Ceetar

TransMonk wrote: I had forgotten that Maine's next scheduled start is the Mets' first national TV appearance of the season. Ouch! Fuels the conspiracy theory for sure there.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: 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. This is where a pitching coach, a captain, a catcher should walk out to the mound and try to get him focused. Or he should slap himself into alertness and focus.

smg58 wrote: 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. well, Murphy will hopefully be back soon and possibly Davis if that doesn't work. Defense at first will be better. and if Maine chilled out a bit maybe makes that play. I noticed that too, with them going easy on Maine, but he pitched healthily at the end of last season, so I'm not sure why. I really think getting his arm strength up would be more beneficial then pushing it past it's comfort level every start until it's up there.

Edgy DC wrote: Do you think the Orioles will let us send a vet or two down for the old Norfolk Cure? Aren't the Orioles like 1-9? We could send 'em south, but they might never make it past Maryland. I'm not using the quote as any proof of anything, but there just seem to be more and more worrysome signs that worry me, even if one or two don't really mean much.

Edgy DC wrote: If you read the entirety of that post, Warthan is all over the place, because he doesn't quite know. It's a results business. If Warthen doesn't know, hasn't known for a while, then why keep him? Sure, maybe no one knows. It's certainly possible. But it seems pretty clear that we know that he doesn't know. So try someone else. do the research. hire smart people. It's always hard to truly evaluate this stuff, because we really don't know what conversations Maine and Warthen have between themselves, and how much value they have. Regardless, I don't think Warthen should be coming out and babbling like he has no idea what to do. This team puts forth a front of having no clue about any plan or long term goals, and whether that's true or not, some confidence would befit this team. At least Maine didn't storm back into the clubhouse. He sat down and talked with Warthen, first thing. (Although I would've sent him back out there at that point. I'm wondering if building up his arm strength and facing more batters in general would be beneficial) At least have him top 100. Just a thought.

Fman99 wrote: Whomever bitched when I took out two hitting positions per roster... you can see even after that move that there is NO help on the wire, hitters-wise. I'm glad that I'm not trying to field still two more hitters every night. Definitely. I had to pick up David Eckstein. I mean...eww.

Edgy DC wrote: I don't think it's ever true that because one part of pitching (or hitting) is mentioned as a priority, the rest of the instruction has been forsaken. But your post certainly suggested that setting that priority has been counterproductive, when it certainly has not. The quote above suggests that even Warthen thinks that could be the case. supposedly they're going to have dialogue, after two games, about him staying in the rotation. This suggests to me that they just don't know what to do. Which is criminal. It's Warthen's job to know. He should be coming out and saying "We're going to work on getting his fastball down in the zone." "We need to work on hitting the inside corner more against right hand hitters." "We need to explore our options for what to throw to get a strikeout." Maine's comments suggest he seems lost. he mentions getting the fastball down more, but it sounds to me like he's just not sure what the gameplan is and how he's not happy with how/where he's throwing (well duh). And, like the confidence boosters Manuel and Warthen are, they're not tellling him we're going to work on this or that. They're talking about taking him out of the rotation instead of how to keep him in it. And this is what I've been complaining about with this team for a while. They're also focusing on eliminating the bad, but not on fixing it.

Conversely, pitching to contact is not the answer either. Even for Pelfrey. Even at Citi Field.

Edgy DC wrote: Ceetar wrote: It's curious. (Warthen's a bum. I see nothing I like from him.) I said that during the spring that maybe this insistance on "DONT WALK ANYBODY!" was causing the pitchers to start missing over the plate instead of off it (especially Perez). So HR instead of Ball. Silly. Well, the only guy who hit a homerun yesterday was Smith, but nine Rockie batters walked, so I don't think it's particularly silly to want to address that sort of behavior. Not silly to address it, no. But fixing it isn't as simple as saying "Don't do it". You have to teach more about setting up hitters, and when throwing out of the strikezone is acceptable. The walks yesterday were partly Nieve not having it at all, and part Maine having no confidence in his fastball so trying to paint corners and missing.

You might see more starts for the guy than Field-Jefe can, as per the Ledger's Brian Costa: Manuel said Maine's rotation spot could be in jeopardy. They'll discuss it further. Lack of velocity a big concern. #nym about 2 hours ago via UberTwitter And is "throwing strikes" this year's "hit it the opposite way?" According to Adam Rubin, Mr. Warthen sees it that way. "We don�t want them to do that, but we�re so in tune to not walking people, maybe we are trying to not let it go like we�re capable of doing," Warthen said. It's curious. (Warthen's a bum. I see nothing I like from him.) I said that during the spring that maybe this insistance on "DONT WALK ANYBODY!" was causing the pitchers to start missing over the plate instead of off it (especially Perez). So HR instead of Ball. Silly. Also, when you're trying to pinpoint control, from my understanding, you tend ot not quite let it rip as hard. Maybe that's why the velocity is down? Perez's wasn't even a shoulder injury (and he wasn't qutie as OMG RELEASE HIM bad in 2008. Maine had a 4-1 2.75 ERA last May. so somewhere, the talent is there. his last two starts of last year he was throwing 91-92 (although in his second to las start his changeup/slider was like 85-86, which was too fast. He had that around 82 last night) So where'd that velocity go, if he could throw it post-surgery? Is it an arm strength thing? just needs to build it up to get that hard? is it this silly no walks thing that seems to be the only thing Warthen knows? something else? And who knows how to fix it ? (Certainly not the analysts, radio hosts, and beat writers that will tell us what his velocity means and waht we should do abuot it)

I didn't like Nick Evans when he first came up, but he's grown on me. I mean, can he really be worse than Jacobs? He does seem to have some power, is a righty (on a lefty heavy bench or something), is off to a fast start..

