¿Dónde Están Los Mets?

Me fijé que desde el despido de Omar Minaya, los Metropolitanos se han convertido en un equipo que no está lleno de Hispanos como en los últimos años.

En el 2011, los fanáticos no verán a Pedro Feliciano en el montículo. Tampoco verán a los relevistas Raúl Valdes y Fernando Nieve. Valdes firmó un contrato de ligas menores con los Cardenales de San Luis y hoy Nieve firmó un contrato con los Piratas de Pittsburgh.

Los Metropolitanos todavía se quieren liberar de los contratos de Oliver Pérez y Luis Castillo y siguen los rumores que Nueva York están ofreciendo los servicios de Carlos Beltrán y José Reyes a otros equipos.

La época de "Los Mets" parece que murió con el despido de Omar Minaya. Vamos a ver si la época de las derrotas también se terminó.


Okay, kids. Since my 4½ readers probably don't know how to read Spanish, here is the rough translation of "¿Dónde Están Los Mets?" (Note to self: Need to advertise Studious Metsimus to the Spanish-speaking community. Do not mention Oliver Perez. His own family doesn't even like him.)

I've noticed that since the dismissal of Omar Minaya, the Mets have been converted into a team that is not chock full of Hispanic players as in previous years.

In 2011, fans will not see Pedro Feliciano on the mound. They will also not see Raul Valdes and Fernando Nieve. Valdes signed a minor league contract with the St. Louis Cardinals and today Nieve signed a contract with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

The Mets still want to free themselves of Oliver Perez and Luis Castillo's contracts and rumors continue to swirl that New York is offering the services of Carlos Beltran and Jose Reyes to other teams.

The age of "Los Mets" appears to have died with the dismissal of Omar Minaya. Let's see if the age of losses has also been terminated.

A Tale of Two Franciscos

The cast and crew of Studious Metsimus (along with the genius behind My Summer Family) made a trip to San Francisco this past weekend in the hopes of seeing the Mets win a few ballgames against one their rivals in the National League Wild Card race.

Another Francisco (not a San, but a Frankie) did his best to give the Giants a chance to sweep, but some bad umpiring and a timely hit by Ike Davis allowed the Studious Metsimus/My Summer Family World Tour to leave the Bay Area with one victory in four games.

As seen in the photo above, whenever F-Rod comes into a game, Mets fans feel like their team needs an insurance policy in the bullpen. (State Farm? Nationwide? Chico's Bail Bonds?) But seriously, what insurance provider would be foolish enough to cover the team that gave $37 million to Mr. BS (Blown Save) for three years?

In case you hadn't noticed in the paragraph above, Studious Metsimus will no longer refer to our closer as K-Rod. Instead, we will call him F-Rod, pronounced like the word "fraud". Feel free to call him BB-Rod as well, since he has a better chance of issuing a base on balls than registering a "K".

With F-Rod giving up leads left and right, especially when members of Studious Metsimus and My Summer Family are in attendance (as detailed here), I'd rather take my chances on Fernando Nieve, with or without his dentures, in the ninth inning.

That being said, our trip to San Francisco was still quite pleasant, despite the three losses in four games. From visiting the Golden Gate Bridge to dining at fine restaurants (La Cumbre Taqueria and Uncle's Cafe in Chinatown top the list), San Francisco gave us a warm welcome wrapped in a 68-degree breeze.

Of course, some Giants fans were rude to us, especially after their third victory of the series, but once the My Summer Family portion of our World Tour reminded those fans of the number of World Series championships their beloved San Francisco Giants had claimed since moving to California (think Jason Bay's home run total minus six), they were quickly put in their place.

No leg of the World Tour would be complete without photos, so please enjoy the selected shots from the Westernmost stop of the Tour:








Although Carlos Beltran returned to the lineup in San Francisco, the offense didn't follow him out west. The Mets have scored four runs or less in every game for the past two weeks and must right their ship quickly or else any move they make at the trade deadline won't be enough to save their season.

Also, F-Rod must find a way to become the closer Omar Minaya expected him to be when he signed him to the three-year, $37 million contract in December 2008. Meltdowns against San Diego, Washington and San Francisco (three teams not known for having an intimidating offense) must not become the norm if the Mets want to have meaningful games in September.

As for the Studious Metsimus staff, our season of touring major league ballparks is still going strong. We will be visiting the Keystone State on two occasions in August, first in Philadelphia and then Pittsburgh. Let's hope the Mets' bats and Francisco Rodriguez's mojo join us on the trip.

Takahashi Might Be Pitching Well, But...

