Former Mets pitcher Jose Lima died today at home in Los Angeles. He was 37 years old. According to his wife, Lima died of a heart attack.
Lima pitched for the Mets in 2006 when he made four starts and was 0-4 with a 9.87 ERA. He was best known for his years with the Astros in the late 90’s. In 1999 he went 21-10 for the Astros and was an All-Star. He was as flamboyant as they come when he pronounced his starts as “Lima Time”.
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The Mets will activate Ryota Igarashi from the disabled list today. Manny Acosta is the one that will lose his roster spot. He’ll be optioned to Triple-A Buffalo. The surprise is that Jenrry Mejia isn’t the one being optioned. There have been rumors all week that he was going to Buffalo to stretch out in an effort to come back at some point as a starter.
Not so surprising is that Oliver Perez won’t go to the minors. He’s dead weight on the roster right now. The word is that he told the Mets that he’s not interested in going to the minors to work out his problems.
Acosta has pitched pretty well for the Mets in 12 games this season. He hasn’t given up a run in his last seven appearances. But he has allowed 50% of his inherited runners to score.
This is a really good interview by Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports with David Wright. Interestingly, Wright says that he’s not worried about his excessive number of strikeouts. He’s only worried about having “good at-bats”. Also, he says that Jerry Manuel’s tenuous hold on the managerial job is a distraction. The Mets players would rather be answering questions about their play on the field.
http://img.widgets.video.s-msn.com/flash/customplayer/1_0/customplayer.swf<br/><a href=”http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/mlb-on-fox-wright-hand-man/12so7e79?fg=sharenoembed” target=”_new”title=”MLB on FOX: Wright-hand man”>Video: MLB on FOX: Wright-hand man</a>
Here’s some post-game video with Francisco Rodriguez and Jason Bay talking about their 5-3 win over the Yankees last night. You can see the details in the box score.
http://img.widgets.video.s-msn.com/flash/customplayer/1_0/customplayer.swf<br/><a href=”http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/mlb-on-fox-mets-down-yankees/12vd0ogg?fg=sharenoembed” target=”_new”title=”MLB on FOX: Mets down Yankees”>Video: MLB on FOX: Mets down Yankees</a>
New York Yankees (26-15) at (New York Mets (20-23) 7:10 pm
Phil Hughes (5-0 2.25) vs Mike Pelfrey (5-1 3.02)
TV: Fox Radio: WFAN
What to watch: Tonight’s Fox game should be a good pitching match up of a couple of the best young pitchers in baseball this season. Hughes has been great and the Yankees have won six of the seven games he started this season. Pelfrey has also been great and pitched extremely well in his last start in Atlanta going 7.2 innings and only giving up 2 runs. It should be a good one tonight.
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http://cdn.pis.picapp.com/IamProd/PicAppPIS/JavaScript/PisV4.jsThe death watch on Jerry Manuel’s managerial career is in full swing this week. I fully expect Manuel to be history if the Mets don’t have a good showing against the Yankees and Phillies over the next week. I’ve always thought that the Mets would give him until the end of May and this week is close enough to that time line to make a judgment.
Of course, the Mets problems aren’t all Manuel’s fault. It never is completely a manager’s fault. But when things are going bad, and they certainly are for the Mets, someone has to go. And you can’t fire all of the players. So Manuel will take the blame. Some say is should be Omar Minaya. Maybe it should.
Ken Rosenthal writes that this week could be pivotal for Manuel. Tim Brown of Yahoo Sports put Manuel on his list of “Barely Managing“. Later this week, Rosenthal wrote about the inside scoop on which Mets coaches will survive Manuel’s firing. Mike Lupica wrote that if the Mets are going the wrong way, Minaya should go, not just Manuel. But Mike Vaccaro writes that the Mets should fire Manuel.
It’s hard to argue against someone getting fired soon. I won’t even get into what happened over the last two collapses seasons. Right here and right now this is a last place team with the fifth highest payroll in baseball and third highest in the National League with vastly declining attendance figures.
At this point, I’m on board with a shake up that results in Manuel being out. I agree with NY Sports Dog that Wally Backman is the right man for the job. I also agree with Clayton Caldwell that HoJo has to go too. It’s time for a change.
Here’s some video from Fox Sports with Jim Bowden previewing this year’s amateur draft. Bowden’s mock draft has Bryce Harper going first to the Nationals and the Mets with the seventh pick drafting catcher Yasmani Grandal. Grandal is a junior at the University of Miami and a 2010 preseason All-American.
http://img.widgets.video.s-msn.com/flash/customplayer/1_0/customplayer.swf<br/><a href=”http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/bowden-mlb-draft-preview/12uzjwo5?fg=sharenoembed” target=”_new”title=”Bowden: MLB draft preview”>Video: Bowden: MLB draft preview</a>
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