CBS’ Scott Miller writes about the Mets “desperate” search for starting pitching. Read the column at CBS Sportline.
Miller always has a negative slant against the Mets but it’s hard to dispute his take on the Mets rotation right now. Signing Claudio Vargas is really scraping the bottom of the pitching barrel.
MLB.com reports that Duaner Sanchez may stay at Triple-A New Orleans for a few more days. His arm is being evaluated on a daily basis after pitching back to back days on Friday and Saturday. Willie Randolph had this to say on the topic:
“When you get a guy like him throwing the way he was throwing before he hurt himself, and you put him into your bullpen, it’s definitely going to be a domino effect as far as helping the whole bullpen,” Randolph said. “Anytime you can put a fresh arm out there, a quality arm, it sets everybody up better. It just injects a certain energy into your bullpen. I’m hoping that’s the case.”
Hopefully, we’ll see Sanchez back sooner than later. It’s tough watching Jorge Sosa, Aaron Heilman, and Scott Schoenweiss. We need some new faces coming out of the bullpen.
The Nationals come to town tomorrow night for a three game series. The scheduled starters are:
Tues. 4/15- Odalis Perez (0-2) vs. Mike Pelfrey (1-0)
Wed. 4/16- Matt Chico (0-2) vs. John Maine(0-1)
Thur. 4/17- John Lannan (0-2) vs. Nelson Figueroa (1-0)
The story of this series is going to be the starting pitching competition between Pelfrey and Figueroa. They’re competing to stay in the rotation, and on the roster, when Pedro Martinez comes back. The Nationals have been struggling and their starting pitching has been especially dreadful. Nats GM Jim Bowden even called them out in the press last week.
David Wright on Letterman. CBS at 11:35pm.
He’ll be filming a segment for the show at 4:00pm on 53rd Street between Broadway and Eighth. Letterman will be pitching to him in the street with Al Pacino there. If you’re free and in the city, go over and take a look.
Image via WikipediaThe Brewers took the rubber game of the series in a poorly pitched game by both teams. Jorge Sosa took the loss for the Mets after entering the game in the fifth and pitching 1.2 innings and giving up 2 runs.
Both starting pitchers were terrible today. If there was a way to give Oliver Perez and Jeff Suppan a loss, this would be the game to do it.
The Brewers turned an eye popping 5 double plays in the game. For a team with no defense, they were able to shut the Mets down with timely double plays.
David Wright hit his third homer in the game and Brian Schneider was 3 for 5 with 3 RBI’s. Schneider’s defense was questionable once again today. Although he didn’t have any PB’s or errors, he couldn’t keep the ball in his glove. I’m starting to think there may be something wrong with him, like a hand injury, that we don’t know about.
The Mets are off on Monday and the Nationals come to town on Tuesday after ending their nine game losing streak today against Tom Glavine and the Braves.
Fox Video Post Game- Gabe Kapler
That is the question…
The Mets blogs and mainstream media have been on the topic of booing home players since 4:00pm yesterday. The Brewers hit some bombs and won the game yesterday which caused a mild stirring of booing in Flushing. Some have taken the ridiculous stance that fans should never boo home players. Others have gone to the argument “Stop booing you mean people”. I’ll take the high road and assume that booing home players isn’t an extremist group of drunken so-called “fans” on a Saturday afternoon at Shea.
The subject of booing home players has, once again, surfaced. Do fans have the right/responsibility to boo home players? In a word: Yes!
If there’s a new ace pitcher that’s working on a 6 year/$137.5 million contract that’s under performing, the fans have a right to boo. If there’s a relief pitcher that’s got a 3 year/$10.8 million contract that’s been reduced to being a lefty specialist and not doing it well, the fans have a right to boo.
I fully support booing home players when the subjective decision has been made that a player is sorely under performing, a.k.a. stealing the Mets money. I’ve participated booing home players with some ferocity on two occasions:
Although those are two occasions that I’ve engaged in booing home players, some fans could make other arguments as well. In 2007, Carlos Delgado was difficult to watch. I think that an argument could be made there.
To conclude this post, Mets fans do have a right and responsibility to boo home players that are sorely under performing especially when their contract is deemed excessive. I don’t think that was case yesterday at Shea. In my opinion, Johan Santana pitched extremely well in Florida, very well in Atlanta last Sunday, and not very well yesterday. Does that justify booing a two-time Cy Young Award winner? No way! There just isn’t enough of a body of under performing work to justify booing Santana at this point in the season. Mad Dog Russo would say “That’s a bad job by Mets fans yesterday”.
Milwaukee Brewers (7-4) at New York Mets (5-5) 1:10pm TV: CW11 Radio: WFAN
Jeff Suppan (1-0) vs. Oliver Perez (1-0)
What to watch: This is another important game to win a home series. They don’t want to lose home series, especially this early in the season. Oliver Perez has been terrific in his first two starts. He’s pitched 11.2 innings, 0 runs, 4 BB, 10 K’s. Jeff Suppan has done almost as well in his first two starts so this could end up being a good pitching match up.
The Mets Report 