Month: April 2007

Commish allows #42 to be worn on April 15th

Jackie Robinson

Cincinnatti’s Ken Griffey, Jr. called Bud Selig asking to wear Jackie Robinson’s #42 on April 15th. That’s the 60th anniversary of Jackie breaking baseball’s infamous color barrier. Selig embraced the idea, and allowed all 30 teams to participate for one day only. So far Torii Hunter, Barry Bonds, and Willie Randolph have publicly acknowledged partcipating. Former Met Mike Cameron will honor Jackie by wearing his number. All 25 Dodger players will also be wearing No.42.

Kudos to Griffey for the great idea. Currently, only Mariano Rivera wears Jackie’s number since it was universally retired 10 years ago. Rivera was grandfathered, having worn the number prior to it’s retirement.

Mets sweep the Cards behind John Maine

What can  you say about a 10-0 game?  Maine was fantastic! He pitched a great seven innings, moving the ball around the zone nicely.  That was a pitching clinic. Even Braden Looper looked good for the Cardinals through five innings, but they left him in to pitch the sixth and he lost it. It was downhill from there for the Cards bullpen. The Mets hitters completely demolished their bullpen. Great two-homer game for Beltran.

Sweeping the Cards at home in nice payback for last year’s playoffs, and an excellent start to the season. I think the Mets will win over 100 games this year. The NL isn’t very good, and the Mets pitching is better than it was last year when they won 97.

Mets/Cardinals Game 3 Analysis

Mets (2-0) Maine 0-0 0.00ERA Cardinals (0-2) Looper 0.00 ERA

I really liked what I saw from John Maine last year. I thought his stuff was above average, and his poise was excellent. He’s got a chance to be an above average big league starter for a long time.

I do wish Braden Looper the best as a starter, but I absolutely couldn’t stand him as a closer. He folded like a tent in big spots as the Mets closer. He hasn’t started a game since he was in Single-A in 1997. The Cardinals are taking a big chance with him, we’ll see what happens tonight.

SWEEP!

Game 2 Wrap Up- Mets win 4-1 (Record: 2-0)

We’re 2-0 and El Duque proved me wrong for one start, we’ll see if he can do that 30 more times this year. If so, we’ll be in great shape. Schoenweiss wasn’t impressive in his 2/3 of an inning. I hope he can start earning his 3 year contract. Who had the most hits tonight? Duque, of course, he was 2 for 3 with 2 RBI’s and a nice double down the line. Maybe we’ll see him pinch hitting at some point this season.

The guys in the booth seemed to be impressed with Kip Wells, but I just don’t see it. He doesn’t have great velocity, and his breaking balls don’t have that much movement. He’s only got a one year contract so he needs to pitch better than he did tonight if he wants a multi-year deal.

Alou and Green were 0-8 with 11 LOB combined. How soon can we start calling for Milledge to play right field? Soon!

4-1 final score.

Game 2 Preview- Cards (away) 8:10pm

Current record: 1-0 Hernandez vs. Wells

In case you haven’t guessed from my other posts, El Duque is the biggest question mark in my mind for the starting rotation. And that’s saying something with three somewhat unproven starters behind him. I am concerned about his health. Hey, he is 71 years old. Beyond that I’m more concerned about him being ineffective.

I’ll never understand Omar giving him a two year contract. Why couldn’t we give him one year? A lot of pundits, including Bud Selig (listen to his 3/30/07 WFAN interview), have implied there were concerns about the Royals giving Gil Meche a $55M contract. I think that was a better contract than giving Duque two years and $12M. Realistically, how many options could he have had after last year? I can’t imagine anyone else was offering him more than one year. I would have paid him enough to make sure I got him for one year, but no way do I want to be locked into two years with him.

Duque was 11-11 with a 4.66 ERA in 29 starts combined with the Mets and D-Backs last year. He only pitched 162+ innings. That’s just not good enough to get a multi-year contract from a team with a $100M payroll. I could see the Pirates or Mariners offering him a multi-year deal, but not the Mets. They could have used the money to go after Lilly, Meche, or another .500 pitcher that doesn’t have so many miles on him.

Tonight’s opposing pitcher for the Cards isn’t very good either. Kip Wells was 2-5 with a 6.50 ERA last year combined with Pittsburgh and Texas. He only made 9 starts and pitched 44+ innings. His lifetime total is 57-74 with a 4.46 ERA. I know he’s played on some bad teams in Pittsburgh, but I always thought he was more of the problem there than the solution.

Maybe I shouldn’t be so hard on Wells as the Cards reclamation project for Dave Duncan. He’s a good pitching coach and might be able to do something with Wells. We all know that the Mets/Rick Peterson have more than their fair share of reclamation projects.

Hopefully, the Mets will ruin the Cards ring ceremony tonight just like they did the World Series flag raising on Sunday night. Enjoy the game…