Because You Are Bad At It

Willie Randolph gave his own version of how shocked he was he was let go.  Terrific.  He thought maybe some of his coaches would get fired, but not him.  I guess Willie doesn’t read BTF.

Willie Randolph should have been fired October 1, 2007.  Really, I would have fired him sooner, but the last two weeks of 2007 was the simple culmination of Willie’s constant version of Russian Roulette.  If you make enough poor managerial moves, sooner or later you will shoot yourself in the face.  Randolph routinely ignored simple baseball advantages, operated in stunning ignorance of his players’ skill sets, and loved to use players who were bad, presumably to re-build their confidence.  That’s a minor league manager’s job - at the major league level, you just win.  The Mets won in 2006 in the face of Willie’s poor management.  The 2007 version, with a significantly lessened Carlos Delgado, couldn’t bludgeon their opponents as much, and needed to do fewer dumb things.  Willie just isn’t the man for that.  His previous managerial experience was watching Joe Torre put the Yankees on as much auto-pilot as possible and stay out of the way.  Again, that worked in 2006, but not so…

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MLB Mandates Vambraces

Another day, another injury.  Carlos Delgado had an adventure today.  While taking a lead off third, he was hit in the arm by Brady Clark’s shattered bat.  He suffered a cut that wasn’t small.  As a result, MLB is mandating all baserunners wear body armor to prevent injury.  Okay, maybe not, but it’s the type of overreaction we see to coaches wearing helmets.  Mandating batters wear Biggio-like armor would be preposterous, and just something that isn’t needed.  Likewise, coaches simply aren’t that endangered.  We’ve beaten that horse to death, but Delgado being hit by a bat allowed me to mix in some Dungeons and Dragons education, in homage to E. Gary Gygax, may he rest in peace.

Also, that wouldn’t have happened if the Mets had signed Barry Bonds instead of keeping Brady Clark around.

Spring Training
Usually, I don’t worry too much about Spring Training successes.  Pitchers should be working on particular aspects of their repertoire and fundamentals.  Given that, it doesn’t matter if a pitcer gives up some hits or runs.  If he is trying to master a new pitch, Spring Training is the right time and place.  It is practice.  Just high level practice.  So when I see…

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Kong

I was a young Mets fan in the early 1970s.  I started Little League and got to pretend to be Tom Seaver and Wayne Garrett and Bud Harrelson and Felix Millan and Rusty Staub and John Milner and Jerry Koosman and Jon Matlack.  I couldn’t play catcher, bat-blindness and all, so I never really pretended to be Jerry Grote.  And to me, Willie Mays wasn’t ever a Met.  He was a Giant, so I never really pretended to be him.  Little League was a grand time.

I batted lefty and was usually standing around in right field trying not to get injured, so I was a pretty big fan of Le Grand Orange.  My dad liked him, so that didn’t hurt my fandom.  then Rusty was traded to the Tigers for Mickey Lolich.  We immediately liked Mickey Lolich, so there may have been a body-shape pattern developing… My older brother played third base, so that also made us all big fans of Brooks Robinson and Graig Nettles.  You know, I always thought I would name my son Brooks.  It’s a great name.  Where was I? 

So as Little League went along, I wasn’t very good.  I liked to keep the book…

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Sector One Cleared

One-third of the season is completed, and the 2007 New York Mets are keeping pace with the 2006 New York Mets.  While it is a surprise to many, it shouldn’t be.

Standings through 04 June 2007:

Tm   W   L   W-L%   GB
+---+---+---+-----+-----+
 NYM  35  20  .636   --- 
 ATL  32  25  .561   4.0 
 PHI  28  29  .491   8.0 
 FLA  28  30  .483   8.5 
 WSN  23  34  .404  13.0  
 

Standings after 55 Met games in 2006:

NLE     W   L    GB      WP
NYM    33  22     -     .600
PHI    29  27   4.5     .518
ATL    28  29   6.0     .491
WSN    25  32   9.0     .439
FLA    20  34  12.5     .370

Yes, the 2007 Mets are actually two games ahead of their 2006 pace.  I doubt the Braves will proceed to go belly-up this June as they did in June 2006, but the Braves certainly lack the talent the Mets have, and aren’t likely to keep up, much less catch the Mets.  The Phillies are an unbelievable mess.  They play like world-beaters one day and the Bad News Bears the next.  On a side note, Cole Hamels is terrific to watch pitch.

