As bad as those two losses were in Chicago, last night's debacle in DC gets my vote as the most unsettling defeat of the seven-game road trip. Oliver Perez, the guy who beat the Mets for $6.5-million in arbitration, can't be trusted to hold onto the baseball for six innings? Seriously. Here's how his starts stack up this season:
4/2 at Fla ..... 6.0 IP
4/8 PHI ........ 5.2 IP
4/13 MIL ...... 4.1 IP
4/19 at Phi ... 5.2 IP
4/24 at Was ..5.2 IP
I blame Perez more than Willie for this disturbing trend. Despite his considerable talent, he's unreliable. Would you have stuck with Perez last night as the sixth inning unfolded? Not me. The guy was a time bomb. When Perez begins to unravel, it happens fast, and Randolph really had no choice but to take his chances with Heilman.
Of course, Heilman has his own problems at the moment, and the Mets can only hope he hit rock bottom last night with the walk to Lastings Milledge and Felipe Lopez's grand slam. On that note, ESPN's Tim Kurkjian provided a great nugget on Baseball Tonight: There have been four grand slams this season in the National League and the Mets' bullpen is responsible for three of them. Ugh. Jorge Sosa has two on his own.
It's also time for a mea culpa on my part. Heading into this season, I was convinced that Carlos Delgado would turn it around. Contract year, different mindset, etc., etc. Now I'm getting ready to jump ship on this one. I know it's only 21 games, but Delgado, dropped to sixth on Wednesday, is regressing. He was a weak 0-for-4 in last night's 10-5 loss, twice grounding meekly into the shift, as his average plummeted to .198.
To make matters worse, Delgado is obviously taking his plate woes to the field with him. I know he's not a good first baseman. But he's playing so tentatively right now that it's like his mind is still in the batter's box while he's standing at first.
Delgado has saved David Wright on a number of occasions this season, either by scooping his short-hops throws or applying the tag on his wild ones. But to see him let Wil Nieves' grounder get under his glove last night in the seventh inning was brutal. Thanks to a clueless official scorer, it was ruled a hit, but Delgado knew it should have been an error. After missing with his backhand, Delgado threw his head back in disgust, clearly mad at himself.
So where do the Mets go from here? They're barely above .500 (11-10) and the Braves would like nothing better than to bring the boos raining down at Shea this weekend. This already is shaping up to be a gut-check series for the Mets, and after what I witnessed on the trip, there's not much reason to believe at the moment, especially if they are without Brian Schneider for any length of time. The Mets should have a better idea of his availability later this afternoon after he was hospitalized yesterday for a thumb infection of unknown origin.
As for tonight, it's up to Mike Pelfrey, the subject of this week's Mets Insider. Just in case you were wondering why Pelfrey looks like a black lab chewing a tennis ball on the mound, here's the back story to his mouthpiece and the possible advantage it may give him as a bizarre distraction to opposing hitters.
Comments (5)
THIS TEAM IS NOT FOCUSED TO PLAY MAJOR LEAUGE BASEBALL. ONLY WAY TO HELP THIS TEAM IS TO DUMP DELGADO AND RANDOLPH WHO IS RESPONSABLE FOR THIS TEAMS NOT READY FOR PRIME TIME PLAY. BRING UP CARP CANT BE WORSE THAN DELGADO AND I HAVE A GUT FEELING RANDOLPH WILL NEVER SEE CITI FIELD AS A MET EMPLOYEE SHOULD HAVE BEEN FIRED REALLY LAST YEAR.
I think Aaron will turn it around. Started well he has just had some shaky outings. Might be b/c Willie is overworking him. Maybe he's still pouting about not being a starter. I think Omar has done a good job here too. I don't understand the Fire Omar movement. Do you all remember what it was like before Omar got here and changed the culture of the team by bringing in Pedro and some good young pitching.
My big concern is Delgado. He's done. This team is built around its speed and power and with Beltran struggling Delgado's weaknesses are just glaring. I say drop him to seventh and take him out completely when Alou comes back.
Reyes SS
Church RF
Wright 3B
Beltran CF
Pagan LF
Castillo 2B
Delgado 1B
Cassanova C
Pitcher
Mike Carp is not yet ready for the majors. He had a weak 2007 at Binghamton and, so far, is rebounding well there. If that trend continues, his next stop should be New Orleans.
Knicks4Life brings up an interesting point regarding dropping Delgado further in the lineup. Frankly, I would like to see Delgado off the team but: who can play first? One forum participant suggested Fernando Tatis, but he's not a first baseman at all. This issue will eventually be decided in the off-season, possibly in the free-agent market if the Wilpons are willing, or maybe by Carp if he shows real progress. In the meantime: I hope Moises' return sparks the team...
3 tiems this year willie hasnt let perez finish an inning with 2 outs. 2 of those times perez hadnt even given up a run. last night he got 2 straight outs and gets taken out.
I don't know how you blame perez for that trand more than willie.
Willie last night showed more confidence in heilman the way he's pitching than perez, even after ollie got 2 straight outs.
Willie says he needs more length from his pitchers than why does he keep taking this guy out when he doesnt need to?
Also Perez was pitching great his first start of the year, and willie only let him go 6.....why is that?...If he never gives him length when he deserves it, then he wont be used to pitching deep in games.
The Mets didn't seem to benefit from having a huge early lead last year. Maybe being closer to the pack will keep them focused. No one's saying anything about David Wright. But he hasn't had a hit in three games. That's not good either from our "MVP."
But, yeah, those grand slams are ridiculous.