Tag: Jerry Manuel

Minaya Traveling with Mets To Atlanta

NEW YORK - JUNE 23: General Manager Omar Mina...
Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Mets GM Omar Minaya was with the team while they got swept in Miami. He was scheduled to come back to New York but changed his plans after the Marlins completed the sweep. Minaya will travel with the team to Atlanta to “offer support”.

The last time Minaya traveled with the team to “offer support” was in 2008 before Willie Randolph got fired. He went to Denver and then Anaheim for his midnight firing. Having Minaya around “offering support” is like getting a pat on the back from the grim reaper.

I don’t expect Jerry Manuel or anyone else to get fired this week. But I do expect the Mets to shake things up if they’re still in last place at the end of May. It seems to be almost a consensus that Bob Melvin will get the job if Manuel is canned. If so, expect Dan Warthen and Howard Johnson to go too.

It should make for an interesting two weeks. With the Mets, it’s always interesting.

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Video: Jon Niese Injury Reaction

Here’s some video that was shot after yesterday’s game when Jon Niese left in the third inning with an apparent hamstring injury. He’s headed back to New York for an examination and I’ll be surprised if they let him make his next start. After the ugly hamstring injury he suffered last season, the Mets need to be smart with a good, young pitcher and put him on the DL for a couple of weeks to let him heal.

The video below is the post-game thoughts from Niese and Jerry Manuel.

http://espn.go.com/videohub/player/embed.swf

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Mets Links: Oliver Perez, No Offense, More

The Mets are in a bad way right now. Dropping below .500 yesterday could be a dangerous sign for the 2010 season and where it’s headed. Expect the Wilpons to enter their first decision point in two weeks. If the Mets aren’t moving in the right direction at the end of May, it could spell the end for Jerry Manuel as manager. I would also expect Dan Warthen and Howard Johnson to be fired as well. If Manuel, Warthen, and HoJo make it into June in their current jobs that’s a very good sign for them.

So much has happened over the last few days, here are the links.

The Mets are 4-11 on the road this year and have no offense in those games at all. You would think they would take advantage of getting away from Citi Field but they haven’t. It’s been just the opposite.

It’s been well documented that Oliver Perez lost his spot in the rotation yesterday. But ESPN broke the news that Omar Minaya brought up the possibility of going to the minors and Perez refused. Perez has nine years in the bigs and doesn’t have to agree to go to the minors if he doesn’t want to. I wouldn’t either. If he went, he would have no control over when he came back. They could leave him in the minors all season. The difference between this situation and Steve Trachsel going to the minors in 2005 is that the Mets would have released Trachsel. They won’t release Perez. He doesn’t have to worry about that because of his big contract. There’s no motivation for him to go to the minors. Continue reading “Mets Links: Oliver Perez, No Offense, More”

Audio: Oliver Perez Meltdown Reaction

PORT ST LUCIE, FL - FEBRUARY 26: Starting pit...
Image by Getty Images via Daylife

The situation with Oliver Perez has really become intolerable at this point. The Mets can’t keep trotting him out there every fifth day and expect to be blown out in 20% of their games. It’s hurting morale and it’s hurting the bullpen, not to mention the Mets spot in the NL East standings.

There’s been a lot of reaction this morning about Perez’ latest meltdown on the mound. He blamed the cold weather for his last stinker against the Giants but he didn’t have that excuse in Miami last night.

There’s been discussion of who should take Perez’ spot in the rotation. And discussion of the fact that we’re beyond the point of looking for Perez’ upside. Continue reading “Audio: Oliver Perez Meltdown Reaction”

Marlins 2 – Mets 1 May 13, 2010

MLB: Cubs vs Mets APR 22

http://cdn.pis.picapp.com/IamProd/PicAppPIS/JavaScript/PisV4.jsThe Mets got a great start from Johan Santana. He locked up with Josh Johnson in an excellent pitchers dual. The aces were as good as advertised tonight. And it was a nice comeback from a couple of rough starts for Santana. He went 7 IP only giving up 1 run, an unearned run on his own throwing error.

As expected, the Mets didn’t do much hitting against Johnson. They only had 4 hits in the game and Jerry Manuel promised changes to the lineup in the coming days. The only run they scored was on a Rod Barajas single in the second inning scoring Jason Bay.

The game was lost in the bottom of the ninth when Fernando Nieve threw a wild pitch that allowed Cody Ross to score from third. Dan Uggla was pinch hitting at the plate and Nieve uncorked a wild breaking ball inside and in the dirt that Barajas couldn’t handle. It’s an ugly way to lose a game and the Mets fourth loss in their last five games.

Box score

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Nationals 3 – Mets 2 May 10, 2010

MLB: APR 25 Braves at Mets

http://cdn.pis.picapp.com/IamProd/PicAppPIS/JavaScript/PisV4.jsThe Mets got a good start from John Maine, his third in a row. He went 6 IP giving up 2 ER on back to back homers by Adam Kennedy and Ryan Zimmerman in the third inning. He did have a lot of traffic on the bases giving up 7 hits and 4 walks but managed to keep the damage to a minimum.

Pedro Feliciano was terrible in the eighth inning giving up 3 straight hits and a run while only recording one out. That’s where the game was lost.

The Mets did have 12 hits including a long home run in the ninth by Angel Pagan. The Mets left 11 runners on base including Ike Davis leaving 5 and Jose Reyes 4. Speaking of Reyes, he got tossed in the seventh inning for throwing his bat and helmet down after a called third strike. Jerry Manuel came out and got tossed immediately after Reyes.

Box score

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Oliver Perez Rotation Spot Appears Safe

I feel like I’ve written this same post before. Oliver Perez is the kind of pitcher that will give you a decent start or two and then blow up like he did yesterday. Can we just say that we’ve learned that by now? As Denny Green would say “He is what we thought he was”.

There are some viable alternatives to Perez. R.A. Dickey is pitching really well in Buffalo and Hisanori Takahashi has done much better than expected as the long man. But that’s not the problem.

The problem is what to do with Perez if he isn’t in the rotation. He can’t come out of the bullpen if he can’t throw strikes. That just won’t work. The Mets could come up with some “injury” that Perez has like they did last season. Perez got rocked by the Braves on Aug. 18 for 4 ER in 5 IP. Then he completely imploded against the Phillies for 6 ER over 0.2 IP on Aug. 23. That was the last we saw of Perez in 2009 because of a convenient knee injury. Continue reading “Oliver Perez Rotation Spot Appears Safe”