Watching the world go byUnder a sunny sky
Strolling 'round the park on a (Saturday Night)
Oh how the moments fly
Watching the world go by
-Dean Martin
This was exactly what I was afraid of.
Bullpen? Yeah, it was bull-something. But with Johan Santana's short outing and John Maine's continued struggles starting out the second half of the season, Aaron Heilman has already been forced into three straight appearances to come out of the break. Granted, Mike Pelfrey has been pitching lights out. But now the Mets have put the pressure on him for Sunday to try to keep the bullpen somewhat fresh going into the Phillies series.
Of course, it doesn't help matters when Carlos Beltran is watching baseballs go by him in center field to help those Cincinnati runners along, much in the same way that he and his buddy Sugar Pants watched Mike Lincoln pitches go by in the seventh with the bases loaded. Those missed opportunities are an all-too familiar recipe for disaster that reared its ugly head once again.
***
While you may say that it wasn't Oliver Perez's best outing, I'll say that if Ollie's struggles amount to two earned runs in six innings, I'll take struggling every time. Hey, let's not be quick to forget the days when Ollie struggling meant ten runs in one and 1/3 innings.
Ollie merely okay? I for one am thrilled.
***
SNY, I'm willing to concede that it's not good business to use team battle lines when it comes to selling advertising, if you're willing to concede that showing a Derek Jeter Ford commercial for the millionth time right after a Met loss becomes official isn't the greatest idea in the world.
"Mets lose a tough one, we'll wrap it up after the break."
"Jeter's got an edge!"
"Bleep you."
12 comments:
Phew, no Arroyo/Derek Photoshop shenanigans. I was a little worried about this series. Here's hoping we can pull even tomorrow afternoon.
That one hurt.
Bad.
I hate obnoxious Reds fans.
Seriously, I hope we break even.
However!
I got some autographs today, and Jerry himself waved at me and threw me a ball. SWEET.
While I agree with you that 2 earned runs in 6 innings is not bad, I'm a little nervous that Ollie may be reverting back to Improvosational Ollie -- you know, the one with sidearm deliveries, stop-action deliveries inconsistent release points. What's next? Throwing right-handed to righty batters?
And don't even get me started on Gold Glove Carlos and Sugar Pants looking at called strike threes in a crucial situation.
If Keith is going to say 'good eye' when Beltran lets balls go bye, I'd like him to start saying 'bad eye' when they're strikes. And 'really bad eye' when they're strike 3 with the bases loaded.
Did he ever take the bat off his shoulder? I don't think so. At least Sugar Pants swung the bat a coupla times.
Haunted - I think Keith might have caught some heat for being so critical of the players. My opinion is that one of the reasons that fans didn't vote for Mets players to get into the All Star game is the relentless criticism and negativity from Keith in the booth.
Ever since the alleged incident between him and Jose on the plane, Keith has been falling all over himself to praise Jose, and seems to be moderating his criticism of the other players as well.
It was just pure luck, and good defense in the first two innings that allowed Oliver "only" to give up 3 runs last night. Obviously, the novelty of the new pitching coach has worn off, and he is back to his bad old crazy habits.
It is time that someone invent a bat that gives off electrical shocks that can be triggered each time the ump yells "STRIKE!!" and the bat is on the shoulder.
Gotta admit - those pitches on 3-2 were pretty nasty. Though Keith DID call the pitch to Wright. He said, "10-1 it's a breaking ball".
Reyes has perfected the 'stick your ass out and flail at a pitch to pop it up' method of killing your .300 average. Seriously, he's doing that a lot...
Ollie improvised because both his fast ball and his slider were below par last night. In the past, when he has not "had it", he gave up in the first inning. I am getting tired of Keith saying he likes Endy in the 2 hole. Why, because he is a good fielder? He does not take enough pitches, when he does he swings at ball 4, and if you threw him 10mediocre fast balls down the chute, he would ground 7.6 of them to second base. He is an AWFUL offensive player, and should only bat 8th or 9th (in St Louis and Milwaukee). Every organization has an Endy,, a guy who can catch anything. The difference is, their Endy is in triple A most of every year.
Katherine....
Keith may be very critical, but he also played the game. When both your number 3 and 4 hitters go down on stikes without taking the bat off their shoulders w/ the bases loaded in the turning point of the game, he has the right to criticize. That is his job. I would not worry too much about Keith; we should be worried if Omar has any bullets left to get a hitter to replace out leftfield platoon....
Metstra...don't get mad at Ford...I mean the goal is to sell the car, not Jeter...
Beezermess
The pitch to Wright was a nasty curve - although Keith did indeed call it - but he pitch to Beltran was right down the pike.
Obviously I have a bigger problem with Beltran but that's because he goes through these phases where he refuses to swing the d*mn bat. The guy's a great athlete, but he could definitely use a shock now and then.
And on a completely unrelated note, Oliver Perez now looks exactly like Larry Ellison. I'm not sure whether that's a good thing.
Beezermess, I recognize that the negativity is just "Keith being Keith" In the 80's he stood at first and yelled at his teammates if they weren't doing things the way he thought they should.
But now he's got thousands of people listening to him, including the relatives of the players! And no matter how great a player he was, when he says things impulsively, he's not always right.
On a lighter note, today one of the Reds announcers, in discussing the Mets' chances for the postseason this year, just said, "I'm not worrried about the Mets starting pitching or their bullpen. They'll be OK with that. And if they can find a good starting outfielder who'll give them some offense, they'll Walk the Dog."
I love that Keith tells it like it is. He will praise good plays from both teams, and question bad moves equally as well.
He truly is the best, along with the rest of the SNY staff. We are blessed to have them.
Post a Comment