smg58

SteveJRogers wrote: The Mariners ended up sweeping the Sox in the ALDS. And the fans seem to have blamed Manuel for Frank Thomas going 0 for 9, and the team batting .185 as a whole. That seems a bit harsh to me. Then again, managers always get too much credit when things go well and too much blame when they don't. Willie's certainly no exception.

record: 42-28, 3.5 games ahead in the AL West 292 runs scored, 291 runs allowed Adherents to the Pythagorean rule would have a field day criticizing this team, but somehow despite the injuries and struggles that have affected nearly their entire line-up and a few of their pitchers, they're right where most people expected them to be. 1B: Casey Kotchman (7 HR, 32 RBI, .303/.351/.448). He's been their most consistent player to date, as well as their healthiest. A Mark Grace-style first baseman with a solid glove and high average but only so-so power. 2B: Howie Kendrick (0 HR, 11 RBI, .312/.343/.430). Spent more than a month on the DL. High average, no power yet this year. SS: Macier Izturis (3 HR, 27 RBI, .259/.319/.344, 8/10 SB). Spent two weeks on the DL. He's been hitting better since his return, but again, not much power. 3B: Chone Figgins (0 HR, 7 RBI, .306/.426/.351, 12/17 SB). He's been on the DL twice already. His power has been completely absent, but a .426 OBP from a fast leadoff guy is nothing to sneeze at. He returned for the Atlanta series this past weekend and was one for two in steal attempts, so he's willing to run despite the right leg injury that had sidelined him. LF: Garret Anderson (6 HR, 30 RBI, .257/.289/.383). Presumably, the Angels were hoping for more from him. CF: Torii Hunter (9 HR, 33 RBI, .268/.329/.457, 9/12 SB). A little too pedestrian for the money he's being paid. RF: Vladimir Guerrero (10 HR, 35 RBI, .273/.336/.471). He's actually been hot lately, after playing through injuries most of the year. Don't underestimate. C: Mike Napoli (10 HR, 24 RBI, .202/.295/.452) and Jeff Mathis (4 HR, 14 RBI, .223/.308/.369). Scioscia has run with whichever one has the hotter (i.e., less frigid) bat at a given time. But don't ignore the 14 HR they have between them. DH: Gary Matthews (7 HR, 31 RBI, .243/.317/.378). Putrid numbers. Has seen plenty of time in the outfield; I think Scioscia rotates his outfielders more on who's actually healthy on a given day than on any set pattern. Bench: Reggie Willits and Juan Rivera could at least platoon for a lot of other teams, but neither has gotten enough AB's to do much of anything. Starting pitchers: today: Jeff Weaver (6-6, 4.45 ERA, 1.31 WHIP, 85 IP, 60 K, 10 HR) vs. Pelfrey. The younger Weaver has been tepid at best. tomorrow: John Lackey (3-1, 1.83 ERA, 0.92 WHIP, 44.1 IP, 32 K, 5 HR) vs. Johan. Ace against ace. Lackey missed the first month of the season, and his replacements had ERA's of 7.85 and 9.00. The Angels are happy to have Lackey back. Wednesday: John Garland (6-4, 4.13 ERA, 1.46 WHIP, 89.1 IP, 34 K, 8 HR) vs. Ollie. Garland bends, a lot in fact, but he hasn't broken. Or at least he's kept the Angels in games. We are missing Joe Saunders (10-3, 3.06, 1.13 WHIP) and Ervin Santana (8-3, 3.40, 1.08 WHIP). Both have been very good, although Saunders has a .246 BABIP that suggests a regression is due. The pen is led by Francisco Rodriguez (28 SV, 2.03 ERA, 1.16 WHIP). Scot Shields (2.81 ERA, 1.17 WHIP) has been a solid set-up guy for them for a long time. Our own Darren Oliver (2.81 ERA, 1.28 WHIP) has been good for them as well. They have a rookie named Jose Arredondo (0.69 ERA, 0.62 WHIP) who got the call last month and has been nearly flawless in his first 13 IP in the majors. We will want to see Darren O'Day (4.07 ERA, 1.77 WHIP) and Justin Speier (5.06 ERA, 1.35 WHIP) get into the game. ex-factors: Darren Oliver and (sort of) Gary Matthews for them, Damion Easley (a long time ago!) and Scott Schoeneweis for us. So this team looks like they're underachieving spectacularly on paper, and yet they're winning games. That line-up could easily get things together, but I also think this team is capable of collapsing.

I'm with CF. Either do it quickly or don't do it.

I think he's earned the right to play the second half of the year in New Orleans. I wouldn't ask him for more than that right now. As for next year, let's wait and see.

The Tigers have had enough injuries (along with bad play from guys like Jacque Jones) that Thames might not be so expendable right now. The Angels actually have several excess outfielders (a lot of teams could also use Reggie Willets, who's spent much of the season to date in the minors). I'm not sure what their biggest major league need is, but they're worth talking to. We'd be buying very high on Nady right now, plus there's still a good chance his 2008 numbers will regress significantly back towards the mean. I like him, but I'd proceed with caution. I don't think the other guys on the list would be upgrades over Fernando Tatis. While I seriously doubt he has the speed to play the outfield, Ryan Garko has an OPS over .900 against lefties both this year and last. The Indians have been a bit impatient with him lately despite his rep as a streaky hitter, so it's possible that a buy-low opportunity exists there. His catching experience also intrigues me.

Church will be arb eligible for the first time, which among other things means he's three years away from not being under the Mets' control. He's not going anywhere. The Marlins are covering $4M of Delgado's contract. We did get one very good year from him, at least, and it's really hard to grumble too much about the team we fielded in 2006 in general. The best free agent pick-up, dollar for dollar, has probably been Wagner. I've got no problems with pursuing Teixeira, although he won't come cheap at all given the competition for him.

