Blog Archives

I decided I wanted to watch the game today with Pedro Martinez making his return to Queens and I couldn’t even make it to the second inning.  Ollie Perez gives up six runs in the first and I thought to myself, “Wow.  This is why I stopped watching…and perhaps this is why the Mets could have signed Pedro in the offseason.”

I continued to watch in the bottom of the first as the Mets rallied back for two runs but turned off the game after that.  There’s only so much I can take of the Nelson Figueroa/Pat Mitsch pu-pu platter of pitching.

I randomly tuned back and forth and decided to watch the bottom of the ninth to see if the Mets could produce something special…and the Amazins did not disappoint.

After three straight lousy defensive plays by the Phillies, I wondered if this could be the rare shining light in what has been a pitch black season for the Mets?  I thought Francoeur can do it.  He’s going to hit one out and give fans something to cheer about…finally.  But something even more rare happened.  He hit into an unassisted triple play.

Just when you think you’ve seen it all, something new happens.  I couldn’t believe what I saw, but that’s been the theme of the 2009 season…utter shock and disappointment.  So that will be the last of the Mets games I’ll tune in to see for a while.  To end things on a bright note…the Jets and Giants should be pretty damn good this year.  Then again, I thought the same thing about the Mets before the start of this season.

Now it appears K-Rod has truly settled into his role as Mets closer.  It’s really an initiation process because to be a Mets closer, you have to blow two terrible games in a row.  Welcome K-Rod.  You have now joined the elite along with John Franco, Armando Benitez, Braden Looper and Billy Wagner.  The green jacket with the BLSV stitched onto the back will be waiting for you in San Diego tonight.

A couple of serious notes about that ninth inning.  It’s one thing to get bad luck with injuries, but it’s another for the umps to look like they’re getting paid off by the other team.  That should have been an out at the plate for the Padres’ second run and then K-Rod’s 2-2 pitch before the grand slam was clearly a strike.  Two brutal calls that ultimately cost the Mets big time.

Ollie Perez had his first really good start of the season.  He was consistently throwing 94 all night long.  The maddening part of this is why can’t he just pitch like this always!?  I know everyone has said this for the past three seasons, but it’s one of the reasons why I believe the game is more mental than the stats guys believe.

And finally, I have to call out Matt Cerrone for something he wrote yesterday because it made no sense.  It was in his post on metsblog.com regarding Bobby V becoming manager next season.  This is what irked me: The thing is, I am not sure Jerry Manuel has done anything to warrant being fired.  Frankly, I think he’s done an admirable job navigating through this 2009 injury-storm.

I agree that the lack of success this season is not Jerry’s fault.  I don’t think any manager would have made any difference this season.  But there is absolutely no possible way you can tell me he’s done an admirable job.  That’s just flat-out wrong.  The team couldn’t have been any worse since the core went down with injuries.  If you’re telling me Jerry has done an admirable job, then you could say that about any manager that suffers through injuries.  I guess it’s a bright spot the team actually shows up (physically) to the ballpark everyday.  Name me one thing that Jerry has done which leads you to believe he’s been doing a good job.  The Mets have folded like lawn chairs lately.  So come on.  And Matt’s not the only one who’s said stuff like that.  I’ve been reading it from the writers lately too.  Are we supposed to praise Jerry because the team wins one or two games a week instead of losing all of them?  I’m a little confused with that one.

I was fortunate enough to be at last night’s game.  We had great seats in the third to last row right at first base.  Then we moved down to a few rows behind the Mets dugout after the ninth inning.

First of all, there’s really enough to do at the ballpark that you can still have fun even though the team is terrible.  So I wouldn’t discourage people from going to see the Mets on their road to 90 losses.

Also, since last night’s game was meaningless I didn’t have a complete meltdown like the bullpen went through on the field.  If the Mets were within striking distance, I would have cried myself to sleep last night.  Instead Sean Green’s bombing didn’t keep me awake.

There were certainly some good things to come from last night.  The offense looked pretty good early on.  Santana powered through eight innings.  And no one managed to get hurt…oh wait.  Luis Castillo injured himself going into the dugout!  How does this happen!?  Only Castillo could do something that dumb.  I’m surprised he hasn’t fallen off the toilet for a DL stint yet.

So K-Rod stunk in the ninth.  That’s going to happen every once in a while.  What happened in the tenth was really unacceptable.  Jerry mismanaged the entire inning first of all.  Brian Stokes gets an out and then comes out.  Huh?  Either let Feliciano start the inning or let Stokes get more than one out.  Then after a big K, he takes Feliciano out to put in Sean Green with bases loaded.  The same Sean Green who threw a wild pitch to lose a game on Friday night.  Green promptly hits Mark DeRosa on his first pitch and then allows a grand slam to Albert Pujols during the next at-bat.  And then the highlight of my game.  Since I was sitting about 10 feet from the Mets dugout, I absolutely let Green have it as he walked off the field.  I’d say there’s about a 90% chance he heard me.  I honestly left the ballpark satisfied because of that.  Is there something wrong with me?  Although I’m really mad at myself because I should have started a “Fire Omar” chant.  I saw someone post that on a Mets forum the other day and I could have started the movement, but didn’t think about it until after the game.

