Tag: Chris Carpenter

Oliver Perez Shuts Cardinals Down – Bullpen Fails Him

Oliver Perez delivers
Image by afagen via Flickr

The Amazin’ Mets find another Amazin’ way to lose a game. Oliver Perez pitched a great game, but from what I’ve seen of Ollie in the past he has about two or three games like this a season where he gets up and totally dominates a much better team while losing to the crappy ones. If you were one of those people who said Ollie would rise to the occasion and pitch a good game last night, you were right.

I have never seen this Ollie though. I have seen overpowering Ollie, I have seen completely nasty Ollie but I have never seen crafty Ollie. The curve-balls, sliders and off-speed stuff kept the Cardinals off balance all night. I have to admit I was glued to the TV watching this Ollie. Will he be back again this year? Continue reading “Oliver Perez Shuts Cardinals Down – Bullpen Fails Him”

Cardinals 4 – Mets 3 April 16, 2010

MLB: Mets vs Brewers SEP 3

http://cdn.pis.picapp.com/IamProd/PicAppPIS/JavaScript/PisV4.jsThe Mets lost their seventh game of the year and it’s already starting to get old. They did go up against Chris Carpenter who threw 7 innings and only gave up 1 unearned run. So there is the built in excuse for losing that they ran into a buzz saw tonight. But I’m getting tired of the excuses over the last year.

The bright spot of the game was Oliver Perez for a change. He went 6.1 IP giving up only 1 run, which scored after he left the game. We haven’t seen many lines like that from Perez over the past couple of years.

But there are no moral victories in professional sports. The Mets  lost. Again. Continue reading “Cardinals 4 – Mets 3 April 16, 2010”

Preview: Mets at Cardinals April 16, 2010

New York Mets (3-6) at St. Louis Cardinals (6-3) 8:15 pm

Oliver Perez (0-1 6.35) vs. Chris Carpenter (1-0 5.73)

TV: WPIX   Radio: WFAN

What to watch: The Mets limp into St. Louis against a Cardinals team that has won three series’ in a row against the Reds, Brewers, and hapless Astros. Carpenter is a tremendous pitcher, so the task won’t be easy. But he got roughed up by the Brewers in his last start, a loss. Perez makes his second start of the season after losing to the Nationals at Citi Field. It’s a three game series ending on national TV on Sunday night.

Don’t forget to visit The Mets Report Live Game Chat during the game to chat with other Mets fans!

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2010 NL East Champs?

Houston Astros vs St. Louis Cardinals

http://cdn.pis.picapp.com/IamProd/PicAppPIS/JavaScript/PisV4.jsDid you think I was talking about the Mets? Funny! Actually I was imagining what it would be like to just take the whole Cardinals team and trade them for the whole Mets team. Imagine that… Albert Pujols, Matt Holliday, that pitching staff, a possible future Hall of Fame manager, Mark McGuire! At least the Yankees wouldn’t kick us around during inter-league play and we could stand toe-to-toe with the Phillies.

But alas, we are stuck with our poor Mets who are now in St. Louis where they’ll spend three games against a team, I think, that would win the National League East.

They will win it because of a pitching staff I am just drooling all over. Omar Minaya, take note. This is a pitching staff. Watch the Mets pitching, including Johan Santana, get rocked by Pujols and Company. Watch the weak hitting Mets made to look silly by the Cardinals superb pitching staff. Watch a team come to play. A team that doesn’t believe in comebacks because they are up right from the start. Continue reading “2010 NL East Champs?”

Audio: Heyman On Hot Stove November 21, 2009

Roy Halladay

Image by Keith Allison via Flickr

Here’s the audio from WFAN’s Saturday morning show with Evan Roberts. SI’s Jon Heyman calls in to talk about:

 Jon Heyman audio on WFAN

As far as I’m concerned, Halladay shouldn’t even be on the Mets radar until they resolve some of the problems with their position players. As Heyman says, it’s unlikely that the Mets want two starting pitchers making #1 starter money. It’s not the right allocation of resources unless Halladay falls into their lap.

Continue reading “Audio: Heyman On Hot Stove November 21, 2009”

Cards (away)- Season opener

It’s time to get this team going. The 07 version of the Mets looks very strong from an everyday player perspective. I (and everyone else) am not so sure about the pitching staff. I like that Willie got Glavine lined up for the opener tomorrow, especially when I see that the Yankees are opening with Pavano. I really hope the fans at Yankee Stadium boo him. He deserves it. Can you believe this is his third year with the Yankees?

Chris Carpenter is a tough matchup for the Mets tomorrow night. Last year he was 15-8 3.09 ERA in 32 starts. He also had 5 complete games, of which 3 were shutouts. That is a solid season! He also worked 221 innings. He had 184 K’s and 43 walks, so he’s usually pitching in or around the strike zone. He’s 31 years old. I wish the Mets had a starter of this caliber.

The player to watch in the short term is Shawn Green. How much patience does Willie show if he struggles early? Maybe not as much as you might think… Milledge made the team. Even though Green is making $10M this year, Milledge is the future (assuming he isn’t traded for pitching at the deadline). The bottom line here is that Shawn Green has had a severe drop off since his 2002 season with the Dodgers. His lack of performance this spring didn’t do anything to make us believe he can turn things around.

How can Glavine and El Duque hold up this season? Can we tread water until Pedro gets back in August? Can Oliver Perez collect himself and throw strikes again? These are a few of the questions that will be answered starting tomorrow night. The pitchers are a serious question mark!

The positive side of all this is that there aren’t many good teams in the NL. The Phillies, Cards, and Mets are clearly the best teams on paper. Let’s see if it plays out that way over 162 games. It usually doesn’t…