You can root for the Mets without being convinced of their doom
I arrived at Citi Field with plenty of time to get my foam finger to vote for Wright (and Pagan), get some fries, and get to my seat. It was a hot and steamy night, but the Mets made it worthwhile as I improve to 8-2 on the season at Mets games.
We should all be voting for the Mets to make the All-Star Game. I know some fans think they should just stay home and rest, but in most cases the players themselves don’t want to stay home and rest, would rather have the honor of an All-Star appearance, would be running around doing media appearances anyway, and if they really need the rest they’d bow out. So let’s vote our Mets into the game. More All-Star appearances by Mets just increases their presumed value to the national audience and their overall resume.
David Wright has a chance at catching Placido Polanco of the hated Phillies, and would certainly be a deserving starter. Additionally, the Mets have announced that the first 20,000 fans at Citi Field for Wednesday’s game against the Tigers will receive a Blue “Make Wright #1” Foam Finger.
Jose Reyes got a slow start to the season off the thyroid issue, but he’s back to playing ball like an All-Star, and there is no reason we shouldn’t vote for him to be there.
Rod Barajas has been a great addition to our team. Why not honor him with a vote?
Most importantly, Angel Pagan has been an amazing fill-in for Carlos Beltran and extremely valuable. Everyone reads stats differently, but there are categories where Angel Pagan excels. WAR, Wins Above Replacement, a stat that tries to calculate how much a player contributes to the success of a team over an easy to find replacement, lists Angel Pagan as the top centerfielder in the National League. Not just that, but he’s tied for 7th overall! (Wright is second). So voting for Pagan wouldn’t be a homer pick, he actually deserves it.
Since the ballot contains the AL portion too, my general philosophy is to vote for guys that have a chance to beat out Yankees. Justin Morneau is one that can, and should, beat out Mark Texiera. Andrus for SS and Pedroia for 2B are both long shots, but they’re the runners up at the moment.
David Wright’s Power: David Wright has already surpassed his home run totals from last year, proving it was just a fluke. He’s had big home runs, multi-home run games, and some absolute bombs. Maybe now that the league realizes his power his back they’ll pitch to him a little more tentatively and he’ll be able to cut back on some of the strikeouts.
Jose Reyes: Jose Reyes is back. He’s stealing bases, he’s lacing triples into the gaps, he’s hitting the ball out. He’s terrorizing pitchers and reasserting that he’s one of the most exciting players in this game. He’s smiling and having fun, and if there is any singular factor that’s making this clubhouse better than it was last year, it’s Jose Reyes’ infectious baseball attitude. I’m still waiting for more home run handshakes though.
Citi Field: No longer is Citi Field where home runs go to die. If Citi Field was intimidating Mets hitters, it no longer is. The Mets have had plenty of home runs at home, and have had some fun walk-off homers. The park is starting to feel like home and it’s become a big asset to the Mets, who have more home wins than anyone in the majors. It’s better decorated this year as well.
The Bullpen: The bullpen has been a sore spot for a while, being one of the biggest parts of the two collapses. So far the bullpen looks pretty solid. Francisco Rodriguez makes things a little shaky sometimes, but he gets the job done. There is still a state of flux with Takahashi and Mejia but the bullpen has come through, even more so now that the starters have been able to keep them from being overworked. The arms and talent are there, so it’s no longer about trying to find someone, anyone, that can do the job. As the season rolls on and the rotation gets more settling with Takahashi, Maine and/or Perez coming back and contributing, or acquiring another quality starter, the roles in the bullpen will become a little more settled and we’ll know who we can trust. One things for sure though, we no longer think the game is doomed when the bullpen gets into it, and this knowledge probably helps the offense know they don’t have to score a billion more runs as well.
The Mets are a good solid team. There are plenty of holes they could patch up, plenty of places to improve, and plenty of losses that will happen. This team seems to have turned the corner and put the past behind them so that when things aren’t going as perfectly as they are now, I trust that the good times will return and that the Mets will be a fun team to watch all season. They are no more flawed than anyone else in the league, and they’ve got the talent, the resources, and the desire required to make this season a successful one.
