On Jets-Broncos and Mets Not-Stove

Everybody’s giving the Broncos no chance tonight against the Jets in Denver but I’m not so sure of that. A look at the Broncos’ last two wins indicates they can play any kind of game you want. Against Oakland, a 38-24 win, the Broncs fell behind so they had to pass the football. They did so very successfully. Against KC, they had the lead and nurtured it. They never had to pass the ball but one of Tebow’s passes did go for a touchdown. In both games, their special teams and defense played pretty well too, especially when they had to.

The Jets could have their hands full. Another thing that was obvious in reviewing the actual play-by-plays of those two games was the seemingly total inadequacy of Matt Cassell and his passing game against the Broncos defense. Carson Palmer for Oakland had some success, especially early, but then failed in the clutch to deliver anything of value.

All that data indicates to me is that Mark Sanchez and his receiving corps will have to perform better than those of either the Raiders or Chiefs. Their running game will have to click too if the passing game is to succeed at all. While I’m confident the Jets can stop the deep throws from Elway to Decker and Royal, I question whether they’ll be able to stop the run. Their defensive ranking against the run is decidedly middling.

The other thing you hear about the Jets is their lack of a pass rush. That won’t help their cause tonight. The pundits say the Jets will put 8 in the box and have a shadow for Tebow. A lot will depend on how successful that shadow is. And I wonder who it’ll be. David Harris? Eric Smith? Those two are the leading Jets tacklers. But can they stop Tebow all night?

Another advantage might be in coaching. John Fox, the Broncos head coach certainly rivals Jets head man Rex Ryan in defensive acumen. He may have better tools too, especially in the pass rushing department. The Broncos have 24 sacks to the Jets 18 but I suspect the QB hurries differential might be higher than that. Sanchez could find himself scrambling a lot. On the offensive end, the Broncos have been decidedly conservative while the Jets and Schottenheimer, their offensive guru, will throw in a lot more passes whether they have the lead or not. Overall, I’d give the Broncos the edge in the coaching department.

Then there’s the fact that the game will be played in Denver. The only road game the Jets have won this year came against Buffalo. They just ran over the Bills. I don’t think they’ll manage that tonight against the Broncos. I wonder what kind of protection Sanchez will get if they can’t just run over an opponent. How will Sanchez handle the pressure? Will he be better than either Carson Palmer or Matt Cassell?

If the Jets have an advantage, it’s that they really need to win this game. They’re coming off an awful loss while the Broncos are coming off a high point. They have experience the Broncos do not. Both those points aren’t necessarily enough to hold off a young and talented team in their building.

The Jets are favored by 5. My guess is that they’ll eke out the win somehow. But I doubt that they’ll cover the spread. A lot will depend on how this game plays out in the first quarter. If the Broncos can stay close, they’ll be very dangerous.

The only other game in town right now is hockey, a sport I just never cared for. I don’t know how many ice skaters there are from Bayonne but my guess is not many. I mean, there are probably as many skaters as ponies, but Bayonne was definitely “non-pony country.”

The NBA we can apparently just forget about. No Knicks, no Nets….how will we manage to survive?

I’m with the owners, if only because I’m firmly against ticket prices going through the roof. And I’d like to see a more competitive NBA too. The players would say that their percentage of the profits has nothing to do with either point but I think they’re mistaken. In any case, it’ll be a Lawyers win over the NBA fans, by a score of about 123-11.

Then there’s hot-stove baseball, I guess. It’d be a lot more fun to follow the free-agents if my Mets had any money. They don’t. Everybody says Jose Reyes will have to play elsewhere. While it will be a shame, it may wind up being a good thing. The Mets actually do have a nice candidate to fill the shortstop position in Ruben Tejada.

The noise about trading David Wright is kind of interesting too. It wouldn’t be a bad thing. One reason I think he’ll stay is that his market value right now isn’t really what it was a few years ago. Besides, although Justin Turner can play his position, he’d be better off at second base, which will be vacant if Tejada plays shortstop full-time. If Turner had to play third base, second base will, I suppose, revert to Daniel Murphy, a scary prospect at best.

I’ll be following the pitching situation closely too, with an eye towards what will happen with Mike Pelfrey. I’d love to see him go but he’ll probably wind up staying. Once again, he’ll be the ace who just never seems to come up aces. I suppose he is an inning-eater extraordinaire but really, it’d be a nicer feather in his cap if he did better in a lot of those innings.

If the Mets could get some value out of a trade for Wright and Pelfrey, I’d feel pretty confident going into 2012. A couple of starters or relievers would be nice, commodities more needed right now than a third baseman who can’t really hit and a pitcher who can’t really win.

Then there’re the Yanks. They re-signed Sabathia.

The Happy Mets Fan

Before I get distracted by one more thing, let me get started here. It’s a rainy day, second day in a row actually, and I’ve had “alls I can stands” from indoor projects that I don’t even know how to do. And I’d really like to talk about, you guessed it, the Mets.

Okay, first an overview. The Mets are about a quarter way through the season (along with everyone else) and, beginning now, nobody can still say, “it’s early” and get away with it. I mean, before you know it, it’ll be June. That’s not early. The Mets are 19-21. The Yanks are 20-18, so they’re two games back of the Yankees. That’s not too shabby.

