Tag: Brian Schneider

On Deck: April 15, 2008

Jackie Robinson Day – Washington Nationals (4-9) at New York Mets (5-6)   7:10pm  TV: SNY Radio: WFAN

Odalis Perez (0-2) vs. Mike Pelfrey (1-0)

What to watch: The entire Mets team will be wearing Jackie’s number 42. Mike Pelfrey gets his second start and chance to prove that he belongs on the major league roster. Paul LoDuca and Lastings Milledge make their return to Shea Stadium. Brian Schneider and Ryan Church get to see some old friends on the Nationals.

 

Jackie Robinson
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Brewers Beat Mets 9-7 To Take Game, Series

New York Mets relief pitcher Jorge Sosa during a Mets/Detroit Tigers spring training game at Joker Marchant Stadium in Lakeland, Florida.Image via WikipediaThe Brewers took the rubber game of the series in a poorly pitched game by both teams. Jorge Sosa took the loss for the Mets after entering the game in the fifth and pitching 1.2 innings and giving up 2 runs.

Both starting pitchers were terrible today. If there was a way to give Oliver Perez and Jeff Suppan a loss, this would be the game to do it.

The Brewers turned an eye popping 5 double plays in the game. For a team with no defense, they were able to shut the Mets down with timely double plays.

David Wright hit his third homer in the game and Brian Schneider was 3 for 5 with 3 RBI’s. Schneider’s defense was questionable once again today. Although he didn’t have any PB’s or errors, he couldn’t keep the ball in his glove. I’m starting to think there may be something wrong with him, like a hand injury, that we don’t know about.

The Mets are off on Monday and the Nationals come to town on Tuesday after ending their nine game losing streak today against Tom Glavine and the Braves.

Box score

ESPN Video Highlights

Fox Video Post Game- Gabe Kapler 

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.

The Good News and The Bad News About Pedro’s Injury

At this point, we don’t know how severe Pedro Matinez’ hamstring injury is. He’ll have an MRI and we’ll know soon how much time that he’ll miss. I have to mention some concern that Pedro, Brian Schneider, and Ramon Castro have all had hamstring injuries over the last few weeks. Remember last spring when the Yankees were getting pulled hamstrings and they blamed on the strength and conditioning coach? If not, read here about how the Yankees fired Marty Miller last May after several players had hamstring injuries.I wonder if there’s anything to the strength and conditioning with the Mets this season. Rick Slate is the Mets strength and conditioning coordinator. I would think that he’ll receive some scrutiny over the coming days, especially if Pedro is on the disabled list for an extended period of time.

The good news about Pedro’s injury is that the Mets already have an extra starter on the roster, Mike Pelfrey. He’s currently slotted to be the fifth starter but the Mets don’t need him until April 12th because they have off-days on Thursday and next Monday before the home opener on April 8th. El Duque’s trip to the disabled list was retroactive to March 29th so he could make that start on the 12th.

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The bad news is that the Mets huge crowd for the home opener would be treated to seeing Mike Pelfrey instead of Pedro Martinez. What a let down that is! I wouldn’t be too happy if I had tickets for the home opener right now. Pelfrey is easily shaken as it is, having to pitch in front of a sold out home opening crowd is not a good situation for Pelfrey. That’s certainy not a good situation for the Mets or the Shea opening day fans.

Brian Schneider Playing Today

Injured catcher Brian Schneider is playing today for the first time in quite a while. He’s had a hamstring injury that’s severely limited his playing time this spring.

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