February 20: Your morning paper and coffee
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- February
- 20
You bring the coffee and I’ll get your paper. I wrote Carlos Beltran his morning in “The Journal News.”:http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070220/SPORTS01/702200373/1108 I hope you’ll take a look.
I’ll be posting throughout the day, so check back in.
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on Tuesday, February 20th, 2007 at 9:31 am by John Delcos.
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he should have swung.
To Steve C. (RE: Beltran)
LOL
Steve C: Go back to your video and look where that pitch was.
If he swung, he would’ve either missed, or grounded weakly back to the mound. The only hittable pitch in the entire sequence was the first one – a straight chnge down the middle that he wasn’t expecting and took for a strike.
Losing that game was a total team effort.
I’m certainly not going to fault the man who tied the Mets’ single-season record for home runs, established a new one for runs scored, tied for the team lead in RBIs, won a Gold Glove, started in the All-Star Game, hit three homers in the NLCS and finished fourth in the NL MVP voting.
Wainwright simply beat him in that at-bat.
I can’t read it if there’s no Dick Gutwillig column. Sorry.
OK, I’ve swallowed my Gutwillig pride and have read the article.
To me, the real “what if” question isn’t about Beltran and the nasty curveball—it’s what if Willie had bunted with first and second and no outs? Bringing up an injured Cliff Floyd in that situation had to be just about the worst strategy available to him. Yeah, I understand the symbolic nature of Cliff’s last appearance as a Met and all, but that was about as do-or-die of a situation as they come.
If Willie had sent someone like Glavine to bunt there, you’d have the tying runs in scoring position with one out, with Reyes and LoDuca coming up. Four months later, I still don’t see the upside to using Floyd there.
Benny, you’re EXACTLY right!!!
I’ve been saying what you’re saying for MONTHS.
Willie should’ve played for the tie in the bottom of the 9th. Glavine should’ve been up there to bunt. That would’ve put pressure on the defense to make a play – on a wet field, no less. Willie said later he didn’t want to give up an out at that point – but he did, and it was an unproductive one.
With his bad wheel, anything Cliff puts on the ground is an easy DP. At best, he pulls a Kirk Gibson special, but anything he might’ve hit in the gap would’ve been a long single.
I’d definitely have taken second and third and one out with Reyes, LoDuca and Beltran coming up. Cliff’s bat could’ve been used in case of extra innings.
If we tied the game, we still would’ve had Darren Oliver, Pedro Feliciano, Guillermo Mota and Billy wagner all available to pitch in extra innings.
C’mon guys, that was last year – let’s look forward.
oh please, fellas… you along with every other Met fan in the world was thinking “man, Floyd is gonna groove this pitch into the atmosphere”
You are so right Dan I was waiting for a BOMB from Cliffy.
Not me. I was praying that he wouldn’t hit the ball on the ground. It was a go-for-broke move when one wasn’t needed.
Haha, I thought he was going to not only hit it, but hit it hard. I was positive he was gonna hit a 3 run homerun to win the game.
Haha, guess not. A bunt woulda been nice. But hindsight is nice too!
Other than the strikeout, I was wondering why Beltran didn’t attempt to steal more. I understand that you don’t want to take the bat out of Delgado’s hands, but you do want to put pressure on the defense when you have a chance.