Category Archives: Mets 2010 Season

Another brutal loss for the Mets as they are suddenly going in the opposite direction.  The Phillies lost tonight so the Mets remain a half game out but still, not a good game especially considering you have Met killer Bronson Arroyo pitching tomorrow.

– Oliver Perez’s line wasn’t half bad.  He went 6 innings throwing 108 pitches, 68 for strikes (63%), with 4 K’s, 4 BB’s, 2 ER.  Ollie was cruising after giving up a first inning lead off homerun.  But then in the 5th inning, he hit a wall and drove up a pitch count that up to that point had stayed moderately low giving me and fellow Met fans the brief feeling that he might go 7, maybe 8.  He got out of the 5th just giving up an earned run.  Not bad considering the starting pitching the Mets got last night.*  Perez is a project and an unknown commodity and can have days where he’s absolutely unhittable and can hold line ups in band box stadiums to one or two runs for 6 innings but there are those maddening afternoons where he has absolutely no control over his pitches.  His highest speed was 92 but he threw in the high 80’s with his fastball changing eye angles when he was going well and I credit that to the catchers that are coaching him out there.  They’ve been such a calming influence to guys who can be a bit crazy.  But a good point was brought up a few days ago: when is it not a good thing for pitchers to get dependent on having a certain catcher there every game?  Especially a guy who’s not established and a guy who the team is grooming to be a top flight starter like Mike Pelfrey.  Pelfrey has only pitched to Hank White aka Henry Blanco this season and how good is it to his development?

– Continuing that discussion a suggestion was made that perhaps Johan Santana should go to having Henry Blanco back there, the catcher he won a Cy Young award with.  Having a specific catcher for a pitcher of Johan’s caliber (yesterday doesn’t count) would be sad because it speaks to Johan’s lack of confidence which would further the fueling debate about whether Johan’s best days are behind him.

-Whatever the case may be, the Johan Santana debate was the talk of sports radio here in NY.  But a good point was made today that I hadn’t thought of and that of course fell on Jerry Manuel’s lap.  After he gave up the home run to Victorino, why wasn’t he taken out of the game?  If anything, after he walked the pitcher it should’ve dawned on Jerry to get someone warmed up.  Only after Utley hit the two run home run to make it 10-5 did Jerry have Takahashi warming up.  That’s just Jerry not having a grasp of what everyone else understood when Johan walked Moyer: he was done.  I don’t blame him for leaving him out there with Victorino because he needed one out and you have to trust your ace in that situation with the team still with the lead, but two pitches later, it was a grandslam and by then the game was on its way to getting out of hand.  I’m not going to guess about what Johan’s major problem was, whether the crowd got to him or not or perhaps mechanically he isn’t back, whatever it is, I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt that he will get it fixed.

– Returning to today’s action, I was happy with Jose Reyes who went 1 for 13 in this last series with the Phillies.  He was attacking first pitches yesterday and the entire weekend but was topping pitches and not getting enough of the barrel on the bat.  Today Jose came in and went 2 for 5 and was in the middle of their first run.  His emergence is necessary.  Ike Davis had some very nice hits off his old teammate Mike Leake, who by the way is the kid who went straight from the draft to the big leagues, having never played a minor league game ever.  Last guy to do that?  Xavier Nady.  Yeah, that Xavier Nady.  As for the bats, another day in which it was mostly quiet.  I dont know what it is, but these soft tossers who have an assortment of pitches the Mets seem to have a hard time locating a pitch.   I feel as though it comes from how they approach each at-bat.  They go looking for a specific pitch and if they don’t get it, they will swing wildly at bad pitches.  Its tough to watch out there and can make your team look silly.  Again, I blame Howard Johnson who I feel has done a terrible job.  I feel like the Mets are getting by on their own skill, and not because any of Ho-Jo’s advice is coming thru.  Its tough to see this team scuffle around sometimes knowing that they could have 9 run innings.

– Again, the Mets got 5 innings of stellar relief that got undone by one hanging slider handed out by Manny Acosta. Its another curious decision that will get debated by multiple people who felt as though K-Rod should’ve came out considering he didn’t get any work the last few days and not to mention that it was a tie game.  A TIE GAME JERRY.  GAME MANAGEMENT.  YOU PLAY TO WIN THE GAME.  Again, I’m not screaming for his head like some Met fans but I do agree that some of these calls are now beginning to piss me off.

– Tomorrow is Bronson Arroyo pitching and he’s won 5 straight against the Mets.  He’s another pitcher that gives them trouble with his mixing of speeds and the Mets are hoping John Maine can stop the bleeding.  Given that Ollie gave the Mets a chance to win, you can’t be too down having Maine out there.  Who knows what happens out there.

THE SEASON: 14-12

MY PREDICTION: 14-12 (2nd place- 2 days)

So where do I begin?  Plenty of places to start.  We will, as always go to the pitching:

– Johan Santana’s line: 3.2 IP, 10 ER, 1 k, 2 BB, on 71 pitches (48 for strikes- 67.6%).  He was cruising up until the 4th inning where basically everything went wrong.*  The gist of it was, they got two outs, runners on, and then intentionally walked Carlos Ruiz to load the bases so they could get to Jaime Moyer the pitcher and get the presumed 3rd and final out.  Of course Santana goes 3-0 in a flash and the Philly fans began to rise up from their seats** and motivate the team.  Two more pitches, and two strikes and order restored it seemed.  Then a pitch, high and inside.  This is the pitcher.  This is a 47 year old pitcher.  Have I mentioned this is a pitcher?  Now, all the momentum is with the Phillies and of course they capitalize.  Three pitches later, Victorino deposits a high fastball, the same one that Polanco took Johan deep with in the first, into the seats at left for a grandslam and by then the route was on.  Three pitches later, a batter on after a single by Polanco, and another homerun by another Phillie big bopper and the Mets are out of it.  That was it.  The game was over for Santana and the Mets.

*= I’m trying really hard not to use 4 letter words to describe this game and especially that bases loaded walk, by our “ace” to the pitcher.

**= I’m not gonna lie, Philly fans definitely influenced a bases loaded walk and they can even take credit for the two other home runs because of how energized they were throughout.  They know how to bring it.  Definitely a great crowd in Philly.  Seriously, I want to throw up just writing that last sentence and watching this game.

What went wrong?  A popular reason given will be mechanical flaws.  Johan’s fastball remained in the high 80’s barely reaching 90 on very rare occasions and the fastball had little to no movement which means they were straight lasers that were gopher balls to the Phillies who took advantage.  Orel Hersheiser mentioned that Johan was only throwing two pitches which I’m not too sure of but if that’s the case then he’s in trouble because that’s a terrible idea.  Johan used to throw low 90’s on his fastball which set up the change up.  There was almost a 9-10 MPH difference between the pitches during his heyday* and tonight there was about a 3-5 MPH difference between the fastball and change up which is not going to fool anybody.  Yesterday I wrote about how Halladay was mixing his fastball speeds.  The difference there was he was changing eye angles and painting corners whereas Johan was throwing it down the middle.  I dont want to say its mechanical and I dont want to throw out the idea that perhaps he’s not all the way recovered from his elbow clean up but he needs to get some MPH back on that fastball or else he’ll have starts like that again.

