When pinch hitter Jose Reyes took his 2nd base on balls of the young season during tonight’s 3-2 Mets win over Philly, Fran Healy was heard to comment that the shortstop “shouldn’t get too obsessed with walks. You want him to be aggressive up there.”
Yes, by all means, this obsession with walks might actually result in the Mets’ everyday leadoff hitter reaching first base more than 28% of the time, giving Beltran and Floyd the opportunity to drive in more runs, the Mets win more game than they lose and actually resemble a competent baseball team.
How hard is it for Healy to understand that if Reyes can’t get on base, he’s not doing his job? Number 7’s tremendous speed is going to waste if he’s only using it when walking back to the dugout swinging and missing at 3 pitches.
After tonight’s astonishing showing by P Jae Seo (7 IP, 1 hit, 8 K’s, 2 walks, no runs), the South Korean right hander might be on his way back to Norfolk, despite a 2-1 record and a 2.00 ERA. With Kris Benson returning to the roster tomorrow, someone’s gotta be sent down. It’s just a shame it can’t be Tom Glavine. Cliff Floyd (above) homered, extended his hitting streak to 20 games, and robbed Jason Michaels of a 2 run HR with a brilliant catch in the 7th inning. I resisted few chances last season to mock Floyd’s immobility, his crap fielding and generally shitty attitude, but let it be noted the Mets would be nowhere without his contributions thus far in 2005.
Braden Looper collected his 5th save after serving up solo shots to Chase Utley and Bobby Abreu in the 9th. As long as Looper continues to struggle, I see no reason why John Rocker shouldn’t continue chasing his dream of someday riding the 7 train in full Mets uniform.
On the postgame last night they talked about sending Zambrano down for the “Tracshel Treatment” in Norfolk – that probably wouldn’t count as part of Rick Peterson’s 10 minutes, but it is a shame that one of the two homegrown young pitchers are going to have to go down when they appear to be getting it together.
Isn’t Colorado out of the race? Perhaps they’d like to have Zambrano and Ishii for Chacon.
I agree about sending down the young pitchers. They’re cheap, and Heilman and Seo are leaps and bounds better than the current 2 and 4 guys in the rotation, for sure. Sadly, Ithink the more likely offer from Colorado would be Zambrano for Byung-Hyun Kim. Which, I think, is maybe the only Zambrano-intensive deal I wouldn’t take at this point.
As bad as Zambrano has been, though, and as little impression as Peterson appears to have made on him, I think Glavine has arguably looked worse. V-Zam is way out of control — hitting opposing pitchers on the butt, walking every third batter he faces, constantly wearing a just-woke-up facial expression — but he still misses bats, whereas Glavine never misses anything, least of all a chance to serve up some fatted, batter-dipped, dinger-ready “fastballs.” Zambrano might need more confidence, which Norfolk could hopefully provide, but he also clearly needs some mechanical improvement and might have an MLB make-up (on some Ian Svenonius shit), and that’s apparently Peterson’s thing. Or was supposed to be. The difference is that, conceivably, Zambrano could get big leaguers out with his stuff. Glavine, right now, I don’t think could. Luckily, if Glavine keeps pitching so badly, he will be hard-pressed to meet the requirement (260 IP, I think) that would auotmatically vest his option, thus making him a free agent after the season. THEN is when we strike for the B-H Kim. Perfect!
I was at the game last night and Floyds catch was just great. This wasnt a lofted fly ball that he had time to park under and time his jump, it was a drilled RPG. I normally would be a bit disgruntled
at watching a pitcher who is being designated to AAA shut down the Phils, but Seo did throw a very good game and the Phillies were working his counts rather than taking hacks and sauntering back to the dugout after making outs. Also, the crowd up in the upper level where my friends and I were sitting were a very lively largely Latino crowd who were way enthusiatic, demonstative and whom brought a party atmosphere. A sharp contrast to the 2 games I have seen in Philly this year which was like a combo of cynical disgusted and the tepid Sunday CBP picnic crowd who cant even work up some noise when Wagner comes on in the 9th. Also the admission we paid last night was only $6.
H.C. – the only way the Rockies are taking on veteran pitchers with those salaries is if the Mets take Preston Wilson’s salary in return. Which ain’t happening.
re : Glavine. I’m just wondering how this guy built up so much goodwill with the media to the point where it has taken this long for anyone to wonder if he’s washed up.
Heilman’s been a revelation of late ; Seo has never been so sharp at the major league level. That said, the “New” Mets still need to find a place in the rotation and the batting order for the not-new-at-all Glavine and Piazza. Still, it could be worse. They’re not Kevin Brown and Jason Giambi.
This might be my Met fan bias, but I think Shea is 1) a great place to watch a game and 2) probably more fun an environment than Yankee Stadium. The asshole quotient at Shea is significantly lower than it is at Yankee Stadium, for one: Shea crowds are more laid-back (if also able to get pretty loud), less hammered, and definitely more family appropriate (in the sense that Met fans seem, from my limited survey, to be less likely to make loud snap judgments on opposing players sexuality/sub-proclivities thereof). And the fact that the Mets seem to be Latin New York’s team of choice does definitely keep things pretty fun in the upper tier. If it weren’t for the stadium (which I love, but will freely acknowledge as pretty tore-down/up) and a couple of the starting pitchers, this’d be the perfect place to watch baseball.
I freely acknowledge that Colorado doesn’t want salary right now, I was more making note of the fact that they’re out of the race already.
I think Zambrano does have major league talent – and I’d love for someone to get him right.
I was in a discussion yesterday with some fool questioning whether Mike Piazza is still headed to the HOF. It is plainly obvious that he is…however, I made the point that if he wanted to talk about poor finishes putting that sort of thing into question – we could talk about Glavine or Alomar instead.
As bad as Piazza has looked, it’s still really exciting for me to see him coming up with runners on base. (I know – I’d be a terrible GM, but I’m a terrificly sentimental fan – and that’s enough for me)
David- I had a good time at Shea as the opposing teams fan. Shea can be pretty dank on a cloudy weekend day and even kind of shabby on a nice day, but as a night game venue it works. It was definately friendly lively scene and even the heckling I got was with a smile. It was like, Mets fan: “Yo, Phillies suck, last place!”… Me: “We’re just holding your spot for a little while”…MF- Haha, good one, man.