Category: General

What We Know So Far

It was a disappointing home opener but it’s way too early to panic or fire the manager. The Mets really do need to win this series against the Phillies after losing the two game series to the Braves. You can’t have a successful season and lose too many home series within the division.What we’ve learned so far:

  •  Jose Reyes needs to start hitting. He gets the whole offense going when he’s on base.
  • The starting pitching needs to get healthy. We need a decent season from Pedro Martinez and some kind of contribution from El Duque.
  • The bullpen can be shaky. Schoenweiss, Sosa, and Heilman have all been giving it up early in the season. That needs to turn around quickly.
  • Carlos Delgado looks much better offensively than he did last season. He’s still a complete stiff in the field but I can live with that if he’s hitting.
  • Angel Pagan looks like he can play. I was worried about him playing every day in left but he looks pretty good so far.
  • Brian Schneider is supposed to be here for his defense and he had two passed balls today. He needs to do better than that to justify his weak hitting.

The bottom line is that it looks like this division won’t be a cake walk. The Phillies are really good and the Braves always field a competitive team. The Nationals and Marlins should start to fall away fairly quickly.

Braves Top Prospect Gets HGH Suspension

PED

The Atlanta Braves hot prospect Jordan Schafer was hit with a 50-game minor league suspension for HGH use. I had read some columns prior to the season starting that he would give Mark Kotsay a run for the center field job this season.

I’m not passing judgment on him. Of course, I’m in no position to judge as a Mets fan. The Mets franchise has as many, or more, links to performance enhancing drug use as any team in baseball.

It’s a shame that these guys keep trying to get an edge with PED’s. I’m especially surprised that such a highly touted prospect would go that route. Schafer has a really bright future ahead of him from everything I’ve read. I can only guess that he was doing it in an attempt to make the major league team out of spring training.

Opening Day Photos- Redux

Now that I’m back from Florida I’m able to upload the higher resolution version of my photos. The hotel Internet connection just didn’t have the bandwidth to do that in a reasonable amount of time. Once again, here are my photos from March 31, 2008 at Dolphin Stadium.

http://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf

Phillies Activate Brad Lidge

Philadelphia PhilliesImage from WikipediaThe Philadelphia Phillies activated closer Brad Lidge from the disabled list today. He’ll be with the team for their series at Shea Stadium this week.

Lidge has always had great stuff but struggled over the last couple of years in Houston. It’ll be interesting to see how he adapts to life in Philadelphia. The fans don’t take blown saves very well there.

Related articles

Braves Change Rotation

I took this photo on June 5, 2007 Photo personnelle prise le 5 juin 2007Image from WikipediaThe Atlanta Braves decided to bring John Smoltz back from the disabled list tomorrow to face Johan Santana in the finale of the two game series. This is the second good pitching matchup of the short series.

Smoltz has been bothered by soreness in his 40 year old shoulder. He’ll be 41 on May 15th. Tom Glavine will pitch in Denver now on Monday night.

I have to wonder if this has anything to do with Glavine being a former Met. He’s been around long enough not to be bothered by something like that. And he’s had the experience of facing the Braves with the Mets. It is curious though that the Braves choose to make the change at the last minute like this.

Revised Starting Pitching Order

The rainout in Atlanta last night caused the Mets to revise their starting pitching order. The new order is:

  • Sat. 4/5- John Maine vs. Tim Hudson
  • Sun. 4/6- Johan Santana vs. Tom Glavine
  • Tues. 4/8- Jamie Moyer vs. Oliver Perez
  • Wed. 4/9- Kyle Kendrick vs. Mike Pelfrey
  • Thur. 4/10- Adam Eaton vs. John Maine

After the Phillies series, the Brewers come to town next Friday. Everyone with tickets for opening day at Shea can breathe a sigh of relief that Oliver Perez is pitching instead of Mike Pelfrey. I agree with the decision to skip Pelfrey’s spot and keep Santana on his regular day tomorrow, and Perez for the home opener. It would’ve been too much pressure for Pelfrey to pitch the home opener. He needs to put in the least pressurized situations so he has the best chance of pitching successfully.

The rainout game yesterday will be played on May 20th as part of a double header. I’m sure it will be a dual entry double header, as most teams do now. The good old days of buying one ticket for a double header are gone.

Picture: Turner Field 

turner field
Creative Commons License photo credit: nate steiner

Game Postponed

Rain and possible tornadoes in Atlanta caused the game to be postponed tonight. David Lennon of Newsday reports that John Maine will go tomorrow in the Fox national TV game.

I’m disappointed about the postponement. I was really looking forward to Maine going tonight. He was lights-out this spring and I expect him to have a big year.