Nobody Saves the Closer

Well, it's Friday the 13th and that can't be good for anybody. But the Mets are coming off another Santana victory, one for which he thankfully needed not one bit of relief. And Beltran finally broke out for three hits or so. But in the long run, losing your closer is not good, especially if he takes himself out of the fray. I won't re-hash he finer details of his violent temper tantrum (which has been widely reported) but from a purely baseball standpoint, the whole thing really stinks.

That sense of entitlement can really screw a person up sometimes. We've seen it with Tiger Woods, Ben Roethlisberger, Santana himself really and now K-Rod.

I remember being very angry at Pedro Martinez when he just shoved the elderly Yankees coach (his name is not coming to me just now) off his feet. So you can imagine how I'm feeling about K-Rod now. What a bum. I won't be wearing his shirt any longer. I don't care how many games he saves. When you beat up your girl friend's father for trying to protect his daughter, you're bad news. Go to jail. Stay there. But forfeit all your money too.

I feel the same about these rapists and all the habitual married womanizers. Get over yourselves. Join the human race.

All that behind me now. I don't know what the Mets'll do in the ninth inning now. They had enough trouble when they were just worried about how to get to K-Rod. Now there'll just be the big void. Oh, and Igarashi too. He may get through some situations but not the lion's share, that's pretty certain. Of course, anything can happen in baseball. I really believe that.

But percentages are against it. Unless he's one of those guys who gets way tougher when the chips are on the line, he just won't have the composure of a closer. I'm laughing as I write that last. How ironic that a guy who shows absolutely no composure in his personal dealings can keep his cool on the mound. Will his recommended anger management classes affect his mound performance negatively? You have to wonder.

But, even more significantly to me as a baseball fan, I won't really be able to even root for him anymore,. And since he is the closer, to root against him is to root against the Mets...very directly. More often than not, it's either K-Rod pumping his fist in the air or another Mets loss. Nobody saves the closer.

Spring Means Nothing

I certainly hope it’s true that the spring means nothing. I know it means rain for me. And I probably haven’t nearly seen the end of it. Thank God for sump pumps and hoses and drains that still take more water than you’d think was possible. It’s meant rain for the Mets too unfortunately, and it just doesn’t look that promising right now. A Mets fan has to hope the sun is just around the corner.

Maybe it’s just that they’re always playing the Cardinals and the Marlins, who share the stadium down in nearby Jupiter, Roger Dean stadium. In case you’re wondering, Roger Dean is a local car dealer. I had been hoping he was a pirate or something, but alas, no. Both those teams are good though, if the games I’ve seen are any indicator. I have to think that. The alternative is too depressing.

Who knows, maybe today will be the start of a turnaround. Stranger things have happened. Murphy just made a horrible baserunning blunder and got hurt in the process. Maybe that will get Mike Jacobs on the team. At least he can hit the ball out of the park on a regular basis. I mean, if you’re going to hit for a low average, you may as well have some power. Dave Kingman would look good to me now.

Things could turn around too. Sean Green, who had been so bad as to be almost scary, just pitched two very solid innings. Of course they’re down by five so that really isn’t such a tremendous deal either. And here comes Kiko Calero into the game after watching Fernando Tatis have another totally inconsequential at-bat.

I don’t even know who started. The broadcast team is keeping it to themselves. It was probably Ollie though, judging by the score. Hmm, looks like Calero has a nice slider anyway, and he did do a nice job last year for the Marlins. (Somebody should tell these ladies in the stands behind home plate that they really should make an attempt to keep their knees together).

The guessing continues as to the composition of the bullpen. (Matt Holliday just hit his second homer of the day off Calero, about 420 feet to dead center, what a shot). The broadcast team seems to think it’ll be Francisco Rodriguez for sure and Pedro Feliciano for sure and everything else is up in the air. Fernando Nieve is out of options, I understand. I like Igarashi and Calero. Kelvim Escobar may return to form too. Then there is the kid with all the talent they’ll hold down, God knows why. (Yeah, I know why but I don’t agree).

Hope springs eternal for Jose Reyes, though, and I love his quote about feeling that he was Japanese, with all the pens and cameras following him around. Newly acquired Jason Bay just hit one out of the stadium. Wright still looks like Wright. Beltran is still out and probably won’t be returning for a little while yet. I refuse to speculate on him anymore. Angel Pagan is actually starting to look like not such a bad alternative to Beltran, not to mention Fernando Martinez, another young talent who won’t get called up until it’s too late to matter.

