Much as I hate to take the gloss off Tom Glavine’s 2nd consecutive quality start, nor big offensive displays by Jose Reyes (above), Mike Piazza and David Wright, when was the last time a team as fundamentally challenged as these Cincinnati Red took the field at Shea? Other than the 2004 Mets, that is. Perhaps that spending spree on Joe Randa, Kent Mercker and David Weathers wasn’t quite enough to make the Reds competitive. It might be time for Dave Miley to start a rumor that he was having an affair with the same married lady as Tony Pena —- anything to escape watching Danny Graves’ version of “relief” pitching, thus clearing the decks for Larry Bowa or whichever other masochist wants the job.
Your pitching match ups for the not-so-special Subway Series are as follows
Friday : Kevin Brown vs. Victor Zambrano (advantage : hitters from both teams)
Saturday : Randy Johnson vs. Kris Benson (advantage : websites that mention Anna Benson frequently as a cheap device to increase traffic).
Sunday : Carl Pavano vs. Pedro Martinez (advantage : a tie between websites that mention Alyssa Milano frequently as a cheap device to increase traffic and the makers of cortisone.)
Listening to the FAN on the way home from work yesterday, I heard this same type of talk about how pitiful the Reds are. Make no mistake about it – they are not good, but over the last 13 games they averaged almost 5-1/2 runs against the Dodgers, Padres, Cardinals, and Phillies – teams which average 22-1/2 wins at this point. Those are good teams – can’t we all give the Mets a little credit for shutting down that offense (3 runs a game for the series)?
Furthermore, seriously, if Willie Randolph is going to insist on using Aybar or Koo every friggin game, I’m going to have to seriously consider getting the MLB package so I can watch my new favorite team – the Tigers every night.
I’m with Cheese on this one: the Reds stink — really stink, especially their bullpen — but they can hit. And the Mets did manage to keep serious ML hitters like Dunn, Griffey, Casey (who always hits against the Mets) from beating them. That’s good news.
But I don’t get the Koo thing, either. Yes, he is blessed to throw with his left hand, but his WHIP is hovering around 2, and for a situational guy — who’s only going to face a batter or two at most –it doesn’t help at all that he walks about a guy an inning and gives up about a hit per inning. I can’t do the Sabermetrics on what kind of probability that gives him for f’ing up, but my remedial number crunching says it makes for about a 40% chance of a hitter reaching base against him. That is, D) Most Probable. Also A) Fucking awful. As for The Aybar: I think it’s closed. I bet we’ll see his release and Scott Strickland’s promotion in a week or two. And no, I don’t know what the hell is taking so long. Maybe Strickland’s ridiculous facial hair isn’t in game-shape yet.
H.C.,
I’ll give the Reds some credit. They have some formidable hitters…and if it weren’t for the small considerations of starting pitching, relief pitching and catching the fucking ball, they’d probably approach mediocrity. Indeed, they put some runs on the board against the teams you mentioned, which also happened to coincide with the Padres getting hot. If those clubs (philly aside) have superior records, perhaps it is because they are getting fat at Cincy’s expense.
David —- I’m surprised a saavy Mets fan like yourself hasn’t figured out the Wilpons’ ruse with “Mr. Koo.” It’s actually John Franco after extensive plastic surgery. Captain Fucko rolled over on the mob and something had to be done to keep him out of harm’s way. The Witless Protection Plan, I think they call it.
As far as the John Franco pitching in Houston is concerned….well, that’s the real Mr. Koo. I presume you’ve seen the film “Face Off”?
I like the Face/Off theory a lot more than the whole Asian Day thing that my co-workers were pimping. But I also really like the idea of Johnny B. Pretty-Damn-Shitty himself living out the last 30 minutes of Goodfellas down there in Houston every single day. “I get to live the rest of my life as a schnook,” indeed. A schnook with a changeup that hasn’t fooled anyone since Clinton’s first term.
My sabermetrics go about as far as I can do the math in my head while looking back over schedules on Yahoo’s MLB team pages – but San Diego had won 8 of 10 before visiting Cincy [only ’cause I can’t spell Cincinnati (sp?) on the first try – or maybe I can].
True- St. Louis has gotten fat on the Central, but that’s their division! L.A. D. of L.A. got fat on the West, and the Phillies are still trying to find the division to get fat against (maybe the AL West like the Yankees?).