Mets Chat Room: Wrapping up the homestand.
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- April
- 17
Josh has the keys to the blog tonight as I always try to take the last game off before the start of a road trip. Be nice to him.
Nelson Figueroa’s feel-good story continues tonight, and it will feel even better if he pitches the way he did last Friday against Milwaukee. On the plus side, Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran are starting to hit. On the down side, Carlos Delgado is sliding.
Roughly three weeks into the season, how is the ball club playing in your eyes?
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on Thursday, April 17th, 2008 at 6:34 pm by John Delcos.
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As of the last two days, amazing. But this is the Nats.
Zim is ice cold this series.
Figgy, baby!
Delgado is finished.
Delgado the rally killer…
He needs to bat 6th or 7th
Lets Go Mets Go.
They’re playing like a team that can beat the living crap out of bad teams but is sort of at-sea against good teams.
Its only the start of the season. lets see what happens.
I don’t get Delgy.
He just looks lost and doesn’t seem to care.
Church is looking good against lefties thus far.
he’s still hurt. and just makin money.. its Al leiter over again. No matter how bad he played he stayed in the game. :-(
Andrew,
You don’t “get” Delgado? He cares, but he’s done as a baseball player. He doesn’t have it anymore, happens to every player, it’s that simple.
I said that last yea and i got railed by everyone here.
all i heard was he’s so important for the team. Looks like i was right, now everyone is saying what i already knew last year. I really think he;s still injured…or the injury he had has really affected him..
Defensively, I still think he’s underrated.
How many balls does he save by coming off the bag for a throw from Wright?
Yeah, I know JM. I just don’t think he gets that yet.
oh pkease he was never very good defensively. he’s making yje plays that anyone 3rd rate should make. Listen to Keith. He’ll tell ya..
ouch. that run hurt.
N. Johnson just teed off.
Mike C. ... Me and a buddy just had that same conversation the other day about the Mets. Unfortunately for Met fans who like to tease the Yankees, the ability to beat up on also-rans is a trademark for high-payroll teams who have accrued too much talent.
Still, we’ll see. It’s very early in the year.
I could stand there and get fooled by pitches too. Pay me what Delgado is making, please.
FYI: Since allowing a single to Jose Reyes and a double to Ryan Church to open the game, John Lannan has retired 12 straight through four.
What will be more of a pitchers duel:
Figueroa vs. Lannan
or
Santana vs. Hamels??
wow what a catch/
#1 play!
it was mostly luck and he will tell you that himself. but i’ll take it!
That’s 10 K’s for John Lannan.
Gee whiz…This guy’s on fire.
sigh
not to worry its about time the bats wake up. they have to get used to his pitches. ;-]
i hope
Me too Steve, me too!
Listen to this folks: This is the ninth game of Lannan’s career. His previous high in K’s in one game is four. In fact, in the eight previous outings he has just 16 K’s altogether in 45.1 IP.
Sounds like he’s facing a severely depleted lineup.
You can’t ask much more from Figgy. They gotta score some runs off this punk.
its depleted because everyone has to pick up delgado’s slack. .. pagan wright and beltran and CHURCH have all produced. where the hell is schneider?
Sitting.
They want Schneider to play all 3 games against Philly.
Steve C… Willie said Schneider was given the day off.
Well that was an idiotic call if I’ve ever seen one.
I think Lannan’s done…whew.
Check swing my arse. :-\
the ump needs glasses.
AV- thanx for the schneider update.
One more out for Figgy.
He’s done I would think, what a night for him.
See Keith and many many others dont like this 100 pitch count nonesense. Pitchers are coddled these days. Wusses.
Anytime.
Plus, Figgy and Casanova worked well last time (and tonight too). Though Willie prob won’t say that he’s his catcher.
only because of the pitch count Figgy may be done. not because he’s tired or losing his stuff.. Its terrible this rule.
Agreed. Pitch counts need to go out the window.
yep a walk is the only way for delgado to get on base these days.
At least Delgado still draws some walks. That’s about all you can hope for: no strike out, pass the baton.
so thats 2 petitions. pitch count and inter-league both need to go.
lol.
I’ll take it though.
Pagan’s first hit in two days.
Clutch timing.
Huge hit for Pagan. Huge.
I blame the cat.
Ugh.
they have to get 2 runs now.
This inning.
Rauch is going to close for the Nats, and he OWNS the Mets.
his nickname is chewbacka
If willie had a set. he would PH delgado.
He doesn’t.
ABOUT FRIGGIN TIME.
LET’S GO!
Delgado comes through! Of course it was against Jon Rauch and his 8.46 ERA. But I’ll take anything.
yeah . Delgottago still. because one clutch play doesnt make up for all the bad ..
yeah baby
.. one hit will do it.
Big hit, he needed it.
Josh – Good to see you over from the Rangers blog!
Annie – To continue our conversation from last nightm Yankee fans should especially pipe down because Hawikins was wearing #21 to honor Roberto Clemente, a far more important person than Paul O’Neil.