I wonder how people back before pitch counts and speed guns were able to tell when their ace pitchers were in decline?
Statistical analysis and all the technology of present day definitely enhance the game and our understanding of it, but they also allow us to jump to premature conclusions.
I was in Baltimore over the weekend and I was listening to the post game show after the Saturday game when the Orioles announcers described the next day’s pitching matchup as “Pelfrey, the Mets ace.” There wasn’t a pause. It wasn’t qualified by “this year.”
Santana came out this spring and proclaimed himself (when asked to name someone) the best pitcher in the NL East. So is he a washed up ace trending downward and not even the best pitcher on his own team?
I’d say no. Of course Pelfrey has been the better pitcher this year so far, but Santana is far from over the hill and washed up. Actually Santana has a slightly higher ERA, but they have almost identical WHIPs and Ks. The different result is mainly due to run support, and Pelfrey’s pitches trending more towards ground balls. It just seems so different because Santana is a Cy Young caliber pitcher and Pelfrey has been a struggling prospect prior to this point.
The case can be made that Santana is merely slumping, not declining. For one he’s always been a second-half pitcher. He had surgery last year and had a longer than normal layoff between his last start of 2009 and his first of 2010. There’s something to be said for building arm strength over a couple of months, and surgery and time off sap that. You can already see that the velocity is starting to come back up a little bit. Pitching is a game of adjustments, and right now Santana is having some trouble with control of his pitches. This is leading to more walks and less strikeouts. Santana’s track record says that he’s a smart guy and knows what he’s doing out there. You have to trust that he can make the adjustments needed, and that he’ll be able to do it faster than batters can adjust to him.
The Mets are fighting for first place and arguably Santana is only going to get better. He’s a big game pitcher, a fighter, and a great ace of this staff to have. As his game rounds into form, the weather heats up and he builds up arm strength as the Mets march towards October all worries about him being in decline will vanish and we’ll be talking about the Mets having as good a 1-2 punch as anyone else in baseball.
I’ve been to a lot of Major League Baseball parks. Obviously I’ve been to Citi Field and Shea Stadium as well as the two most recent Yankee Stadiums. I’ve been to Fenway (Hideo Nomo one hit the Blue Jays, which I’d forgotten when I was leaving the Niese game the other day trying to think of the other one-hitters I’d seen), RFK Stadium (The final two games there ever, they were playing the Phillies in late 2007 so I even had a heavy rooting interest), Dolphin Stadium as it was known by that month, Wrigley Field, I was in St. Louis during the demolotion of the last Busch Stadium, Coors Field, Petco Park, Angel Stadium, Dodger Stadium, Oakland Colliseum and the Giant’s Park, which I think was named SBC Park at the time, but I didn’t see the Mets play at any of them.
The only time I’ve seen the Mets play on the road (I’m ignoring Yankee Stadium, because it doesn’t really count as ‘away’) was a day-night doubleheader in early 2007 in Citizen’s Bank Park. It was a fun day and was before the rivalry. Phillies fans had no hope for the season and were reveling in 10000 losses and just hoping not to get destroyed by the defending NL East champs. This weekend I will add one more road Mets game to my credit, against the Orioles in Camden Yards on Sunday. It’s supposed to be a great park, it’s a Pelfrey start, and the Mets have won six of seven games I’ve seen this year.
One thing that’s always odd about watching the Mets on the road is the batting first thing. All of a sudden the game has started and there is Reyes ready to go. Usually we have three outs to get settled. The scoreboard never prompts us to cheer “Lets Go Mets”, even though there will be a very good representation of Mets fans at these games. Mr. Met is nowhere to be found, and they never play Lazy Mary after Take Me Out To The Ballgame.
Nonetheless, I’m excited. I have a good feeling that they’ll finally have a winning road trip, and they’ve gotten off to a good start winning the first game. I’ll also be in attendance at Yankee Stadium to end the trip, hoping it’ll be a nice capper on a road trip that finally erases the 2009 bad feelings and has the Mets in first place to start the summer.
