Because we all know it would be too difficult for the New York Papers to focus on Santana's performance in today's world of Sports and News constantly merging with Celebrity style tabloids….also its the Post and the News, so I guess this is just status quo:
(NY Post)
(NY Daily News)
(NY Daily News)
On the day of the season where the Mets needed it most of all, Johan Santana provided to his team and to the fan base as he won the rubber game against the Rockies by pitching a complete game shutout. You probably know by now that the most pressing issue in the Mets world today was the altercation that happened between K-rod and his father-in-law last night either in or near the Family Room at Citi Field. This is a difficult situation for a team to rally behind because now there is a sudden, ugly merge between the private life of one player and the private lives of all the other players. That being said, today was the day the Mets needed something to cheer about.
Cue Johan Santana.
From the beginning of the game Santana was fantastic as he struck out the side notching his first three of what would be 10 strikeouts on the day. What made Santana so effective today was a combination of his arm slots looking identical (generally the key to any of his succesful days), the 10+ mph difference in his pitches, and that he was hitting the spots so well that Thole looked extremely relaxed the entire game. He had great control, he really didn't get into any difficult situations and this all meant a game that barely went above 2 hours (maybe like 2 hours 15 minutes or something).
The Mets bats weren't explosive today, but they were better than most. The four runs were scored on two RBI singles and two RBI sacrifice flys with 2 runs coming in the bottom of the first and the other two coming in the bottom of the 7th. In that 7th inning the Mets pulled off one of my favorite moves in baseball where Santana shows bunts, the pitcher throws (directly down the middle of the plate) and Santana pulls that bat back and slaps in a base hit.
The shutout today was the 17th one for the Mets this season. Lets keep them coming!
Yohan Almonte is not a household name, he's not talked about. However, Almonte is putting together a very impressive statistical season at Brooklyn this year, similar to what Cahoon was doing in Savannah earlier. It is hard learning about a prospect just by looking at the numbers, but for Almonte it is worth it because even though he is only in Brooklyn, he is only 20 years old and is already in third year of professional ball and is starting to improve on his numbers:
From a purely statistical view, combining both 2009 stats into one stat line, Almonte is getting better single season he plays. His control is staying constant to getting better, he is striking out a good amount of batters and his WHIP (one of my favorite stats) started off “eh” and is getting very, very good.
For Almonte the remainder of this season is not only very important, it is critical to how he will move up through the system. He has already pitched more innings this season than he has had in any other season and he is continuing to build that arm strength. Also, with September right around the corner, there will be spots openning up as players get called to the majors. I would like to see how he performs at a higher A level (whether thats Savannah, St. Lucie or a longshot Binghamton). I'm not saying that Almonte will be a player for the majors, but depending on how he performs for the rest of year, especially against better talent, he could join the discussion for non-roster invites this Spring.
Behold today is a rare day. I should have known when I awoke in DC to what seemed like a rainstorm with a little World War III mixed in this morning. Today, the NY Daily News AND the NY Post have the same headline on the back page, although with different pictures:
(NY Daily News)
(NY Post)
The Mets and Rockies play the rubber game at an early 12:10 time slot today as the Mets try to take the series. Last night was the same old story for Niese and by same old story I just mean it has happened two outings in a row. Once again he was fantastic (1 R over 7 IP) but the pen seems to save it's meltdowns for when Jon pitches. Anyway it is time for the ace Johan Santana to step vs Hammel in the finale.
Johan Santana is 9-6 on the season with a 3.06 ERA and in his last start he was able to rebound by pitching 7.1 shutout innings (where he had a no hitter going through 5.2 innings). He missed the Rockies earlier this season but he had a great outing against them last year as he picked up the win throwing 7 scoreless innings. The Rockies have these numbers on Johan:
The Mets will get a crack at Hammel this afternoon who is 8-6 this season with a 4.38 ERA. In his last four starts he is 1-2 with an ERA of 5.54. He didn't play the Mets in April this year and last year he had a horrible start against the Amazin's as he allowed 5 ER over 1.1 innings in a loss. The Mets have these numbers on Hammel:
Lets Go Mets!