How has the game been tonight? I don’t feel like watching the blurry-ish picture on my Slingbox when I can watch exciting playoff hockey between the Flyers and Capitals. :)
I know someone mentioned that Delgado might be becoming too much like Shawn Green, but that might actually be his best strategy. Shorten the swing, go the other way, and become a singles and doubles hitter. When he swings for the downs, he just doesn’t have the speed or control to make contact anymore.
Doodie – Could you embed the link to the beard “contest” in your name so we can have instant access to it? If your web browser cooperates, it should stay there for every tiem you post.
@ JM:
That’d be smart of him. He doesn’t have the power anymore, especially with that bum hip.
It worked for Green, why not Delgy?
Wrong blog!!
Nice play by Church taking advantage of an inexperienced OF like that.
I am glad they walked Delgado. Hope Pagan comes through.
Tease!
Spiderpig, just wondering, are you talking about my beard article?
Are they playing Crazy Train on the organ?
GGGRRR fricken willie what was felciano out there to do?
Notice that in an extra-inning game, the only 2 relievers yet to be used are Schoenweis and Sosa. That should tell you something.
Talk about lack of power, Delgado can’t drive it out of the park, but Castillo can’t drive it past the pitcher’s mound.
At least the bullpen is rested and ready for this bonus time.
Andrew – I said, wrong blog. It’s something addressed to the guy on the Rangers blog.
Yes, it tells you that they are the two relievers who can work multiple innings.
Speaking of “your article,” Tejada is only 33, not 34.
Gotcha. Yeah, gotta fix that.
A bit odd two bloggers have beard articles. lol
Thanks, by the way.
Gotta get this done here.
GAHHH!
Uh, no Keith, it tells you that those are the last guys Willie wants to throw in there if he can help it.
Then again, I’d rather have Reyes running from second…
Were in for a marathon…
ugh
Andrew – Actually, it’s a hockey playoff beard contest for the blog readers that he set up; nothing like your article.
LOL, how did Sosa walk?
Casanova’s gotta come through. I can’t survive another Jorge Sosa inning, even if he can.
I hope we can end this before we have to use Johan, since he would be on full rest, therefore the first starter to enter the game, I would guess.
Actually, I guess Sosa will go a long way if he has to, since he is our long reliever and on three days rest.
Gotcha.
What a game…
Spiderpig,
You make me laugh. Johan Santana will NOT pitch in this game. He is going to start tomorrow against the Phils. If Jorge Sosa’s arm falls clean off, and Scott Schoenweis spontaneously combusts, they will have Delgado pitch before they EVER put Johan Santana into this game.
Church will pitch before Delgy.
I’d actually like to see that.
They will take volunteers from the stands before Santana pitches in this game.
Gotta hand it to the folks who have stuck it out at Shea tonight. They are the real heroes.
Why can’t our leadoff hitter get a bunt DOWN?
One. Fly. Ball.
Let’s get a wild pitch to end this game. As Casey Stengel said after the doubleheader with the 23 inning second game “if anyone wants me, tell them I’m being embalmed”.
Unreal.
That was fun!
omigod it came thru just as I was typing it..I was thinking of the game in 1999 to get us into the one game playoff against Cincinnati..gotta think of grand slams more often. Nice genius work by Acta..loading up the bases making your pitcher try extra hard and throwing a bad pitch.
WOO!
Good game all.
JM, is that why I saw Sosa pitch in the first 10 games?
Dan – I guess Acta was outsmarted by Randolph, getting Schneider up there to pinch hit. Hanrahan probably would have been better off pitching to Wright, since he induced a double play from him earlier and he is a righty.
So you little metsies got lucky and won 3 games. So unlike you “despicable” fans like metsfannot who is so “despicable” that he is rude to his very host every day, I keep my word so today I’m getting a metsie shirt to wear to the game next week. And on the front it says, BE a good Metsie fan
and on the back it says BOO THE METS!!!!
PS: did you notice the Pope came to our ballpark and he’s going to Yankee Stadium, but he won’t go to Shea STadium.. Why is that little metsies??? You know why. Its because he doesn’t want to honor a place where the fans are so “despicable”.
Thought I was gone didn’t you loser metsfannot? Well, unlike you I’m not a fair weather fan. I will stay with “despicable” little metsie fans until the day you are eliminated….......
GO PHILLIES
GO PHILLIES
Watch out for Pat the bat…...
The BB gods taketh (Sunday) and giventh back (last nite). Sometimes you lose ugly and sometimes you win ugly.
I wouldn’t be suprised if Mets came out prety flat tonite. They probably got to Philly and their hotel at 4am.
scoop—Cole Hamels has a way of making any team look flat, no matter what time they get into town. Just like Santana can, although he is usually not on top of his game in April which appears to be the case this year. So, if the Mets look flat tonight, it’s not something to panic over. I hope Beltran is back in the lineup. He’s killing lefties this year.
