Opening Day: Mets 2 - Reds 1

Today is opening day for baseball. I got to work a little early so I could bolt around lunch time to catch the Mets @ Reds game on TV. The game wound up being delayed 30 minutes due to 45F temps and rain/snow/sleet/whatever.

The pitching matchup was Johan Santana(0-0, 0.00ERA) vs Aaron Harang (0-0, 0.00ERA).

Final score: 2-1, Mets
Win: Johan Santana (1-0, 1.59ERA)
Loss: Aaron Harang (0-1, 1.80ERA)
Save: Francisco Rodriguez (1)

Comments on the game:

-Johan didn't really have it going early. He probably was having difficulty getting a feel for the ball with the temps hovering around 45F. He walked 4, which is unusual for him, and his slider kept missing high. Once he had the lead, however, Santana turned it up a notch, as always. :) He carried a 2-1 lead into the end of the 6th.

-Given the lack of command, Santana threw a lot of pitches. A surprise move had Manual taking him out of the game with two outs in the 6th. He was up around 99 pitches with a runner on base and Edwin Encarnacion coming to bat. Encarnacion has been a nemesis for Santana, so that probably helped Manual pull the trigger. Also, why work your ace more than necessary on a cold day when you have a bullpen you trust?

-The bullpen was stellar. Sean Green came in and got the final out of the 6th on a hard line drive caught by Murphy in left-center. Green pitched a nice, quick 7th giving way to our other new relievers, JJ Putz and K-Rod. Putz pitched around a walk in the 8th and K-Rod ended a perfect 9th with a strikeout.

-Last year's Mets bullpen would have blown a one run lead without hesitation.

-Dan Murphy, the rookie left fielder, provided all the offense we needed and some nice defense. He hit a solo homerun off Harang in the 5th, and had an RBI groundout in the 6th. In the bottom of the 6th, the line drive from Encarnacion looked as if it would be a double in the gap, but Murphy took a tough rout to the ball and made what appeared to be a difficult catch.

-Final note, which is also a concern, is that our offense left 11 men on base in the first 6 innings, then went down quietly for the rest of the game. There were so many missed opportunities in this game. I know we're going to score a lot of runs like last year, but there were so many games last year that we could have blown open with one timely hit.


Despite our offensive struggles, I'm a lot more confident about this team now than at the end of last season. I can't wait to watch Mike Pelfrey's first start of the year on Wednesday.

Baseball offseason

It's been a few days since teams became free to talk with free agents from other teams. The Yankees are already showing that their recent, but short-lived, doctrine of building a team through draft picks and smart trades was only going to work as long as Steinbrenner was allowing Cashman to have more power in the personnel decision-making process. Apparently, The Boss' sons that are now in control of the Yankees believe that the old 'let's buy a championship' mentality is actually smart. They've offered CC Sabathia a 6-year $140M deal, while also stating that they will be making offers to A.J. Burnett and Derek Lowe within the coming days. Ugh.

To give some perspective on this, the Yankees went into this season with high hopes that a rotation of Chen-Ming Wang, Mike Mussina, Andy Pettite, and the two minor league prospects that were called up (Ian Kennedy and Phil Hughes) would combine with their potent offense to propel them into the World Series. To be fair, they couldn't foresee Wang getting hurt for most of the year, but they also definitely put too much expectation on Kennedy and Hughes. Yes, they are very good pitching prospects, but given that this is NY these prospects are always rushed into the majors, and when they don't immediately live up to the hype they are given up on. I'm just glad the Mets didn't get rid of Mike Pelfrey when he struggled after being rushed up.

Now, I agree that Sabathia, Burnett, and Lowe are all very good pitchers on the free agent market, but it irritates me that the market for pitchers gets crazy like this. For people's information, here's the story on Sabathia. CC Sabathia is a tall (6-7) large (290lbs) left handed pitcher. He was with the Cleveland Indians from 2001 until he was traded to the Brewers this season. Sabathia has been dominant for a while and usually never pitches fewer than 200 innings per season, so he's a serious workhorse. When he was traded to the Brewers before the trading deadline, he went on to put together one of the best pitching stretches I think most people have ever seen. He made 17 starts for the Brewers, going 11-2 with SEVEN complete games!! He walked 25 and struck out 128 during that period with a 1.65 ERA. He also finished the season with three straight starts on three days rest, and the final one of those games was a complete game victory over the Cubs to clinch the Wild Card spot in the NL. The real problem comes with how much he's overworked by the time the playoffs come around. He has compiled almost 500 innings in the regular season these past two years, and he has struggled greatly in the postseason both years. He really looks like he's gassed at the end of these seasons. If the team signing him doesn't realize this, they're going to be regretting the 6 year contract they give him when he starts falling apart a few year into it.