– The Mets did start the game off the right way pounding Moyer for 5 runs through 4 but fell eerily quiet the rest of the way as Jamie Moyer and Co. shut the Mets out the rest of the way which of course leads to this discussion: did the Mets quit?  Did they just give up after that 9 run fourth which blew open the game for the Phils?  Its a fair yet harsh assumption.  48 hours ago, I was thinking and writing about how I felt the culture of this team had changed.  How perhaps this team was learning to fight and score and tack on runs and not be complacent and then they get shut down by Roy Halladay yesterday and give up after their ace Johan Santana has an off day.  See, this is the difference between the Mets and the Phillies.  The Phillies never got down on themselves when they went down early.  They just fought and broke through, making adjustments and not letting Johan’s change up get set up.  They basically waited on him to throw a strike and he just never could do it.  The Mets after falling behind began getting anxious and swinging and grounding out/flying out on the first pitch which of course extended Moyer.  It was basically the same thing yesterday.  The Mets made Halladay work for 5 innings by having him throw 80 pitches and yet when the Phillies broke that game open, Halladay was on cruise control for the rest of the game which tells you how the approach changed mentally for the Mets.  Is it their inability to send a rebuttal?  If so, then its a question of toughness and we’re right back to square one.  When the Mets went on their winning streak I wasn’t trying to take anything away from them by saying that they were facing teams at the right time (Teams that were scuffling and making mistakes and struggling), but putting things into perspective.

– That naturally leads to this which are Met fans.  It was more than obvious that while watching this game the amount of people jumping off the bandwagon would be plentiful but the reaction that was being posted on Metsblog.com was rather shocking and sad.  Granted the Mets never gave them anything to cheer about, but it just went again to show you how fickle they are.  48 hours ago they are the best team in the NL East and now they are  the worst.  There’s no middle ground with these fans and its sad.  If anything these last few years have taught us is this: everything needs its proper perspective.  No winning streak or losing streak will change my perspective that with the Mets as currently constructed, you can neither be too high or too low, you just watch them and accept them for who they are.  They are a middling club.  They have hot streaks in them and what I more or less point to is that suddenly the little things are coming back.  They are hitting with runners in scoring position.  They are hustling out doubles like Fernando Tatis who hit a grounder that went past Ryan Howard and rolled to Jayson Werth.  Because Tatis took a wide turn Werth bobbled it and Tatis went in with a double.  Those plays didn’t happen so certain habits are being put in place which is good.  More so, the clubhouse is a totally different experience from what I can tell and from what I hear.  Most people are loose and they are all happy to be around each other.  They will have games like this and it will make you scratch your head but again, every team has games like this.  I just wish Met fans were just level headed and didn’t get sucked in to these winning streaks and losing streaks in April/May.  That will drive you crazy.  At the end of May you will have a really good sense of where the team is and where its going.

– So the next few days in Cincinatti will be the true test.  There’s Oliver Perez and then John Maine coming up so it will be interesting to see how the Mets respond to this weekend’s disappointing outcome.  That in my opinion is the biggest example of whether this group has turned a corner as a team.

– Most fans are going to point to Gary Mathews Jr. and Fernando Tatis taking up spots on the starting line up tonight as a sign that Jerry Manuel quit but I wouldn’t.  Manuel has a job of keeping his guys fresh and he figured that he should’ve done it.  In fairness I would’ve done that yesterday instead of today in a game that we could’ve won today against Jamie Moyer but again, with the way Johan pitched and the situation surrounding that perhaps it wouldn’t have mattered.  Either way its a subject that will tossed around on blogs and heat up debate about whether Jerry Manuel has any business setting up shop as a manager of a big league team.  Here we go again folks.

SEASON: 14-11

My Prediction: 13-12 2nd place in the NL EAST (1 day)

For those wondering I have the Mets sweeping this series against the Reds so let’s hope I have more of that fortune telling magic I had a week ago.

One good pounding deserves another.  We hit first, the Phils responded in kind with a 10-0 drubbing behind their new ace, Roy Halladay.  No shame in the loss but it was definitely a wake up call for the Mets.

– Remember Bad Pelfrey?  Well you saw him.  But it took a while for him to come out and it took two tough drops by the Mets infielders to get him out.  The tough part of that 6 run fourth inning was the reality that perhaps the game would’ve looked different had those catches been made.  If Cora makes that over the shoulder grab, then they would’ve easily doubled up Utley who was betting (and right it ended up) that he wouldn’t make the catch and had already rounded 3rd.

Pelfrey’s line: 4 IP, 2K’s, 1 BB, 6 ER, on 8 hits and 82 pitches (56 for strikes- 68%).  But his cool was definitely lost once those hits fell and things torpedoed from there ending with Victorino hitting the 3 run HR that virtually ended the game.  Doc Halladay doesn’t need much run support so 6 runs is like Christmas.

– What I did enjoy from the game however was that by the 5th inning, they had Doc at 80 pitches which should’ve made him tired but then he went through a few low pitch innings which allowed him to go the distance for his 3rd complete game in six starts.  So basically after slugging through 5 innings and 80 some odd pitches.  He threw close to 40 for the next 4.  He’s incredible.  A betting man never goes against Doc especially after a loss in his last start. There’s no shame in losing to an ace like Halladay.  He changes speeds, throws it on the corners like a surgeon, and just has excellent control with velocity which is a rare combination and makes him deadly.  There is no one speed for his fastball which makes it so difficult to time.  So he’ll throw the fastball at 95 for two pitches inside and then throw a fastball at 90 on the corner and make you look silly.  The thing about Doc is that he doesn’t just hit the strike zone, he pounds it, abuses it and every other synonym that means he kills the strike zone.  Despite the loss, I thought the Mets would keep it close behind Pelf but mistakes made it difficult.

– What I did like is that the Phillies haven’t seen Takahashi yet, or Fernando Nieve.  Those are the two most effective and overworked guys on the roster.  They didn’t sniff the pitching rubber this weekend which is a good thing.  Phils tagged on a few more runs on Raul Valdes who I felt sorry for because his responsibility was to give them innings regardless of what the score he would leave the game with.  Valdes went three innings and let up 3 runs on 4 hits  with 6 K’s.  Manny Acosta pitched the 9th for the second straight day.  I like him in that role of mop up duty.  He throws hard and the Mets have missed guys with high velocity who routinely throw in the mid 90’s and they are going back to that hard thrower that they’ve been missing these last few years.

– The thing about the Phils is this: once they smell blood they keep hitting you and they go in for the kill.  Love that attitude and it seems as though the two previous games before today’s, the Mets seemed to understand that.  No matter what, there will come a time when you can’t sustain the kind of play the Mets have been playing the last week.  It took the best pitcher in the game, arguably, to stop them.  Like I said no shame in that.

