Here it is a holiday weekend, a fun 3-day weekend, Memorial Day weekend. If there’s a better 3-day weekend, I don’t know about it. The opening of the NJ Shore season, better weather ahead, memories of fun times, games and barbecues…what could be better than that?
And there’s baseball of course, even if you’re a Mets fan. I’m now watching the Mets-Phillies Sunday game and the Mets are helping me feel even better about the weekend. They have jumped off to a 4-run lead in this one, Niese seems to be cruising along, and, at least right now, it seems the Mets are all making pretty good contact with the ball.
Beltran just crushed a 380 foot double to left center and, despite all the troubles with the rest of the lineup, Beltran has been like a rock all season, him and Reyes, and it’s sadly ironic that those are two guys who won’t be Mets next year.
Now Bay and Murphy have followed with hits and it looks as if the Phillies Worley will be finished soon. Wow! Amazing! Now Pagan has stroked a liner to right, scoring Beltran and Bay and it looks as if a rout is on. It’s 6-0 and even these Mets will have trouble giving this game back.
Now it’s 8-zip, even Josh Thole having contributed to another 4-run inning, and the Mets cup runneth over. It’s about time. Since their opening win against the Yanks, it’s been lose 3, win 1, and lately even the relief staff has faltered. Since Wright and Davis have both been on the DL, it’s been the bizarro world in Metsland.
As the prospects for Wright’s and Davis’s return soon aren’t that good, it looks as if we’ll be seeing a lot more of these rookies, and so far, at the very least, it’s certainly been instructive, if nothing else. Justin Turner has been an eye-opener. If it hadn’t been for Turner, the Mets could have lost all their games. He was an RBI machine there for a while.
Turner had become the second baseman after the failure of Brad Emaus but, when Davis and Wright went down, he had to spell Wright at third base. That opened up the second base spot for Reuben Tejada, who’s a real magician with the glove. Murphy has been spelling Davis at first base and, while he’ll never be confused with Keith Hernandez, he’s been almost passable, although Jose Reyes may disagree after having been charged with at least two errors on throws that most first basemen would have made.
At this point though, any expectations I might have had for this season have been pretty much dashed. A team can’t possibly absorb all these injuries without a negative effect. So any win will be a welcome win, and somewhat of a surprise. But this team, despite everything, continues to be entertaining, although I’m probably more easily amused than are most people.
Jonathan Niese has now gone 5 full innings and he’s just rolling along. With Dickey down with a fascia tear, and Chris Young down with a shoulder for the season, and Pelfrey being up and down, maybe it’ll be Niese we’ll soon be calling the ace of this staff. Now that’s a scary proposition.
But newbie Dillon Gee has been pretty impressive in a starting role, sporting a 3.83 ERA at present and most teams would take that kind of performance in a heartbeat, especially for a number 5 starter. As long as Capuano can keep his end up, the staff really isn’t that bad.
The relievers should bounce back after their recent letdown. And that might be the most important ingredient of all. When that part of their game was holding up, the Mets were tough down the stretch, making all the plays they needed. But, of course, the reverse was true as well.
There should be some very entertaining baseball coming starting today with Pittsburgh coming to town for four games. But the Pirates aren’t the patsies they used to be. They may indeed have more proven major-league players than our Mets.
What is the true nature of this Mets team? Are they a AAA level team with a few ringers or are they a playoff-contender level major league team with more AAA fill-ins than would be optimal? Are they the team that lost 3 for every one victory or was that the result of great pitching opponents in Philadelphia and Chicago?
A family barbecue had interrupted these inane musings and now it’s Tuesday. The Mets won their finale against the Phillies and they beat the Pirates in their opening game. They did it without Jose Reyes and without Jason Bay. They banged out a zillion singles and just one double while Dillon Gee, Isringhausen and K-Rod limited the Pirates to 3 runs.
What does that mean though? The opposing pitcher was one Charlie Morton. The Pirates have been the perennial National League doormat. Their current 24-28 record is better than they’ve been in a dog’s age.
Willie Harris batted leadoff and played third base. Daniel Murphy batted cleanup. Pridie played left field and Tejada was at shortstop for Reyes. The amazing Justin Turner moved back to second base. It would be easier to laugh outloud at that lineup if they hadn’t promptly gone out and won with it.
It’s all been pretty mystifying. I don’t know what to root for anymore. Reyes will be out for a week now because of a death in his family in the Dominican Republic. Things can’t get much worse.