All the hitting I expected from this team in pre-season has arrived. Reyes and Beltran are tearing up the league. Wright and Bay are doing their plodding along but still pack some punch in a lineup. Ike Davis is hurt now but had been doing his best Carlos Delgado impersonation, without the smile and the notepad.

Who am I missing? Well, let’s see, the number 2 hitter is now Justin Turner and, since he knocked in 5 runs yesterday against the Astros, I really can’t pick on him too much. Josh Thole will spell him in the number two spot against righties and that’s all good too. Both these guys make contact, a la Luis Castillo, but with more power and much better timing as to just when they poke something.

The omnipresent Daniel Murphy is all over the place on the right side of the infield, spelling Davis now but also had looked pretty darned good at second, at least, better than everybody had once thought. And he’s at least nominally productive, scoring or driving in a run about 26% of the time. This stat, one of my favorites, just totals runs and ribbies divided by at-bats. Wright’s percentage is just 28% while Reyes’s average is only 22 ½ %, surprisingly enough. Since Reyes is batting at .310 with a .831 OPS and 14 steals though, his low production percentage can only be attributed to some pretty poor production both behind and in front of him.

Overall though, the Mets are 10th in runs scored which puts them in the top third of the entire league. Their pitching has held up admirably, especially in the relief category. Statistics for the season don’t really reflect that though as their poor start has mired them at just 24th in the league in ERA. It also reflects the poor starting pitching in general balanced only by really fine relief pitching.

It surprised me to find that the team leader in strikeouts and ERA is Chris Capuano at 34 and 4.78 respectively. Pelfrey is the leader in wins but with just three to his credit. Without getting too far into it, all the starters have been relatively bad, except for Chris Young, who’ll be out for the rest of the year.

But that doesn’t deter me from being optimistic. Except for Dickey, the starters are all beginning to come around. Ask yourself which starter makes you feel that the team has no chance that day. Pelfrey, Niese, Dillon Gee, Capuano and Dickey, I’ll take that rotation any day of the week. They’re all capable of at least keeping the team in the game.

With K-Rod closing, Isringhausen setting him up and Taylor Bucholz finishing up games, the Mets hitters have been paying attention for the entire game. I don’t have the stats on it but these Mets hitters seem to get better as the game wears on. I’m beginning to think the most important component of a team may very well be the quality of the relief pitching.

There’s nothing more demoralizing than losing games late because your relievers stink. That Houston team is the perfect example. They just wilt down the stretch. The Mets never seem to think they’re out of it, all of which makes it very easy to watch the entire game.

I won’t let myself get too excited about Santana’s return to the rotation though. I won’t let myself think too seriously about their chances for a wildcard either. As all one ever hears is that the Mets will be trading Beltran, Reyes and Wright away by the break, why should I let myself in for a letdown?

The Mets minor leagues are depleted of any real talent though. If Alderson and company think it’ll be necessary to trade any or all of them, Beltran, Reyes or Wright, I could very well live with the decision. What I don’t want to see is trading Wright and keeping Reyes or vice-versa. They should either both stay or both go.

Wright and Reyes have been the heart and soul of the Mets. It’d be too painful to split them up. In the back of my mind too, I can’t help thinking that they are both as responsible as anyone for the team’s frustrations these many years. Both have been spotty players overall, Reyes mostly because of injuries and Wright because of his failures to drive in runs in big spots. Wright gives every indication of being a head case. Who’s more erratic than David Wright?

As I’ve been a Mets fan as long as they’ve been in existence, I do think about the future too. It’d surely be nice to beef up the entire organization with young talent, especially in the pitching area. Each one of their trade candidates is marketable enough to garner some real talent in return. I’ll sacrifice 2011 for a team with a bright young future.

I’m pretty sure now that Sandy Alderson’s entire management team has been really professional. They’ve made prudent decisions on player acquisitions and don’t fill the news with scandal. The same can’t be said for their counterparts in the AL East.

And, speaking of the Yanks, it must be hard for Posada not to link himself with Jeter and Mariano, transferring their talents to himself.

What A Difference A Bay Makes

Do you believe in coincidences? Do you think the Mets having won two in a row has nothing whatever to do with the return of Jason Bay to the Mets lineup? Well, I believe in coincidences myself but this 2-game streak is not one of them.

Are two games won a streak? For the Mets it is. The Mets are what, 7-13? Some things looked a lot better in spring training, especially the Mets bats. But once the regular season started, all the bats went cold right about the time the pitchers started using every pitch in their repertoire. Some guys just hit fastballs.

But they haven’t gotten one break. Or so it has seemed. But since they were making stupid plays each and every game, it was kind of hard to figure what was bad luck and what was bad baseball.

Watching Scott Hairston play left field was torture, worse almost than when Daniel Murphy was out there. Of course, watching his plate appearances was almost as bad. Willie Harris looked better at the plate and the field but Willie is one of those guys who have the ability to bunt but just won’t. He’d rather foul off a couple of tries and then swing away, only to strike out.

There are a lot of Willie Harris’s. Scott Hairston’s grow on trees. There are only several Jason Bay’s . With the weaknesses already built in at second base and sometimes at catcher, having still another spot filled by a minor leaguer was just too much to overcome.

But there were problems with the established players too. Angel Pagan had been awful in general, at the plate and in the field. Beltran was only mediocre in his new right field position. The second basemen, every one of them, were awful at the plate. Such are the fortunes of players with their heads down.

