Week Niner
(May 30th – June 5th)
“Memorial Day Blues”
New York Mets
(24 - 28)
4th place/8.5 GB
The Past (week five): Chicago Cubs… (Lost series 1-2) The wheels on the bus go round and round, round and round, round and round. The wheels on the bus have fell to the ground, fell to the ground, fell underground…all the way home.
I’m trying to stay positive and keep the right frame of mind but when each week gets worse and worse it’s just tough to be optimistic. They get blasted in the rain on Tuesday night as Jon Niese lobbed the ball over the plate and one of the worst hitting offenses exploded scoring 11 runs on 13 hits. Three big errors in the game certainly didn’t help with two by Ronny Paulino alone. The Buffalo Mets then came out swinging on Wednesday after Dillon Gee gave up four runs in the bottom of the 1st, putting on one of their infamous false-hope type performance and counteract Chicago’s rookie pitcher Coleman. They needed Mother Nature’s help after taking a 6-4 lead after 2nd. The rain came and stopped the game in the 7th and the Mets steal one in Chi-town. All is well at 1-1 in the series with R.A. Dickey going for you in the rubber match. He’s record doesn’t show much this year, but a faint glint of confidence pulls you behind the Buffalo Mets to take the series any way you can.
The 3rd inning was another Doomsday scenario as R.A. Dickey twists his ankle, falls and gets hurt...nope here’s was a new one…He felt a burning in his ankle. The DL is filled with starters and the first half of the season needs to be completed quickly. The sad sack of a team limped out of Chicago losing 9-3 as the bullpen gave up a whopping eight runs in 5 innings. The trade rumors are blaring in every newspaper in the Tri-State area. The ticket sales are down and prices for two seats on EBay are cheaper than tickets to the Big Apple Circus. After Beato (L, 1-1) and Misch exploded by giving up seven runs, 6 earned in 2 plus innings I was horrifyingly wishing that a tornado would have blown into Wrigley at some point on Thursday, sweeping this Triple A team (at best) away.
Philadelphia Phillies Series… (Lost series 1-2) The Mets had 38 hits against the Phillies this weekend with an amazing 17 hits alone in Sunday’s game. Sadly the team lost the first two games 6-4 and 5-2. What can I say to make you feel better? They kept it close…they tried their hardest…they look good until the last few innings of a game?
I don’t really know what to say, but Frankie Rodriguez couldn’t get the third out on Friday’s game and he had his worst outing of the year giving up 5 hits and 3 runs picking up his first loss of the season. Honestly he’s been lights out lately so I can’t kill him with typed words right now. He does it again, they I can say anything I damn well please. The Mets had a chance with a good 6 inning stretch by starter Chris Capuano, who stuck out 8 Philly batters. The bullpen put a damper on the party again!
Hey, you know when you know your bullpen is terrible? When they do the same horrible thing over and over again. On Friday night’s game the Mets bullpen gave up 4 runs in the last two innings of the game. On Saturday it was a mirror image with different stars/players/bums doing the work. The Phillies get stifled by Mike Pelfrey all night and then BOOM!!! Another four runs given up by the Mets bullpen in the last two innings giving the Brotherly Love city another comeback victory.
The only positive this entire week has been the rising trade value of Jose Reyes who added to other team’s interests by hitting 2 triples on Sunday and going 4 for 5 raising his batting average to .335 on the season which is amazing for a leadoff batter. In my opinion trading Reyes would be the absolute nail in the coffin. You will not find a better leadoff man anywhere right now. Sure trade Beltran or K-Rod, they have short futures and are way more of a problem everyday than anyone else, but Jose Reyes has speed, spunk and agility. He’s healthy and not being jumbled around the lineup. A top-notch leadoff batter who is still young. If the Mets trade him away it’s a sign of boring seasons to come. A sign of taking the easy way out of personal troubles. A sign that the Mets will die a slow death into obscurity until fans reek anger and protest seasons away. You want fans in the seats, you need excitement and that is what Jose Reyes stands for. The Mets salvaged game three of the series winning 9-5.
EXTRA NEWS: Pagan is back…meaning his body not his bat. D. Wright has no set timetable. Ike Davis has been swinging and I guess stretching.
The Future (week ten):
Pirates @ Mets 7:10pm Monday May 30th METS WIN 7-3
Pirates @ Mets 7:10pm Tuesday May 31st
Pirates @ Mets 7:10pm Wednesday June 1st
Pirates @ Mets 1:10pm Thursday June 2nd
The Pittsburgh Pirates come to town and I couldn’t be happier. Black & Gold are the colors I bleed and I think they could take at least two this year from the flailing Mets. Both teams continuously beat themselves up. The Pirates have the upper hand however for the first time in years. The Pirates are 15-13 on the road this year after only winning 17 games on the road all of last year…that’s right I said 17. Wow, incredible right? Mets have a .252 batting average over the Pirates dismal .235, but flip the tape and on the pitching side the Pirates have a 3.47 ERA to the Mets 4.21 ERA. The Mets pitchers have walked and struck out more batters then the Pitt pitchers. I can’t see any team having a dominance over the other so I see (and hope for) a split series at best.
