Enter Blandman

The only question that honestly remains in my mind after this debacle of a game is, whether the Mets bullpen can retire the Mets one through 4 batters. Over the last two games the starters, Santana and Perez have pitched a combined 12 and two-thirds innings and given up one run giving them and ERA of .7. In those same games, the bullpen has pitched 5.1 innings and given up 7 earned runs, giving them an ERA of 12.3. In my opinion, this game lays 100% on the shoulders of the men in the pen. However, the 1 through 4 batters do not get a free pass. Over these same last two pitiful losses they have gone a combined 2 for 28 given them a batting average of 71. Just to put it in perspective, Al Leiter had a career batting average of 85, 14 points better than the Mets one through 4 hitters have done over these last two games. But if the starters keep giving up 0 or 1 run a game the 1-4 hitters shouldn’t have to go crazy. But, it's a long season and I'm not worried yet.

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Not What He Had In MInd

Lets go through the line up shall we.

Jose Reyes- All Star
Louis Castillo- Former All Star
David Wright- All Star
Carlos Beltran- All Star
Carlos Delgado- Former All Star
Ryan Church
Angel Pagan
Brian Schneider

The last 3 are all not expected to hit be big run producers and Delgado had a good day but it will be difficult to win if the first 4 hitters in the order go a combined 0 for 13. Not to mention I can’http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gift remember the last time Louis Castillo got up to the plate and didn’t
A-Hit a one bouncer to the second or first baseman
B-Bunt
C-Strikeout

Reyes, Castillo, Wright and Beltran should all apologize to Johan Santana because you can’t pitch much better than he did today and get a loss. (7 innings pitched one run earned, ERA of 1.4). Also, it seems unfair to give him a loss when he had one earned run and the Mets scored one run. The loss SHOULD go to Aaron Heilman who gave up two runs on a two run shot of Teixeira in the 8th. Well tomorrow the Mets second ace (Oliver Perez) goes and maybe the Mets 1 through 4 hitters can, maybe, just maybe scratch across one measly hit and lead the Mets to their third victory.

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And The Oscar Goes To...Shaq???

What if Shaq had been a good actor? He would have received Oscars for rolls in Kazaam and Blue Chips and went on to a career as a famous actor, never playing basketball again the Lakers would have never won a championship and the sports world would be a totally different place. In years to come we may look back on the call, originally butchered call by second base umpire Brian Gorman in today’s game. On a ball roped out to center by Jose Reyes Gorman claimed the ball was caught when in actuality in dropped in for what would have been a base hit. Later this call was reversed and the Mets ended up scoring two in the inning. However, if this call corrected originally the Mets score two on this play and possibly open up a lead and go on to win the game. However, this was not to be and the Braves were able to retain a 4-3 lead coming out of the fifth inning. Only to set up for Jorge Sosa to play the roll of Armando Benitez later in the 7th inning giving up a grand slam to Kelly Johnson and give the Mets no chance of winning the game. I’m not trying to blame this one on the umps, Hudson tossed a gem and the Braves bats were alive but, that’s why they play 162.

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Pedro WHO?

Pedro WHO? That is all I could think as I watched Oliver Perez mow down Marlin hitter after Marlin hitter. Now of course, typical Mets when they need 5 runs in a game they score 4 but when they need 1 they score 13 the bakers dozen, but how can you complain after a 13-0 win. Also Ryan Church really shoved it in the face of the fan at a spring training game I attended in which after a weak Tim Hudson ground ball the fan yeld out “Hey Church, he hits like you”, dropping two bombs and leading the Mets to a 2-0 win. Now all Church has to do is teach himself to hit righty, you know, just to balance out the order a little. My only question after this game is why uses Wagner? It’s not like he’s in mid-season form and you don’t want him to cool off or get stale. He hadn’t thrown a pitch yet.http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif Why not save him so he’s at 100% for the Braves series? Given, he will probably be back to snuff by then anyway but the whole move doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense to me. But a win is a win is a win. Now if we can finally win a series against the Braves before August we might be in better shape down the stretch. Series starts on Friday with John Maine against Tim Hudson.

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Less Happy Hammy Day

What a coincidence that my second post of both seasons is relating to injured hamstrings of ace quality pitchers. You may recall that last year my second post was entitled Happy Hammy Day and poked fun at the injured Yankee pitching staff and their new up and coming "aces". However, this year it is a much more somber post, due to the fact that Pedro Martinez has injured his hammy and may be out of the staff for a while. Now to add insult to injury the Mets could not even come up with a victory after battling with the Marlins for 10 innings Matt Wise gave up a round tripper to Matt Andino. Furthermore the Mets made me want to VandenHURL after they did not absolutely wreck this Dutch Marlins pitcher Rick VandenHurk. You know who the last decent Dutch Pitcher was,Sidney Ponson
who had just short of an embarrassing Major League career. As frustrated as I am I know we still got 160 more.

Adios Profesor, Hola Ganador

Finally back, after typing a few practice posts about the for the New Orleans Zephyrs I am no back and ready to cover the big show. And I must say what a way to start the Johan Santana era, a big win over the Fish. After being nervous all day after being nervous about whether the Mets would show shades of last seasons collapse, (which was mostly due to poor play against the Marlins). The new, less eccentric Mets came out and played a near perfect game. And as excited as I was for the win I must say I was a little upset when I read the article in Sports Illustrated about Reyes toning it down a notch, cutting the Professor Reyes routine and the post dinger 3 and a half minute hand shakes but hey, YOU PLAY TO WIN THE GAME and that is just what the boys did today.

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Both of my

Mets Maniac fans

I will be back next season a bunch of things caused me to stop this season but rest assured I'm still cheering for the Mets and hope you are to.