Mike Jacobs is up now and I’m hoping he hits another long one, just to make GM Omar Minaya a little crazier. Minaya’s supposed to make a decision by Friday on his final roster. It should be interesting. As a Mets fan, you have to hope the mid-season roster will look quite different from the one we are witnessing right now, barring a complete turnaround in their play once the season gets under way.

The Mets seem to be playing their cards for the future, no matter that their present may very well dictate the futures of the GM and manager Jerry Manuel. I just heard catcher Omir Santos will be starting the season in Buffalo, a fact that makes me sick. I just can’t get excited about Rod Barajas. In fact, I can’t make heads or tails on why they picked him up in the first place. He must think Barajas and Henry Blanco are an upgrade but you couldn’t convince most Mets fans of that.

I’ve defended Minaya for ages now, but I’m beginning to think I’ve been wrong about him. Not only is the present not too rosy, but the future doesn’t look that good either. Where are the pitching prospects other teams seem to have coming out their ears? Yeah, we have a first baseman in Ike Davis, a centerfielder in Fernando Martinez, and a pitcher in this Mejia(sp) who are supposed to be great (but not great enough to call up), but what about the pitching?

The starters inspire no confidence whatsoever, not even from this eternal optimist when it comes to the Mets. It’s as if God handed all the concentration and focus to Johan Santana, but withheld it totally from all the rest. Pelfrey, Maine, Perez…..what a mess! There has to be a short leash on these guys if they don’t turn it around pretty soon, especially for Perez and Maine. It’s beginning to look like the classic “addition by subtraction” situation.

K-Rod’s on the mound now, thank God. Only Sean Green’s done anything on the mound today. K-Rod just threw the nicest curve I’ve ever seen to record another strikeout. It looks as if the ninth inning will be secure, but it’s anybody’s guess how many times the Mets will arrive in that ninth inning with a lead.

Baseball’s a funny game though. Sometimes those teams appearing quite dead in March turn it immediately around once April rolls around. A Mets fan has to hope for that eventuality. I’m hoping Minaya will start showing some concern for his own immediate future. I’m hoping he gets a little less patient with players who have given him nothing in return.

Meanwhile, spring means nothing, spring means nothing…..

Fingers in the Dike

Finally, the break! Whew! A reprieve.

My favorite baseball team finished out the first half just about as well as they could have, which is saying a lot really. With stars such as Francoeur and Murphy, and some pretty good pitching, all things considered, the Orange and Blue took that last series against the Reds after losing two of three from the Dodgers. And, oh yeah, the Phils took out their brooms before that.

Some of you may be saying, “Yeah, but it’s just the Reds”. To you I say, “Yeah, but it was the friggin’ Phillies and Dodgers too and they ain’t chopped liver”.

If you’re a Mets fan, you have to try to be optimistic. These players are playing their hearts out. They may be losing to the best teams but they’re holding their own, so to speak, with the rest of the league. And the schedule gets easier after the break.

Since the hitting hasn’t really been there, you have to recognize the good pitching, starting with that monster of a closer, K-Rod. I’ve never seen a tougher closer, and that includes Billy Wagner. It includes Mariano Rivera too, by the way, but why pick on Mariano?

Second in line for kudos would have to be Johan Santana. Stopper, leader, smart, tough as nails, that’s Mr. Santana. And he hasn’t really had his best stuff lately.

While the rest of the team has been on a slow trip to hell, Francisco Rodriguez and Johan Santana have lived up to their reputations and have kept a bad team only mediocre. Over the course of a 162 games, that’s not as insignificant as it may sound. If the Mets can be thankful for anything, it’s for those two guys.

On the batting side of things, the heroes become a lot harder to identify. I have to say David Wright has been himself, which is to say, pretty damned good overall but not so hot in July. He has just eight hits this month and just two rbi’s. It’s tough when there’s nobody getting on base and nobody who scares the opposing pitcher hitting behind you. But he is batting .324 overall and he’s starting tomorrow in the All-Star Game. So…..

