Tag: Jon Niese

Mets Pitching Among League’s Worst

PORT ST. LUCIE, FL - FEBRUARY 24: Jon Niese #... 

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

 

The first week of the 2011 season hasn’t started well for the Mets’ pitching staff. The offense has been decent. The Mets are in the middle of the National League pack offensively. That’s pretty much where I would expect them to be at the end of the season too. But the pitching is another story completely.

The pitching has been downright dreadful. Only the abysmal Astros have a worse team ERA and only the lowly Pirates have given up more walks than the Mets. It’s a sad state of affairs for a team that’s had a history of some of the greatest pitchers in the game from Tom Seaver, Nolan Ryan, Jerry Koosman, Dwight Gooden, to Johan Santana. It just goes to show that without Santana on the active roster, there isn’t anybody that’s even close to being able to pick up the slack.

Sortable Team Stats - mets.com- Stats 2011-04-09 08-54-06

If you look at the pitcher individually, the bottom five pitcher by ERA on the team are all over 6.00. Of course, we’re only one week into the season so there’s plenty of time for improvement. But the first week has been hideous for Mike Pelfrey, Jon Niese, and Blaine Boyer in particular.

New York Mets Stats- Sortable Statistics - mets.com- Stats 2011-04-09 08-59-32
If you’re unfortunate enough to have tickets for today’s game, you’ll be seeing both fifth starts for the Mets and Nationals. Both teams are expected to have among the worst pitching staffs in the NL this season and you’ll be seeing the pitchers that they least want to have on the mound. Games like today are exactly why I don’t like buying tickets too far in advance. You can get stuck with an awful pitching match-up. It may turn out to be a great game but I would prefer not to spend money on it.

Preview: Mets at Phillies April 7, 2011

New York Mets (3-2) at Philadelphia Phillies (4-1)  3:05pm

Jon Niese (0-0, 2.57) vs. Roy Halladay (0-0, 1.50)

TV: SNY   Radio: WFAN

What to watch: The Mets and Phillies play the rubber game of the series this afternoon before the Mets head home for their home opener tomorrow. Niese had a nice start in Florida going 7 IP and allowing 2 runs in a 6-4 win. Halladay went 6 IP in his first start against Houston allowing 1 run in a 5-4 win.

The Mets are showing some fight in this early season. That’s something we haven’t seen in a couple of years. Expect Halladay to be tough to hit but the Mets could give him a run for his money.

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Mets 6 – Marlins 4 April 2, 2011

PORT ST. LUCIE, FL - FEBRUARY 24: Jon Niese #...
Image by Getty Images via @daylife

This was a good game with several turns of fortune for both teams. It’s good for the Mets to get the first win under their belts so they don’t have to worry about getting swept in their first series tomorrow afternoon. Jon Niese had a very shaky start, giving up 2 runs in the first inning. But he recovered nicely to pitch the next 6 scoreless innings.

The Mets had some offense going tonight too for a change. David Wright had 3 hits including a solo homer to right field in the fourth inning. Ike Davis had 2 hits, both doubles and an RBI in the sixth inning.

It looked like Josh Thole might be the goat of the game when he singled in the seventh inning to right field and took a big turn at first base. Emilio Bonifacio threw behind him and Thole stumbled going back to first, getting thrown out. It was an ugly, embarrassing play but Thole redeemed himself in the ninth with the go-ahead RBI single.

K-Rod was terrible in the ninth, giving up 3 hits and a run to blow the save. He wasn’t fooling anyone. It was a terrible start to 2011 for him.

The Mets bombed the Marlins bullpen in the tenth inning though. They had 4 hits and scored 3 runs led by a big RBI double down the right field line by Willie Harris.

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Preview: Mets at Marlins April 2, 2011

marlins logoNew York Mets (0-1) at Florida Marlins (1-0) 7:10pm

Jon Niese (0-0, NA) vs. Ricky Nolasco (0-0, NA)

TV: SNY, FSFL             Radio: WFAN

What to watch: The Mets try to recover from getting shut down by Josh Johnson last night. They’re playing behind Niese, who was 1-4 with a 6.49 ERA against the Marlins last year in 5 games. Nolasco went 2-0 against the Mets last season with a 3.96 ERA in 4 games.

We’ll get out first look at Lucas Duda this season in left field. Although Willie Harris played well last night, Duda should get the bulk of the playing time while Jason Bay is on the disabled list.

