OK, having somewhat recovered from the bitter taste in my mouth from the past two series against the Sox and the Yanks, I will now endevour to develop some sort of cognizant reasoning behind the losses.
Screw that. Basically, the Mets at this time are in a slump. Is it panic time, not really. Looking at this past week from a distance, there are two things that explain what happened.
First, the Boston Massacre (in three part harmony). The Mets ran into the hottest team in baseball, at a time when they themselves were coming off a hot streak, but had begun to falter. Alay Soler did not help matters by imploding in game 1, and Pedro, well, Pedro quite frankly stunk up the joint. I think the hip was bothering him more than he wanted to admit. This is proven by the fact he will skip his turn against the Pirates, and probably this weekend's turn against the Marlins. Memo to Omar Minaya - do not let Pedro think of pitching until after the All Star Break. You have an 11 game lead, milk it for a week, and let Pedro get healthy. He is needed for the long haul. Let Mike Pelfrey pitch a game this weekend. Tell him it is a one time shot. Hey, if he does well, send down Soler, as his time appears to have lapsed.
We now move on to the Bronx, where the boys in Blue and Orange had some issues, to be kind. Friday, nearly nothing. Now, had it been Mussina for 8 innings, I could have understood, but allowing Villone to one hit you is absurd. It was an abysmal performance by the lineup. El Duque on the other hand did quite well.
On Saturday, as appears to be the custom, the boys beat up on the Big Eunich. Hung an 8 spot on him. Mr. Tracshel pitched well (for him) and the pen did the job. The bats woke up (perhaps they gave a little rum, or sacrificed some chickens, who knows). Even Wagner pitched, and thankfully did not choke.
Last night, a nice start, for the offense. Alas, the same could not be said of Alay Soler, who followed up his "performance" in Boston with another stinker. Heath Bell showed once again why Heath Bell does not belong in the pen. Six hits and 8 runs in 2 - 1/3 is no way to earn a place on the big club son.
Now, I know Wilie has been taking a lot of heat for sticking with Soler for so long, and I agree to an extent. However, knowing Oliver was needed to start tonight, he had to make a decision, stick with Alay, or bring in Oliver and have to call up someone for today's tilt against the Pirates. I happen to agree with the move made. I do not like the move to Bell however, I would have preferred Bradford or Feliciano first.
During the game, ESPN's own Joe Morgan was letting Willie have it about his decision. Joe stated something to the extent that the Yanks are the Mets biggest rival, and he should have approaced it that way. Now, I agree with Morgan to an extent, but, the only reason they are rival's is thanks to Bud (not so Wiser) Selig and inter-league play. The Mets biggest rival Joe is the team in second place, who they may be battling for the division title, not the team that they have to play 6 times a year because Bud wanted more money in the coffers. Bragging rights are nice, but at the end of the day, it means jack squat if the Mets beat the Yanks, but miss out on the playoffs.
The worst part of this past weekend is that due to the loss, Metstradamus (a favorite of mine - check him out) is going to have to turn his blog over to Darth Marc (avowed Yankee lover) for a day, as a result of a bet. Darthy can be quite amusing, I recommend him for comic relief. (Actually, Darth is among those who advised me to start this little Cafe, telling me I seem to have some interesting things to say, well, now we shall find out.)
What are the next steps, well, quite simple IMHO
1. Alay Solar should be sent down, eclipsed as it were by John Maine.
2. Pedro should not pitch until after the All Star Break. Rest that hip Pedro.
3. Omar should be working the phones from now until 7/30, looking for a #3 starter.
4. Move Mike Pelfrey up to AAA Norfolk. Have him buzz Lastings Milledge in BP so Lastings wakes up a bit.
For additional Met coverage, check out Metstradamus, Metsgeek, Toasty Joe, Metsblog and Faith & Fear in Flushing. All are excellent reads, and cover a variety of topics.
Until tomorrow.
Monday, July 03, 2006
Please allow me to introduce myself....
My initial entry, so where to begin?
Who am I you may ask. I'm a Met and Islander fan, hence the Orange and Blue tilt to this blog. Yes, I know there is another organization that wears the same colors, but at this point, they do not deserve to be called a team. In addition, they play in the same arena, and are owned by the same people who own the Rangers, so in my mind, they do not exist. Besides, being all of 5' 11", and not very skilled in the game, I do not like basketball.
I do not intend to have this blog be an outpost for anti-Ranger or anti-Yankee vitriol. While I do not personally root for either team, I do not care what they do, so long as it does not impact my favored team.