I think Sheffield deserves some kudos. He’s forty years old, playing for a few hundred thousand dollars only, and doing all the things he was brought on board to do. That’s way more than anybody expected. And he’s the only real power threat. Wright has just five dingers on the year.

Everybody else has to get better. Cora is steady in the infield but usually produces almost nothing at the plate. Much the same could be said for Castillo and Schneider. Pagan will be a little better but hasn’t yet performed up to expectations. At least, I hope that’s the case.

Ryan Church was just beginning to look a little better at the plate before the trade that sent him packing to Atlanta. But he can’t hit a breaking pitch. I think Francoeur has way more upside and obviously, so did GM Omar Minaya. He’s somebody to worry about whereas Church really never was.

The depth chart currently shows a pretty decent lineup. An outfield of Pagan, Francoeur and Sheffield is not one to sneeze at. The infield is still particularly weak with Castillo and Cora manning the inside spots but what might hurt even more is not having more power at the corners. Not only has Wright failed to hit the long ball. Daniel Murphy hasn’t done nearly enough to provide power at a power position, first base.

Even with Murphy’s failure to hit though, he can surprise you in the field as he did last game with a beautiful grab on a foul ball. But let’s be honest, a .314 on-base percentage just doesn’t cut the mustard, especially if batting second.

The last Mets lineup though, the one that scored nine runs against Cincinnati, actually resembled a major league lineup. It featured a speedy Pagan leading off and a number two hitter in Castillo who can actually get on base and move the runner over. Wright’s a legitimate 3 and Sheff a legit number 4. Francoeur at 5 seems a good fit and I think Murphy will feel more comfortable at 6. It’s only fitting of course that Schneider and Cora should bring up the rear, but, compared with other teams’ 7 and 8 hitters, they don’t really lose a lot. And Cora has some speed and savvy on the basepaths, thus not slowing down Pagan or Castillo at the top of the order.

The bench isn’t bad either with Tatis to spell Murphy at first and Argenis Reyes to spell Castillo at second. In the outfield, Jeremy Reed has done pretty well so far and will back up Pagan in centerfield.

The starting rotation now reads Santana, Pelfrey, Livan Hernandez, crazy Ollie Perez and Fernando Nieve. Every one of those hurlers should give them a chance to win, even if Livan will bore us to death and both Perez and Nieve may tire in the fifth inning. That’s what relievers are for, right?

And that could be the rub. In order to stay in the hunt, the relief corps has to produce more than they have thus far. Except for K-Rod, nobody has really dazzled, especially not Sean Green. He has to start earning his money. Parnell has to be more consistent. I’m hoping Redding, Dessens and Misch can perform better than a law firm their combined names suggest. They may be getting a lot of action, especially on every fourth and fifth day. And Feliciano has to keep getting outs from those lefties.

So life is not over for our locals. By splitting with LA and Cincinnati, they stayed in contention at the break. They’ll start the 2nd half in fourth place but still within striking distance of the Phils, only 6 ½ games ahead.

But I’m thinking wildcard. The Phils may be too much.

A Wonderful Day

Camden Yards! What a ballpark! Lots of history, even more atmosphere, and a tremendous ball game in the offing. At press time, it’s 4-2 Mets against the Orioles and Pelfrey’s just starting to get into trouble in the sixth, this after striking out Brian Roberts with the bases loaded to end the fifth. But Pelfrey induces the easy double play, Castillo to Cora to Murphy. Not exactly Tinker to Evers to Chance.

It’s a little difficult to get into this inter-league play, especially when it produces matchups like this one. Not that there’s anything wrong with the Orioles, but the names in the lineup don’t exactly roll off your tongue. (And here comes Manuel to get Pelfrey outta there).

Up north a hundred miles or so at the new Yankee Stadium, inter-league play gives us the scary-bad Washington Nationals versus the Yanks. Incredibly enough, halfway through the game, the Nats have a 3-2 lead off an Anderson Hernandez home run of the three-run variety. Mets fans will recall the light-hitting Hernandez and continue to wonder at the ease of stroking the dingers at the Yanks new digs.

So it’s a good night. The temperature’s around 60, but it feels like warmer than that, perfect baseball weather for a night game. It’s now 8:58 PM and it seems as if the sun just went down, slowly closing the shutters on what has been a beautiful day, especially for a guy who’s not in love with hot weather.