What has the Mets outfront?  Offense?  Defense?  Pitching?  All three actually. 

The bullpen is incredible once…

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What I Saw Last Night - 30 APR 07 Mets-Marlins

Can’t anybody here catch the ball?

The Mets have played very good defense so far this season.  Last night, not so much.  While I am disgusted at the thought of having Chan Ho Park start a game, he really didn’t pitch that poorly.  That sounds like crazy-talk when you consider that he went four IP, allowing seven earned runs, with lots of baserunners, but if you saw what I saw, you might not think so.  Park started the game masterfully - he sat down the first eight Marlin hitters in order, and with very little trouble.  He really had tied up Miguel Cabrera, striking him out to end the first inning.  The same with Joe Borchard to end the second.  It all started to come unravelled when the Fish pitcher Olsen singled during an at-bat where Park began to lose the strike zone, and grooved one down the mmiddle.  Yes, batting pitchers still swing and miss that, or ground it weakly to second very very often, but Olsen squarely sent it up the middle.

Somehow allowing a single to the pitcher got in Park’s head.  I don’t know if he was just terribly upset with himself for allowing a hit to…

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Five Down, One to Go

Turn out the lights, the party's over...

Dandy Don Meredith sang it oh so sweetly. With four weeks to play, and a huge lead, I feel completely comfortable patting the Mets on the back.

TEAM    W   L    PCT  GB    HOME   ROAD   L-10 STREAK  

NYMets  82  50  .621  -     43-23  39-27  8-2  L-1  

Philly  67  66  .504  15.5  33-35  34-31  6-4  L-1  

Florida 65  68  .489  17.5  35-30  30-38  8-2  L-2  

Atlanta 63  69  .477  19    30-35  33-34  5-5  L-1  

Wash.   56  77  .421  26.5  31-32  25-45  2-8  W-1  

The Mets are playing the best baseball of any team in the NL. Even despite having a big lead, and running the Norfolk pitching staff out there all month. The offense is clicking as David Wright and Carlos Delgado located their strokes. In August, Jose Reyes, Delgado and Beltran all posted OPS marks over 1.000. Endy Chavez (yes, that one) posted a 0.917. It's just ridiculous how good our lineup is. Even Paul LoDuca is hitting well above .300.

Since the All-Star Break, the Mets are 29-14. They have 11 starts from Glavine and Pedro. The team ERA is just 4.35 over that period, and Pedro (5.75) and Glavine (5.18) weren't helping. There…Read More ...

Four Down, Two to go

TEAM W  L  PCT  GB  HOME  ROAD  L-10  STREAK  
 NYMets 63  41  .606  -  30-21  33-20  7-3  W-4  
 
 Philly 49  55  .471  14  27-31  22-24  5-5  L-1  
 
 Florida 49  56  .467  14.5  25-24  24-32  6-4  W-1  
 
 Atlanta 48  56  .462  15  22-28  26-28  3-7  L-4  
 
 Wash. 47  59  .443  17  26-24  21-35  7-3  W-1  

Okay, we only added a game and a half in the month of July. We need to add one game to the lead per week in August.

The last week of the month of July was simply delightful. First Braves fans were coming out of the woodwork praising their offense and how it was rolling because they battered the Padres. Then Cubs fans started jawing about how overrated the Mets were because they lost three games in a row, and two in a row to an NL for the first time this season. Some were predicting a long slide for the Mets.

The Mets then shutout the Cubs, and went to Atlanta and kicked the snot out of the Braves. The Braves dropped to 15 games back, and the fans I work with came to work conceding.

The Short Ride Home

The Mets are playing the first…Read More ...

Mets at the Break

Sweet Fancy Moses!

A 12 game lead at the Break.  Are the 1914 Boston Braves in our division?  Good.

