New York Mets Baseball Blog » Ryan Church

Mets Drop Four straight on the West Coast

Bernalda — Thu, 21 May 2009 13:43:57 +0000

The Mets were stellar in the first three games against the Giants, they stole a ton of bases (7 in one game), they hit with runners in scoring position and they even played defense. Even though Carlos Delgado was placed on the DL (he is expected to be out until July at the earliest), they had plenty offense and were able to win the first three of a four game series. However, the Mets lost the final game of the series and as of last night, were swept three straight by the Dodgers.

The losses against the Dodgers may not have been so bad if the Mets had not played so bad. The Mets looked like buffoons; in game one alone the Mets committed five errors. It was also in that game that we got some insight into the true relationship between Ryan Church and Jerry Manual. Church made the biggest base running blunder of the season when he completely missed third base the Mets would have taken the lead in the top of the 11^th and would have handed the ball off to Frankie Rodriguez, but instead the Dodgers appealed at third and Church was called out. Manual totally threw Church under the bus, he didn’t bother to even argue the call, instead he literally turned his back on him. I for one like Church, but now I feel he probably has to move on considering the relationship between he and the manager.

Lets be honest though, the Mets didn’t just lose that game and the series because Church missed third, the Mets committed a ton of errors and have failed to hit a home run in 60 innings. In the Dodger series the Mets left 26 men on base and were 3-27 with RISP. Suddenly the bats are dead. Not only did the Mets not hit, they also didn’t play defense well either-the committed seven errors in the series, five in one game.

The Mets are in trouble. Manya has said that they will not go out to trade for a first baseman and feels that that position can be filled by who they have on the team right now, but after watching Jeremy Reed there, it is nearly impossible to believe that Omar is watching the same team we are because as FANS we can see that this little experiment isn’t going to work. Daniel Murphy had the opportunity to play first and actually didn’t look as bad there as he does in the outfield, but suddenly this guy’s bat has been very cold.

Not only is first base a concern but so is Sean Green and JJ Putz. Putz gave up the winning run in the last game of the Dodger series. I really don’t want to hear about adrenaline or lack thereof, you are being paid to do a job and if you are asked to pitch in the second or the eighth you better do what you are supposed to do, short of the fact that you arm is falling off, I don’t want to hear excuses. On that note, Sean Green stinks and I think the Mets need to chuck him, he is a nightmare out there, he can’t get anyone out. Look, I love the Putz and Green deal, for nothing more than it got Aaron Heilman out of town but if they can’t get anyone out, they’ll get the Heilman reception from the crowd.

If the Mets are going to throw in the towel, then do so. Let Murphy play first, bring up Fernando Martinez, add one of the young pitchers from Triple A, and play out the season, but don’t feed us a line of bull and try to make us believe that the Mets can win now with what they’ve got, because they can’t. Now…not only is Delgado on the DL, Jose Reyes seems headed there too with a calf injury. Also, I’m not making excuses for the Mets because of injuries, every team has injuries; I’m just questioning who is going to step it up. I do think it is interesting that with Delgado departing, David Wright heated up…

The Mets will wrap up their road trip with three in Boston over the weekend. Interestingly, this weekend the Mets and Yankees have the opportunity to help each other out this weekend as the Yankees will host the Phillies for three…wow, I might have to root for the Yankees (ugh!)

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 Disappoint Taking 2 of 3 Against Nats‏

Bernalda — Fri, 01 May 2009 18:35:34 +0000

Game 1 Mets 4 Nationals Johan Santana was great again. Santana gave up only a 6^th inning HR to Nick Johnson while striking out 10. Mets scored single runs in the 3^rd, 4^th, 6^th and 8^th innings to get Johan his third win. Jesus Flores homered in the ninth off K-Rod to make it close. Uh..with our stellar catchers, how did we let Flores get away?

Game 2 Mets 8 Nationals 2 Three errors and five walks by the visitors helped the Mets win going away. Carlos Beltran had three hits and Ryan Church knocked in three to pace the Amazin’s attack. Mike Pelfrey was much better in his return from tendonitis in his forearm. I knew only one other guy who developed tendonitis in his forearm but that was from…uh, nevermind.

Game 3 Nationals 8 Mets 1 Oliver Perez reverts to form giving up 7 earned in 4 1/3. Manuel says Perez will get one more start in the Phillie series before a decision is made on his immediate future. Ollie is now sportin’ a 9.31 ERA. Nice work if you can get it for $12 million per. Jesus Flores homered again. He was 5 for 8, 3 runs scored, 5 RBI and 2 HR’s in the two games he played. Think he might get up a little more against the team that let him go?

Mets Blog

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.