Mets Pitching Report – January 2011

Johan Santana pitching for the New York Mets o...
Image via Wikipedia

With just 6 weeks until Spring Training the Mets biggest worry will, by far, be their pitching staff. With the hope that the Mets can bring on one of the two free agents they are targeting, the pitching staff lines up as follows:

Mike Pelfrey, RA Dickey and Jon Niese, followed by either Chris Young** or Jeff Francis**, then Dillon Gee or Chris Capuano. (**this is assuming the Mets can obtain Young or Francis who are free agents).

In 2010, the Mets had question marks in their entire pitching rotation. The only person that could be counted on was Johan Santana. This year you can add Santana to the list of question marks for this pitching staff making the “ENTIRE” pitching staff a question mark.

Pelfrey, Dickey and Niese combined for 30 wins last year. Somehow this pitching staff will have to find another 45 wins to have a respectable season. Continue reading “Mets Pitching Report – January 2011”

Mets Play Two, Lose Two, September 29, 2010

Met Game 9/29/10
A Sparse Crowd Watches the Mets Lose Both Games of a Doubleheader

Yesterday’s double header was double trouble for the Mets.

Game 1 – Brewers 8, Mets 7
Game2 – Brewers 3, Mets 1

Game 1 was practically given away to the Brewers with Jon Niese giving up 6 runs in the 3rd inning. The Brewers, not to be outdone, allowed the Mets right back into the game by giving up 2 runs in the 3rd and 5 runs in the 4th to briefly give the Mets the lead 7-6. The Mets gave that lead right back by allowing 2 runs in the 8th and that was all the scoring for the game as the Brewers defeated the Mets by a score of 8-7.

New York used 8 pitchers in the first game because soon to be ex-Mets Manager, Jerry Manuel, could care less. He’s out of here in a few days. Niese started the game and went a full 2.2 innings followed by Ryota Igarashi, Raul Valdes, Sean Green, Elmer Dessens, Pedro Feliciano, Manny Acosta & finally, Hisanori Takahashi.

Game 2 featured a pitching matchup of Dickey vs Bush. No this is not a typo and Twitter users certainly caught the double entendre. R.A. Dickey, the new Mets ace, gave up 6 hits in 7 innings but only allowed 1 earned run. He still took the loss in the nightcap as the Mets offense was completely overpowered when the Brewers trotted out the way past his prime, all time saves leader, Trevor Hoffman, who pitched the 9th to earn his 601st save of his career. Note the Brewers regular closer, John Axford, was not available to close because he was used in Game 1.

Mercifully the season is over in 4 days.

Injury Update: Carlos Beltran is out for the rest of the season due to “Mild Inflammation” in his right knee (What’s New?) and Nick Evans injured his left, non-throwing, shoulder.

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Johan Santana Shoulder Injury Raises Questions

New York Mets starting pitcher Johan Santana throws a pitch to the Colorado Rockies in the fourth inning of their MLB National League baseball game in New York, August 12, 2010. REUTERS/Ray Stubblebine (UNITED STATES - Tags: SPORT BASEBALL)

http://view.picapp.com//JavaScripts/OTIjs.jsWell, its that time of the season. Johan Santana has once again, for the third season in a row, been shut down and will need surgery during the off season, this time on his left shoulder. A suitable punctuation to a season highlighted by lackluster play, managerial blunders, and an overall lack of organizational accountability. Of course, this type of grim reality for the ace of a pitching staff can only exist within one franchise, the New York Mets.

Along with agony and disappointment, news of Santana’s most recent injury raises a lot of questions:

Why does the Mets’ medical staff continue to be inept?

Since being acquired prior to the ’08 season, Santana has had some kind of injury/surgery every year. First it was his knee issue, last year he had bone chips in his elbow. What other star player in the league has experienced this type of string? I can’t think of any off the top of my head. I’m no doctor, but I would have to imagine that part of correcting an injury is identifying the measures to prevent future problems. By now, I would have expected that the medical and training staffs have come up with a plan for protecting Santana’s arm. Unfortunately, this has not been the case. This apparent ineptitude has affected other players on the team as well. You have to figure that free agents around the league are probably wary of exploring opportunities with the Mets because of their seemingly shabby and, for lack of a better word, mysterious medical staff. Continue reading “Johan Santana Shoulder Injury Raises Questions”