Carlos Smells

I think I smell, yes, I smell a swing and miss.

Carlos Beltran of the Metropolitans has had more than a disappointing season so far, so I wrote down a couple things I noticed about him....

1) He takes a lot of called third strikes
2) He has had some bad luck at lining out to infielders

Neither of these things is necessarily a very important measure of how he was doing, but just for fun I wanted to see how he ranked against the rest of the league. So I asked my friends at STATS to do the work for me.

Somewhat to my surprize, Beltran's strikeout looking percentage isn't anything special, it's about normal. But Marco Scutaro, as of 5/29, 15 of his 20Ks were looking. Luis Castillo (7 of 14) and Jacoby Ellsbury (12 of 17) had similar high caught looking percentage. On the other end of the spectrum, Carlos Gomez has K'd 51 times and only been caught looking 11 times. Based on what I already know about these hitters, Scutaro, Castillo, and Ellsbury all have an idea of where the strikezone is and probably were hurt by umpire's wide strikezones, while Gomez will take a hack at anything.

Then the lineouts to infielders.... I expected to see Beltran on top of this list, since it seemed like he was lining out every game this week. However, 53 other players have lined out to infielders as many times, or more, than Beltran has in '08. Juan Pierre has been 'robbed' of basehits in this manner a league leading 8 times, Beltran only 5.

*The Mets have now won three in a row and are even starting to catch some breaks,.... like yesterday's catcher's interference that started the two-out rally against Penny.

*Gomez Update (6/2): After watching Carlos Gomez playing against the Stanks this weekend, I miss him being on the Metsies. I have to keep telling myself, "but they got Santana", "it's ok, they got Santana". There was one play where he smelled his bat, then laid down a bunt to Betemit at firstbase and beat it out before the ball was touched. I mean, he got down that line so fast it made that old Mantle legend of his 3.1 time to first look like a fucking disgrace.

Changes are happening

Jeff Wilpon(left) and Omar Minaya(center) consult Uncle Pete(right) about Willie's job status.

Since the infamous "summit meeting" between Willie and Omar and Fred and Jeff, there has been some serious platooning going on at Shea. Righthanded hitters playing against lefthanded pitchers, lefthanded hitters playing against righthanded pitchers, righthanded hitters pinch-hitting against lefthanded relievers.... confused yet? It doesn't matter. Willie is at least starting to "manage" the mediocre team he has. Whether or not he's been forced into it, I don't care. All I know is that running the same old lousy lineup out there everyday had to stop somehow. Maybe Willie is too timid, too scared, too much of a pushover to tell players (Delgado) they need to sit. Maybe Omar had to force him. Maybe Fred had to force him. Doesn't matter, things are changing, slowly.

*As soon as I saw Scott Hatteberg was released by the Reds, I thought it was a no-brainer for the Mets to go get him(I see today that it's a legitimate rumor). Here's our chance to get rid of Delgado. Yeah, Hatteberg is 38, no, he's not going to drop bombs all night for you, but he'll get on base, he won't swing at shit in the dirt, and he can't be any worse than Delgado. Delgado hurts the Mets, Hatteberg wouldn't do that. And if you platoon the guy properly with Tatis at firstbase, they could both produce. I imagine this happening like a simple fantasy baseball transaction, 'Add: Scott Hatteberg, Drop: Carlos Delgado'.

Carter vs. Hernandez

Nick Evans looked like a savior on Saturday, raking three doubles in a Mets win. He continues to hit the ball well. However, Evans' callup tells us how bad the Mets' minor league system is. Evans is a AA firstbaseman. An infielder. The Mets needed an outfielder. So, you're telling me there is no better option to fill-in in leftfield than the AA firstbaseman? I'm very happy to see a new player out there instead of the bench of retreads that the Mets usually use, like Ordell Anderson or Damian Easley, however, it would be nice to have a legitimate prospect somewhere in the system.

Speaking of Damian Easley.... after skipping a game to attend his son's graduation last week, I was surprized to see him in the dugout yesterday, since I heard his grandpa was having a backyard BBQ he wanted to attend.

I'm officially announcing my candidacy for the New York Mets managerial job. I'd like to thank Gary Carter for giving me the courage to put my name into the discussion. Omar, you know where I am, I'm only a phone call away. My contract with Mets-Thing allows me to leave if I get a Major League job. You know what though, I think I'm going to go ahead and just call Mr. Wilpon, why waste any time with Omar, he doesn't know what he's doing. In fact, I think I should have his job too.