Going back to Green and Manuel for a minute.  Like I’ve said over and over, it isn’t really Jerry’s fault this season that the team is so bad.  The best manager in the world wouldn’t have made a difference.  But Manuel has certainly not helped.  Some of his decisions have been absolutely mind-boggling.  And as much as it isn’t his fault, he HAS to go at season’s end.  They just need a complete overhaul of the front office and coaching staff since that’s easier than trading away all of your players.

I suggest everyone take a look at this article by Kevin Kernan in the NY Post.  It seems like we couldn’t agree more on the real reason the Mets are terrible this year.  It’s almost like he listened to the podcast and wrote about the same theory Tom and I discussed on Sunday night about the lack of forward-thinking by the front office.

How do you lose 3 of 4 from the D-Backs when you actually have a minimal chance of making the playoffs?  This was just simple inexcusable.  Even if the Mets make some sort of run, people will look back at this series when they fall short.  Drew sent me an e-mail thanking Tom for giving the team a very generous 5% chance of making the playoffs.  I agree on that one.  It’s probably closer to 1-2%.  If you can’t beat a lousy team when it’s on the line, then how will you beat good teams later in August and September?

There’s a reason Nelson Figueroa can’t stick on a Major League roster.  He isn’t that good.  He’s the prototypical AAAA player.  He dominates the AAA guys with his smarts and consistency but he just isn’t good enough for the majors.  Nelson, this time you shut your mouth when you get demoted…please.

I did like the fight the team showed coming back to get it to a one-run deficit.  I didn’t see that coming in all honesty.  But I did see the team falling short once it happened.  I mean was anyone surprised they could only muster one hit (obviously by Gary Sheffield) once they got it to one.  Did you also notice that only David Wright hit the ball even remotely hard, and even his more of a routine fly out than anything else.  The final nine outs were pretty much all weak ground outs or pop ups.  There’s a reason this team was called a bunch of choke artists in the offseason.  When the pressure gets cooking, the Mets fold like a lawn chair. Really the only thing I’m looking forward to now is the complete overhaul the team has to make in the offseason.

I’ll be at tomorrow night’s game.  On Friday, I was hoping this would be a very meaningful game.  Instead it’s the opposite.  But that’s OK.  I get to see Johan Santana, the weather will be beautiful and the ballpark is fun so I’ll have plenty to do.  If you’re going, let me know.

Another bad game against a bad team.  Just when the Mets give you a glimmer of hope, they quickly take it away.  Now the best the Mets can do is a split against the D-Backs and that won’t be easy with Danny Haren on the mound tomorrow night.

This game pretty much ended in the fifth.  The Mets were down 3-0 and after three consecutive extra-base hits to start the inning, you were thinking OK maybe they’ll do this.  But of course they can’t score a run from then on out and make Jon Garland look like Roy Halladay.

The Mets are now 7.5 games out of the Wild Card, a deficit that’s looking more insurmountable by the day.  Of course, the Phillies can’t help out the Mets when they finally need it.  They got crushed by the Giants in San Francisco this weekend.  Thank you Phils.

I think if the Mets fall another game back, that might be it.  They just aren’t good enough to make up this much ground with so many other teams in the way.  And also, Billy Wagner is the only regular that looks like he’ll be back anytime soon.  Where is Carlos Delgado?  I thought he was coming back by mid-August the latest.  Why am I hearing nothing?  Just frustrating all around in what has been an extremely frustrating season.

Nice win for the Mets last night in a game they had to have.  They couldn’t afford to blow another one against a bad team, and thanks to Angel Pagan they did not.

After the Diamondbacks tied it at 5 apiece, I figured there was no way the Mets were winning this game.  And pretty much every time I’ve gotten that feeling this season, I’ve been right.  But the tide turned last night.

Even with Pagan up wih bases loaded in the eighth, I figured here comes a double play.  Pagan had hit into some double plays during clutch at-bats this season, but there was something different about this spot.  Maybe it’s just because the result was different, but he had a certain look in his face like I am getting the job done right here.  Before in the big spots, he almost looked nervous like he didn’t want to screw up.  To me, it looked like he was confident last night.  And he crushed the ball into the stands for a grand slam.