Hisanori Takahashi stepped into the Mets rotation and has been spectacular in his two starts, shutting down two explosive offenses in the Yankees and Phillies. With six scoreless innings against the Yankees last Friday and six more against the Phillies on Wednesday, Takahashi lowered his ERA to 2.13, while upping his record to 4-1.

The Japanese southpaw has been a Lefty Luthor to the Supermen wearing the jerseys of last year's pennant winners. More importantly, he has made Jerry Manuel a believer in his ability to give the Mets quality starts, something that could not be said for the man he replaced in the rotation, Oliver Perez.

I have been quite impressed with Takahashi's recent performances and would like to think that his stretch of outstanding starts will continue past his last outing against the Phillies. However, before giving him the keys to the castle, let's remember that just last year, we were also singing the praises of a starter that was tearing it up in his first few starts. Just like Takahashi, this pitcher was moved from the bullpen to the starting rotation and was asked to shut down the powerful Yankee lineup. Then, he continued to face teams with potent offenses and pitched beyond expectations. Unfortunately, his streak of good fortune ended almost as quickly as started and now he's back in the Mets bullpen. Who am I talking about? Fernando Nieve.

After pitching two scoreless innings of relief against the Washington Nationals last year on June 6, Fernando Nieve was called upon to make an emergency start against the Yankees on June 13. The game was played less than 24 hours after Luis Castillo gift-wrapped a Yankee victory with his infamous dropped pop-up. With all the momentum shifting over to the Yankees, Nieve was given the ball and was asked to stop the bleeding He ended up pitching 6.2 innings, holding the Yankees to two runs on four hits. That was the only win picked up by the Mets against the Yankees all year.

Given another start against a high-quality team, this time the Tampa Bay Rays, Nieve followed up his victory against the Yankees with an even better performance against the Rays, giving up one run and three hits in a 5-3 Mets victory.

In his third start, he faced the National League Central division-leading St. Louis Cardinals and pitched six shutout innings, again allowing only three hits in an 11-0 blowout of the Cards. That gave Nieve three wins in three starts against upper-echelon teams. In those three games, his ERA was a microscopic 1.45 and he held opposing hitters to a .154 batting average.

For all intents and purposes, it appeared as if the Mets had found themselves a starting pitcher from out of nowhere that they could depend upon to pitch effectively and deep into ballgames. Even I was sold on Fernando Nieve, as I wrote a number of blogs for Mets Merized Online on The Three Fernandos (Nieve, Tatis and Martinez). Alas, Nieve could not continue his success past those three starts.

Over his next three starts, Nieve came crashing back down to Earth, losing to the Brewers, Phillies and Reds. In those games, Fernando's ERA was 5.40 and opposing batters hit an alarming .403 against him. Despite the fact that he was clearly not the same pitcher he was over his first three starts, Jerry Manuel gave him another start against the Atlanta Braves. That was the last time Nieve would pitch for the Mets in 2009, as he injured himself while running to first base in the second inning.

Do I expect Hisanori Takahashi to fade as quickly as Fernando Nieve did last year? I don't think he will. For one thing, Takahashi has an impeccable ability to throw strikes. In his starts against the Yankees and Phillies, Takahashi has pitched 12 innings and has only walked one batter. In those two games, he has thrown a total of 195 pitches, of which 138 were strikes. That's better than 70% of his pitches going for strikes.

In Nieve's first three starts last year, as great as they were, he still walked nine batters in 18.2 innings. Over those three starts, he threw 318 pitches, of which 188 were strikes. That's only 59% of his pitches going for strikes. Nieve was effective over those starts because he gave up few hits. Once he started giving up hits, combined with the walks, that led to his three-game losing streak.

Hisanori Takahashi has the potential to be an effective #3 starter in the Mets rotation. Since he's constantly throwing strikes, he stands less of a chance to suffer a meltdown such as the one Fernando Nieve went through last year after his third start. However, just because Takahashi has been shutting down potent offenses now doesn't guarantee long-term success. Be happy that he's giving us great pitching at a time when the Mets need it the most, but be wary because as wonderful as Takahashi has been, it can all come crashing down. Just ask Fernando Nieve.

...And Out Come The Wolves

In the classic "Who's On First" comedy routine, made famous in the 1945 film "The Naughty Nineties", Bud Abbott (in the uniform of the fictional St. Louis Wolves) confused Lou Costello with the names of the Wolves' players. Even with knowledge of said players' names, Costello still did not know who was on first, what was on second, etc.

Now let's fast forward to the 21st century. Sixty-five years after the Wolves from St. Louis became household names, some new wolves have descended upon St. Louis to feast on Mets' manager Jerry Manuel.