– Speaking of ace, the Mets ace goes tomorrow in yet another nationally televised game for the Mets as they finish the 3 game series against the Phils as Johan Santana goes against the ageless one, Jamie Moyer.  Like Halladay came in and played stopper, Johan will be called to do the same tomorrow night.  Hopefully the Mets get a great performance from their ace, because they need to stop bad momentum from today’s game that can easily fester and stay in player’s minds.  I think the clubhouse culture is different so this team will be able to put that loss aside and get back to winning.

– Not blaming this on Cora who I love because he fills another need I felt was more pertinent than the one he serves on the field (clubhouse contributor), but I didn’t know why Castillo wasn’t in there.  He’s the prototypical 2 hitter, much like Polanco.  Castillo makes contact, takes pitches and prolongs pitch counts which would’ve been key.  Like I said, its all about the bounces and breaks that didn’t go the Mets way today.  The last week the Mets were super fortunate in many areas; facing teams that were on their way down.  Despite that, the Mets have to bounce back and make sure that NOTHING takes away from the goal of moving on from such an ugly loss.  The Phils woke up from the 9-1 drubbing and handed a 10-0 pounding on the Mets, its time for the Mets to respond.  I know its early and its foolish to think that these games have long lasting repercussions, but you never know, so let’s say it does: the Mets need to respond with a statement game.

SEASON: 14-10

MY PREDICTION: 13-11

I had them losing tomorrow night.  Let’s hope I dont know what I’m talking about.

That’s right folks.  An eight game winning streak and its the first time that confidence is starting to burst from the seams.

– Jon Niese’s line: 7 IP, 107 pitches, 70 strikes (65%).  Gave up 1 ER,  struck out 7 and was absolutely in command after the third inning.  He retired the final 17 of 18 to finish the day.  He seemed to get a lot of strikeouts with that big sweeping curveball that was his forte before he found that cutter.  I love how his cutter boars in on righties and gives him a really useful weapon against righties.  Then there’s that big sweeping curve which is really helpful against guys like Ryan Howard who love seeing fastballs and sometimes get lost on breaking balls that change his eyesight.  Met pitchers have been having a problem with keeping pitch counts down so seeing a Met pitcher in the 7th inning is a beautiful thing.  Niese just seemed to be relaxed as he got comfortable setting down Philly batters one after another with his new weapons.  This was huge for Niese’s confidence and for the confidence of Met fans who seem to be bursting with pride.

– After scoring 10 the night before, the Mets get 9 in their first visit to Philadelphia.  In past years, the understanding has been that Citizen’s Bank Park is a hitters park which of course is just like saying Citi Field is a pitchers park and swallows home runs.  Of course that’s not true.  That’s a myth.  Opposing teams seem to have no problem hitting home runs in Citi Field and the Mets can’t seem to generate enough offense in Citizens Bank.  There’s no excuse.  The Mets have begun to see the ball better and made adjustments as the game goes on and gotten to the starting pitcher mid game and then beating up bullpens which is a good game plan.  But let’s consider that since Reyes got switched to the 3 hole, the Mets have not lost yet.  Bay has heated up and Wright has begun to heat up as well and it can’t just be a coincidence.  Suddenly the Mets line up makes sense and starts generating runs but its more so what the effect of having Jose Reyes in that spot does for other hitters.  Bay is seeing a lot more fastballs and he’s just killing them.  Wright is still a tad bit wild with his swings, but he’s starting to catch up on fastballs at least.

– Big props goes to Jeff Francouer last night.  He made a huge catch to save a run in the second and hurt his knee in the process.  That was an inning after he hit a solo HR.*  During that inning he made some strong arm throws to limit guys from getting that extra base.  The Phillies like most of the good teams are teams that hustle.  So when you see a guy get a single, the players on those teams use those lull moments to try and swipe an extra bag and usually do.  Heads up baseball always wins.  Well the Mets have been doing that in their recent winning streak and its shown how effective they can be when they are hustling every ground ball.  The biggest example has been Angel Pagan who I’ll get to later.  French though also got plunked later on which set up a pivotal moment in the Mets transformation which again I’ll get to later.  But French stayed in the game partly due to his pride** and partly because he wants to sustain this continuity the Mets have built up and be a presence on this team.  The guys brought up a good point about his football mentality.  He was a two sport star in Atlanta and widely recruited because of his build and they referenced that as his natural ability to turn around on the fly and whip it to second base with no hops.  He throws darts and can gun out just about anybody on the basepaths trying to steal some extra bases.  That is the one tool that most people point to.  He seems slow on the initial run to the ball, he looks bowlegged when he runs, but once he gets a head of steam he can pick it up and get it to the lead base to stop the advance without much of a stop in motion whereas most guys will get the ball and then just hold it without the attempt.  He’s just a great athlete and is also ultra tough; an element sorely being missed on the Mets.  We won’t even get into how vital he’s been to the Mets in the clubhouse though Mike Lupica did do a good job of documenting that in his most recent Met article. ***

*= Gary made a funny error that just shows how beloved Frenchy is in the Met universe.  He hit a homer two batters after Wright did and Gary immediately without thinking in full euphoria said back to back….with a batter in between.  Throughout the game they would refer to French’s influence in the clubhouse even remarking that while being treated he was making people smile.  During the preseason the guys made a case for Nelson Figueroa talking about how personable he was and how great a guy he was and suddenly Met fans were clamoring for this heartwarming tale of Nelson Figueroa to make the team, but he didn’t and this entire winning streak has somehow made it on to the lap of Francouer and I agree in someways about that.  He’s the perfect guy for this clubhouse to break up what was quite possibly the worst one in all of baseball.  No doubt he’s the most likeable guy a person who keeps everyone loose and after starting off the way they did, was about as vital to the team as anyone.

**= After all he’s a football player.  He asked to stay in the game and I’m sure he is the type to not complain about injuries.  He’s always laughing, smiling, cracking jokes.  The legend of Jeff Francouer grows.

***= What’s going on in this world that I’m giving Mike Lupica a compliment?

– I mentioned transformation earlier and I gave Angel Pagan as an example.  Last year, his baseball IQ was brought into question by Lou Piniella and he had some boneheaded mistakes on the field that just made you shake your head and think that old Lou was on to something but this year has been a different story.  His athleticism gives the Mets a fourth outfielder once Beltran comes back to spell guys and gives them depth and he’s a luxury.  When Beltran went down we only hoped as Mets fans that Pagan wouldn’t get in the way and when Reyes got put in the 3rd spot in the line up and Pagan got the coveted leadoff position we hoped he wouldn’t be overwhelmed but he seems to understand that his job is to get on base and put the ball in play.  He’s hit a few triples and they’ve been legitemate line drives and he has got a motor that I just love.  He plays the game hard and I love that.  Is he going to misjudge a few fly balls off the wall? Yes.  Is he going to look like he has absolutely no idea what he’s doing up there from time to time?  Yes.  But all this team needs is some athleticism and some smarts and they will be fine.