How good have the Mets been?  Here are the Mets players compared against average:

  Pos   Name    Last      Team    XRpt    RSpt  Totalpt  XR/150  RS/150 Total/150
   1B   Carlos  Delgado   NYM      4       3       7       7       5       12
   1B   Julio   Franco    NYM      -4      -2      -6     -24     -24     -48
   2B   Jose    Valentin  NYM      5       3       8       15      11      26
   2B   Chris   Woodward  NYM      -4      -1      -5     -18      22      4
   3B   David   Wright    NYM      21     -11      10      37     -19      18
   C    Ramon   Castro    NYM      2       1       3       11      4       15
   C    Paul    LoDuca    NYM      3       -3      0       7       -7      0
   CF   Carlos  Beltran   NYM      31      7       38      63      14      77
   LF   Cliff   Floyd     NYM      0       6       6       0       17      17
   LF   LastingsMilledge  NYM      -3      -3      -6     -19     -11     -30
   RF   Endy    Chavez    NYM      -2      9       7       -7      32      26
   RF   Xavier  Nady      NYM      0       -3      -3      0       -7      -7
   SS   Jose    Reyes     NYM      21      6       27      35      10      46

The total there is 156 runs above average.

The relievers are posting a sweet 3.24 ERA, the lowest in the league.  The starters aren’t doing so well - 4.47,…

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Three down, Three to go

Well, goodness.  We staggered through that least week of Interleague play, and we improved on our lead over the month of June.

TEAM W  L  PCT  GB  HOME  ROAD  L-10  STREAK  
 Mets 51  34  .600  -  25-16  26-18  4-6  W-3  
 
 Philly 38  46  .452  12.5  19-25  19-21  3-7  L-2  
 
 Atlanta 38  48  .442  13.5  19-22  19-26  6-4  W-2  
 
 Fla 36  46  .439  13.5  18-20  18-26  4-6  L-1  
 
 Wash 38  49  .437  14  20-21  18-28  5-5  W-1 

The Braves moved up in the last week after a hugely bad June.  How good was teh month? Well, a month ago we had a 5 game lead on the Braves and Phils.  At this rate, we’ll have a sparkling 20 game lead come September 1.  That’d be pretty sweet.

Okay, it may be cocky, but I started growing my “playoff beard”.  Okay, I just didn’t shave over the July 4 holiday, and haven’t yet, so my excuse was that.  I liked it, and since I can’t grow a beard, and it looks hideous, I’m sticking with it until the missus says otherwise.  I think you guys should do the same.  Another reason to start growing one was Orel Hershiser declaring so on a ESPN…

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Wrighting the Ship

Wrighting the Ship

The Mets had let the Phils and Braves creep back to just a Three-Finger Brown handful of games back last week.  David Wright and Carlos Beltran then got really hot.  They are both hitting over 0.400 and posting a 1.200+ OPS this month.  Wright also is pounding out the multi-hit games with 25 already this year. 

After the Sunday, June 10 head-thumping and sweep-completion of the Diamondbacks, the Mets have a ten game lead on the Braves and a six and a half game lead on the Phillies.

A week or so ago, I read a comment that the NL West was all at 0.500 or better.  That’s really nice.  I was certainly one to talk about how good the NL East was last season under similar circumstances.  The Mets have played the NL West the last 13 games and smashed them in the mouth to the tune of a 9-4 record.  It didn’t hurt to catch the Dbacks in the Grimsley distraction period, but these guys are pros, and every one will tell you that when they get between the lines, they don’t think about anything else.

The Mets traded Kaz Matsui for Eli Marrero.  Well, it…

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Two Down, Four to Go

The standings:

TEAM W  L  PCT  GB  HOME  ROAD  L-10  STREAK  
 NY Mets 32  20  .615  -  18-9  14-11  7-3  W-1  
 
 Atlanta 28  26  .519  5  13-9  15-17  6-4  L-1  
 
 Phil. 27  25  .519  5  16-16  11-9  5-5  L-1  
 
 Wash. 22  32  .407  11  10-13  12-19  6-4  W-1  
 
 Florida 17  34  .333  14.5  9-17  8-17  6-4  L-1 

As I type this, the Phillies are getting thumped by the Dodgers 7-0 in the fifth inning.  In a month, the Braves and Phils moved up a game.  Not bad considering Pedro didn’t win a single game all month and Jose Lima made a few starts, posting a 9 ERA.  That’s not bad at all.

That’s not even the good stuff.  Xavier Nady had an appendectomy.  Why would that be good news?  Lastings Milledge, minor league stud, was called up to replace him.  Milledge doubled for his first hit in his first game, playing right field against the Diamondbacks.  His second game wasn’t so great, but his potential makes it exciting.  He wore number 44.  Beats me.  He’s really only expected to be up while Nady is out - about two weeks - but hopefully he will hit well enough to get the Mets…

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One More Year?