The wolves in question are Mets bloggers and the reason for their ire is Jerry Manuel's decision-making ability (or lack thereof).

Last night, the Mets held a slim 1-0 lead over St. Louis (the Cardinals, not the Wolves) going to the bottom of the seventh inning. Oliver Perez had pitched beautifully, holding the Cardinals to three hits and three walks over six scoreless innings. After David Freese reached first on an infield single, centerfielder Joe Mather sacrificed Freese successfully to second. The bunt came on Ollie's 97th pitch and brought up pinch-hitter Skip Schumaker, who was batting for shortstop (and eighth-place hitter) Brendan Ryan.

Out popped Jerry Manuel from his hot seat in the dugout. Was he coming out to talk strategy with Ollie? No! He came out to take Ollie out of the game!

Did he fear that Schumaker would take Ollie deep? Hopefully not, as Schumaker had hit 15 HR and driven in only 103 runs in 1,358 career at-bats. (By comparison, Cubs' pitcher Carlos Zambrano has hit 20 career HR in 563 at-bats coming into this season.)

Apparently, Manuel was too busy looking over his shoulder to notice that Oliver Perez had been dominating the best hitter in baseball all game. In three at-bats against Ollie, Albert Pujols grounded into a double play in the first, grounded out weakly in the third, and struck out on only three pitches in the sixth. If Pujols was having trouble hitting Ollie, did Manuel really think a man literally half Pujols' size (see photo below) would fare better?

Let's just say Manuel took Ollie out because he thought 97 pitches was enough. Even so, why did he bring in Fernando Nieve to face the diminutive Schumaker? Had he not checked to see that Nieve had NEVER retired Schumaker before? Prior to last night, Nieve had faced the Mighty Mite three times and had given up a single and two walks to Schumaker. Sure enough, Schumaker's on-base percentage against Nieve remained at 1.000 when Fernando hit Schumaker on an 0-2 pitch.

The next batter was pinch-hitter Matt Holliday, the second-best hitter on the Cardinals after Pujols. Again, Nieve had an 0-2 count on the hitter, but lost Holliday by throwing four consecutive balls to load up the bases.

For the second time in the inning, Dead Manuel Walking (remind me to trademark that name) vacated his hot seat, this time to remove the ineffective Nieve and replace him with the inexperienced Raul Valdes. Ordinarily, this would have been an ideal situation for Pedro Feliciano to come into the game. However, Feliciano was unavailable to pitch due to a big-@$$ stomach bug that caused him to use an IV during the game.

So instead, Valdes, whose major league résumé consisted of five innings pitched (or 1.1 innings less than Ollie had pitched earlier in the game) was brought in to face Felipe Lopez. The appearance was Valdes' fourth appearance in the last five games. In his previous three appearances, he had thrown a whopping 83 pitches, but DMW brought him in anyway when he could have brought in fellow lefty Hisanori Takahashi, who had only pitched once in the Mets' last six games.

Four pitches later, a few more coals were added to DMW's hot seat as Felipe Lopez hit a grand slam off Valdes. The long drive to left provided all the scoring the Cardinals would need in the 4-3 victory over the Mets.

Bloggers such as The Coop from My Summer Family and Vegas Rich from Mets Merized Online are both calling for the Marie Antoinette treatment on Jerry Manuel, even if Manuel himself claims not to hear the venomous voices of the Mets bloggers (see photo, right).

After seeing last night's managerial effort (if you can call it that), I think I might be jumping on that bandwagon.

Too many times in the past has a manager lost his job due to the poor play of his players. After all, it's easier to fire the manager than it is to fire 25 players. However, over the years, Dead Manuel Walking has made numerous questionable managerial decisions, especially when it comes to taking out pitchers. Last night's removal of Oliver Perez and subsequent use of Fernando Nieve and Raul Valdes was the latest lesson in Head Scratching 101.

Nieve was called upon to face a batter who had reached base against him every time he had faced him. Why not bring in Ryota Igarashi in that spot, a pitcher Schumaker had no history against?

Valdes was being overused over the past five games. He had appeared in all but one game this week and was not economizing his pitches in each effort (averaging nearly 28 pitches per appearance). Why not bring in the seldom-used Hisanori Takashi in that spot, especially with fellow lefty Pedro Feliciano unavailable due to illness?

Abbott and Costello brought out the Wolves in St. Louis and left their fans howling with laughter. A different type of wolf is bearing down on Jerry Manuel in St. Louis. Unfortunately, Mets fans and bloggers are finding nothing funny about it.

