Category: Pitching

Last Man in the Mets Bullpen

The seventh spot in the bullpen is one of the few position battles left on the Mets roster. In all likelihood it will come down to Joe Smith or Duaner Sanchez. Marty Noble for MLB.com profiles this position battle.

It’s premature to take a side on this issue at this point. We don’t really know what Sanchez is capable of. The only thing that we do know is that he hasn’t pitched in a major league game in almost a year and a half.

Joe Smith is more of a known quantity right now. He’s had his up’s and downs this spring. Maybe the Mets could take a chance on how hot Smith was coming out of spring training last season. Although I’m not sure that translates into this season.

Sanchez hasn’t shown that he can pitch more than once a week yet. That won’t help the Mets during the regular season. He may need to get his arm back in shape in AAA.

It’s just too early to tell who will win the last spot in the bullpen. I need to see both Smith and Sanchez over the next week and a half to decide who I’d like to see there.

Starting Pitchers Ground Ball and Strikeout Categorization

I’ve mentioned Baseball Analysts before as a tremendous site if you’re into heavy statistical analysis. Their post today is somewhat revealing about starting pitchers performance from last year. They looked at the percentage of ground ball outs and strikeouts per batters faced. One of the statistical outliers was Johan Santana.

Santana had a higher than average strikeouts per batters faced but below average ground ball percentage. We’ve heard from the mainstream media, since he was traded to the Mets, about his performance last season. Specifically, that he gave up 33 home runs which is by far the most of his career. Hopefully, it’s not the beginning of a trend.

It was also interesting that Steve Trachsel was a statistical outlier in the area that pitchers don’t want to be in. He had a lower than average strikeouts per batters faced and ground ball percentage. They should have also docked him for taking two minutes between each pitch.

Oliver Perez Makes Another Good Start

Bill Ladson of MLB.com summarizes the game nicely. I don’t need a long, drawn-out novel about a spring training game. The important thing is that Oliver Perez put together his second good start in a row. As I’ve said before here, I think spring starts are more important for Perez than anyone else on the team. I believe that he has the best stuff on the team except for Santana. Some may argue that Pedro has better stuff… but that was a few years ago. Perez needs to find consistency as early as possible. Today’s start is a good sign.

Oliver Perez

Pedro Martinez First Start A Success

Marty Noble reports for MLB.com that Pedro pitched well against the Tigers today. He pitched four scoreless innings (58 pitches) and gave up four hits. He was slow to cover first on a ground ball by Timo Perez of all people! All in all it was a successful outing.

“I’m right where I want to be,” was Martinez’s general self-assessment, the only assessment that matters. Continue reading “Pedro Martinez First Start A Success”

“Hey Schoenweiss, There’s No Crying In Baseball!”

I was disappointed to read Charlie Nobles’ column in the Times today about Scott Schoenweiss. The interview is filled with excuses about his deplorable performance last season. He has excuses about injuries from 2005 and getting down on himself because the fans and media were tough on him.

I don’t buy any of his excuses and I felt insulted as a fan while reading this article. This is professional sports, it’s not a game being played for fun. We’re playing to win, Scott! So if a player is on the field, he can’t have any excuses. If you’re injured, go to the trainers room. If you’re hurt by fans and media that are tough on you, go play in Tampa or Pittsburgh. Continue reading ““Hey Schoenweiss, There’s No Crying In Baseball!””