The Mets entered Spring with several candidates for the fifth starting spot. The only problem with having a lot of average to below average pitchers to fill that spot is that the quantity of arms rarely increases the quality (sometimes it can inspire competition, but a lot of times it doesn't). Mainly what I am referring to is Freddy Garcia. A lot of us, myself included, saw him as a dark horse to get that final spot. However, he has now proved twice that his fastball has not much to it and he is consitantly doing bad. Here are the stats from the game, the pitching overall was pretty terrible:
The Good:
Pagan 1-1, 2 RBI
Anderson 2-3, RBI, 2 BB
Cancel 2-3, R, RBI
Cherry 1.0, H, K
The Bad:
Castillo 0-3, R, BB
Garcia 2.0 IP, 3H, 4ER, BB, 3K, 2HR
Switzer 1.0 IP, 2H, 2ER, BB, K
Gee 1.0 IP, 5 H, 7R, 2ER
To continue the topic started in the openning paragraph, not only is the two homeruns bothersome, but he also walked someone too. The three strikeouts though show that he has some potential. I am not going to count him out yet but in his next performance he is going to really have to show that he can he get outs, and not allow people to get on base or strikeout. Also on the bad side was Gee. Now it wasn't all his fault, as the difference between R and ER shows, but even with bad defense, he shouldnt have given up five hits in one inning, thats uncharacteristic of him. I look forward to his next outing cause I know he will be much better. Castillo is also struggling.
Now for the good stuff though! Cherry had another good outting which could get us closer to the Mets having a pitcher that reminds us constantly of dessert. Even better though was Anderson. He struggled last seasnon, and has struggled in Spring so far and yesterday he came out knocked two doubles. Nice. Cancel, our third string catcher, also had a good day, nice. And Pagan was Pagan, the guy is a freak at baseball (shades of Endy?)
