The Mets finally got good pitching from one of their pitchers yet it wasn’t enough as Nate Robertson pitched good enough through 6 innings to keep the Met hitters off guard. More importantly the Florida bullpen came in and pitched well enough to retire 12 batters out of the final 13. That was the Marlins side of the story after one of the poorest showings a bullpen could have the night before.
The Mets once again had a few things that they showed that tend to worry me, here are some of the notes I took from this game:
– David Wright can never throw a perfect strike from 3rd to 1st when he has time to do so. Why? I have no clue but when he gets a bit of time its as if it gives his ADD enough time to kick in to force an errant throw. Three times Wright made putouts where Fernando Tatis (more on him in a moment) had to make plays on just to get the out.*
*= One of the funnier moments happened when Keith Hernandez watched one of the replays of the poor throws and immediately called it HoJo-itis which was a reference to current Mets hitting coach Howard Johnson his former teammate on those 80’s Mets teams. Its always good when former teammates are having fun at your expense.
– Fernando Tatis continues to have a roster spot on this team and I take issue with that. He’s a right handed bat that Omar loves. He had one good year in spot start duty but right now he’s going to see a lot of playing time since they don’t have a regular first basemen for the next month with Daniel Murphy recovering from his ankle injury. When Minaya loves you he will always throw out reason and find a spot for you. I dont know what it is but all you need to do is get on Omar Minaya’s soft side and you’ve got a job for life.
– Despite not having a familiarity with Nate Robertson, the Mets swung at a lot of pitches outside of the strike zone which went for outs. I know its early on in the season but fluctuating from patient team to not so patient is worrisome. Its as if not having Gary Mathews and Mike Jacobs* in the line up transformed this team.
*= I’m not saying Mike Jacobs is a guy who works at bats frequently but imagine being the guy up after one of Jacobs’ patented 4 pitch, strike out at-bats. You’re probably watching it and thinking to yourself, I’m not going to go down THAT easy. I suppose Jacobs K’s have some use on the Mets.
– Seriously what were Gary, Keith, and Ron laughing at at the beginning of the broadcast? Keith Hernandez could barely contain himself. Those guys are great to listen to once again calling it right down the middle, criticizing the Mets where it needed and also being positive about the Mets situation. They continued to have fun at the expense of Chris Coghlan. I can imagine Keith as a teammate, constantly ribbing and poking fun at teammates who made errors. He was probably a great teammate.
– The Mets strand baserunners like its their business. They just never had any offensive rhythm going. The book on the Mets is pitch them inside and to the righty heavy line up thats what the Marlins did. Offspeed outside, fastball in. The Mets never had any rhythm though Roberston wasn’t exactly throwing strikes out there which really bailed him out.
– Niese threw first pitch strikes to a majority of the hitters he faced. Decent pitch count of 95 through 6 innings. Wanted him to go 7 but hey that was asking too much.
– Mets I suppose will have more offense once Beltran and Reyes get back but they need to get into an offensive rhythm overall. According to numerous reports Reyes is going to be eligible to return Saturday which would be excellent since I’m going to that game so I can’t wait to see Reyes back. From the videos I saw of him in the offseason he is raring to go and it must’ve sucked for him to be off those 20 days recovering from the thyroid condition. He’s like a ball of energy and he normally probably never sits still for more than 5 seconds. Having his bubbly energy should make the clubhouse a bit more lively. A few years ago he was one of those players that many baseball experts said was the most exciting player in all of baseball and honestly he still is. His overall energy and exuberance is that of a kid and he loves the game of baseball so I’ll never question that until I see him noticeably change his disposition which I don’t expect to see for a long time.
