2
2012
Schwinden Struggles Again, Mets Lose 8-1 To Astros
An article by 
Chris Schwinden struggled in yet another start, and the offense couldn’t put anything together in their 8-1 loss to the Houston Astros
Recap
The Chris Schwinden experiment had another rough day, with the final outcome being five runs on six hits in four innings, striking out one and walking two. Schwinden allowed two more home runs and has looked overmatched in his two starts, and the next step seems to involve Jeremy Hefner coming up to fill the gap. While Chris has looked bad in both outings, he hasn’t been helped by his bullpen nor his offense.
Manny Acosta came out for what would amount to mop-up duty after he was finished and went two innings, allowing one run on six hits while striking out one. Acosta has skyrocketed himself passed Miguel Batista in terms of being the least effective Mets reliever in 2012. While Acosta has allowed 15 runs, only 11 of those have been earned, but his walks and strikeouts are equal and he has given up three home runs in eleven innings. Tim Byrdak and Frank Francisco went on to pitch the seventh and eighth, allowing a combined three hits while striking out two.
Offensively, the Mets have struggled since Andres Torres’ return. The only Mets run was knocked in by Torres, scoring David Wright. The Mets managed seven hits, three of which were from Ruben Tejada. The offense has looked sluggish, and the continued inability to drive home runners in scoring position has become the downside of this offense.
Game Notes
Andres Torres – 1 for 4 with his first hit of the season and an RBI, but struck out three times.
The defense hasn’t been bad as of the last few games, and it seems the Colorado game got most of the mistakes out of the way.
Daniel Murphy – 0 for 4. He was 0-9 with one strikeout in the Astros series
GOAT of The Game
Chris Schwinden. Two short outings in which he was absolutely ineffective.
Up Next
The Mets will travel back to Citi Field where they will begin a series on Friday against the Arizona Diamondbacks. 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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Well Schwinden didn’t do much better than Niese last night. Chris Johnson clobbered the Mets today with 2/hr’s 6/rbi’s.
Had no idea the Astros came into today 4th in the NL in Runs Scored. They sure lived up to it.
Missed an opportunity to go 3-3 on roadtrip. Instead ended up 2-4. Can’t say it enough, Ike we could really use your bat. Will be curious to see if Schwinden is around for another start. For that matter Batista as well.
Day off 2morrow so hopefully Mets can get past the Flu, regroup and be ready for the DBacks on Friday.
Positives for me is Mr Tejada’s continued ability to get hits.
LGM!
Ugly game. Let the roster moves commence.
Acosta and Schwinden are both as good as gone. Jeremy Hefner and DJ Carrasco will get recalled. Batista could go too, if that happens Jack Egbert could get a shot. Garrett Olson just pitched so I’m certain he’ll stay put for now, plus he got roughed up. Look for this to all go down before Friday.
The Mets cannot afford to fall below .500 this early in May. Changes will be coming. And no it won’t be Harvey or Familia. Forget those names until September no matter what SNY TV and Blogs keep saying.
I agree about Schwinden.
Not sure I agree about Acosta – yet. He got off to a poor start last season as well and finished up very good. Don’t know if they held onto him b/c they had no other options at the time.
I think Acosta will be given a little bit longer leash than Schwinden has right now.
If Olson pitched today, wouldn’t that him on regular rest for Schwinden’s next start? Hefner or Olson doesn’t matter to me, but isn’t Hefner scheduled to pitch tomorrow? Will they pull him after three and maybe give him a throw day Saturday to get him ready for Tuesday?
Although both Hefner and Olson are starting in the minors, Olson has been a reliever exclusively since 2010 and even relieved already this season for Buffalo. He covered a couple of spot starts and joined rotation exclusively once Schwinden got promoted. Hefner is exclusively a starter and has a broader array of quality pitches at this point and doesnt have the command issues Olson has. That’s my take on it.
Good enough for me.
they have tomorrow off, so if they stay on normal 5 man rotation, everyone gets an extra day of rest. So hefner could pitch today, then his normal turn (replacing Schwin) would be on 4 days rest. Right?
