillies 5 Mike Pelfrey tossed 7 strong innings as the Mets sent Jamie Moyer to the showers in the third to finish up a two game sweep of the Phills. Two run homers in the first by Carlos Beltran and David Wright gave the Mets a 4-1 lead after one. Another homer from Jose Reyes in the second and a two run double by Ramon Castro in the third put the Mets up 7-1 and chased Moyer. Pelfrey had given up a run in the first on a double to Howard but limited the damage. This is what good pitchers do, not let innings get away from them. Remember when I told you to keep an eye on Pelfrey’s groundball to flyball ratio? Are you paying attention? When Mike is on, the ratio is 2 (gournders) to 1 (fly) or higher, Mike’s ration was 14-7 in his last game and 16-8 on Thursday against the Phills. There you go. The Phils scored single runs in the 4th and 6th to close the gap. However, in the eighth things started to heat up a bit. Pedro Feliciano was on the hill, he got Shane Victorino to swing and miss to strike out; only too bad for the Mets as our good friend, home plate ump, Angel Hernandez (who has a long, contentious history with the Mets) didn’t think so; he ruled the third strike on Victorino a foul tip, replays clearly showed otherwise. Jerry Manuel discussed it with Hernandez but,of course, to no avail. Victorino then ends up reaching on a slow roller to third. Here is where things get really interesting; Chase Utley grounds to Luis Castillo, who throws to first to get the out and hang up Victorino in a rundown. Throws go back and forth and then Victorino clearly goes out of his way to make contact with Reyes throwing a forearm shiver. It was so blatant that I expected Terry Fraser to give him two minutes for elbowing, sending the Mets on the powerplay. But again, our friends the umps, disagreed. This time it was Bill Welke at first that ruled Reyes interfered. This time Manuel got his money’s worth and was ejected. In the course of the argument the bill of Jerry’s cap hit Welke in the nose. We’ll see if that becomes an issue. As for Victorino, that was a dirty play and the next time he comes to bat, well let’s just say don’t get too comfortable.

Mets Blog

Mets Sweep 2 Game Set In Atlanta

Bernalda — Wed, 06 May 2009 23:04:31 +0000

Game 1 Mets 6 Braves 4 John Maine evened his record at 2-2 as the Mets edged the Braves 6-4. Maine pitched fairly well as he only had a one inning meltdown, much like Pelfrey did two nights ago against the Phils. Maine imploded in the second giving up three runs on three walks and an error by Luis Castillo. John threw much better afterward seemingly relying more on his fastball. Maine had to be grateful for Jordan Schafer though; the rookie CF for Atlanta leads the league in K’s so far and every time Maine needed a big out, guess who was up? Maine struck out Schafer swinging twice in big spots to keep the Mets in it. The Mets trailed 3-0 going into the sixth when Carlos Beltran and David Wright each hit two run HR’s to give the Mets the lead. Beltran added another two run shot in the seventh. Javier Vazquez had only given up one HR so far this year before giving up three tonite. Bobby Parnell, JJ Putz and Frankie Rodriguez closed it out. Parnell has been awesome so far. Putz gave up a HR to Chipper, what else is new? It’s only his 40^th HR against the Mets. And Rodriguez notched his 6^th save in 6 chances.

Game 2 Mets 4 Braves 3 Livian Hernandez tossed 6 1/3 strong innings to pace the Mets. Ramon Castro had three hits while Carlos Delgado, David Wright and Carlos Beltran had two each. Beltran is now hitting .404. Please keep it up there Carlos. The game was closer than it had to be. The Mets took a 4-1 lead into the ninth with Rodriguez on the hill but a dropped pop up by Delgado lead to two unearned runs. K-Rod refocused to close it out to preserve the win. Kenshin Kawakami started for Atlanta and definitely caught Keith’s attention in the booth. Everything Kawakami threw was outside. One after another. Outside, outside, outside. Keith was explaining that the players should be watching this from the bench and adjusting as they went to the plate. Castro seemed to do this as his three hits were to the opposite field. At one point Keith even was counting how many pitches were outside as opposed to inside. When a graphic appeared onscreen stating Kawakami had thrown 89 pitches to that point, keith exclaimed..” and I bet 81 of them have been outside!”. I miss Keith when he’s not there.

