Ceetar

bmfc1 wrote: Tonight's game is so important, it's not televised in Pittsburgh. Ooh, nearly forgot the double-matchup. Screw all teams Pittsburgh!

Edgy MD wrote: Very righty heavy. I get Terry's Turnerlove, even if mine is not quite that strong, but I just don't get batting him fifth. He's been hitting. that's justification enough at this point, even if you're going to ignore his reverse splits.

Mets are 12-3 against the Pirates at Citi Field and have not lost a series to them since 2004.

seawolf17 wrote: Former Mets: Hurdle, hitting coach Jay Bell, and pitching coach Ray Searage, and coach Dave Jauss. Good call, didn't look closely at the coaches. That's amusing that so many of them are former mets

Swan Swan H wrote: When Davis came up for his last AB last night he was blinking his eyes to the point where it was making me nervous. Blinking and opening them up wide in that 'who, me, I'm not tired' move. Makes me wonder if there's not something there that's bothering him. too late for excuses. He floated the "ankle weakness and valley fever tiredness" in Spring Training as an excuse for last year, but it doesn't matter. He's gotta fight through that stuff. I wonder how players treat and respect rest. They have such wild schedules, and I always marvel at the affect being fully rested, or at least 'not tired' has on my mental capabilities so I can't imagine it'd be different for baseball players. Their brains do crazy things like recognize pitch break and trajectory subconsciously and I can't imagine that wouldn't be sharper with a fresh mind. In any case, no excuse Ike. Figure out how to be consistent.

http://www.generator.name/pirate The Pittsburgh Swashbucklers are 18-15 and in second place and managed by Clint Hurdle in his fourth year as manager. They're the Pirates though, so it's only a matter of time before they rattle off losing streak we've grown to know and love. They've got about league average hitting and pitching, scoring and being scored on with equal ferver. The Cutch isn't swinging the 'ole wooden leg like he did last year when he finished 3rd in MVP voting, but it's still good for a center fielder. He hasn't walked like he usually does, so it's hits OBP that's a little low. Either way he's their most dangerous hitter and the guy to watch. Plank Hook(Russell Martin) signed away from the Yankees is doing most of the catching and is actually hitting very well. He leads the team in home runs with 6 and has only struck out 11 times against 10 walks. Deadfish Sky Pirate(Starling Marte) is their young outfielder and also hitting the ball well in his first full season. He's playing left field, and between him and McCutchen get to many many baseballs hit to the outfield. Other Pirates hitting well include: Gaby Sanchez an Garrett Jones, with Travis Snider, Neil Walker, Pedro Alvarez and Clint Barmes less so. Barmes and Alvarez are embarassingly bad, and while Neil Walker is, ahem, walking a lot (Or he was. he's injured, being replaced by guys like Brandon Inge), but he wasn't slugging much. The pitchers: The rum-guzzlers skipped the 5th starter the last time through the order. Rumfish Blood(A.J. Burnett) is pitching real well but he won't pitch against the Mets. sir Christoper the Rusty Sword(Jeff Locke) has made six starts and been pretty good, a 3-1 record with a 3.21 ERA and will pitch tonight. He's had similar stretches with the Pirates the last two years with no success. He's the soft-tossing lefty type the Mets seem to have trouble with. He doesn't strike out a ton but will walk guys, so this could easily be one of those frustrating 'strand a million' games. Friday is Lakefish the Pirat(Wandy Rodriguez) whose 4.02 ERA is basically his career norm. In 9 starts against the Mets he's got a 2.88 ERA and a complete game shutout. Saturday is still up in the air. Gerrit Cole is their Zack Wheeler, getting some seasoning and waiting out financial guideposts. He's walked a ton in AAA and the Marauders rotation is super injured so it might not be much longer. It seems like One Eye Blackbeard(Francisco Liriano) will get the start on Banner Day, who I remember most for being a strong #2 to Johan Santana in his rookie season. That was his only great season and mostly he's just been bad, especially lately. He'll also walk a ton, but can still strike you out too. Deadfish Dangerous(Jeanmar Gomez) gets the honor of occupying the same mound as Matt Harvey on Mother's Day. Acquired from the Indians for Quincy Latimore in January. He's 25 and started the season in the bullpen, but this will be his third start. He's 2-0 with a 2.38 ERA. Soft-tossing righty with a decent changeup looks like. The Mets should probably crush this guy. His middle name is Alejandro meaning the Mets should play Lady Gaga when he gets up, but they won't because they don't have that cool Braves' Organ player guy. I hate bullpens. They all suck, but let's give you the guys that are doing well for the Corsairs. Fast Ship Sharkbait(Jason Grilli) is unhittable so far, 14IP, 13 saves, 23 Ks. He's allowed only one run so far this season, and in fact only one XBH, a double to who else but Carlos Beltran. sir Christoper Blewfield(Justin Wilson) is also pitching well, 1.29 ERA with 21 IP. Shark Hook(Mark Melancon) has a .053 ERA through 17 IP. The only run he's allowed is a Joey Votto home run. I don't see any Pirates that were Mets. A.J. Burnett was drafted by the Mets but didn't make the big team. The last trade between two teams was the infamous Oliver Perez deal. All-Time record against the Pirates: 341 wins, 364 losses, 2 ties