Even after the win last night though, I asked myself if I really enjoyed watching it. The word that best describes their success is “ephemeral”. Fans shouted for the Mets to keep Reyes the other night. Will they be able to do it?
It’s all very temporary. What you see today may not be here next week, never mind next year. Mets fans would be well-advised to roll with the punches.
Showing posts with label AAA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label AAA. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
From Bad to Worse?
The Mets season is over. I’m declaring them dead.
They’re not the Mets anyway, not the Mets I expected and not even the Mets I foresaw if they had some bad luck. Even though I realized at the season’s inception that the Mets had been awfully lucky over the last few years from an injury standpoint, especially with their core players, I never thought they’d lose them all.
Even their ace pitcher can’t win these days. Santana has lost four of his last six. There is just no hitting usually, and last night the fielding went with it. It’s really too sad a story to stay with. You could liken it to hanging around a hospital. That’s not for me, especially when there are so many other stories, so many other channels.
For good reasons or bad, Omar has decided to stand pat with a AAA team. He’s done it too long. I’m tired of watching minor league ball. The only baseball-related things I can look forward to this year are the All-Star game and my fantasy team, which has been almost as unlucky as the Mets.
This somewhat stubborn refusal by the Mets to get better comes at a bad time. Oh sure, there has been Wimbledon and the U.S. soccer team, the NBA Draft and some other stuff, but really, it’s kind of difficult, y’know? I mean, how excited can I really get over the Williams sisters? The gracious Venus is as easy to root for as her younger arrogant sister is not. And unless and until an American man can break into the top echelon, it’s tough to follow the men’s action.
As for soccer, after cheering like a mad man for the likes of Donovan and Dempsey, Howard, Spector and Davies, only to watch their heartbreak in the final against Brazil, can I really stay motivated until the World Cup? I don’t think so. It was a great game though, and coming on the heels of their victory over Spain, they played valiantly for the full 90 minutes, even if their efforts were fruitful for only 45. They just seemed to run out of gas in that second half, especially after giving up that almost impossible to stop goal in the first minute or so of the second half.
But it’s the beginning of July and I shouldn’t have to amuse myself with other sports. The American pastime is still baseball, isn’t it? You wouldn’t know it from watching the National League action in New York though. Did I say action? I don’t know that you can call it that.
The Evil Empire is impossible to root for, at least for this fan, and maybe I’ll take notice if they should fire Cashman, or reduce ticket prices, or just shut up about how many pitches have been thrown, how many strikes, how many balls and on and on. They won’t catch the Red Sox anyway, this despite Papelbon’s failure to close out last night’s deal.
Besides, the team I can root for down the stretch is the Brewers. That became obvious to me last night as I watched those big dudes from Milwaukee, Hart and Hardy and Fielder and Braun. You even get sausage races if you’re a Brewer fan. They’ve got representative pitching, at the very least, and the players seem to have character.
In the American League, I’ll continue to pull for the Rangers, another lovable team that’s been together now for several years of mostly hard luck and is now coming of age, even without their superstar Josh Hamilton. The Twins are a nice team too, with lots of good pitching and a similar situation with home-grown guys making it big. And, last but not least, they pay absolutely no attention to pitch counts.
The Yankee obsession with pitch counts continued last night as Joba reached about a hundred pitches after 5 1/3 innings. The idiots on the bench took him out again, of course, and the Yanks relievers took over. Last night, they did the job and Bruney eventually picked up the win as Arod hit a gargantuan 2-run homer. But those idiots on the bench and in the GM’s office sure put a lot of pressure on Joba. You could look at each failed Joba performance as a self-fulfilled prophecy.
Aah! Who am I kidding? I’ll still be sucked in to the Mets action. Even now, I find myself with the tube in the background, watching Gary and Keith recap yesterday’s failures. Now Jerry’s talking about the need for them to relax a little bit, an almost impossible wish, given the whole Mash-unit situation.
Okay, my favorite blue and orange team is still only 2 games below .500 and just four games behind the Phils, a game behind the Marlins, a game ahead of the Braves. Is that really such a good reason to despair? After all, if we Mets fans know anything, it’s that big leads can be lost, and a lot depends on how the team plays in September.
And Beltran’s bone bruise is indeed just a bruise. Reyes and Delgado will be returning too. The pitching staff remains fairly strong, strong enough to compete in this weak NL East anyway. So I’ll wait and see. I’ll be a true fan.
But DeRosa was right there for the taking. And Holliday is supposed to be available. Couldn’t management see its way clear to picking up somebody? Wouldn’t even one addition to the roster help these guys out a little. When Church and Schneider are the glue holding a team together, that’s pretty sad.
