Author: Dave Doyle

Frequently disappointed Mets fan

Dodgers Over Mets 9-5; Win Streak Stopped At Three

John Maine wasn’t impressive tonight giving up three runs in the first inning. He did settle down and make it through six innings but it was a rocky start.

Luis Castillo left the game after turning a double play and the early word is that he has a strained hip flexor. I can’t believe we still have 3.5 more years of him with the Mets.

Russell Martin killed the Mets tonight going 4 for 4 with 3 runs and 3 RBI’s. The Dodgers 20 year old starter Clayton Kershaw wasn’t great tonight in his second big league start. But you can see that he’s got some talent with a good fastball and big 12-6 curve.

The game got out of hand due to Aaron Heilman once again. He had a few good outings but reverted back tonight giving up four runs without getting an out on four straight hits. Overall it was an ugly game for the Mets pitchers.

Box score

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Video: Rosenthal On Pedro’s Return

Pedro Martinez re-joined the team in New York today. Hopefully, his influence will be felt immediately on the team. There have been a few up’s and many more down’s so far. We need Pedro to make his presence felt quickly.

Watch Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal talk about Pedro and what he brings to the Mets.

Hot Corner: Mets miss Pedro
Hot Corner: Mets miss Pedro

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Audio: Scott Schoenweiss

New York Mets relief pitcher Scott Schoenweiss talks to WFAN’s Joe & Evan about his problems last season and amazing turnaround this year. He talks about Willie Randolph’s performance and desire to perform better to keep Randolph from getting fired because of the players performing poorly.

Scott Schoenweiss Audio

Jerry Manuel: The Next In Line To Manage

Sports Illustrated baseball writer Jon Heyman reports that if the Mets do make a change at manager this season that bench coach Jerry Manuel is likely to become the interim manager.

Manuel was the 2000 AL Manager of the Year while with the Chicago White Sox and has a career record of 500-471 .515 win percentage. He manager from 1998-2003 in Chicago.

That would be a good decision if they make the move during the season. It would minimize the disruption to the team and give the front office a chance to work on a long term strategy. If Manuel has a major success, then he stays. If not, then the Mets move on to other candidates that make a fresh start during spring training next year.

Manuel’s experience with the team would allow some continuity while driving home the message that mediocrity won’t be tolerated. Changes will be made.

Report: Minaya Talking Trades

Aaron Heilman 03:45, 19 July 2007 . . Metsfan7 . . 700×680 (428,001 bytes)

Image via Wikipedia

Paul Hagen of the Philadelphia Daily News reports that Omar Minaya has been talking trades for first basemen, left fielders, and right handed relievers. The names on his short list are: Kevin Millar, Jason Bay, and Xavier Nady.

All three would be helpful pieces for this team. Moises Alou is a great hitter, but doesn’t play enough to trust him to be on the active roster all season. He just breaks down too frequently.

Carlos Delgado is pretty much done in my opinion. So any help that we can get at first base would be a significant improvement.

Since the Mets don’t have too much left in the minors after the Johan Santana trade, the questions becomes: what do we have to give up? I don’t think that the Mets would consider moving Fernando Martinez. I would think that Aaron Heilman would have some good value, especially since he’s been getting himself together over this past week. He’d probably be the prime chip that the Mets would look to deal at the Major League level.

Thanks to MLB Trade Rumors for the tip.

Major League Scouting: An Inside Look

I wrote on May 13th that San Diego Padres special assistant Paul DePodesta had started a blog. Today he wrote an interesting post on the scouting organization that the Padres use to prepare for the Rule IV draft that’s occurring next Thursday and Friday.

The draft covers all players in the U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico. With so much area to cover the teams have to be well organized to prepare for the draft. DePodesta says that they’ll have over 1000 players on their draft board.

It’s a really interesting read. Check it out here.