Week Five
(May 2nd – May 8th)
“One Month Down,
&
Plenty to Go”
QUICK APRIL REVIEW: Mets
At 12-16 things could be worse in Queens. We learned that they seem to be a streaky team. First they Lost 10 out of 11 games early, including 0-4 in double headers. Then they go on to win 6 games in a row and look to turn things around…what happens next? They lose 3 straight. The team never seems to die or give up which is extremely gratifying to watch. It makes you come back to them late in the game to see if the score has changed. The Mets have many questions, but we entered the season a month ago with weary-eyes and low expectations anyway. They have not played their best ball yet, so as the weather warms up let’s hope the Mets can do the same. Their team ERA is 4.58 with Dickey, Niese and Pelfery having a combined record of 3-10. Not a strong start, but let’s blame the offense as they still have only played 1 game this season with the core outfield of Bay, Pagan and Beltran. With that one game they are 1-0. If they get healthy and put some pieces together win over .500 in the month of May, good things will follow. Whether it is through trades for the future or just positivity for entering the month of June.
QUICK APRIL REVIEW: Yankees
First place in the AL East is a great feat and always means you are starting out on the right foot. To add to the pleasure in being 2 ½ games up at 16-9 the Yankees are still considered the underdog even though Boston has just finished a miserable month of April at 12-15. I say miserable because this team was picked by all the critics and writers to be the team to beat and guess what, they’ve been beaten. Still alive of course, but beaten nonetheless. They only worry I have with the Yankees and it’s not a big one is that in April they only had to play 7 road games thus far. Due to rainouts and what have you the Yankees have been in the comfort zone in the Bronx backed by their unbelievable fan base and that always can make things easier. The month of May will be different. The test of traveling will factor in this month and I’m sure everything will sit just fine with the Bombers as long as they just stay the course.
Don’t ever wave that white flag…
A nine inning battle,
a game of strong faith.
No matter how far down,
you may never give in to defeat.
Every year you start off fresh
looking at the long-term quest.
A haul that looks unbearable,
on a journey to be the best.
Don’t ever say you’re dying,
then all your opponents will chalk up wins at will.
Don’t ever say you’re dead,
cause a team’s wins
can change with the wind.
Last to first
is dead before living.
Think of the worst
and quitting
is the only one winning.
I cheers to you…
The ones that stay with the few.
Those die-hard scallywags
who believe championships will come.
We dream of the day
with a favorite taste in our mouths.
We cherish these wishes
to make terrible days seem not lost.
Turn things around
and dip bread in your Mama’s sauce.
The winning ways should come
in a life cycle for most,
so just blanket those days…
smile and boast.
Never say die no matter how far,
they play these long games for the emotion and awe.
We yell and we scream
at our TV’s and the players.
We cheer and we jeer
at car radios and team owners
I can’t give up on anything I love,
so I’ll never concede to defeat.
A nine inning mêlée
for a game that lasted the test of time…
Sometimes I think about how much it still means to me.
Passion, frustration, happiness
and thrills.
Shocking, astonishing,
entertainment on high blast!
Before you know it
this season will be in past.
…
And soon it will be,
those famous words of a letdown season
as they escape from your lips…
“Wait till next year, that’ll be the year, my team plays better baseball”
New York Mets
(12 - 16)
5th place/6.5 GB
The Past (week four): Washington Nationals Series… Boy oh boy can one player really round out a lineup. Totally different ballclub since Jason Bay returned last Thursday to the once bumbling Mets. The streaked reached six wins after taking the first two in Washington. Beltran is hitting way better then he’s fielding, Jose Reyes is constantly getting on base causing havoc for opposing pitchers and Terry Collins has put a spark in the Mets dugout. The pitching has come around. You can see the difference in this team. If their starting pitching can get into the 7th inning without giving up 10 hits and a stupid number of runs these Mets can be winners. After a nice victory on Tuesday night to continue the winning streak at five games it was all in jeopardy after Reyes got “thrown out” legging a triple late in Wednesday night’s game. Worst call by an umpire since last year’s no-no hitter in Detroit. He was so safe at 3rd base my blind and dead grandmother would’ve spread her arms out in the universal “safe” motion. The Mets were down on luck and spirit at that point and as my co-worker Matty O said while he worked on the game live, “Reyes is hopping mad”, and if you look at the freak-out after being called out…Jose Reyes was literally hopping mad. I thought his dread-locks were going to take flight or start poking the umpire in his worthless eyeballs. Screw it they don’t see the right things anyway. Maybe all this built a stronger fire for the Queens Crew and down 3-2 the Mets needed something from deep within to keep the winning streak alive. With 4 runs in the top of the 9th the Amazin’s showed some heart for the 1st time this year in a sweet comeback win.
