Wednesday, May 03, 2006
Thoughts
Time to mark down some thoughts I have now...
-SI took a poll of the most overrated players in baseball... Carlos Beltran is second behind Derek Jeter on the list, which is unsurprising as Beltran has been really awful in his seven months as a Met; also in the top 10, however, are Johnny Damon and Alex Rodriguez, meaning the top three hitters most nights in the Yankee batting order are viewed as overrated by their peers. Damon and Jeter don't surprise me all that much, but A-Rod is possibly the best hitter of this generation and a sure-fire hall-of-famer, as well as a decent shot to break Hank Aaron's HR record of 755..
-Alot of people have said the Mets have paid their way out of last place, mainly through signing high-priced free agents such as Pedro, Carlos, and Wagner; but the Mets 2006 payroll is actually a few notches below the $104 million it was in 2003...
-The Mets send Pedro Martinez and Tom Glavine up against the Pirates, and combined they have 480 career wins... Pirate starters Ian Snell and Paul Maholm have six...
-Good pitching matchups in two games today, first it's John Smoltz and Brett Myers at Turner Field, and then it's Roy Halladay and Josh Beckett at Fenway...
-The Red Sox have a good record at 15-11, but they've been outscored this season. They haven't been outscored this late in the season since 1996, when the Sox went 85-77...
-The Key to Detroit's early success has been young pitching. RHPs Jeremy Bonderman and Justin Verlander have both pitched great and the Tigers see them both as future aces. It's likely that the Tigers still will fall short of the postseason when all is said and done, but they have a solid young pitching core to build around...
-SI took a poll of the most overrated players in baseball... Carlos Beltran is second behind Derek Jeter on the list, which is unsurprising as Beltran has been really awful in his seven months as a Met; also in the top 10, however, are Johnny Damon and Alex Rodriguez, meaning the top three hitters most nights in the Yankee batting order are viewed as overrated by their peers. Damon and Jeter don't surprise me all that much, but A-Rod is possibly the best hitter of this generation and a sure-fire hall-of-famer, as well as a decent shot to break Hank Aaron's HR record of 755..
-Alot of people have said the Mets have paid their way out of last place, mainly through signing high-priced free agents such as Pedro, Carlos, and Wagner; but the Mets 2006 payroll is actually a few notches below the $104 million it was in 2003...
-The Mets send Pedro Martinez and Tom Glavine up against the Pirates, and combined they have 480 career wins... Pirate starters Ian Snell and Paul Maholm have six...
-Good pitching matchups in two games today, first it's John Smoltz and Brett Myers at Turner Field, and then it's Roy Halladay and Josh Beckett at Fenway...
-The Red Sox have a good record at 15-11, but they've been outscored this season. They haven't been outscored this late in the season since 1996, when the Sox went 85-77...
-The Key to Detroit's early success has been young pitching. RHPs Jeremy Bonderman and Justin Verlander have both pitched great and the Tigers see them both as future aces. It's likely that the Tigers still will fall short of the postseason when all is said and done, but they have a solid young pitching core to build around...
Tuesday, May 02, 2006
Back Down to Earth...
So, like my buddies in Baltimore tried to tell me, John Maine isn't any good. Can't win 'em all.All Maine really did was fire 90 MPH fastballs at the plate. He really couldn't spot pitches, and he had bad control, as alot of fastballs seemed to sail on him way out of the strike zone. But the offensively-challenged Nats could only muster 4 runs off of him in 5.1 innings, which almost kept the Mets in the game.
If you watched the game, it's evident that Maine actually pitched worse than his finishing line indicates, which brings me to my next point. Sending him out there next Sunday afternoon against Atlanta could get pretty ugly. He seemed very nervous tonight in front of a relatively small crowd against a bad team; how will he respond when pitching against the Mets main rival with up to 50,000 in the crowd?
And Atlanta is getting back on track, and has closed the gap in the division to five games. (As has Philadelphia, but I'm not worried about them.) The Braves pulled off a comeback victory against surprising Colorado tonight at Turner, on the heels of a complete-game gem by Tim Hudson. Their pitching is getting in shape, headed by Smoltz and Hudson, and a solid bullpen of a bunch of effective no-names and Chris Reitsma.
The days of the 7-game lead are over. Not to say they won't ever be back; hell, we send Pedro and Glavine up against the worst team in the NL in the next two games and should sweep the miniseries. But anyone who thought Atlanta was just going to fade into the summer was severely mistaken. Atlanta will be in this thing to the finish. I still think they're going to end up winning this thing for a 15th straight time.
The one positive that came out of today's ballgame was the Willie got ejected. I can't remember this ever happening before in his seven months as Mets manger. He hardly ever shows any in-game fire (he probably gets this from Joe Torre, who sits on the bench like a log with a bat between his legs every game), but today he revealed he has a pulse.
It's gonna be a dogfight, Mets fans. Don't forget that.
The Maine Man
The Kris Benson deal blew. And of course, it wasn't intended to do anything different, as the Mets were simply dumping Anna and $15 million. But a guy they specifically requested from the Orioles, John Maine, has a chance to make it a little less painful.At first glance, Maine's 2005 MLB numbers look awful: 2-3, 6.30 with 64 baserunners in 40 innings and a 1:1 BB:K ratio. But up until his last three starts, Maine was very effective; he had a 3.27 ERA going into a September start at Yankee Stadium. He then hit a brick wall, and also got rocked against the Red Sox and Tampa Bay.
Why did Maine crash? My best guess is fatigue. At that point, with AAA and MLB combined, Maine was approaching 160 innings pitched. That's hardly a daunting task, but it dwarfed any other total Maine posted as a pro. Also, facing the Yanks and Sox is a tough task for any pitcher, let alone an Oriole. At that time, Baltimore was fielding a AAA team plus Miguel Tejada, while the Yanks and Sox were fighting for their playoff lives.
A refreshed arm and a move to the National League and Shea Stadium could do wonders for Maine, who will turn 25 next Monday. He throws four pitches, although none extraordinary, and his fatball can hit the low-90s. He's pitched very well at Norfolk thus far, with a 2.63 ERA in four starts and just 26 baserunners in 24 innings. He's easily been the best starter on a struggling Tides team in '06. (Struggling except of course except for Lastings Milledge, who was hitting .357/.500/.524 with 7 steals heading into play on Monday.)
If he can reach his full potential, Maine projects as a Steve Trachsel/Brian Bannister type pitcher, a guy who can contribute six solid innings towards the back of a major league rotation. In 1999 and 2000, the Mets found guys to do this such as Orel Hershiser in 1999 and Glendon Rusch in 2000.
Maine will get his crack on Tuesday.
2009
The Mets are scheduled to move into their new park in 2009. A solid young core could accompany them. Check out the projected 2009 New York Mets:
SS: Jose Reyes
3B: David Wright
OF: Lastings Milledge
OF: Carlos Beltran
OF: Xavier Nady
SP: Mike Pelfrey
SP: Philip Humber
SP: Brian Bannister
SP: Aaron Heilman
SP: Scott Kaz...uhhhh...
The point is, the Mets have a solid young core as well as the veteran stars such as Carlos Delgado, Pedro, and Ponce de Tom Glavine. We could have a solid 5-6 years of winning baseball on our hands if we don't screw it up.