Keith Hernandez really let Carter have it during the broadcast on Sunday, saying that Carter walks around basically "unconscious" to anything or anyone but himself. While Keith himself is also all about his own mustache (Keith's been sporting that short new haircut all year too), he is probably right about Carter. I'm sure it's not bad luck that has Carter managing in an independent league, and not with a major league organization. He must be doing something that people don't like.

*The Rays have the best winning percentage in baseball. Thanks in large part to this guy. He kinda looks familiar.

Rock Bottom

Keith Hernandez (left) and Ron Darling (right) called the game Friday night.

Well, there isn't much more to be said about this Mets team that I haven't already said on this blog. They just aren't playing well, and it's getting to the point where you can't keep saying that they're a better team than they're showing. They have seemingly hit rock bottom. Maybe they just aren't that good of a ballclub. We can't keep looking for bullshit excuses for them either. It's all about "Willie doesn't have enough energy", or "when Pedro comes back", or "when Perez puts it together", or "they're showing flashes", or "this team doesn't care", or "they're better than this". It's just a bunch of lousy excuses that the media, fans, and players have been making for the players who aren't performing. It's pretty simple. Guys need to hit and pitch and field better.

*Albert Pujols is the kind of guy that will hit two bombs off you one day, then come back blasting lines drives off your face and breaking ankles.

*While considering what Braves players to add to the Met Killer list after that sweet four game sweep, I realized that the entire Braves franchise could be added to the list. Then as I pondered further, I realized that they're aren't any opposing players that are killing the Mets, it's the Mets themselves.

*FYI, Mark Kotsay was a national champion BMX racer at the age of six. Kevin Burkhart told me so. Kotsay also should have won multiple Gold Glove awards while with Oakland.

*Willie obviously doesn't read Mets-Thing. Otherwise he would have known to not play Alou every fucking day! Alou is awesome, but you can't play an injury-prone 57 year-old everyday and expect him to stay healthy.

*Do you think Minaya would ever trade David Wright? The thought hit me during one of those recent Wright interviews where he was basically talking shit about his teammates. I thought that Minaya might actually think that it's David Wright that is bringing the team down, and the rest of the team would be better without him trying to get in people's heads. It is a nightmare scenerio, seems completely ridiculous, and I have no basis for thinking this. I just wouldn't be completely surprized if it was something Minaya would consider.

Don't Worry About Church

Ryan Church (left) is the bomb-dropping, cannon-armed, christian-gangsta-rapper, that Milledge will never be.

But, Church, what are you doing? It's the fucking last out of the game, it's over, the Mets offense is abysmal. You're about to get swept, it's not your fault. You're carrying this freakin' team. Don't put yourself in harms way to try and get fucking Damian Easley off the hook. Just peel off.

If you didn't see it, Church took a knee to the head while trying to break up a double-play on the last play of the doubleheader that just ended.

FYI, the Mets got swept. I couldn't watch the second game. Tom Glavine dealt on them in game 1. Awful. The whole team should be ashamed of themselves. Then they let Jorge Campillo, a career Mexican Leaguer, drop curveballs on them all night. Seriously, the guy spent eight years, his entire twenties, pitching in the Mexican League.

Well, it just might be time to resign to the fact that the Mets are a .500 ballclub. They'll continue to give us some really great games, but also continue to give us some absolute disgraces against poor teams and poor pitchers.

Mets kill Yankees

Today, being a Mets fan feels good. Wagner gave his teammates a much needed public bashing on Thursday, and Willie called a 'closed door' meeting Friday night in Yankee Stadium. Then, the Mets proceded to beat the shit out of the helpless Yankees in two games and Jerry Manuel stepped up like Willie would never do, and got himself tossed.

Did anyone notice how fired up David Wright was Sunday? He was fist-pumping on the Yankee logo after he scored a run and smacked his assistant coach on the ass after getting ejected. Yeah, it was awesome. Even Reyes and Delgado got hits in both games.

Here's the deal though. I don't know what is going to happen next with the Mets. If the Mets are actually a good baseball team, this is when they should go on a tear. They should use whatever momentum they now have, beat Tom Glavine into retirement tomorrow and take three of four in Atlanta. Then the Metsies cruise to the division title by slamming the crap out of everyone's mediocre pitching staff in the East. Then, finally, after they clinch in early September, we can all talk about how Wagner 'lit the fire' and the 'closed door meeting turned the season around', and use all those other meaningless baseball cliches to describe the season. It would be perfect.