CC has been recorded as saying he had a great time in Milwaukee and loved playing with those teammates, but the Brewers are offering him 5 years at $100M, which is nowhere close to where the Yankees' offer sits. Considering how great a person Sabathia is, I really hope that he decides the discount to stay with Milwaukee is worth it. I really don't want him in the same league with the Mets, but I like Sabathia and think he's a great person, so I want to see him go to a situation that'll work really well for him. Also, fuck the Yankees. You assholes just never learn that you can't buy a championship. Your championship teams of the 90's were mostly homegrown, and all the expensive teams you've had since haven't done jack shit. Just go away.

Back in first

Despite David Wright's best efforts, the Mets are now back in first place in the NL East. Wright has been having a terrible September at the plate and it's now starting to have an effect on his defense. That throwing error last night was inexcusable. They managed to pull the win out, but this sort of thing can't happen as the season winds down and with the division race so tight.

The Phillies and the Brewers also lost last night, putting the Mets a half game up on the Phils in the division and knocking Milwaukee further down in the wild card standings. It's beginning to look like the Mets' chances of at least clinching a wild card berth are likely, but I can't be comfortable until they actually have clinched. They need to at least take two of three in this series with Atlanta considering they play four games with the Cubs this coming week.

The Final Stretch Begins

Today, the Angels beat the Yankees and with the Rangers' loss, the Angels have now clinched the AL West. Rodriguez also got his 56th save, inching him to within one of Bobby Thigpen's record of 57 in one season.

The Phillies lost today to the Marlins 7-3. This means that if the Mets win their game tonight, they will increase their lead to 3 1/2 games over Philadelphia.

Tonight, Jose Reyes set the Mets' club record with his 283rd stolen base in the third inning moving him past Mookie Wilson. He went on to also steal third in the middle of a six run inning for the Mets.

It's going to be an interesting final three weeks of the season. All I'm going to hear about everyday is the collapse of '07.

Down to the wire

As the calendar passes into September we enter the final month of the season and the demons that come with it. The Mets ended the month of August with a series in Florida that showcased the strengths and weaknesses of the team. All three games involved strong starting pitching with Oliver Perez, Mike Pelfrey and Pedro Martinez all holding the Marlins to two runs in each game and pitching into the seventh inning. The offense, led by Reyes in the midst of a 9-game hitting streak, scored in the first inning in two of the three games with Beltran also having a big series. Young Nick Evans hit his first major league home run yesterday, as well. The defense was also solid during the series.

The weak point of this series was the bullpen, not surprisingly. After taking a 5-2 lead in the top of the ninth on Friday, the bullpen coughed up two runs in the bottom of the inning before finally closing the deal. Things were even worse on Saturday. Pelfrey pitched a strong game and left with a 3-2 lead in the seventh inning. The first batter of the eighth homered to tie the game, then Heilman walked in the winning run in the bottom of the ninth. I can take it if the opposing team earns their winning run in the ninth, like hitting a home run or something, but when you walk in that run things aren't forgiven so easily.

So the Mets now have a one game lead over Philly going into September. They're 10-5 against the Phillies this season, which is something I hope they can maintain during the series the teams play next weekend at Shea. Every game the Mets lose this month will draw comments from everyone about the collapse last season, so now it's up to the team to redeem themselves. Things will certainly be interesting this month.

Game called due to... torrential downpour

The Rochester Red Wings game that Meredith and I were going to tonight wound up being right in the middle of a big storm front that is still producing heavy rain and major lightning. We went to the game for a bit hoping that the rain would let up and they would play ball, but when it became evident that nothing was changing, we headed over to the Old Toad for some beers and dinner. I just got back from dropping her off at her hotel, and I have to say that the lightning that is flashing all over the place tonight is very impressive. Some of the bolts are actually causing everything around me to be almost as bright as a sunny afternoon. We wanted to see baseball, but that'll have to wait. The beer was good, though.