I think people often underestimate how much difference just one more player even just a good one can make. And it's hard to quantify. (open to ideas on that though, would love to run some data queries if I write this post) I like the strategy I'm just lamenting that it doesn't seem to be working. Granted, it's been a pretty small sample for Lagares, Brown, Nieuwenhuis (this year anyway) and even Byrd and Valdespin and Cowgill. Lagares and Brown almost seem like automatic outs these days. Baxter has to play more imo, he just has to. He's not doing great, but at least he's not making out (.371 OBP so at least if he's not really hitting he's letting someone else take a chance at hitting...) and he just passed Byrd for most productive non-Duda outfielder.

also, since I happened to catch both NY radio booths talking about this last night. Howie and Josh went into specifics and a long tirade about grumpy umpires and Hernandez specifically. Suzyn "there's a story in the Cleveland game involving a blown call." and then went on with the rest of the scores and ignored it. (This is right after Jon was stumbling over who was batting because he didn't realize initially about the double switch)

Edgy MD wrote: Angel Hernandez, blowing a home run call, being asked to review it, leaving the field, delaying the game, coming back out, and blowing it again. The man works at it. It seems really easy to solve the problem of indicating whether a ball hits a divider behind a wall or hits the wall itself. Either you can put easily scarred material on the outside of the divider --- perhaps a layer of carbon or shoe polish that would mark the ball and be marked by the ball --- or you affix a resounding material like tin to the divider. Heck, you could even go high teck and affix the divider with impact sensors. yeah, the impact sensors would be great. I feel like some worry it's a slippery slope from that to them in everything, but hell, one of the arguments against replay is slowing down the game, and the home run boundaries (and it's awesome that they're all different and unique in baseball) are so easy to speed up to the point that even if you want to review, it takes 30 seconds. I made this point when Murphy hit one off the Pepsi Porch facing for a 'did it hit?' HR back in..09? Even simply tilting the ad banners/walls there to clearly alter the trajectory of anything that hits would be better than nothing. The silly places, like Citi, that have lines? Put an extra layer of padding that's fair territory. But I like the tin idea. Home runs would ring out across the stadium. BOO M.

I hope Francisco can be better than our 7th best option or whatever. It doesn't seem like the market for relievers is going to be such that you'll get much for him. Although maybe we can trade him for a different replacement level outfielder since none of the random ones we try seem to work out.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: On the one hand, happy to see them get outpitched, outfielded and outhit yet still get the tying run up there twice in the late innings. On the other, awful how those chances ended. (post idea but I'm lazy) I think the Mets need just one more hitter. Whether that's Davis, or one of these outfielders, or an acquisition, whatever. Their run production fluctuates between near top of the league to closer to average and occasionally they go through these droughts. Just one more solid hitter to mix in so so many of these chances don't go for naught and the hits and walks bunch up better. And on the grouping front, Buck never should've been forced so high and I'm worried this 'aggressive approach' angle may be messing with Duda (although I hope he's listening to himself and Hudgens more than that chatter)

