Johan Santana talks about getting his first win in more than a month over the Giants 5-0. Ramon Castro had the big home run and talks about the pitchers. Jerry Manuel gets into the Mets ascent in the NL East.
Tag: Johan Santana
Santana Finally Wins As Mets Shut Out Giants 5-0
It’s been since June 1st since Johan Santana last won a game. That changed tonight as the Mets shout out the San Francisco Giants for the second consecutive game and got their fifth straight win. The Mets are on a roll.
Santana only pitched five innings and left the game when the it was delayed for 40 minutes by rain. He only gave up three hits and three walks with five strikeouts. Aaron Heilman, Duaner Sanchez, and Joe Smith finished off the final four innings without allowing a Giants hitter to reach base.
The offensive star of the game goes to Carlos Delgado. He seems to have found his stroke over the last couple of weeks. He was 3 for 4 with 2 doubles and 2 runs scored. Ramon Castro was 2 for 4 with 3 RBI’s and his third homer of the year. Argenis Reyes came in as a pinch hitter and stayed in to play second base. And he went 2 for 2.
On Deck- July 9 Giants At Mets Game 2
San Francisco Giants (39-51 Road: 22-23) at New York Mets (46-44 Home: 23-18) 7:10pm
Jonathan Sanchez (8-4 3.87) vs. Johan Santana (7-7 2.96)
What to watch: The Mets looked terrific behind Mike Pelfrey last night for their fourth consecutive win. They really need to give Santana some run support. He’s pitched much better than his record. Sanchez is a touch lefty so maybe we’ll see Endy Chavez on the bench tonight and Ramon Castro getting a start.
Don’t forget to join the Mets game chat here for in game chat with Mets fans.
Link: The Demise of Johan Santana
Image by Getty Images via DaylifePeter Bendix of Beyond the Box Score wrote an in-depth look at the premature demise of Johan Santana. Bendix’ post goes into great depth comparing his 2008 statistics versus prior years. There are several problems that I have with the analysis though:
- The author compares his current season performance averages versus complete prior year averages. Specifically, his strikeout rate and walk rate are compared to complete prior seasons. Santana is a notorious second half pitcher. Bendix’ comparisons should be made to the first 18 starts of past seasons or first 121 innings of past seasons for a more relative conclusion.
- Velocity of fastball and changeup are compared to prior seasons. The importance of velocity is debatable in my mind. As long as a relative difference in velocity is maintained between fastball and changeup, that’s what’s important. In the post-steroid era pitchers should be expected to lose velocity as they near 30 years old and beyond. The Mets knew they weren’t getting the 25 year old Santana with 265 K’s when they traded for him.
If you’ve read this blog in the past you know that I’m not down on Santana like some Mets fans are. Remember Carlos Beltran’s first season with the Mets in 2005? His line was: .266 BA| 16 HR| 78 RBI| 17 SB. We were all questioning 7 year/$119 million contract and whether he was a “New York guy”. Well, he responded in 2006 with this line: .275 BA| 41 HR| 116 RBI| 18 SB. That’s a “New York guy” in my book.
Bendix does a deep dive into Santana’s stats nicely but he fails to mention a few stats that would contradict his theory. Santana is on pace to give up fewer home runs than last season, has a lower ERA than his career average, and his 2008 WHIP of 1.192 is barely higher than his career WHIP of 1.103.
The point is that evaluating someone on half a season that’s been playing for nine years may not be the best sample size to utilize. Sure, his record is 7-7 but that’s hardly the best statistic to use to evaluate a pitcher’s performance as some Mets fans have. Give it time, Santana will be more than fine. He’ll be here until 2013 (or club option for 2014) so he has plenty of time to prove his worth.
Billy Wagner Mets Only All-Star
Billy Wagner was selected to the 2008 All-Star game to represent the Mets. He’s had a great season, minus the one week that got Willie Randolph fired.
David Wright is one of five finalist for the last spot on the roster. Voting is available at MLB.com. He’s up against Pat Burrell of the Phillies, Corey Hart of the Brewers, Carlos Lee of the Astros, and Aaron Rowand of the Giants.
I’m surprised that Johan Santana wasn’t selected. Despite his 7-7 record he’s fifth in the league in ERA at 2.96 and seventh in WHIP at 1.19. He’s been really good without receiving much run support from his teammates.
Click here for the complete list of All-Star selections.
On Deck: July 6- Mets At Phillies (Game 3)
New York Mets (43-44 Road: 21-26) at Philadelphia Phillies (48-40 Home: 23-19) 1:35pm
Oliver Perez (6-5 4.98) vs. Kyle Kendrick (8-3 4.58)
TV: CW11 Radio: WFAN
What to watch: The Mets cut the Phillies lead down to 4.5 games last night and have a chance to do some more damage this afternoon. Perez is coming off his best start of the season against the Yankees but hasn’t pitched in seven days so the Mets could separate he and Johan Santana. We’ll see how that affects his game. Kendrick is 6-1 in his last ten starts so he’s been pitching really well for the Phillies.
Pulling Santana After Eighth Was The Right Decision
The analysis of Jerry Manuel’s move last night to pull Johan Santana seems to have come down on the side of leaving Santana in to pitch the ninth inning. Hindsight is 20/20 but I would’ve made the same decision as Manuel.
There’s no need to leave Santana in a tie game for the bottom of the ninth inning. All he can do is hold or lose the game, he’s not going to win it for the Mets. Although he had thrown just 95 pitches Santana is going to be here for six more years so that has to be kept in mind. There’s no need to max him out in a game that he can’t win. If the Mets were up by one or two runs, I would’ve left Santana in there to close it out.
The only thing that I might have done would’ve been to pull the plug on Duaner Sanchez after Pedro Feliz doubled off him. Shane Victorino is a much better left handed hitter. So Manuel could have used Scott Schoenweiss or Pedro Feliciano to turn him around. Victorino hits .213 against lefties versus .289 versus righties.
Sanchez hasn’t given up a run since June 10th. That’s ten appearances since the last run he’s given up. He’s earned his spot at the end of the bullpen. So I don’t have a problem with him coming in for Santana in the ninth.
There’s no point in having your best pitcher, whether its Santana or Billy Wagner, pitch the ninth inning of a tie game. I’ve written about that before here. Santana or Wagner should be used to lock down a win at the end of a game not hold it for someone else.
The Mets Report 