About Yesterday
-
- April
- 9
Well, I’m not about to write off the season after six games. And, that comes from me, the one some of you think is Mr. Negative.
The starting pitching for the most part has been good, and if there’s one part of your game you want to click it is your starters.
The bullpen and offense have been spotty. They’ll get better. At least I believe the offense will improve.
I’m not sure what to expect tonight from Mike Pelfrey. I wouldn’t be surprised either.
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, April 9th, 2008 at 11:15 am by John Delcos.
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The bullpen will not get better while Scot Schoenweis is a part of it.
The bullpen has never been very reliable. They are serviceable, but its important that especially early in the season, Willie lets the starters go later into the game. You know Santana’s gonna give you an effort late into the game every time he takes the mound, but he’s gotta stop babying the younger guys. Let Maine and Perez carry the game into the 7th and 8th so we can hand the ball to the one or two reliable relievers we have.
Something has got to give, the Phils are a good team as well as the Braves, but losing they way they have in the past 3 is just not an acceptable product. This team has the talent and ability to be 6-0 right now, instead 2-4. The effort yesterday by the offense and pen was just plain bunk. Lack of timely hitting, and terrible pitching has the Mets looking up at the rest of the division. These teams are up for the Mets, while the Mets seem to be worried about what they don’t have (Alou, Martinez, El-Duque, Sanchez)and taking the stance that “it’s early just 6 games”. I know it’s a marathon and I for one am not pushing the panic button. I just think this team needs a shake up. Give me back the old Reyes, can Willie out guess the competition and make the right move during the game. Be aggressive, force the other team to be on it’s heels, and stop counter punching. Take the fight to the other team, because they sure are beating the snot out of the Mets at every turn to this point.
I’m expecting a blow out tonight and it could come from either side, I think Kendrick doesn’t have the stuff to be a major league pitcher, lefties kill him, he does not strike enough people out, and he gives up tons of hits.
Kendrick sucks: OK.. Then what do you say about Pelfrey? Kendrick has been far better than Pelfrey has been and Kendrick pitches in a band box.
Steve (The original) While you are certainly correct about Schoeneweis who is apparently in a put because he gets booed, you know the only way he is off the roster is if he gets hurt. Maybe next Winter.
I’ve said it a thousand times, Schoeneweis is a dog, needs to go and I don’t care how Omar does it but Schoeneweis needs to go. Like I said in the last post, people can say it’s early but what is alarming to me is this team is still the team from last year, nothing has changed. Offensively there up and down, never get the timely hitting in big spots, starting pitching can’t make it to the 6th inning (except santana) and the bull pen stinks. I will go on record right now and claim third place for this team. I really truly hope I’m wrong, time will tell. I also think Willie will get fired before the season is over.
Too bad the Mets cannot trade Schoeneweis to the Knicks! I hear they could use some expiring contracts.
Seriously though, I think we are seeing very quickly that the real mistake this winter was that the Mets did not hire a manager more able to motivate a team of (very) talented but mostly low key characters. I mean, the stay the course, get em tomorrow banalities that Willie espouses are not going to get this team going. He’s a bad fit, and I fret that it’s going to become more and more of an issue.
And way to attack your starting pitcher for pitching a third of an inning less yesterday than he did during his last start. I too would have given Perez the hook in the sixth yesterday. Bringing in Smith was a smart move. But, when push came to shove, the Mets were in the game as long as they were yesterday because of Ollie. It was completely moronic to let go on him.
You look at how Willie treats the younger players, and you really have to wonder. I think if you think of what Ruben Gotay said in regards to WR when he was put on waivers and extrapolate that a bit, and you can see the real problem the Mets have here. And of course, now with Castillo showing his lame side once again, it would be awfully nice to have Gotay around as Marlin & Easley are key bats off the bench for those clutch late inning at bats….
As someone on the talk shows said yesterday, it is early but so far the Mets are failing the tests given to them.
Last week Willie said bring them on, it is good to measure yourself against the competition.
Well right now they have a failing grade, it is not a disaster yet, but they have to look at it as they are failing the grade and need to take steps to correct it.
Delgado – I have only seen him a couple of times and must say perhaps his critics are right.
He is batting 300 and has a homer but he seems late on the fastballs. If he has lost his bat speed I dont know what we do. Do we bring up a young guy at the break? We have nothing to trade except some AA pitching.
I’m starting to feel like it was a bad thing for the rest of the players that the Mets traded for Santana because it made them the favorites in a lot of people’s eyes and could have given them back that sense of entitlement and laziness.
I also think some might be over-confident with Santana on board, but without him, I don’t think they have a good chance to win the division this year.
Spiderpig, all that I can say is that if anything gives them back that sense of entitlement they demonstrated last year then they are a bunch of hopeless mercenaries that are just punching a clock.
One would hope that becoming the laughingstock of baseball would have at least given these guys the ego-drive to play their best.
I really hope this is just a blip, but yesterday’s performance and Willie’s (bizarre) response really gave me pause.
Getting hard to wake up my teenage son every morning in his vividly painted orange and blue room.
