Tag: Ryan Church

Mets Trade Church To Braves For Francoeur

Flickr photo courtesy of Keith Allison
Flickr photo courtesy of Keith Allison

We have the announcement of a trade this afternoon with the Mets sending Ryan Church to Atlanta for Jeff Francoeur and cash. It’s basically a swap of under-performing right fielders. Despite Jerry Manuel’s denials, I think we all knew that Church was in his dog house.

We all know Francoeur, we’ve seen him a million times with Atlanta. He’s got a huge arm in the outfield and decent range. He strikes out a LOT and last season was a nightmare for him and he hasn’t been able to turn it around this season either. He’s 25 years-old and in his fifth big league season. He’s making $3.375 million compared to Church’s $2.8 million. That’s why the Mets are getting cash back.

It sounds like a fair deal to me. It won’t change the fortunes of either team in any big way this season or beyond. Both players weren’t meeting expectations, so maybe a new start will work out for them.

Church never seemed like the same player after he suffered a concussion in Atlanta last May. Until then, he was the most valuable player on the Mets. Then the Mets botched his medical situation and flew him around the country with a concussion. He ended up on the disabled list and has never been the same. I like Church as a player but don’t think he’ll ever have much success hitting lefty pitching.

Unfortunately, this doesn’t give us any indication of the direction that Omar Minaya is taking at the trading deadline either. This move doesn’t really improve the team other than adding a right handed bat to a lefty-heavy lineup.

Enhanced by Zemantahttp://static.zemanta.com/readside/loader.js

Phillies 7 – Mets 2 July 3, 2009

The story of this game is that Livan Hernandez got lit up by the Phillies for 7 runs in 3 innings. When that happens, the game is usually over. And it was in this case. The bullpen came in and threw five shutout innings, only giving up one hit.

On offense, Ryan Church was 3 for 4 and raised his season average to . 300. He’s looked so good lately going the other way. His swing has always  been the classic lefty pull hitter swing, but he’s really driving the ball to left field now and he played a pretty decent center field tonight.

There were two defensive bloopers by the Mets tonight that looked awful. It had absolutely no impact on the game because the Mets were out of the game so early. But Fernando Tatis didn’t cover second on a single up the middle and allowed Jimmy Rollins to walk into second base. And Daniel Murphy missed an easy throw at his chest from David Wright. The ball got by him and he and Brian Schneider both stood around while Shane Victorino walked to second base. Both plays were really ugly. Tatis isn’t normally a second baseman and Murphy doesn’t seem to be able to play anywhere capably in the field.

The Mets drop the first of three to the Phillies.

7.3.09

Enhanced by Zemantahttp://static.zemanta.com/readside/loader.js

Mets 9 – Pirates 8 July 2, 2009

This was a rain-delayed wild one. For starters, Tim Redding was terrible giving up 5 runs in 2.1 innings. When that happens you start to think the game is a lost cause but they came right back scoring in the fourth, fifth, and sixth innings to take an 8-5 lead.

The Mets got big offensive games from Fernando Tatis and Ryan Church getting 3 hits apiece. Daniel Murphy had a big pinch-hit single that scored two runs in the fourth inning that got the scoring started for the Mets.

Everything was looking good with the Mets leading 8-6 going into the bottom of the ninth. But Francisco Rodriguez didn’t have it at all. He gave up a pinch-hit single to Freddy Sanchez and then a homer to Adam LaRoche to tie the game.

Church had a game winning hit for the second straight day. He scored Tatis with the winning run in the tenth inning. Rodriguez pitched another inning in the tenth, which I was surprised to see. But Jerry Manuel didn’t have too many options in the bullpen. He used six relievers in the game because Redding got bombed so early.

The Mets win their second straight heading into Philly. But don’t plan on seeing K-Rod tomorrow. He threw 46 pitches in this one.

7.2.09

Enhanced by Zemantahttp://static.zemanta.com/readside/loader.js

Mets 1 – Brewers 0 July 1, 2009

This one was a classic pitchers duel with Mike Pelfrey getting the best of Yovani Gallardo. Pelfrey went 7.2 shutout innings and finished off the game with some help from Sean Green and Francisco Rodriguez.