– Continuing on the transformation theme, I think one of the best parts of last night’s game was when Francouer got plunked in the 7th by Danys Baez.  The sound of the ball hitting him in the forearm was so loud I thought it might have hit off the bat, but it didn’t.  Yeah.  That loud.  But the next inning, on clear instruction from Razor Shines, Jenrry Mejia plunked Chase Utley which was a good sign.  I know its a stupid unwritten code in baseball but most people dont understand the objective.  Its not supposed to start a fight, in fact the only people who do get into a fight are people who disagree with the unwritten code and thus act surprised when they get plunked in retaliation.  But yesterday Utley just gave Mejia a look, and took his base knowing that he might face some retribution.  Agree with it or not, its meant to show that regardless of how innocent an offense it was, it may have injured the player and thus revenge must be sought to show that the team is not weak and won’t lay down.  Its male, macho chauvinism but then again why else do we watch sports?

– Mets only used to tag on runs back in 06 and 07 with regularity and they are beginning to take advantage of every small mistake and its so key to the team’s confidence when they keep adding runs to the scoreboard.  Shows that this team plays with an edge and looseness and pedal to the metal attitude sorely lacking these last few years.  Toughness is what separates the Mets and the Phillies.  The Phillies are just a tougher team mentally and thus win the close games and get the key hits.  The Mets need to build that toughness up and blowing out teams that are down and out are how you do it.

SEASON: 14-9

MY PREDICTION: 13-10

It seems as though the Mets could do no wrong during this home stand.  Even John Maine got into the act.

– Maine’s line: 6 IP, 2 ER, (3 R), 9 K’s, 3 BB, on 4 hits and 101 pitches (66 for strikes-  65%).  Frankly this was John’s best start but looking back it seemed as though it was an extension of his last start which he had to leave early due to an injury.  His pitch count wasn’t outrageously high heading into the 7th inning and even in the 5th inning where he seemed to be slowing down and gave up the 2 run home run and then immediately gave up a double.  But perhaps in showing that he is turning over that new leaf, struck out Andre Ethier and then got James Loney to give a slow roller to short.  Mets pitching over all held the first five hitters to 3 for 20.  Then came back and struck out the side in the sixth inning.

– The Met bullpen began their work in the 7th inning when John Maine left after walking the first hitter on four pitches.  Fernando Nieve came in (yeah, I know, Duh) and got 3 outs on four pitches.  No joke.  3 outs, on four pitches.  Incredible.  K-Rod again walked the tight rope and got out of a jam by striking out the side.  Perpetual Pedro pitched a perfect eighth as he’s clearly gotten a hold of that role.

– Meanwhile, the big story has been hitting with RISP for the Met offense, but not just that, they’ve been doing it with two outs.  Out of the Mets 7 runs, 5 were on two out hits.  Think about how far the Mets have come mentally to do that.  They are just playing solid baseball and streaking at the right time.

– The biggest emergence has to be from the middle of that order.  I dont know what the reason for it is, but the reasons could be many: Reyes in the 3 spot?  Ike Davis being called up and inserted in the middle of that power line up?  Who knows what happened but Bay and Wright have begun to swing the bat very well and just in time, heading into a series against the Phillies, they are going to need to score more than 3 runs it seemed like they were scoring every game.  Wright has made another adjustment to his swing and it seems more compact in the last two days and perhaps he can get around more pitches.  He doesn’t seem so lost and understanding how hard he works, its great to see.

– First place Mets?  Yeah.  I said it, first place.  Its a pretty incredible journey as they limped home with a 4-8 record but came out with a 9-1 home stand.  Their most successful home stand since 1988 (when they went to the NLCS) and before that in 1969 (you know what happened then).  Its April and things can torpedo this weekend but with the way this team is pitching and throwing strikes, its forcing the action and causing teams to swing at pitches that they might not be too comfortable in hitting.

– Biggest test for Ike Davis will be this weekend going on his first road trip when he faces Kyle Kendrick, Roy Halladay and Jamie Moyer.  Three different pitchers who will throw strikes at varying speeds.  They are certainly going to feed him off speed stuff to see what the young’n will bite on.  What I like most about Davis is that he seems to get 2-2 counts and 3-2 counts very often and rarely finds himself going down on 3 consecutive pitches so that will be good to see.

– For those wondering, pessimistic me has the Mets losing 2 out of 3 to the Phil.  I have them winning Friday night, and losing the next two days against Doc Halladay and 300 year old Jamie Moyer.

MY PREDICTION: 12-10

SEASON: 13-9

Position in NL EAST: 1st (2 days in first)

What a difference a week makes.  Thanks to a plethora of work, family engagements and school assignments I haven’t been able to post as much but hopefully the skies are clearing and the sun is on his way out for me to be back to posting daily.

So what exactly has changed in the last week?  Well, really, there are three major reasons why:

1. The pitching staff

2. Reyes in the 3 hole.

3. Playing teams at the right time.

1. Consider that the Mets starting pitching staff has a collective ERA of 1.39 over a ten game span heading into Monday’s game that got rained out.  Thats pretty special.  Not that the bullpen hasn’t helped.  In fact, the starters have rarely gone over 6 innings.  Which of course means the bullpen is logging about 3 innings on average every single day which of course isn’t good.  But I suppose that was looked into when Omar Minaya began putting starters into the bullpen not so much as a safety net in case the starters get injured but also to give length in case its needed, and thus far, its been needed.  I’m not too worried about the starters only going 5 innings in April.  But come May and June, that problem had better be fixed.  Right now only Pelfrey is going a consistent 7 innings which of course wasn’t so unexpected.

What I like most about the Mets pitching staff has been the way Jerry Manuel has handled it.  Last night when he sensed Oliver Perez was about to go through one of his classic meltdowns he immediately pulled him and brought in the bullpen.  Sure its the fourth inning but it was a tied game and Manuel was playing to win the game .* The bullpen, who’ve played excellent thus far, came in and did the job.  Takahashi finished off the Dodgers for the next 3 innings and the rest of the way the bullpen was able to be mix-and-match.

*= Somebody get Herm Edwards in here.

2.  Reyes in the 3 hole was not a surprising move considering Jerry Manuel was tossing the idea around in Spring Training.  How do you turn a classic lead off hitter, someone many consider the best lead off hitter in the game, to be a 3 hitter.  You’re asking a guy to change his mindset.*  But here’s Reyes in the 3 hole and it makes sense for the Mets.  You pack speed at the top with the first three hitters and pack power in the middle with 4-6.  Its been working for the Mets especially yesterday as Wright came up to bat and cleared the basepaths.  Also consider that Bay has hit 3 triples over the span of a week and has shown speed and having him hit behind Reyes who has started to hit a lot better than when he first checked back in with the Mets during the first weekend of the season.  Bay is seeing more fastballs and he’s crushing them and not trying to hit home runs.  Which of course brings us to Wright.  Forget yesterday.  His batting stance, his mindset have all been brought to question but one thing you can’t deny is that he’s a streaky hitter.  He will go into prolonged slumps but he’ll also have breakout games and swing the bat better.  Its all about confidence with him.  Last night he had a huge 3 RBI triple with two outs.  Two outs and the bases loaded and I was ready to give up hope of adding on to the Mets lead and there he was hitting a gapper that brought everyone home.

