Catch This
It's always something when the Mets play in Pittsburgh, where we've lost three straight series. This is what happens when the team keeps sneaking out late to break into the Andy Warhol Museum. Anyway, last night I'm sitting at the new neighborhood Park Slope hangout, sipping on a club soda (weak) and eating my steak salad (rare, son) when Blastings pulls out one of his patented hustle specials in the top of the third inning and slides into second with a bloop double down the right field line. There's nobody out, and up steps Mike DiFelice.
El Duque looks like shit at this point and we're down 2-0, so I'm a little salty, and the sight of this guy coming to bat does me no good. I immediately start composing today's post in my head. The mind races, the internal pen starts scratching. "Catcher injuries plague Mets," I scowl to myself. "Willie shouldn't have been so quick to put Paulie on the DL." "DiFelice couldn't hit his way out of a wet paper bag with scissors in his hands." And so forth. I got myself going into a nice froth, violently jabbing at my sliced steak with my fork like I was trying to lance a boil. (Ask your parents).
Then, naturally, Ian Snell tosses up a hanging slider that DiFelice clobbers off the base of the wall in left, Blastings strolls home from second base, and I nearly cough a wad of arugula into the face of the bartendress, Liz, who's already giving me dirty looks for ordering soda with lime while all the other guys at the bar are buying multiple rounds of Amstel Lights and shots of Sauza. "That was a close one, honey," thinks Cheddar, who clears his throat and leans back in the stool, face quickly reddening. John, the thick-armed business type in a blue work shirt sitting next to me at the bar, prepares to deliver a Brooklyn-sized slap on the back. I hold onto the salad, though, and begin re-evaluating the post.
Not by much, though. I've already said my piece about DiFelice, and the guy's hitting .282 with 7 HR at New Orleans, so it's not like he's not going to be a drain on the lineup. But even with Castro getting cortisone shots in his back and Paulie stomping out of the clubhouse and whining like a high school girl about being benched, it looks like a short-term thing, so there's no use getting too worked up about it. And honestly, there's not a ton to do -- the Mets don't have any organizational depth at catcher to speak of, and it'll be a cold day in hell before you find me pining for Sandy Alomar, Jr. In this century, at least.
We can, however, okay a hit on this headline writer. A thousand pounds for the scalp, as well as a hundred for any bowman caught poaching one of the King's deer.
Couple of Thrilledge notes, including, first, a warning about small sample sizes. As much as I like how the kid's been playing, and as strongly as I like to advocate more playing time, the fact remains that hitting .307 with some pop in just over 100 at-bats doesn't prove anything one way or another about his future. Sure, he's been dynamite recently, and each new day brings additional evidence about his talent (in several directions, including that meandering catch last evening), but the whole point is he needs to receive even more looks so we know what we're dealing with: trade bait, marginal starter, solid regular, potential superstar. You know where I stand, but as with an evaluation of Jessica Alba's ass, more study is advised.
Which makes things like this, which popped up on Metsblog a couple days ago, that much more ridiculous. Reader "Derek" wrote to Cerrone to argue that the Jew shouldn't be benched in favor of Blastings because ...
Well, if 19 at-bats is steering your thinking in one direction or another, you've got problems. The other issue here is this concept of a "playoff-quality pitcher," a term that apparently encompasses David "Out of Baseball" Wells. Here are, in order, the starting pitchers the Mets faced during the postseason last year:
Also, check out this report from UniWatch member and Mets batboy Matt Harris, who apparently was behind Blastings' glorious appearance in full stirrups on Saturday. Somebody promote this kid.
Finally, a quick note about Pedro, who's aching to get back into the big leagues. I say you've got to trust him on this sort of thing, and at least give him a run out at some point. He's a big boy, h knows his body as well as anyone, and given all the weird shit he works on down in the DR with his own trainers, it's not like the Mets' staff are even necessarily the experts here.
"I like this outing a lot more than the other one," Martinez said. "I am more in command, and I actually felt like I pitched a little bit, making pitches where I wanted to, and overall it was a jump ahead. It was a great improvement."
The results, of course, aren't at all the important thing. It's feel, it's command, it's confidence. So, if he still feels like he's good on normal recovery, you give him another start and then you bring him back into the MLB fold -- unless something changes. Let Petey be Petey, that's what I say.
El Duque looks like shit at this point and we're down 2-0, so I'm a little salty, and the sight of this guy coming to bat does me no good. I immediately start composing today's post in my head. The mind races, the internal pen starts scratching. "Catcher injuries plague Mets," I scowl to myself. "Willie shouldn't have been so quick to put Paulie on the DL." "DiFelice couldn't hit his way out of a wet paper bag with scissors in his hands." And so forth. I got myself going into a nice froth, violently jabbing at my sliced steak with my fork like I was trying to lance a boil. (Ask your parents).