Mets Blog

Mets Take Two Out of Three From Reds to Open Season

Bernalda — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 00:11:19 +0000

Wednesday: Mets 9 Reds 7 Mike Pelfrey got his first win of the season on Wednesday. Pelfrey was far from good, in five innings of work he allowed four earned runs on five hits, but he made it through five. Actually, if it wasn’t for the fake to third throw to first Pelfrey probably wouldn’t have made it through five; when does that ever work? The Mets bullpen made it interesting; even Frankie Rodriguez struggled-he did not have his good stuff walking two in the inning. However, first base umpire Bill Welke made it a little more difficult for Rodriguez than it needed to be because of a crap call in the ninth inning-Brandon Phillips was on second, Edwin Encarnacion hit a grounder to third, Wright fielded the ball-throwing to first as Brandon Phillips broke for third. Delgado took the throw at first-his foot clearly ON the bag, threw to third. And that is where Welke fits into the equation-he called Encarnacion safe at first claiming that Delgado came off the bag too soon. Replays clearly show that Delgado was on the bag. Jerry Manual came out of the dugout to have a discussion with Welke but to no avail. Clearly Welke is a tough guy-and now we know that he is. Seriously though, who wasn’t on the edge of their seat when Lance Nix hit that ball to the warning track in the bottom of the ninth?

Thursday: Mets 6 Reds 8 Oliver Perez took the loss, he worked just four and a third, allowing eight earned runs; he walked five and struck out seven. And here is what I don’t get-really I don’t get it, he looked dominant early, he did strike out seven but then suddenly he just stinks-how does that happen? And how is it that a guy who is as talented as he is just loses it in the middle of a game? Every time he pitches like this-we, as Mets fans are going to be thinking about how we dropped the ball (so to speak) with Lowe. The bullpen really kept the Mets in the game once Ollie was pulled, but the offense just didn’t come back. The Mets scored first putting a three spot on the board in the third to take the lead and although the Mets didn’t throw in the towel after Ollie gave up eight, scoring one run in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings, in the end they fell short.

There was a Gary Sheffield sighting, he struck out as a pinch hitter in the ninth inning of yesterday’s game. I’m not sure that Ryan Church has a lot to worry about at this point, his defense is outstanding-did you catch that play on Monday? On top of that Church is hitting .455 with two doubles and two RBI. I’m rooting for Church!

Clearly, the Mets rotation is going to be a topic of conversation. They did little in the off season to address that situation. Pelfrey had a tough outing as did Perez. We know that they both have talent, but do they have guts? We’ll see what happens with Maine tonight. Obviously there are no worries with Santana. Hernandez is a work horse and has looked good this spring. Who cares how good the bullpen might be if our starters are going out there and giving up five or six runs a start.

The Mets will fly east to Miami to start a three game series with the Marlins. John Maine will face off against Anibal Sanchez, game time is 7:10 p.m.

Our thoughts go out to the family of Nick Adenhart and the Los Angles Angels of Anaheim.

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?

Mets Blog

A Look Back At the Year End Review

Bernalda — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 14:13:45 +0000

Welcome back!! It’s spring time and the World Baseball classic is in full swing. Who would have thought that the Netherlands would be such a force? At least we know that Jose Reyes (and the rest of the Dominican team) won’t wear themselves out!

Time to look back at my year end review; wow I wasn’t even close! No Lowe (in case you missed it he is with the Braves), No Hudson-instead we are going to stick with Luis Castillo! Ollie’s back-but I was sorry to see Joe Smith go; however, I couldn’t be happier that Schoeneweis and Heilman are gone. The Mets chucked Duaner Sanchez too. So, what will the Mets look like in their new digs? For the time being it’s named Citifield, but we’ll have to see how Obama digs that since the gov’t owns Citibank now…can you imagine-”Please welcome, the New York Mets brought to you by the United States of America!” Wow-that gives new meaning to the words, “America’s team”.

Infield..scarily familiar. Delgado, Castillo, Reyes and Wright. Who could have a problem with SS and 3rd? They’ll be there for another 10 years. It was rumored that the Mets shopped Delgado, but no takers- one can only wonder, will he be as happy this year as he was when Willie was fired last year? And Castillo, losing 20lbs makes those achy knees feel a lot better, eh Luis? The way the Mets are praising this guy so far you’d think he was the second coming of Rogers Hornsby. At least the B.S. of him hitting lead off is over, I guess that was Jerry’s way of keeping the press from talking about the end of last season.

Outfield..Church, Beltran, Murphy/Tatis..right to left. No surprises here. Maybe the LF platoon but not really.

