15
2011
Not So Amazins’ Get Swept By Rockies; All Alone In Last Place
An article by 
The Mets, backed by overall sloppy play on both the pitching side of the ball, and the defensive side and lost both games in today’s back-to-back double header.
Game 1 – Rockies Win 6-5
R.A. Dickey started today, and didn’t have a very good outing today, allowing five runs on eight hits, walking four and striking out four. Dickey still seemed to be bothered by his nail, throwing 64 of his 110 pitches for strikes. Dickey gave up a home-run to Carlos Gonzalez The Mets defense didn’t really help Dickey, taking poor routes to balls and only providing 2 runs to work with up until the eighth inning. Bobby Parnell came out, and in two-thirds of an inning what would turnout to be the winning run, allowing a home run to Troy Tulowitzki. Bobby Parnell has now allowed 2 home runs in 5 innings. He allowed one all of last year – in 35 innings. Parnell still has options, and if any minor league candidates prove apt and able, Parnell maybe be honing his craft for the Bisons.
Byrdak & Igarashi cleaned up the last two innings, with Byrdak allowing a hit in his inning striking out one, and Igarashi walking one and striking out one. The one day the bullpen doesn’t “fail” and the starter does poorly, which is a shame. Still, the Mets cannot expect to send their bullpen out for 3 innings a game and stand a chance.
The offense today consisted of an Angel Pagan sacrifice fly and a Scott Hairston RBI single up until the eighth inning. Jose Reyes reinvigorated the Mets offense with his first home run of the season. In the ninth, Scott Hairston hit a two-run homer, bringing the Mets to within one. But, as it seems the Mets do, David Wright hit a fly-ball to deep right for the third out, with the bases loaded to end the game.
Turning Point
The seventh inning home runs. Taking any air out of the Mets sails.
Game Ball
Jose Reyes, for continued strong play. 2 for 4 with a home run, run scored, stolen base and walk.
Game 2 – Rockies Win 9-4
Game 2 was similar to game one, in that the starter would struggle, and the Mets would face an insurmountable lead as well as a major bullpen day all around.
Chris Capuano came out, and although he was not lights-out, he was effective for the first five innings, only allowing runs on an RBI fielders choice and a single up the middle. Capuano was exploited in the sixth inning though, allowing a home run to Troy Tulowitzki, giving him one for each game today. After the home run, Capuano missed getting out of the inning when Brad Emaus bobbled a tailor-made double play ball and only got the force out at second. If that was the case, the Mets would’ve left the inning up 4-3. Instead, the game was tied, then took the lead, then Taylor Buchholz gave up a home-run to light-hitting Johnathan Herrera. Capuano’s final line was seven runs on eight hits with two walks and five strikeouts in five and two-third innings. Bad luck today.
The bullpen got worked, as mentioned. Taylor Buccholz went one-third, giving up a run on one hit, a home run and allowing 2 inherited runners to score. Ryota Igarashi came out for the second time today, and gave up one hit and struck out one in his inning of work. Jason Isringhausen came out, and went a full inning allowing no hits and striking out two. Although it is too early to proclaim set up men, especially when we have no set-up situations, Izzy seems to be winning some points with his performance and his poise and maybe ushering himself into that position. K-Rod finished with mop up duty, allowing one run on three hits, striking out two.
By pitching K-Rod to “end a game”, it is allowing his option to come closer to vesting. Sigh.
The Mets offense came out with a bang, scoring in the second on a Mike Nickeas two-RBI double and in the fourth on a Jose Reyes two-RBI single. After that, tumbleweed and some walks, but no significant rallies.
Beltran & Davis – 0-7 with four strikeouts and a walk.
Turning Point
Brad Emaus flubbing the double play. It happens, but this just seems like it had to happen with the Mets recent luck.
Game Ball
Jose Reyes, again. 1 for 5 with 2 RBI. David Wright was of note as well, going 1 for 2 with two walks and a stolen base.
