IGT 6/21/06 Mets vs. Cincinnati

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

Cycles are meaningless. It's nice that he got ten total bases, but that they were distributed among four different types of hits is a statistical quirk and nothing more.

[Guest old original jb]

Alright, say it with me everyone:


Loop....I mean...Wagner!

[Zvon]

...............tuff room.

[Frayed Knot]

]A sidebar of this series is early favoritism for Manager of the Year, tho looks so far like Narron's get the edge there

Maybe, but I can't believe he took Dunn out so early. I know he's a rotten fielder and all but I thought he was doing us a huge favor.
Turned out that his spot came up in the 9th and the Reds were w/o their best power/OBA guy with runners on 1st & 2nd/2-outs.
Aurelia PHed and got the squib hit to 3rd.

[Guest ScarletKnight41]

old original jb wrote: Alright, say it with me everyone: Loop....I mean...Wagner!

Check p. 4 - I beat you to it.

[nymr83]

i was there tonight. i've dropped to 5-2 on the year

[Gwreck]

Yancy Street Gang wrote: Cycles are meaningless. It's nice that he got ten total bases, but that they were distributed among four different types of hits is a statistical quirk and nothing more.

Bingo. It's cool, I guess but nothing else than an outstanding day at the plate.

This game sucked, bad. Lots of missed opportunities, as mentioned above. Not much else to add except that I'm going tomorrow afternoon and Pedro had better salvage us the series split.

[Guest Iubitul]

Everyone else in the division lost. It could have been worse.

[Elster88]

A cycle is still cool.

[Elster88]

martin wrote: i don't understand why beltran doesnt steal there. it seems like it the perfect storm of pro-steal factors. high-percentage base stealer, incredible need to avoid the double play, as well as putting the all-important game extending tying run in scoring position.

Me too.

[Elster88]

For posterity: Valentin's home run went pretty much to dead center field.

[Guest Edgy DC]

I'm guessing a lot here, but I suspect that Bootran --- and A-Rod for that matter --- has some self-consciousness, that keeps him from making such a high-risk/high-reward maneuver.

[Elster88]

Reading body language is a tricky business, and probably leads to incorrect assumptions more often than not, but he was just standing there with his hands on his knees every pitch. Looked like he never even considered going.

[metirish]

You would think that with Beltran playing with confidence that he wouldn't be self-conscious at all, maybe this theory might be correct if he were still getting booed and hitting like crap.....although I'm not sure if we ever resolved weather booing effects a player.

[Elster88]

I wonder if any of the mediots asked them about it after the game. I'll look around.

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

I think Soler was aware that a strong effort would virtually clinch the Schaefer Mets Pitcher of the Month award, and his knees got wobbly.

[Guest Edgy DC]

]You would think that with Beltran playing with confidence that he wouldn't be self-conscious at all...

There are different types of confidence.

I've been a popular player and I've been an unpopular player and when you're the latter, in a game situation, you're not thinking about succeeding, you're thinking about not failing, and so you play it safe.

Again I'm guessing, but being booed tells a player that this isn't a safe place to fail. And, as Michael Jordan tells us, it is because one fails that he succeeds.

I have no idea what goes through his head, but I do think that if he gets thrown out as the tying run in the ninth with Delgado and Wright coming up, and the Mets lose, he's topic one and two on WFAN today, and perhaps even gets booed tonight.

[MFS62]

Factoids:
Nady is hitting less than .160 with RISP
Most of Wagner's blown saves/ losses have come when he was pitching to Castro.


Do you think we have a Maddux/ Javy or Unit/ Posada situation here?

IMO he seems to pitch better when throwing to LoDuca. Can someone please come up with the numbers to support or disprove this observation?

Later

[Guest Edgy DC]

On the other hand, hopefully, somebody remembers Delgado not running hard on Wright's double in the fifth.

[Frayed Knot]

]he was just standing there with his hands on his knees every pitch.

He was like that before every pitch - but then got into "running position" as the pitcher went into the stretch.

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

MFS62 wrote: Factoids: Nady is hitting less than .160 with RISP Most of Wagner's blown saves/ losses have come when he was pitching to Castro. Do you think we have a Maddux/ Javy or Unit/ Posada situation here? IMO he seems to pitch better when throwing to LoDuca. Can someone please come up with the numbers to support or disprove this observation? Later

Too few appearances to be meaningful, I'm sure. I'm mad as hell at P-Lo.

[seawolf17]

Wagner's blown saves, plus the Yankee game:

4/5 vs WAS - gave up tying run in 9th - LoDuca
4/26 vs SF - gave up tying runs in 9th - Castro
5/3 vs PIT - gave up tying runs in 9th - Castro
5/20 vs NYY - gave up tying runs in 9th - Castro
6/21 vs CIN - gave up winning runs in 9th - Castro

It's a veeeeeeery small sample size, but it is interesting.

[Methead]

Was there any resolution to the question of why Valentin chose to hit left-handed in that spot?

[Guest Iubitul]

seawolf17 wrote: Wagner's blown saves, plus the Yankee game: 4/5 vs WAS - gave up tying run in 9th - LoDuca 4/26 vs SF - gave up tying runs in 9th - Castro 5/3 vs PIT - gave up tying runs in 9th - Castro 5/20 vs NYY - gave up tying runs in 9th - Castro 6/21 vs CIN - gave up winning runs in 9th - Castro It's a veeeeeeery small sample size, but it is interesting.

Very interesting - LoDuca does call a very aggressive game, and perhaps that suits Wagner better....

[Frayed Knot]

]Was there any resolution to the question of why Valentin chose to hit left-handed in that spot?

Hammond is a change-up specialist.
He wouldn't be the first guy to prefer to bat from the same side against it.
I remember guys batting that way against Franco and also Dusty Baker specifically sending up LH batters to face him.

[Centerfield]

I've had it with Wagner. That is four blown saves, one blown four-run lead, at least one tie where he's given up the lead run, and another blown save narrowly avoided by Wright's amazing double play. The worst part about it is that the walks just aren't going away.

Early in the season, it was because he didn't have enough time in spring training, but it's June now, and the control should be there. Is he injured? Is he messed up in the head? Why is our 50 bazillion dollar closer suddenly unable to throw strikes?

[Elster88]

I'm grumpy.

[seawolf17]

Elster88 wrote: I'm grumpy.

Hi, Grumpy. Doc. Nice to meet you.

[Methead]

"Hammond is a change-up specialist."

Ah, yes.

Funny thing is, I seem to remember Gary Cohen talking about that exact issue the other night, but he seemed flabbergasted after Valentin did it.

[Farmer Ted]

Still 9.5 up you negative bastids.