Catcher.. no news..Schnieder and Castro with Cancel in the wings. Snooze

Starters..Santana (who has already given us Mets fans a scare but will be ready to pitch opening day), Maine, Pelfrey (the calf injury doesn’t sound serious). Perez (head case, but usually pitches well against the Yankees and Braves) and who knows who’ll take the ball on the fifth day; Tim Redding looked like Schoeneweis and Heilman together when he gave up those homeruns in that preseason game against the Marlin’s the other night, as it turns out he has a bum shoulder …no worries with Johan’s ability but of course we’ll all wonder about the elbow-and I can only imagine the calls to the Fan when he has his first bad outting; Maine says he’s pain free and messin’ with a curve to give hitters something else to think about, Pelfrey, please don’t let last year be a fluke, Ollie, please don’t be a flake and will the fifth starter please stand up? From among Jon Niese, Tony Armas Jr.,Elmer Dessens, Nelson Figueroa, Freddy Garcia and Livian Hernandez somebody HAS to grab the spot right? Please? Somebody?

Bullpen..K-Rod is the closer and J.J. has the 8th, this we know. Sean Green, Feliciano. That leaves one or two spots depending on if the Mets carry 11 or 12 pitchers. Carlos Muniz, Brandon Knight, Eddie Kunz, Bobby Parnell, Brian Stokes or somebody we don’t know yet will have a big spring to grab those slots.

Bench..Alex Cora seems to be the backup infielder so far. Nick Evans and Angel Pagan are back to battle for outfield spots. Evans plays first too so a plus for him. Marlon Anderson is in camp again. Really? Sheesh. But so is Jose Valentin, can he channel 2006 again? And isn’t it about time we stop hearing about what a great player Fernando Martinez is and start seeing it? Really, what is he like 45 now, feels like I’ve been waiting for him for 25 years already. Seriously, Martinez won’t be 21 till Oct. Just in time for the World Series, right? Let’s hope.

Mets Homeplate

End of Season Wrap Up

Bernalda — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 14:02:23 +0000

Well, it’s been awhile. I guess I’ve calmed down enough from Schoeneweis to finally write an ending to the season. My first thought is how could they possibly have done this again? Are you kidding me? And of course, this was only worsened by the fact that the Phillies won the world series. My Sports Illustrated arrived in the mail with them on the cover and I felt that sense of dread-can you imagine what it will be like when the Mets play the Phillies next season? You would think that would be enough alone for the Mets to want to rise to the occasion next season, but then again, isn’t that what we said after the 2007 season?

How is it that the 2008 season ended just like the 2007 season? The Marlins spit in their eye two years in a row and laughed about it. The Mets? Instead of fighting, instead of taking a cue from Johan Santana (who it turns out was pitching on a bum knee)-the Mets laid down and died. This Mets’ team has no guts. How is it that nobody stood up and punched Hanley Ramirez in the mouth (figuratively speaking of course)? As much as I hate to say it, and I REALLY hate to say it, Shane Victorino (doesn’t he sound like a grade “B” gangster, Vic Torino, polyester suit and all) would not take this BS from anybody. And that’s basically what’s wrong with the Mets.

After Santana went out there on Saturday and pitched his guts out on one leg the Mets did almost nothing on Sunday. That’s why your leader can’t be a pitcher; he’s only out there every five days. The Mets need a fiery everyday player. The Mets need Keith Hernandez again. In the ’86 playoff against the Astros the Mets HAD to win game 6. There was no way they were winning a game 7 that year against Mike Scott. He was in their heads. So when the Mets had the lead in the ninth and Orosco on the mound, the story goes Keith went to Orosco on the mound and told him” If you throw any fastballs, anything but a slider, I’m going to kick your ass right here on the mound”. Is this true? Who knows? No one would admit it now. Not pc enough for the Pollyanna’s in the game today (of which Keith makes mention of almost every game…”It’s become such a gentlemen’s game” said with much disdain.) But this is exactly what they need, a kick ass, ask for names later leader. Where to get one? I don’t know. And it’s hard to admit that. I don’t know who they need or what they need to give up to get this mystery leader.

I can tell you that Scott Schoeneweis..GONE. Aaron Heilman…GONE, he can go pout about being a starter somewhere else. Can’t you just hear him? (whiney voice..”But I want to be a starter…”) Luis Castillo…Gone Baby Gone! Duaner Sanchez-Gone, go get arroz con pollo at 2am with someone else. Moises Alou…can still hit, older than Ty Cobb…Gone. Marlon Anderson…gone pleeeese. Pedro Martinez..thanks for the memories (of Takin’ the money, not for big wins. By the way Pedro’s 32 wins as a Mets cost $1,611,424.00 each. Nice work if you can get it. ). Ollie…probably gone with Boras as his agent. We all know that we won’t see Billy Wagner as a Met again.