“And no it won’t be Harvey or Familia.”
BNHarrington (Beat Writer / Columnist) Ron Darling right now on SNY re Harvey and Familia: “Don’t you dare touch them yet.” Amen. Not ready yet . #Mets #Bisons
http://twitter.com/BNHarrington/statuses/197792003969392640
Joe,
no month decides when a prospect will be ready, the prospect will dictate that. Now Familia I can see not coming here until September because it appears he’s not as advanced as Harvey but depending on how far he comes along combined with how good/bad the Mets are i would definitely not rule out seeing Harvey sometime in June or July. It’s VERY possible.
It really doesn’t matter what we think. There is an organizational philosophy in place. Two years ago, you’re right, Harvey would be here in June. However, different upper management with a totally different philosophy. Nobody in the front office is focused on a brass ring in 2012. They are looking at 2014 and they will not jeopardize the maturation and development of a top prospect for any potential short term gain especially with no guarantee it would even provide the rotation with the lift they need. You’ll see guys like Dylan Owen and Schwinny make their way here, but forget the notion that Harvey or Familia will follow suit. The other thing is that besides all that, neither pitcher is even close to being major league ready so the discussion is moot. Neither of them got a full season in Double-A and were advanced two levels in one calendar year. That’s about as fast as they should be rushed for now.
They won’t come here until they can’t be super 2′s. The Mets won’t tell you that and all the hired mouthes will tell you other stories, better known as lies, and too many met fans will buy the stories, but as soon as Alderson gets the numbers that they won’t be super 2s, one or both will be up. But the one thing none of you will do is blame Alderson for being so inept that the only help he could bring in is the broken down Young. Can’t wait for the stories, I mean lies that will spew out when we are down 2 pitchers.
Pelf goes to the 60 day DL. Replaced by Scales or Pascucci on 40 man list. Schwinden, Acosta and Valdespin go down. Heffner, Carrasco and Scales\Pascucci go up.
Acosta is out of options.
Acosta is also 31. Is he part of the long term plan? He is a AAAA type, so he has to produce or get out of the way. I don’t doubt that he could put it togeather in the minors. He may not get through the waiver wires, but isn’t that how we got Heffner?
here is the book on Acosta,
he always scks early, gets sent down, works himself out of it and then comes back at the end of the season and impresses someone that he might be a keeper…then he sucks again early rinse and repeat!
Acosta always does his best work after July!
Before then he always seems horrible!
Yes to what srt said, and you forgot Cedeno is getting activated and that’s when Spin will go down.
Plus I don’t see Scooch getting a 40 man spot. The only reason Scooch is here was to appease the Bisons owners who wanted him because of his popularity with the fans. Bisons owners are dissatisfied with their relationship with the Mets and the front office is trying hard to make amends.
Bobby Scales is legit and as me and Pete have said often on this site, he will get his shot with the Mets. I forget the under/over date Pete put on it, but I think it was like 5/20.
Schwinless sucks crap, and I am tired of being Accosted!
Why are these two scrubs Acosta & Schwinden on the Mets? Acosta constantly proves to me time and time again that he’s garbage. I have no idea why the Mets or Met fans liked him so much. As far as Schwinden goes, he makes me miss Pelfrey more and more….and I hated watching Pelfrey start.
How good would a CJ Wilson signing have looked right about now?
MEtsie, and what? have one more victory? lose a first round pick? Spend money on a good free agent?? Nah….. that’s not the phylosphy of the front office and the sabergooners that follow them
You did secretly bring up a good point. Whose spot in the rotation would Wilson have taken? My money is on Gee as they wouldn’t have cut ties with Pelfrey. Gee has 2 wins Wilson has 3. So you are right, one more win. Now that being said over the course of the season obviously I would have taken CJ anytime.
Pelfrey? Maybe Gee?
