Seattle Mariners rookie catcher Jeff Clement talks to Fox Sports about the Felix Hernandez ankle injury and grand slam home run.
Author: Dave Doyle
Frequently disappointed Mets fan
David Wright Will Sit Tomorrow
Jerry Manuel said in his post game comments that David Wright appeared to be fatigued tonight. He had one error in the game, and was charged with a second before the official scorer changed the call to a hit.
I’m not sure if Wright is fatigued or just going through a bad patch right now but it couldn’t hurt. Manuel specifically said in his comments that he wanted to avoid the Mets regulars resting during home games but he feels this is necessary.
Wright is hitting well below his career batting average and slugging percentage:
2008: .275/ .370/ .471
Career: .307/ .386/ .525
King Felix, Mariners Over Mets 5-2
Felix Hernandez looked unstoppable for the Mariners into the fifth inning. He only gave up two hits and one run. More importantly, he hit a grand slam in the top of the second inning off Johan Santana. It was the first grand slam by an American League pitcher in 37 years before the designated hitter rule was instituted.
In the fifth inning Carlos Beltran doubled, stole third and came in to score on a wild pitch. His slide went into King Felix covering home and Felix had to leave the game with an ankle injury. Surprisingly, the Mariners bullpen shut the Mets down for the final 4.1 innings of the game.
The Mets did rally in the ninth with a couple of hits but it was too little too late. The Mets really had very little offense going all night. Beltran and Jose Reyes had two hits each and that was it for the team.
On Deck: June 23- Mariners At Mets
Seattle Mariners (26-49 Road: 11-25) at New York Mets (37-37 Home: 20-14) 7:10pm
Felix Hernandez (6-5 2.87) vs. Johan Santana (7-5 3.04)
What to watch: King Felix is one of the few bright spots on a horrible Mariners team. They’re probably more dysfunctional than the Mets, which is saying something. Theoretically, this should be a premiere pitching match up. It’ll be interesting to see if it works out that way. This is also Jerry Manuel’s first home game as Mets manager. I’ll be curious to see how he’s greeted by the crowd.
Fred Wilpon Finally Speaks About Randolph Firing
New York Mets owner Fred Wilpon spoke about the firing of manager Willie Randolph and MLB headquarters in Manhattan while attending the Welcome Back Veterans press conference.
He spoke briefly to ESPN Radio after Randolph was fired only to say that it was Omar Minaya’s decision. It’s left a lot of people, including me, wondering why he wouldn’t talk about the situation publicly.
Ken Davidoff of Newsday reports the following from Wilpon:
Wilpon said that Minaya alerted him on Sunday, June 15 that he intended to fire Randolph, pitching coach Rick Peterson and first-base coach Tom Nieto, but Minaya wanted to sleep on it. That night, Randolph and his two coaches took the team’s flight to Anaheim.
Asked whether he regretted sending Randolph out West for just one game, Wilpon said, "You can always look over your shoulder and think things like that, but the intent here clearly was to respect Willie. To do it in person. It’s never easy to fire anybody. Omar took a lot of time. We took a lot of time listening to him and thinking about it. He wanted to respect Willie, and that’s what he did."
It looks like he and Minaya are on the same page here, which is good to read. But Wilpon really should have come out earlier to talk about this issue. This turned into such a media circus and the Mets organization was getting killed by every media outlet in the country over their handling of Willie’s firing.
For an owner that has a reputation for being very image conscious about the franchise, it’s suspicious that Wilpon didn’t speak earlier. It almost makes me think that he had to get his story straight before talking publicly about this.
Link: The Hall Nearly Devoid Of Latin Players
Image via Wikipedia
I was shocked to read the Baseball Analysts post today that there’s only one player born in the Dominican Republic in the Hall of Fame, Juan Marichal and he was inducted in 1983. It’s also notable that there are only five Latin players in the Hall of Fame: Roberto Clemente, Orlando Cepeda, Luis Aparicio, and Tony Perez.
The post notes that the 2008 opening day rosters contained 22.1% of foreign born players. There are several notable Latin players that will be Hall eligible over the next ten years, likely including our own Pedro Martinez. I can’t see him playing much more than a couple more years. We’ll also have some statistically deserving but questionable players like Sammy Sosa and Rafael Palmiero.
Mets News Today: June 23
There’s plenty in the news today as the Mets come home to face the dreadful Seattle Mariners.
- Jerry Manuel says that he has to prepare to go the rest of the season without Moises Alou.
- Luis Castillo won’t play again tonight after aggravating the quadriceps injury he suffered earlier this season.
- Brian Schneider will probably get a couple more days off after bruising a finger on his glove hand in Colorado.
- Ryan Church plans to take batting practice with the Mets tonight and play a couple of games this week in Brooklyn. The plan is for him to return to the big league team for the Yankees series this weekend.
- Goose Gossage says that the Mets didn’t treat Willie Randolph fairly.
- The Mets seem to have a new trend with pitchers staying on the mound to hand the ball to the incoming pitcher. Manuel said he thought it would be a one-time thing with John Maine until Pedro Martinez did it on Saturday. Now they’re all doing it.
- Jerry Manuel joked about Mets fans booing Aaron Heilman at Shea Stadium to fertilizer.
- John Harper of the Daily News writes that the Mets are in good hands with Manuel. He even addressed the perception of a racial divide with the team.
- Adam Rubin of the Daily News writes that Manuel’s comment about fertilizer was made in reference to Aaron Heilman using the fans booing him at Shea as a source of growth, not calling Mets fans “manure” as the NY Post reported.
The Mets Report 