However, if this is still the same overrated Mets team they've had since last season, tomorrow they'll let Glavine shut them out, maybe split the doubleheader, and win one of four in Atlanta. Beltran and Reyes will go back to sleep and everything will be right back where it started on Thursday afternoon.

*Moises Alou's ejection last Wednesday was the Mets' first ejection of the season. Manuel's was the second. Willie where are you? Oh, he's in the dugout, preferring to make that 'sad little kid' face that he does so well.

*Oriole Magic. If you don't think this is funny, you don't like baseball.

New Met-Killer?

You may have thought that Willie Harris is the newest Met-Killer after his unreal diving catch to rob Church of a double yesterday. Well, you were wrong, he is already known for his Met-Killing abilities. Here is a photo Willie Harris robbing Delgado of a homerun last summer at Shea where it would have tied the game 7-7 in the bottom of the ninth. Not only that, but he made a similar play on Alou in the first inning of that game to rob him of an extra base hit.

And what was Beltran doing half-way down the line on a line drive in the infield? There was one out. And he didn't even attempt to get back to third. 'I guess he was trying to beat the traffic'. (Classic quote from Eli Manning on the Letterman show referring to Belichick leaving the Super Bowl early).

My guy Pelfrey was going for that first ever Mets No-hitter. It was 0-0 and looking like maybe he could get one of those difficult to achieve no-hitters with a loss. I was rooting for it. That would have been in typical Mets fashion.

I also can't believe Ryan Church is doing this well. I thought he was one of those career minor league types. And I was pissed about losing Milledge for a minor leaguer and a washed up catcher. I was wrong; so far. Church is .310, 8 HR, 30 RBI, 29 R and has secured a spot at #2 in the order. Milledge is .238, 1HR, 13 RBI, 16 Runs, 1 for his last 19 AB and looks like he should just stick to rap.

Softball players?

"Let's go Milly, let's go. (clap, clap) Let's go Milly, let's go. (clap clap)."

As everyone knows now, the Nats were chanting this in their dugout while Lastings Milledge was batting against the Metsies on Monday. Is this bushleague? I don't think so. With stone-cold killer, Elijah Dukes leading the chants, the Nats were laughing it up, having fun with eachother, and didn't say a word about a Mets player. Is it unprofessional? Slightly. If they had been using the old Dover Baseball chant of "Up the river, down the lake, pitcher's got a bellyache!", or the softball-esque SUNY Oneonta baseball chant of "He hangs it, you bang it!", then yes, that is bushleague because they're talking about their competition. But the Nats were just trying to enjoy the game by cheering for their own players. Is that the way I play the game? No, team chants are fucking cheesy. My college coach would have had us running poles for three weeks if we did anything like that. But still, I don't think what the Nats did was the disgrace it has been made out to be.

*"Team Mets-Thing" 'took the train to the game' last night(Tuesday). We picked a good night to go.

---Maine pitched great, my man Church hit dots all over the field, and Wagner closed it.

---We were able to find Sam Adams, Brooklyn Brewery, and Corona Extra, so we could avoid drinking yesterday's toilet water that is dispenced into the Budweiser and Miller bottles.

---Team Mets-Thing is a fan of the Mezzanine seats, which give you a good overhead view of the game without being two miles away from the action.

---It was strange to think that this is it for Shea Stadium too. Yeah, the place isn't much, but it's the stadium of my team. My home stadium. There are lots of memories here. And surprizingly for a team like the Mets, which hasn't had a ton of winning baseball throughout their history, there have been many historic baseball moments here too, including one of the top 5 World Series moments of all time.

*Then I saw the Mets' transactions for the day. Sosa.... gone! Yes! Hopefully he doesn't choose to go to AAA and he just leaves the organization. Frankly, I'm shocked that Minaya is showing some balls here. It's about time he started telling his players that they need to perform. Figueroa is gone too, but he might remain in AAA.

*I watched the tape of the game this morning, because that's what I do, I'm that guy. And John Maine has once again changed his approach. Last night, he was using his fastball away to all batters. Then to RHs, he was throwing his changeup inside. It's a 'backwards' strategy according to the standard MLB pitching coach, but it's a strategy I love. And, it seemed to work for Maine. All those pulled foul balls I saw last night, all turned out to be on inside changeups. The Nats could do nothing with the pitch, but pull the sinking change foul. Then he went back to his outside fastball for the out. Maine only threw one slider, which used to be his strikeout pitch, the entire game.

clueless

You're the manager of a Major League baseball team. You should know the rules of the game. When the other team breaks those rules, you should know how to take advantage of that. Willie has no clue.