I waited to deal with the so-called “Core” players: Jose Reyes, David Wright, Carlos Beltran and Carlos Delgado. There is a lot of talk here in NY of breaking up them up. I don’t think Reyes, Wright or Beltran are goin’ anywhere. Carlos Delgado is a different story. The Mets picked up his $12 million option. It would have cost $4 million to buy him out, so an outlay of $8 million. There has been rumblings that they would move him if they could create a package with Delgado and assorted other pieces. Remember he didn’t want to come here anyway. He signed with the Marlins.

Now the others:

Joe Smith-can be useful. Stays. Pedro Feliciano…gotta get a couple a’ righty’s out once in awhile there Pedro. Stays. Luis Ayala…looked good at times. Don’t think he can be full time closer but valuable. Stays Ramon Castro…useful back-up-then again, he has to stay health-the past two years he’s missed significant playing time, he stays. Nick Evans…young OF. Stays-Omar has said they think he can hit for power-I guess we’ll have to wait and see. Ryan Church… him before concussions. Stays. Brian Schneider…ok, can we upgrade? Stays- But, rumor has been that Pudge is an idea for the upgrade-NO THANKS! Daniel Murphy, you can hit, can you play second? Stays. Argenis Reyes…like him. Hit .283 in AAA, how about here? Stays. Fernando Tatis…came back to MLB to build church in hometown. Now that it’s built, will God still be smiling on him? Stays. Endy Chavez…was he still on the team after Manuel took over? Stays. Damion Easley…like him, wants to be a gamer, hurt too much, old. Probably stays if healthy. Mike Pelfry…Duh! Johan Santana …Like there is a question about this. John Maine…Serious John though, can you put a guy away after getting two strikes and not let him foul off 30 pitches? Stays.

So, where does that leave the Mets? The Mets are in need of a left fielder, a second baseman, a starter and a closer. I think Derek Lowe is a gamer and Orlando Hudson would be a welcome addition at second. Can Evans and Murphy split left? Did you see some of those fielding adventures they had out there? Can you say Arizona Instructional League? Will the Mets try to make Maine the closer? He has the stuff. Can he pitch multiple days in a week? He seems to get frustrated easily; can he handle the mental aspects of closing? Uh…I guess there are a few questions the Mets need to answer right now.

Here is my best guess:

Starting Rotation: Santana, Pelfry, Lowe, Maine and Niese. Relievers: Smith, Feliciano, Kunz, Stokes, Ayala, and…your guess is as good as mine. Infield: C Schneider and Castro, 1B Delgado, 2B Hudson, SS Reyes, 3B Wright Outfield: LF Evans /Murphy, CF Beltran, RF Church

Mets Blog

Met Bats Let Them Down, Lose 9-6 in 10

Bernalda — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 16:40:48 +0000

I know what you’re thinkin’. The Mets lose 9-6 and this clown says it’s the bats that lost the game. What a moron! Well, did you watch the game smart guy? While, yes the pitching was putrid, the Mets could NOT get a runner in from third, with NO outs, on multiple occasions. 7^th inning, 8^th inning, 9^th inning. It went on and on.

Mets got off to a 5-1 lead thanks to a Carlos Delgado grand slam in the 3rd. Big Game Ollie could not get out of the 5^th (good luck on that big contract, Ollie) and the Cubs tied it up. Brian Stokes gave up a run in the 7^th to give the Cubs a 6-5 lead and then the fun began. First and third with no out for the Mets in the 7^th. No runs. They loaded the bases in the 8^th and were able to manage one measly run when Ramon Martinez (who the hell is THIS guy) was too scared to swing and luckily, Samardzjia walked him. Daniel Murphy triples to lead off the 9^th in a tie game. David Wright STRIKES OUT!! Can’t even make contact. They walked the Carloses to pitch to Ryan Church ( who left a bazillion guys on base lately). He grounds meekly to second for a force at the plate. Lastly, Castro STRIKES OUT! No runs. You knew they were losing this game at that point. Luis Ayala gave up 3 runs in the 10^th and it was a done deal.

The Phillies got blown out by the Braves. They were due so no biggie. The Brewers beat the pirates again. 11 in a row and counting. Way to go, Pitt!! Sabathia pitched again. I think he pitches every game for Milwaukee now. They think he’s “Old Hoss” Radbourn. Who’s that you may ask? “Hoss’ pitched for providence in the 1880’s. He was 60-12 one year, pitching 23 out of 24 games down the stretch. And today, we’re worried about pitch counts.

Mets Blog