The only run of the game came on a rare RBI by Ryan Church to score Luis Castillo in the sixth inning. The Mets only had 5 hits off Gallardo who was excellent today throwing a wicked late-breaking curveball for much of the game including 12 strikeouts. Not surprisingly, 3 of those K’s were on David Wright.

The Mets break their five game losing streak and head to Pittsburgh for an afternoon make-up game tomorrow.

7.1.09

Enhanced by Zemantahttp://static.zemanta.com/readside/loader.js

Rosenthal: Mets Manuel Communication Problems

Jerry_ManuelThis is something that we’ve been talking about since spring training as Mets fans. Jerry Manuel seems to be a different person than he was last seasonwhen he took over for Willie Randolph in June. Now I can see why the Mets only gave Manuel a 2-year contract instead of the three years that he wanted. And I can see how Manuel lost the locker room in Chicago in 2003.

Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports writes a pretty lengthy piece about how Manuel has thrown his players under the bus. He does fail to mention how Manuel threw third base coach Razor Shines under the bus this week for failing to point out the bad call at home plate that involved Fernando Tatis being called out when the replay showed he was safe.

From Fox Sports:

Manuel, in baseball parlance, “throws guys under the bus.” His candor appeals to fans who are tired of hearing excuses for overpaid, underperforming players. But such an approach rarely works long-term.

I haven’t been a major detractor of Manuel. I thought that he did a great job last season working without a bullpen. But he does seem to be different this year. It’s almost like he makes everything about himself.

His dealings with the players have become odd this season as well. He fell in love with Daniel Murphy way too quickly. And that hasn’t worked out at all. Manuel clearly dislikes Ryan Church and Ramon Castro. But I don’t think that he’s the only one in the Mets organization that feels that way about both players. So Manuel may not be as out of line on those players as he appears to be to us fans.

It’ll be very telling to see if the Mets allow Manuel to go into next season as a lame duck manager of this team. I doubt that will happen. If the Mets make the playoffs, I think they’ll give Manuel a one or two year extension. If they don’t make the playoffs this season, we’ll be talking about the new Mets manager in November.

Enhanced by Zemantahttp://static.zemanta.com/readside/loader.js

Mets Church Returns; Brown Designated

Church!
Image by team doster via Flickr

Ryan Church returns to the Mets today after coming off the disabled list for a strained right hamstring. Emil Brown was designated for assignment after his only start yesterday in Washington.

I’m glad the Mets chose not to send Fernando Martinez down and keep Brown with the team. From what I’ve seen, Brown doesn’t look like he adds much to the team other than a right-handed bat. It makes sense to keep Martinez playing every day for a while and let Church and Gary Sheffield split time in right field, at least for now.

From MLB.com:

“I think it was being at peace with things, and knowing I had some days to rest up,” Church said. “Basically it was getting treatment and staying off of it. But once I got down there, in the balmy 120-degree weather with the humidity, it loosened up real quick.”

Enhanced by Zemantahttp://static.zemanta.com/readside/loader.js

Game Preview: Mets at Nationals [Game 55] June 7, 2009

washington-nationals-logo2New York Mets (29-25 Road: 12-16) at Washington Nationals (15-39 Home: 9-19) 1:35 pm

Livan Hernandez (4-1 4.33) vs. Craig Stammen (0-1 5.71)

TV: SNY  Radio:  WFAN

What to watch: The Mets and Nationals play the rubber game of the series this afternoon. Hernandez has been better than I thought he would be, he hasn’t lost a game since April 23, But the Mets have lost 2 of the last 3 games that he’s started. Stammen is another one of the good looking young pitchers that the Nats are running out there. The Nats have won 2 of his 3 last starts. Expect to see Ryan Church in the lineup today back from the disabled list.

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

Enhanced by Zemantahttp://static.zemanta.com/readside/loader.js