A Boy Named Seo

Weaver now at 10 consecutive scoreless innings in the postseason. Glavine trying for 11. This game's zooming right along...

DP's are saving Glavine's ass so far, the first one dumb luck, this one just dumb. Still have to question the Cards strategy swinging on so many first pitches (4 guys so far) knowing that Glavine can't go that deep in the game since he'll have to come back on short rest, and getting to the Mets pen is a pretty good idea anyway since both teams are playing 5 days in a row. He's only at 41 pitches now through 4, and at this rate could go 7 and still be around 80 pitches.

Thanks to the inning-ending DP and a bunch of those knuckleheads swinging on the first pitch, Glavine's through 3 at exactly 30 pitches.

Jeff Weaver does not throw 96 MPH. I'm sure FOX has been trying to woo viewers with tales of real-life freaks like Joel Zumaya who throws a miraculous 103 MPH!!! But they're gun's like 4 or 5 MPH fast and Buck jokingly admitted such, saying they must've purchased their guns from BALCO. FOX also annoyed me tonight by having a half hour pre-game show, but not using five minutes of it to show the teams being introduced. I'm going to go get a beer and chill out. Go Mets.

]Ive had a hectic day/evening here-with one eye and ear on the TV , but I think I heard that right...... You heard that right. La Russa said he'd think about it more, but will likely keep the order in tact, and said he likes the idea of having Carpenter go a potential Game 7. I see his point, but he's putting a lot of faith in the other stiffs that they can even get to a Game 7. I was very happy to hear this news.

Yo, Can, nice Vandyke! And JD, that beard looks neither patchy, nor Amish. Hot and uncomfortable? Yes. Irish, Edgy-how do your Met Beards grow? Herb, you gardening one?

]The consecutive wins in San Diego to start the series were the Cardinals' first back-to-back road victories since July 25-26. Wow. We've been given a gift starting against Weaver and Suppan in our own joint. With all our injury problems, the first two games could not have been laid out any better in our favor.

Fantastic poem! Here's Mets Beard and I enjoying it together some 30 minutes ago.

="OlerudOwned"]I do not want to see Oliver Perez start a game in this series. Yes, I know there's a chance he pitches brilliantly and yes, I love his stuff too. HOW-EVAH, there's a way better chance that he gets wild early and throws a flat slider over the plate to Pujols with a man on base or something. If I made the calls, I'd have Dave Williams pitching Game 4. The guy made 5 starts for us and was pretty much excellent 4 times, getting his ERA inflated by the one bad start. See here He's also faced the Cardinals once this season and pitched extremely well. 6.1 IP, 7 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 4 K The only guy who could hit him was backup catcher Gary Bennett. That's way more than I would expect out of Perez. Dave Williams faced the Cards three times this year and was rocked harder than Perez was by them. 3 starts, 16 IP, 21 hits, 10 ER, 4 Homers, 6 BB, 8 K, 5.63 ERA, .308 BAA. Oliver Perez is I guess just as likely to get torched as Williams, but at least has the potential to be lights out that Williams doesn't have. I'd stick with Perez.

Keith Law at ESPN thinks the Cards would go with right-hander Anthony Reyes against the Mets in a Game 4 instead of Jason Marquis, though Reyes was not on the roster for the NLDS. Reyes is the guy who wears the bill of his hat without the slightest hint of a bend (like Chad Cordero) and he stylishly rocks the vertically striped knee-high socks. Hard not to like this guy. He also thinks it might not be a bad idea for St. Louie to add lefty Chris Narveson to the NLCS roster. I know nothing about this guy other than he got a cup of coffee this year and his minor league numbers indicate that he keeps batters off base pretty well. Not sure who they would drop to make room for him. Steve, sorry for beating you to the KTE punch, but chill out, man.