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Ceetar wrote: Edgy MD wrote: Greg (of course, Greg) had a fantastic list of all the men (Quallses) who stood between Mets pitchers and history. I have to say, that the wattage of electricity in the Metsophere seems shockingly low for the day after one of the four or five best pitched games in team history. Seen a lot of blog posts go by and plenty of excitement from a small subset, but the Mets have low amperes right now. Especially given the Islanders, Rangers and Knicks. I feel like Twitter has sped things up to the point where reflecting on stuff the next day is hopelessly late but at the same time, we over-examine stuff while it's happening. Some. There's a lot of overreaction to the reactions to things. Specifically the (Yesterday's News)papers. But since it's universally accepted that Harvey was and is amazing, there wasn't a lot of "Did you see what so and so wrote?!?!?"

game thread for tonight missing, alert alert!

Edgy MD wrote: This guy's gonna be a beast. Truer words are rarely spoken. It's a good time to look above and review Adam Rubin's jive-assed Twitter tirade. He supposedly said something about it last night too, although I missed it in the commute. here: "Get amused (and then block) when people retweet things from when Matt Harvey was in Triple-A. He was not the same pitcher. Everyone says it."

Edgy MD wrote: Greg (of course, Greg) had a fantastic list of all the men (Quallses) who stood between Mets pitchers and history. I have to say, that the wattage of electricity in the Metsophere seems shockingly low for the day after one of the four or five best pitched games in team history. Seen a lot of blog posts go by and plenty of excitement from a small subset, but the Mets have low amperes right now. Especially given the Islanders, Rangers and Knicks.

Edgy MD wrote: Tejada is definitely better than average. I say that with confidence even after his wubbly defensive start this season. Maybe as compared to his peers at the position, but in terms of skills..he's got average speed, average range, an average arm.. what do you think he does better than average?

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: Also, Rios is, like, fast. Like, fast. yeah. I was joking they should've left Harvey in for the 10th just to bean him.

I think Reyes and Rey both make it. (I think it squirts through for a double on Jeter) I'm just shooting from the hip here, but the jump through presumably deadens some of your momentum, especially in your upper body where you need to throw. Screeching to a stop slows your lower half more than your throwing half. The rotating of the hips helps to drive your arm strength towards your target (certainly how golfers generate power right?) The problem with the slide stop is that you have to be fast enough to have overrun the ball a little in order to slide, and you still risk your momentum going away when you pop up. There's a lot a strong arm can make up for. Reyes wasn't always great with the first step/range stuff, but he made up for it on plays like this. With Tejada being neither quick, nor strong-armed, if he ever wants to be better than average he's going to have to get great jumps, something that's not always easy. It was a bang-bang play, so I think a stronger throw certainly beats Rios.

Zvon wrote: batmagadanleadoff wrote: Harvey Haddix = Hard Luck Nah, that was kool. Okay, we still got a game to win here. I thought Rubin hesitated in mid air, and thats impossible. He seemed to slow down there and I think he had more time to set and throw. But thats a bang bang decision for him. He went with the showy-er move. from the naked eye looked like he did all he could. throw wasn't even bad, it just wasn't a plus-arm throw.

Swan Swan H wrote: I'd like to thank Mother Nature for raining out Saturday's game and pushing my friend Harvey to a game we were attending. Lots of buzzing in the stairwells after the game. seconded. AND it was quick enough that I was actually milling around waiting for my train instead of missing it like last time!

seawolf17 wrote: Anyone else sign up for the volunteer thing? I got the e-mail yesterday. my aunt.

LA Dodger Pitchers at bat to date this season: .157/.204/.255 LA Dodger 3B-men at bat to date this season: .162/.262/.189 - Non working starters used to chart the pitches although I don't think they do that anymore. Usually it was the next day hurler although some teams gave that job to the previous day's guy. there was a story about Niese doing just that last year I think, so maybe they still do to some regard. B.J. Upton .148/.231/.269

LF. and from a lineup perspective, P. Hey, the Mets are second in the NL in runs, gotta be doing something right right?

oh crap, the Pirates are me right? Better get swashbuckling.

That sounds vaguely 'tickle the back of my mind' familiar. Anyway, This is from last years thread really, but Joe McEwing and Robin Venture back* at Citi Field today.