I still think it would have been Gee’s spot as they wouldn’t have wanted to just cut ties with Pelfrey at the time. I guess they could have to save the extra money though, or maybe traded him for a backup catcher or CF to pair with Torres. Maybe they could have found a guy like Ramirez to trade Pelfrey for and had those two at the back end instead of Rauch and Francisco. It’s easy for us to discuss things like this, much harder to get it done.
even if that were true, Gee would have started yesterday not Schwinden!
And we wouldn’t be wondering who to try next right now!
Look I’m the first guy to agree with the folks who said Wilson wasn’t a frontline starter!
But we have to date signed two starters since Sandy got here, one played all of 4 games and the other couldn’t get past the 6th inning. Even if he pitched Cy Young last year he wold still be gone because he would have been above our KMart price insistence.
If a guy like Wilson was signed pelfrey would have had his contract cancelled in ST after the way he pitched there! And it wouldn’t have cost us much at all!
So I disagree the only reason they paid Pelfrey what they did was because they didn’t sign someone else and if they had we might not be starting AAAA pitchers right now!
Do you think it’s possible, right or wrong, that Sandy did not want to lock himself into a long term deal for a pitcher when he has so many arms that should be ready during that contract? Maybe placing a lot of faith, as all Mets fans are, in Harvey, Familia, Wheeler, and Mejia? Except for the hot start of a few guys who did they Mets have in the minors coming up for “backend” type guys?
Again, we can say it was the wrong move but Sandy viewed the BP as a bigger need than the SR and went with quantity over quality there as well while trying not to lock in any long-term contracts.
Has any General Manager ever lost a World Series for having too much starting pitching?
Is it even possible to have TOO MUCH starting pitching?
No matter what you think you have you shouldn’t plan your roster until you actually do have them!
Anything can happen between now and then to change that!
Better to have a glut you can trade than to try and plan JUST ENOUGH only to have fate trip you up!
I know many here have this idea that every penny spent must count but thats only true in the NFL where there is a salary cap!
Wilson’s deal for the next three years averages to about 12 Mil per!
Sure those last two years may be in the 20′s but you can easily trade him before they hit and get something pretty good for him for the mere price of paying 4 or 5 mil of his salary (10 Mil total) in the trade!
Less money than we wasted on Francisco for two years!
Faith in your minors should only speak to the need to replenish yor minors!
Not how you build your MLB team!
you can’t count chickens before they are hatched and if you do you will find your basket light later on with no choice but to make a DESPERATION signing (like Bay) because you didn’t strike when the fish were there and biting!
Not every year has a FA worth signing. This year had quite a few!
Who knows who is available next year and the year after shold something happen to Harvey or Familia. Hell some would say Familia’s egg is already cracked!
It would have looked really good because it would have meant we had that kind of money to start with. Too bad they didn’t. Lets hope they do next off-season.
We had the money, we spent it on Francisco, Rauch and Ramirez!
Wilson only makes 10M this year, 11 M in 2013, Less that the relievers we went and got who are not signed past next year!
True, of course we would have had no one to close out the games. Fact is right or wrong Sandy went with BP pieces instead of SP. We can all debate if that was the right move or not. I guess looking at the pen and looking at the rotation he deemed the pen weaker. That being said, wasn’t there some report about the Mets being in on either Buherle or Wilson? I can’t remember which.
That being said, isn’t it very possible that CJ would have picked the Angels and a West Coast team regardless of any Mets offer? Or do we live in fiction land and think that all players want to play in NY for the Mets?
5 years/$77.5M (2012-16)
signed by LA Angels as a free agent 12/8/11
$2.5M signing bonus ($0.5M upon approval, $1M each on 7/1 in 2013, 2014)
12:$10M, 13:$11M, 14:$16M, 15:$18M, 16:$20M
So how much more would the Mets had to pay? Would he have deferred money to play for the Mets? Wonder why he deferred some of that money? Couldn’t have been because they needed money for Pujols.
You think we have someone to close out games now? Really?
I wold counter that we have Parnell to do that!
Sure who knew he would get good right?
Well thats the job of the coaches and front office isn’t it?
I don’t really care what he deemed weakest. I care what he made WEAKER though…And lets face facts here he is the one who made the pen he deemed weak and now he has gone and made it worse?
