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Walk Off Balk? Almost..

Where oh where did my little Brave go?

I have a message to Giant fans. “Get rid of Armando.” It’s good for at least two wins for your team. The only way last night could’ve been better is if Joe Smith didn’t throw that wild pitch and the Giants didn’t score that run on no hits in the top of the inning. Then we could’ve won the game on a walk-off Balk. The Mets have been finding different ways to walk-off, and that certainly would’ve been a memorable one. Drag-bunts, walks and home runs are nice too though.

Two home runs for Delgado again. He’s back, although as he said in his post game interview, he never went anywhere. Now if we could only get David Wright to put together a hot streak, his batting average is upsettingly low. Although to me he’s been showing some good signs, looking a little better. I don’t think it’s a case of anyone figuring him out, or him not being as good as he looked in the past, it’s just some struggles, he’ll get there. I’m as confident in that as I was that Delgado would show up again.

One thing that bothers me is pinch-hitting for Gomez with Julio Franco. I guess I shouldn’t complain because Franco did what he needed, which was place one up the middle that was grabbed in an awesome play by Vizquel, but I’d much rather have Gomez. I understand that a lot of it’s about ‘taking your lumps’ and the rookies don’t get to bat 4th, and get pinch hit for, but Franco? Bleh.

In the comments of Metsradamus‘s blog entry about this game, someone mentioned that Gotay and Reyes were doing some sort of hex thing at Russ Ortiz? I’d love to see a clip of this or something more descriptive. That kind of excites me, I love seeing stuff like that. I actually miss(figuratively since I’m not old enough to remember) the days when players used to stand in the dugout shouting stuff at the opposing pitcher. Do you know how many pitchers nowadays who could get rattled by that? It would be great. I expect the reason it’s fallen out of style is how much baseball has seemed to develop into a fraternity. Baseball players generally don’t hate the guys on the other team, they see themselves part of the same group of people, peers not opponents. Couple this with all the changing teams most players do, and these guys were once they’re teammates and friends. Could you see Glavine shouting stuff at Smoltz? If he did, it’d be totally friendly, and a joke.

Mota returns today, and I hate that he was rewarded with a new contract. I hope the only reason he was good last year wasn’t steroids. I’m not going to cheer him when he arrives, but I hope as penance he gives up a home run to Bonds, as long as it’s inconsequential. After that I hope he’s lights out, although I do like A. Burgos, who got sent down for him, and he seems better than Scott Schoeneweis. Only time will tell.

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Injuries, but things may be picking up

May 03, 2007 12:32 PM

Two days into May, and David Wright has 5 hits with a home run. John Maine and Jose Reyes win April awards, first time both awards have been won by the Mets since 1985. Joe Smith is still pitching good, and Ruben Gotay pitched in with an RBI Wednesday filling in for Valentin.

Sure the injuries to Orlando Hernandez and Jose Valentin aren’t going to be easy to overcome, but Pelfrey finally started pitching well after the first inning Tuesday, and John Maine and Oliver Perez have been terrific. With Wright starting to hit again, and Delgado hopefully on the horizon as he starts to be more selective and get more walks, the loss of Valentin for a bit isn’t a big deal; especially since he was the 8th batter on this team. I saw some of Gotay in spring training, and his defense is good, and Easley should be fine there too. The two biggest issues right now are Aaron Heilman, who just isn’t pitching well, and the errors. This team has been playing a little sloppy as of late, and it needs to stop. I don’t know if Heilman will give over his struggles, or maybe scouting reports have caught up to him. Maybe Joe Smith nipping at his 8th inning job will motivate him.

I was at yesterday’s Mets game, and I think the theme of the game was probably “Past a diving Uggla”. All in all it was a good game, despite the two errors from Wright. They could’ve capitalized with some more key hits, but they got the win, had a three run lead through the last couple of innings, and Wagner got his 5th save without much problems.

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Back In First

Apr 14, 2007 12:19 AM

Sure they’re technically tied for first, but it’s first nonetheless. I have a feeling this might be the closest any team gets for the rest of the season. The Mets are playing all division games for the next week, and I expect them to heat up with the weather. Expect to see some home runs when the Mets visit Philadelphia on Monday. I would not be surprised if the Mets hit seven in the two days, including two by David Wright.

Enough predictions, I’ll be out at Shea for my third game tomorrow, seeing John Maine pitch again. He had a little bit of control problems on Monday, and with the slightly warmer weather tomorrow, 51degrees, I expect him to have a little better grip. I’m thinking 7-2 Mets. Oops, i thought I was done with predictions.

David Wright swiped his third base of the season last night. He stole 20 last year, and right now is on pace for 48. I doubt he’ll reach that, but with Beltran looking to steal more this year too, you’ve got spots one, three and five in the batting order that look to be pesky and distract the pitchers. I’m sure this was one of the considerations Willie was thinking of when he thought about batting Wright second.

I’d love to see both Reyes and Wright one day be 30-30 players. How awesome would that be?

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Excited

Feb 15, 2007 11:47 AM

Maybe it’s because it’s the first year the Mets have made the playoffs in a while, or maybe it’s because of how devastating it was leaving Shea after game 7, but i’m very impatient about the start of the 2007 season.

Even though the roster is still unknown, there are a lot of young pitchers out there ready to make the team and shine. And a lot of them will get the chance to. Orlando Hernandez will probably miss a couple of starts here and there, and there are always injuries and switches during the season. On top of this, Pedro rarely pitches a whole season, but this year it will be the first part of the season he misses, so that when the time comes to pitch in the playoffs, not only will he hopefully be energized from missing it last year, it’ll feel like July for him as he’ll only have been pitching a couple of months.

We’ve got enough relievers out there to find something that works and Wagner…well, he’s not Rivera, but what else is there?

Delgado is a very smart player, and after his struggles last year, I think he’ll be having a monstrous year, Reyes is only going to get better, i’m predicting 70+ steals this year. David Wright is only improving too, and as of yet he’s the only position player in Port St. Lucie right now. He’s going to hit 30 home runs and 130 rbi’s this year. I’ve been saying this all off-season, and he’s been doing great in the games he’s been playing, I think Anderson Hernandez is going to be a starter on this team.

I miss Cliff Floyd, and I think he’s going to have a huge year this year, but I think are outfield can get it done. I’m interested to see what happens with Milledge.

I’m strongly considering trying to goto Spring Training this year, but if not, I have every intention of winning the lottery and scoring tickets for opening day.