Mets Chat Room: Santana needs to step it up.
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- June
- 28
Despite a 2.08 ERA, Johan Santana is 0-3 in his last four starts. He’s 7-6 overall with a 2.93 ERA. He has pitched better than his record indicates, but for that kind of money the expectations are he has to find a way to win.
A little slow getting this to you today. Please accept my apologies. Here’s some tidbits from Jerry Manuel’s pregame media session:
-Ryan Church rests today and is expected to be activated for tomorrow’s game.
-Moises Alou could play in a rehab game as soon as Monday. Manuel is thinking the Philly series next weekend.
-Luis Castillo’s left thigh is a little stiff.
This entry was posted
on Saturday, June 28th, 2008 at 4:33 pm by John Delcos.
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Joe Buck wishes he was even half the announcer Gary Cohen is…
John – Is Jerry Manuel the same type of manager for the Mets as he was for the White Sox? I find him multi-faceted and Tim just remarked that Jerry once quoted Ghandi to him.
or perhaps i spoke to soon. looks like those walks unnerved santana a bit. now we need our offense to get some more runs…not the position we want to be in.
I would like him to be able to win a game 1-0, I know he doesn’t get much run support but he has had small leads in several games that he seems to give up. I want to see him go out there once in awhile and put this team on his back and close out a game….......
We are starting to get a little rain.-JD
And, with rain eventually comes a rainbow. That’s what we have at Shea, coming out from CitiField, where no doubt is that pot of gold.-JD
Yankees lead, 3-1, with the Mets batting in the sixth when we resume.-JD
Andy’s going to resume pitching? That doesn’t happen very often after a rain delay – wonder why he’s going back to the mound now…...
Pettitte is going back because Girardi doesn’t trust anyone in his bullpen besides Mariano Rivera. Let’s look at the bright side. At least FOX has no NASCAR race to go tonight while the baseball game is still on (which their contract rquires them to). Always a pleasure to avoid hearing Larry McReynolds butcher the Queen’s English.
After 53 minutes, we’re playing again. Annie makes an interesting point and David Wright immediately homers. Yankees 3, Mets 2.-JD
i agree with JD. we bought johan for a lot of money, and regardless of his 2.93 ERA, we need more than 7 wins…there’s no way he’s going to get the 20 wins we expected him to get.
A Rod with a head first steal of second. How many guys use that kind of slide nowadays? It was a rarity 35 years ago when Herb Washington did it.
The heart of the order against Kyle Farnsworth in the 8th. This is the ball game. If the Mets can’t at least tie it off this guy…
Do the umpires check Farnsworth’s bandage to be sure it’s legal (no sandpaper, vaseline)? Should Manuel ask it be checked?
If the Mets lose this game, they will be 9-8 in games started by Santana.
I don’t care what his numbers are, that’s just not great. He’s not pitching like an ace and the team is not playing behind him like he’s our ace.
He likely is not even an All-Star.
Howie is putting this game ‘in the book’ and including the rain delay chapter. I am not sorry that the Yankees won, because Andy Pettitt increased his winning record. Santana is not the pitcher Andy is….sorry, folks.
There are two things people should know about Andy Pettitte. the first is he is a cheater and the second is when he gets into trouble he looks to pick guys off base with that move of his (a left handed Roger Craig). Now it’s time to watch the Phillies vs Rangers.
I’m proud of you Dan. After watching the Mets the last two games, its hard for me to watch any games. They are a horrible club. Every time Santana pitches, at the end of the day you hear, he pitched good. But he’s an Ace. He’s supposed to pitch great, at least once.
Mackey Sasser: That argument is completely idiotic… It isn’t his fault that his team has played like garbage behind him, and he should be a lot better than 7-7, anyone with an eye and half a brain should realize that…
Clearly the Mets are no better than a .500 club. Omar needs to be a seller next month, not a buyer. Blow this whole club up and start over. Everyone must go except Wright, Reyes, Santana, and Maine…..
Will someone please tell me why Reyes was stranding so far off of second base with 2 outs – isn’t he going to score on any hit? That was an incredibly stupid play that even a 13 yr old little leaguer would not do
I didn’t see the game today but this is the team that the Wilpons and Minaya claim is a world championship caliber team. They must think met fans are really stupid. How can this be a championship caliber club when the only decent players in the every day line up is Reyes, Wright and Beltran. Delgado is done and after that you have retreads like Tatis, Phillips, who not only the Yankees let go so did the reds, seriously, are you kidding me. Than more retreads, Anderson, Easley a catcher who is a terrible hitter in shneider and castillo who hits like a little leaguer. Omar Minaya is a good politician. A good politician is a guy who
feeds you crap and people believe it because they want to badly or are naive. This is a bad team and a team that Omar has spent 140 million dollars. The Wilpons look dumb here, there is no other way to explain it.
jimmyb,
didn’t see the game but Reyes has done so many dumb things this year already that what i see in Reyes is raw talent but mentally is as dumb as it gets.