So far this pen has been an utter disaster!
You do realize a good starter who can help you avoid going to the pen is a much better fix for a bad pen than more pen arms!
Avoiding a bad pen is just as good if not better than replacing it!
It’s so early that I am not calling these moves a disaster. Rauch had looked very good and I still think Ramirez will be a good pickup. Currently Rauch is 3-0, 2.31 ERA, .771 WHIP.
That being said, the names that he picked up were certainly better in theory than what we had in the system.
If Frankie continues to stink it up I am sure they will move him down in the pecking order.
I’m not saying these guys can’t redeem themselves later in the season…
The point is will they do so in time to keep us in the race or will there be 4 teams ahead of us in July and 7.5 games out that makes Sandy say we can’t win might as well trade Wright for 4 years from now?
Well “these” guys that you speak of is really only Frankie that has killed us. Again, I expect much better out of Ramirez but Rauch has been great. It’s guys like Miggy and Acosta that have killed us, so if anything maybe he didn’t spend enough on the pen. LOL. He left it 2 short.
You Missed all those games from Ramirez?
Miggy and Acosta are in there because they lost faith in Ramirez!
Rauch is the only guy who at least LOOKS like he might come out of it!
The others (Ramirez and Francisco) both look like they are scared of the batter and the plate and as a result always put someone on base that later they allow to score on a hit or leave on for someone else to have to deal with and allows to score!
Also the same could have been said to a CJ signing that the signs were there that he would struggle in NY and that was what Niese, Pelfrey and Gee were for….
Again, it may turn out to be the wrong move but I can understand both sides of the discussion.
And there were no signs that neither Francisco or Rauch were solid closers?
I hate to break it to you but LA is just as big a market as NY when you come right down to it.
And he has a lot more pressure there than he would have here with Dickey and Santana in the rotation!
You missed the point, he’s from California and the Angels are currently a lot better than the Mets. So why would he choose the Mets over the Angels if the money were even close to the same?
Lots of reasons…Did you read the ESPN story on the Angels offseason?
His signing with them had a lot more to do with him going after Pujols than being in California!
And the reason they looked so much better was because of Pujols!
Your actually making my point about this rebuild from within approach in that if you don’t show the player you wold want that you are willing to do what it takes to win you have no shot at getting them!
I wonder how much Reyes’ signing played in the Burle and Bell signings?
Considering Heath Bell agreed to a deal with Miami a few days before Reyes did, I’d say Reyes signing with Miami probably had nothing to do with Bell’s decision
Yeah you say a lot of things don’t ya!
the Marlins by being so aggressive with Reyes proved to other FA;s they were serious about winning!
Marlins were linked with interest in just about every big name FA that was out there!
Metsie, YOU SAID
“I wonder how much Reyes’ signing played in the Burle and Bell signings?”
The answer is 0.
Heath Bell signed his deal before Jose Reyes did. Therefore Jose Reyes’ SIGNING could have played NO role in Heath Bell signing.
Don’t try and change what you said. You said Heath Bell likely signed because Reyes signed. Which is impossible since Bell signed first.
Thats all you got eh?
I suppose Pjols being signed after Wilson had no affect on getting wilson eh?
http://insider.espn.go.com/mlb/hotstove11/story?id=7494838&_slug_=mlb-how-los-angeles-angels-recruited-albert-pujols-cj-wilson-espn-magazine&action=login&appRedirect=http%3a%2f%2finsider.espn.go.com%2fmlb%2fhotstove11%2fstory%3fid%3d7494838%26_slug_%3dmlb-how-los-angeles-angels-recruited-albert-pujols-cj-wilson-espn-magazine
Silly man the contract didn’t have to be signed to be influencing on others!
So nice try at a semantical attempt at proving me wrong only because I used the word signing instead of contract!
Big Whoop you can have that my point still remains doesn’t it?
Schwin had his shot and he just served up hittable pitches in both outings especially with the hitting conditions in both stadiums.
I say we bring up Egbert when possible so we have at least a hard thrower from left side for LH hitters like Helton who just ate up what Byrdak tried to feed him.