Then, naturally, Ian Snell tosses up a hanging slider that DiFelice clobbers off the base of the wall in left, Blastings strolls home from second base, and I nearly cough a wad of arugula into the face of the bartendress, Liz, who's already giving me dirty looks for ordering soda with lime while all the other guys at the bar are buying multiple rounds of Amstel Lights and shots of Sauza. "That was a close one, honey," thinks Cheddar, who clears his throat and leans back in the stool, face quickly reddening. John, the thick-armed business type in a blue work shirt sitting next to me at the bar, prepares to deliver a Brooklyn-sized slap on the back. I hold onto the salad, though, and begin re-evaluating the post.Not by much, though. I've already said my piece about DiFelice, and the guy's hitting .282 with 7 HR at New Orleans, so it's not like he's not going to be a drain on the lineup. But even with Castro getting cortisone shots in his back and Paulie stomping out of the clubhouse and whining like a high school girl about being benched, it looks like a short-term thing, so there's no use getting too worked up about it. And honestly, there's not a ton to do -- the Mets don't have any organizational depth at catcher to speak of, and it'll be a cold day in hell before you find me pining for Sandy Alomar, Jr. In this century, at least.
We can, however, okay a hit on this headline writer. A thousand pounds for the scalp, as well as a hundred for any bowman caught poaching one of the King's deer.Couple of Thrilledge notes, including, first, a warning about small sample sizes. As much as I like how the kid's been playing, and as strongly as I like to advocate more playing time, the fact remains that hitting .307 with some pop in just over 100 at-bats doesn't prove anything one way or another about his future. Sure, he's been dynamite recently, and each new day brings additional evidence about his talent (in several directions, including that meandering catch last evening), but the whole point is he needs to receive even more looks so we know what we're dealing with: trade bait, marginal starter, solid regular, potential superstar. You know where I stand, but as with an evaluation of Jessica Alba's ass, more study is advised.
Which makes things like this, which popped up on Metsblog a couple days ago, that much more ridiculous. Reader "Derek" wrote to Cerrone to argue that the Jew shouldn't be benched in favor of Blastings because ...
In 19 at-bats against Tim Hudson, John Smoltz, Aaron Harang, Greg Maddux, David Wells, Jake Peavy and Brad Penny, i.e., playoff-caliber pitchers, Lastings Milledge is batting .157, with most of his plate appearances coming against the Brewers, Nationals, Pirates, Marlins, Reds and Cubs. ... Meanwhile, Shawn Green is batting .487 in 39 at-bats against the same six pitchers, as well as Carlos Zambrano, Roy Oswalt and Brandon Webb, which includes going 8–for-11 against Smoltz.He then caps it off with this line -- "Come playoff time, against big pitchers, I’d rather have Green up at bat than Milledge if we’re talking about winning this year."
Well, if 19 at-bats is steering your thinking in one direction or another, you've got problems. The other issue here is this concept of a "playoff-quality pitcher," a term that apparently encompasses David "Out of Baseball" Wells. Here are, in order, the starting pitchers the Mets faced during the postseason last year:PennyClearly, you tend not to see No. 4 and 5 starters as much come playoff time, and the overall level of pitching tends to be better than what exists during a long, draining regular season. But every playoff starter isn't an ace, and plenty of potential playoff teams don't have more than one, if that. What Blastings did during his debut against the D-Backs would seem to have no connection to what he might do against, say, Doug Davis in a playoff series, right? I just don't follow the logic. Also, looking at a new player's numbers while going through the best hurlers in the league for, by definition, the first time, doesn't seem to be especially fair. Green's seen all of these clowns for years -- and as we know, familiarity breeds contempt.
Hong-Chih Kuo
Greg Maddux
Jeff Weaver
Chris Carpenter
Jeff Suppan
Al Reyes
Carpenter
Suppan
Also, check out this report from UniWatch member and Mets batboy Matt Harris, who apparently was behind Blastings' glorious appearance in full stirrups on Saturday. Somebody promote this kid.
Finally, a quick note about Pedro, who's aching to get back into the big leagues. I say you've got to trust him on this sort of thing, and at least give him a run out at some point. He's a big boy, h knows his body as well as anyone, and given all the weird shit he works on down in the DR with his own trainers, it's not like the Mets' staff are even necessarily the experts here.
"I like this outing a lot more than the other one," Martinez said. "I am more in command, and I actually felt like I pitched a little bit, making pitches where I wanted to, and overall it was a jump ahead. It was a great improvement."The results, of course, aren't at all the important thing. It's feel, it's command, it's confidence. So, if he still feels like he's good on normal recovery, you give him another start and then you bring him back into the MLB fold -- unless something changes. Let Petey be Petey, that's what I say.
posted by Cheddar Ben at 11:21 AM
2 Comments:
real quick how terrible was the pirates' 3rd base coach in that first inning where they shoulda scored 4,5 runs?
In my opinion, Milledge is equal (at best)in foot speed to Green but Green's RBI totals do suck. as does his general style of swinging and dman near falling over even though he barely has HR power nowadays. I dunnoi how I feel besides I think the fair thing would be ot platoon them at this point and let milledge play the backup outfielder role for the other 2 spots until Beltran is healthy(as much as he can get) and Endy gets back when the rosters expand on sept 1st..
I forgot about how bad that guy was. John and I were flabbergasted. Well, less John than me, seeing as how John probably put back three tequila shots during the half-inning alone, drinking with a work buddy who had the longest, most painful reparteee with the bartendress you've ever seen. I felt like I was going crazy.
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