Need a vacation from my free time

I spent this past weekend in Ithaca helping my parents put in new cabinets in the kitchen. The kitchen was gutted and there was an addition put on the house from the kitchen outward. That put me away from Rochester for yet another weekend this summer. All this traveling is starting to take a serious toll on me, and I really just need to start sleeping well again. I'll be doing a Benadryl reset on body tonight (2 Benadryls before bed to knock me the fuck out). Granted, 2 Benadryls don't typically knock me out all that effectively, but I don't want to go overboard tonight and risk sleeping through the alarm. I'll be able to stay in town this weekend (and drink with Swilly, woot!), but I have to go back the weekend after to Ithaca to put the tiles in the kitchen and the hardwood in the addition. I think I'm slapping a moratorium on travel for a couple weeks after that just so I can recoup some sleep and finally get out to explore Fairport a bit more for once.

Tomorrow night will be fun, though, as Meredith will be in town on business and we'll be hitting up a Rochester Red Wings game at Frontier Field. Hurray for triple-A baseball, instead of the rookie ball Valley Cats. :p Michael Cuddyer will be on the roster, as he's rehabbing from an injury. He's an infielder the Twins have used the past few years, but he's injured most of this year.

Weekend Series

I am now off to NYC to visit some friends and watch the Mets in the second game of their series against the Cardinals. Finally, I get to be at Shea when the Mets are actually contending. It should be a good time.

A small glimmer of hope begins to stir.

Tuesday night the Mets began what was looked at as a big series with the Phillies at Shea. Both teams were tied for first place in the NL East with 53-46 records. The three games had the following pitching matchups:

• Santana(8-7, 3.05) vs. Blanton(5-12, 5.08)
• Maine(9-7, 4.20) vs. Meyers(3-9, 5.82)
• Perez(6-6, 4.15) vs. Moyer(9-6, 3.76)

These matchups certainly seemed to favor the Mets, though I'm smarter than that and expected little.

The first game featured Philadelphia's newly acquired starting pitcher, Joe Blanton, against our ace, Johan Santana. A big game with first place on the line is exactly the kind of game Johan was brought over from Minnesota to pitch. He pitched pretty well, actually, going 8 innings while giving up 2 runs on 8 hits. Blanton, on the other hand, hasn't really been having the best season. He was floundering with Oakland, and didn't fare much better in this game. The Mets managed 5 runs off of him. It would have been more runs except that there were some very nice defensive plays on the part of the Phillies. They threw two runners out at the plate during the game, and Chase Utley made a great diving catch in the right side gap with the bases loaded and 2 outs.

Taking a 5-2 lead into the ninth, Manuel pulled Santana for bullpen help, which proved their undoing. Since Wagner was out for the night with shoulder spasms, they turned to Duaner Sanchez, who is continuing to make good progress coming back from injuries received in a taxi accident two years ago. Unfortunately, he hadn't progressed enough, because the Phillies loaded the bases with no one out, and it was all downhill from there.
Final Score: 8-6, Phillies

The second game featured another Philadelphia pitcher having a poor season. Brett Meyers was actually demoted last month to the minor leagues because of his control problems. They brought him up this week in hopes that he could bolster a very mediocre starting rotation. He pitched against John Maine who has been having a lot of trouble himself of late. Maine hadn't pitched past the fifth inning in any of his previous three starts. He said he came into the game looking to attack the strike zone more and not walk as many hitters (5 walks in each of his last 2 starts, ouch).

I was not able to watch this game as I was helping a friend move into her new house, but it wound up being a pretty good game. Maine looks like he may be moving past his control issues, pitching 7 good innings, while Jose Reyes broke a tie in the sixth inning with a go-ahead 3-run homer. This was the second night in a row the Mets had a 3-run lead on the Phillies going into the ninth inning, but they had Billy Wagner this time. He pitched a quick ninth inning for the save.
Final Score: 6-3, Mets

The final game in the series was today in the early afternoon, meaning I once again missed it. This would have been an interesting game to see. Oliver Perez and Jamie Moyer are both having exceptional seasons against each other's team. Perez has a 0.35 ERA in 26 innings against the Phillies this season, including today's game. Today he pitched 7 2/3 innings, giving up 1 earned run while striking out 12. Moyer also pitched really well, going 7 innings giving up 1 earned run on 2 hits.