– Wright seems to be back to hacking at everything. I like the leg kick because it does give him more power but his approach at the plate hasn’t changed. He still looks like the guy who struck out at an extremely high rate. Will he still have the average he had last year which seemed like an anomaly considering his strikeout numbers. I said it last year when outsiders said Wright was an MVP candidate: He’s not. I watched a majority of his at-bats and he had a lot of hits but it seemed to come from just a feel for the ball not from an educated approach of what the pitcher is throwing. Great hitters pitch recognition skills are exceptional not because they have no idea but their baseball IQ allows them to understand at what situation a pitcher will throw inside or throw outside. Four at-bats the game plan will alter but not the approach. Even if you don’t get a hit the first two at-bats by the third you should have an understanding of what the scouting report on you is and you can figure out how to approach it from there. Great hitters recognize that and guys who just go out there with a “let’s see what happens” approach* always tend to be streaky hitters.**
*= By the way, the reason I wrote that is because I read an article where Oliver Perez said he uses that approach in pitching. His reasoning is sometimes his sinker is sinking more than his curveball is curving. But isn’t that the reason you work on those secondary pitches? To have them at your disposal at all times? Great pitchers have confidence to throw any pitch at any time. These are the kind of comments that worry me about Ollie.
**= I know that I tend to sound very harsh on Wright but honestly he’s our best player no matter what anyone else tells you. He is a five tool player and can do all the things you ask of him but he’s choked in crucial situations in the last 3 years and he hasn’t relied on his skills. He is an amazing talent and can be one of the top 5 players in the game but he’s carrying a lot of expectations on his shoulders, something he carries with him to the plate every time and thus he feels the need to prove something and goes for at least two home run hacks every at-bat. He has to let the game come to him. He’s afraid of failing and yet pitchers are afraid to pitch to him though that fear is leaving since its clear that he’s not the same hitter he used to be. I know he’s trying very hard to be the leader of this team but its a title that’s given by teammates not something that should be assumed by the media who clearly have put that label on him. I’m telling you, the Cliff Floyd affect can’t be overlooked. I’m wondering if they can bring back Cliff as a coach on the team or something to get these two back together. I know having Cliff around will be a welcome presence for Wright, who as a Met fan needs him to be the best he can be for the Mets to be successful.
– Tonight, Mike Pelfrey gets his first start of the season against Garrett Mock of the Nationals. Don’t sleep on the Nationals. They’ve got power and they’ve got this SS Ian Desmond who they are really high on. Their pitching will get much better as the season goes on. Pelfrey worked on a splitter which he said he was very successful at implementing so we’ll see. I think this is Pelf’s chance at grabbing hold of the 3 spot. They need to win this game to get back on the right track as it seems that Johan* will get the start Saturday against the Nationals against John Lannan the Nationals ace.**
*= I’m super excited about this particular fact. I’ve never been to see a Johan start live so this is big for me personally as he’s our best pitcher. There were three times I thought I had lined up Johan’s start up but ended up going to an Oliver Perez start. This time it was supposed to be Oliver Perez but from what i’m hearing the Mets will have Johan starting. Hopefully its true. Watching Johan and the return of Jose Reyes will be awesome!
**= For now. Make no mistake, the only reason Stephen Strassburg, he of the 100+ MPH fastball is only in the minors to delay his arbitration clock. He’ll definitely be up in June and he’ll terrorize the NL East for a few years. Now the Mets have Cole Hamels and Doc Halladay on the Phillies, Tommy Hanson and Jair Jurjjens of the Braves, Josh Johnson and Ricky Nolasco on the Marlins and Stephen Strassburg and John Lannan of the Nationals who will or already have regularly owned the Mets. While the Mets have Johan. That’s it. But Omar Minaya doesn’t see a problem with that and the Mets spent the least of ANY club in the majors last year on the amateur draft. Hopefully this June the Mets will fix that error.
On a final note, I made a bet with my manager who’s a huge Yankee fan. I simulated an entire Met season in about 5 minutes and the Mets had a 86-76 record. Decent considering that most projections have them winning in the high 70’s which in my opinion would be a very bad season for the talent that the Mets have and surely will get Omar and Jerry fired. So I will post what I projected as their record after every game and what their real record is. I dont know how long I will keep this up but I hope to keep it up for the entire season. I’m not named the lazy eye for nothing.
Season: 1-2
My projection: 1-2
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The Lazy Eye of Sports 