smg58

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: I want to attribute most of what's been ailing the Mets pitchers to their physical abilities -- obviously velocity is an issue with Ollie, Maine and maybe Santana. But what's really irritated me about all the performances, and I know its a vague thing, is the seeming lack of concentration; the inability to bear down and finish the job. No shame in Helton going opposite field and punching an 0-2 pitch through the hole for a 2-out single; it's the 4-pitch walk to Tulo that follows and the first pitch double that follows that. Just, grrr. I agree. Like I said before, there were a few instances where Maine looked good yesterday. But he dealt with adversity about as poorly as you can.

The Mets seemed to be very cautious with Maine in the pre-season (i.e., not stretching him out as quickly as the others), so they had an inclination he wasn't all the way back. Then why force it? Give Maine some time in AAA. We have plenty of options that are, at worst, no less viable than he is right now (and we had an additional one in ST that we were comfortable giving away to the Phillies). He'd have to clear waivers, but at $3.3M I would lose no sleep if somebody claimed him (which I seriously doubt would happen). What was frustrating to me last night was that Maine got some nice strikeouts, and some better defense on the part of Maine himself and our corner infielders would have kept the Mets in the game.

Not sure Evans is any worse than Tatis, but now he can't even make it to Buffalo. Unfortunately, I see a waiver claim in his future.

There's a first time for everything! The offense going into another big-time rut with RISP was the last thing anybody needed. I wonder how often Jason Bay has gone a full week without driving in a run. Wright is not hitting with men on base often enough. As for Manuel, I hope he doesn't need to be fired, but when he comes out and says that the team looked unprepared against a guy who pitched (and sucked) for them last year, he's condemning himself. Still, while you could argue that giving playing time to Matthews is in his control, ultimately the team as constructed should do better overall than they did this past week, and the players have to take responsibility if this continues. On the bright side, the week wouldn't have looked so bad if Barajas had hit the liner another foot to Willie Harris' right (on edit: or if the pen pitched as well in the extra-inning game against the Marlins as it did the rest of the week). I do think we're due for some breaks. And of course, the longer Reyes is in the lineup, the better things will get for him and the offense. It's still awfully early.

Gonzalez left last night's game with a tight hammy and is the proverbial "day-to-day." Don't be surprised to see Seth Smith start at least once. Giambi has been used so far like a backup catcher, spelling Helton twice in day games after night games. Olivo has two HRs in 11 ABs so far. I wouldn't put it beyond Tracy to ride the hot bat. The Mets need to play much better this week.

In this deep of a league you can probably still find relievers who'll lower your ERA and WHIP, if nothing else. It wouldn't be the worst use of your last few roster spots. I recommend having a less itchy trigger finger with them than I generally practice myself, though.

I'm guessing Clippard won't be the Nats' sixth-inning guy for long. Jesus Christ, could Bay have possibly had a worse at-bat? I'm officially against giving Matt Capps any outs ever again. Speaking of Capps, he's allowed eight baserunners in three innings of work so far this season, and has two saves and a zero ERA to show for it. Unfortunately, the bullets he won't dodge will probably come against other teams. (I'm assuming, perhaps naively, that a game that starts with Johan vs. Livan will not require the Mets to get to Capps in order to secure a victory.) A good call by the Nets manager to move Harris to left even with Zim hurt. Willingham would have never come close to making that play.

I see no point on passing judgment on this particular move until it's Wednesday or so and we still have no sign of Castillo. If Castillo is back by then, what's the problem? In the meantime, I was glad to see Tejada get a hit before being sent down. The Bisons' season started on Thursday and he started twice up here on the two days the Bisons played, so he missed nothing. PS Cora might give the Mets more with his glove at second base than his bat relative to Castillo would take away.

280/330/460 15 HR, 75 RBI He will lose playing time against righthanded pitching by the end of the year, but his BA/OBP/SLG will wind up looking better as a result.

Hopefully this will be completely inconsequential.

If Bay regularly shows the kind of hustle he did on that triple, he'll endear himself to Mets fans very quickly.

I like this season already.

I think I said some time in the offseason that I wouldn't get mad at Manuel until he sat Pagan against a righthanded pitcher while Francoeur and Matthews both played. Wow, that didn't take long.