It was the eighth inning in this game the made all the difference. In the top of the inning, Oliver Perez wound up with the bases loaded and 2 outs. Aaron Heilman came in to relieve Perez, and got Jayson Werth to fly out to deep center. In any other ballpark, that would have been serious trouble, but Shea can hold most of the long fly balls that it sees. The bottom of the inning was beautiful. Carlos Delgado, who slumped horribly for the first 3 months of the season, has been on a torrid rampage of National League pitching this month. With two outs and Robinson Cancel on base, J.C. Romero, who left-handed hitters are anemic against this year, walked David Wright to get to Delgado. This also happened two nights previous, and that resulted in a monster 2-run homer by Carlos. On this occasion, Delgado laced an opposite field double into the left field corner to put the Mets up by 2 runs.
Final Score: 3-1, Mets

So, now the Mets have sole possession of first place in the NL East. I've been calling all season for them to not even be in contention at the end of the season, as just watching the team play left me with no real hope. They looked like a team with no fire or passion whatsoever. Since they fired Willie Randolph as manager, the team is now 21-12 under Jerry Manuel. I don't know how much that had to do with it, but the team looks fired up right now. They still have major flaws on the team, especially at the corner outfield slots and second base, but they're looking to give me a little bit of hope for the rest of the summer.

Of course, I've always known my beloved Mets to find ever more horrifying ways of destroying my hope and spirit, so we'll see where this all goes.

What goes up....

The 10-game winning streak the Mets have been on has finally come to an end. It's obvious, if you watch the team, that there was no good reason for them to win that many in a row in the first place. Their tenth win in that streak was indicative of why the team struggles so often. Johan Santana went 5 innings and got hit hard, while the bullpen coughed up the lead as soon as they had one. The Mets lack any real innings-eaters, with the possible exception of Santana. This lack of depth from the starters leads to a severe strain on the bullpen and that will lead to them breaking down before the season ends. The game following that win was 5-2 loss that showcased the flaws in their number 3 starter: John Maine. Maine has good low-90's velocity with good movement on his fastball and a good curve, when he's throwing it for strikes. His issue, and one that seems to creep up on him during each season, is that he gets wild with his pitches when he starts letting his left shoulder swing out too far. Maine needs to throw from over his right shoulder, not from his side. When he's on top of the ball, it has better movement and will sink instead of staying level. When he pitches more from his side, the ball levels off or starts rising, allowing it to either enter the hitter's wheel-house or miss the strike-zone completely. Anyway, that was what happened to him yesterday, he couldn't find the strike-zone.

Unless this team can keep the offense going consistently and somehow find some depth from its starting rotation, they will find themselves out of contention by September.

Home Run Derby

Yesterday was the home run derby at baseball's All-Star Game. The biggest story to be associated with it before the event was the fact that Alex Rodriguez opted not to participate. This fact, of course, caused ESPN's crack team of hack journalists to immediately jump on him for not attending. For not attending an event that is glorified batting practice, A-Rod's ego is called into question: " But it's not important enough, apparently, for Alex Rodriguez to risk not living up to his own ego. How sad is that?" (Thank you, Jayson Stark, for helping to continue the demise of real journalism). However, what's not said is that A-Rod would also be called out for egotism if participated and won the event. Then there's the possibility that he would participate and lose the event to some other player. That would lead to comments defaming his 'clutchness' and declarations would be made about him not being a 'real Yankee' (whatever that means).

Personally, I stopped caring about the All-Star festivities many years ago when it became apparent that the players didn't really take it seriously anymore. Watching Barry Bonds get taken out of the game a few years back for a replacement in the field (players typically don't see more than two or three innings these days), then walk out of the dugout through the clubhouse and just leave the stadium, well... that was very representative of how little most of the players cared. Watching Pedro Martinez decline to show up to the game because he didn't feel like it, that kind of killed it for me.

"This time, it counts", of course. Now that Bud Selig has decided to continue to destroy his legacy (which wasn't really bad before this and steroids happened) by making the game count for home-field advantage in the World Series. I had already ceased caring about the game before this decision, but the decision itself forced me into a boycott of the whole damn thing. I will not watch an All-Star Game again until that rule is removed. The home-field advantage in the World Series should go to the team that won more games during the regular season.

Bah, I can't wait until real baseball starts up again when the Mets play the Reds on Thursday for the start of a four game series. Here's hoping the Mets can continue to play the way they did to get on that 9-game win streak before the break.

First Post

So, this is the first post. Yay. I guess the first thing I'll do is describe what sort of crap will be going into this blog. Those that know me know that I love the following things:

• Baseball
• The New York Mets
• Brewing beer
• Drinking beer
• Playing video games
• Watching anime

This blog will primarily be filled with my rantings on these topics, with some other topics making appearances from time to time.

So, yeah, that's it for now. I'm in the middle of doing laundry.