Tag: Manny Acosta

New York Mets 2010: The Ship Be Sinking…

 

   

Well, up until now, I haven’t felt compelled to put anything down on “paper” when it came to the New York Mets, as the majority of my thoughts can be found in my post game reports that I share with Matt Dagastino on the New York Mets Audio Minute, over at Lexy.

However, for some reason, as I sit and think about where this team is currently situated, I can’t help but to reflect over the last few days about the annual mess that this franchise seems to get themselves into, year in, and year out.

I won’t even go into how ownership doesn’t know how to produce a winning baseball franchise—at least not yet.

I’ll start with Jerry Manuel. My first example starts with the lineup that he is putting out there for the upcoming game against the Philadelphia Phillies, a team that the Mets MUST defeat, in order to remain in contention for any type of playoff berth in the National League.

Here is your bottom of the order, Mets fans: 5)Mike Hessman, 6) Jeff Francoeur, 7)Henry Blanco, 8) Rueben Tejada, and of course, the pitcher hits ninth. Now, as a Mets fan, you could probably pick apart any piece of this equation, but I’ll center in on the number five spot, and Mike Hessman.

Now, there’s nothing wrong with Hessman, per se. The problem is your potential National League Rookie of the Year candidate, Ike Davis, should be hitting in that spot, and not a career minor leaguer. I understand that Ike may struggle against left-handed pitching, but tonight’s opposing starter, Cole Hamels, is no Sandy Koufax. He’s 7-8 on the season, and 2-6 lifetime vs. the Mets. Davis should be playing, period.

As Jerry continues to mix and match an often times over-matched lineup, he has failed miserably to find an eighth inning guy to get the ball to the recently incarcerated Francisco Rodriguez.

In the two-plus years that Manuel has been the skipper, he has not found the guy to get the job done. Some of the blame goes squarely to him, and some of it doesn’t. Omar Minayatakes a hit, because he failed to bring in that guy to get the job done. Having said that, let’s go back to Tuesday night’s 6-2 loss to the Colorado Rockies, which was the catalyst for the now infamous FamilyGate, involving K-Rod and his common-law father in-law. Instead of staying with Hisanori Takahashi(who I am not a fan of) to finish the eighth inning—as he pledged to the media that this was “the guy”, Manuel got an itchy trigger finger, and decided to bring in Manny Acosta, who is certainly not proven in New York to be ready for prime time. Subsequently, Acosta gives up the grand slam to former Met Melvin Mora—his third home run of the season—and the Mets lose. What a shock there. We Mets fans know what happened in the clubhouse after that.

Jerry Manuel has time and time again failed to deliver, and he will pay the price at the end of the season. Unfortunately, ownership has made the repeated mistake of allowing Omar Minaya to keep his job through contract extensions, and allow him to make more crucial mistakes, going forward.

In the four years since Game seven of the 2006 National League Championship Series, where the defining moment of Carlos Beltran’s Met career still lies, Minaya and this group has failed to deliver a playoff team, as they choked in 2007 and 2008, and wilted earlier than expected in 2009, due to injuries. We all see what’s going on this year. So, in those 4 years, the Wilpons, in their sheer incompetence, have issued not one, but TWO contract extensions to Omar Minaya. When was the last time you were rewarded for failing to meet your goals on your job?

Unfortunately, Mets fans—and I have used that word a lot here, it doesn’t look as though things are destined to change in the future. David Wright, Jose Reyes, and Carlos Beltran have to proven to be players that are All-Star caliber, but not championship caliber. Johan Santana can only do but so much by himself. We have seen the Wilpons make fundamental mistake, after fundamental mistake, and unfortunately(there’s that word again), it will continue, under their regime. After all, they are real estate tycoons, who happen to own a baseball team. At the rate they are going, by the time the All-Star Game reaches Citi Field in 2014, they will be paying you to come to the ballpark. Once again, “the ship be sinking.”

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Mets’ Report Card: Midterm Estimates, Pitchers

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The second half of the season is going to start tomorrow, so it’s only fair to let the players know how they are doing right now.

