Tag: Johan Santana

Mets Take Out Listless Nats 7-2

Johan Santana looks like he’s worth the money, and the prospects that the Mets gave up. He was good again tonight keeping the Mets in the game through seven innings. He had seven strikeouts, and gave up two runs, seven hits and one walk. I might also mention that he was 2 for 2 at the plate with two doubles.

Carlos Beltran was 2 for 4 and looked really good hitting left handed. Ryan Church was 2 for 5 as well. Angel Pagan had two steals, Reyes had one, and Luis Castillo had his fifth steal of the year. That’s one more than Reyes has.

The death knell for Carlos Delgado was subsided for one night mostly because the Mets won. But Delgado did have a hit and an RBI to stave off the vultures circling his career.

Playing against the Nationals is a good way to make a team feel good about themselves. They’ve got very little talent on that team. Their new stadium looks great though and has me looking forward to seeing Citi Field.

The Mets fans are traveling really well this season. There was an audible presence during the game. That’s great to see in another team’s stadium.

I have to mention that Willie Randolph is the last person to notice that Delgado should move lower in the order and Duaner Sanchez should pitch the eighth inning. It’s amazing to me that everyone else recognizes that before he does. He’s far too loyal to players that aren’t getting the job done. That’s all that I’ll say about that… I feel like I’m beating a dead horse.

Box score

Video Highlights

On Deck: Wednesday April 23, 2008

New York Mets (10-9) at Washington Nationals (6-15) 7:10pm

Johan Santana (2-2) vs. Tim Redding (3-1)

TV: SNY     Radio: WFAN

What to watch: This is why Santana gets the big bucks, to stop the bleeding. Coming off a short series sweep in Chicago, the Mets may find that playing the Nationals is the cure. They’re just a bad team, maybe the worst in baseball. They’re certainly a team that the Mets can beat up on and get “right” before heading home to face the Braves.

Schneider, Johan Santana Working Together

Jack Curry of the New York Times wrote a good article for the New York Times today about the working relationship between Johan Santana and Brian Schneider. It looks to me like Schneider’s working well with all of the Mets pitchers.

I have to admit that I didn’t like the Milledge for Church/Schneider trade but it’s working out pretty well so far. We won’t know the full implications of the trade for a few years when Lastings Milledge gets into his prime playing years. He just turned 23 last week.

Paul LoDuca has been dreadful for the Nationals and I was really never a fan of his anyway. Read a Nationals blog post here. If you’ve read some of my previous posts, you know that my opinion of him is that his mouth is bigger than his bat or glove.

If Brian Schneider can keep up a little bit of hitting, and he’s over.300 right now, he’ll have made the trade much more palatable.

Johan Santana Brings Mets To Different Level

This is a must-read column from ESPN’s Jayson Stark, especially for everyone that boo’d Santana at Shea last week.

“There’s not too many players or pitchers in this game that can single-handedly bring your team to a different level,” said Mets third baseman David Wright, whose four-hit evening had a little something to do with the outcome, too. “But Johan is one of them.”

Mets Take First Game in Philly 6-4

Philadelphia, PA- The Mets held on to win 6-4 in front of over 45,000 in Philadelphia tonight. Johan Santana was stellar, pitching seven innings with 10 strikeouts, no walks, and giving up three runs. It would’ve been only one run if Aaron Heilman hadn’t come into the game in the eighth and promptly given up a pinch hit home run to Greg Dobbs.

Can we all agree now that Johan Santana shouldn’t be boo’d? If you feel the compulsion to boo a home player, make it Aaron Heilman. He gave up the big bomb tonight. Granted, he’s pitched three good games prior to tonight. Maybe there isn’t anyone that deserved to be boo’d at home right now. How about that?

David Wright was 4 for 4 with two doubles and a triple. He’s on fire right now. Brian Schneider had a nice offensive game as well going 3 for 4. He’s hitting .306/.306/.375 so far.

Jose Reyes stole second and took a header into Chase Utley’s knee. He stayed in the game but I think Willie Randolph should give him the day off tomorrow considering his hamstring kept him out of a couple games this week. He could use a day right now.

The Mets and Phillies do it again tomorrow on Fox at 3:55pm.

Box score 

ESPN Video Highlights 

On Deck: April 18, 2008

New York Mets (8-6) at Philadelphia Phillies  (8-8)   7:05pm   TV: CW11   Radio: WFAN

Johan Santana (1-2) vs. Cole Hamels (2-1)

What to watch:  Santana against Hamels is a great pitching match up. We’ll see if Santana can keep the ball on the right side of the fence tonight. That was his problem last season, and in his last start.

To Boo or Not To Boo

That is the question…

The Mets blogs and mainstream media have been on the topic of booing home players since 4:00pm yesterday. The Brewers hit some bombs and won the game yesterday which caused a mild stirring of booing in Flushing. Some have taken the ridiculous stance that fans should never boo home players. Others have gone to the argument “Stop booing you mean people”. I’ll take the high road and assume that booing home players isn’t an extremist group of drunken so-called “fans” on a Saturday afternoon at Shea.

The subject of booing home players has, once again, surfaced. Do fans have the right/responsibility to boo home players? In a word: Yes!

If there’s a new ace pitcher that’s working on a 6 year/$137.5 million contract that’s under performing, the fans have a right to boo. If there’s a relief pitcher that’s got a 3 year/$10.8 million contract that’s been reduced to being a lefty specialist and not doing it well, the fans have a right to boo.

I fully support booing home players when the subjective decision has been made that a player is sorely under performing, a.k.a. stealing the Mets money. I’ve participated booing home players with some ferocity on two occasions:

  1. Scott Schoenweiss (2007)- 0-2 record, 70 games, 59.0 innings, 62 hits, 33 ER, 8 HR, 28 BB, 41 SO, 3 wild pitches, 4.97 ERA. Summary: Schoenweiss should have been arrested for grand larceny for all of the Mets money that he stole last season.
  2. Mike Stanton (2003)- 2-7 record, 50 games, 45.1 innings, 37 hits, 23 ER, 6 HR, 19 BB, 34 SO, 2 wild pitches, 4.57 ERA. It’s hard to remember a pitcher as ineffective as Stanton in 2003. It looked like batting practice when he pitched.

Although those are two occasions that I’ve engaged in booing home players, some fans could make other arguments as well. In 2007, Carlos Delgado was difficult to watch. I think that an argument could be made there.

To conclude this post, Mets fans do have a right and responsibility to boo home players that are sorely under performing especially when their contract is deemed excessive. I don’t think that was case yesterday at Shea. In my opinion, Johan Santana pitched extremely well in Florida, very well in Atlanta last Sunday, and not very well yesterday. Does that justify booing a two-time Cy Young Award winner? No way! There just isn’t enough of a body of under performing work to justify booing Santana at this point in the season. Mad Dog Russo would say “That’s a bad job by Mets fans yesterday”.