Back to the Mets game and the Birds are taking their starter out too. So rather than watch still another ad, I see it’s the 7th and C.C. is still mowing them down. Big man, Sabathia, especially on the close-ups. Big glove, big body, big stretch, and a big heart too judging from his performances over the years.

But as I can’t bring myself to watch the rest of the 7th-inning ceremonies, it’s back to the Metsies, who have now chased the horrible O’s reliever, the lefty who faced two lefties and put both of them on-base. So things look good in Mudville. It’s bases-loaded for Beltran against new reliever Danys Baez. But Beltran grounds into a force at home. Uh-oh, maybe another wasted opportunity in the offing. Maybe Wright can save the day…maybe not. Wright has now fouled a few into the dirt before popping one up.

But the Mets catch a Luis Castillo moment that works against the other side as the Orioles muff the pop-up. So it’s now 6-2 and that’ll probably be the end of things with Church up, and sure as the sun will shine tomorrow, Church grounds out to third.

Manuel is fielding my worst nightmare of a lineup tonight, with Church and Schneider both in the game at the expense of Tatis and Santos. What a bad trade-off that is, even if Church did manage an RBI earlier. Even Church can get a hit once in a while.

Back to the Yankees, they’re now up by a run and Robinson Cano, who’s 4-4 tonight, just drove in Teixeira with the go-ahead run. What a find Teixeira has been! Everybody talks about the return of Arod and with good reason. Teixeira’s been on fire ever since, and he now leads the American League in homers.

Back to the Mets and my other doghouse guy is up there, Schneider. Omigosh! He strokes a double to go with a single and a walk. Holy cow, I might have to revise my opinion a little. Santos can’t play every day, I guess.

It’s the 8th now at the Yankees bandbox of a field and Sabathia’s now outta there. Kaye has just asked whether the bullpen can save the game, and it wasn’t a rhetorical question, not in this context. The Yanks bullpen has really been awful, it’s too nice of a night to say they’ve stunk, so I’ll anxiously await the result. Hopefully, they’ll throw Bruney in there and, wonder of wonders, they do.

Whew! A 96 mph fastball gets by Zimmerman for strike two. But another fireball gets fouled into the seats, Zimmerman’s catching up. Then one out of the strikezone and then a ground ball that Cano races down in the hole. I must say Cano has been excellent tonight too. I haven’t really been in his corner all year but he’s making me sorry.

If there’s a theme to the night, it may be that I’ve been wrong about all these guys, Church, Schneider, Cano…..I hope it’s true. If so, the Mets can maybe climb back in the race, if not for the NL East crown, maybe the wildcard, as the SF Giants now lead four or five teams in the hunt for that fourth playoff spot.

As for Cano, the Yanks look strong enough to get some playoff spot, with or without Cano. My favorite Yankee’s up at the plate now, but he just took strike two on a pitch that was well outside the strike zone. So things don’t look good for the Swish.

Swisher just advanced Gardner to third. Maybe Melky will have some luck and get C.C. that insurance run. Of course, going into the 9th now, Mariano Rivera may not need it.

Back to the Mets again and, lo and behold, it’s Church up yet again with runners on first and third. But he fends off a tough outside pitch by flying out weakly to left. Hmm, maybe I’m not that wrong about him. He’s really been pitiful all year at the plate and shows very little real sign of coming out of it.

Bobby Parnell’s in there now for the Mets in the ninth. And Mora’s up, one of the more recognizable Birds. He strokes one to right that Church lets bounce in front of him. Now another base hit makes it two on with nobody out. Here comes K-Rod in what nas now become a save situation.

Put both games in the books. K-Rod comes through. It is a wonderful day.

CC and JJ WooHoo!!

Wow! Bang! In comes K-Rod
Whoosh! In comes J.J. Putz, out goes Heilman.

Sitting here listening to Darryl Strawberry talking on the FAN with Francesa about his years with the ’86 World Champions New York Mets, and still basking in the knowledge that we’ll have some real relievers next year, what could be better?

Uh-oh, now he’s re-living his Yankees Days. Geez, even that’s OK now. Now that Omar and the Mets have done such a sterling job of operationalizing their priorities. The Yanks pay 61 mill for C.C and we get K-Rod for beans, relatively speaking, of course.