Braves @ Mets 7:10pm Friday June 3rd
Braves @ Mets 7:10pm Saturday June 4th
Braves @ Mets 1:10pm Sunday June 5th
After the weakly Pirates another division foe comes back into town. The Atlanta Braves look real well rounded this year, from head to toe. Young and old take the field each day and the team battles hard. The series in Atlanta back in mid-April didn’t go so well and the Mets we’re in the middle of a bad stretch of play and lost the double header 4-2 and 4-0. The third game was Dillon Gee’s first start in rejoining the Mets since 2010. He will pitch again Saturday so there is always some hope there. Maybe the Met fans will show up this weekend if they play Pittsburgh well and creep their way back to .500, because if they let as many Atlanta fans in like they did for Philly (yes I know Philly is much closer just stating a fact here) it’s going to be a sad time in Queens.
(A “weak” long prediction 4-3)
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New York Yankees
(28 - 23)
2nd place/1 GB
The Past (week eight): Toronto Blue Jays… (Won series 2-1) Watching Boston rise up the AL East standings like their 0-9 start never happened the Yankees came out just as flat as the previous week on Monday against the Blue Jays. Bartolo Colon pitched 5 solid innings only having one mistake in the Top of the 1st against the ball-bashing Jose Bautista giving New Yorkers an in your face show of home run number 19…and it’s only May. The Yankees had no fight after Colon was knocked around in the 6th inning. There was no recovery and question marks on the faces of Bronx fans all over the park. With Posada’s batting average still way down under .200 and no one in the starting lineup batting over .300 minds can’t sleep well. Boston’s getting hot and the Yanks are not…
Tuesday night was no different for 8 long innings. They needed this game, they had the taste to maul in their mouths, but still the fight and the offense was not there. The ace of the staff was in trouble early giving up four runs in the first 4 innings of the night. He was pitching well, but Toronto hitters were reaching for balls and knocking them into the opposite field. They were dropping blooper base hits and manufacturing runs. CC gave up eight hits all night and all were singles except for a Juan Rivera double. Ricky Romero had things going nicely and cruised through 7 innings leaving with a 4-1 lead with six outs to go. It was looking like the Yankees bad baseball was going to continue since they’ve only come back from an 8th inning deficit once this year. The comeback feel was not around so far this year.
Robinson Cano woke up from his slumber in the bottom of the 8th doubling in a run and later scoring on a Russell martin base hit. 4-3 after the 8th, not bad. CC trucks his heavy frame back out on the mound for the 9th and gets the job done. An uncharacteristic move from Joe Girardi, but not that hard of a decision as his pitch count was under 100. He gets the job done and now the Yankee offense felt the need to pick themselves out of the dumps and over the losing hump to get CC’s complete game effort a win. Posada swings the bat like its any year but 2011 and doubles. With a pinch runner in and Jeter making the second out of the 9th, it was up to the team’s hottest player to keep things going. Curtis Granderson who already had three hits on the day roped a base hit tying the game at four. He wasn’t done helping with the comeback. During Teixeira’s at bat Curtis snatched second base and set the table for Mark’s first walk off in pinstripes. A mini-text message was all that was needed as he scorched a single past Juan Rivera at 1st base, (just like Granderson’s shot) and the Yankees win in walk off fashion boosting the team and some fans morals in the meantime. It was finally an exciting night in Bronx, which has been a bit different for the previous few weeks.
This opened up the old Yankee feel for Wednesday afternoon’s game as Toronto’s bad luck Jo-Jo Reyes pitched his 28th consecutive winless start. Andrew Jones reminded all of MLB baseball that he was still playing while making good of his start in LF going 3 for 3 with 2 big HRs and 4 RBI’s. Freddy Garcia pitched as well as we thought he would since March 30th going 6 and a third giving up 3 runs and striking out 4 Blue Jays. Mo finally got some work in pitching a scoreless 9th to end the game as the Yankees proudly took the series.
Seattle Mariners Series… (Lost series 1-2) The Yankees usually take care of Seattle with an all time record of 203-161 before the two teams meet on Friday night. A pretty large gap between the two, in favor of the Bronx Bombers and coming off of two convincing wins against Toronto you would figure this trip West could start out in the right direction. The Mariners on the other hand have had resurgence in their pitching staff. Rookie Michael Pineda has turned heads already this year with a 6-2 record and a 2.16 ERA going into Friday night’s game. He was not sharp, but held Seattle close enough to keep them in the game. He walked a season high five and struck out a season low (since his 1st game on 4/5) five batters which still is not awful. The Yankees had a 3-0 lead in the 5th and couldn’t hold it. A.J. faltered and gave up two and then Logan and Ayala each gave up a run in the 4-3 loss for the opener.