*= A hilarious moment with the guys when Reyes tried to bunt on a first pitch fastball and Keith Hernandez said “No, no, no Jose.  You’re a 3 hitter now.  Swing the bat.  4-0 lead, swing the bat Jose.  Simple, and to the point.  That’s right Reyes, swing the bat!

You can’t deny what Ike Davis’ addition has done to the club in the last week.  The offense just seems to be clicking and one can say its Davis being called up or it can be just pure coincidence.  Either way, the Mets have had a pretty good week and hopefully can keep the good momentum going.*

*= Another great moment was when Ike Davis hit an opposite field double and Ron Darling said it “hard to not get excited but this kid can hit.”  I literally got goosebumps hearing that.

3. Luck is a factor here too folks.  The Mets have played the Braves who are in such a rut that Bobby Cox might consider retiring tomorrow if this keeps up.  They made some boneheaded plays over the weekend that you don’t see a team coached by Cox make.  From Chipper dropping pop ups because of lack of communication and forgetting the basics of the infield fly rule*, it was a weekend that made Bobby Cox lose hair of which he has very little to begin with.  They are facing a Dodger team that has to be going through a tough time with their bullpen imploding almost on a nightly basis.  Yesterday they did it twice in a day.  Its tough of course but what can you say, the Mets play who is listed on their schedule and they don’t have to apologize for that.

*= Ok, so I didn’t really know what was going on in that play and had to have it explained to me.  Either way, the Mets win because of it.

Ok my proudest moment check this out:

My prediction: 12-9

SEASON: 12-9

That’s right folks.  I’m spot on.  No need for elaborate nicknames.  I dont do it for the fame, I do it for the love.

The Mets finally showed some semblance of a competent team in last night’s win over Cubs.  Jonathan Niese gave them 5 2/3 of 1 run ball while striking out 7.  Jason Bay ripped an RBI double and the Mets showed pop with the bats.  Oh and the hopeful Met 1st baseman of the future made his debut.

– Niese almost went 6 innings but had to be pulled after recording the first two outs in the 6th because he had run up a high pitch count.  That was due to the fact that Niese had his slider going for swings and misses and the Cubs were fouling off his cutter.  It wasn’t until he started going to his slider more that he worked in less pitch counts and was more economical.  Definitely an improvement and he’s showing more and more maturity as he goes on.  He had a runner on in every inning and in his final two innings he had two runners on and left without giving up a run.  Obviously giving up a lead off base runner in every inning isn’t usually going to lead you to success but the fight shown by Niese to get out of those jams was promising. He seemed to summon a strike out or a double play ball in each inning to get out of the jam and that’s the mark of a good pitcher; knowing how to work your way out of trouble.*

*= I was planning on being all negative nancy and talking about how the high strike was being called and he got a few fortunate bounces but I’ll give him credit.  I’d rather be an optimist rather than surround myself with more negativity with this team.

– Now that we got that out of the way.  Ike Davis, welcome to NY.  There’s certainly a lot to love about this guy*; from his demeanor, to his attitude, to his upbringing, to just about everything I saw from him since day one.  Loved the laps he had to do and Barajas making him do push ups and the post game shaving cream pie thanks to Frenchy.  He went 2 for 4, and never seemed over matched other than two sweeping curves by Sean Marshall.  But he quickly recovered and recorded his first RBI.  Again, Ike Davis is not the hero and savior that some will make him out to be, but there is no reason to be down on this kid.  He comes from good genes and has his head on his shoulders and doesn’t seem like a kid who will get overwhelmed by NY.  That being said, its one game, its four at-bats, and the Mets won so the situation was ideal.  We will know most about him when he’s mired in an 0-16 slump or when he comes up to plate and he strikes out to end a bases loaded threat for the Mets against the Phillies.  Met fans and New York fans in general have this “what have you done for me lately” mindset that isn’t fair at times but also separates the mentally weak from the mentally strong.  If you’re a star here in the pressure cooker in New York then you’ll go down as one of the greats in the sport, not just a local hero.**  That stuff’s only good enough to get you elected mayor of a city.

*= The best part of Ike Davis was that first at-bat.  He stared at the bat.  Took a deep breath, then mouthed “let’s go”.  He admitted prior to the game that he would be nervous and you saw it especially when his first pitch he got fooled by an offspeed pitch and he took a very very deep breath.  What was even better was to see him smile after that first hit.  It was kind of like he realized that he belonged.

**= You hear that Lebron?  One of the greats of the sport.  Who’s world is this?  The world is yours, bring the championship to NY and its yours its yours!

– The Met relief core came in and did mop up duty again pitching 3 1/3 innings of relief to seal the game.  I like that the Mets have a few guys that can go a couple of innings.  Fernando Nieve, Takahashi and even Mejia* can all be stretched out for multiple innings.  Only Pedro Feliciano is really considered a specialist if you will.  Everyone else are pitchers and allow the Mets to have consistent pitching without having to do fifteen substitutions per inning just to get through 3 batters.  Jenrry Mejia came in and threw two scoreless innings.  This morning’s Post had a story with John Harper wondering what Mejia is doing here anyway.  On one hand, he’s here in my opinion because Jerry Manuel was trying to keep his job and to elicit interest in the franchise in the early going just in case the team struggled to sell tickets which they were**, on the other hand he’s our best prospect and despite having very little (good) experience in the minors he has the stuff to get by on the major league level.  If the Mets are to ever envision him anchoring their rotation they would be best served to send him down to the minors, promote Tobi Stoner and play it out.  He hasn’t been Mariano so there’s no real major loss if he goes down to the minors to get stretched out either.  He’s appeared in 7 games and pitched 7 innings while giving up 2 runs on 8 hits and struck out 5.  Those are decent numbers, but given the chance to make him a starter, the Mets should not be wasting his time or his arbitration clock if he’s not particularly needed.

– Instead of SNY, I watched the game on ESPN because it was blacked out on DISH Network on SNY because believe me otherwise I wouldn’t be on ESPN.  Its interesting to hear a national broadcast of a game since its done by people who picked up newspapers over the last two weeks and started browsing for interesting discussion material for games to sound educated and learned about the particular subject but having listened to Tim McCarver on Saturday, Joe Morgan on Sunday and now Aaron Boone on Monday, its pretty clear that annoying isn’t the word when it comes to describing a national broadcast.  More like disturbing.  Especially for die-hard fans like myself who have to listen to guys berate your team based on generalities that ESPN comes up with.*

*= On a side note about ESPN.com, I have no idea why they let Peter Gammons go.  He was an icon on that network and valuable in terms of access.  I have no idea what purpose Tim Kurkjian serves at all.  There is not one bit of insight that he has made that has made me stop and think.  Its just been one “no-duh” breakthrough with this guy after another.  Don’t get me wrong, as far as Tims that I hate in this world, McCarver will always be above Kurkjian but still, he’s pretty high up there.