Francisco Rodriguez is in police custody according the NY Daily News after an apparent assault on his father-in-law. The story, as it stands right now, is that he got into an argument with his father-in-law was there, there was at least one punch thrown.
What is known is that:
This is essentially what the Mets needed right now. Another off-field issue (please sense the sarcasm). More on this when more is known.
Poor Jon Niese.
Really I now feel bad for him.
Jon had another great outing last night, actually nearly identical to his previous outing where he allowed only 1 ER (1 R total) over 7 innings of work and left with the 2-1 lead.
And then, not to go into too much detail, the bullpen promptly came in and blew up his lead and put the game way out of reach for the offense, with the final score being 6-2.
To be fair, the game could have been 3-2 in favor of the Rockies, and the game would have been out of reach for the Mets. At some point the problem in games like this is beyond the bullpen's talent and becomes, similar to the starters, a mental situation where the pitchers right now feel they need to be perfect, because they are not going to get run support. Last night the Mets only got a two run jack in the first inning by Pagan, and the bats fell silent from that point on. In the last two wins the Mets have had they have scored a combined 2 runs, one from a solo shot, the other from a bases loaded sacrifice fly.
Hopefully the Mets will be able to reverse their fortunes later today at Citi Field and buy a cake or something for Niese, I really feel bad for him.
The Mets try to make it two in a row tonight as they take on the Rockies for game two of this series. Game one featured the 16th time this season that the Mets have won a game thanks to a shutout (another way to think of that is that 16/56 victories have been shutouts or about 29% of wins and about 14.5% of total games) anyway this shutout, the second win for the Mets in the last few days by the score of 1-0, buts another notch in the statement “our bats are slumping!” which maybe they will stop tonight as the bats get to take on Francis and the Rockies get a crack at Niese.
Niese was an innocent victim in his last outing where he rebounded from a bad start to go seven strong innings and only allow one earned run over four hits….and then he got the no decision as the offense fell short of backing him up and then there was this issue with the pen exploding in the 8th inning. Anyway Niese struggled agaisnt the Rockies in his first outing against them allowing 5 ER over 5 innings of work, but that was a very long time ago, his second start of the year, and Niese was a different pitcher back then. The Rockies have these numbers on Jon Niese:
The Mets bats will try to continue to their journey back to relevancy against Francis tonight who is 4-4 on the year with a 4.67 ERA. He is 1-2 in his last three starts with a 4.86 ERA (or essentially in his three games he has been right around his season average in terms of performance). He hasn't seen the Mets since 2008 because he wasn't playing in April this year and he was out all of 2009. In 2008 he picked up the loss as the Mets tagged him for 6 earned over 6 innings. The Mets have these numbers on Jeff:
Lets Go Mets!
Eight Brooklyn Cyclones have made the All-Star team for the New York Penn League which is the most by far than any other NYPL team. This of course, shouldn't be surprising because the Cyclones are by far the best team in the league, and generally speaking (on average) the best team in any given league has the best shot of having the most amount of All-Stars.
What is intriguing about this is that a Mets farm system which for the last several years has been under a lot of scrutiny, could have a lot of low-level prospects. The merits of this are yet to be determined but this is something that is generally a good sign for making trades. As we know, once you remove Davis, Niese and Meijia from the conversation, there are no players in the system that relate to a Hewyard, Carlos Santana, Mike Stanton because the majority of the Mets big noise makers are either too young (Flores) or injuried/overhyped (Havens, Fmart). So while these 8 players could become big names, maybe, we have to remember to keep our hopes low, and understand if trading them will make sense for the future. Anyway here are the 8 players (facts were found here):
It will be interesting to follow these players in the years to come. The advantage for most of them is that they are young, but they still have a while to go if they are going to make an impact because they are playing Short Season Ball. I'm hopefull, but I'm always hopefull which usually leaves me disapointed. If I had to pick though a few players that really intrigue me from this list I would say Ceciliani, Almonte, Vaugn and Fraser (and maybe Cuan).
-Ron Artest, MetropoliTONS of FUN Rap
(about why we are losing)