Wednesday, April 05, 2006

How Can The Sky Be Falling After Game #2?

I see it's going to be one of these type of seasons. Every game chock full of twists and turns. Every inning testing the inner chi of Metstradamus. It's game two of a hundred and sixty two game marathon, and I have to be reminded to pace myself. It's a long, long season, and I need to relax before every glass, every remote control, and every bobblehead doll I have gets busted into about a million pieces.

All right, so the anti-Looper became Looper. But at least Country Time waited until the second game to blow a save. Consider what happened last season. It's called progress, people!

In all seriousness, it's hard to kill Country Time for the dinger. Who would think a rookie is going to hit a pitch by his eyes out of the park? And you know what, this isn't an ordinary rookie, so I'm willing to calm down for now. But combine that with Armando Junior's implosion in the tenth inning, and all of a sudden it's 2005 all over again. With Billy Wagner and co., 2005 is supposed to be a distant memory...instead, Ryan Zimmerman and Jose Guillen play the roles of Adam Dunn and Joe Randa in "Meet The New Mets: Same As The Old Mets".

Damn you Anna Benson.

Just more proof that things can turn on a dime. It wasn't too much earlier that the Mets were rolling along...up 4-0 on homers by X and Carlos Delgado, Brian Bannister starting his first game and acting like he wasn't going to give up a hit...ever! And even after Floyd's son gave up runs one, two, and three on one Nick Johnson swing of the bat, Filthy Sanchez and Aaron Heilman shut the Nats down in the seventh and eighth (with help from Anderson Hernandez and his flying wallenda impression) setting things up for Country Time in the ninth. And we all know how that went.

Enter Sandman, Exit Ball.

If we can take one thing out of this game it's this: whatever the Mets paid Rickey to be Rickey, they didn't pay him enough...because already, Jose Reyes seems like a different hitter this season. John Patterson was stretched to 90 pitches in 4 innings tonight, and Jose Reyes accounted for ten of them in his first at bat. And he walked once too! When did Jose Reyes get his first walk of the season last year? Answer below:

Answer: May third.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

After my blood pressure rising with a game like that I can at least look forward to one thing... Jose Reyes chalking one up on the walk-o-meter. I'm also thinking about putting a contract out on Jorge Julio, then they'd HAVE to call up Heath Bell once JJ's six feet under, right?

Anonymous said...

I get the MLB stations in a free preview, and that's the game I see? Eesh. But that was a helluva defensive play in the eighth by our new 2B, eh?

Anonymous said...

Oh, also ... was that Keith Hernandez's homage to Broadway Joe in that fur last night!?!

Pimpin ain't easy, is it Mex?

something said...

I got home from work and turned the game on just in time to see Anderson fly. Gotta love our infield. I was all giddy and then I saw another blown save opportunity.

Blown saves do happen . . . but the always seem to happen when I watch the game.

The Metmaster said...

Joe:

Do us all a favor and don't watch any more games.

something said...

Enter Sandman

Exit Joe

Anonymous said...

Hi Metstradamus-This game went from a dream to a nightmare. People have been killing me for this on the 7 Train, but I did not like the Wagner signing from day one.

On opening day everyone seems to forget that if Soriano was called safe - the game would have more than likely turned out different. he has lost about 5 mph off of his pitches and his ball don't move. VERY similar to Armando Benitez-if you throw a ball with nothing on it at 92 mph any rookie can cream it.

Jorge Julio should be tarred and feathered-no correction make that MInaya should be. Why are we doing business with Baltimore regarding pitching?
DeJean STUNK, and this guy stinks on ice. All of their ERAs are over 5.00 and theres a reason they are in the position they have been the last few seasons.

Lastly BELTRAN NEEDS TO BAT SECOND!!!!!!!!!!!!
Enough with this already-this line up writes itself and Willie has to tinker with it because either he doesn't want to hurt Beltran's feelings or because of the money he's making. Either way David Wright is clearly the best hitter on the team and should be in the 3 hole. LoDuca is too slow to hit #2-Bletran put up those great numbers hitting in the 2 hole. I rest my case. Sorry to be so long winded- I was just ever so frustrated-with all of the new players and the new Mets network last night was the same old story.
Looper may as well have been in there.

michael o. said...

Enter Sandman, Exit Ball.

Classic. I think I can hit better than A Hern though.

Getting 87 MPH fastballs BLOWN by him and not even two feet close to the ball. Scary. He can field fo' shnizzle, but that no stick all leather tab put on him in '04 seems to fit.

Metstradamus said...

Shari, I see your point on Wagner. You probably wanted B.J. Ryan, I would have wanted Ryan over Wagner, but I think Wagner will be fine. I didn't think it would happen this soon, but Wagner giving up long balls doesn't surprise me with his style, as you've said. We have to keep telling ourselves that closers are going to do this from time to time. Even Mariano Rivera blew game 7 of a World Series, so nobody is immune.

Armando Junior scares the hell out of me though.

I agree with you about Beltran as a two hitter. The one thing that worries me is that if you have Beltran two and Wright three, then you completely waste Lo Duca at six or seven. At least at two, even though Lo Duca is slow, he's a good enough situational hitter that Reyes is going to go from first to third a lot as Lo Duca takes it to right field. And the good thing about Wright is that he doesn't care where he hits, he just hits. And Randolph has shown that he's not so stubborn that he's not willing to change the lineup if it needs it. But I'm willing to ride Lo Duca at the two hole out to the end.

Anonymous said...

Hi Metsradamus- I did want Ryan, what scares me with Wagner besides the loss of velocity is that a guy in his mid 30s who throws hard is bound to go down with injuries.

As for LoDuca I see what you're saying but ideally a contact hitter with speed is better in the 2 hole-with the pressure off, Beltran can fill that role easily.

I don't think LoDuca is wasted batting 7th-in alot of the game batting 7th is like hitting 2nd sometimes anyway, but I would even settle for Beltran hitting 6th at this point, he's a waste at the top of the order.

Anonymous said...

For the second time already this season, I headed downstairs to watch the Mets on ESPN and discovered...

they weren't there! Again, I was thwarted by ESPNews. I have no idea what's going on, but I turned the channel to the other game that was beginning, Orioles vs Tampa Bay, and there was...

Kris Benson! He's looking good so far, but you should have seen all the O's fans with "We Miss Jorge!" banners.

Anonymous said...

What do Met fans think about selling off the name of the new stadium to corporate sponsors? Two thirds of major league teams have deals in place and other sports have joined along as well (in a big way). Its $10MM in the Mets' coffers that they can spend on their team. However, is it a sell out? An insult to Mr. Shea? What happened to the Ebbets Field concept? Can we see "North Fork" ("The Fork") stadium or "Roto-Rooter" stadium (Flushing - get it?) in Queens? I understand that the Mets do not have the brand name that the Yankees have (they are not changing the name of their new stadium) but is a corporate name acceptable? I guess another point would be that the current Shea is in pretty bad shape and is really outdated....no matter what you call it...a new stadium will be better for fans, team revenue, and the city.

Metstradamus said...

Obviously it wouldn't be all that great from an aesthetic standpoint, but I'm willing to concede to the real world on this one...as long as Wilpon doesn't have the gall to turn around and cry poverty by raising ticket prices anything more than a token amount. Besides, if this thing is going to look like Ebbets Field, then we'll just call it Ebbets Field II anyway, and chances are I'll forget who's sponsoring the park that week (because you know it will be a different sponsor every season).