On Deck
The Mets will look to recover from this skid, going to Atlanta tomorrow to begin a series against the Braves. The Braves will be sending out Derek Lowe, and the Mets are believed to be sending D.J. Carrasco to the mound, unless someone is called up from the minors last minute for a spot-start for Chris Young. Game time is 7:10 P.M.
About the Author: Sean Kenny
Sean Kenny is a student/writer currently attending school at the City College of New York. For more Mets news, notes and thoughts follow him on twitter @TheSeanKenny
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There is no news here. They were destined for last place from the beginning of the season. They got to last a lot quicker than i thought. 5.5 games out of first-not bad for 2 1/2 weeks in. oh yeah, the crowds look pitiful too!
The cream always rises to the top, and sludge like the Mets always sinks to the bottom. Did anyone really believe Alderson was going to change this team’s outlook? In fact, expect these new Mets to be even worse than 2009-2010. Of Alderson’s 12 signings, one already has arm trouble, another is out for the year with Tommy John surgery, and another has already been DFA’d. You get what you pay for. Did they not cover that in Moneyball?
I love how people like chris, annie, jessep, tagree and many other wilpon apologists, were saying all winter how anderson and collins were going to do these 3 things if nothing else 1. Better fundamentals 2. Pitchers walking fewer batters & 3. Better plate approach, all 3 never have been worse. there is reason nobody wanted anderson signings and collins has been fired at every previous stop and money ball does not work in new york, but don’t worry the MMO writers will tell you everything is ok, and ignore the fact the mets are the worse run team in baseball because of ownership.
Yes you are right. Things are significantly worse than before no matter how much some Mets fans like to sugarcoat it all.
Not even Rome was built in a day.
Look Sandy is not a genius but then again no one here has ever claimed that except the guys who hate him.
I personally think he is too obsessed with OBP and believes too much in some saber ideas that are outright wrong. Such as the Fielding isn’t all that important argument made by Saber/stathound guys all the time when they dismiss a bad glove because of his hitting stats.
Emaus is a perfct example of what those beliefs bring you.
A Passive batter too busy trying to walk instead of hitting because his BA is dirt. And glove that is not even bronze let alone Gold.
Just look at the splits to see what kind of player that High OBP/Weak BA selection got us:
Ahead in the count he has 9 PA 1 Hit 3 walks and 3 K
Behind in the Count he has 14 PA 3 Hits Zero Walks and 1 K.
Being ahead in the count is a Hitters count! He doesn’t hit and he should have more hits when ahead in the count. But he is passive and tries to walk and sometimes gets bitten by that called third strike he looked at. The problem? He is not aggressive at the plate and looking to walk instead of a hit when ahead in the count.
He hits better when he is behind in the count. Why? Because he knows the walk is not likely and then goes into plate protection mode aggressively swinging trying to foul off pitches until he can get the count in his favor. He strikes out less because he is focusing on hitting the ball close enough to be a strike and as a result gets more hits and strikes out less because he changed his focus on making contact not taking borderline pitches! But the fact the BA was ignored in favor of OBP shows why he only has 3 hits in 14 PA. The guy can’t hit and the OBP is not something he can really control unless he pay the pitcher to throw balls at him!
It is beliefs like this that cause me concern about Sandy. If you come into evaluations with a bias your picks will be biased and if that bias is wrong your evaluation will be wrong as well.
Is that why this team is losing though?
HARDLY!
It is pitching! And lets face facts here you have to admit the pitching available this year was pretty slim to none. Even if you had money the only guy worth buying was Lee who we had ZERO shot at getting!
You can complain about letting Takahashi and Feliciano go but what are either doing right now?
Feliciano is nursing that arm we destroyed and Takahashi would not have caused Pelfrey to not have a 2 Inning start, or Kept Dickey’s nail from breaking.
AT best he would maybe have stopped two games that the Bulpen blew which when added to our record would at best put us 1 game under .500
Pretty much where our winning percentage was last year at this time.
Anyone who expected SA to turn this around in a year was a fool!
Anyone who thinks he will DEFINITLY turn us around is a FOOL!
