3-7 Miasma

Written by Benny B. | 17 April 2010

Yesterday, I started the day off by breaking my poor little pinky toe, then painfully throwing out my back, and then capping the night off with Mets loss.  Not a good day for I.  It's painful for me to type right now so I'll keep it brief.

The mets are 3-7 and while the whole baseball world is burying them only 10 games into the season, there have been some real positives and differences in their style of play.  However, the Mets have also exhibited some of the same follishness that lost them so many games last year as well.  So here are some of the Pro's and Con's after 10 games.

PROS:

• The Starting Pitching has been acceptable, and in some cases surprising.  Big Pelf finally looks like he is putting it together with 3 straight great outings.  He has added a new splitter that coupled with his hard sinker and 4 seamer is totally baffling hitters.  Jon Neise had an up and down 2 first starts.  None translated into wins, but he looks focused.  Technically he is still a Rookie, so he gets a little slack for learning on the job.  I like his potential and could be the Mets #3 starter for many years to come.  And Ollie Perez.  Ollie, Ollie Ollie.  He looked like Johan last night locked into a real pitchers duel with Carpenter going 6.1 innings (the first time he went over 6 innings in two years).  His velocity is down about 3-4 MPH, but that appears to have been the plan:  Sacrifice some of the speed for more control.  And thats what he showed last night.  He was up & down and In & out with his pitches all night.  He looked focused and controlled.  I hope this is the beginning of good things from Ollie, and not the good start/bad start Ollie we all know.  The last pitcher is John Maine who I am really worried about.  I think he is a head case, and he is in trouble.  Lets hope these other solid pitching performances inspire him...otherwise he should be sent to the minors
• The Relief pitching has also been stellar aside from a couple of recent hicups...but I don't blame the pitchers (more of this in the cons section).  The new additions add many different looks that the Mets have not had in a while; particularly Japanese imports Tak & Iggy.  Since there are a lot of new faces, the scouting has not caught up to them yet.  We'll see how they fair a couple months from now.
• There are fight in these Mets.  While it has not translated into wins, the mets have staged multiple late inning comebacks including scroring 2 runs in the 9th last night.  I like that this group isn't laying down.  If they can keep their confidence up through this rough patch, eventually it will equate to some comeback wins.
• Defense all around looks like it is improving.  D-Wright made web-gem like plays last night as did Frenchy.

CONS:

• Jason Bay is not right.  He is pressing and it shows.  While he has hit in almost every game, they are weak hits.  I am not worried about him.  He will snap out of it eventually...he is too good of a hitter not to.  However, if Jason Bay was hitting like Jason Bay these past 10 games, our record would be a lot better than it is today.
• The Mets are still running themselves out of innings.  It happened in Thursday's game when Wright came up to bat with no outs and two men on, and by the time his at bat ended with a strikeout, the inning was over as those two men on base were each caught stealing.  It also happened in yesterdays game, and if it wasn't for a defensive mishap, it would have resulted in an out as well.  If I haven't seen this before I would just chalk it up to early season rust.  But it isn't.  This is a problem that needs to be corrected.
• Jose Reyes--regardless of what he says--is not 100% yet.  I would say he is 80-85%.  He is not running at full speed and his arm is not throwing at full speed.  We saw two examples of this yesterday when he was thrown out on an infield dribbler he usually beats out, and when he failed to gun down a runner which sparked the 8th inning rally for the Cards.  Nevertheless, I am not worried about him either.  One can't expect someone to be out of baseball for almost a year without any rust.  I would say give him a few more weeks and we should start seeing the Jose of old.  The good news is that he is hitting.
• And the biggest CON that I see is a continuation of last year...only this time the excuse "I don't have the players" can not be used: Jerry Manuel is NOT putting his team in the best position to win.  Over the last few years in sabermetric circles there is the idea of "High Leverage" situations.  In short, it says you should use your best pitcher when the situation calls for it; So if your closer is your best pitcher and the bases are loaded in a 1 run game in the 8th, you bring your closer in in the 8th not the 9th.  I won't fault Jerry for not bring in K-Rod in the 8th after Nieve hit and walked a batter to load the bases (that after getting ahead of each hitter 0-2); not many managers employ this strategy.  But I will fault him for bringing in arguably the WORST pitcher on the staff in a super high leverage situation.  Valdes was only activated after Green went on the DL.  HE HAS NO BUSINESS BEING IN THAT SPOT!  Felicano was unavailable due to sickness.  But there was another lefty available in Tak, who is much farther up on the depth charts...and he is just the other lefty.  I am sick of the idea that the lefty-lefty, righty-righty matchup must be followed blindly.  Mejia & Iggy are throwing 95-97 MPH darts out there with sick movement.  They are certainly better options than what is clearly your worst option.  Full disclosure: some have said that Ollie should have stayed in there to finish the 7th.  But I don't have any problem with Jerry pulling him there.  But that was a horrible horrible decision Jerry.  For shame...

Ok, off to ice my toe and heat my back.  Santana goes today, and when Johan pitches you expect to win....so I am wondering how the Mets are going to blow this one.  I kid, I kid.  But seriously, if they Mets don't find a way to win both of these next to games to salvage this road trip, Jerry may find a Red Card in his locker when he returns....and in all honesty, that is not a bad thing.  I am perfectly willing to sacrifice these next two games if it means Jerry is replaced by a manager who puts my team in the best position to win.