June 1st- Start of the Season

In my mind, June 1st marks the beginning of the real beginning to the major league baseball season. This is when the standings start to look more like they will at the end of the year.

If you look at the division leaders on May 1st, you will see the Toronto Blue Jays at 16-9. The Florida Marlins at 14-9, White Sox, Seattle, St Louis and L.A Dodgers all divisioin leaders.

By June 1st, the Yanks, Detroit, Texas, Philly and Brewers join the Dodgers atop their respective divisions. I always find it hilarious when people jump on the bandwagons of these teams after a good April. It is a long six month season. The season is now 1/3 completed and the teams that are near the top are the teams that will most likely stay there for the rest of the season.

The Yanks are right now the best team in baseball and in my opinion have the best team they have had possibly all decade. I know the bullpen is a hole, but their starting rotation is one of the best in the league. I would not want to be an opposing pitcher coming into Yankee Stadium to face this lineup. Just some numbers, the Yanks have won 15 out of their last 19 games and have not committed an error in 18 games!

The Mets have not committed an error in...well since the 8th inning of last night. Another terrible loss from this team. You cannot blow 5 run leads to the Pittsburgh Pirates! Need a big start from the savior Johan Santana tonight.


In other news,
-Started work in the city. Pretty awesome but I can already tell commuting is going to suck
-Made the inital Pike roster and will be playing at CUT this weekend.
-Summer league game tonight
-Up was the best movie I have seen so far in 2009

Stepping Up and Filling In

The Mets beat the Nats 6-1 last night and in impressive fashion. Last night's game saw the major league debut of Fernando Martinez. More importantly it saw Gary Sheffield and Livan Hernandez come up huge to lift the Mets to their 4th victory in 5 games. Sheff and Livan are new additions to the Mets and have been exceptional in May, where the Mets have seen too many injuries already.

I ripped Omar Minaya earlier but I will give him credit for these two guys. You can't hate everything the guy does. The Mets need to keep winning games, especially against the Nats. You wouldn't call these big wins but if the Mets lost, you could call it a big loss.

With the game 3-1, Gary Sheffield put this one out of reach with a 3 run homer in the seventh. This killer instinct of extending the lead is something that I have not seen out of the Mets. Sheff 's home run allowed Livan to go the distance and throw the Mets first complete game of the season.

Johan Santana pitches tonight and should have a field day on the mound of Citi Field against the helpless Nats. Mets need a sweep here and the bats need to stay hot and more importantly, clutch. The Mets may not have the names right now, but they are playing good baseball. Last night was evident of that. Lets see this team continue that.


In other news, Zack Greinke remains unstoppable in this 2009 campaign. He threw his 5th complete game and "raised" his ERA to 0.84. He is 8-1 with 81 strikeouts and 12 walks.
http://kansascity.royals.mlb.com/media/video.jsp?mid=200905264747891&c_id=kc

Adam Wainwright continues to pitch well throwing seven innings of one run ball with 9 strikeouts.
http://stlouis.cardinals.mlb.com/media/video.jsp?mid=200905264749081&c_id=stl

Tim Lincecum looked unhittable last night using his changeup to strike out 8 Atlanta Braves.
http://sanfrancisco.giants.mlb.com/media/video.jsp?mid=200905274751155&c_id=sf

Max Scherzer picked up a win against the red hot Padres striking out 10. CLIP of the NIGHT!
http://arizona.diamondbacks.mlb.com/media/video.jsp?mid=200905274750655&c_id=ari

Price is Somewhat Right

David Price made his 2009 debut and while his final numbers were nothing special, his stuff looked nasty. He reached 100 pitches in only 3.1 innings but did have 6 strikeouts. Price walked 5 and gave up 2 runs but was not helped by the Umpire who was squeezing both sides all night. Price said after the game he had no command and could not control any of his pitches. Well when he finds his command, Major League hitters should be very afraid when this guy is on the mound. By the way, the Rays blew a 10 run lead. Ouch!
http://tampabay.rays.mlb.com/media/video.jsp?mid=200905264736729&c_id=tb

The Mets are suffering from a series of injuries as Delgado, Reyes and Church are now on the DL. I would not be surprised to see Beltran join that list. He can hit but the way he was running last night, that knee looks very bad.

