To: Victor ZambranoFrom: Metstradamus
Re: The Bullpen
Dear Victor,
You should probably learn how to get warm in 10 pitches...and familiarize yourself with the attached picture. You'll be spending some time there.
Thanks,
M.Damus
P.S. We've had success playing in stadiums with a body of water just beyond right field. Please see what you can do about putting in a pool next to the tomato garden. We can get Danny Graves to help you if needed. Thanks.
***
Seriously, can you believe how the Mets have stepped in it with starting pitching? Steve Trachsel returns from being out all season with a bulging disk in his back, and he throws eight shutout innings, and gives up 2 hits leading to a 1-0 Mets win in San Francisco on Friday.
Two hits!
Oh, and one more thing, the game took 2:28 to play. A start by the Human Rain Delay took about an hour and a half to get to the eighth inning.
Yes, that Steve Trachsel.
Norfolk, VA has been a fountain of magic for veterans since 2000. Consider:
- Bobby Jones takes a demotion to work on mechanics in 2000. Was the best pitcher down the stretch for the Mets, and pitches a one hit shutout in the playoffs.
- Steve Trachsel takes a demotion in May of 2001 to work on mechanics...returns to become a serviceable pitcher down the stretch.
- Jae Seo goes to the minors in 2005 due to a numbers game and learns/revamps his change-up. Returns in August and can't be touched.
- Trachsel spends the whole 2005 season on the DL, and rehabs at various stops including Norfolk. Returns on August 26th and throws eight shutout innings.
I do think that Willie Randolph managed this one like a Playstation game in the eighth. Trachsel got through a hairy eighth with Roberto Hernandez more than warm in the pen. Is it me, or would logic have Randolph going to the trusty old man to replace a pitcher making his first start of the season?
Or does Willie feel he must get greedy with the starters because of some new fear he has regarding the middle relief, Hernandez in particular?
I also have to admit...the ninth inning worried me. It worried me even before the leadoff double by Omar Vizquel. You see Braden Looper doesn't blow the normal leads...he blows special leads, like Opening Day leads, and Pedro leads, and leads against the Yankees, and leads by pitchers who are close to perfect coming back from injury...like tonight. And when Vizquel got the double, I was ready to type the Looper rant. Thankfully, it never came, as Looper got it done on the road where he and the Mets have struggled before this trip. This is a trip, by the way, that you can now deem successful with 5 wins so far.
4 comments:
E-love,
Look how good the Mets are doing when there's water beyond the right field wall...5-0! If Braden Looper spits in a garbage can does that count as a body of water?
I thought I had heard it the other way on Seo, and I may be mistaken (that's what I get for believing anything Fran Healy says). It does seem that his change-up was much improved over what it was...if it existed in the first place.
I don't know if I'm as sick of Cairo as I was sick of Matsui...but I do know that whether it be through the minors (A.Hernandez, Keppinger) or via free agency, the Mets need not only a second baseman, but more importantly a true 2 hole hitter...I think that's the one thing stopping this offense from being consistantly good is a contact hitter than can drive in Jose Reyes from second about 55 times a season.
And on the Jets...I don;t know if you saw any of the game but Pennington was crummy tonight. His strength has always been his play in the red zone but he made some horrible decisions tonight. I don't know how you miss a man as big as Michael Strahan dropping back into coverage. And he's developing this nasty habit of looking only at Lavarenues Coles on pass patterns. I know he loves him but at least dart your eyes at another receiver before you throw to Coles.
It was a painful game to watch...thank goodness it was preseason.
I have thought about a "Jetstradamus" sister site. I don't know what I'm going to do yet. It may take a slightly different form. You can be sure that whatever happens, everyone will be kept in the loop.
Quotable
"That kid hit the ball a long way. The fan that threw the ball back probably has a sore arm. It was so far up in the stands, there was probably a relay." -- Giants manager Felipe Alou, on David Wright's mammoth home run Friday
i was @ the game in SF friday night... the post game show on the giants flag ship station was a buzz with DW... i guess no one had hit the ball that far over the left field wall before... the guy who caught the ball called into the station too... i called in to rub it in too..... bay area sports fans are soo freakin fickle minded...
POOPER almost made me POOP in my pants in the 9th.... but the giants screwed up by pedro felize not bunting over omar vizqual to third after the lead off double...
Castro hit the longest single in history... i bet you Alomar Sr. can run faster than castro...
The Mets announcers on WPIX were talking about how the Giants are now a distant 4th behind the A's and the two bay area football teams...the Wright HR is probably the most excitement they've had all year w/o Bonds.
E-love, it was Jolley and a second rounder for the number 16 pick. Heimerdinger will make sure he gets the ball...in 2004 the TE's were getting a lions share of the catches in the first half of the season, but I think Pennington lost confidence in them. Becht always had the dropsies but not as bad as last year...and about halfway through the season he started missing blocks...THAT was when the Jets really needed to address their need for a TE, because the second half of the season, Becht and Baker hardly saw the ball.
If Jolley reverts to the form from his first two seasons then the trade will work out just fine.
Nice to see your a Jet fan, too. There is nothing at all that doesn't rock about you. Pennington looked like garbage, bad enough to where everyone is psycho depressed on the Jets board I post at. Can't read it anymore.
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