Then it wouldn’t get any easier on Saturday night. After facing the possible Rookie of the Year candidate the Yankees would have to try and beat King Felix Hernandez. The King has pitched 3 complete game shutouts against them in the past and hope was minor in Yankee Camp. Cano and Teixeira hit bombs in the 2nd and 3rd inning giving the Yankees another early lead that would dwindle quickly because of another bad outing by Ivan Nova. Nova only lasted into the 4th inning after giving up four runs on five hits. Joe Girardi took him out after 74 pitches and never gave him the chance to pitch out of trouble. The King standing atop the mound after giving up 2 HRs and 3 runs in the first three innings had a chance to redeem himself…he’s a King, I think he has full say over what manager Eric Wedge has to say. He pitched well, not lights out, but well. The 4th, 5th and 6th innings were scoreless for the Yankees and in the meantime Seattle took the lead 4-3. The Yankees were able to tie it and extra innings again. The game lasted 4 hours and 18 minutes, mostly because of Joba Chamberlin taking a ton of time to pitch the damn ball. It’s as painful as watching a Ben Stein documentary. Funny guy, but holy Lord does it drain your soul. Joba…just pitch! Mariano Rivera came in with only one other appearance in ten days and the rust showed. He gave up three hits and the winning run in the 12th inning suffering his first loss of the season.
Sunday the Yankees looked like the Yankees after Mark Teixeira hit his 6th HR in 9 games the previous day someone else was going to have to step it up. Cue the forgotten about Nick Swisher…he knocked his 3rd HR of the season and walked twice for the man of the week Andrew Jones, who hit a base clearing double in the 3rd and the Yankees never looked back with their ace on the mound. CC pitched eight strong innings striking out five and giving up one run. The Yankees were able to scorch through the rubber match thankfully taking one out of the three 7-1.
EXTRA NEWS:
The Future (week ten):
Yankees @ Athletics 4:05pm Monday May 30th YANKEES WIN 5-0
Yankees @ Athletics 10:05pm Tuesday May 31st
Yankees @ Athletics 3:35pm Wednesday June 1st
The trip out west continues and the Yankees need to shut down these teams that are basking in the sun and cruising along the tracks, or hovering their way around .500 baseball and make some headway. Boston is not sleeping anymore and the lead the Yankees once had over them has been short lived. Oakland is decent, that’s all. Matsui is nothing more than a Japanese seat filler, but there seems not to be enough Japanese in the Oakland area. Do you blame them? Of course not. The Yankees need to wake up and start a streak of winning ball games handedly and stop playing around with these mediocre clubs.
Yankees @ Angels 10:05pm Friday June 3rd
Yankees @ Angels 9:05pm Saturday June 4th
Yankees @ Angels 3:35pm Sunday June 5th
There is a battle going on in the AL West and the Yankees need to fly in, win and get the hell out. Let the four teams (Texas, LA, Oak, and Seattle) deal with their own race to the top on their own. The Yankees are better than LA and Oakland, it’s true. It’s just that sometimes they have a hard time proving it. The Angels are stacked with solid starting pitching that has been underperforming so far this year with Dan Haren and Ervin Santana leading the way. Sparks of greatness comes from players like Tori Hunter and the two rookies in Mark Trumbo and Peter Bourjos, but the effect the relief pitching has on this low scoring team is hurting them to no end. Regardless the AL West has for teams all within 2 games of each other. Now that’s exciting and the Yankees get to help by putting a damper on a couple of those team’s parades.
(A “weak” long prediction 5-1)
Adam Hammer’s Loose Lips
- The big news this week: Buster Posey is out for the year after his leg was basically O.J.'ed in a home plate collision. Several have called for a ban on home plate collisions and blocking the plate. In other news, the NFL is working on a rule that will allow QB's to call timeout right before getting sacked.
- Umpire Wally Bell no-showed the Phillies-Mets game on Sunday. It was the first time all year an umpire did not completely blow an easy call.
- The Mets have a new minority owner and many expect him to own the team within 3 years. He already has a team of writers making excuses for when the Mets blow division lead in 2016.
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Scott Kazmir has an ERA of 36.00 in Triple A after two terrible starts for the Salt Lake Bees. The other players on the Bees are not happy, and not because of Kazmir's pitching but because he changed the music being played on the team boom box during warm-ups.
Scott Kazmir has an ERA of 36.00 in Triple A after two terrible starts for the Salt Lake Bees. The other players on the Bees are not happy, and not because of Kazmir's pitching but because he changed the music being played on the team boom box during warm-ups.And now for your reading pleasure…
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The Future; According to the Late-Great George Carlin
“All the knowledge in the world will be contained on a single, tiny silicon chip which someone will misplace.”
Last Quip by Doctor KAS – “I just bought a 40 dollar Pirate hat to replace the one I held on to for five years. So I guess it’s safe to say that I just paid two-thirds of the team’s salary.”
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