A popular opinion on the handling of John Maine over the years has been to suggest he’d be better in the bullpen. Metsblog has a post on this topic today as well. Maine has occasionally struggled to get through 6 innings, although I would emphasize that this isn’t always the case, and some theorize that he’d have more success with being able to go all-out in one or two innings without worrying about a second time through the order.
I disagree. I’m not saying Maine usually gets far into games, but I don’t think he’s ever a risk to throw three innings and completely task the bullpen. In April and May of 2009 (throwing out the first June start where he was injured and went on the DL), he averaged around 5.2IP and went 5-3 with a 3.75 ERA. This includes the first three starts of the season, where a pitcher is normally on a pitch count. Without those he averaged 6IP over the next seven starts. He made one bad start over that stretch, allowing five runs (four earned) over 5.1IP. Every other start was a quality one. So it’s not that long ago that John Maine both pitched six innings regularly and was good at it. I know six innings isn’t amazing, but it’s more valuable than a couple of innings here and there out of the bullpen. 2010 was less pleasant for Maine, but he did have three of four quality starts after he redid his mechanics.
My biggest problem with the idea of moving Maine to the bullpen is injury. Maine’s injuries have always been injuries that seem fatigue and wear and tear related. Putting him in a position where he’d possibly pitch, or get ready to pitch, every day would negate days of rest where his shoulder can just recover. Especially with the way Manuel works the bullpen, I’d be worried this would be cause for further injury.
Well, like any major league team, it’s really both. The Mets are capable of being the poorly run team on the road that lets little things beat them like making one bad pitch, failing to get a runner in from third, poor fielding, or the wrong pitching change. They’re also capable of being the dominating team that you see when they play at Citi Field. The team that laces doubles and triples into the gaps, that pitches out of jams and makes the opposing team struggling with runners in scoring positions, the team that comes back from deficits and is never out of a game.
It’s not just that the Mets get lucky when they’re at home. They really are capable of being a dominating, scary team. Despite their poor play they’re hanging in this division and with a weak road trip coming up, they have a chance at reversing their fortunes. First they have a revenge series against the Padres, with both Pelfrey and Santana pitching. (I’m aware they had both pitching in San Diego as well) If they can win this series, they’d be 32 and 28, four games over .500 with a nine game road trip coming up.
The Mets roster has gotten quite a shakeup over the last couple of days. Niese returns and Oliver Perez, Luis Castillo, and Gary Matthew Junior either went on the DL or were released. Jesus Feliciano and Ruben Tejada have joined the team. Both are rookies, Feliciano finally getting the call-up at 31 years of age after an excellent start to the season where he’s batting almost .400 in Buffalo. He had a good season last year and played well in the World Baseball Classic for Puerto Rico. I actually saw him play in the first game against the USA in which he helped them win in mercy rule fashion. He’s received a lot of praise from his Buffalo team and from Alex Cora as a guy that can hit the ball and knows how to win. I don’t know if the “knows how to win” argument is really worth anything, but it won’t be hard to bring more value than Gary Matthews Jr did. It’s yet unknown what type of player Tejada will be, and definitely unknown if he can get on base at the rate that Castillo normally does, but so far he’s played well and he’s young and exciting and his presence means the Mets have a fully home-grown infield for the time being. Not a bad deal for a team that’s supposedly bad at the draft.
Jesus Feliciano (#23) joins his Puerto Rican teammates (Beltran, Delgado, Cora, Pedro Feliciano) in celebrating the mercy rule win over the USA. Feliciano went 6/16 during the WBC.So with some of the regulars rounding into mid-season form and some new fresh faces, I expect them to play better on the next road trip and return home in first place. Six of those games are against really bad American League teams in the Indians and Orioles. The three games at the end of it against the Yankees may be a little tougher, but they’ve already beaten them once.
It’s going to be an exciting couple of weeks. The Mets have invited me to Citi Field on Wednesday, I’m considering traveling the Baltimore for the Saturday game against the Mets, and I’ll be at the finale of the road trip against the Yankees, likely seeing Santana again. By the time that road trip finishes the Mets will hopefully have put the road woes behind them, are at or near first place, and we’ll even know more about if and when Beltran is coming to rejoin the team. I’m really looking forward to the next 12 games.
