The Good, The Bad and The Ugly...
So for the first time since Opening Day, the Mets are playing on their heels. All of a sudden the Phils sit just 1 game behind us.
Even me, a known pessimist, had visions of October a few weeks back. I know Happy Will and KFC were already printing their World Series T-shirts (which they ordered at our affiliate, Fratbucks.com).
It's good though. Time to start sweating. You knew everything was going too easily. So here we have the Good, the Bad and the Ugly from this past weekend, in reverse order...
The Ugly
1. David Wright's 9th inning glove.
With two more errors in the 9th inning this weekend, Wright's Total is at at least 5 for the season. This is all psychological, of course, but now that we've got a lefty closer who jams righties for a living, D Wright should get a lot of work over there in the 9th inning for years to come. There is nothing we can do but hope that this will go away.
2. Duaner Sanchez on Saturday.
For the first time in 6 weeks this guy didn't look like an all-star. He looked John Franco. This isn't really ugly though. Every RP will have a bad outing and we can not ask anything more out of young Duaner.
But blowing a 4-run lead on Saturday... that was really ugly.
The Bad
1. Pedro.
Two straight starts that Pedro has been touched up early. Yes, in each game he has ended up with an ND, but still, if we don't have him giving us the chance to win, we have a long season ahead.
2. The Phillies.
This team is just really, really, ridiculously hot right now. We all knew they could mash. Ryan Howard is starting to crush the ball.
With Ryan Madsen moving back to the Pen (their Aaron Heilman: aka, a dominant setup man who can't pitch 6 innings with his stuff and repeatedly fails in the rotation) and Tom Gordon appearing like Boston Flash, their pen is very strong.
With the excitement of the promotion of Cole Hammels (their Mike Pelfrey) to go along with a decent rotation, this team will be able to compete.
The starting pitching will cool down, but that may not matter.
Watch out.
The Good.
1. Jose Valentin.
This guy's bat has woken up. He looked great spelling Uncle Cliffy this weekend with a couple of big hits. If this guy can get going it will only add to one of our biggest strengths. Waluigi looked done, but now he appears to have caught his second wind.
2. Carlos Beltran.
Over the last 2 weeks this guy looks like a changed player. He really looks comfortable at the plate, especially from the right side. He is in the top 10 in slugging and on-base percentage, and he's really driving the ball.
While his problems reading flyballs continue, it looks like this guy is returning to 30-100 form.
3. Look at the standings.
We can't get greedy. We are still in 1st place. This hasn't happened in a long, long time. If someone can dig up the last time the Mets were in 1st place for 6 weeks, well, good research. My guess is '88. Either way. We've played great baseball for almost 2 months. That's pretty cool.
4. Jeremi Gonzalez.
1 start. 1 quality start. Sure it is only 1 but the guy looked decent. His next start is huge.
5. At least we are not Yankee fans.
That team is so hatable. Nothing more enjoyable to see than what is going on with Randy Johnson. I wrote at the start of Y2K's run about how the Big Unit is the biggest coward in sports.
He was a dominant, team-changing pitcher, who demanded a trade only to the Yankees so that he could coast instead of carrying a team on his back.
The Anti-Schilling you might say.
So Randy deserved to suck. Last year he choked and this year he is plain terrible. He got crushed by an A's lineup that has looked more like the Old Mets than a Major League lineup.
This really makes me happy. There is nothing I hate more in sports than players demanding trades. You just signed this huge contract to be a part of a team, deal with it. No one forced you to sign there in the first place.
But worse, demanding a trade to the one team that doesn't need you, only because you want someone to win for you, you don't want to have to carry a team on your back and win on your own.
So Unit, enjoy your failures. Maybe you should demand another trade back to a small market that will embrace your soft, ugly demeanor.
VCD,
SM
Even me, a known pessimist, had visions of October a few weeks back. I know Happy Will and KFC were already printing their World Series T-shirts (which they ordered at our affiliate, Fratbucks.com).
It's good though. Time to start sweating. You knew everything was going too easily. So here we have the Good, the Bad and the Ugly from this past weekend, in reverse order...
The Ugly
1. David Wright's 9th inning glove.
With two more errors in the 9th inning this weekend, Wright's Total is at at least 5 for the season. This is all psychological, of course, but now that we've got a lefty closer who jams righties for a living, D Wright should get a lot of work over there in the 9th inning for years to come. There is nothing we can do but hope that this will go away.
2. Duaner Sanchez on Saturday.
For the first time in 6 weeks this guy didn't look like an all-star. He looked John Franco. This isn't really ugly though. Every RP will have a bad outing and we can not ask anything more out of young Duaner.
But blowing a 4-run lead on Saturday... that was really ugly.
The Bad
1. Pedro.
Two straight starts that Pedro has been touched up early. Yes, in each game he has ended up with an ND, but still, if we don't have him giving us the chance to win, we have a long season ahead.
2. The Phillies.
This team is just really, really, ridiculously hot right now. We all knew they could mash. Ryan Howard is starting to crush the ball.
With Ryan Madsen moving back to the Pen (their Aaron Heilman: aka, a dominant setup man who can't pitch 6 innings with his stuff and repeatedly fails in the rotation) and Tom Gordon appearing like Boston Flash, their pen is very strong.