Johan Santana And The Four Rainouts Need Backup Singers

Attention, Mets fans! Now you can be a backup singer for Johan Santana and The Four Rainouts! It's easy to qualify. Just come down to the Tradition Field Studios, trot out to the mound, throw your best stuff down the middle of the plate and let out your best scream as you watch your pitches belted all over the field. (No purchase necessary. Void where prohibited by law. Some assembly required. Must be 48" or taller to ride. Yada, yada, yada.)

Why am I making all this fuss about pitching performances in early March? Because it's alarming how the starting rotation has performed in their Grapefruit League debuts.

Early Spring Training starts are about developing arm strength, but since when did they have to resemble batting practice? To show you what I mean, here are the numbers for the starts by the four members of the starting rotation already guaranteed spots.

• Mike Pelfrey (Mar. 6): 3.0 IP, 3 ER, 7 H, 0 BB, 0 K
• Oliver Perez (Mar. 7): 3.0 IP, 5 ER, 7 H, 1 BB, 2 K
• John Maine (Mar. 8): 1.2 IP, 1 ER, 2 H, 1 BB, 4K
• Johan Santana (Mar. 9): 1.2 IP, 4 ER, 6 H, 1 BB, 1 K

That's a total of 9.1 IP for the four starters. In those innings, they've combined to give up 13 earned runs and 22 hits. They have been throwing strikes, as shown by the total of three walks between the four pitchers, but they're strikes of the Rick Aguilera variety (Mr. Wild-In-The-Strike-Zone himself).

While singing the praises of Jenrry Mejia, Ike Davis and Fernando Martinez, has Jerry Manuel noticed that his starters have been getting hit hard? He can sugarcoat it by saying that they're throwing strikes, but wouldn't it be better if they were able to locate those strikes anywhere but the sweet spot of the opposing hitter's bat?

And what about the fifth starter? Whoever becomes the final member of Johan Santana and The Four Rainouts has to be ready to move up the food chain should one of the Drab Four get laryngitis (which Mets trainers would say is tendinosis and require a missed start or two). Can Jonathon Niese, Fernando Nieve and Nelson Figueroa be counted on to be the fifth starter and/or step up into a higher slot if needed?

The Mets cannot afford to have their pitching staff do poorly and hope to improve upon their fourth place finish of 2009. Only William Hung can take a shoddy performance and carry that all the way to the bank. (Okay, maybe Oliver Perez can do that too.) But whereas Mr. Hung did well with his fifteen minutes of fame, the Mets will have to do well with 162 minutes of game.

As a Mets fan, I expect Johan Santana and The Four Rainouts to be able to locate their pitches more effectively as Late Winter Training continues. They can throw all the strikes they want, but without location, the shower attendants will end up becoming good friends with them.

With their debut performances, Johan Santana and The Four Rainouts are soaring up the Hit Parade. Let's just hope they ease up on the hits as April approaches.

Photo of Johan Santana by Bruce Kluckhohn.

Photo of William Hung by some photographer who wishes to be in Bruce Kluckhohn's shoes.

Injured Player of The Week Award: Week of 7/16-7/22

Welcome to the first award handed out by ZCB. Whereas other Mets sites might name a player of the week, this site will focus on the best injured player of the week. It will go to the injured player who did the most to not aggravate his injury further.

Please note that Fernando Nieve was not eligible to receive this award as he was not injured for the entire time period considered for this week (Thursday, July 16 to Wednesday, July 22). Also note that the creator of this award does not care about the usual Sunday to Saturday week. The last time I checked, Thursday to Wednesday was still a seven day period.

Our inaugural winner of the IPW award is Jose Reyes. Reyes has been doing some light running and was able to play in a simulated game on Tuesday. He did not run at full speed, but also did not report any discomfort. The Mets are being cautious with Reyes and will continue to do so upon his return to the big club.

Jerry Manuel will not allow Reyes to play every day when he returns to the Mets. Here is what Manuel had to say.

"When we get him, we'll probably have to play him a game and then rest him a game. Just because of the anxiety that's involved in the big league level and all the blood flowing."

Because of his progress and the precautions being taken by the team, the inaugural Injured Player of The Week Award is proudly given to Jose Reyes. Reyes seemed quite surprised to receive this award, as seen by this photo of him taken after he was notified of his achievement.



Let's hope this award doesn't turn into something along the lines of the Sports Illustrated cover jinx. If a Mets player re-aggravates his injury after receiving this award, then it will have to be changed to the Injured Phillies Player of The Week Award.

Once again, congratulations to Jose Reyes. Let's hope you don't have to accept this award again!