The last game of the series was lost 4-3, and that had a lot to do with Chris Capuano’s bad performance on the mound barely getting through 5 innings giving up 10 hits (5 in a row at one point) and all four runs. He raised his ERA to 6.04 on the season. On the positive outlook RP Pedro Beato pitched the last two innings keeping his scoreless streak going 0.00 ERA and gave up no hits to boot. (Mr. Pedro Beato continued this Sunday night picking up his first career win. He has given up 9 hits in 17 innings.)Ike Davis continued his hitting prowess going 2 for 4 with his 19th RBI of the season raising his average to a damn respectable .352. With Halladay and Lee pitching the two weekend games in Philly let’s hope the Mets get the job done against 23 year old Vance Worley taking the spot for the injured Joe Blanton.
Philadelphia Phillies Series… The first game of the series was a wash, garbage…trash. I’m not even sure everybody traveled to Citizens Bank Park together because the team that was put on the field was Triple A at best. Saturday’s 1pm game was a different story. As we know the Mets scored a total of 4 runs in the three games against Philly this weekend, but you want to hear the best part? The Mets went 1-2 again, which makes them 2-4 on the season against the top team in the National League. Not great, but by no means horrible. What was horrible was the fact that the Mets should’ve taken two games this weekend. They had their shot facing a fantastic Roy Halladay and didn’t take it. The Mets scattered seven hits, but continue to falter with runners in scoring position so they lose 2-1 in a face paced game that took only 2 hours and 25 minutes to complete…it’s the Doc Halladay way.
Sunday night the Mets had even more chances to score but sadly and disappointingly went 1 for 16 with runners in scoring position. My eyes couldn’t fight to stay open past the 13th inning, I won’t lie. It will forever be the game when I found out Osama Bin Laden was announced dead by our Obama “bin” president. It was another great speech that I missed, because no one in this damn game could score. The Mets fought and I really thought this was going to turn out to be a remake of last year’s 20 inning Mets vs. St. Louis game, but the recently activated Ronny Paulino hit a double that gave the troubling Mets a much needed victory in the 14th inning sending D. Wright home. Chris Young pitched very well which settled Met fan worries down a bit by pitching two hit ball for 7 innings. Frankie Rodriguez looked real shaky, but after a long long night the Mets got one. Take a day off and get ready for the West Coast teams to make their way to Citi Field. It’s May now people so it’s the time when good teams start to mold together and show what they have.
Player of the Week: It has to go to Ike Davis who keeps putting the bat on the ball and that ball keeps finding holes. He batting a team high .337 in April and seems to be sitting pretty in that 6th spot after the return of Jason Bay.
EXTRA NEWS: The only Met ace that they extremely need to get back to guide this rotation in order, Johan Santana says he “feels great”, after throwing from 150 feet the other day. He is expected to start throwing from the mound in about two weeks. He is on schedule to return to the Mets in late July.
The Future (week five):
Projected Pitching Match-ups
Game 29: Giants @ Mets on Tuesday May 3rd at 7:10pm
(Ryan Vogelsong 1-0, 1.74) vs. (R.A. Dickey 1-3, 3.82)
Game 30: Giants @ Mets on Wednesday May 4th at 7:10pm
(Tim Lincecum 2-3, 2.90) vs. (Chris Capuano 2-2, 6.04)
Game 31: Giants @ Mets on Thursday May 5th at 1:10pm
(Jonathan Sanchez 2-1, 2.73) vs. (Mike Pelfrey 1-3, 7.39)
Game 32: Dodgers @ Mets on Friday May 6th at 7:10pm
(Ted Lilly 2-2, 4.45) vs. (Jon Niese 1-4, 4.71)
Game 33: Dodgers @ Mets on Saturday May 7th at 7:10pm
(Jon Garland 1-2, 3.81) vs. (Chris Young 1-1, 1.88)
Game 34: Dodgers @ Mets on Sunday May 8th at 1:10pm
(TBA) vs. (R.A. Dickey 1-3, 3.82)
Game Twenty-Nine thru Thirty-One A tough series if you expect anything from the offensive category. Ryan Vogelsong only has one start this year, it was a quality start, but it was against the Pirates. “The Freak” will be the biggest challenge this week. Two-time Cy Young winner and a World Series under his belt only in the 4th year of the future Hall of Famer’s career. He throws strikes, likes pitching out of trouble and is everything you can ask for in a pitcher. The Mets need to grab the first game decisively and set the tone of the series quickly. If they dig a hole they’ll be buried neck deep mid-way through game two. I want them to pull this series off at home. My question mark on the week is Mike Pelfrey. He’s had one start this year to be proud of and six you could shake a stick at. He’s been stinking up the area around the mound so bad all the trash that blows around Citi Field is attracted to the rubber. If the split the 1st two games and be patient with Sanchez (who could become extremely wild at times) the Mets have a shot at starting the week off with a bang.
