IGT - Mets/Phils Saturday 4/19

[Guest Rockin' Doc]

Nice to get another win against the Phillies.

The Phillies need to dump the blue on the hats. It looks almost as stupid as the Cardinals wearing black hat. I guess I'm just a traditionalist, but I don't like all the alternate colors in hats and uniforms.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Lucky Willie didn't get fooled by the statistix illustrating Heilman's suck. That was a harrowing 8th inning. Each outfielder let one drop they coulda caught.

[Guest Grote15]

I agree..In the last year of Shea the mets should wear the sixties unis only

Home..Blue Pinstripes..orange piping..blue hat orange button
Road Grey New York Mets on front Orange piping

[Benjamin Grimm]

Some bad bullpen management by Willie in this game. Burning through all those pitchers in the 8th left him with a bullpen that had only Wagner and Sosa.

If the Phillies had tied the game in the ninth against Wagner, it would have had to have been Sosa for the rest of the way in extras. (And if Sosa faltered, then who? Figueroa, I guess.)

Here are the two moves I wanted Willie to make, but he didn't:

When Sanchez came in, I would have double-switched. Put Endy in left field and pull Pagan.

And I would have let Joe Smith pitch to the lefty Dobbs.

Of course, the Mets ended up winning, and if they had done it my way, they may not have. But I do think Willie left himself awfully (and unnecessarily) vulnerable with his pitching moves, but fortunately, it worked out.

[Zvon]

T'was a good game tho 8th had me chewing off entire fingernails.

And I agree..blue hats and pinstripes at home!
The white non pinstriped ones are also acceptable,
but only two days a week.

[Guest AG/DC]

SteveJRogers wrote: Actually Lefty was signed by the Giants, played with them for about a month and got his 4,000 strikeout with them. Also played for the White Sox that year, after Seaver was traded actually!

Who is Steve talking to?

Can we just call this Aaron Heilman Day and let nobody else ever face Philadelphia besides him and Wagner?

[batmagadanleadoff]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Here are the two moves I wanted Willie to make, but he didn't: When Sanchez came in, I would have double-switched. Put Endy in left field and pull Pagan.

That sounds like a good idea. I have to admit that I don't know much about Pagan other than what I've seen of him this season, which is mostly very good. But he has looked very shaky to me in the outfield on a few plays that I can remember, so far.

Also, Heilman was excellent today in a tough inning where through no fault of his own, he was forced to get an extra out to make up for bad outfielding. So CWCID Heilman today.

[batmagadanleadoff]

AG/DC wrote: Who is Steve talking to?

I think he was correcting something that was broadcast on FOX. The announcers were talking about Steve Carlton, but I don't remember what they said specifically.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Whoever that was doing the play-by-play with Tim McCarver made the same mistake that Gary Cohen made a few days earlier; saying that Paul Lo Duca was traded with Lastings Milledge for Church and Schneider.

Did it somehow get into the official press notes? Is this eventually going to gain a bit of truthiness?


Also, how about that Ryan Howard? For the first time ever, I had absolutely no fear of him. I'm sure he'll snap out of it, but right now he's looking awfully washed up. He's what we fear Delgado will be. He's where Mo Vaughn was headed in 2003. He's a big dead space in the middle of the Phillies lineup.

The only guys who made me worry at all during yesterday's game were Utley and Burrell. Once the Mets would get past Burrell, there is a weak underbelly in the Phillies lineup. (Although Bruntlett did have that very pesky at bat.)


And one more thing... I wasn't aware that Jason Werth was Dick Schofield Sr.'s grandson. I guess that makes him the nephew of our Dick Schofield, huh?

[stevejrogers]

AG/DC wrote: ="SteveJRogers"]Actually Lefty was signed by the Giants, played with them for about a month and got his 4,000 strikeout with them. Also played for the White Sox that year, after Seaver was traded actually! Who is Steve talking to? Can we just call this Aaron Heilman Day and let nobody else ever face Philadelphia besides him and Wagner?

Kenny Albert made a reference to Jamie Moyer getting the win in Steve Carlton's final decision as a Philadelphia Phillie, mentioned Lefty would get one more appearance in, be released and signed by the St. Louis Cardinals.

[Frayed Knot]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Whoever that was doing the play-by-play with Tim McCarver made the same mistake that Gary Cohen made a few days earlier; saying that Paul Lo Duca was traded with Lastings Milledge for Church and Schneider.

Kenny (son of Marv) Albert

]Also, how about that Ryan Howard? For the first time ever, I had absolutely no fear of him. I'm sure he'll snap out of it, but right now he's looking awfully washed up. He's what we fear Delgado will be. He's where Mo Vaughn was headed in 2003. He's a big dead space in the middle of the Phillies lineup.

IIRC, he looked lousy at this time last year too.

]I wasn't aware that Jason Werth was Dick Schofield Sr.'s grandson. I guess that makes him the nephew of our Dick Schofield, huh?

I knew that in the past but I constantly forget about it to the point where I'm temporaily surprised anew each time I hear it.
I guess he's the son of of sister to Dick Jr.
He's cetainly not built like his middle infielder relatives ... similar to the Larry Bowa - Nick Johnson syndrome.

[Guest Rockin' Doc]

Knot is correct in remembering that Howard was terrible at the start of last year. His numbers through May of last year were pretty abismal.*

Games - 32
At Bats - 117
Base Hits - 26
Homers - 9
Whiffs - 44
Avg. - .222
OBA - .388
SLG - .490

It's pretty safe to say that Howard seems to be a slow starter. Both last year and this year, during the early part of the season, he's likely to either strike out or take one deep. As the weather warmed up so did Howard. He still finished the season with 47 home runs and 136 RBI's. Unfortunately, I'm afraid that Howard will again get himself straightened out and hit 40+ home runs and drive in 120+ runs before the season is out (barring injury).

*I'm too lazy to take the time to HTML this into a neat little table.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Oh, I have no illusion that Howard won't snap out of it.

But I'll enjoy this funk while it lasts.

And I am surprised at how weak and clueless he looks.