Tag Archives: Pitching

What went Wrong?

Posted on by
Reply

The Mets had been playing so well. We were doing everything right. However, in the past two games, things have gone south. The offense has gone nowhere, the lineup is still working counts and producing runs. However, the pitching and defense had let us down. Coming into this series, we had the 2nd lowest ERA in baseball, I’m sure that title is gone. Our starters have had two rough outings in a row and our bullpen has had a lot of work, which also didn’t help much. Another problem is the defense. Not just errors, but bone-headed plays. For example, the bunt that Ike threw away yesterday, he should have gone to 3rd base. With Johan struggling that much, take the free out and move on. He needed every out that he could get. If we fix these things, we can get back on track very quickly. 

Mike Pelfrey will never have a good season again.

Posted on by
Reply

That is a big statement. Proclaiming that a player will never be good again is a risk, because if he does well then you look like you have no idea what your talking about. However, from his starts, and my view in spring training, Mike Pelfrey looks like a pitcher who is 100% lost. I was watching him warm up in the bullpen before his start against the Cardinals and his pitches had no movement what-so-ever. The one sinker with the slightest movement got Dan Warthen to say “that’s the best one yet” and that didn’t even look good. This has gone on all spring. Also, when he was hit hard against the Astros, the team blamed it on the fact the he ramped up his velocity in that start to protect Pelfrey. If he ramping up the velocity was the issue, then why did he get hit just as hard when he threw against the Cardinals. It doesn’t make sense. Mike Pelfrey is a one pitch pitcher who in my opinion, needs to show MAJOR improvement if he intends to stay in the big leagues. 

Why are Mets fans so worried?

Posted on by
Reply

Mets fans are starting to act like Astros fans (no offense), but some of the lack of optimism that I have been hearing for this year makes me feel like some people feel this team will be as bad as the 1962, “worst team in history,” Mets…or the 2012 Houston Astros. Anyways, we have room for optimism where we could win. Yes, Reyes is gone. Boo Hoo get over it already. Our offense wasn’t awful last year, really it wasn’t. We scored more runs than the Phillies last year. Some might say, “Oh but without Jose..” Jose doesn’t matter because he only played in 120 games last year and we are basically gaining an all-star caliber first baseman back in Ike Davis, and a full year of Lucas Duda. We could also expect bounce backs from Bay and Wright due to the moved in fences. That should more than make up for the departure of Reyes. Next, the worst part of our year last year was the pitching. We basically traded for an ace with the return of Johan Santana this season, Niese and Gee will improve, and Dickey is a lock to be good this year in my mind. Pelfrey is the one guy who could struggle once again. The absolute worst part of the season last year, however, was the bullpen. Our bullpen was crap last year. So what do we do this year? We get a reliable 7th inning guy, 8th inning guy, and 9th inning guy in Ramirez, Rauch, and Francisco. We also have Acosta, Byrdak, Carrasco, and maybe Parnell (if he can learn how to pitch.) Every aspect of this team has improved from last year whether it was trading and signing players or having players return from injury. How about some optimism people?! This is a young team who could really impress and surprise the baseball world. And on the aspect of the division being strong? Talk to Tampa Bay, they were supposed to be awful because Crawford left and they made the playoffs. You play 162 games…anything can happen.

2011 Season Review: Part 2 Pitching

Posted on by
Reply

Ok here is the final part of the season review. Our Pitchers. Let’s just cut to the chase and get started.

The Starters:

Here is who impressed me.

Jon Niese is the first guy. He really showed the ability to pitch this year. His velocity on his fastball rose and he really located his curveball all year long. The one issue I had with him is that he tired towards the end of the year. Until he can prove to me that he can pitch well for a 162 game season. He is not good enough in my book.

Dillon Gee also impressed. This is a kid who can throw all of his pitches for strikes and pitch to contact. I see him developing into a workhorse innings eater. Sort of like a Carl Pavano in the future.

Capuano also showed that he can strikeout many more batters than I originally thought. I expected so much less out of him.

Dickey was great as we expected this year. That is pretty much it.

