Month: April 2008

Luis Castillo Day To Day

Luis Castillo left today’s game after four innings due to knee soreness. He’s had knee problems since he arrived in New York via trade with the Minnesota Twins last season. He blamed the cold temperature after chasing a foul pop up in the first inning for the pain.

Castillo expects to miss tomorrow’s game but may be back soon. From MLB.com:

“I’ll play when I’m ready,” he said. “I want to be 100 percent before I start playing.”

The Mets have Damion Easley and Marlon Anderson that can fill in. It would be nice to have Ruben Gotay right now.

Audio: Baseball Links For Listening

There are plenty of baseball and Mets links for listening today. If you enjoy listening to baseball talk as much as I do, enjoy the links. Click the small play icon next to the link to listen.

MVN Radio’s “The Pitch” previews Week 2-The Pitch

Tim McCarver on WFAN’s “Mike and The Mad Dog” from April 7, 2008-Tim McCarver

Nelson Figueroa on WFAN’s “Boomer & Carton” from April 8, 2008- Nelson Figueroa

Jeff Wilpon on WFAN’s “Boomer & Carton” from April 7, 2008- Jeff Wilpon

Brady Clark on WFAN’s “Joe & Evan” from April 8, 2008- Brady Clark

Mike Pelfrey on WFAN’s “Joe & Evan” from April 8, 2008 – Mike Pelfrey

Phillies 5 – Mets 2

New York- The Philadelphia Phillies (4-4) came to town and started up where they left off last season. The New York Mets (2-4) were expecting to get their final season in Shea Stadium started with a bang, but it didn’t turn out that way. The Phillies took the first game of a three game series 5-2.

Scott Schoenweiss recorded his first blown save and loss of the season. Carlos Delgado homered early in the game but didn’t help Schoenweis with a throwing error that led to a three run seventh for the Phillies.

Before the game Matt Wise was placed on the 15-day disabled list and Carlos Muniz was called up and pitched the ninth.

See the box score at MLB.com. Video highlights at ESPN.

Link To Mike’s Mets

For those of you that don’t follow Mike’s Mets blog regularly you’re really missing out on something special. Currently Mike is doing a comprehensive review of Omar Minaya’s performance. It’s the kind of work that you’ll only find in the blogsphere. The mainstream media wouldn’t typically allow a writer to do a 10,000 word mini-novel dissecting the actions of a baseball general manager. The review is fair and written objectively. Do yourself a favor if you’re a Mets fan and read it here.

Kyle Lohse and How Omar Minaya Missed The Boat

The biggest question mark for the New York Mets is starting pitching. There’s no denying that. Pedro Martinez, Orlando Hernandez, Mike Pelfrey, and the substitute starters are all sources of concern for fans, and I would guess the front office as well.

I’m sure that Nelson Figueroa is a good guy and obviously dedicated to the sport to move around the world in search of pitching jobs. But having to give him a start this early in the season is somewhat disconcerting for Mets fans. I hope he does a great job on Friday, needless to say.

That being said, Omar Minaya missed the boat with Kyle Lohse. This passage is from Sean Deveney of the Sporting News from today:

Any front office executives kicking themselves over the nice work turned in thus far by Cardinals RHP Kyle Lohse? Lohse threw five shutout innings in his first start, allowing just three hits, then followed that up with seven shutout innings Sunday against the Nationals. The Cardinals signed Lohse late in spring training for the low price of one year and $4.25 million. Don’t blame the Phillies, for whom Lohse pitched over the final two months of the 2007 season. They offered Lohse three years and $21 million early in the offseason, which he turned down. . . .

How badly could we use that kind of pitching right now? Lohse is one of those guys with good stuff that should be more successful than he is. His combined numbers between the Cincinnatti Reds and Philadelphia Phillies from last year are:

9-12 4.45ERA 192.2 innings 32 starts 2 CG 1 SHO 122 K’s 57 BB’s

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