I doubt Davis comes along before Murphy. I feel like if they had any doubt Murphy wouldn't be back in April they'd just have brought Davis up, because it was questionable whether Jacobs made the team anyway. They have confidence in Murphy to put up respectable numbers and contribute to this team (likely more than the rookie Davis would do over a full season), and it'd be hard to justify demoting Davis for him even if Davis wasn't doing that well. Releasing Jacobs for Murphy however, is a nobrainer.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Is Niese the fifth guy? Or is it Perez? Manuel loses count after 2. Niese (and Maine due to shoulder fatigue reasons) are the only two guys I'd consider skipping.

metirish wrote: I think part of the issue here is that Santana wants to pitch on his regular day and not get that extra rest. Another thing to consider is the whole 'verducci effect' thing, which may be just a theory, and the Mets haven't traditionally adhered to it anyway, but as much as I want Niese to get his reps, occasionally skipping him to keep his overall innings total down might be wise, especially if it gets Santana an extra start over the course of a season and it keeps him happy.

TransMonk wrote: Unfortunately, if they skipped #5 as often as they could, the backlash would be tremendous if Johan were to blow his arm out in July and have season ending surgery. Prevention and recovery indeed. Well, I feel like Johan, especially coming off arm surgery, could use the extra day during the earlier months. Also, as pitchers throw more pitches per start than they did the previous time out at this time of year, arguably putting more strain on the arm, that extra day to heal it could help as well. I also feel like it could hurt the 5th guy a bit by not keeping him on a semi-regular schedule and having him pitch after 5 days and then after 10. Especially when the guy's a rookie like Niese who arguably will be better in September the more starts he gets now.

Sometimes I wonder what's going on behind the scenes. It was obvious Jerry wanted Mejia and Omar started out saying he'd go to AA. I've heard Jerry's the one that wanted Matthews. We definitely heard that Jerry liked Valdes. Is Omar being circumvented on roster moves? I didn't really have a problem with jettisoning Figgy, but a 25 year old pitcher is a different thing. It's probably no big deal, he probably sucks and won't make it because most don't, but it's the little things that are signs that there are bigger problems.

metirish wrote: I don't like Manuel all that much but I would that no player would have the power to be rid of a manager . I'm sure I am naive but I would hate to even think that a player is going to ownership with such nonsense. Nah, Wright would probably never do it. But if he let Omar get wind that maybe him and some other guys didn't really care for Manuel's attitude/leadership/anything after last season, You'd have to think Omar would think three times (presumably he already thought twice about it) about firing him.

I can't see any of the players actually liking Manuel, who seems to constantly chew them out in the media. Wright may be the one guy that had the power to get rid of him in the offseason though. Maybe he should've spoken up. I hope the Mets can put up a 12 game streak. I think they're capable of it for sure, but i do agree that it probably won't happen until we have a better manager. Sometimes I do wonder if Manuel manages the team like losers because they've lost recently, or he just doesn't know any better, but we've needed a guy that's going to focus the team on winning and massage egos and pump up confidences.

Did he just basically say the season was sunk because Santana lost yesterday? OMG It's Colorado and St. Louis! We're, like, sunk dude. How could anyone ever beat those teams?

Last year I'm sure it could be attributed to the new stadium and getting acclimated to all the new things. This year people are pessimistic, but that shouldn't stop us from cheering any individual game. Friday was dreadful. I was there, and I'm not a particularly vocal guy, and I just feel foolish when I was standing on the bridge and Pelfrey gets to two strikes and it's the last out of the inning and there's a runner on second and I start clapping. I suspect it'll pick up as the Mets win some games going into the summer time when it's warmer. Just like the attendance will pick up as well. April is always a slow month.

Mex17 wrote: OK, here is a test to see if lessons were learned or not. If Castillo is "day-to-day" for a period approaching or equalling what would have been a stay of the 15-day DL, all the while when we are playing with 24 men and no backup middle infielder (save for Tatis), and with an option on Tejada spent, I would nave to say that there were none. Does someone have a copy of the 'options' rule I can read? this always confuses me. I didn't think it was a countdown thing, but a time thing and that calling Tejada back up wouldn't actually affect it anymore than keeping him here. So far the word seems to be that Castillo is fine, especially since he played two games on the 'barking' calf. Manuel said they sent Tejada to Buffalo right after the game, so this must've been the plan the whole time, I feel like if they were worried they would've waited until today to make the swap.