Mets begin a set with the Phillies at Citifield with another segment of must see TV because Santana will be on the mound against Chan Ho Park.

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Met’s New and Improved Bullpen drops 2 of 3 to Marlins‏

Bernalda — Fri, 01 May 2009 18:44:05 +0000

Game1 Mets 7 Marlins 1 The Mets got 6 in the first off Anibel Sanchez and that was the ballgame. Omir Santos, starting over Castro, again, slugged a grand slam for his first career homer. John Maine was able to over come the dropped routine fly to left by Gary Sheffield in the first inning going on to pitch his best game of the year. Sheffield reemed himself in the bottom of the first hitting an RBI single to tie the game. Maine looked sharp and was able to put hitters away when he got ahead. Six strong innings, allowing only one hit. Nice job John. Also, hitting Hanley Ramirez on the hand in the first? Knocking him out for the remainder of the series? That WAS an accident, right?

What is it with LF in Citifield? We already know about Murphy’s misadventures out there and now Sheff drops a can of corn. And Hermida almost let one get over his head too. Lights? Wind currents? Ghosts of leftfielders past? Stay tuned.

Game 2 Marlins 7 Mets 4 Mets had 3-0 and 4-2 leads before Sean Green came in to pour gasoline on the fire, giving up 4 runs in the 7^th. Green is now sportin’ a stellar 8.49 ERA. Nice. This makes four games so far where the Mets have had leads of at least 3 runs and lost the game. Not only was the bullpen to blame, remember the 4-0 lead over the cards that Ollie gave up? Sheesh. On the positive side, nobody can get Beltran out right now. I hope he keeps it up. And how about Bobby Parnell? Looking very good. Maybe he needs an increased role in the grand scheme of things.

Game 3 Marlins 4 Mets Another installment of the Johan show. After giving up two in the first on a triple by Maybin and a homer by Cantu, Johan shut the Fish down for the rest of the day. The Mets chipped away and went ahead in the 6^th on Fernando Tatis’ first HR of the year. In fact, the first video review for Citifield. And lo and behold, the umps had it right the whole time. And remember when we diagrammed the so called “chalkboard game”? Well, JJ Putz busted the chalkboard over his head blowing the lead in the 8^th after walking the first two hitters he faced. Are you kidding me?? It kills me when relievers come in and walk guys like that. Kills me.

I’m sure Johan ain’t feelin’ it either. Mets should have swept this series and now are 9-12. Uh-oh. David Wright had a particularly tough day. Struck out in the first with a runner at second, two out. Grounded into DP with runners on first and third and one out in the 3^rd. Struck out, looking, with two on in the ninth. And, oh yeah, an error in the 4^th after which Johan had to pitch his ass off to get out of the jam. And speaking of asses, Wright better get his head outta his.

Side note. Have you ever seen more triples in your life? There’s, like, two a game. Gonna tire out these guys.

Mets Blog

Mets leave 40 Guys on Base in 3 Games with Cards

Bernalda — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 16:56:55 +0000

The Cardinals swept the Mets in a three game series in St. Louis. For the Mets, it was much of the same. Terrible starting pitching and not hitting with men in scoring position. The Mets left 41 men on base in the three games. It was a piss poor effort by the Mets and I know we’re just one month into the season but if this is the product the Mets are going to put on the field, this is going to be a long season. By the way, is now the time to thank Sport Illustratred for jinxing the Mets?

