Uhh…a copy of that ultra-rare Karl Ehrhardt-Bo “The Arm Twisting Lady Behind Home Plate” Field sex video?
No one should begrudge Raul Casanova, Damion Easley, Brady Clark, or (especially) Nelson Figueroa their playing time, especially given that they were all playing mainly due to injuries. It’s fair, though, to note that the first three are basically slight caricatures of unimpressive regulars at their positions, and that Figueroa is starting because, contrary to the loudly expressed wishes and desires of every fan and pundit with the least interest in the Mets, the team didn’t sign a cheap, reliable innings sponge such as Livan Hernandez or Kyle Lohse this winter. Thus, when the Mets fall apart because such players can’t pick up the slack when the stars don’t hit, you have people shouting “Minaya!” in the streets like William Shatner intoning the name of the hated villain Khan.
...It is always the firm mantra of this column that individual baseball games mean little, that results before the first six weeks worth of returns are in mean even less, and that panic and doomsaying can do little but make one look silly. Aaron Heilman, a notably reliable reliever for years, can be forgiven a bad run here and there, and focusing on the negative can leave one forgetting important things, like how well Angel Pagan and Ryan Church have played in the field and at the plate, or how effective Figueroa and Maine were against an imposing Cubs lineup. Still, this team is not only showing its seams and frayed edges; those seams happen to be the same ones many observers were pointing to as weak points before a game was even played this year. For once, asking incredulously if this is all $135 million buys isn’t at all a silly thing to do.
Repoz
Posted: April 23, 2008 at 10:33 AM |
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How often did they rub it in our faces that the Cubs snagged Reed Johnson before the Mets could?
This made me LOL.
I for one am mightily glad to see a good AAAA pitcher (good relative to other AAAA pitchers) getting starts rather than the washed up carcasses of the likes of Jose Lima 2006, Dave Williams 2006, Kaz Ishii 2005, Brian Lawrence 2007, James Baldwin 2004.
The Diamondbacks politely disagree with both options. Best rotation, best defense, 125 runs scored, a 4-deep pen, young team only getting better, Scherzer throwing AAA cheddar/big league ready.
The Diamondbacks politely disagree with both options. Best rotation, best defense, 125 runs scored, a 4-deep pen, young team only getting better, Scherzer throwing AAA cheddar/big league ready.
Eh, it's April 23rd. Not to say that any of these three teams (or another?) could assert their NL dominance, but geez, its April 23. Check back in 6 weeks.
Semantics alert: "more and more looks the part"
$135M doesn't seem to buy Omar any love these days, does it? Who gets canned first if the Mets keep struggling, Omar or Willy?
http://sportslocker.blogspot.com/
Church: He's a keeper. He can hit for power, and is an above average right fielder defensively. Only real concerns here are health and the sustained ability to hit lefties (I think he will).
Alou/Pagan: When he plays, Alou will hit. Simple as that. Pagan seems to be having his career year, and he's still not that good. But combined with Alou's production when healthy, that should be enough, even for a corner outfield position.
Schneider: Still doesn't have an extra base-hit and his bat is weak. But he is a catcher, so he shouldn't be a millstone on the offense as long as he can get on base 1/3 of the time.
Castillo: He looks bad so far. His legs look shot, and his already-low SLG is cratering. The hope is that he can still put up a respectable OBP in the .340-.350 range and therefore extend rallies. Also, he's perfect in the 8 hole because of his desire to take walks (hopefully Willie realizes this).
Delgado: The big concern. I think Mets fans would run with a .350/.450/.800 OPS line if offered. There are some AB's where it seems like he's hitting into hard luck, but there are others where his swing looks very defensive and therefore useless. You still have to give him a couple more weeks to see if he'll come out of it. He really should sit against tough lefties.
Altogether, while this lineup is clearly not in the elite, it still has the potential to be quite productive. And as long as the pitching is among the elite (which I think it will be), we should be OK.