I also think many, including FO, are counting on the return from ashes of C. Young, whom I believe will give us only 5 innings most starts, just like last year, and just wear out already worn out BP
He is a shot in the dark at most, a cheap fill in but maybe Pelf doesn’t look so bad after these two Schwinden starts?
The Mets managed seven hits, three of which were from Ruben Tejada. The offense has looked sluggish, and the continued inability to drive home runners in scoring position has become the downside of this offense”
Ummmm…. I am shocked.. I thought this team were gonna score a lot of runs??? No?? People keep putting too much stovk on what this team do based on a good april. well, Most of the games we played were at home and we took advantage of that, Now that we’re on the road is where we have to show how good we can be.. We looked HORRIBLE in this series to say the least.. Murphy is just STRUGGLING to no ends.. My god he looked terrible yesterday.. Wow..
Ohhh, and real quick regarding the inability to score runs is imo part of that patient approach the team got.. Waiting for YOUR pitch has become a theme for this team, It seems the pitchers are realizing that and challengin hitters when runners are on.. RISP is just bad all around, and please don’t give me that “if it’s late and is a blowout and you get a hit with RISP your avg goes up” welll, yeah, so does your AVG in “high leverage situation, late in game etc… This team just can not drive in run… Amazing how we have a middle of the order hitter hitting almost 400 witrh only 14 rbi’s while the people in front are getting on base.. That shows everything you need to know about situational hitters… A walk is as good as a hit with men on base mentality
You do realize that “approach” is the same as the Yankees, Redsox, and a host of other teams right? In fact it is becoming an approach all over baseball. IF you understood the approach at all and what they were asking the players to do then maybe these types of comments wouldn’t occur. They are NOT asking them to go up there and take walks. How many times and quotes provided do you need to prove that is not the case? They are asking them to hit pitches they can hit, try to get into hitters counts and when you can’t, shorten up protect the plate and make the pitcher make a mistake. OOOOOOOOH so bad. Now that being said the problem lies in the fact that either some players are so off they can’t do that, to stupid to do that, or just don’t have the talent to start with.
Finally, no in a blow out your high leverage and late and close averages are NOT affected.
UNCLUTCH as hel!!
I agree to an extent. Here’s the question though. Isn’t “clutch” also rising up above your normal numbers in pressure situations? Would a .300 hitter hitting .300 in high pressure situations be “clutch” or just a .300 hitter?
My question boils down to how “clutch” can a team be when their # 4 hitters on the season are hitting .247? Not only that but it was MUCH worse before they were forced to move Wright to the 4 hole. Just over a week ago that number was under .200… Seriously how are you going to drive in runs when your #4 and #5 hitters were hitting .220 and .180?
No the actal number isn’t the important factor!
If a guy hits .300 but most of those hits come in clutch situations it doesn’t matter that his average is the same!
A clutch hitter merely has to succeed in the sitations he is presented with not surpass his performance in them.
Having lesser numbers in clutch situations can be called unclutch but the same numbers just means that when he gets those situations he does his job based on the best of his ability!
You continue to talk out your butt when it comes to Wright?
What players are getting on that he isnt driving in?
.304 risp 469 obp, .435 slg
1.000 with runner on 3rd
.333 with runner on 3rd with 2 outs
Yeah that sucks release him this team is better without him
You have the gonads to tell others to learn baseball? You are dumber than dirt.
How are your Marlins doing?
No, forgive me what I put too much stock in at the moment was Duda and Davis. Just like many fans I based off of what they provided last year and so far they have been a flop. I also based that on a healthy Bay who while he may not be a slugger anymore his stats vs LH were incredible. So when you are missing one of your 4 middle of the order hitters and 2 more haven’t shown up yet, how are you supposed to score runs?
“People keep putting too much stovk on what this team do based on a good april.”
You do realize that we are only three days into May?
Terrible series, definitely time to throw in the towel, season is over, let the fire sale begin. No team in the history of MLB has ever recovered from a bad series the first few days of May, never.