– One unrelated Mets topic I did want to touch on was Alfonso Soriano who over the years has gone from potential 40/40 threat to most useless waste of space out there and I got upset watching him.  He’s been booed non-stop at Wrigley for his apparent lack of hustle and “I don’t care” demeanor and general lack of baseball IQ and hustle 101.  What’s even more incredible was that last night’s game gave me evidence of all that.  He hit a towering shot that he stood to admire and did a little bunny hop in celebration only to see it die at the center field wall and he ended up only at 2b when he could’ve had a double.   Then there’s that stupid little bunny hop that he does whenever he makes a catch.  This is a guy who routinely drops pop ups.*  Also, he has lost his speed and it was evident when he gave up on Jason Bay’s double, a ball he could’ve gotten to had he just gave it a little effort.  Instead he turned around and waited for the carom off the wall.  Only it hit five feet in front of the wall and then bounced off it, allowing Bay to go to second.  Its made worse by the fact that he will make 90 million over the next 5 years making it an untradeable contract.  When he would do the hop and catch a fly ball he would throw it back to the infield then shoot a look at Lou Piniella which I’m sure pisses him off to no end.  That makes him a very unlikeable person even for a fanbase that embraces losing like the Cubs do.

*= How happy are the Yankees that they traded him?  How relieved is their fanbase that they didn’t end up giving him a ridiculous contract like they were doing in the middle part of the last decade?

– I hate to be a sour puss but this must be brought to everyone’s attention.  In the 3rd inning with the Mets threatening, bases loaded, two outs, David Wright came up to plate.  He proceeded to swing at four consecutive pitches, only one of which were strikes and struck out on a bad slider way out of the strike zone.  Wright’s clearly struggling and doesn’t seem to understand in these situations that he just needs to put the ball in play and not try to hit a home run everytime.  Wright has become such a streaky hitter and it worries me that he remains stuck in the bad habits he learned last year while dealing with the new stadium and having the pressure of carrying the team offensively.  Hopefully once the sluggers get back, Wright can go back to the four hole and get back to older habits that helped him become successful.

– I’m liking how this team’s been playing over the last week.  With Pelfrey going today it will be interesting to see how he does.  He has been the best pitcher on the Mets in terms of consistency and with how the Cubs are playing the Mets should be able to pick up the W.  But let’s not pencil the Mets for anything just yet.  It will help to get 6 runs but the Mets need the same consistent pitching night in and night out to compete and they will pick it up offensively once all their weapons come back.

SEASON: 5-8

MY PREDICTION: 7-6

Do not adjust your monitors.  The Mets and Cards DID go 20 innings.  For 18 of them, the Mets and Cards held each other to no runs.  ZERO.  Nothing.  Zilch.  Incredible how far away from the long ball era we’ve gone huh.

Of course I didn’t get to see it because I was attending a family wedding.*  Of course I thought my DVR would defy expectations and record the entirety of the 6 hour 53 minute game and it didn’t.  Of course I didn’t find out about the bar showing the game until after it was done.**  Of course there is still some second guessing going on about Jerry’s decisions and still some negativity surrounding a win, which let’s face it, isn’t that surprising.***  Luckily there’s tons of coverage on this game and I’m piecing it together thru the aid of the internet.

*= Almost everyone can relate to the all day affair that are family weddings.  From gathering at house, to the drive to the chapel, where you have to attend, to the photographing session after the church service then to the reception area and then staying till the very end.  So if anyone’s wondering how I missed a nearly 7 hour game.  That’s how.

**= I’m still amazed that in the span of an almost 7 hour game I couldn’t find a bar there.  The bar that was in the basement of the reception area.  The one with the big sign in front of the reception area.  On a side note, I hadn’t begun alcohol intake until well after I saw that sign.  So yeah.

***= Seriously?  Did you expect anything less from New York?  We complain for sun on a cold day and then blame the sun for being too hot when the weather gets warmer.

–  Johan pitched 7 innings struck out 9 and yet his fastball still was regularly only hitting 90.  His final pitch was 92 but its scary to think about Johan losing velocity especially considering he had a procedure on his arm which only fuels speculation about whether the surgery went well.  His change up was low and getting strikeouts.  His ability to hit location and spots were what saved him.  This of course brings up the point that has been made by me the last few days.  The problem with every starter losing some sort of velocity has been attributed to the edict by management to focus more on pitch location and throwing strikes.  The Mets pitchers it seems lack the ability to maintain high velocity and location and that’s very troubling.  That just won’t cut it and now Warthen wants them all to start throwing again which would lead once more to bad habits forming.  I dont know what message this coaching staff is trying to send to the players and its got to be a point of concern that they haven’t worked on maintaining velocity.

– I know the Mets were only 2-8 with RISP and the Cardinals had 18 such opportunities and squandered almost all of them but the biggest disappointment about this team early on has been their inability to hit with RISP.  Forget everything else, those are clutch situations.  That’s the stat that the Mets have been failing at and thus their record looks the way it does.  It gets plenty of baserunners on, but the growing concern is that hitters just can’t come up with the big hit and the reason for it is that Jason Bay hasn’t started to produce and the line up otherwise has plenty of outs.  Who knows if Jeff Francouer has turned the corner and is realizing his potential that the Braves thought they saw in the multi-sport athlete when they drafted him?  Who knows what exactly is holding back Jose Reyes a week into his return?  Who knows if David Wright will ever get an opportunity to come thru in the clutch and make a believer out of me?*  At some point these questions have to become a major concern and can’t just be pushed under the rug by saying its early in the season.

*= And yes, in case you’re wondering, David Wright DOES care about making me a believer.

– As if it needs to be said, the bullpen once again did its job for the most part.  For twelve innings the bullpen gave up one run.  Of course the news coming after the game was that K-Rod threw 100 pitches prior to entering the game and tired out his arm which is convenient considering he lost the temporary lead for them.  Ok, fine I’m not going down that route with K-Rod, but just hearing that makes you upset a little bit but you had to keep him loose out there in case the Mets were able to grab the lead.  Regardless of the fact, once again the burden on the relief staff was great and it can NOT go that way.  Johan pitched 7 innings and the Mets need that consistently from their starters and its something surprisingly they’ve been getting.  Ollie pitched well Friday night following a gem by Mike Pelfrey and Johan came through today.

– I’m still unsure about who is exactly going to step up to take a hold of the Mets 8th inning role.  People like Pedro Feliciano, but he’s seen as a left handed specialist though he has good numbers against righties.  Some like the velocity of Ryota Irigashi.  Some would even like Jenrry Mejia to grab that role by the horns.  Unfortunately none has but everyone has done good in whatever spot they are put in.  As the season progresses I suppose Jerry will have enough evidence to make a decision but let’s hope its soon.  By the time he makes the decision every single bullpen pitcher may need Tommy John because their arms are hanging off their bodies.