I need a mental break from the Mets. They’re tiring. There are too many subtle questions: What is Warthen doing with Perez and Maine and why has the bullpen fallen apart? Why did Frankie Rodriguez choose that pitch to throw on 0-2 to Eckstein? Is Manuel capable of managing this team correctly? Will David Wright stop striking out? Will any of the players hit with any consistency or even approach career type years? Will Omar get another starting pitcher, and will he fix the bench?
After watching K-Rod blow it, and then Manuel leave in Valdes to face five batters and only retire the one that was a bunt and give up the grand slam to the only legitimately scary batter in the lineup has worn me out. While I certainly believe this team is capable of adjusting and getting better and performing and even winning, right now I’m just worn down mentally. This happens to me once or twice a season, and I’m going to take the weekend to just relax and not watch the Mets. I hate watching the Marlins anyway, as I feel they are an embarrassment to the sport with the way they run the franchise.
Logically, the Mets should have an axe to grind with the Marlins after getting swept by them a couple of weeks ago and they’re playing at home where they actually win. Then they face the Padres, who they also should want to pummel a bit, and they’ll have Santana and Pelfrey in that series again. So really they should do well in the upcoming games, and then they go face two of the worst teams in the American League in Cleveland and Baltimore. Couple this with some roster moves that Omar, Manuel, and Perez need to make and maybe things will be looking up for the Mets soon, but for now I need a mentally refreshing weekend.
Some quick notes about the Subway Series
I thought the Yankees were supposed to take pitches, but excepting a couple of innings where some Mets pitchers struggled, they really didn’t.
While a limited sample size, Jeter’s range looks very very suspect.
My unofficial analysis suggests it was 70-30 Mets fans on Friday, and closer to 60-40 on Sunday, although most of the Yankees fans left on Sunday before they had anything to cheer about.
Shake Shack continues to have ridiculous lines. Need more grills!
In the past Subway Series games, especially Sunday night, have been rowdy and violent to the point of almost making it unfun. This wasn’t the case this series, I was there for both a loss and a win, and it never progressed much past good-natured ribbing. There will probably be more fights by the 5th inning against the Phillies Tuesday than all weekend.
The Yankees injuries have messed with the bench most of all. It’s not as big a deal when they play AL ball, but when they need pinch hitters they are woefully unprepared. I wonder if they could use a guy like Gary Matthews Jr?
Big thanks to the Mets for emailing me some postgame wrap up notes after the game yesterday. I was pretty tired after driving back, but some interesting notes that I didn’t catch myself. The so called “Bronx Bombers” did not hit a home run in the series, and the Mets only hit two, both by Bay. This ties the least amount of home runs for a Subway Series and is only the third time in a series the Yankees have not hit one.
That was the first Interleague loss for C.C. Sabathia since June 15th, 2007. It was a bad day for former AL Cy Young award winners, besides ours, as Halladay, C.C. and Greinke all got roughed up.
The Empire State Building will be blue and orange tonight for the Mets victory.
This Maine situation is seemingly more complex than we know. I don’t know what it says for clubhouse relations, control of the clubhouse, hiding injuries, actual performance, or all those other immeasurable things. What I do know is that Manuel and Maine are not getting along, Maine has been up and down performance-wise all year, and hasn’t even hit the 91-92 he was hitting post-injury last year.
There is no real way to remove guilt from Maine in this situation. He struggled in his bullpen, supposedly didn’t top 85 mph for the first batter of the time, and bent over in what appeared to be pain after that. He snapped at his manager in the dugout, and was critical of him in post-game discussions with the media.
Manuel and Warthen get plenty of blame here too. It’s their job to make the call, not Maine’s. If it didn’t look right in the bullpen, then it’s their decision to have him make his start or scratch him or whatever they do. They should come up with a plan, with Maine, about what how they’re going forward. Whether that’s one batter, one walk, or one inning. Maine’s job is to go out there and throw the ball to the best of his ability if he’s on the roster.