Yesterday the Reds batted out of order (Dusty is also clueless, poor Reds fans, but I want to focus on Willie because this is a Mets blog). So the Reds bat out of order, and Willie doesn't take advantage. He jumped the gun and alerted the home plate umpire too early. What you're supposed to do if this happens, is just let the team continue to screw up their order until they get a man on base. Then you alert the umpire before the next batter sees a pitch, the 'proper' batter is called out, and the runner is taken off base. Basically, you don't do shit until you can take advantage of it by getting a runner taken off base and an out called.

It was a hilarious scene though. Willie wore his usual confused look, Jerry Manuel thought he was so smart that the Mets were going to be awarded two free outs on the play, and David Wright held two fingers in the air, thinking there should be two outs. Then, even the umpires thought there should be two outs. Feliciano had no clue, he just stood there on the mound reminiscing about his one season with the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks. Then it was actually Dusty Baker("In Dusty we trusty"), of all people, that seemed to know the rule, and got the umpires to discuss it until they finally figured it out.

Now I know some of you are thinking, yeah, but this is a tough rule to understand, blah, blah, nobody really knows the rule on this, give him a break. Well, they should know the rule. Willie is being paid to manage a baseball team. This is one of those rules that every manager should understand, and understand how to take advantage of. Because if this was a closer game, it would have been nice to know you had the Reds by the balls because of their screwup.

*Friday night's game was rained out, so I watched some Yankee baseball instead. And wow, Wilson Betemit should never see the infield of a major league diamond again. He couldn't make a play on anything, and the Tigers just kept peppering him with hard grounders.

*Lots of new Met-Killers lately, add Bronson Arroyo to the list. 8ip, 4h, 1r, 2bb, 9k, W. Lowering his ERA to 7.14.

Celebrity?

I saw a bunch of people I recognized sitting behind homeplate during the Dodger series. I assume they were from television or movies or something, but I couldn't name any of them. As an internet bloggister, I should probably know these things, but I don't.

Also, you will very rarely see a celebrity at a Mets game. You know why? Because the Mets have the fucking ugliest fans in baseball. I mean, just hideous. I think it's something about Long Island.

As far as the series went, well, Oliver Perez took another night off, Figueroa finally got banged around, and then the Mets salvaged the third game by destroying Brad Penny. And really, that was enough to make it a good series for me. I hate Brad Penny. The guy is out there showing up his own catcher by waving his arms around, saying he can't see the signs, when the real problem was that he was getting his ass kicked, as the Mets usually do to him. He broke an umpire's jaw last week because he can't understand a '2' sign from his catcher. And he used to go out with Alyssa Milano. Penny is one of the ugliest guys in baseball, but it's true. You're angry. Now you understand.

New Met Killer found

Augie Ojeda (left) reaches base again.

Mets @ DBacks series wrapup....

Game One: I like the new DBacks uniforms. A more traditional look, and they've lost those awful pastel colors they used to have. In the game, the Mets simply took Micah Owings out back, scoring three runs in the first inning, and never stopped. Alou returned and just started raking, as predicted. I just hope Willie is smart enough to only play Alou about four times per week. Otherwise, he'll just break down again.

Game Two: Pelfrey decided to revert to his old form, allowing thirteen baserunners in five innings, striking out only one. Not hot. The Metsies actually battled back against Brandon Webb, but couldn't finish him off. Instead, it was the DBacks that put the game away by taking Duaner and Schoeneweis out back in the eighth inning. And of course, you can't forget the newest Met Killer, Augie Ojeda, who probably had the best game of his career. He drove in six runs, made diving plays, and banged Schoeneweis' wife after the game.

Game Three: This game was somewhat unfortunately decided by Conor Jackson's throwing error. Unfortunate only for the DBacks. Augie Ojeda had two more hits, and of course Micah Owings had a pinch hit. But for the Metropolitans, Ryan Church continued to pimp, gunning another baserunner down.

Two out of three from the best team in baseball, including facing their top three pitchers, on the road. Good weekend for Los Mets.

*The DBacks have my current favorite baseball announcer, Mark Grace. The guy just doesn't care, he'll say anything, and he's usually funny about it. He'll mix in legit baseball slang, and never annoys the shit out of me.