Game Thirty-Two thru Thirty-Four The Dodgers are a tough team to handicap. Hot, cold, streaky and terrible. You just never know with a pitching staff so solid one week then a mess the next. It’s a sticky situation and hopefully they come into Queens tired and lost. Ted Lilly, Clayton Kershaw and Chad Billingsley can all be All-Star’s so it’s a good thing their bullpen is incompetent and the offense is a bit below average. Besides the likes of the three and four hitters in the lineup (Either and Kemp), the team never really has exploded on any team this year. LA Dodgers are 6th in the NL in batting with a .259 team average and they have managed to average 3.9 runs a game, but seem to be hot or cold. Don Mattingly will be back in New York as a manager for the first time. His trip could end on a sad note if the Mets continue to hit. The top six batters in the Mets lineup are all worthy top-notch players who need to stay in sync with each other. Every week that passes this season I look at Terry Collins to watch him age a little more, grow more impatient and begin to be a bitter man. Andre Ethier had a hit in every game in April this year. His is scary good so let’s see how the Mets match-up against the West.
(A “weak” long prediction 4-2)
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New York Yankees
(16 - 9)
1st place by 2.5 games
The Past (week four): Chicago White Sox Series… So the offensive show I was hoping for never really took place until the 5th inning maul by the Yankees on Thursday night. They took 33 minutes to score six runs and have 12 batters bat in the inning. Prior to the 12-3 shellacking the first three games of the series was a pitching duel. It seemed like both teams were pitching in October with everything on the line. The Yankees fell in the first two games 2-0 and 3-2. Great games, as Phil Humbar, who’s taking the injured Jake Peavy’s spot in the rotation, pitched a no hitter into the 7th inning and that is no small feat against that Yankee lineup. The White Sox bats didn’t do much against A.J. Burnett, but even 1 run did the job on Monday night for the struggling Sox’s. A.J. did pitch his best game of the season going 8 strong innings, but his best start also ended in his first lost.
Tuesday was more of the same until R. Soriano came in the game in the 8th inning. Yankees were up 2-1 after Nova pitched a very consistent game and with one swing of Paul Konerko’s bat the game was all of a sudden in Chicago’s favor at 3-2. Soriano continues to struggle and YES’s announcer Michael Kay is already blaming it on the weather…saying he’s a “mild temperature” type pitcher. What? This game also notably ended with a Yankee threat in the bottom of the 9th. A-Rod sent a shot to right field with runners on 1st and 2nd and Brent Lillibridge crashed against the wall hard taking a bit hit away. Then next batter, Robinson Cano, puts good wood on the ball again to right field defensive replacement only an inning before Mr. Brent Lillibridge. This time he needed to sprit towards the foul line…puts his body on the line…sprawls out…a spectacular diving catch even Yankee fans can applaud. Not at that exact moment of course, just when talked about the next day at work.
The last two games were night and day. Bartolo Colon pitched 8 innings in a 3-1 win and Mariano Rivera returned to the saving game picking up his 8th save with a spotless 9th. Finally the bats started popping…most importantly Nick Swisher getting his first HR while going 3 for 4 with 4 RBI’s. Could be the big boost needed for the smiling right fielder that can hopefully travel into the Blue Jays series coming up.
Toronto Blue Jays Series… Well we figured a few new things out this series and held on to a couple of old memories. Toronto will always play the Yankees hard. The Yankees are better than Toronto. Jose Bautista can really swing the bat I guess. And of course, Mariano is amazing. The new lessons learned are that A.J. is back and effective. A-Rod will float down to reality quickly in one week. Rickey Romero’s reflexes are unreal (he’s caught a line drive o his face, and did the same thing last year). Lastly, I never knew how low someone’s batting average can get before you take them out of a lineup…Posada is now batting .133, can you say miserable? All in all the series was well fought on both sides having the better and more talented team taking 2 out of 3. Mariano came back after blowing a couple saves last week and picked up two in the last two games of this series. What more can be said but April treated the Yankees well in three ways.