There have been very few positives about this season, but Angel Pagan’s play is certainly one of them.  He’s established himself as a legit platoon outfielder on a contending team.  Right now, he’s starting everyday and that probably shouldn’t be his role, but if Carlos Beltran misses a month or two to start next season, I’d be fine with Pagan as the centerfielder for a little while.

So let’s see if for once the Mets can carry some momentum over from the game before.  It seems like after every great win this year, the Mets follow it up with a loss.  They need another win today…or whenever they play next.

Attention NYMetscast listeners, I will be returning to the airwaves (even though there’s no airwaves online) this weekend.  It’s my bold prediction for the weekend.  By Monday morning, there will be a new episode to listen to.  E-mail your questions in now.  I will likely be taping the show Sunday night.  Not sure who will be my guest.  Perhaps I’ll fly solo.  Expect the unexpected…but most importantly, get your popcorn ready because I’m back.

Well I don’t know what happened during the five-game streak where I didn’t watch a single minute of any game, but the Mets of the last two nights have looked exactly the same as when I last saw them.  They can’t hit at all and they make terrible plays that cost them the game.  Tonight was no different.

Doug Davis walked six guys and gave up four hits in six innings, yet the only runs the Mets could muster were off two solo bombs.  Why can’t they execute with runners on base?  I don’t get this.  Was the thought of possibly making the postseason too much for these guys to handle?  Looks like their beards will be around to stay for a while.

Really the play of the game has to be Sean Green’s disgusting wild pitch right after Daniel Murphy turns a huge double play.  He loads the bases with no one out and gets a terrific DP.  And right as that happened, I was still convinced Green going was to blow it.  I knew it.  And one pitch later he did just that.  I can handle losing on a hit, but to lose on a wild pitch is so nauseating.

Then the ninth inning was comical.  Mark Reynolds did his best Luis Castillo impersonation.  He was desperately trying to give back this game.  I mean there’s a reason the Diamondbacks are 13 games under .500.  But Angel Pagan refused to take Reynolds’ gift, doing what the Mets do best with runners on…grounding into a double play to end the game.

So this easy 20-game stretch gets off to an 0-1 start and how many more games can the Mets afford to simply give away?  As I wrote earlier today, they certainly have a chance to win the Wild Card, but how many chances are they going to just throw away this season?  Unfortunately, I really don’t think it’s meant to be in 2009.  Maybe the only hope the team has is that I stop watching again.

Thanks to my travels for work, last night was the first game I’ve watched since the previous Friday.  Six whole days without the Mets and shockingly, they won every game.  Perhaps not so shockingly, they lost the first game I see in a week.  Maybe I’m the reason the Mets stink.  I mean if Omar can blame Adam Rubin for anything, then he can surely point a finger at me.

But more importantly, with that little five-game streak the Mets had, they’ve somewhat propelled themselves back into the Wild Card race.  Will they make a miraculous run at this thing?  I doubt it…but let’s look into it.  Shall we?

After last night’s loss and the Giants win, the Mets currently sit 6.5 games behind the Wild Card leader.  Of course the Phillies can’t beat the Giants and help the Mets out.  It felt like the Phillies first loss in a month.  But let me digress.  6.5 games is certainly reachable, although they’d have to leap past six teams to get there.  The seven teams in front of them in order are the: Giants, Rockies, Cardinals, Marlins, Braves, Brewers and Astros.  I’d say only the Cardinals/Cubs division loser and the Marlins are the only legit teams in that group.

Now here’s the interesting part.  Between now and August 21st, the Mets play home series vs. the Diamondbacks, Cardinals, Giants and Braves and play away against the Padres and Diamondbacks.  That’s 20 games against mediocre and bad teams, including nine of those with teams in front of them in the WC race.  And if you look at the teams in front of the Mets, they all have really tough schedules during this time.  You would also hope that by August 21st, most of the injured souls will be back.  That’s a huge question mark considering there hasn’t been much progress but they say everyone will be healthy by mid-August.  We shall see.

So my point is if the Mets go 13-7 over these next 20 games, and there’s no reason they can’t, they should position themselves to be about 3-4 games out of the Wild Card race by August 21st when hopefully everyone is healthy.  That is their only chance to make the postseason.  They have to play great and get their guys back.  Then if they’re within striking distance by mid-August with a full arsenal, they just might pull off the miracle.

RESPONSE to Phil’s comment: Phil, thanks for commenting in.  I definitely agree that I take every loss and win too seriously, but I should probably make something clear.  I still think this team is done despite the five-game winning streak.  I think it was more of a fluke than anything else.  But the reason for today’s post was saying that if they’re going to make a run, the next three weeks are the time to do it.  I don’t think they will though.  I just don’t think this team is good enough and after today’s deadline and bad news on Jose Reyes, I don’t see that changing anytime soon.  But, the opportunity is there.  That’s for sure.