I'm not here to push the panic button. Not on April 8th. But know that it's always close by.It's close by because of the reminders we received on April 7th.
Reminder number one: John Maine is your second starter.
You know, maybe John Lackey wouldn't have come to New York even if Omar Minaya/Jeff Wilpon did give him the hard sell. Most likely, it was Boston or bust for Lackey regardless of what Minaya came with. I understand this, trust me. But when I see Maine reach the 60 pitch count in the third inning with only about half of the chucks being strikes while checking the scoreboard and seeing that Lackey is twirling six shutout innings against the Yankees, I want to do my Maine imitation and puke.
Reminder number two: Jenrry Mejia is twenty years old.
He's not ready. He's not ready. He's not ready. I'll hold to that like a warm blanket. But if even he is ready ... are sixth inning appearances down by three runs what we have to look forward to? Is this why Snoop and Omar rushed him and his 97 mph fastball? To get hit hard by the bottom of the Marlins lineup to mop up after the latest starting pitching fiasco?
Reminder number three: Sean Green is no Chad Bradford.
Chad Bradford went through 62 innings in 2006 only giving up one home run as a Met. Of course it was a walk-off, but that's a small detail. Sean Green's Chad Bradford imitation only needed two batters to give up his first home run of the season. Yeah, this submariney thing is going to work out just fine.
Reminder number four: Sometimes, irony is not your friend.
Snoop liked Hisanori Takahashi because he threw strikes. What does he do in his major league debut in the tenth inning? Go 2-0 on Wes Helms, of course. Then goes 2-1 on a batter who's trying to bunt Wes Helms over before taking the loss in the tenth. Even when the Mets do the right thing, the dice come up snake eyes.
And even when the Mets shake off a wild pitch that results in the third out of the seventh inning while David Wright was up with the bases loaded (on a questionable baserunning play by Fernando Tatis, it should be noted for posterity) to come back and tie the game in the eighth, the Mets roll craps. Think about this: the team wasted a Jeff Francoeur walk during the eighth inning rally after being down 0-2. A Jeff Francoeur walk!!! His second of the season! Although I have to tell you, Frenchy walking is kinda reminiscent of an acid trip.
Yeah, kinda like that.
Maybe Frenchy has two walks because he finally realized that they do, in fact, put your OBP on the scoreboard.
Hey, whatever works.
Speaking of working, here's something that's not working: that bird misting thing they're trying.
Bird Doctor was contacted by Citi Field as a proactive measure to prevent birds such as pigeons from taking up residence in the new stadium. Installing the new Bird Control Misting system will help keep maintenance costs down, while maintaining the overall appearance and cleanliness of the stadium. Maintenance costs can soar if weekly cleanup of bird droppings is required; bird droppings are unsightly and can transmit disease.Umm, well check out what diseases I saw transmitted tonight (besides the ones I contracted from watching the ten inning debacle) ...
Y'know it's not like the Mets don't have enough problems with the human doctors ... the bird doctors aren't going to cooperate either?
6 comments:
Should it have made me feel better to learn that the Braves wanted to sign Tatis? Should that soften the blow of his utterly stupid decision to try and score on a wild pitch with the bases loaded, down 6-3, and OUR BEST HITTER AT THE PLATE!!!!!
Also, is it just me or does it still feel like spring training when guys like Cora, Jacobs and Matthews are hitting?
Yeah so, i'm watching that game last night, and from the top down, we didn't even deserve a chance to win that game, yeah, the mets hitters put together some good at bats late, but had we won, and perhaps even for making it appear close, the Mets should send thank you cards to the Marlins BP.
Let's start with Maine....honestly, not that terribly disappointed to only be down three and have him give up four. Could've been better, but he did show us some other pitches and maybe he can build on it.
More disappointed in....well not so much Mejia and Green, as i put those two runs on Managment, Neither should've made the team, and to think we lost Figgy because of it....
Now how about the atrocious coaching? down three, two out, bases loaded, david wright at the plate....No matter how it would've turned out, why do you even risk taking the bat out of you're best hitters hands in that spot? and of course that is exactly what they did. And not just once, but twice, Bottom of the ninth two out, wright on first, Bay at the plate, even the announcers said what we all knew...you don't send wright, because what's the upside? He steals a base, they walk Bay, and you have once again taken the bat out of one of your best hitters hands.
And then takahashi rather than Nieve?
You'll remember, i'm the optimist, and i don't want to hit the panic button either, but watching this just makes my headache get a headache. I'm still trying to decide whetehr to root for them and hope they can manage to make a miracle season, or root that they are so bad that Omar and Manuel are fired by the all-star break!
-Thomas
PS I am not typically a knee jerk reactionist.
Tatis getting thrown out really irked me. Now granted I was listening on the radio so I didn't see where the ball went. But according to Wayne (or Howie I forget), it didn't even reach the backstop, which is already like 6 inches behind home plate. How the hell do you take a chance like that with 2 outs, down by 4, bases loaded, AND your true cleanup hitter in the box?? Heck, the only thing missing was "bottom of the 9th.."
The worst part is, normally you could say "calm down it's only the 2nd game" but you really can't say that for the Mets. I'm not yet convinced that they understand fundamentals
Ay.. this is not good for my reflux
After watching Maine, we all gotta hope for a sub 4 era from Pelfrey. And hopefully Niese will pick up where he left off. I'm not too worried about Meijia after one game. Sean Green? lol don't know how he made the team
A guy who's been around as long as Tatis should just know you don't try to score in that situation (unless maybe the ball rolls all the way to the dugout without anybody rapidly pursuing it). But did Jerry Manuel do any dressing down at all of his darling Tatis? Not that I saw. In fact, probably my favorite part of all this stupidity is that you know Tatis will get the start tonight against the lefty (not that I'm saying Mike Jacobs should start, because...well, obvious reasons. But is Tatis grounding into DP's in the cleanup spot any better than Jacobs automatically striking out every time between Wright and Bay? And Jerry says he's gonna reward those who perform and focus on guys not making stupid mistakes this year. Could there have been a stupider mistake than what Tatis did?* And yet he'll start tonight...
*Actually, there could've been a stupider mistake. And that was having David Wright steal second with Bay up to make it an easy decision for the Marlins to issue the walk. Why bother having Bay be our big signing if we'd rather leave opportunities to Mike Jacobs and Gary Matthews Jr.?
...by the way, I hope everybody saw Brian Stokes pitch two innings of scoreless relief for the Angels a couple days ago, allowing just one single (which was erased on a DP). We kept Sean Green who's never been anything but bad for us, and gave up Brian Stokes who was our most consistent righty last year until Manuel used him 30 days in a row or something like that...
Joe,
Great point. Imagine if that was Ryan Church that tried to score on the wild pitch. He'd be locked in a storage shed.
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