With the excitement of the promotion of Cole Hammels (their Mike Pelfrey) to go along with a decent rotation, this team will be able to compete.
The starting pitching will cool down, but that may not matter.
Watch out.
The Good.
1. Jose Valentin.
This guy's bat has woken up. He looked great spelling Uncle Cliffy this weekend with a couple of big hits. If this guy can get going it will only add to one of our biggest strengths. Waluigi looked done, but now he appears to have caught his second wind.
2. Carlos Beltran.
Over the last 2 weeks this guy looks like a changed player. He really looks comfortable at the plate, especially from the right side. He is in the top 10 in slugging and on-base percentage, and he's really driving the ball.
While his problems reading flyballs continue, it looks like this guy is returning to 30-100 form.
3. Look at the standings.
We can't get greedy. We are still in 1st place. This hasn't happened in a long, long time. If someone can dig up the last time the Mets were in 1st place for 6 weeks, well, good research. My guess is '88. Either way. We've played great baseball for almost 2 months. That's pretty cool.
4. Jeremi Gonzalez.
1 start. 1 quality start. Sure it is only 1 but the guy looked decent. His next start is huge.
5. At least we are not Yankee fans.
That team is so hatable. Nothing more enjoyable to see than what is going on with Randy Johnson. I wrote at the start of Y2K's run about how the Big Unit is the biggest coward in sports.
He was a dominant, team-changing pitcher, who demanded a trade only to the Yankees so that he could coast instead of carrying a team on his back.
The Anti-Schilling you might say.
So Randy deserved to suck. Last year he choked and this year he is plain terrible. He got crushed by an A's lineup that has looked more like the Old Mets than a Major League lineup.
This really makes me happy. There is nothing I hate more in sports than players demanding trades. You just signed this huge contract to be a part of a team, deal with it. No one forced you to sign there in the first place.
But worse, demanding a trade to the one team that doesn't need you, only because you want someone to win for you, you don't want to have to carry a team on your back and win on your own.
So Unit, enjoy your failures. Maybe you should demand another trade back to a small market that will embrace your soft, ugly demeanor.
VCD,
SM
posted by Sippy Momo at 12:14 PM
2 Comments:
I've been on record advocating this position since January and now it's criminal what they're doing. The Mets have the talent to go to the world series, but the management decision making to get the first pick in the draft.
They operate under a strategy that they're guaranteed to win when Glavine and Pedro so they can win 50% of the time when Trachsel picks and 25% of the time from their makeshift 4-5. They act like the bullpen is critically important, when, shockingly as we regress to the mean, it's only slightly less mediocre than every other team. They have a guy, in Heilman, who undoubtedly will do better than Jeremi Gonzalez and Lima and probably better than Bannister, Trachsel and Maine, but refuse to use him. Meanwhile, he personally has blown a game out of the bullpen and they have to use up the pen at such a feverish rate during the starts of these shitty guys, that he's not available for the rare important moments. So instead Chad Bradford is pitching his second inning in the 10th inning of a tie game. If Pedro or Glavine doesn't win, the Mets are basically guaranteed to go 1-4 over a 5 game period or 2-3 at best. And news flash, these guys aren't going to go 45-0.
Meanwhile, this puts so much pressure on the offense that they're starting to struggle in important spots because they're expected to score 6-8 runs 3 out of 5 games and if they're not scoring in a Pedro/Glavine start, they know the same thing that I'm writing about. I told you from the beginning of the season, the extreme obstinacy of the Minaya/Willie duo was going to be a problem and their absolute refusal to consider Heilman as part of the rotation because of some ill-conceived over emphasis on the bullpen is ruining the Mets season. When you breath life into a team, they start to live and while Philly won't go 13-1 over every two week period, for the rest of the season, I might rather choose them than us right now. Ryan Howard gets more confident each day and you can make a case that he's a better hitter than any player on the Mets. And another news flash, the Braves aren't exactly dead yet. We've allowed them to creep back.
And here's the great news: we have 3 at St. Louis and 3 vs. the Yankees and then 3 vs. the Phillies. There is a very good chance we go 1-8 in these 9 games and then be 3-4 back of first place--which is going to be no cakewalk making up given the strategy they've adopted. I don't mind losing. What I hate is that I'm being held hostage by idiocy from 2 of the 3 teams I root for. It's a painful time to be a fan. The Mets have the best team in the National League and they're playing themselves out of the playoffs simply because of stubborn decision making. For some god forsaken reason, I'm in the minority here, since Sip and AFOMG been advocating the import of the pen since last January and now they can see what such an insane fascination and obsession with this ABSOLUTELY minor aspect of regular season baseball does to a ballclub and how it destroys your team. Well done Mets. Well done. You're ruining my spirit and destroying the season. But let's make sure we get to use Heilman in the 7th inning!
I might be a little late with this, but has anyone hear the mets new song " our team, our time." This track thumps. Have a
listen:
http://newyork.mets.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/press_releases/press_release.jsp?ymd=20060417&content_id=1404742&vkey=pr_nym&fext=.jsp&c_id=nym
Post a Comment
<< Home