What about Kyle Lohse?
And you think Figueroa is better than these guys because?
and...
So are you tiping your hand, and you really suspect Willy gets canned? I agree with the Hudson to Mets thing, i've thought the same thing as well. Mostly because you keep saying Byrnes won't resign Hudson, and the Mets in reality have the hole at 2nd -- Castillo's years left aside.
Last year the optimist's spin was that his very slow start back from a hand injury was understandable, and he rebounded to solid performance from May on. This year his hip injury is proving just as big an impact on his swing as the hand was, and it is murdering his defense, which was already crappy. He is immobile. He is Jason Giambi or David Ortiz. He can only make plays on balls hit right at him, and he doesn't even have Mo Vaughn's soft hands.
In the first few games it looked like Delgado was making a point of flaring singles the other way, Tony Gwynn style, as if he understood that he needed a new approach at the plate. It now appears that that smart hitting to the opposite field was in fact dumb luck, a few bloops that just happened to find holes over there.
I don't think he should be released immediately ... but if I'm Minaya I am working on my contingency plans for a summer without Delgado. He may have played himself off the team by then.
If you are going to spam the site, shouldn't you learn to use html tags? It is not like you have to write them out
I would guess because he has had some success in the minors?
We all knew he was on the Mo Vaughn as a Met career path didn't we? Were there people out there who actually expected a good year out of Carlos?
The Mets will still be ok, but the Delgado situation isn't even mildly surprising.
Mike Carp has posted .425/.469/.712 through his first 73 ABs at Binghamton.
He does look pretty bad at the plate right now. I have no idea what he and HoJo are looking at when they say "everything is functioning well". He looks somewhat discombobulated.
I just hope plan B is not Abreu. To balance things out, Carp, Evans and Murphy are all mashing at Binghamton.
they sucked and should have been predicted to suck.
Anyone who played fantasy baseball for more than few years knows that the DOWNSIDE these old farts (old vets, declining stuff, recent ERAs over 5.00) present is worse than any random AAAer (At least you know the random AAAer usually won't get another start after his piss-poor stuff gets shelled- teams always seem to want to give the vet who has nothing left another start or two...)
Really? I still remember having "Dave Williams, league average starter" stuffed down my throat two years ago.
HoJo is being polite.
Delgado is in denial.
BTW since the trade Delgado is at .258/.345/.484 and Mike Jacobs is at .265/.321/.477
For that negligible gain in production the Mets have paid many millions of dollars...
but on the other hand both Petit and Psomas look like complete busts
The problem is- where's the contingency plan?
AAA? Unless you count Tatis (I don't).
Carp??? He's 22 and hit .251/.337/.387 in Binghamton last year (after hitting .287/.379/.450 in the FSL at age 20- Wright hit 270/.368/.459 there at the same age- but scouts always loved Wright- they don't even like Carp)- if Carp is hitting .363/.458/.619 after 223 ABs, then by all means- promote him- I wouldn't hold my breath though
If/when Alou returns- put him at 1B and let Pagan/Endy play in left?
Trade?
Not by me, but I do remember reading that as well.... and wondering what people were smoking.
[edit] I will say though that Petit is not very suited for Chase Field. Ideally, he gets traded to a team with a ballpark that forgives flyball pitchers... but in the meantime, he'll be just fine as the long reliever/back of the rotation insurance in AZ
Yeah, but that isn't fair, because the 06 Mets had a legitimate chance to win a WS and having Delago at first instead of Jacobs made them that much better. Sure, they didn't win the WS in 06, but with Delgado they had a very good chance.
Yes that's true, but '06 Mets were making the playoffs with or without Delgado and the the '08 Mets may very well miss the playoffs if '08 Delgado is as bad as we Mets fans fear.
It is true that they would have made the playoffs in 06 with or without him, but their ability to go further in 06 would have been hampered without him. (He hit 351/442/757). I still make that trade.
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