Mets have had to face Hudson, Sheets, Smoltz and now Hamels in their first 15 games. That’s probably a higher rate of top elite pitchers they’ll normally face throughout the season. Considering this, they’re in good shape now and haven’t played all that badly.
Here’s an article that is relevant to a recent discussion on this blog. Who knew MLB actually had a rule against fraternization?
“Fraternization Makes Met’s Randolph Hostile”
DAVID LENNON | david.lennon@newsday.com
April 18, 2008
This week’s visit to Shea by the Nationals, a team managed by former Mets coach Manny Acta, again featured the kind of affection usually reserved for family reunions. Hugs, handshakes, plenty of laughs.
Acta is a great guy, and still well liked in Mets circles. But it’s a little strange after the events of last September to see the teams maintain the same close contact on Shea’s front lawn. It didn’t sit well with everyone.
Manager Willie Randolph, an old-school veteran of the gang warfare between the Yankees and Red Sox, was not among the intermingling groups of front-office members and players. Not this week, and rarely.
To see one of his former lieutenants fawned over by members of the Mets organization probably makes every game against Washington an annoyance for Randolph. But that doesn’t seem to be changing any time soon, and neither does the inexplicable chumminess between some Mets and the team that humiliated them only seven months ago.
“How does that happen? How does that become normal?” Randolph said. “I don’t know. It’s just foreign to me, that’s all. I’m fine with, ‘Hey, how you doing?’ That stuff. I wish that we could enforce it more, really. They talk about it, but I don’t really see anyone policing it. You can’t force people not to talk to someone.”
This is not merely Randolph trying to talk tough. Major League Baseball prohibits fraternization. Rule 3.09 states, in part, “Players of opposing teams shall not fraternize at any time while in uniform.”
Few seem to know of the rule, much less care. And as Randolph said, what could be done to enforce it, other than teammates policing each other? The league did send out a memorandum last season, dated March 29, as a reminder of the rule, which was highlighted in bold letters.
Such memos are supposed to be displayed in the clubhouse, under the assumption that everyone can see them. More often, however, they are largely ignored, unless it pertains to uniform specifications, the use of cell phones or which official sponsor’s sports drink is allowed on the bench.
This fraternization memo remains posted in the Mets clubhouse, but it was part of a thick cluster attached to a clipboard hanging on the wall. It also was 20 pages deep, buried beneath memos for bat labels, charging the mound and throwing at hitters.
There are players, however, that don’t need a refresher course in keeping the competitive integrity of the game. Not surprisingly, one of them is David Wright, who, like his manager, refrains from the coffee klatches that pop up around the batting cage with opposing players.
“In my eyes, that’s something I’m very aware of,” Wright said. “I’ll keep it down to a quick hello and that’s it. I’ll be the first one to be friendly with other players before we come to the park or after leaving the park. But as far as that time when I have my uniform on and they have their uniform on, I want to go out there and kick their butt.
“I think it’s important that they know that I’m serious about winning and I expect the same from them. That’s not saying anything about the guys that do it – I’m just not into it. I want to go out there to win, and if that means taking out a shortstop or running over a catcher, then I’m going to do it.”
Wright, at 25, at least understands why that attitude remains important. Sure, Wright was not even born during the time of those blood feuds that molded Randolph in the mid- and late ‘70s. And he was only starting elementary school when the Mets threw as many punches as pitches during their championship run in 1986.
But as close as he is with the Nats’ Ryan Zimmerman, a fellow Virginian, Wright kept his distance before this week’s games. Former teammate Paul Lo Duca got a hug, but after that, Wright only waved from the other side of the batting cage.
“I don’t want to be a guy’s best friend before the game,” Wright said. “It’s important to me these guys realize – for the five or six hours we’re here – that they’re the enemy. We’re going to go out there and do whatever we can to beat them.”
JK, and Hamels has been pitching great. Add a 4 am hotel arrival and Santana could be 1-3. That would provide plenty of fodder for talk radio and papers.
JK said: “Mets have had to face Hudson, Sheets, Smoltz and now Hamels in their first 15 games. That’s probably a higher rate of top elite pitchers they’ll normally face throughout the season”
You metsies are such pathetic crybabies….... thats why you are knowen throughout the baseball world as “despicable fans”....
hello from DC: So the Pope is not coming to Shea, big deal.
The Beatles played Shea and never played Yankee stadium.
dearest scott from pelham: When the Beatles played in Shea STadium it was filled with fans who appreciated the effort put forth by the metsies and didn’t boo all the time. Now it is filled with, as MR JK so aptly put it “despicable” little metsies who are the laughingstock of the baseball world and the scourge of good little metsies like Keith.
JK certainly is usually good at stating the obvious and in this rare case, he nailed it. JK you did it…. Copyright the slogan and you’ll make a fortune like Riley did with the 3 peat slogan. “Despicable met fan” shirts. Write it in front and back….. Black shirt with a light blue all capped lettering. JK you’re the man or woman.