Pitchers in general, and relief pitchers in particular, can lose their form quickly and sometimes regain it just as quickly. I'm cautiously optimistic regarding Heilman. The Mets will need 85+ innings of quality from at least one reliever, and Heilman is still the most likely guy to give that.

My issue with Castillo is not what he'll do for us when he's healthy, but how often he'll be healthy enough over the next four years to do it. His output was, and is, pretty consistent.

What's Jose Valentin's status?

metirish wrote: Best win of the season. By an extremely wide margin.

For the record, I'd much rather be a Mets fan than a Padres fan right now.

He also has three home runs in the past week. Yes his average still sucks, but he's been swinging the bat at least a little better lately.

Absolutely. You DON'T fool around with this.

I'd guess that they'd rather have Pelfrey start in AAA than pitch in relief here, assuming that's what it comes to. I would make a final decision before Vargas and Pelfrey get their next starts, but as things currently stand I'd keep Vargas.

It's an upgrade.

A little too silly at points (going through a succession of waterfallls completely unscathed, for example), but still a lot of fun.

Delgado: he'll improve, but I don't really see him winding up better than mediocre. Castillo: Banged up, and totally not worth 4 years, but he always hits at least 30 points higher than this. I'd expect some improvement. Reyes: There's actually nothing at all wrong with 18 BBs and 25 Ks in 177 ABs. His OPS is up a bit from last year, too. I think too many people still expect every month for Reyes to be like April 2007. If he can get his average up to .290, he's still a huge asset, and I don't see why that can't happen. Wright: He's walking more (perhaps being pitched around?), but otherwise the extra base hits are there, and the K rate is the same. I see no reason to think his average won't climb. Alou: a half-season might be optimistic Beltran: his walks are way up, but the power is nonexistent right now. Not sure what's up with that. Hopefully he'll get uncorked soon. Church: probably not THIS good, but if he can stay away from more injuries he'll still have a solid year. Schneider: a .705 OPS is actually good for him, but I don't know if he can sustain even that. Still, that play on Damon was great. bench: went from solid to sucky in two short months. At least they have the track record to suggest a turnaround is possible. Santana: walks are up, strikeouts are down, 11 home runs in 60 innings is ugly as sin... yes he's our best pitcher, but we paid for more than this Maine: Not averaging six innings a start. Otherwise OK. Perez: will the real Ollie Perez EVER stand up? Pelfrey: I'm losing patience with him. We need Pedro. And we need a healthy El Duque. I think the pitching will again collapse late without both of them. Wagner: great. Smith: very good. Sanchez: Has looked very good and very bad at times. Feliciano: too many damn baserunners. Schoeneweis: fine within limits Heilman and Sosa: we needed them to bear the workhorse innings for the rest of the pen. Oh crap.

I'd have given Pascucci the shot. But either way, damn what a mess.

metsguyinmichigan wrote: Barry Zito. Reunite him with Peterson. Giants would have to deal with some of the salary, but teams have been creative with Hampton, AWuss and others in such situations. The Giants would have to deal with MOST of his salary. But I think you could only get a bigger and/or more expensive question mark in return for Heilman at this point. You're not going to get a better reliever than Carlos Muniz for him. It's possible that the 86 innings Heilman threw last year took a toll, but if that's true then I don't think starting him will help. I'd have no problem at all with asking him to accept a demotion. But Sosa opted for a release, and Heilman actually has more value.

Gwreck wrote: Talent-wise, sure. Santana, Church and Schneider are all significantly better players than those that they replaced. Performance-wise? Not so much. I am concerned that with the exception of Church and Schneider -- and perhaps too soon to tell for left field -- we're getting less offensive output out of each position than we did last year. That's true. But I also see no reason to think that (possibly excepting first base) that won't change.

Vic Sage wrote: I'd be happy to be totally wrong. So would I. I still expect Schneider to come down to earth offensively, but if it doesn't happen before a few other guys start heating up the Mets will be fine. And besides, his defense really has been an asset. But I also thought then, and certainly still do now, that the key to the deal for the Mets is Church. I don't know if he'll be THIS good all year, but I do think it's a very safe bet at this point that he'll be a better player than Lastings Milledge over the 2008 season. Interestingly, this marks the third time that Minaya has made a deal where the biggest asset to the Mets has turned out to be the guy considered the less important of the two players acquired at the time the deal was made.

To me the game turned on the play at the plate. I wonder what kind of heat Girardi is getting for the baserunning on that play, because it was every bit as bad as what the Mets did on Thursday. The team is winning, the opposing pitcher is have trouble getting into a rhythm, two guys are in scoring position, and nobody's out. If you're going to try to score, you'd better make it easily. Having said that, that was GREAT defense from Church, Castillo, and especially Schneider.

FK hit it on the head. To be aggressive and successful, you can't hesitate around the bases; you run to second and then see if the opportunity is there.

="AG/DC"]Our AAA firstbaseman is Michel Abreu and he's not hitting right now, but almost all of our outfielders are. I know this because I just happened to be checking up on newcomer Val Pascucci, who has played plenty of first and is tearing the cover off of it. He's too old (29) to be considered a prospect, but he's excellent at drawing walks (27 BBs to 137 ABs) and has some pop to boot. Given that the Phillies released him last month, it would be more than a bit ironic if he wound up making a positive difference for us. I could see him earning a shot.

AG/DC wrote: I think lack of a designated long man for a few weeks won't be a major issue. If it is, we'll have bigger issues to concern us. Exactly. We won't have to worry so much about our pen caving in if more than two of our starters can get through the sixth inning.