Tom Glavine posted his eighth win yesterday.  He’s made eleven starts.  He’s thrown seventy-three innings.  Very impressive.

The Mets re-structured Glavine’s contract for options on the 2007 season (From Newsday):
“Enter Glavine, whose initial contract was set to expire after 2006, prompting the two sides to work out another deal with deferred money that added a team option for 2007.

The Mets can bring Glavine back for $12 million, or if they choose not to, he can activate a player option for $5.5 million that could grow to $8.5 million if he pitches 200 innings. The team option climbs to $14 million if Glavine reaches 180 innings, and the reworked contract includes a $3-million buyout to cover the deferred money.”

One more year.  Okay, there is a rumor that Ken Rosenthal likes to push that the Mets would “let” Glavine return to the Braves to win his 300th next season, but that doesn’t sound like something that would go through.

Tom Glavine won his eighth game yesterday in his eleventh start.  He’s averaged 33 starts for the Mets, but averaged 35 starts the three years before coming to the Mets.  The Mets have played 48 games.  They have 114 more.  Glavine…

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Three Weeks Later…

The last three weeks haven’t seen the best baseball from the Mets, and most of it is due to a destroyed back-end of the rotation.

TEAM	W	L	PCT	GB	HOME	ROAD	L-10	STREAK
Mets	24	16	0.600	-	12-6	12-10	3-7	L-2
Philly	22	18	0.550	2	12-11	10-7	6-4	L-3
Atlanta	21	20	0.512	3.5	12-6	9-14	8-2	W-4
Wash.	14	27	0.341	10.5	3-10	11-17	4-6	W-1
Florida	11	28	0.282	12.5	3-14	8-14	3-7	L-4

The Mets have played 0.500 ball, while the Braves and Phils have crept closer.  The Braves took advantage of the Fish, coming from behind in the ninth inning twice in sweeping Florida.  The upcoming weekend is troubling, as the Mets face the JV squad across town, while the Braves play Arizona.  The Phillies will have their hands full with the Beantowners.

What has gone Right

Jose Reyes.  Yes, I’ve been annoyed about some of the “swing at the first pitch” PAs he has, but in my preview, I was saying he could get a 0.320 OBP, and we’d do okay.  Well, he is at 0.324.  Yes, it is annoying, but he is “on pace” for 125 runs scored.  That’s a good sign.…

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One Down, Five to Go

One Down, Five to Go

The first month of the 2006 baseball season is over, and the standings are as beautiful as they have been in twenty years.

TEAM	W 	L 	PCT 	GB 	HOME 	ROAD 	L-10 	STREAK 
 NY	16 	8 	.667 	- 	7-4 	9-4 	6-4 	L-1 

 Atl	10 	14 	.417 	6 	4-5 	6-9 	4-6 	W-1 

 Philly	10 	14 	.417 	6 	5-10 	5-4 	4-6 	W-1 

 Wash	8 	17 	.320 	8.5 	1-7 	7-10 	3-7 	L-2 

 Fla	6 	16 	.273 	9 	2-7 	4-9 	3-7 	L-3 

And it’s not just the standings.  The Mets have the best ERA in the league by nearly half a run.  They are scoring five runs a game.

The pitching staff has been very good.  Future Hall of Famers Tom Glavine and Pedro Martinez have been very good. Glavine is 3-2 with a 2.29 ERA, and Martinez is 5-0 with a 2.94 ERA.  Rookie Brian Bannister has walked a bunch, but hasn’t allowed too many hits.  Unfortunately he strained a hamstring scoring the winning run against the Giants in his last start and will be out a while.

The bullpen has been stupendous.  I was pretty unhappy with the trade of Jae Seo, but Duaner Sanchez is making the trade…

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All Washed Up and No Place to Go

All Washed Up and No Place to Go

Recently, the Boston Red Sox had a star pitcher coming to the end of his contract. He had seen his innings pitched dip, and there were signs of shoulder damage that could spell the end of his years as a dominant pitcher. He was a couple of years on the wrong side of 30, and he was seeing signs of fewer strikeouts and more home runs allowed. Naturally the press felt it was time to let go. Sure, the man had led them to a Championship and been recognized as having some of the greatest pitching seasons ever. But baseball is a business. When he left, RSN said “Good Riddance.” The pitcher was often surly with fans and the team – he was often viewed as a prima donna.

So on to free agency he went. He signed a huge contract, for his age and recent performances. The contract was viewed with one eyebrow raised – the money and the length almost meant sure albatross down the road.