Is Maine hiding an injury? This would be the biggest issue of all really. Maine’s been a pretty injury prone guy, especially lately. He definitely could be realizing that he’s often feeling a little pain and that if he complained about every little twinge he’d end up spending more time on the disabled list than not. Maybe he’s decided he needs to pitch through a certain amount of pain as a major leaguer, and he did hint at this thought on Thursday after the game. Then there is him bending over on the mound, looking like he was in pain. Maine explains this as knowing he was on a short leash because he saw Valdes warming up in the bullpen already and he was frustrated. Gameday suggests Maine’s fastball was 85 during that batter. Maine claims he looked at the film and that his mechanics were fine and his last two pitches were 89. I don’t know what sort of speed guns or software the Mets (or the Nationals, or wherever he was looking) have, so I certainly don’t know what to make of that.
Both Manuel and Warthen have suggested they believe Maine would pitch through an injury rather than admit one. Warthen used the words ‘habitual liar’ to describe Maine’s attitude about injuries, supposedly meaning it as a positive reflection on his competitiveness, but Maine said that the comment did upset him. Maine made a statement Friday that he would work towards his next start, whenever and wherever that would be. Manuel claims his gut says there is something physically wrong with Maine, but that he “could be wrong.” Maine will get tests next week to tell for sure.
“I want to pitch,” he said. “Even if I have to go out there and throw lefthanded, that’s what I want to do. I want to go out there and pitch.”
Manuel’s response to this was comical, suggesting that maybe he’d have better lefthanded. Jests aside, I’m not sure this is a comment you should make about a player that’s already annoyed at you and frustrated.
The drama obviously continued beyond that. Maine said he wasn’t asked how he felt on the mound, Manuel pulled him and walked away muttering to himself. This is what caused Maine to confront Manuel in the dugout and what he was most upset about. After the game Maine said he hadn’t talked to Manuel and didn’t know why he was pulled from the game. Someone has said that Maine would be going to the doctor Friday, but Maine knew nothing of this. When the team showed up to the park Friday, Maine had neither gone to the doctor nor talked to anyone on the team about doing so. He was placed on the disabled list with “shoulder weakness” and was told he’d be getting tests next week. Elmer Dessens was activated, and didn’t arrive at the park until the 5th inning, which suggests as least that they hadn’t decided anything and weren’t willfully hiding it from John Maine. Maine still insists he’s not injured, so we’ll see what these tests reveal and where the Mets go from there. It’s not like he’s pitched horrendously either. His previous start wasn’t good, but he has a 4.3 ERA with three quality starts going back to his four most recent starts. The Mets are 2-2 in that stretch.
This situation does not make anyone look good. I’m already biased against Jerry Manuel and his poor decisions and management style going back to 2008. I’m frustrated with John Maine, but it’s hard to dislike a guy that works as hard as he does and is as competitive. You can’t ask much more than that from a player; if you want to criticize Omar Minaya for keeping him because you didn’t think he was talented enough, that’s fine, but as long as John Maine (Or Oliver Perez) is a Met, I’m going to root my hardest for them.
Almost 48 hours later, Maine has finally admitted that he’s felt a small amount of pain, similar to what he felt last year, in his shoulder. He still insists he doesn’t need the DL, and that might be true, and maybe he should’ve seen the doctor yesterday instead of Monday, but this does validate Warthen and Manuel a little. However, they could’ve stuck to their guns and not let him make the start if they suspected injury in the bullpen, and they could’ve probably gotten him to a doctor yesterday, and at least waited before putting him on the DL. Mejia needs to go down anyway, and wasn’t available yesterday, so it wouldn’t have hurt to demote him and bring up Dessens and wait a day for Maine’s results.
I have to wonder if this pain is a result of Maine switching his mechanics back to what he’s comfortable with. Obviously what Warthen had him doing this spring and early in the season was not working, but they need to find something that both keeps Maine’s shoulder from hurting, and allows him to be effective. Nothing we’ve seen from Warthen suggests he can do that. I never thought I’d miss Rick Peterson.