This column has been very critical of Jason Bay, especially since his latest stint on the DL. But Bay’s return fueled a reason for optimism. Bay has been an established hitter. And he looks like the Jason Bay of old thus far. The elbows are out of the way. He’s holding his hands higher, naturally pulling those elbows out of the way.

David Wright had been shooting for the right field porch every time up, regardless of the game situation. That stopped upon Bay’s return and it was so nice to see Wright pull a couple of pitches into the hole between left and center, especially the homer to the seats in left-center.

It didn’t help that the pitchers that looked so good last year came out flat too. The best performances came from the pickups, from Chris Young and Capuano. Mike Pelfrey was especially dreadful, but that stopped last night too.

So things are looking up….way up. Even Jason Pridie from the minors, filling in for Angel Pagan, looked as if he could perform at least as well as Pagan. As this is written, he just got his first hit, and it wasn’t a fastball that he smacked to right.

It’s even beginning to look as if Daniel Murphy, who can hit a little bit in the majors, can play second base. He looks much better there than he ever did in the outfield. And his comfort in the field is maybe making him relax more at the plate. He’s a contact hitter too, and the second spot in the lineup seems perfect for him, at least until Pagan remembers how to hit again.

Dillon Gee provided a nice lift too and is pitching well today. Last night Pelfrey pitched with confidence for the first time this year. It seemed as if there were first times for a lot of things once Bay returned. Hitters hit. Pitchers pitched. Fielders…well, you know.

It can’t be totally a coincidence. Bay solidifies the outfield. Bay protects Beltran or Wright in the lineup. Bay provides still one more scary guy appearance in the lineup, which eventually wears on an opposing pitcher. As pitchers bat in the National League, there is already one built-in hole in the lineup. The Mets had holes all over the place.

And Jason Bay just homered to right center. He only hit 6 all of last year. He single-handedly gave the Mets a 3-1 lead in this Arizona game and, lo and behold, Ike Davis just killed a hanging slider way out to right field for a 4-1 lead. Now Thole creams another pitch to right. No, it can’t be a coincidence.

Of course no player’s return can account for all ills. Murphy just pulled an ole on a grounder he should have had and Ike Davis just dropped a tough over-the-shoulder popup he ordinarily makes and it’s now 4-2 in the 4th inning. It remains to be seen how Gee will handle these bad breaks.

Uh-oh, after getting the second out, Gee just allowed another hit and it’s now 4-3. Growing pains are in the offing. Soon we’ll be learning more about the relief corps. What we’ve learned so far about the bullpen hasn’t been encouraging. In fact, as of a couple days ago, the Mets had the worst ERA in the National League.

Well, Gee got out of the inning with the lead but only after Pridie in center had to run back to about the 400 foot mark to make the catch. One wonders what Collins will decide for the fifth inning. It looks as if Gee could use a breather.

Whatever happens in this game, the future certainly looks rosier than the past has been. The team is healthy again, at least the players who had been playing well. Pagan is the only player still hurt and, as I mentioned, he had been dreadful.

Some things never change, I guess. Wright just hit into a double play with two men on base. At least he didn’t look as if he was swinging for that rightfield porch.

Even Jason Bay can’t change everything.

Beyond the Croaaroads

The Mets are scary bad. And the worst of it is that the guys who need to perform the best when it counts wind up doing the worst. I’m talking about Jose Reyes and David Wright especially but even Mike Pelfrey could qualify, depending upon your point of view.

Reyes was dreadful at shortstop. Wright was horrendous at third. (I know, I’m struggling for adjectives for bloody awful or, in Italian, “disgraziada”. Pelfrey hasn’t shown much for quite some time now but I was sure hoping it was a temporary thing, his lack of any stuff that can get outs.

So I’ve finally come down to earth. The Mets have some talent but they spit the bit when it counts, when the game is on the line. And you could say it was just one of those things, it was Atlanta where bad things always seem to haunt the Mets. But there is a pattern of failure among these “core” Mets. I miss Delgado….the Mets miss Delgado.

Delgado used to perform in the clutch, Delgado and his silly little notebook, recording the details of every single at-bat, scowling at his failures and lighting up the stadium with that wide smile of his….yeah, I think the Mets miss him too.

The most prestigious batter is now Beltran, Beltran, who hit all those homers for Houston way back before the Mets signed him, Beltran who could play center in his sleep, always gliding, moving fast but not really seeming to, and bangin’ the ball around the yard with pretty good regularity.

But there is that at-bat against Wainwright in his history too. And he was part of the collapses that mark this franchise. And let’s not forget his penchant for trying to steal third all the time, at the worst times, and almost always failing to do so.

Beltran went hitless yesterday. He’s now batting .215. You can’t really lead with numbers like that. He’ll come on eventually, it is to be hoped, but it’ll be too late. And I’m not even trying to pick on Beltran. But the Mets needed something last night.

The best player for the Mets yesterday was Luis Castillo. He managed 2 of the 6 hits they got and didn’t make any critical errors, as did Wright and Reyes twice. Josh Thole, the new catcher, got a big hit in a big situation. That’s just two of the eight positions in the lineup though.