This is frustrating. I can sort of understand starting Jacobs -- I disagree with it, but I can at least see it -- but there is absolutely no defensible reason whatsoever, given recent history and especially given spring performance, why Chris Carter is going to Buffalo and Frank Catalanotto is staying with the Mets. If it has to do with options, why was Figueroa cut? Calero is an established quality reliever. Igarashi is not only a less known commodity than Calero, he's a less known commodity than Parnell. And what part of his 8.53 ERA and 9/8 BB/K ratio this spring made him look like a major league pitcher? Parnell had a 3.46 ERA out of the pen last year; what did he do wrong? And like Carter, what exactly did Figueroa have to do? As for Mejia, keep in mind that six of the nine runs he allowed weren't earned, so you can't go by his ERA to judge his readiness.

So it's down to a couple of Phillies series at this point? I guess I'll take them and finish the board.

Teams have been catching up to Mejia lately, so hopefully the Mets do the smart thing with him. If the Mets do the smart thing with Igrashi as well -- namely, ignore the contract he has and send him down -- their pen will be Rodriguez, Feliciano, Calero, Parnell, Nieve, Takahashi, and Figueroa. I'd like that pen a lot. The Mets have enough depth at the pitching position that they shouldn't wait too long to pull the plug on any starter who struggles badly coming out of the gate. If Murphy is hurt, the choice is between Carter and an "established" veteran who's "established" quite clearly that he doesn't cut it. I see no reason for debate.

Alas, I think Figgy undid in one inning everything positive he had done this spring up to that point.

I'd say three hours if we work quickly, especially in the late rounds when the talent pool will be so thin that it will be one big crap shoot. I've never been in this deep of a draft, so I don't have much advice to give. Maybe towards the end look for matching halves of a platoon -- the righthanded half will generally only have value to whomever takes the lefthanded half (unless it's somebody like Jonny Gomes, who'll produce well in the AB's he gets). I also wouldn't worry about your bench. If you need to fill a spot due to an injured player, most likely nobody will begrudge you picking up the guy who takes his place. There may be exceptions, though. For example, I'd expect that Alex Cora will only have value to the person who drafts Reyes (and that's assuming Reyes misses Opening Day), but if you grab Beltran you may not be able to wait till the end of the draft to grab Pagan.

We "need" Nieve in the pen? At whose expense?

metirish wrote: Don't forget! Drafting this Thursday at 7:30 PM EST. Should be fun..... I'll attempt this with the kid hanging from me and asking to watch youtube videos of steam locomotives , his new thing. Enjoy it while you can; soon he'll be telling you who to pick.

I think it's easier to move a starter to the pen mid-season than to do it the other way around. Wainwright was a starter in the minors, came up to fill a need because he was the best arm they had for the role, and eventually thrived as a starter at this level. Joba's ascent to the big leagues started similarly, but then they tried to ease him from relieving to starting mid-season in 08, and he's since gone backwards. I think if you commit to using Mejia as a reliever right now, you had better commit to keeping him in the pen for all of 2010. Among other things, that means you need to be confident he can stay up in the majors all season; otherwise, assuming you see him as a starter long-term, you've cost him a year of development. Personally I've been wavering on my opinion of his ability to handle it, but Parnell survived in the Mets pen last year after making a similar transition. Mejia is more talented than Parnell, so lately I've been leaning towards bringing him to Queens.

Calero had a 1.95 ERA last year pitching 60 innings in the NL east. Igarashi had a 3.19 ERA pitching 53 innings in Japan. There shouldn't be a debate as to who the better pitcher is. The contracts are skewed partly because the market in early March when Calero signed was much different than the market (at least as Minaya perceived it) when Igarashi signed in mid-December. Calero has some injury concerns too, but he appears to be healthy now and Igarashi had TJS not that long ago himself.

Hmm. Dessens is minor-league depth, but that still leaves four pitchers. Igarashi should need to out-pitch some relievers with ML experience and he's not doing it; down to three. Otherwise? I think Niese had to stand up and take the rotation spot away from the guys with no options, but I'm not sure the Mets are thinking on those lines. That would still leave two, though. I might try to buy time with Maine, as he doesn't look ready right now.

Parnell's ERA is at 2.89. Do we even know if his spot is safe?

Pelfrey can't keep the ball in the park. For his sake I hope the wind is blowing out.