There's a lot of interesting things going on with the Cardinals, so I wanted to get going on this one. It's a rematch of the 2000 NLCS (a 4 games to 1 ass-whooping by Mike Hampton and your New York Metropolitans) and an intriguing match-up of two teams that have potent, balanced lineups, rosters ravaged by major injuries, and sometimes downright scary starting pitching (in a bad way) that caused each team to stumble for lots of September. Birds at the Bat Scott Rolen asked out of Game 4 of the NLDS with a cranky shoulder, so how they'll stack up will largely depend on whether he can go or not, or if he even makes the NLCS roster. If he's out, Spezio and his stupid-ass red soulpatch thing will be in. We can't let Sandfrog beat us. I repeat, we cannot. Anyway, here's what their lineup should look like with and without Rolen. WITH ROLENWITHOUT ROLENDavid Eckstein-SSDavid Eckstein-SSChris Duncan/Preston Wilson-LFChris Duncan/Preston Wilson-LFAlbert Pujols-1BAlbert Pujols-1BJim Edmonds-CFJim Edmonds-CFScott Rolen-3BJuan Encarnacion-RFJuan Encarnacion-RFRonnie Belliard-2BRonnie Belliard-2BScott Spezio-3BYadier Molina-CYadier Molina-CPitcherPitcher Who's Hot: Pujols will either win the MVP or finish second to Ryan Howard, and he didn't stop killing the ball when the Playoffs started either, going 5-15 with 3 RBI, though all 5 hits came in the first 2 games. Belliard (picked up during the season from Cleveland) was huge (performance wise and he's kinda chubby), going 6-13 against the Pads including some big defensive plays at second. He also leads the club at keepin' it real, encasing his sleek corn-rows under a official MLB doo-rag. Chris Duncan raked right-handed pitching this year with a 1.034 OPS in 233 AB's, but was brutal against lefties (hit just .170 in 48 AB's). Preston Wilson will probably get the start in left Game 1 against Glavine and ride pine the rest of the series until Wagner/Feliciano/Oliver are in the game. Who's Not Eckstein was 2-15 against the Pads (but executed a squeeze bunt in the deciding game) and the gimpy Rolen was just 1-11. Winging It In order for Carpenter to pitch Game 2 on the 12th, he'd have to go on 3 days rest after 106 pitches in the NLDS Series clincher against the Pads. I'd think St. Louie would only go that route if they're down 0-2 and in full desperation mode (and even then it's a maybe), so thanks to that extra game against the Pads, the Mets shouldn't see Carpenter until Game 3. If the Cards stick with their NLDS rotation, Jeff Weaver would get the Game 1 start on 5 days rest, and Suppan would go in Game 2 against Maine. Here are the projected match-ups and start times. Thanks to Gwreck for tracking all this stuff down in the other thread. FOX will carry the market game. F/X is the alternate. Game 1 - Wednesday, October 11, 8:00PM Jeff WeaverTom Glavine1-0, 0.00 ERA (5 IP)1-0, 0.00 ERA (6 IP) Weaver sucked BHMC for both the Angels and Cards in '06, and put up a 5-4 record with a 5.18 ERA for the latter. Ick. He gave up a ton of hits (99 in 83 1/3 IP for the Cards) and struck out just 45 batters. He got in trouble against San Diego in game 2, but was able to wiggle his way out and somehow didn't give up a run. The Mets pounded him the only time they saw him this year (4 ER in 5 IP) and must pound his ass Wednesday night just the same. Glavine was 1-0 (3 ER in 6 IP) in his only start against St. Louis this year. Game 2 - Thursday, October 12, 8:00PM Jeff SuppanJohn Maine0-1, 6.23 ERA (4 1/3 IP)0-0, 2.48 ERA (4 1/3 IP) Suppan was the second most reliable arm in the Cards rotation this year and put up a respectable year (12-7, 4.12 ERA). That said, he gave up a bunch of hits, too (207 in 190 IP) and his ERA was over 2 runs higher on the road versus home (5.36 to 3.18). Maine was tagged for 7 ER in 5 IP his only outing against the Cards this year, so he'll have to calm his shit down a little. The Mets got to Suppan the only time they saw him in '06 (4 ER in 6.2 IP), so home field advantage is definitely there for the taking. Sorry, Mr. Suppan. Your ass must be pounded as well. Game 3 - Saturday, October 14, 4:00PM Chris CarpenterSteve Trachsel2-0, 2.02 ERA (13 1/3 IP)0-0, 5.40 ERA (3 1/3 IP) Carpenter's a bad-ass and will be tough to beat period. He had a rocky first inning in the NLDS clincher against San Diego and the Mets might need one of their super-charged first innings to have a chance of knocking him out early. He's tough on all hitters, but lefties fared a little better against him in '06 batting .266 (10 homers in 93 IP) versus just .210 for righties. He had a 1.81 ERA at home this year, so, um, we'll have our work cut out for us. The Mets didn't face Carpenter this season. Trachsel was beat up in 2 starts against them, but of course, won one of 'em. Game 4 - Sunday, October 15, 7:30PM Oliver PerezJason MarquisNo Playoff AppearancesNo Playoff Appearances A couple of piles of potential suck await viewers of Game 4 with the Mets' enigma Oliver Perez lining up to face New York native Jason Marquis. Both had ERA's over 6 during the regular season, but Perez is a beautiful mess and can be dynamic if the sun's just right and all the planets are in alignment. Marquis just blows goats and as such, must deal with me calling him the Marquis de Suck. Ollie actually had 3 starts against the Cards this year and went 1-2 with a 4.82 ERA (22 hits and 10 ER in just 18.2 IP). Marquis was 1-1 against the Mets this year, but was hit hard (8 ER in 13.2 IP) for a 5.27 ERA. Bullpen The Cards took a major hit when Jason Isringhausen and his 35 saves hit the DL with a blown-out something or other. Down the stretch, they tinkered with Braden Looper as the closer and realized that was fucking stupid. They've settled on Adam Wainwright who had a really good regular season (3.12 ERA in 75 IP) and he looked fantastic in the NLDS. La Russa will have his choice of two lefties to summon in the late innings to throw at Delgado, our 6-8 guys, or just turn around the switchies. They are Randy Flores and Tyler Johson. Flores was battered by the National League this year (49 hits in 41.2 IP, 5.62 ERA), and though he faced just five New York Met hitters this year, he sent each of them packing. Johnson was pretty good despite a high ERA of his own (4.95) and lefties hit just .221 against him. He allowed less than a hit per inning pitched and can strike guys out (36.2 IP, 33 hits, 37 K). The Mets saw him 3 times (just 2.1 IP) and scored a run on 2 hits. Better than nothing, homes. Better than nothing. One more thing, if you see either or both of these guys at a bar, buy 'em a shot. Buy them two shots. Hell, just ask the barkeep to leave the bottle. If there's one thing about New Yorkers that I've learned while visiting, is that they're hospitable to out-of-towners. Show these guys a good time. The X-Factor: Cards: Preston Wilson, Braden Looper, Gary Bennett, and Izzy who's shelved with a bad arm. Mets: Just Darren Oliver. Enemy Intel Birds on the Bat Forum That's all I got, folks. I looked for a decent Cardinals blog for about 4 minutes and gave up. Mascots Mr. MetFredbird the Redbird No contest. The Low-Down It seems like the only thing more important than winning 4 games for the Mets will be to win them early to try to avoid seeing Carpenter twice, and to stay away from being in a position where they're leaning too heavily on Oliver Perez to deliver (not that I don't love you, Oliver, but you know what I'm sayin'). The Mets led the NL in steals (146) and stolen base percentage (81%), but will have their hands full with Yadier Molina behind the dish. He threw out 44% of guys trying to swipe (37 stolen, 29 caught), so a barrage of 3-run homers might be in order. The Cardinals were 13 games under .500 on the road (34-47) and with Weaver and Suppan going for them in games 1 and 2, the Mets really should, and more importantly, really need to be leaving Shea up 2-nil, Cliff Floyd or no Cliff Floyd. JG sez: New York in 6. Lets Go Mets. Play ball... ish.

