Category: Roster

Pulling Santana After Eighth Was The Right Decision

The analysis of Jerry Manuel’s move last night to pull Johan Santana seems to have come down on the side of leaving Santana in to pitch the ninth inning. Hindsight is 20/20 but I would’ve made the same decision as Manuel.

There’s no need to leave Santana in a tie game for the bottom of the ninth inning. All he can do is hold or lose the game, he’s not going to win it for the Mets. Although he had thrown just 95 pitches Santana is going to be here for six more years so that has to be kept in mind. There’s no need to max him out in a game that he can’t win. If the Mets were up by one or two runs, I would’ve left Santana in there to close it out.

The only thing that I might have done would’ve been to pull the plug on Duaner Sanchez after Pedro Feliz doubled off him. Shane Victorino is a much better left handed hitter. So Manuel could have used Scott Schoenweiss or Pedro Feliciano to turn him around. Victorino hits .213 against lefties versus .289 versus righties.

Sanchez hasn’t given up a run since June 10th. That’s ten appearances since the last run he’s given up. He’s earned his spot at the end of the bullpen. So I don’t have a problem with him coming in for Santana in the ninth.

There’s no point in having your best pitcher, whether its Santana or Billy Wagner, pitch the ninth inning of a tie game. I’ve written about that before here. Santana or Wagner should be used to lock down a win at the end of a game not hold it for someone else.

Mets Roster Moves: Castillo to DL, Aguila Recalled, Reyes Called Up

No, not that Reyes! Argenis Reyes is a second baseman at Triple-A New Orleans. He’s being called up to fill Luis Castillo’s spot in the roster. Castillo is going on the disabled list with a strained left hip flexor.

Outfielder Chris Aguila is coming back from New Orleans for his second tour of duty with the Mets this season. He’ll replace Carlos Muniz on the roster. He might even get a start in St. Louis tonight. Jerry Manuel plans to rest Carlos Beltran tonight.

Read the full story from Adam Rubin of the Daily News here.

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Mets In The News July 2- Pedro, Kazmir, And More

There are several Mets related news items today coming off the rare offensive outburst in St. Louis last night. Tony Armas sure wasn’t fooling many Cardinals and doesn’t have the velocity to instill much confidence in the Mets’ fan base that he can capture a permanent spot in the Mets rotation. But he did a nice job for one start. I think he was more lucky than good.

Onto the news for Wednesday July 2:

  • Even though I dislike Newsday’s Ken Davidoff columns generally, he has a good point today about the Mets. He writes that the Mets shouldn’t give up on the 2008 season. I’ve heard the sentiment from Mets fans to start breaking down the team and prepare for next year. I couldn’t disagree more.
  • Christina Kahrl has an extremely well written column for the New York Sun. She contrasts the Atlanta Braves ability to make a deal for a veteran rental with the Mets. She writes that the Mets farm system doesn’t give the Mets much flexibility to bring in non-waiver deadline deals that will impact the 2008 season. By the way, if you don’t read the sports writers at the New York Sun, you’re missing out. Their writers are without equal when it comes to covering the Mets in longer form columns.
  • AP put out a story picked up by just about every sports news outlet that Jerry Manuel is keeping Pedro Martinez on his regular rest today and giving Mike Pelfrey an extra day between starts.
  • Ben Shipgel of the NY Times has a couple of nuggets in his column about the Mets seducing fans into believing that the “turnaround” is beginning after games like last night in St. Louis. Perhaps the biggest news is that Orlando Hernandez is about a week away from making his first rehab start and may re-join the Mets by the end of July.
  • The NY Post Mets Blog has some interesting information about Pedro Martinez. Pitching coach Dan Warthen says that he thinks that Pedro looks terrific right now and resolved his problem of tipping pitches with the help of the Mets hitters. And Jerry Manuel isn’t babying Pedro like Willie Randolph did. Manuel is pushing Pedro harder and says that he’ll go easy on him after “three or four shutouts”.
  • Adam Rubin at the Daily News has several interesting topics today. Moises Alou went 2 for 3 with a homer and 2 RBI’s in his rehab game last night. Jerry Manuel is trying to get Jose Reyes to be more prepared in the field. Willie Randolph will skip the All-Star game this year. Jerry Manuel continues his tweaking of Luis Castillo in the media.
  • David Lennon of Newsday has a good column on Carlos Delgado’s statistics when hitting at night versus day games. He’s a much better hitter during the day. And Delgado didn’t know about the difference when it was brought up to him. Delgado actually said that he likes hitting at night better because there aren’t shadows to contend with.
  • Roger Rubin of the Daily News talks about Scott Kazmir’s shock and sadness when he found out that he was traded by the Mets to the Rays. Now he’s thrilled to be in first place and hoping for post season baseball in Tampa.