Who disappointed:

Mike Pelfrey sucked this year. He has A big league pitch with his fastball/sinker thing. Besides that he has a crap slider, crap split, and a curveball which I personally like but he throws about 3 times a game. I hope we non-tender him this year.

The ‘Pen

Our bullpen was iffy this year. The only guys I really like out of our bullpen are Manny Acosta, Tim Byrdak and Danny Herrera. Parnell throws hard, but can’t pitch. Beato struggled towards the end of the year. This bullpen is going to look 100% different in 2012.

Grade for the Year: B-

We had a better year than I thought we would. We had surprising pitchers and hitters along with our defense. The catalyst for this team all year was Reyes. Now it is just time to see if he will resign with us. Can’t wait ’till 2012!

Does Pelfrey desearve a contract next year?

Posted on by
Reply

Mike Pelfrey made his last start of the year today and looked simply terrible. He gave up 5 runs on 9 hits over 3 innings of work. That is not going to be good enough any day of the week. However, the pitching market is low for this offseason so the final question is if the Mets should non tender the pitcher.

The Mets have the following starters not counting Pelfrey:

Johan Santana: He is coming back from injury and not pitching an inning in the majors in 2011. Hopefully he can give the Mets some innings for next year.

Chris Capuano: The Mets love Capuano and it seems like Capuano wants to return to the Mets, I think this deal can get done.

Dillon Gee: He has shown flashes of brilliance in his rookie year so hopefully he can continue that for 2011.

Jon Niese: He has shown ace potential at points this season, the only problem is that he is yet to pitch a full good season in the major leagues.

R.A. Dickey: Simply a great pitcher who will give us innings and quality games.

So the Mets have 5 quality pitchers for their rotation in 2012 without Mike Pelfrey and that is discounting Matt Harvey, who will most likely make his major league debut next year. So why would we pay this crap pitcher 6MM dollars when we don’t even need this guy? We shouldn’t pay Pelfrey because he has no way of being succesful. The man has no out pitch just his fastball that he seems to throw 90% of the time with an ok slider, split, and curveball that he throws twice a game. Mike Pelfrey should have no place on this team next year and honestly, I am sick of him. The only good thing about him is that he throws a lot of pitches. The bad greatly outplays the good.

Jon Niese should throw his fastball more.

Posted on by
1

Jon Niese has gone through a complete transformation so far this year. Somehow, he got velocity that I don’t think any of us knew that he had. He got stronger and has really become a great pitcher. Don’t get me wrong through this, he has a great cutter, but with every game it is the same formula. He starts out throwing his fastball  in the first inning and hits 92 to occasionally as high as 95MPH. However right after the first inning (maybe the 2nd), he simply abandons the pitch and uses his cutter. His out pitch is still his curveball but just because you have a good cutter and good curve doesn’t mean that you abandon the fastball. I am in no way saying that Niese needs to lead with his fastball because, I believe that the cutter will replace the fastball soon enough. I just feel that right after the first inning he abandons it and just goes cutter change curve for the entire game. The fastball can set up so many pitches and can surprise people upstairs. Regardless of whether he changes this or not, I believe he will be a dominant pitcher in the big leagues, having his breakout year in 2012.

Mets Post Game: Mets 5, Giants 2

Posted on by
1

Box Score

3 Standout Performances:

  1. Scott Hairston hit a pinch hit solo homer in the 9th to give the Mets the lead.
  2. Carlos Beltran had 3 hits and an RBI tonight.
  3. R.A. Dickey went 7 innings, gave up 7 hits, 2 runs, 0 walks, and 4 strikeouts.

First of all, what MLB Network did with the Mets and giants was great. They had the legendary broadcaster Al Michaels call a baseball game for the first time in 16 years. What was great about what they did was they had Al and Bob Costas go to the SNY booth and the Giants TV booth and call 2 innings each there so everyone can hear him call a game. I loved everything that happened today.

After Bochey duked out Terry and took out Javi Lopez after warming up for the 9th so Hairston would pinch hit and sent in Wilson, Hairston hit a huge go-ahead solo homer. Makes Terry Collins look even smarter.

Dickey was great. You could tell that his pulled muscle was bothering him the entire game. He worked through it, however, and kept his control in tact.

Grade for the Game: A