What happens? Sure, enough rumors of his demise were premature. He bounced back in innings pitched, home runs, and dropped his ERA by more than…

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Hot Dogs and Apple Pie

Oh, yes!  Today, April 26, 2006, I got a baseball game like I like them.  It was a little higher scoring than I care for, but the Mets won, which is a very good feature, and it featured some terrific defense and exciting offense.

Rookie Brian Bannister has been throwing 100 pitches in five inings so far in his starts.  Today he only got to 86 because he strained a hamstring running the bases.  That’s right, the Mets pitcher had two doubles, drove in two runs and sore the go-ahead run in the sixth inning.  He came up lame as he got to third base, but staggered home to give the Mets a 4-3 lead.  Bannister toughed it out with a busted leg better than many everyday players, who would have taken the opportunity to sit down on third base. 

That wasn’t the only highlight.  Rickey Henderson (I told you there were hot dogs) was in attendence as he is helping coach Jose Reyes on the fine art of leading off.  Reyes walked to lead off the game, gave Rickey a wave of acknowledgement, and got picked off.  It’s a work in progress.  Reyes also got two hits and two walks,…

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Six Days, Seven Nights

I don’t like small sample sizes, much less making decisions based on them, but they are hilarious to look at.

A week ago, the Mets were riding high - 10-2, the best record in baseball, and the largest lead ever after 12 games (5).  And some claimed it was “quality of schedule”, but that’s mostly nonsense at this point because you don’t know who is going to be good, and who isn’t.  These are all major league teams and can win any game - any pitcher can throw a no-hitter, as long as he doesn’t play or the Mets at the time, and any team of hitters can be hot at any given time.

So what happened since? No one can hit the ball.  No one.  Okay, Delgado.  It’s amusing to look at the OPSes of the players up and down the lineup.  In the typical lineup, over the last week, here are the OPS marks by lineup slot:

0.339
0.345
0.968
0.628
0.408
0.683
0.448
0.765

How that hitting went 2-5 the last week is amazing.

Delgado is going to hit a lot of solo home runs.  Normally, I’m not a “shake up the lineup” kind of guy, but the…

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Glavine coming back

When the Mets signed Tom Glavine, everyone said he was washed up - the second half of his last year with the Braves was not strong, and Braves fans said “Glad he’s gone.” Glavine stunk up the joint his first season and spent his first days on the Disabled List.  I wrote about his possible demise after the 2003 season. Glavine solved *something*, and despite lots of hate from ZiPS and every other projection system, Glavine bounced back in 2004.  He also kept it rolling in 2005.  He threw 210+ innings and at a strong ERA+.

So this season he has started out great.  But what does it look like?  He threw back-to-back games, April 14 versus the Brewers and April 19 versus the Braves, where he was dominant. 

CBS.sportsline, and assumably other sites, have pitch location data.  It’s not perfect, but it is interesting. 

In the Milwaukee grid, Glavine struck out 11 hitters and you can see why.  His strikes are precise.  Low and away, up and in, down and in.  He had tremendous command and it showed.

In the Braves game, he had similar results as far as the game is concerned (H, BB), but he had much worse…

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It’s Mets… Just Mets

Welcome to the Mets blog.  All Mets, all the time.

In the May 17, 1961 edition of The Sporting News, The Base Ball Paper of the World, the headline read: “It’s Mets”.  Not “Metropolitans”.  Mets.  Just Mets.  Yes, the corporate name of the franchise holder is Metropoltan Baseball Club, but the team nickname is Mets...Just Mets.

I have been a Met fan my entire baseball loving life - since I was about 8 and started stinking up Little League.  Tom Terrific and Bud Harrelson.  Jerry grote and Rusty Staub - Le Grande Orange.  Tommie Agee, John Milner and Cleon Jones.  And, of course, Willie Mays.

People sometimes talk/write of what a “shell of a player Mays was” when he came to the Mets.  To an 8-year old, he was just Willie Mays.  The Willie Mays.  It was just cool to be a fan of the team with Willie Mays.  Then the 1973 season came along, and it was chasing down the pennant.

I can still recall watching the 1973 playoffs.  Pete Rose and Bud Harrelson getting into it at second base.  Wayne Garrett jumping on Rose after Pete cold-cocked Bud.  Then the World Series - I had a wager with my…

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