– You dont know how happy it made me to read the report that Mike Pelfrey stepped up to say he wanted to come in and get the save.  It shows that his confidence is at an all time high and he’s willing to step up without any prodding and asking.  This is the kind of bulldog I hope we see in big Pelf the rest of the way this season.  The Mets need this kind of confidence and fight in every one of their players.

– Speaking of fight, the Mets inability to hit off Jaime* Garcia for the first 5 innings speaks in depth to the problematic fashion the Mets are set up in terms of line up.  They have an out sandwiched between a majority of their best players and its horrendous that Manuel can’t do much to change it.  I’m not trying to come to the aid of Jerry, but let’s be real, the idea of the heart of the order is to put your very best 3 players back to back to back to put the most amount of pressure on a team.  What’s wrong with putting a 3-4-5 of Wright, Bay and then Francouer when you have a lefty?  If you’re going to play it by numbers then that’s the move, but not according to Jerry.  That’s what’s confusing about this team.  They want to play percentages but only under their terms, not under the term of making sense like every other person.  Its rather pathetic to me that Manuel can’t figure this one out on their own.  The line up can be so simple, yet he leaves very little room for you to side with him.  The offense is clearly the issue at hand and the Mets are getting decent starting pitching and yet the Mets can’t seem to drive a single run home when there are guys in scoring position.  Manuel has to fix that and put the three best guys back to back to back.  Forget this lefty/righty/lefty path they seem to love to walk.

*= its pronounced HI-ME.

– Another to put in the sad yet scary department, the Cards were basically handing the game over to the Mets by having position players pitch 3 innings yesterday.  Their fight was remarkable considering they had to do it against one of the premier closers of the game.  I suppose confidence just oozes from Pujols and it just kind of spreads but still, they came back in the bottom of the 19th but couldn’t get the job done in the 20th when the Mets again scored.  I dont agree that this was more of  a must-win for the Mets as opposed to the Cardinals.  That time has not come for the Mets to be labeling games as must win especially in the beginning of the year but that time is coming close.

– I dont know how many times I can repeat this statement but Tim McCarver has got to be the absolutely worst broadcaster on the planet.  His ability to add remarkably little to each game is a sure fire sign that this guy has outdated himself.  He was Bob Gibson’s catcher and he’s seemingly built his way up the food chain till he’s now the voice of baseball and its post season which is quite scary.  He referenced the Luis Castillo pop up which was about as surprising as Ricky Martin coming out* for the first time a few weeks ago.  McCarver needs to retire.  Pronto Tonto.

*= I mean Barbara Walters brought him out 10 years ago at the height of his Ricky-mania and yet no one listened even then.  He comes out under his own terms and people are legitemately shocked?  Its incredible that while the evidence was there, no one bothered to look.

– Speaking of retiring, so do I after 48 hours of minimal sleep.  Maine goes on the mound tonight and I will be honest with you, I’m writing this after the game ended, and I will get to tonight’s game in the next post.  Reason I’m stating that is because I was ready to talk about turning the corner and this perhaps being the moment that if they defy odds and win a World Series could be pointed to as the turning point of the season.  The fight and resolve shouldn’t be wasted on this effort for nothing but a reminder that if the Mets wanted to, they could achieve anything.  Props to Tony LaRussa applauding his players.

– One last thing, this was not an epic game, just a long game.  Braveheart is an epic movie lasting long but maintaining a high level of enjoyment.  Alexander is just a long crappy movie.  Don’t call something epic because it was long is my only point.

SEASON: 4-7

MY PREDICTION: 6-5

No matter how you look at it, its tough not to be encouraged and I mean it.  I’m not being sarcastic I swear.*  In fact I’m going to try to not be so critical because while some of the early season demons came back to haunt them I saw some more promising things that the Mets can build on.

*= And i’m never sarcastic.  I swear!

– Two days in a row the Mets have gotten more than solid pitching from one of their rotation question marks.  Oliver Perez went 6 1/3 giving up that earned run, 4 strikeouts and 3 walks.  The walks were not that much of an issue as they were scattered and not bunched up like Ollie sometimes likes to do so no real damage came from that.  Yet another day that Met pitchers seemed to take their time and look relaxed on the mound.  What’s most encouraging is that both of these pitchers were the biggest screw jobs mentally on the Mets rotation and they both seemed to have their cool and not look upset or lost or confused on the mound.  They knew what they had to do and executed their pitches.  Credit the pitching coach* who may finally be getting through to both of these guys.

*= Actually screw that guy!  I’m not going to give him any credit until we’re having the conversation about how these guys have been so consistent all year long in about August.  You’re going to have to win me over Mr. Warthen and Mr. Johnson.

– The curious coaching decision came in the 7th inning when Ollie got the first out and Brendan Ryan was coming up.  At this point Ollie had thrown 97 pitches yet he didn’t look fatigued or anything.  He looked like he could go. He had worked himself into a rhythm and yet they thought to play the percentages and bring in Fernando Nieve.  I thought that was a bad move and not knowing your pitcher.  Ollie had a good breaking ball that hitters were just not catching on to and yet Manuel thought he had seen enough.  This is a gut call and I suppose its easier to question him now that we know how that decision fared.  But you have to understand your pitcher and see if he’s fatiguing and it was clear he wasn’t.  In my opinion Ollie could’ve gotten those last two outs.*

*= The worst part of it was Ollie didn’t even fight it when Manuel came out to pull him.  I think if Manuel had seen some fight out of Ollie he may have left him in and he just never showed that.  Which of course brings me to the point that was made on the radio that Oliver Perez is the kind of pitcher who is not open to switching up the game plan during the game.  He will go through with what he had planned to do before the game regardless of how he’s faring instead of making adjustments.  So if its time for Ollie to come out, he won’t fight it, that’s the decision and that’s that.  In Ollie’s world its black and white, the decision is made.  I think back to the AL playoffs when John Lackey was in there against the Yankees and Mike Scoscia came in to the game to pull him and Lackey from the moment he saw him come out, started barking at Scoscia to let him have the final out.  That’s the kind of spirit some of these Mets need but in reality all these pitchers are getting their confidence built up and haven’t shown the kind of consistency that warrants a manager to trust that they have the stuff to get those two final outs.  It would’ve been nice if Ollie decided to mouth off a little.  But I suppose as he starts consistently having those starts, it will build and eventually make him a more trusted commodity.

– The bullpen will unfairly be criticized this morning but I’m willing to give it a bit of a leash here considering how excellent they’ve played thus far, keeping the Mets in games.  Raul Valdes was brought in, as it turns out, because Pedro Feliciano was out with a stomach bug.  It was really a situation for Feliciano to be out there.  I’m not going to fret over one bad pitch or say Takahashi was the better selection here but clearly Feliciano was the guy to turn to in that situation and he wasn’t available.  You can’t throw Mejia in there as its still a huge leverage situation, being bases loaded and one out.  They played percentages and they lost.  Simple as that.*

*= I had to breathe heavily while writing that sentence.  Being a fair and impartial fan isn’t easy folks.