Everybody picks on Castillo. I even belittled him mercilessly when he dropped that third out popup by Arod last year. And maybe he doesn’t have the range that you’d like to see. But he’s a pretty nifty second baseman more often than not. He’s usually doing the right thing at the right time, something you can’t really say about Reyes, most notably, but also Wright and Beltran.

The future of this franchise looks good though. Ike Davis, for example, has been remarkably clutch this year despite his miscue last night. Josh Thole looks very promising at the all-important catcher position. And they look to be guys who’ll lift their game when it counts.

But, for now, it’s just Reyes and Wright and Beltran. Jason Bay is hiding out somewhere and I don’t think any of the Mets are sorry about that. He almost never delivered of his promise either. He wasn’t the spectacular failure of an Ollie Perez but he was more of a quietly consistent one. And his DL stint makes it easier to field 3 pretty good outfielders. That’s assuming Francoeur is good, of course, but he’s dangerous only if he gets a fastball over the plate. Great arm though.

As a team, these guys just don’t measure up. When the chips are down, when they find themselves in Atlanta or Philadelphia or Florida, or when they’re playing another determined team, they come out second best.

When your stars fold up their tents, when they keep swinging over any pitch that breaks, when they fail to make the big double play because they don’t feel like making that tough throw to first with a guy in their face, when they make side-arm throws that go astray or make throws without setting themselves because it looks so good when it works, that’s when the game is over.

Much as the game was over last night. Maybe they just don’t like Takahashi. God knows that Japanese fellow was trying his best. But his teammates let him down, time after time after time. It became difficult to watch. It was that ugly.

I’d sit Reyes for a while. He looks like a guy who’s tired, who’s not having fun, who’s a little tired of playing the game. Wright was never a slick third baseman but it seems to me that he’s getting worse. I’d sit him more often. But there isn’t even a backup for third base on the roster, as unbelievable as that might seem.

I’ll be looking to the future now. I’m guessing Omar Minaya will be gone and I suppose the broom, when it comes on by, will take Jerry Manuel right along with him. That move seems inevitable, although the GM Minaya has a couple of years left on his contract. If the 16 mill Ollie Perez situation doesn’t take him out, it’ll be the 16 mill Jason Bay mistake.

I think some trades of any of these “core” guys are warranted. There have just been too many failures. I would trade Reyes in a minute. He doesn’t even steal bases anymore. Then I’d look to unload Bay and then Beltran. They’d have to be more successful somewhere else. I’d trade them while their residual value is still pretty high. Bay’s fortunes especially could reasonably be expected to soar in another city. Boston comes immediately to mind.

The Mets are beyond the crossroads. There have been several of them actually. The Mets missed the right path every time. It’ll be no different in Philadelphia.

The Mets need a drastic change.

Relief Needed - for the Mets and Jersey

Aah, another July in New Jersey, smack in the middle of a hot streak that’s gone on for about a week already, what more could we want? Relief, you say? Well, we might get some from the weather but not from the Mets, who seem locked in on this “win one, lose one” pattern for quite a while now.

That pattern was achieved against the Washingtons and Floridas of the world. One would have to think the Cincinnatis and Atlantas, the upcoming set of series, of the world would make things even tougher. And so it seemed last night as the Mets lost the Reds opener, 8-6, mostly because of Mike Pelfrey and Joey Votto.

Joey Votto now has 21 homers and 59 rbi’s and he’s hitting .318. He hit two of those last night and that second one that gave the Reds an insurance run in the 6th after the Mets came within a run of tying the game in the bottom of that ridiculous fifth inning. Pelfrey was pretty bad last night, something that hasn’t happened to him for quite some time. He gets a pass from me for being 10-3 and helping keep the Mets in the race all season.

But Mike looks ridiculously hittable lately to me. That fact, along with his penchant for walks, sours me on his prospects for the rest of the season, and I no longer am entertaining any fantasies about him winning 20 games. I had been thinking for a while that he’d be challenging Johan for dominance. But I don’t think that anymore.

Santana had a pretty miserable June himself, but he really looked pretty good in his last outing on July 1st. Even though he didn’t pick up a win, as, once again, the Mets didn’t hit in his behalf, he showed he hasn’t lost his fastball altogether and showed the command of an ace, giving up just 1 run over 6 complete.

I’m counting on Santana in the second half. I don’t want to put all my marbles on Jonathon Niese, who went 4-0 in June, but is just a second-year (for all intents) guy. And, as much as I’ve loved the performances we’ve gotten from the knuckleballer, R.A. Dickey, I just can’t seem to muster any real faith that his ridiculously good season can continue.

Dickey got smacked around by the Marlins back on June 28th to end his 6-game winning streak. I thought, “Well, that’s the end for him.” But then on July 3rd, he came right back to pitch great against the Nationals, going 7 full innings while allowing no earned runs.

K-Rod lost that one for him, but, once again, K-Rod gets a free pass from me too, as he’s been pretty damned consistent if a little less than lights-out. Ideally, he could stop scaring everyone half to death all the time before he finally extinguishes the fire he’s started. But, realistically, who’d you rather have as your closer?

That leaves Takahashi to discuss. He’s been still another mostly pleasant surprise all season long despite his getting banged around by Detroit and the Marlins before righting his ship against the Nationals. Word is that he’s supposed to go back to the bullpen. But that’s if and when the Mets acquire another starter and I won’t be holding my breath on that happening. Yeah, I know, “ye of little faith.”