For a player to ask out of the lineup, he's got to be in pretty bad shape. Cards must be freaking about Rolen.

That red thing on Spezio's chin makes him look like a complete asstard. Edit: 4-2 'Nils.

Yadier Molina has a freaking cannon and showed it off throwing out quick, little Dave Roberts on a big, slow curveball. Of the 4 potential opponents still alive, only the Padres have catchers who suck at throwing out runners. We didn't run much against the Dodgers and Martin who's no slack himself, but Molina and Pudge could seriously slow us down. PLAYERTEAMSBCSCS%Ivan RodriguezDetroit-AL2526.510Yadier MolinaSt. Louis-NL3729.439Jason KendallOakland-AL7131.304Josh BardSan Diego-NL5311.172Mike PiazzaSan Diego-NL9713.118*Russell MartinLos Angeles-NL7133.311 *At home watching the Playoffs from his barcalounger.

The Pads uni's bug me in the way the Nats do in that the font of logo on the hat (the interlocking "SD" for the Pads and the curly-cue "W" for the Nats) doesn't match the script font on the front of the uni (cursive "Padres" and block "Nationals"). That said, I still love the sand color road uni's the Padres wear, and think they look pretty good with the deep, ocean blue tops, and as a rule, I hate dark alternate tops. Still prefer the sand-colored "San Diego" road uni, even though that font's not quite right either.

I love this one. ]"That's what's so special. All year long we haven't worried about what we don't have." -Willie Randolph, when asked if the Mets have enough starting pitching to continue in the playoffs.

Blue's been consistent with the low strike, but you have to hold your breath when it's on one of the corners.

Great (ballsy) baserunning by Tucker there. I thought Furcal might grab that one, but he was already halfway to third.

Great freaking AB by Tucker. Was nice that he wasn't over-aggressive on that 3-2 pitch after he got his fastball 3-1 and fouled it back. Nice opportunity here.

Oliver will probably hit next inning unless the Mets get a guy or two on, eh?

Hendrickson got a few minutes with the Nets and the Kings in the late 90's. I didn't know that about him.

Nice also, that 3 games in, we've yet to see a black uni. Whack the black in effect.

Nice grab by J-Lo. Saved at least a run there. Great start, kids. Let's keep it going.

TheOldMole wrote: Champagne, anyone? Slow down. You were supposed to say, "Third blood".

Check out this neat stuff I found while poking around the internets. Looks like Maine needs to better getting his offspeed stuff over for strikes and get the leadoff guy out.