Wednesday, July 27, 2005

He's Coming

Let's face it folks, as long as the Mets decide that they're going to pull a tank job against the dregs of the National League, and as long as it's going to be the hitting that's going to fail them, those Alfonso Soriano rumors aren't going away. And with Mike Cameron taking the golden sombrero tonight, all he's doing is convincing Omar Minaya is that maybe now is the time to sell on Cameron before the bottom completely drops out, and make him part of the deal to bring Soriano here.

It would be easy to blame Chris Woodward for tonight's 4-3 loss, and after his two out error on Jose Reyes' throw which led to three Rockie runs, you can. I'm not willing to go ballistic on him that because Woodward has been so clutch for the Mets. But for the MSG announce team to blame the error on the fact that Woodward isn't an experienced first baseman is a tad ridiculous. Reyes' throw wasn't in the dirt, Woodward didn't have to jump for it, and it didn't pull him off the bag. Therefore, the ball should have been caught...and you don't need to have more than, oh I don't know, one game's experience at first base to make that throw. Woodward blew the play, plain and simple. It happens.

But Ted Robinson and, yes even Fran Healy redeemed themselves in their assessment of tonight's starter, Kaz Ishii. Ishii still had every chance to pick up for Woodward and bail him out without a scratch...and he didn't. It's not like Woodward has been a butcher for the Mets at first...for the most part, he's been fine. So when he does blow one, here's an idea: help him out! At a certain point, you have to show some heart and some guts and some mental ability. Giving up an RBI single and a two run dinger when the going gets tough as Ishii did isn't the way you go about that. And there, I agree completely with Robinson and, yes Healy.

As for Cameron, man what an awful night. Four K's, including one in the seventh and one to end the game...both with the tying run on second. It's hard to say what he may or may not be doing to his trade value. But with each empty at-bat in a big spot, he's proving himself more and more expendable, which in turn may lead to the exodus of Lastings Milledge if you believe the rumors. And that may turn out to be Cameron's biggest strikeout.

And as for you Carlos Beltran, one for nine at Coors Field isn't going to do you any favors with the fans. In fact, I'm getting increasing pressure from my readership to place you on the hate list. I don't know how long I'm going to be able to keep the wolves at bay, Carlos. Don't let "New Mets" stand for "New Ways to Lose Mets".

1 comment:

Metstradamus said...

minglet, I don't think anyone tries to lower their value. But sometimes, when your name pops up in trade rumors, you react in strange ways...some guys go in the tank, and some guys start tearing it up.

In Cameron's case, he may be letting the talk affect him, but there's been talk about him all year so I don't think that's the case. I honestly think it's just his strikeout bug catching up to him again.