I personally don’t buy into his philosophy but I do know that you can’t really say which way the wind blows on Sandy until we see what he does once he doesn’t have salary restrictions to work with.
If it is more Emaus then he will fail. If it is more Young than maybe not!
I would have to say that the new FO is about 50/50 on their decisions so far.
Feliciano was a Plus, Takahashi will maybe be a minus.
Emaus is a Minus but Beato seems to be a potential plus.
Hairston is not showing what he did in spring so I will give him a minus but then you got Harris who despite his fielding issues has gotten a few big hits that have been wasted by the pitchers.
Funny how the best performing players we have are all Minaya guys. The same guys who have been good all along.
Davis is lights out this year! Wright is better, Reyes is Better and even Beltran has done more than most people expected playing almost every game.
Who have been disappointments from the Minaya selections? Exactly the guys who came out of nowhere and we all asked if they could reppeat that impressive showing.
Pagan and Dickey!
Sandy is not a genius but he isn’t awful either, he got handcuffed in the wallet and he will do better once those restrictions come off.
But Minaya wasn’t awful either. just look at the names of the guys you think are doing good for us. Most of them are from the team he built.
If they continue to lose you have to wonder is it because Snady screwed up a good team or because he could not fix a really bad team minaya built.
Truth is if you are not prepared to be patient and give them a year or two to try to fix it then you would be unhappy no matter who was the GM. Because no one can come in a turn a sub .500 team into a division winner in a single offseason!
NO ONE!
Right on point. Expect this season to go somewhat the way it is. It is not going to take 15 games to fix. Young players will make mistakesand we will need better pitching.
The anti-Met fans that are on this blog like K-maxx and happy little met fan love this.
Rome was not built in a day, neither will this team be.
“A Passive batter too busy trying to walk instead of hitting because his BA is dirt. And glove that is not even bronze let alone Gold.”
Did you mean Emaus or Castillo? lol
Whatever Luis has cost us for the 2011 season, it is less than cutting him, paying him anyway, and also paying Emaus.
P.S.: Cot’s Baseball Contracts tell us about the Mets non-performing assets:
2011 payroll obligations for former players:
* $12,000,000 (Oliver Perez)
* $ 6,000,000 (Luis Castillo)
* $ 1,000,000 (Gary Matthews Jr.)
* $ 725,000 (Blaine Boyer)
Where oh where are all the lovers of the roidal lovin GM????? I want to thank the new NY metsies for honoring Casety Stengel yesterday. That performance would have made Marv and Hot Rod Kanhel and Choo Choo and Casey proud!!!! Your metsies have far exceeded even my widest expectations. And you have so much to look forward to. Just thin k all you “geniuses” who want Reyes out because he doesn’r walk enough, just wait next year yu chave an Emaus type talent at short and at second!!!!
Guys like donutz and especially the false agee deserve every bad play!!!!!!!! For the few good metsies like Bayonne sorry guys, the rest of the metsies have ticked the gods of baseball off… Hey donutz, where the heck are you. did you enjoy the games!!!!!!!!!
Well we know that Will and K Maxx are correct — they have ‘happy little mets fans’ verifying it!!! They are three fans always looking for the half-empty glass!
Even though things look bleak right now, it’s too early to give up. We weren’t that much better in 1973 when the season started and we went all the way to the World Series. Anything can happen and the team we started the season with will not be the same team we end the season with. Lets Go Mets!
Everybody is always complaining that the Wilpons don’t know what they’re doing but all of a sudden they knew what they were doing when they hired a small market guy like Sandy Alderson to run a team in loud, big market team in New York? Now they know what they’re doing? Maybe the made another mistake?
How many of Alderson’s Moneyball signings have flopped or been suspect already? Maybe he doesn’t belong in a market like New York City? When does Alderson become the story in main stream media? Maybe Alderson’s judgement is that bad? When is the last time a GM got off to this kind of horrible start for the Mets? Outside of 1962 or the late 70s?
It’s about time Alderson starts answering questions from the media about his own judgement of talent.