*I hope everyone liked the first post by Mets-Thing correspondent, Turn a Quick Two. His rambling rants, full of pure adrenaline and hatred should randomly appear on this blog.

Rays in First Place

One month into the season and you can find the Tampa Bay Rays in first place atop the American League East. Scott Kazmir is coming off the DL, and starting Sunday. A few more wins this weekend over the BoSox can propel the Rays even further ahead in the standings. Similar to the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Rays have a young squad with a low payroll, and high excitement. And a team that wants and loves winning. What is wrong with wanting to win anymore anyway? You can't fist pump or get excited without offending someone. You can't even high five your teammates your own way (or fans in the stands) without aggravating the other team. That is part of the reason for doing it- you want to get in the head of the opposing team. Having team leaders that don't stand up for the players as much as their own politically correct cliches is disgusting.

The Mets' leaders seem to always say the politically correct cliches (David Wright and Willie Randolph). The channel gets changed the instant I see them talking (hint: you know exactly what they will say!). This translates to the entire team. The Mets have no balls, afraid to offend anyone, and will Piazza charge the mound already!

The now mediocre Los Metropolitans are on the decline and have been ever since their powerful '06 season. The 2006 season ended in disappointment with some questionable managing and roster moves. And it didn't help that Duaner Sanchez went for a late night latino snack in Florida, when the "8th inning guy" wasn't allowing any baserunners all season. Leaving Milledge off the NL championship roster for a disabled/wheelchair bound Cliff Floyd was one of those Kazmir-like mistakes that you knew the instant it was announced. From that point on, I have been losing excitement and trust in the Mets, in particular the general manager and the manager. Always coddling the veterans every need and over-disciplining the young talent at even the most minuscule mistake. Hopefully things will change, and i don't mean Delgado hits a homerun or we sign Jose Lima.

*Tonight's pitcher scouting report by Schwenny: Mets @ DBacks, 9:40pmET, John Maine(2-2, 3.58era, .000avg) vs. Micah Owings(4-0, 3.48era, .421avg):

-John Maine is a fastball pitcher. He relies heavily on the fastball up in the zone to miss bats and induce fly ball outs. In the past Maine has used tons of sliders to finish hitters. However, in his last couple starts, he's thrown maybe a handful of sliders, and instead has begun to use his changeup for an out pitch. He has even used the changeup to RH hitters, which he never did before. Maine's biggest problem is still his control, which causes him to throw tons of pitches, and therefore can't pitch past the 5th or 6th inning.

-Micah Owings is like that kid in Little League that would throw a 1-hit shutout against you, and hit two homeruns in the same game. Except Owings is still doing it in the Majors. His velocity won't overwhelm anyone, but he deals a heavy, naturally cutting fastball around 90mph that batters just can't seem to hit squarely. Owings will follow that up with a tight slider in the low-80s and a sinking changeup. At the plate, Owings makes the Mets wish they had a guy like him playing firstbase. He can hit, and hit for power. He has five career major league homeruns in just 79ABs, and in college at GTech and Tulane he combined to hit 33HRs in his NCAA career.

Mets@DBacks tomorrow

The Mets are playing at Arizona this weekend and unfortunately for the Metsies, the DBacks look like the most exciting team in the league right now. They can hit bombs, run, and pitch. They are second in the NL in Runs, second in HomeRuns, first in ERA, and first in Wins. Their lineup has been mashing and their starters have been dealing. Both sides of the ball are loaded with young stars, and they just brought up this Scherzer kid who has already proven his minor league numbers are no joke. If only they had held on to Carlos Quentin (although the player they got for Quentin helped them get Dan Haren). Quentin is raking and drawing tons of walks for the WhiteSox.

As good as things are going for Arizona, they looked just as bad for the Mets yesterday. Ollie Perez had one of his far too frequent blow-up days where he can't throw a strike, can't field his position, and can't pitch past the second inning. The Mets played some horrible defense all day, and were basically just playing out the game after in the second inning. It wouldn't be that big of a deal, except it was Perez' fifth consecutive bad start. Meaning he's only had one good start this year, his first one. Since then he's put up these numbers in five starts: 23IP, 20BB, 23H, 3HBP, 18K. So he's putting tons of baserunners on and not pitching deep into games. Not good.

*Darrel Strawberry was on the post-game SNY show yesterday. He was actually pretty good, not as grating as Mazzilli.