If Gilligan had a rescue team like this, there would have been no show.Luckily for Orlando Hernandez and the Mets, there would be no sinking feeling Sunday night.
On the positive side, it's good to have Cliff Floyd back in the fold. Actually, he's been contributing plenty since coming back from injury, hitting .324 since his return...that is, before tonight's game. But now the whole country has noticed the renaissance of Cliffy after his two dingers on Sunday...that is...the ones who could wade their way past the half hour montages of Cubs fans whining about '69 and Leon Durham and Steve Bartman. Was there another team out there?
The country also noticed that smile...the smile Cliff had while crossing the plate after the grannie that turned a three run deficit into a Mets beating. In all likelihood, the smile never left. But it took until now for it to shine through to everyone. But your pal Cliff is also back. And you know damn well he isn't going to miss this party.
But yes, there's negative too. In his previous two starts, Orlando Hernandez was Dr. Hekyll. Tonight, he was Mr. Jive...as in Jive Turkey. Boy when he's bad he's awful. And when he's awful, he's forcing the Mets hand when it comes to possibly dealing from strength to shore up the weakness of the rotation. It's a tricky scenario as neither Aaron Heilman (2 runs given up in the seventh inning) or Freddy Garcia (six runs in his seven innings today) looked particularly stellar today...but at least Garcia managed to make it seven innings because he's actually younger than dirt, unlike the Mets starter tonight.
It's a situation so tricky that the Mets might actually be looking back towards Kris Benson.
(Black is up? East is white?)
So now it all falls on young Mike Pelfrey. If Mike Pelfrey can turn his needle towards the end of the meter that says "Francisco Liriano" or "Fernando Valenzuela from 1981", then you can live with Orlando's yo-yo at the back end of the rotation as long as Pedro comes back from his funky chicken. If Pelfrey's needle is on the left side which says "David West", well then there's trouble. Then the Mets will have to think long and hard about either biting the bullet and getting a starter out of Chicago, or perhaps dangling Milledge out there and hope it lures Dontrelle Willis back.
And on that subject, let me just say that while I am against trading young Lastings unless he does in fact turn into Dontrelle, let me take this opportunity to remind Omar Minaya that NOW, when you have a legitimate World Series contender, would be the time to consider trading young chips for proven stars. NOT when you're 6 and 1/2 back as if it were 2002 or 2004.
Consider that advice free.
9 comments:
Hey Metstra, I have a question for you. A buddy of mine is from Atlanta, and before the season, we made a bet, fifty bucks to whoever's team wins the division. I'm thinking about offering him a double or nothing. If the Mets beat the Braves with a double digit lead at the end of regular season, he owes me double. If they don't have double digits, he owes me nothing.
Would you offer him this if you were me?
My dear seeker of truth,
You're asking this of a man who just lost a bet which involved turning over this blog to a Yankee fan, so I might not be the right person to ask. And I certainly don't want to be responsible for you losing your money if it goes horribly wrong.
Think about this: The Mets are going to experience a lot of coasting from here on out, while the Braves are currently on a winning streak, and believing they have a shot at the wild card.
And...how horrible would you feel if the Mets finished nine and a half games and your Atlanta friend would still feel like a winner. No, you don't want that. Keep the foot on his throat and don't give him an easy out. I'd say no.
If you want to go double or nothing on whether the Mets win the pennant or not, then that's another matter entirely.
THAT PICTURE IS UGLY.
=P =(
Joe Morgan must have been one of the folks who could not "wade their way past the half hour montages of Cubs fans whining about '69 and Leon Durham and Steve Bartman " because he was certainly not watching the same game that I was watching. Seriously - how could someone who was such a good baseball player be such a clueless analyst?we
Yeah the whole ESPN team stinks.
Don't you dare let your friend off the hook, anon. You won. Enjoy the ride.
I have been syaing all along that teh Mets will do good becuase they can score many points more than the oponents!
Lets Go METS!!!
Mestra, great photchop as usual! I was in Chitown this weekend, don't miss my recap of the first two games.
don't accept the offer.
take the 50 bucks and run. you are a mets fan and the braves are the braves.
after defeating the cardinals today for their 6th straight win, the braves now have 491 runs scored, good for 2nd in the NL (3 runs behind the metropolitans)
being as there is no way that the reds make the playoffs, im getting nervous about bobby cox's crew.
they dont have the pitching. they dont have the pitching. they dont have the pitching...
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