Game 1: Cardinals 6 Mets 4 Another poor outting by the overpaid Oliver Perez. Perez pitched 4.2 innings allowing four earned runs on six hits. He walked five and stuck out four. I know that Perez has good numbers against the Phillies, Braves and Yankees, and yes, those are big games for the Mets-games the fans really want to win, but if Perez can’t pitch to the teams in between those series, then he is useless to the Mets. Really though, the Mets had this one and again, scored early and the bats died late. Also, I’d like to stop hearing how the Mets should have signed Derek Lowe-I really believe that he didn’t want to pitch in New York; the only problem now is that the Mets will have to contend with him in their division-and it seems that Lowe is the only good thing the Braves have going for them at this point in the season. This is also a game that Daniel Murphy would like to forget; terrible base running and even worse fielding did not really make this one of Dan’s best days. I know the kid is playing out of position and at the beginning of the season, I felt the Mets were hoping that Castillo would get off to a good start so that they might have the possibility of moving him by or before the trade deadline and actually moving Murphy to second base, there is no indication that the Mets are going to do that it is merely wishful thinking on my part! You can now point to two games that poor defense by Murphy has cost the Mets a win-I’d like to not have to hold my breath every time a ball is hit in his direction, it has become quite an adventure out there in left these days!

Game 2: Cardinals 5 Mets 2 Oh look, more of the same. Putrid pitching by John Maine put the Mets in a hole early, Maine gave up one in the first, two in the third and two in the fourth inning. Maine walked five while only striking out two. Again, the Mets left 11 guys on base; Carlos Beltran continued to swing a hot bat, but David Wright seems to night be able to do anything at the plate when there is a guy on base-if the Mets are going to do anything, Wright has got to pick it up at the plate.

Game 3: Cardinals 12 Mets 8 Guess what happend in this game? Oh-right, more awful pitching, more guys left on base, 20 to be exact. Albert Pujols punished mets pitchers by hitting two homers (but what Cardinal didn’t get a hit?). Not only did Livian struggle but Sean Green, who has been less than impressive stunk too. The best thing about this game is, it was the last of the three game series which means the Mets return home to start a three game series with the Nationals. Not that that will be a given for the Mets as they’ve had trouble with the Nats in recent years.

Mike Pelfrey will return to the rotation on Saturday after resting a strained forearm-I can’t even predict what we’ll see. There is talk that Mike Pelfrey (and possibly Oliver Perez) could be sent down if they don’t perfom well. I’m sure it is just talk because what other options do they have?

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Mets Open Citifield with a Thud‏

Bernalda — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 13:01:03 +0000

The mets dropped another series, this time to the Pods, to start the season at 4-5.

Game 1 – Padres 6 Mets 5 Mike Pelfrey looked shaky (Now we know it’s forearm tendonitis) again. David Wright brought the Amazins’ back with a three blast but bad outfield “D’ costs the mets for second game in a row. After Daniel Murphy staggered around like a drunk under a fly ball in Miami, Ryan Church turned the wrong way and had a long drive go off his glove for a three base error. It was hardly a routine play but this IS the majors after all. This proved to be the deciding play as this runner scored the go ahead run. I know the guys are still getting use to their new surroundings, but as a team they have made eight errors. Jerry Manual mentioned that he would like for the Mets to play better defense. Gee..thanks Skip!

Game 2- Mets 7 Padres 2 Shoddy play by the Friars led to a victory by the home team. The Mets scored 4 runs in the 7^th to break open a close game. This may have been the WORST inning I’ve seen a big league team play in quite some time. Four runs on no hits. Yeah, I know, Luis Castillo was credited with a hit. Really? Bitch, please. Walks, errant throws around the bases, wild pitches. Jose Reyes scored from first and he was only tryin’ to steal second. Solid game for Ollie. Good job by Manual for getting him outta there on a high note.

Game 3—Padres 6 Mets 5 John Maine was bad. End of story. After being staked to a 3 run lead on a long (449ft) HR by Carlos Delgado in the first, maine gave up 5 in the third and one more in the fifth. Time after time Maine gets a guy down 0-2 or 1-2 and can’t put him away. He’s GOT to develop another pitch. Fastball up and slider low and away is not cutting it anymore. SD’s LF Headley went 4-4 and was down in the count each time. The difference between elite pitchers and journeymen was on display clearly last night. Jake Peavy gave up Delgado’s HR then shut the door. Time after time the Mets had runners in scoring position but Peavy got big outs when it counted. This is something I’ve noticed Santana does as well. Buckle down with runners on and get out of it.