This was a nice lineup he inherited and ANYONE who thinks that this was a throw away season is completely out of their minds. He did a TERRIBLE job in the off season.
Because you know what all of these players are going to accomplish in the course of six months after what they’ve done fro two weeks of chilly April baseball?
Circle gets the square.
Bingo.
Bullseye.
You hit the nail on the head.
Winner Winner chicken dinner.
Any of the above will do.
How many of Minaya’s monkeyball signings worked out? Jeez, if you can’t see the correlation between the amount of money parked on the DL, DFA’d, being carefully monitored or just marginally serviceable and the type of scrap heap signings we were forced to go with your closing your eyes.
Fully 82 Million of the 143 Million is is in dry dock, has to be towed into port, is all but unseaworthy or had to be dumped into the ocean.
This whole team didn’t get to be the Titanic in one off season. It’s been 13 years in the making. A philosophy espoused from ownership and FO that is completely at odds with the way we won our only World Championships. A philosophy that thinks it can take short cuts, beat the odds and is smarter than everyone else. A philosophy that thinks a 32 year old Castillo or a 34 year old Pedro or a 40 year old Alou or a 50 year old El-Duque are the players they were a decade ago
The days of fixing long term defficincies on the roster with wildly expensive short term hopeings is over and to tell you the truth didn’t provide much in the way of results anyway. Alou at 40 at a cost of 15 M and a first round draft choice to play 100 games over two years, like that couldn’t have been forseen ahead of time. Schowenweiss at 11 Million, Mota at 5 Million, Igarashi and Cora at 2 Million apiece, Redding at 2.5 Million, Perez at 12 Million, Castillo at 6 Million, I mean give me an effin break.
We consider a nice complimentary part like Josh Thole or Lucas Duda to be a bright spot. The Braves consider Jason Heyward or Craig Kimbrel to be one’s. The Giants consider Tim Lincecum or Brandon Belt to be one’s and the Marlins consider Logan Morrison or Mike Stanton to be one’s. Get a freakin’ clue.
Has anyone checked the calendar?
Don’t get me wrong, the team is playing terrible baseball–esp., pitching and fielding.
I think it may get worse, too, but the Mets will get better. Lots of new folk on this team, and there’s obviously been no gelling yet. But it will come.
Heck, the team battles back in almost every contest, which is huge considering how F*()ng deflating it must be to have your staff pitch batting practice to the opponents.
Incidentally, Tulowitzki doesn’t appear to have a problem hitting HRs at Citi; guy makes it look like a bandbox.
Okay, enough for a glass half-full guy.
I’ve been following baseball for close to 40 years now, and I’ve yet to see a season decided in the first two weeks. You got to love these guys who just bash, bash, bash away at Sandy and Terry. They’re trying to build something here and get a new start going. Anyone who thinks that’s going to be accomplished during spring training, or the first two weeks of the season is crazy. It’s going to take time, and effort.
The first four series they played two “elite” teams, the Phillies and the Rockies. As the results showed they simply are not at that level yet. But Jeez, you got to give the new guys a chance to get something going here.
When they won the first series averyone was dancing in the streets thinking we were headed for a championship.
A week later and two series losses and they are back to wetting their pants.
Good thing they aren’t Red Sox (the predicted BEST TEAM IN BASEBALL with a TRUE GENIUS GM!) fans or we would need to open a suicide hotline just to handle all the fans.
Teach!
I got $50 bucks that says Mets will sweep the Braves. Anybody want to lay me 7 to 1 odds?
Joe, what did you put in your coffee this morning?
Pass the bottle over this way.
A little Sambuca in the espresso never hurt anybody, right?
I caught a wee bit of the Braves-Marlins series and the Braves looked to struggle a bit. It should be an interesting series.
I would like to know how anyone can take the standings seriously only two weeks and less than twenty games into the season. One good week and a team looks like a world beater, one bad week and they look like our Mets. Does anybody think the Redsox will be near the bottom of the AL East all season? Is anyone thinking the Royals are for real?
It’s incredible, a bad homestand to start the season and people are carrying on and pointing fingers. Relax folks.