The only good news is that Fernando Martinez will be making his major league debut tonight. The 20 year old prospect is the best in the system and has serious 5 tool potential. Don't expect to see much but it is exciting to watch these guys.

While the Mets are putting out a scrub lineup, they are still winning games. If they can stay afloat during this storm and remain close to the Phillies on top of the division, they will be getting healthy later in the season as opposed to breaking down.

Enjoy the Game!

The Failure that is Omar Minaya, the Wilpons and the New York Mets

I consider myself smarter than the average met fan. To be honest, I consider myself smarter than most Met fans. But anyone that thinks this team has a chance to make the playoffs or rather win in the playoffs needs to wake up.

Last night proved a perfect example of what this team is. With the loss of Delgado, the Mets lineup is a borderline joke. Even with Delgado, this team was lacking a bat. Now the lineup is depleted of most of its power and run production.

Does Minaya really think that a platoon of Tatis and Murphy at first base will be enough? Does Minaya really think that the corner outfielder platoon of Sheffield, Murphy, Church, Tatis and Murphy will be enough?

It's a joke that the Mets throw out these lineups and think they can compete with these other teams. Right now the Mets lineup looks like
1. Reyes
2. Castillo
3. Beltran
4. Wright
5. Tatis
6. Sheff
7. Church
8. Shitty Catcher
9. Shitty Pitcher

That is a joke of a major league lineup. Wright is gonna walk a ton. Where is the power gonna come from? You need production from the corner outfielders and the 1st base position. This team has none of that.

Any you look at the rotation. Pelfrey and Maine as your number 2 and 3 is a joke. A bigger joke would be Livan and Tim Redding as your 4 and 5 starters. The bullpen is already being overworked and when it is tired and collapses in September, just blame the starters again. Besides Johan, it's a fuckin miracle when a starter can go seven innings.

Bottom line this team needs to make a deal. It cannot win with what they have right now. The Mets will realize this after getting swept in LA and hopefully Boston.

Who is Matt Harrison?

The 23 year old left hander just hurled his second complete game in a row. That does not happen too often in the majors these days if your name isn't Sabathia, Greinke or Halladay.

Harrison has won his past 4 starts and has walked a combined 2 batters in those 4 starts. He struck out 7 last night and has now lowered his ERA to 4.23. Harrison has added a cut fastball to his repertoire and has been able to get more groundballs, something that is very important to do when you pitch in Texas.

The guy he beat? Felix Hernandez when 7 shutout innings before the bullpen blew the lead. Chris Davis is starting to make believers with his walk off 2 run shot in the ninth, his tenth home run of the year.
Harrison-http://mlb.mlb.com/media/video.jsp?mid=200905144561595&c_id=tex
Davis-http://mlb.mlb.com/media/video.jsp?mid=200905144558933&c_id=tex

Mets and Yanks pick up key victories last night. Sabathia pitches another gem against the first place Blue Jays and the Mets stole 7 bases, 4 by Wright to beat the Giants.

Justin Verlander continues to be lights out, striking out 13 yesterday. He now has a league leading 69 strikeouts!
http://detroit.tigers.mlb.com/media/video.jsp?mid=200905144560915&c_id=det

Wandy Rodriguez continues to dazzle, striking out 11 last night in winning his 4th game of the year. His ERA stands at a cool 1.90 and his WHIP is at 1.00
http://houston.astros.mlb.com/media/video.jsp?mid=200905144563945&c_id=hou

Greinke, Lincecum, Oswalt, Harang, Vasquez, Liriano, Danks, Lester and Saunders are on the hill tonight. Should be a great Friday.

Need a closer. Try C.J. Wilson for the weekend