Oh, the hell with that, I will be blasting both the Yankees and the Rangers from time to time. I will do my level best to not make it the focus of the Cafe. My goal here is to have a place for my feelings on my teams, what they have done, and what they have not done that I, in my humble opinion think they should have.
So where to begin. It is July, and the middle of baseball season. However, since my Isles now have a new coach and GM, and free agency just started, I feel I should give this first entry over to that downtrodden group in the Coliseum.
Personally, I like the signing of Ted Nolan. He is a good coach, with a great deal of knowledge about the game. He has the ability to get the most out of the talent he is given. That is important, since so long as Alexei Yashin is wearing Blue & Orange, the funds are not going to be there to add better talent.
I am of two minds with Neil Smith. He is of course a former Islander, drafted by them, a former scout as well. Yet, the black mark against him is he helped build a Cup winner for the Rangers. That is something I am going to have a hard time getting past. He did a good job with the draft, though Feltrin led it. The signing of Mike Sillinger is interesting. It should go a long way towards putting the rumors of the Return of Peca to rest.
I of course love the fact that Bryan Trottier and Pat LaFonatine are back in the organization. My hope is that Trots can apply a cross-check any time Mike Milbury gets too close to Smith.
Aside from comments on any upcoming signings, I shall leave the subject of the Isles until October. My hope is that this season will be significantly better than last.
My view of this past weekend's Met-Yankees series can be summed up quite simply
Crap
Just Crap.
I will have more to say on the Mets as soon as I finish throwing up. As you may have guessed, I was not happy with the results of the past week.
First, they are one-hit by Mussina and a bullpen who has been awful until this weekend.
They follow this up by finally finding their bats and smacking around the Big Eunich.
Then, last night, they bring the bats, but leave their arms at home. They allow A-6-4-3 to have a coming out party of sorts. Fans who had been booing him for weeks (wrongly I must add) are now bowing before him.
For the Mets, the bullpen is used up, and Darren Oliver gets the start tonight. Granted, it is against the Pirates, but the way this team is playing right now, I would not be surprised to see a split of this series.
Crap.
Just Crap.
Who am I you may ask. I'm a Met and Islander fan, hence the Orange and Blue tilt to this blog. Yes, I know there is another organization that wears the same colors, but at this point, they do not deserve to be called a team. In addition, they play in the same arena, and are owned by the same people who own the Rangers, so in my mind, they do not exist. Besides, being all of 5' 11", and not very skilled in the game, I do not like basketball.
I do not intend to have this blog be an outpost for anti-Ranger or anti-Yankee vitriol. While I do not personally root for either team, I do not care what they do, so long as it does not impact my favored team.
Oh, the hell with that, I will be blasting both the Yankees and the Rangers from time to time. I will do my level best to not make it the focus of the Cafe. My goal here is to have a place for my feelings on my teams, what they have done, and what they have not done that I, in my humble opinion think they should have.
So where to begin. It is July, and the middle of baseball season. However, since my Isles now have a new coach and GM, and free agency just started, I feel I should give this first entry over to that downtrodden group in the Coliseum.
Personally, I like the signing of Ted Nolan. He is a good coach, with a great deal of knowledge about the game. He has the ability to get the most out of the talent he is given. That is important, since so long as Alexei Yashin is wearing Blue & Orange, the funds are not going to be there to add better talent.
I am of two minds with Neil Smith. He is of course a former Islander, drafted by them, a former scout as well. Yet, the black mark against him is he helped build a Cup winner for the Rangers. That is something I am going to have a hard time getting past. He did a good job with the draft, though Feltrin led it. The signing of Mike Sillinger is interesting. It should go a long way towards putting the rumors of the Return of Peca to rest.
I of course love the fact that Bryan Trottier and Pat LaFonatine are back in the organization. My hope is that Trots can apply a cross-check any time Mike Milbury gets too close to Smith.
Aside from comments on any upcoming signings, I shall leave the subject of the Isles until October. My hope is that this season will be significantly better than last.
My view of this past weekend's Met-Yankees series can be summed up quite simply
Crap
Just Crap.
I will have more to say on the Mets as soon as I finish throwing up. As you may have guessed, I was not happy with the results of the past week.
First, they are one-hit by Mussina and a bullpen who has been awful until this weekend.
They follow this up by finally finding their bats and smacking around the Big Eunich.
Then, last night, they bring the bats, but leave their arms at home. They allow A-6-4-3 to have a coming out party of sorts. Fans who had been booing him for weeks (wrongly I must add) are now bowing before him.
For the Mets, the bullpen is used up, and Darren Oliver gets the start tonight. Granted, it is against the Pirates, but the way this team is playing right now, I would not be surprised to see a split of this series.
Crap.
Just Crap.
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