Okay, that’s enough. Besides, Wright is up now. God willing, they’ll pitch to him.
They’re not the Mets anyway, not the Mets I expected and not even the Mets I foresaw if they had some bad luck. Even though I realized at the season’s inception that the Mets had been awfully lucky over the last few years from an injury standpoint, especially with their core players, I never thought they’d lose them all.
Even their ace pitcher can’t win these days. Santana has lost four of his last six. There is just no hitting usually, and last night the fielding went with it. It’s really too sad a story to stay with. You could liken it to hanging around a hospital. That’s not for me, especially when there are so many other stories, so many other channels.
For good reasons or bad, Omar has decided to stand pat with a AAA team. He’s done it too long. I’m tired of watching minor league ball. The only baseball-related things I can look forward to this year are the All-Star game and my fantasy team, which has been almost as unlucky as the Mets.
This somewhat stubborn refusal by the Mets to get better comes at a bad time. Oh sure, there has been Wimbledon and the U.S. soccer team, the NBA Draft and some other stuff, but really, it’s kind of difficult, y’know? I mean, how excited can I really get over the Williams sisters? The gracious Venus is as easy to root for as her younger arrogant sister is not. And unless and until an American man can break into the top echelon, it’s tough to follow the men’s action.
As for soccer, after cheering like a mad man for the likes of Donovan and Dempsey, Howard, Spector and Davies, only to watch their heartbreak in the final against Brazil, can I really stay motivated until the World Cup? I don’t think so. It was a great game though, and coming on the heels of their victory over Spain, they played valiantly for the full 90 minutes, even if their efforts were fruitful for only 45. They just seemed to run out of gas in that second half, especially after giving up that almost impossible to stop goal in the first minute or so of the second half.
But it’s the beginning of July and I shouldn’t have to amuse myself with other sports. The American pastime is still baseball, isn’t it? You wouldn’t know it from watching the National League action in New York though. Did I say action? I don’t know that you can call it that.
The Evil Empire is impossible to root for, at least for this fan, and maybe I’ll take notice if they should fire Cashman, or reduce ticket prices, or just shut up about how many pitches have been thrown, how many strikes, how many balls and on and on. They won’t catch the Red Sox anyway, this despite Papelbon’s failure to close out last night’s deal.
Besides, the team I can root for down the stretch is the Brewers. That became obvious to me last night as I watched those big dudes from Milwaukee, Hart and Hardy and Fielder and Braun. You even get sausage races if you’re a Brewer fan. They’ve got representative pitching, at the very least, and the players seem to have character.
In the American League, I’ll continue to pull for the Rangers, another lovable team that’s been together now for several years of mostly hard luck and is now coming of age, even without their superstar Josh Hamilton. The Twins are a nice team too, with lots of good pitching and a similar situation with home-grown guys making it big. And, last but not least, they pay absolutely no attention to pitch counts.
The Yankee obsession with pitch counts continued last night as Joba reached about a hundred pitches after 5 1/3 innings. The idiots on the bench took him out again, of course, and the Yanks relievers took over. Last night, they did the job and Bruney eventually picked up the win as Arod hit a gargantuan 2-run homer. But those idiots on the bench and in the GM’s office sure put a lot of pressure on Joba. You could look at each failed Joba performance as a self-fulfilled prophecy.
Aah! Who am I kidding? I’ll still be sucked in to the Mets action. Even now, I find myself with the tube in the background, watching Gary and Keith recap yesterday’s failures. Now Jerry’s talking about the need for them to relax a little bit, an almost impossible wish, given the whole Mash-unit situation.
Okay, my favorite blue and orange team is still only 2 games below .500 and just four games behind the Phils, a game behind the Marlins, a game ahead of the Braves. Is that really such a good reason to despair? After all, if we Mets fans know anything, it’s that big leads can be lost, and a lot depends on how the team plays in September.
And Beltran’s bone bruise is indeed just a bruise. Reyes and Delgado will be returning too. The pitching staff remains fairly strong, strong enough to compete in this weak NL East anyway. So I’ll wait and see. I’ll be a true fan.
But DeRosa was right there for the taking. And Holliday is supposed to be available. Couldn’t management see its way clear to picking up somebody? Wouldn’t even one addition to the roster help these guys out a little. When Church and Schneider are the glue holding a team together, that’s pretty sad.
Okay, that’s enough. Besides, Wright is up now. God willing, they’ll pitch to him.
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