I went to a baseball game and a tea party broke out.Not exactly the "war" it was made out to be...now was it? (There's a Dick Cheney joke here somewhere but I've used my allotment in my last two blogs.)
Instead, it was Brian Bannister's show as his seven innings of three hit ball (and no walks) propelled the Mets to a 7-1 victory today in front of a not quite sellout in Washington. (Why exactly did the Expos leave?)
The fact that Bannister looked so good the second time facing the Nats in a week is encouraging. It tells me that the young man has a clue as to how to make adjustments from start to start. If this is the way he's going to make adjustments, then the next question we'll ask about the starting rotation will be: "Jae Who?"
(Meanwhile Seo, who was seen as a stalwart in the Mets rotation, had his first start tonight after one relief appearance. He got crushed by the Pirates.)
***
All right, so Jose Reyes probably isn't going to hit .357 all year.
But if he does, then nobody can complain about his lack of walks anymore.
And you know what, nobody should complain at this point. It has nothing to do with the .357 average. What impresses me still, after a week, is that Reyes is taking more pitches (actually, it only seems that way...statistically, he's taking less pitches than last season albeit slightly. But Reyes is performing a pretty good illusion that he's looking at more pitches, and that's good enough for me. Thank you to B.M.C. for the knowledge. Dare I put "Rickey Henderson" and "positive influence" in the same parenthetical citation?) He has transformed into...
Ichireyes.
No really, it's true. Jose Reyes is stealing all of Ichiro's hits (Ichiro is 0 for his last 17, by the way.)
***
Here's the question on my mind re:Billy Wagner and his shaky outing in the ninth today...does Country Time not trust his fastball? Is that middle finger that was bothering him late in spring training causing him to stay away from the fastball and go with the slider, as he's done on a lot of 3-2 counts lately?And will Willie Randolph get him some extra, non-save situation work to get him up to speed more quickly? ("Paging Rick Peterson...Rick Peterson, white courtesy phone.")
***
When Carlos Beltran hit that 4,000 foot home run in the ninth today, which booing Met fan's head did he pretend the ball was? (Probably mine.)
***
Congratulations to former Mets Robin Ventura and John Olerud, (and also as it was brought to my attention, former Met Dave Magadan) who were named as nominees for the College Baseball hall of fame. (I knew there was a reason my hand was drawn to the Ventura tee shirt today).
Conversely, a PTI style "Happy Trails" to Mets minor league Waner Mateo, who was suspended 50 games for testing positive for a performance enhancer. Mateo will talk about his jealousy of Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa on tonight's installment of "Waner on Waner".
***
Was it me, or did Keith Hernandez keep referring to Paul Lo Duca as "De Luca" on Sunday? Someone's been shopping too much.
13 comments:
Mebbe Seo should have stayed in the bullpen. He got his first start last night against the Pittsburgh Laughingstocks and saw his ERA jacked up to 9.00 after he gave up 3 homers and 5 earned runs in a mere 5 innings of work. Must be the WBC hangover.
Oh that was Seo that got crushed for the Dodgers tonight, eh? Thanks for the tip
From The Ledger: "I felt too strong," said the closer, who missed a week toward the end of spring training with a sore left middle finger. "You usually run into that in spring training. Everything's out of sync and you just have to battle through it. ... As ugly as it was, I still got it done somehow."
He'll be all right. At least, I think he'll be all right. I really hope he'll be all right.
2006: 3.517
2005: 3.629
Jose Reyes's pitches per plate appearance. Not that anyone's counting when the kid is hitting .357
bmc, glad you got that. You're right, nobody cares when you're hitting .357...but somehow it really does seem as if he's working the count more...at least the at-bats where he jumps at the first pitch it's a juicy one.
Dare I say Rickey Henderson has been a (cough, cough) positive influence.
Hey bmc where did you find that stat by the way? Just curious because I was actually wondering about that before I made my own assumption (stupid me).
If you're going to knock Seo, you should also acknowledge Benson's stellar performance last night. So far, that trade doesn't look quite as good as Seo for Sanchez. Okay...let's be honest. it's looking abysmal,
in terms of the benson deal... i was at the airport on friday, waiting for my flight and watching the met game at the bar when none other then ron darling sits down next to me. We watched the rest of the game together and when julio came in we talked alittle about the benson deal. He told me that Wilpon HATED Anna Benson and that was the major reason for the trade.
also, wasnt that ron doing last nights game?
Benson does look good. But that was absolutely Anna's undoing. I blame her.
I like Benson, and I like Seo. But let's see if Benson can sustain this through September.
I actually said the same thing you did - that Reyes is seeing more pitches - in a post on baseballmusings.com. So just to make sure I wasn't talking out my ass, I looked up the actual numbers on mlb.com for total plate appearances and number of pitches. So there ya go.
Here is Beltran's p/pa:
2006: 4.714
2005: 3.786
Reyes may actually be "taking" more pitches instead of hacking away at stuff he shouldn't be so he makes better contact; but still seeing the same number of pitches per at bat.
Whatever. He so awesome-0!
Mets raw numbers:
http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/stats/sortable_player_stats.jsp?c_id=mlb§ion1=1&statSet1=2&sortByStat=AB&statType=1&timeFrame=1&timeSubFrame=2006&baseballScope=mlb&prevPage1=1&readBoxes=true&sitSplit=&venueID=&subScope=teamCode&teamPosCode=NYN
Just driving up the Zambrano's price for a potential trade. It's all a conspiracy...the truth is out there. Somewhere...
What. You don't care that Dave Magadan was nominated, too?
You must be one of those fans that have only followed the team from 1999 until now. Boy...the weather sure is fair outside, wouldn't you say...
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