But really, if I can look forward to winning a game with any of these Mets starters, I’m not going to be really upset. And God only knows what Omar will give up for another real-live starter. I mean, this is the guy who traded away Brandon Phillips, Grady Sizemore and (gasp) Cliff Lee for Bartolo Colon. (I heard that just the other night from Cohen and I still can’t believe it).

Yeah, a large portion of our success will depend upon these relievers holding up. Perpetual Pedro has been great, more or less, but then there’re some question marks from a consistency standpoint. Parnell’s been better than okay after his return but Igarashi and Nieve have been a little disappointing. And I never expect too much from Dessens, who always looks older than me.

(Uruguay has just tied the Dutch at 1-1 on a beautiful long strike from Forlan. I thought they’d have no chance without Suarez, he of handball fame).

With John Maine and Ollie Perez still on the roster though, albeit on the disabled list right now, it’ll be very difficult to justify picking up another starter. I could better imagine Omar picking up a reliever. After all, that is what the Mets need right now. If they pick up another starter, they’d just move Takahashi to the pen. But there’s no guarantee he’ll be better in the pen than he’s been as a starter.

In any event, the Mets are currently two games behind the division leading Braves and at their current winning percentage, they’ll likely win 90 games. I don’t think that will be sufficient to win the division. It’s definitely wildcard territory, I suppose, but just barely in all likelihood.

(Netherlands just missed a scoring opportunity; maybe they will actually lose this World Cup right here).

(Unbelievable! The Dutch just scored on a dribbler deflection).

It’d sure be nice if Reyes gets back in the lineup really soon. Especially against a high-scoring team like the Reds, we need Reyes in there. The Mets missed his defense bigtime the other day and Ruben Tejada just doesn’t inspire me (or the Mets apparently).

At least Angel Pagan is back, and Jason Bay seems to be playing with more confidence. He seems less tentative and less content to settle for a walk in big situations. But, even with Wright, Pagan and Bay swinging torrid bats, against the Cincinnatis and Atlantas of the world, we still need to get Reyes back in there to win.

We need relief, in the bullpen, in the lineup, and most certainly from this horrible Jersey July.






HTML Hit Counters

Can't Be Distracted from Good Mets Baseball

Just like old times watching Aaron Heilman on the mound for Arizona trying to save it for the DBacks. He walks Jeter, walks Swisher….let’s see, there must be a Yankee he’s willing to pitch to. If he decides to pitch to Teixeira, it could get ugly.

Teixeira goes to 0 and 2. Now a foul ball. He gets Teixeira on a hard ground ball to first but the runners move up. Arod then sac flies Jeter…tie score…blown save… Heilman strikes again. He walks Cano intentionally. Let’s see if he can push the Yanks out of reach totally for an Arizona comeback.

Oh baby! He gets Cervelli to 0 and 2. He might just get out of this with just the blown save. And he does it! He strikes out Cervelli on a hard outside fastball. I’m glad the DBacks have him though. I had enough Heilman for several lifetimes as a Met.

Meanwhile, actually several hours ago, the Mets won again. And R.A. Dickey won again! It looked easy for him too. But Manuel didn’t let him finish it out. He figured K-Rod needed the work, they pointed out from the booth, a booth that actually contained Jerry Seinfeld for a while today. Perfect….Keith, Jerry and Gary Cohen. Nirvana.

But it’s been hard for me to concentrate on baseball at all, what with all the soccer action. (Granderson just hit one out for the Yanks to put them ahead). Watching the Americans squander opportunity after opportunity was driving me to distraction. When Donovan finally kicked in an easy one off a rebound, it was long overdue but no less welcome.

What a finish! It’s great to hear some nice things about this American team after two relatively lackluster performances against England and then Slovenia. But the win yesterday not only got them into the second round, it got them first place in Group C, which gives them Ghana and not Germany. That will probably wind up being big.

I can’t say though that I think Ghana will be any easier than any of the other tough games the Americans have played. On both offense and defense, they seem rather ordinary. They either get lots of lost scoring chances or let in an easy one, or give the crooked officials (I now, that’s way harsh but really) a chance to take the scores away.

But they wound up winning Group C. Pretty amazing, considering England was in the same Group C. Not that I found the Orange particularly good. So maybe the USA is for real, whatever that might wind up meaning. To me, the South Americans look pretty good in this tournament but I suppose we’ll be finding out in good time who’re the real soccer powers in 2010.

Another distraction from baseball for me has been Wimbledon. There’s nothing quite like warm weather and good tennis and white togs on everybody. But today’s action was ridiculous, one match going into a quite ridiculous number of sets in the longest match of all time. And it actually wound up being boring. That’s way too long….go with the tie breaker

Then there’s the drama surrounding LeBron James as to where he’ll be packing his sneakers next year, and almost as much intrigue as to how the NBA Draft will play out, for our local Nets especially. I’m thinking LeBron will wind up with Chicago when all is said and done. He’s from Cleveland, and Chicago’s not that far from home, compared to New York. And things worked out pretty well for Michael Jordan in Chicago.

What a way to make them forget Jordan! Play in the same town, win a few Championships and it’ll be Michael Who? I think Miami will be too hot, New York or New Jersey will be too iffy, and LA will be too slick. It’ll be Chicago.