Then we get JJ Putz from Seattle, one of the premier relievers in the league for at least a few years now for Aaron Heilman and Endy Chavez. Some minor league players were also involved, but the crux of the deal is Putz for Chavez, Heilman and Joe Smith, who actually will wind up with the Indians. A lefthanded pitcher named Jason Vargas, who was hurt for all of last year, was also included in the deal.

The Mets also get a pretty fair right-handed middle-inning reliever named Sean Green, who may be better than anyone the Mets now have in that role. A utility outfielder named Jeremy Reed completes the 12-player mass juggle. The Mets are probably ten to 15 games better than they were last year, and that may be conservative if everyone stays healthy.

I don’t like some aspects of the huge trade, such as letting Joe Smith go. He was a tough pitcher in certain spots last year, and you had an overall good feeling about him. Sure, he may have messed up some, they all did, but not in the spots that Heilman did. Oh God, don’t make me re-live that all over again!

I understand they’ll be talking to Pedro again. While I don’t think they’ll work anything out with Mr. Martinez, I do relish the thought, just for fun rather than effectiveness necessarily.

And I hope they’ll get the crazy left-hander back too, Oliver Perez. If they can retain him for less than they can get for a free agent starter of the same quality, why not keep him? He’s at his best in big games, and more than ever, it looks as if the Mets may have some of those in 2009.

Just accomplishing this much would yield a starting rotation of Johan Santana, Oliver Perez, John Maine, Mike Pelfrey and Pedro Martinez. Another lefthander with possibilities named Jonathon Niese makes for a pretty fair rotation. Compare it to that of the World Champ Phillies.

Maine and Pelfrey should be better than last year. So should Pedro, for that matter. If Santana can hold his form, what a year it could be. I’m sure crazy Ollie would provide some unwanted adventure, and Pedro usually provides just five or six good innings at this stage of his career, but three of five starters would be pretty consistent, providing mostly routine quality starts.

So there’d be quite a few instances of a need for good relief pitching with that rotation. But now the Mets have it. If they can just get to the eighth inning, they now have the best finishing tandem in either league, JJ Putz in the eighth and Francisco Rodriguez in the ninth.

With a finishing tandem such as that, the Mets really don’t need to do more in the pitching area than to just keep Perez and Pedro. They’d keep some of that crazy chemistry too. The lineup they have is strong enough to score runs, and that’s just by keeping the other Reyes (Argenis) at 2nd base and the Murphy/Evans combo in left field.

Keeping Damien Easley would be fine, and Fernando Tatis was no slouch either last year. Otherwise, I’d be happy with Reyes, Wright, Beltran, Delgado, Church, Murphy or Evans and Schneider/Castro.

The Yanks are talking with a lot of guys. They need a lot of guys. And maybe they’ll watch Teixeira go to Boston. Oh man! How good does it get? Imagine the joy of watching Teixeira hit 30 and 100 and lead the Sawx to one more title. Meanwhile, we Mets fans got what we needed all year.

The Yankees are figuring, I guess, they can throw just anybody into the first base position. Giambi, Damon, whatever…and I suppose they’re not that crazy about Bobby Abreu, which is hard to believe really, given that he hits .300 every year.

If I were a Yankee fan, I’d be worried big-time. Sabathia has always been one of my favorite fantasy-league pitchers and he’s been great, but he tends to start the season slowly and that just won’t do in the big town. He’ll be vilified on the rags’ back pages at least a few times before the beginning of June. How will that affect an easy-going guy?

Does trading Mike Cameron for Melky Cabrera really accomplish that much? For all anyone knows, Melky could come back from his down season, and he was never bad in that centerfield spot. It was his lack of presence in the lineup that was frustrating. Cameron has more power but he strikes out……a lot.

Maybe they’ll have some bulletins during the football game tonight letting us know what other moves the Yanks may be making. God knows they still need some pitching. C.C. may be able to pitch with three days rest but not even the big guy can pitch every day.

The Yanks too are allegedly bidding against the Phils for Derek Lowe. That would be just fine for Mets fans, robbing the Phillies of still another weapon that would soon turn on our boys in blue. Go get ‘em, Cash….

Anything can happen in baseball, of course. As Yogi was supposed to have said one day, “It ain’t over ‘till it’s over” but Mets fans are a lot further along than they were a couple of days ago. That’s for sure. The beginning of the beginning is looking very good indeed.