Up where I go to college at SUNY Cortland we get mid-semester estimates. The professors let you know if you are on track to either pass the class or fail it. But they don’t give us a letter grade, which I would like to see; I should talk to the dean about that, but I digress.

I’ll give these players a letter grade, and I should let them know I’m a pretty easy grader.

 

Pitchers

 

Manny Acosta

Pitched in 12 innings in the first half and gave up four runs on eight hits and eight walks. Wasn’t expecting much from him, but he should think about coming to some office hours to improve his control. Grade: C

 

Elmer Dessens

He certainly gave this bullpen a big boast. Didn’t make the Opening Day roster, but stepped up when his team called on him from the minors. 18.1 innings pitched, three earned runs, well done. Grade: B+ 

 

R.A. Dickey

It’s scary to think where this team could be without him. Finished the first half with a 6-2 record and a 2.77 ERA. He won six starts in a row, and has given up three runs or fewer in eight of his 10 starts. Grade: A+

 

Pedro Feliciano

To be honest I was expecting a bit more out of him. He came out of Spring Training and wanted to be this team’s set-up man, but he hasn’t been able to lock down that position. His numbers are pretty good, but there is room for improvement. Grade: B

 

Ryota Igarashi

I was really high on this guy. In Spring Training, he looked like he could be the set-up man for this team, but he was just so inconsistent. An eight ERA? Really? You get a frowny face on your report card. Grade: D

 

John Maine

Ah, where do I start. He looked great for three starts in a row, but before that and after those starts, he was awful. Maybe you should try taking this class with a different professor. Grade: D

 

Jenrry Mejia

I think it was a bit early to take a course of this level, but he didn’t do to bad. He showed that he has potential to be a very fine major leaguer. He should think about taking the prerequisites first though. Grade: B

 

Jon Niese

Got to love the job this kid has been doing. Since coming back from his injury, he’s been great, at 5-1 with a 3.12 ERA. A very solid No. 3 guy, keep up the good work. Grade: B+

 

Fernando Nieve

5.26 ERA? When did this happen? You used to be such a good student—all this partying is catching up to you. And by partying I mean coming in to pitch every single game. Take it easy on him Jerry. Grade: C

 

Bobby Parnell

He’s come back to the team and has looked very good. He gave the team some much needed bullpen support at the end of the first half. He threw 11 innings of work, gave up two runs on 12 hits, three walks, and 14 strike outs. I think we’ll see some big things from him the second half. Grade: B+ 

 

Mike Pelfrey

Great work there Mike, we all knew you could do it. All-Star caliber performance in the first half of the season, but he’s dealing with some dead arm issues in his last few starts. Not to worry, Mike said he goes through this every year and he’ll be back in tip top shape soon enough—we hope. Grade: A

 

Oliver Perez

MR. BLUTARSKY—ZERO POINT ZERO. Grade: F- – 

 

Francisco Rodriguez

Blew four saves and got two loses, but he did post a 2.45 ERA with 21 saves. He worked a lot of innings in the first half, but hopefully he’ll be fine for the second. This team really needs him to be. Grade: B

 

Johan Santana

Despite everyone saying his arm isn’t what it used to be, he had a 2.98 ERA for the first half, which is very respectable. Take away that awful start against the Phillies and he has a 2.33 ERA. Santana is a second half pitcher though, so I’m expecting big things, especially since the way he finished up the first half. Grade: B+ 

 

Hisanori Takahashi

Had some very nice starts, and he’s pitched better than his numbers. However, he is better fitted for the bullpen, where he will be for the second half of the season. Grade: B+

 

Raul Valdes

Came out of no where and really impressed me. He had a two really bad outings against the Padres which blew up his ERA. Not sure what the team will get from him in the second half though. Grade: B 

 

The one weakness on this team is the pitching. The Mets need to go out and get a starting pitcher and a set-up guy for the bullpen if they want to be serious contenders for the World Series. Until then, they are just a borderline playoff team.

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