Category: Pitching

New York Mets 2009 Offseason: All About The Bats

Matt Holliday of the Colorado Rockies hits aga...

Image via Wikipedia

After the 2008 season ended, the Mets went looking for pitching. More specifically, they were looking for bullpen help coming off 29 blown saves. Mets GM Omar Minaya made no secret about the fact that he was looking at pitching, pitching, and more pitching. He came away with a solidly revamped bullpen led by Francisco Rodriguez, J.J. Putz, and Sean Green.

Unfortunately, we ended up with Daniel Murphy manning left field and no depth among the position players. Minaya let the rest of the team go for the sake of solidifying the bullpen and re-signing Oliver Perez. It showed when the Mets suffered an abnormally long injury list and there were no replacements waiting in the wings, minor leagues or otherwise.

Although there are some serious question marks on the pitching staff, this offseason needs to be all about generating some offense. The 2009 Mets finished 25th in the majors with 671 runs. Teams like Kansas City and Washington scored more runs than the Mets. They were dead last in the big’s with only 95 team home runs. Sure, the new stadium played a part in that. But there’s no excuse for the team with the highest payroll in the National League to finish in dead last in all of MLB.

Continue reading “New York Mets 2009 Offseason: All About The Bats”

Mets 2010 Starting Pitchers- Question Marks Everywhere

IMG_0217

Image by ddoyle1112 via Flickr

There’s only one certainty when it comes to the Mets starting pitchers for 2010: Johan Santana. As long as he’s healthy, there’s no reason to think he won’t be one of the best pitchers in baseball. He’s had some minor injury problems but I don’t expect to see any decline in his performance. After Santana, the situation gets very murky, very quickly. This is about to get ugly, so Mets fans hold onto your hats.

Mike Pelfrey– In 31 starts Pelfrey finished the season at 10-12 with a 5.03 ERA. 2009 was a serious regression for him from his 2008 line of 32 starts 13-11 and 3.72 ERA. Pelfrey had some disgusting performances like June 4th in Pittsburgh giving up 8 runs in 3.2 innings and giving up 9 runs in 4.1 innings in Atlanta on July 17th. There were other ugly games but you get the idea. Often Pelfrey looked uncomfortable and frustrated, but who wouldn’t be while pitching poorly? He had a bad year but the Mets have too much invested in him for him not to be back in the rotation. He’ll be there. You can bank on it. But I doubt that he’ll be considered the #2 starter. He should be demoted in the rotation. I’ll be surprised if he doesn’t have a bounce-back year in 2010.

Continue reading “Mets 2010 Starting Pitchers- Question Marks Everywhere”

Mets 2009 Season Disaster Finally Ending

NEW YORK - SEPTEMBER 28: Carlos Delgado #21 of...

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

The 2009 version of the New York Mets will finally disappear into oblivion this weekend. And I can’t wait for them to go away. There’s a chance for the team to wind up losing 94 games this season, the most losses since the Art Howe-era 2003 team that finished with 95 losses. In case you’re wondering, you can find a complete list of the Mets season records here. In a dreadful season, it’s worth taking a look at some past horrible seasons.

Sure, the Mets announced that they’re lowering ticket prices for next season. But don’t mistake that move as benevolence on the part of Mets ownership based on the torturous team they subjected us to this season. Reducing tickets prices is actually a calculated move to fill more seats for more games to meet revenue goals. The team likely didn’t meet their revenue goals for Pity (Citi) Field this season. So they used mathematical projections to determine the most likely pricing scheme to deliver their goals based on price/attendance correlation. Thanks Mr. Wilpon.

Continue reading “Mets 2009 Season Disaster Finally Ending”

Video: Ken Rosenthal Previews Mets-Cubs Series

LOS ANGELES, CA - OCTOBER 04: Rich Harden #40...
Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Fox Sports Ken Rosenthal previews this weekend’s Mets-Cubs series at Wrigley. It’s funny that they introduce that piece as a preview of the “great” match-up’s on Fox this weekend. I’d hardly call this series “great”. I think that I’d use the adjective “weak”. Both teams are in the tank and the Mets already threw in the towel for this season. The rumors are that the Cubs have too by putting Rich Harden on waivers with word that he was claimed by the Twins.

View the video here.

Enhanced by Zemantahttp://static.zemanta.com/readside/loader.js

Audio: Minaya Addresses Wagner, Santana, Putz, Perez

FLUSHING, NY - FEBRUARY 06: (L to R) New York ...
Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Here’s the conference call with reporters to address the surgery that Johan Santana will have. Omar Minaya also gets into the Billy Wagner trade to the Red Sox, J.J. Putz‘ next rehab appearance being delayed, and Oliver Perez coming back to New York to have his knee examined.

As usual, Minaya stumbles and bumbles his way through the call. It’s bizarre that he doesn’t even remember that Santana had elbow problems during spring training that almost caused him to miss opening day. It’s also odd that Minaya hasn’t spoken to Santana yet about the injury and impending surgery.

Enhanced by Zemantahttp://static.zemanta.com/readside/loader.js

Johan Santana Surgery Will End Season

Johan SantanaWFAN is reporting that Johan Santana will have arthroscopic elbow surgery to remove bone chips in his arm. Santana’s season is over, much like the Mets.

Santana finishes the season at 13-9 with a 3.13 ERA and 1.212 WHIP for a team that is currently 57-68. Reports from the team are that Santana hasn’t been throwing between starts since the All-Star break. The last thing Mets fans had to cheer about is over. Santana went 8-3 at home and 5-6 on the road. He pitched 3 games against their biggest rival, the Phillies, and went 2-1 with a 3.00 ERA.

Enhanced by Zemantahttp://static.zemanta.com/readside/loader.js