Oh Yea,
Another retread I forgot, trot nixon who was playing in the minor leagues and couldn’t play with the big club but can play every day with the mets. This is a 140 million dollar payroll
and yet in the everyday lineup except reyes, wright and Beltran the mets have retreads that wouldn’t make any other major league team. I really hope met fans wake up and don’t spend a dime on this franchise anymore. Than maybe the Wilpons will wake up and realize Omar Minaya has killed this franchise. If you think I am nuts, just wait, he isn’t done destroying this team.
I was saying since the first month of the season that this was a .500 team. I’m not even convinced anymore that this is a .500 team. I am starting to think that this is a sub .500 team that has a 140 million dollar payroll. This will go down as the biggest joke in baseball. I can’t even point out to my Yankee fan friends anymore about the Yankees 230 million dollar payroll.
No, Santana is not the pitcher that Andy Pettite is, and the Mets have that to be thankful for. If Andy Pettite had been in Johan’s place for all his starts this year the Mets would about 5-12 in those starts.
Santana is not the pitcher that Pettite is, he’s twice the pitcher that Pettite is. Unfortunately he can’t control how many runs the lineup scores for him.
Santana needs to “step it up”?
Dude’s throwing an ERA of nearly three even.
In this day and age, how can you ask for anything more?
He can’t magically make Delgado and Castillo good again, he can’t magically make Alou and Church healthy, he can’t magically make Schneider learn how to hit a baseball… no matter how much you pay him.
Entirely, entirely unfair.
He only has three actual hitters behind him, for God’s sake, and he’s throwing a three despite that futility.
This is situation for props-giving not under-bus-throwing.
tomg, I agree basically with the gist of what you said but I think that you put too much blame on Castillo and Easley. Easley is ok and has been decent and Castillo has been getting on base at a pretty good clip, which really helps.
What’s interesting is that the hitting has been much more of the problem than the pitching : The NL Average runs scored per game is 5.708 per team(I know it sounds high but I looked it up. It’s true). The Mets have scored 4.6875 runs/game and have allowed 4.725. So they have allowed almost 1 whole run less than the league average and have scored a little more than 1 run less than league average (375 RS/378 RA, 80 games).
I think this is good news and bad news. Bad new for obvious reasons but good news because they are getting Church back tomorrow and Alou soon (I know he’ll probably get hurt again almost right away, but I can hope!).
I agree about Phillips. I think Nixon can help but he’s been horrible so I can’t really back it up except to say that he was tearing it up in AAA.
Re: Pettitte, Mussina and Rivera
Never underestimate the value of years on a team for pitchers. Having played with the same team mates – Jeter, Posada, etc. – who are vigilant on the field and never miss a thing out there is invaluable to them. Talk about a ‘band of brothers’……….
Who wouda thunk at the start of the season we would be waiting for the pair of boots guy to come off a concussion to save us?
I agree that so far Santana is not the guy we backed up the truck for, but at the same time he has pitched fairly well. I too would like him to just come in and be an ACE and just put the team away, but it doesn’t seem like he is that type of guy.
As tomg says the hitting sucks. Half our hitters are worthless. And yes that is Omar’s fault.
dave
Why don’t they play for Santana??? Maybe he’s the reason: Santana quote from last night: “I’m doing my job. Other than that, there’s nothing else I can do. I can’t go out there and do the things that my teammates have to do.â€
That’s the way to give them a pat on the back Johann. NOT Second straight game where he he panned his team mates. After all it ok that he lets a pitcher pop a grand slam and its ok he he gets wild and blows a 1-0 lead against a very hot pitcher. NOT He makes the most so it ain’t his fault. NOT A-rod and Johann two team players NOT.
Just read an article in the times about pitching. It was a different time. the mound was higher as were the seams on the ball.
dave,
Absolutely right. If they put those conditions back ERA’s would plummet. Its not the pitchers back then were better relative to the hitters. It was the conditions. People don’t seem to understand that.
Also its a weird thing to think that for some reason the hitters would improve relative to pitchers. Is there something in the water that only helps pitchers? Of course not.
this is true, but pitchers were better in the 80’s also. what changed since then?
Pitchers have impediments today they didn’t have in the 70’s-80’s.
1. Today’s pitchers are trained to not pitch a whole game.
2. Today’s pitchers are trained to nibble
3. Today’s pitcher’s can’t do knock down pitches.
4. Today’s batters can put armor on their arms for protection.
5. Today’s pitchers play in many very small parks. (Except in California where they build big parks and except for Barry Zito have much better pitching).
6. Today’s pitchers are proud of 6 innings and 3 runs allowed. they really believe that is quality. Even pitchers who weren’t stars, like Darling didn’t beleive that poop 20 years ago.
Good job by Perez today….
Thanks for the support. Most people here defend 5 quality innings with 3 runs allowed and then hand it to the pen.
there are only a handful here who believe 6 innings is a waste of space.
Some think the ball was juiced in the 80’s. Also weight training, I think, helps batters more than pitchers. Weight training gained popularity in baseball in the 80s. Also steroids.