JT
Dave,
Which “young guy” is it in the Mets’ farm system that you think can match even a diminished Delgado’s numbers at first base? There is no one. Delgado is the first baseman, for better or worse, and aside from his characteristically lousy defense yesterday – which you could expect in his prime, too – he is not the reason the Mets are 2 – 4.
And to answer JD’s question as to what to expect from Pelfrey tonight, on 11 days rest, against a VERY good lineup – there will be blood.
I’m not a Willie fan. He is ok as a manager. But in 06 when they won 97 but lost to the Cards was he a good manager during the season who turned to a bad manager in the NLCS? Did he motivate the players differently during the season and then was lasse fare after? I don’t think so. He lost Eldue and Pedro and that had the biggest impact. Then the BP which was 74-2 in games w/leads after 6inn blew 2 in the NLCS. Was that b/c of a lack of motivation? It was talent or a lack of execution that lost it.
Last yr was the same. They lost eldue and then they babied Pedro and had to have Lawrence and Humber picthing and the BP was worn out. It was talent or a lack of execution that lost it.
Motivation plays a role. But no matter who manages the team, it won’t make a difference if players don’t hit, pitch, field and run.
Met BP has been bad for 3 games throwing some poor pitches. If it continues, they will have troubles. If it does not, they will be in good shape.
Mets offense took a very good approach of waiting out the Marlin pitchers b/c they can’t throw strikes. They tried the same against the Braves. That was a mistake against Hudson and Smoltz. They never seem to hit soft tossing lefties (Moyer).
bad BP + poor bat approach = 3 gm losing streak.
Let’s see what they do for a few weeks before going crazy. Besides, there is nothing much that can be done. Mets can’t change the team much. They have nothing to trade.
DG: That was pretty funny. If Isiah were still running the show Omar could probably get a deal done.
As long as we don’t trade Schoneweis for Marbury. He might be a bad influence on Reyes. By the way, now that Rickey is gone, who is the bad influence on Jose?
scoopcoop: Sometimes a manager has to adjust to what he has. He can indeed be a good manager one year and not the next because just like players have to make adjustments, so do managers. The adjustment I see Willie making are to never ever take a chance and never ever make something happen unless we’re up 4 runs or more. Do we hit and run NO. Do we squeeze. NO. Do we ever do the wheel play NO.
We go thru the motions. That sets the tone for a very boring ball club.
Was Willie a good manager in 2006 and bad in playoffs. No. The team was never tested during the regular season so we don’t know what he would have done. We only know what happened when tested last year. Nothing. And he has set the same tone this year. Nothing.
This isn’t the 1927 Yankees who can just go out there and kick the crap out of everyone. This team needs to do more than go thru motions.
sloppy, I agree that Willie could do some of those things. But it is not like he waits for the 3-run HR either. Mets led the league in steals by a wide margin.
But hit and run w/who? You could do it w/some guys, but others are too slow. Squeeze? Is there anyone expect Castillo who is a good bunter?
wheel play? We know Delgado is not a great thrower. And he or the pitcher is the most likely to be the one to get the ball.
Scoopcoop:
The Mets indeed led the league in steals. The steals will be down significantly this year. You don’t want Beltran running a lot. Church doesn’t steal, Catillo can he even run to second any more. That’s all they do is steal, mostly early in the game or with a big lead. You hit and run with contact guys. We haven’t had any in the last 3 plus years? You hit and run with guys in slumps. Willie never does that to help a guy out of a slump. You squeeze with good bunters. Glavine was an exceptional bunter. Chavez is an exceptional bunter. You can wheel with good fielding pitchers. We haven’t had any?
You need to do all these things sometimes jsut to try to keep the opposition thinking. The opposition knows what to expect from this team all the time. They don’t have to be alert for anything except a steal.
With Willie, it also has to do with putting your players/team in the best position to succeed.
Like with Milledge and Gotay last year. They would play well for a stretch, then were nowhere to be found. Then Willie would pinch hit with Gotay after he sat for a week, he wouldn’t get a hit, and then Willie would throw his hands up and say “the kid can’t pinch hit.”
The bullpen is a perfect example. Sosa facing Kelly Johnson? Schoenweiss pitching to anyone but LHers. Not defining roles. While I personally would rather have a bunch of good pitchers in the pen who can pitch in a variety of situations, we don’t exactly have the Nasty Boys out there. Our BP pitchers are good, but flawed. Thus, Willie needs to utilize them according to their strengths.
In ‘06 Willie didn’t have to manage anything. He had a set lineup he wrote down every single day, and before Duaner got hurt, he could have picked the BP names out of a hat and they would have been lights out. Oliver, Feliciano, Bradford, Heilman, Duaner, and Wagner were all very good to great that year.
But once he got to the playoffs, he faced off with an excellent in game tactician, LaRussa (which I hate to admit because I’m not a big LaRussa fan, but the guy is a good manager), and lost.
And its not like Willie is the worst manager ever, because he’s not. But I really think he would be better off in the AL where you don’t need to double switch, you can let your starters pitch longer, thus, you don’t burn out your bullpen.
I still can’t believe that Willie sent Cliff Floyd up to hit a 3 run homer when he should have bunted the tieing run to 2b.