– Oliver’s velocity, like Maine’s is down and it does bear watching but I think its more a result of him trying to locate pitches more instead of just throwing.  I think the Mets have asked both of these guys to start locating pitches better instead of just throwing it hard for the sake of getting it up there on the radar gun which in my opinion if you can trade off a few MPH for location you do it but not when your fastball was only registering 92 on the gun to begin with.  Major league hitters will notice that these guys are throwing strikes and will start teeing off on 89 MPH fastballs which is why Maine’s decision to start throwing harder is a good idea because as much location helps, its about velocity with it and that’s what separates ok pitchers from the excellent ones.  You know what separates Oliver Perez from a Chris Carpenter.

– Speaking of which.  Carpenter wasn’t a strikeout pitcher last year but it seems as if he’s going for more punch outs this year as it shows from him already giving up 5 home runs.  Last year he gave up 7 all year.  But wash away that start in Milwaukee and he’s got decent numbers but historically the Mets hit him well so the Mets showing patience and getting 4 hits and drawing 3 walks was no surprise.  But Carpenter’s curve and cutter were filthy.  The curve was his out pitch against righties and the cutter was impossible to hit for lefties as it bore in on their hands and usually got swings and misses.  He’s an excellent pitcher and this kind of outing isn’t wildly surprising but the Mets had some chances in this game and once again failed to come through with runners in scoring position which has been the achilles heel for this team and honestly has been the most frustrating part about following this team.  Credit Carpenter today but the season’s major headline has been the Mets inability to get the big hit.  The Mets have the worst average in the National League right now batting below .200.

– Another game and another bad base running error.  This time though it came back to help the Mets instead of hurt them.  In the 3rd inning when Barajas got a single, Francouer went first to third but took a wide turn around 3rd, which the Cards alertly saw and Brendan Ryan the shortstop set up behind  the third base bag for the Pujols throw all the way from first.  Once Francouer started breaking for home Ryan rushed a throw home which skipped past the usually reliable Yadier Molina and the Mets scored their only run of the game.  I know that they scored and honestly I’m happy it worked out for the Mets but it goes back to fundamental baseball and the Mets aren’t playing it.  You can’t expect to win games hoping for luck like that game in and game out.  Teams will execute that well and actually I’m surprised the Cards didn’t get them out.  The Mets can’t expect this to happen all the time.  Just in case you were wondering Francouer did get picked off in a double play when Carpenter snared a liner and then threw to first because Frenchy misread the liner and was caught off base.

– David Wright is starting to hit and maybe its from being away from home.  Maybe the Mets are better served not being at home as it seems they don’t have to deal with the opposing team AND the crowd who seem to never rally around this team and not help to lift the spirits.  I know its the whole New York crowd being a tough crowd but that’s Yankee fans.  Ever since 2006 when the Mets had a great year and seemed to inherit the fairweather fans that were Yankee fans*, the Mets crowd has been a negative one screaming at the first hint of trouble and booing like its their business.  I know the last few years have been frustrating but right now our home crowds absolutely suck.  Its not just when Ollie gives up a 3 run homerun after giving up two walks.  Its Ollie issuing A WALK.  Its like incentive to boo.  I realize the Mets have to be tougher mentally but if they aren’t, exactly what are the fans doing by being so negative?**  I think the whole negativity surrounding CITI field is suffocating and can make players overplay things just to get the crowd behind them instead of focusing on making pitches and getting on base and getting hits.

*= I can’t tell you how many of these fans I’ve spotted over the last two or three years and how it frustrates me to see them sitting field level while a rally is going on…sitting down.  I hate that.  As a fan I’m there to root and support my team, not to jump on it when it gets down.  It’s just dumb and those are the fans I’ve been seeing at these games.  It stinks to no degree and it makes me angry.

**= I know that last paragraph made me sound like an overprotective parent but sometimes I feel like Met fans don’t get it.  We don’t live in ideal situations.  If it were, then we wouldn’t have our current ownership group.  We wouldn’t have the current manager and all that.  Let’s rally around our team and not jump on it and make it feel conscious of the situation.  Mentally let’s face it, the Mets aren’t tough and they proved it two years in a row by letting division leads slip through their fingers to the Phillies who in my opinion, in those years, weren’t all that much better than the Mets just that they had more of a belief and a more rallying spirit around them.  They were just tougher than the Mets and thus were able to get past all the booing and all the crap that fan bases from Philly and New York can give them and were able to succeed.  Let’s hope that the Met fans can start cheering and rallying around the team in a big spot instead of just booing.

– The Mets hitting woes are just atrocious BUT in last night’s game that play by David Freese in the 8th to rob Tatis was heartbreaking and it seems as though Wright is coming back.  More so Reyes’ 0-5 performance was not encouraging.  Even worse than that?  It could’ve been 1-4 had Reyes shown some of that burst he used to have and its not without concern to say that Reyes’ speed is now becoming less than what it used to be.  The old Reyes would’ve beaten that throw by Felipe Lopez but this one just couldn’t.  Comparatively Angel Pagan who was on first running for Frank Catalanotto* hustled and would’ve beaten the throw by Lopez.  The biggest part of that play was Lopez deciding to go after Reyes which a few years ago would’ve never worked.  Until Reyes’ speed comes back which again is a concern for me and every Met fan, the Mets will be in these situations.  I wrote about this before but Reyes is not running full speed and my hunch is that its from orders from the front office which begs the question if Reyes isn’t still being bothered by that thyroid condition.  He’s clearly not running full speed and it shows and that play is pretty indicative of it.  Even at 75-80% Reyes almost beat that throw out which makes you wonder why isn’t he running at full speed.

*= Frank Catalanotto from Smithtown.  For some reason, since I heard that introduction everytime he comes up to bat and his name is announced I add “from Smithtown.”  It just goes.

– I’ve noticed that the Mets when they get relievers of the opposing team tend to be swinging on the first one or two pitchers which honestly is a good approach as teams that are known to throw strikes will give them pitches to hit early in counts and tend to not have strikes later on which the Mets seem to always get beat by.  The Mets have to get good wood on those pitches in order to make it count.  The Mets have been hitting balls better and with more authority they just need some of those to fall for hits and it seems as though guys are getting there.  The patient approach with the starters and aggressiveness with the relievers has worked.  In the 9th they jumped on Ryan Franklin and they just lacked that winning hit with Castillo up but it will come, I’m confident of that.

–  Its been a while since I’ve been concerned about a Johan Santana start but today’s start will be crucial.  He’s matching up against Jaime Garcia the young lefty so he won’t be going against the opposing team’s ace so its imperative the Mets get a win here.  He was brutal in the first inning against the Nats who we’re finding out isn’t a walk over in the NL East anymore.  He HAS to win this game no doubt about it for Met fans to not want to pull their hair out.  I like how the Mets have pitched Albert Pujols and I hope they make another guy beat them instead of challenging him like Perez did last night which by the way, the Mets were lucky to get away with.  The Mets improved patience and approach will pay off but in reality the Mets can’t afford to think they can walk their way to runs.  The Mets must be aggressive.

– As always LETS GO METS!

SEASON: 3-7

MY PREDICTION: 5-5