And as for the Nets, unless Rod Thorn is the best actor in the world, he doesn’t sound sold on any of the players that will be there for his turn at number three. So there’ll be a trade in the Nets future. It’s anybody’s guess who they may be eying. I keep reading about power forwards they might want, and how the top available guys just aren’t optimal.

Maybe new Nets owner Prokhorov will bring in a big Russian, someone along the lines of the gigantic Russian in Rocky III. At least it would be more interesting.

Despite all the background noise though, it would be hard to be totally distracted from the Mets. They’ve been playing great baseball for quite some time now, and, as the core of this team has come on, Reyes and Wright especially, so have the Mets.

Reyes was big again last night, leading off the game with a big triple and then getting stranded but Reyes wasn’t done yet. With two outs in the third, he singled, stole second and scored the game’s first run when Wright delivered a big double. In the 5th, he hit a long homer to right, longer than you’d have thought possible.

Detroit finally managed to get him out in the 7th but by then the game was over. Dickey was rolling and the Tigers were toothless. So it wound up 5-0 at the end of things and the Mets were never threatened. They had achieved another CitiField win, a commonplace event in this remarkable 2010 season.

So Wright and Reyes have been finally fulfilling expectations. Jason Bay, even with his four hits the previous night, still seems too happy to walk in every at-bat, a trait that really isn’t that easy to understand from a guy who’s supposed to drive in runs.

But all’s well for the Mets. Except for the latest muckraking concerning Johan Santana, just about everything’s looking good. I’m hoping Pagan isn’t too seriously hurt after his removal from the game yesterday. Angel Pagan has been amazing.

So good in fact that Mets fans are now hoping Beltran just stays right where he is.

It's the Core, Stupid!

A day of rest, that’s just what the Mets needed, and that goes for their fans too. I know I surely needed one. That last loss to the Padres was excruciating. One strike away from the win they were, and just little David Eckstine at the plate. Oh well.

I won’t be picking on anybody today, not even Ollie Perez. I’ll try to stay away from Gary Matthews too. The fact is that they’re just a .500 team, one among many it seems in a league that’s showing a lot of parity this year. Once you accept that simple truism, the team is a really interesting one to watch, even when Keith (Hernandez, the 3rd guy in the booth) takes still another day off.

I mean….what other team has every player on it being almost psychotically streaky . Name me one everyday player who shows any consistency. Bay? Certainly not. Reyes? Oh please. Wright? I don’t think so. When Barajas, the catcher, leads the team in rbi’s, that’s pathetic, I’m sorry, even if the total number is pretty high.

Yeah, I guess Castillo and Ike Davis have been consistent, but even as good as they’ve been, their total potential impact just isn’t that great (although Ike has won a few games for them, come to think of it).

Right now, for example, Reyes is hot. Francoeur is hot too but those two are five spots apart in the batting order. Even Reyes doesn’t steal home that often. He may have stolen 2nd and 3rd and induced a balk to get home once or twice, but it’s a 162-game season. They just, as a team, don’t score that many runs(17th), especially when Santana’s on the mound.

A typical batting sequence might have Reyes getting on, Castillo moving him over, Bay striking out and Wright popping up. They just don’t put things together that often. And they don’t get big hits. But when the pitching is good, as very often it has been, the whole team plays a lot better, not at the plate certainly but in every other aspect.

Their core players are just not getting it done, or, I should say, haven’t got it done so far this year.

Bay, for example, is hitting a respectable .295 right now and leads the team in runs scored but his OPS is just .829 while his average career OPS is .892. He’s the type of hitter that hits a lot of long balls that get caught. When they’re not caught, it’ll be a double. He just hasn’t been able to get that ball over the wall this year. I hate to say he’s got “warning track power” but that’s been his story this year.

David Wright is hitting .267. He’s got a marginally better OPS than Bay, and 9 home runs, which is probably better than many fans expected, but he just hasn’t produced as often as you’d expect. If he were better in big spots, the low batting average wouldn’t make as much of a difference, but alas, he’s been the guy who strikes out, the guy who pops up, the guy who makes that final out.

Reyes’s numbers are very revealing. He’s batting a paltry .248. And, even with 30 runs scored, that’s just not enough from a player such as Reyes has been. It surprised me to discover that Reyes’s career average OPS is .764, pretty impressive for a shortstop, but his current OPS is a ridiculously poor .638. That’s 150 points off his average.

That’s the real story of the Mets season thus far. That’s not what you’ll read in the news stories though. You’ll hear about Perez refusing to get sent down and Francoeur fixing his swing, even though he’s always fixing his swing. You’ll see stories about Pelfrey, who has been a great revelation this year, or Takahashi, who has generally been good wherever they’ve put him in the rotation. You’ll see stories about the need for another starter, arguably the biggest Mets story of the year.

But it’s all baloney. The Mets are currently 12th in ERA in both leagues, just two spots down from the Yankees, who can boast of possessing Sabathia and Burnett and Pettitte and Hughes. And that nice ERA number has been achieved despite the woes of John Maine and Oliver Perez, both who have been predictably horrible.

The pitching staff deserves kudos for their resiliency, at the very least. A big reason for that is the fact that the Japanese duo of Takahashi and Igarashi have been great, although Igarashi obviously returned to active duty too soon after his injury. Recently R.A. Dickey, the knuckleballer from the minors, has been great. Niese, before he got hurt, had been a pleasant surprise.