I think what is most frustrating is the Mets let guys like Heath Bell and Duaner Sanchez shut them out like that. I know the Mets as a team have said all kinds of stuff about last season and growing as a team and moving on; but really the Mets didn’t have much life in these three games and I do think we are getting close to the point where we might have to start to worry. The staring pitching has stunk early (with the exception of Johan) and the Mets are still lacking those big hits with runners in scoring position. The Brewers come to town for three-maybe that will spark something in the Mets when they get to see their old friend Willie Randolph.

On a side note, when Heath Bell came in to close the Mets down I couldn’t help but think how much he lookes like one of my favorite comics:

Mets Blog

Mets Drop 2 of 3 Against Marlins

Bernalda — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 01:19:20 +0000

Game 1 Marlins 5 Mets 4. The Mets wasted a great pitching effort by John Maine. Maine who hadn’t pitched since the end of August, was great in his return. In five innings he allowed two runs on two hits (both homers) walked one and stuck out five, retiring 12 of the last 13 hitters he faced. In all, the Mets stranded 14 base runners. It was a ninth inning pinch hit single by Jeremy Reed that tied the game at four; when Reed came to the plate, the Mets had gone 0-10 with runners in scoring position. In all, the Mets would strand 14 runners finishing the game 1-12 with runners in scoring position. Luis Castillo was a nightmare, at the end of the game, he was hitting .100 and had stranded six runners. While we can say all we want about it being early in the season; this is a problem of not hitting with runners in scoring postion (both for Castillo and the rest of the Mets) dates back to last season. The bullpen didn’t actually hold up their end of the bargain either. Sean Green, Bobby Parnell each allowed a run, and Darren O’Day allowed an inherited run to score (a guy Pedro Felicano left on base).

Game 2 Mets 8 Marlins 4. This game was closer than it needed to be. Livan Hernandez made his Mets debut, he looked good. Hernandez pitched six and two thirds innings allowing two runs on six hits, he walked three and struck out four. Darren O’Day worked a scoreless eight inning but ran into some trouble when David Wright made a throwing error in the bottom of the ninth, O’Day faced one more hitter before Frankie Rodriguez came in to finish out the game. I don’t know what is up with David Wright; we’ve seen him do some nice work with the glove but for whatever reason he can’t seem to throw to first. As far as offense goes, Jose Reyes was 2-5 with an RBI double and a two run homer. What is even more amazing, Luis Castillo was 4-4 with one RBI and three runs scored, he started the night hitting .100 at the end of the game his average went up to .375 (gotta love what the early season can do for the batting average). Jerry Manual told Castillo that he needs to be more aggressive at the plate and for at least one night that worked. Oh-David Wright did have an RBI in the game, but it was off the brick that Dan Uggla uses as a glove, and it came when the game was 6-2.

Game 3 Mets 1 Marlins 2. Not much to tell here. Johan pitched his ass off; but Josh Johnson pitched better. Johnson owns the Mets and now has a 5-0 record against the Mets. The hitters couldn’t get much going; they finally scored a run in the top of the ninth inning but fell short when Ryan Church flied out to end the game. The bigger part of all of this is that Daniel Murphy dropped a fly ball with two out in the second; one run to scored and then Ronnie Paulino hit a single to drive in the second unearned run. The New York press is making a big deal because Johan commented after the game that the differences in the game was the error. There has been a lot of back and forth about what Johan said, personally I read the quotes in the paper and watch the post game interview and my opinion is…his comments weren’t a big deal.

The Padres come to town for three games and the opening of Citi Field. The Mets will have Pelfrey, Perez and Maine pitching against the Padres.

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Mets top Reds 2-1, New Bullpen Perfect in Debut

Bernalda — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 14:43:53 +0000

Opening day-this is what we’ve been waiting for since the Marlins beat the Mets to end their horrid 2008 season. It is hard to figure out what the story is here. The Mets win 2-1, Santana has a strong start-he wasn’t exactly dominant battling the cold and the rain, but the bullpen worked just like Omar drew it up Green, Putz, and KRod-who looked unhittable. Daniel Murphy hit a homer and had two RBI.