ONE: Having 16-9 record is a great start to a new season.
TWO: With the loss of Phil Hughes, “stand-ins” Colon/Garcia are getting the job done by being better than good if you catch my drift. Also with another good start today from Ivan Nova pitching 6 1/3 giving up 2 runs and striking out 4 Blue Jays, I’d say he survived April and should be looking forward to build more confidence in May.
THREE: Those damn bats are unstoppable and having the best closer in the history of the game is always a plus. Mariano Rivera has never blown 3 save opportunities in a row and that stat alone is one of the mightiest I’ve ever over-heard.
Player of the Week: He hit 4HRs and drove in 7 runs; Robinson Cano is turning things around.
EXTRA NEWS: Last year’s platoon catcher Francisco Cervelli returned to the Yankee lineup on Sunday afternoon going 0 for 2 with a sacrifice RBI. Phil Hughes is in trouble of losing the entire season if he has a circulatory problem
The Future (week four):
Projected Pitching Match-ups
Game 29: Yankees @ Tigers on Monday May 2nd at 7:05pm
(Bartolo Colon 2-1, 2.77) vs. (Justin Verlander 2-3, 3.64)
Game 30: Yankees @ Tigers on Tuesday May 3rd at 7:05pm
(C.C. Sabathia 2-1, 2.25) vs. (Brad Penny 1-3, 6.11)
Game 31: Yankees @ Tigers on Wednesday May 4th at 7:05pm
(Freddy Garcia 1-1, 2.00) vs. (Max Scherzer 4-0, 3.82)
Game 32: Yankees @ Tigers on Thursday May 5th at 1:05pm
(A.J. Burnett 4-1, 3.93) vs. (Rick Porcello 1-2, 4.25)
Game 33: Yankees @ Rangers on Friday May 6th at 8:05pm
(Ivan Nova 2-2, 5.14) vs. (Matt Harrison 3-3, 4.59)
Game 34: Yankees @ Rangers on Saturday May 7th at 8:05pm
(Bartolo Colon 2-1, 2.77) vs. (TBA)
Game 35: Yankees @ Rangers on Sunday May 8th at 3:05pm
(C.C. Sabathia 2-1, 2.25) vs. (TBA)
Game Twenty-Nine thru Thirty-Two Tripping it to Detroit for a four game series. The Tigers are suffering from a 6 game losing streak and the worst part was that three of those losses came from the Seattle Mariners. Jim Leyland might need a fresh pack of cancer sticks before things get turned around in the Motor City. M. Cabrera seems to be the only player on the Tigers that can hit the ball, so walk the drunken bastard. Austin Jackson has fell from a contact hitter all of last year batting over .300 most of the first half in 2010, but is struggling with 37 strikeouts already this season and a .197 AVG. The Yankees opened the season taking 2 out of 3 so I have no doubt in my mind that they take 2 out of 4 this week in Detroit. They will be challenged by Justin Verlander tonight and Mad Max Scherzer on Wednesday, but the Yankees are all powerful right now getting ready to take their skills on the road for a seven game trip.
Game Thirty-Three thru Thirty-Five This is becoming one of my favorite series to watch lately. I think I enjoy Texas…maybe it’s because the Rangers beat the Yankees in the playoffs last year when I thought there was no stopping the Yankees unless your team name was Boston. All that is out the window now as the Rangers continue to prove worthy of their competition with or without Josh Hamilton. They need him, but they won’t rush the kid back. The other downfall for Texas this week is their young closer Felez* is on the DL. Dealing with a young pitching staff that might be a bit over-worked in Nolan Ryan land and now no light-out closer I feel if the Yankees strong pitching continues without any other setbacks we will see some dominance in the Lone Star state.
(A “weak” long prediction 4-3)
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Living in a Fantasy 1-2-3:
- Who Killed It? – 1. There is this pitcher out in LA that refuses to give up runs and stands atop the Major Leagues with 6 wins and 0 loses. I think you’ve seen him in this section before as well…Jered Weaver has been completely unstoppable. He skipped his start yesterday because of a head cold, but that only makes good for him two starts this week. 2. Robinson Cano got on track this week blasting 4 HRs to his fans in the bleachers this week adding 7 RBI’s and batted .333 waking up a bit in a lineup that is already hitting the crap out of the ball. 3. That guy again, Howie “motherfuckin” Kendrick had another productive week batting .455 with 10 hits and came across the plate 7 times for the Angels.