The Mets now have a rotation of Santana, Pelfrey, Niese, Takahashi and Dickey. That’s not too shabby. On the relief side there are K-Rod and Feliciano, and Igarashi, who should return to form soon. Then take your pick of Nieve or Mejia or even Dessens. Valdez has been a disappointment, but, in the grand scheme , it’s been a small thing.

Another huge distraction has been Carlos Beltran’s continued absence from the lineup. But Angel Pagan has done a great job in centerfield. He’s also been pretty damned good at the plate, presently sporting a .784 OPS. I consider him a mini-5-tool-guy. The guy does everything pretty darned well.

So I don’t pay too much attention to the stories. The real problem has been the core, or what’s left of it, after the loss of Beltran and Delgado. I’ll ignore the melodrama surrounding the return of Niese and who’ll get dropped from the roster as a result. It just isn’t that significant. Gee, maybe they’ll drop Matthews, who’s deserved a much worse fate than he has thus far experienced.

Reyes has to keep his recent hot streak going. Bay has to start hitting the ball with authority. Wright has to hit the ball more often.

It’s the core, stupid!

No Maine In Sight

I hate to pile on but nobody deserves it more than John Maine.

What can a guy expect when he walks the world to open his last game and then gets taken out when he opens a game with another walk? Manuel was absolutely right to take Maine out in that spot. If John Maine had any sense of judgment at all, his priority last night should have been to throw strikes, especially to that first batter of the game.

Manuel shouldn’t have to justify taking Maine out with allusions to the 85 mph speed of his fastball (for lack of a more genteel word), or express what might have been a legitimate concern for Maine’s health.

Manuel’s team needed a win. They’d been swept in Florida and floundered in Washington. Maine had been horrible in his last start and Manuel kept him in that game longer than he needed to, much to his regret, I’m sure. Manuel expected and needed strikes. He didn’t get them.

He also got a pitcher acting as if he were hurt, bent over, looking defeated. So what’s a manager to do?

Maine’s temper tantrum reflects his sense of entitlement, a curiously undeserved feeling for a guy who hasn’t been worth much for quite a while. Maine’s expectations far exceed his talent. Why should his treatment differ from that of Oliver Perez, who just got axed from the rotation? And he was removed partly for not finding the plate.

Maine desperately needed a sense of urgency last night. The most urgent need was to throw a strike. He didn’t. Case closed.

That the Mets later won didn’t matter to Maine. He continued to pout. All those Mets runs could’ve been his to work with. Bummer! That this guy has been a Met for so long might partially explain what has been wrong with the team, lo these many years.

Maine’s removal energized the whole team. How often have the Mets had 3-run innings, and then a 5-run inning? It was as if they said, “okay, everybody hits” and that was just what they did. Everybody hit, and the core guys, Wright and Bay and Reyes, seemed to lead the charge.

The Mets also got a terrific pitching performance from Raul Valdes, who went a full five innings and struck out six Washington batters while spacing 7 hits and just one measly walk. He came out after allowing his first base on balls. Are you awake yet, Mr. Maine? There are other pitchers out there. Some of them show the intensity required to pitch in the major leagues. Most of them can throw strikes.

I’ve felt all along that the success of the Mets season would depend not on the success of Maine and Perez but on how quickly the Mets would respond and manage their situations and their failures. The Mets had been patient with both and even coaxed a few decent performances from them. But now, as it seems both have reverted to recent form, the Mets need to clear the decks.

It’s not as if there are no decent alternatives. Takahashi has been great in long relief. There’s no reason to think he can’t be effective as a starter. Knuckleballer R.A. Dickey has already tossed in one nice start. He might be just the change of pace the Mets rotation needs to baffle opposing bats from day to day. Igarashi will be returning to the fold soon to bolster the pitching in general. And just who wouldn’t inspire more hope than John Maine?

Even the refusal of Perez to pitch at Buffalo for a while may turn to the Mets favor. Perez has already appeared in a relief role, and, although he did walk a batter, he did get the one out the Mets needed.

So, without Maine, it’d be Santana, Pelfrey, Niese (hopefully soon), Takahashi and Dickey. Without Niese, then some more resourcefulness is needed. Rookie Mejia, who has been effective in relief, may ultimately be the nice answer. In the short run, Pat Misch and last year’s bust Parnell could be this year’s boom. And, even if they can just turn in mediocre performances in the bigs, they will have been better than John Maine.

After this terrible road trip, 2-6, one has to wonder how competitive this Mets team can be over the long haul. Before the trip I thought it would be a good measure of how competitive they could be in their division. But if that were true, the Mets will be in bad shape this year.

The hitting has been so bad though lately. It’s hard to believe the bats can’t get a lot better than they’ve been. If the bats pick up and the pitching can hold together, the Mets can easily pick up. I know I’m looking forward to three days of Takahashi, Pelfrey and Santana. It’s only after that that expectations descend somewhat.

Can Dickey repeat a nice job? Who’ll it be after that? I guess that’s why they play the game.

Merde! The actual Yankee-Mets game has intervened. Takahashi was great. The Mets couldn’t hit the Yankees Javier Vasquez or Joba after that. They did manage to get a couple of hits from Bay and Davis off Mariano but it was too little, too late and the Mets lost 2-1.