I don’t know what happened to David Wright; didn’t I just write yesterday that he needed to have a big season? Well, I hope yesterday was not an indication of things to come. I know, I know, it is one game but it is more like a continuation of the past season. Wright had the opportunity to quiet some of his critics but failed to do so when in the first inning he struck out with a runner on third and less than two out. If that wasn’t bad enough, he was thrown out at home and to finish out the day, the was picked off first in the top of the ninth with a one run lead. Am I being too picky, after all they did win the game. At the end of the day, the Mets are 1-0 the Phillies are 0-1, what’s our magic number?

On a side note-Gary, Keith and Ron are the best booth guys in the business. Yesterday, Keith Hernandez shared a story about playing in a minor league game where tarantulas covered the field-Keith’s a funny guy!

The Mets will play again on Wednesday night. Mike Pelfrey will be on the mound and the Reds send Edinson Volquesz (17-6 with 3.21 era in 2008) to the hill. Game time is 7:10 p.m.

Mets Blog

Opening Day 2009

Bernalda — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 13:34:18 +0000

Well, here we are. Can you feel it? The beginning of another season, where hope springs eternal. Yeah, right! Gary Sheffield? Are you kidding me? More on this later…

Let’s look at our team shall we?

Infield…as we’ve discussed, all four familiar faces. We need David Wright to get some clutch hits so that he can quiet some of his doubters here in New York. David had a good statistical season last year, but really, can you come up with one clutch hit last year? Can’t say I’m thrilled to see Luis Castillo back at second. Bring the earplugs if you’re not hitting .350, Luis.

Outfield..Carlos Beltran in center of course. Truly can’t appreciate this guy unless you see him every day. Murphy everyday in left. Manuel has some Man-crush on Dan Murphy, can do no wrong. Forgive me for being cautious, we’ll see how this develops because as we have seen it is going to be a circus in left field. Up until two days ago I figured Ryan Church would be in right. I think, Church did too. But now we have the specter of Gary Sheffield hanging over us. I just don’t like good old Gar’. He’s a cancer. Doesn’t anybody realize this?? I know, I know right-handed bat. I ‘m tired of hearing it. Not worth the risk. The only reason this even makes sense at this point is that he isn’t on the Phillies-because with the Mets he’ll just kill the chemistry, have some outrageous quotes for Joel Sherman and basically just pull the Mets down with him. But, you know if he was in a Philly uniform he would single handedly beat the Mets every time they faced ‘em. I was puzzled about why they would do this until my husband (who is the most brilliant guy EVER) pointed out that Church’s great first few months last year were when Randolph was manager. What did Manuel get out of Church? Nuttin’ honey.

Catcher. same old, same old. Ramon Castro, Brian Schneider.

Bench..Jeremy Reed looks good. Fernando Tatis will play all over. Hope he’s still rockin’ that good karma from building that church. Yay God! How long does that last anyway? Alex Cora..how much is he gonna play? And don’t get me started about Marlon Anderson still bein’ here. Geezer.

Starters..Johan Santana, Mike Pelfrey, John Maine, Oliver Perez and Livian Hernandez. Two sure things and three question marks. Uh..the sure things are NOT Santana and Pelfrey smart guy but Santana and Hernandez. Livian will pitch and pitch and pitch. As a fifth starter he’s gold as an innings eater and on a “good” club will win 10-12. The question marks are Pelfrey, Maine and Ollie. Pelfrey because we need to see it consistantly. Maine because he’s coming off the surgery. Haven’t heard anything more about that curveball, John. Shortlived wasn’t it? And Ollie because, well he’s Ollie and you never know which Ollie is showing up.

Bullpen..K-Rod in the ninth. JJ Putz in the eighth. Brandon Stokes in long relief. Sean Green, Pedro Feliciano, Bobby Parnell and Darren O’Day (wasn’t he in Animal House?) are the situational pitchers.

So where does that leave us?

Winning the East 90-72. I don’t believe the Phillie bullpen can possibly be perfect again. They ALL had the year of their lives last season. Maybe it is just wishful thinking on my part-but did I say when I opened this blog that hope springs eternal?

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