- Who Thrilled It? – 1. With a little help from the home field official scorer Andre Ethier kept his hitting streak in tack this week making it an astounding 27 games in a row with a hit. He had a hit for every game in April. 2. Tampa Bay (Devil) Rays have woken up the past two weeks and an amazing display was put on by Ben Zorbrist during last week’s double header against the Twins. He helped the Rays win both games by going 7 for 10 with 2HRs and 10 RBI’s…that’s right I said ten in one night. He also strolled across the plate five times himself in the double-dip. 3. The Cleveland Indian fans have been in for a treat so far this season as their young team is on a 13 home game winning streak. This wouldn’t have been possible if it wasn’t for Carlos Santana’s grand slam walk-off home run in the bottom of the 9th in Friday night’s game for a 9-5 victory.
- Who’s on Deck? – 1. Zack Britton had another solid week for Baltimore this week getting 2 wins pitching 6 innings in each game and giving up 5 hits against Boston and Minnesota. He is now 5-1 on the season with a 2.84 ERA. 2. Chicago Cubs have some real young kids now filling up the middle of their infield. Sterling Castro has been a monster at SS and now this other rookie seems to be hitting for contact all year. Darwin Barney has had 89 at bats this season and only struck out 10 times. He’s batting .325 on the season with 1 HR and 14 RBI’s. Looks like they just need players like Carlos Pena to hit in some of these base runners. 3. Former Yankee prospect Ian Kennedy is trying to find a home in Arizona having a great week starting out on Monday by pitching a CG shutout against the Phillies and striking out 10. Then on Saturday he pitched 7 2/3 giving up 3 runs and adding 6 more strikeouts against the Cubbies.
Adam Hammer’s Loose Lips
- Andre Ethier has extended his hit streak to 26 games. The Dodgers contacted MLB to see if they could sell the streak to another player in hopes of paying off debt.
- Pedro Martinez is reportedly close to announcing his retirement. In other news, Bernie Williams is still available and willing to be a part of a platoon role. Seriously, some of these player’s careers are harder to close than the Jon Benet Ramsey case.
Best Series You Missed – Tigers @ Indians had it all, if you’re an Indian fan of course. Walk-off grand slam comeback win in the bottom of the 9th inning of Friday thanks to the young future star catcher Carlos Santana. Don’t get me wrong, I see he is struggling with the bat after a shortened season last year because of a collision at the plate. He’s hurting with a sub .200 AVG, but maybe the hit heard across a rocking Cleveland Stadium is the boost this kid needs. This week he had three hits that all went soaring over the wall and added 6 RBI’s to his total on the season. For an encore of a comeback 9-5 victory against a better looking team in the Tigers, they waited 13 innings to pull out a second walk-off victory. It’s so exciting to see great stuff from an unexpected team in April. Sunday was the kicker, a big sweep against a division rival in the works. Down 3-2 in the 8th inning Cleveland was running out of shots when the, disappointing until this season, Matt LaPorta hit in a base clearing double giving the 1st place team in the AL Central a 5-3 lead. They sweep the Tigers with a 5-4 win and now have the best record in the Major Leagues at 19-8. Honestly, it’s unthinkable to believe this, but I’ve said it before how amazing things do happen.
Best Series for you to Catch –
SERIES 1: Twins (9-18) @ White Sox (10-19) – Two teams who are supposed to be on top of the division have sunk deep and battle for last place in the first week in May. Nobody thought both of these team’s would have such awful at this point and it will be fun to see who gets stuck even deeper in the dumps.
SERIES 2: Rangers (16-12) @ Yankees (16-9) – The Rangers come to town and Josh Hamilton is still out, but anytime these two high profile teams play each other it seems like top-notch baseball. They are both October teams and it continues to be a battle of 1st place teams.
And now for your reading pleasure…
***
The Future; According to the Late-Great George Carlin
“People will change clothes every six minutes but still never be quite happy with their appearance”
NEXT WEEK
Monday May 9th
(Week Six May 9th – 15th)
“True Champions”
Last Quip by Doctor KAS – “It’s Kentucky Derby Day (week really) people and I order you to take two minutes out of your Saturday Evening to watch this historic event. If my horse (Archarcharch) can run for the roses and beat the field then I might be able to pay for an official website for this racket.” EARLY PICKS (that always have a chance to change 10 minutes prior to the race):
1st – Archarcharch
2nd – Nehro
3rd – Toby’s Corner
4th – Uncle Mo
LONG SHOTS – Shackleford and Master of Hounds
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