But they looked damned good in every other way, the pitching, the fielding, the managing…..even given Cora’s big throwing error and the inauspicious debut of Elmer Dessens, that anybody but the far-seeing Manuel could have foreseen.

Vasquez got all the Mets out except Alex Cora for one of those mysterious reasons that only occur in baseball. But he got all the “big” guys out. Joba Chamberlain was like the old Joba, except he looks 20 pounds heavier to me. Maybe it’s just my imagination. When Girardi doesn’t totally kill his spirit, Joba rules.

So now it’s just Pelfrey and Santana to face Hughes and Sabathia. And no Maine appearance in sight for 15 days.

Mets Forget Good At-Bats and Win!

Jerry Manuel recently said something to the effect that his principal instruction to his hitters is to have a good at-bat. Such is the world of the thinker. He figures, “take a lot of pitches, get that starter out of the game.”

NEWS FLASH – Gary Matthews just got a BASE HIT!!!!

This, by the way, is my second attempt at writing something intelligent about the Mets. Something worthwhile. My 500 words of yesterday were filled with hateful invective; my principal target was Jason Bay, but David Wright, Jose Reyes and Jerry Manuel also figured largely in my mind and on the paper too, not that anybody uses paper anymore.

Back to having good at-bats though, that really shouldn’t be the prime directive. The prime directive should be to go up there and get a hit. It should be assumed that major league hitters would be able to figure out the rest, i.e. don’t swing at anything you can’t hit; get four of those and you’ll walk. But that’s secondary. You should be up there to get a hit.

It’s pretty hard for most people to hit a baseball at all. You’re considered a very good hitter if your batting average is .300, meaning that you not only hit the ball, but you hit it to a spot that no opponent could reach. Walks are not included in that figure, but on-base average does, further reflecting the batter’s efficiency. A further indication of productivity is slugging percentage, a figure that measures total bases divided by at-bats.

As every player watches his numbers, they all do the best they can at the plate, given their own proclivities and limitations. Some batters are free swingers and are very good at hitting that way. Most batters wait for a pitch they can hit and drive it. But it’s a pretty simple process to understand. Swing if the ball is over the plate.

Not in Mets-Land. In the Mets world of over-think, the prime directive is to have a good at-bat. That implies taking pitches, making that opposing pitcher throw as many pitches as possible. What this means is that a batter will now take a first strike for sure and further try to “work” the at-bat as it progresses, meaning to take further pitches out of the strike zone if at all possible before either getting a hit or not.

Some hitters are adept at batting that way. They have become so sophisticated as hitters that their natural inclination is to have a good at-bat. These batters can foul off pitch after pitch in the strike zone, waiting for not only a strike, but a strike that they can drive, and, if they drive it far enough, it’ll result in a home run, a wonderful event that not only helps the team but also does wonders for your numbers, thus eventually increasing your salary.

Most hitters can’t do that. Their bat control, their eye at the plate, their judgment, all those things aren’t refined enough to enable a good at-bat all the time. Many hitters will take a first strike if just to get a feel for the speed of the pitch. Some batters just feel better getting their three opportunities to hit the ball. Taking a strike restricts opportunities to two.

Given no further instruction, each batter would be able to maximize his potential at the plate, but, especially when opposed by a really good pitcher, at-bats could be either short or even very short, and if repeated inning after inning, this good pitcher could stay in the game for nine innings, or until that magic 100-pitch number rears its ugly head.

But most games would proceed naturally, meaning sometimes the team would get hits, and, stringing them together, get lots of runs too, as each hitter is given his three chances to hit the ball. A team like the Mets could succeed very well in that manner, happily swinging the bat and maximizing their potential.

You see, the Mets don’t really have any of those really accomplished hitters that can work counts, that can foul off all but the very best pitches ( Bobby Abreu comes to mind, Nick Johnson also comes to mind but in a much lesser way). The Mets have some good hitters too. It’s just that they’re not Bobby Abreu types. They are three-strikes guys.

Jason Bay, David Wright, Jose Reyes, maybe Ike Davis, they’re better off if they’re given their opportunities, every one of them. Shackle them with the “good at-bat” directive though, and you get a bad hitter, one who takes good pitches for strikes, swings at bad pitches, and, worst of all, takes a pitch that is only questionably a strike.

The Mets have been in that worst possible of worlds. Their core guys have looked bad at the plate, embarrassingly bad at times, resulting in many losses that could have and should have been wins, as the Mets pitching has been surprisingly good.

As I have watched tonight’s game though, it’s quite apparent that either the prime directive has changed, or the players are ignoring the prime directive en masse. They’re currently losing to the Nats 6-3 but the tying run is at the plate. Mets batters are swinging at anything that moves. They’re being aggressive. Bay, Wright, Davis….they’re all hitting the ball.

They might lose this game too, but it sure has been exciting to watch, and I’d bet anything it’s been more fun for the players as well. They won’t lose tonight because they were looking for a walk. They’ll be the aggressive hitters they’ve been all their lives.

Last year, Jerry Manuel’s thrust was hitting to the opposite field, which killed David Wright’s numbers, especially his power numbers. Last year was a lost year anyway though, with all the injuries. This year, the thrust has been good at-bats; it’s been killing this team, and I can only hope they’ll just forget about it. You can’t change hitters overnight.

(The Mets win, 8-6, scoring at will and aggressive as hell ).