Benjamin Grimm

VOTING FOR THIS GAME IS NOW CLOSED Totals for May 30, 2007 (16 votes) San Francisco Giants 3, New York Mets 0 NameTotal PointsPoints Awarded Player Performance Tom Glavine37.382.34(L) 7.0 IP, 9 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 4 SO.Paul Lo Duca27.851.742-4, 2B, SO.Guillermo Mota25.861.622.0 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 SO.Carlos Beltran4.750.301-4, 2B.David Wright3.660.231-4, SO.Endy Chavez3.500.221-4.Carlos Delgado1.250.080-3, BB, 3 SO.

Voting for the May 30 game against the Giants will close on Monday: http://cybermessageboard.ehost.com/getalife/viewtopic.php?t=6481

Sosa 3.5 Delgado 1.5 Gotay 3.5 Newhan 0.5 Castro 0.5 Johnson 0.5

Perez 2 Chavez 0.5 Reyes 0.5 Lo Duca 0.5 Gomez 0.5

Maine 3 Heilman 0.5 Gotay 0.5 Reyes 1 Franco 0.2 Newhan 0.5

I think this is going to be on of those 1/3 of the games that we know we're going to lose. A win will be a pleasant surprise.

I think seawolf is taking the piss.

Brian Sabean wrote: "The first game here (in New York) we had three players who were not available. That was not Armando's fault. Tonight we had three hits and looked dead as a doornail. That was not Armando's fault. We are at a crossroads in my mind, and apparently the fans, the press and some people in the clubhouse felt he needed to go." A GM shouldn't feel forced to make a deal because of anything that the fans or the press say. I wonder about "people in the clubhouse", though. Was Armando's presence causing some kind of disharmony? Is that why he was traded?

Reyes 1.8 Wright 1 Beltran 1 Chavez 1 OHernandez 4 Smith 0.6 Wagner 0.6

VOTING FOR THIS GAME IS NOW CLOSED Totals for May 29, 2007 (18 votes) New York Mets 5, San Francisco Giants 4 NameTotal PointsPoints Awarded Player Performance Carlos Delgado69.353.852-4, 2 R, 2 HR, 3 RBI, BB.Oliver Perez34.801.937.0 IP, 5 H, 3 ER, 0 BB, 8 SO.José Reyes22.171.231-4, 2 R, 2 BB.Aaron Heilman16.770.931.1 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 SO.Carlos Beltran13.950.781-4, R, 2B, RBI, 2 BB, SO.Pedro Feliciano10.590.591.0 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 1 SO.Billy Wagner10.470.581.0 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 2 SO.Ruben Gotay0.910.051-1.Endy Chavez0.500.030-5.David Wright0.250.011-5, 2B, 2 SO.Joe Smith0.250.01(W) 1.0 IP, 0 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 1 SO. CPF Schaefer Voting Results

OlerudOwned wrote: Anderson Pujols. Runs like Hernandez, hits like Albert. Or maybe the other way around.

Omar in the booth with Ron and Gary said something about a bruise. I didn't catch where the bruise is.

And failing to get a save doesn't mean you blew it. You could have just held it for the next guy.

It might have to be assembled by looking at box scores.

I'd be curious to see a listing of all-time post-season leaders in blown saves. According to Wikipedia, blown saves are not an official stat, but they've been tracked since 1988. If that's the case, it looks like the first ever post-season blown save was by Jay Howell of the Dodgers, against the Mets in LA, in NLCS Game 1: http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1988/B10040LAN1988.htm

I don't know. I seem to remember it happening, but I don't know the specific dates, and my memory may be wrong. My judgment is that it's not fair, but that's the way it is.

And I just looked at the six consecutive saves he had in September 2001 prior to his 9/23 meltdown against the Braves at Shea. None of them were saves of one-run games. Three or four of them (I had trouble manipulating my fingers and typing at the same time) were actually games where he pitched the 9th inning with a three-run lead. I guess my problem is that I don't think that the modern 9th-inning closer is that important a role. He's in a no-win situation where when he succeeds it's not a big deal. (He just has to pitch one inning, and often he can even give up a run or two.) But when he fails he's the guy who spoiled everything. He's the guy who turned a win into a loss. Everything was going fine until this schmuck came into the game. It's not fair, but it's how it is. Years ago, a reliever like Tug McGraw would usually come into a game when there was trouble, when there was a fire to put out. If they didn't succeed, they weren't usually vilified, because it was somebody else who made the mess that they weren't able to clean up. But closers aren't "firemen" anymore, they're specialists. And once they get into trouble, they have to pitch out of it themselves. With Benitez at least, sometimes Franco, if available, would come in if Armando was in trouble. But in most of Wagner's failures last season, he was left on the mound no matter how poorly he was pitching and wouldn't come out of the game until things were out of hand. If Joe Smith, for example, lets his first two or three batters get on base, he'll be removed. Billy Wagner doesn't have that luxury. I'd love to see a manager start using his bullpen the way it was done before Tony LaRussa and Dennis Eckersley changed everything. When Frisella could bail out McGraw, or McGraw could bail out Frisella. Same with McDowell and Orosco. I thought that Bobby Valentine would do that with Franco and Benitez, but he (usually) went along with the 8th-inning/9th-inning specialist nonsense that's now become the rule.

Those last two games came against the Braves in the heat of a feel good (post 9/11) division race. And the other came in the first ever World Series game between the Mets and the Yankees. They were, without a doubt, BIG games. I'm not arguing that he should be demonized, or that he never did any good. But there's no denying that those we three three losses we all pretty darn awful. If he had saved those two games against Atlanta, but had blown games the previous week against Florida or Montreal, I don't think he'd be as reviled as he is.

Mets fans would have a much more positive view of Armando if not for these three games. It started with this one, which was painful enough: http://leaptoad.com/mets/gamedetail.php?gameno=6248 But then, these two, only six days apart, were the nails in the coffin. There was nothing he could do after that to rehabilitate his reputation: http://leaptoad.com/mets/gamedetail.php?gameno=6402 http://leaptoad.com/mets/gamedetail.php?gameno=6407

Now that we've reached the end of May and this thread has over 200 replies, I'm going to lock it and let it slip into Archive Land. It's time for Schaefer Commentary II ! http://cybermessageboard.ehost.com/getalife/viewtopic.php?t=6486

There were only three games where Hobie had both a walk and an RBI: Search Results - BattingDateTeamLineup PosPosABRH2B3BHRRBIBBIBBSOSBCSSFSHHBPBOX05/06/62vs. Phillies8c201100110000000 BOX05/15/62vs. Cubs--ph000000110000000 BOX05/25/62vs. Dodgers8c402000110100000 http://leaptoad.com/mets/profile.php?tabno=4&PlayerCode=0001 The May 15 game is the only one of the three played at the Polo Grounds, so that must be the walk-off walk.

Is Bonilla the guy who was traded to Baltimore?

Wild guesses here: Gary Carter and Mike Piazza.

]And the West Coast is far enough away for a player who wants to escape the brutal scrutiny of the New York media. I'd have to ask Barry Bonds to see how that's working out for him.

Voting for the Mets 12-inning Tuesday night win over the Giants will close on Friday morning. Get your votes in! http://cybermessageboard.ehost.com/getalife/viewtopic.php?t=6471