Video: Post Game July1- Manuel And Armas

SNY’s post game video from Mets manager Jerry Manuel and spot starter Tony Armas, Jr.

Also, I posted an audio clip from WFAN’s Steve Somers speaking to Duaner Sanchez after the game last night. He talked about the line drive off his knee. You can see that post here.

Analysis: Brett Myers Situation From Phillies Perspective

While the Mets were busy ripping the ball all over Busch Stadium last night, I was looking toward the Mets next series in Philly. I wanted to find out what’s going on with Brett Myers from someone that watches the Phillies every day. I turned to phanatic74 from U.B.L. for the answers. This is what he had to say about the Myers situation and where the Phillies rotation will go from here:

I think that Myers being moved to the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs was the best move for him and the team.  I have no doubt that he will return to Philly some time in the 2nd half of the season.  Brett still has good stuff, he just forgot how to use it.  They discussed putting him in the bullpen, but he would not get enough playing time to work out his issues.  The Phillies will need to call on him again, but I am not sure as in what type of a capacity whether the bullpen or starting rotation.  He is a good option to keep open in case of someone going on the DL.  Jamie Moyer is not prepared to go down to a 4 man rotation at his age.  My feelings are that they are going to bring up J.A. Happ from "AAA" in Lehigh Valley.  If he falls apart like last year’s trial then they will go to Carlos Carrasco from the Reading "AA" ball club.  Of course both of these pitchers are temporary until they can acquire someone from outside of the organization.  The Phillies are very lean on quality pitchers in their farm system.  Myers length of service with the Iron Pigs depends on how cooperative he will be with the recovery.  However, he has received comments on ways to improve his pitching such as getting the ball out of his mitt sooner prior to the delivery.  He also needs keep more of his foot on the rubber.  There is no definitive time for Myers, but he will pitch again in the city of brotherly love.

It sounds like the Phillies might need to look outside of the organization as the trade deadline nears to shore up their rotation. There are a couple of ex-Phillies that are available now in Freddy Garcia and Vicente Padilla. Maybe they’ll go that route since both are known quantities in Philly. Garcia is supposed to be ready to pitch again, after recovering from shoulder surgery, in August. He’s a free agent so it wouldn’t cost any prospects to obtain his services for the rest of the season.

Thanks to phanatic74 from U.B.L. for the analysis!

Audio: Post Game July 1- Duaner Sanchez

Duaner Sánchez 02:48, 19 July 2007 . . Metsfan...

Image via Wikipedia

WFAN’s Steve Somers talks to Duaner Sanchez about the game in St. Louis last night. Specifically, he talks about the line drive he took off the back of his knee that was hit by Yadier Molina. From what Sanchez says, he’s not going to miss any time because of the injury.

WFAN Audio

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Phillies Demote Brett Myers

Lehigh Valley IronPigs

Image via Wikipedia

Myers is 3-9 with a 5.84 ERA in 17 starts this season. Myers was optioned so he didn’t have to go through waivers, which he would never make it through. He didn’t have to accept the move having five years of MLB service time. Myers will try to get himself right with the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs.

Myers made 31 or more starts from 2003-2006. Then last season the Phillies switched him to the bullpen where he appeared in 51 games (3 of which were starts). He had 21 saves last season. He hasn’t been able to make the switch back to the rotation successfully this season.

Unfortunately, it looks like the Mets won’t get to tee off on Myers this weekend like the rest of the league has this season.

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