Wang I Want
Does the title to this post reference a song on Van Halen 3? Of course. But you already knew that, DIDN’T YOU?!
Today I ended up watching the series finale between the Nationals and Phillies, which included a start by former Yankee Chien-Ming Wang, who has recently returned to the Majors with Washington after spending two years recovering from a major shoulder injury. I was always a big fan of Wang during his tenure with the Yanks, because he won the vast majority of the time when he was healthy, and because he was so wonderfully boring. Also, his dignified disposition (for reals).
When Wang was pitching, you knew you were going to be seeing basically nothing but sinkers, and if they were behaving and staying in the lower half of the zone, he was likely going to get a ton of ground balls and win the game. If the sinker was up, like it was during most of his disastrous final season with the Yanks, he was going to get shelled. And that was it. Rarely was he going to strike out too many, although he did once strike out 10 in a game against the Mets … and this was in 2007, before the dark times began for that franchise. But generally it was sinkers and ground balls, with the occasional slider thrown in just to give the batter another look.
Because of this predictable nature, I couldn’t even get annoyed when Wang was pitching poorly. It’s not like he’d start throwing 3-2 breaking balls to No. 9 hitters (I’m looking at YOU Joba. I’m not going to check if Joba actually has ever done this, I’m just going to assume he has … multiple times. This blog doesn’t do fact checking), or being completely inept despite having two impressive pitches like A.J. Burnett; if Wang wasn’t pitching well in a game, it was basically, “Well, that damned sinker isn’t behaving today!” Misbehaving sinkers ruin everything.
And today, it was the same as it ever was. Wang still has that ridiculously deliberate windup, still throws basically nothing but sinkers and actually struck out four while throwing some pretty impressive sliders. He ended about allowing two homers, although one followed a play when Washington second baseman Danny Espinosa fielded a ground ball and, well, fell down for reasons unknown. Raul Ibanez actually was credited for a hit on that play, which makes no sense. Wang was trailing, 3-2, after 5 2/3 innings before a rain delay ended his outing, but the Nationals ended up rallying for the win after a two-out, two-strike homer by Ian Desmond in the ninth tied it and Brad Lidge hit Jonny Gomes with the bases loaded in the 10th to give Washington the victory.
But it was good seeing Wang back. Despite his horrible performance in the 2007 postseason, he had an impressive career with the Yanks, winning 19 games in back-to-back seasons before the injuries started to derail his career in 2008. Derek Jeter also always referred to him as Mr. Wang, which I found amusing. And now he gets to continue his career with Washington, where he gets to pitch with the soothing sounds of that jazz beat MLB.com reporter Bill Ladson has been hearing recently outside Nationals Park. Who needs Yankee Stadium when you have that?
Winning > Losing
Five straight wins for the beautiful Mets against the class of the NL. Ok, the Astros, Diamondbacks, and Nationals are three chump teams, but I will take the W’s at this point. The Mets did a very impressive job of pissing off just about every Mets fan that tried to talk themselves into holding out hope for this team, over the first few weeks of the season. (except for me, solely based on bringing up my boy Izzy) They could not pitch, the fielding was a joke, and the bats were ok, but missing the big RBI’s late in games. They were off to the worst home start since ’62, and had the look of one of the worst teams in the league. Then, coinciding with the return of Jason Bay, the Mets have bounced back, rolling off 5 straight, and 6 of 7 (as I type this they are losing 2-1 in the bottom of the 6th). I am not putting too much stock into this winning streak, because these are some weak opponents, but I am still enjoying this stretch of winning baseball. Unfortunately, with the pitchers the Mets have (obviously not talking about #45), it is hard to imagine this team being much better than a .500 ball club. With that said, this current winning streak has also displayed why this Mets team is not a group of bums like some of the other basement dwellers of the MLB. Reyes has been hitting all year, and during this current stretch Wright, Beltran, Bay and RBIke Davis have been crushing the ball. They are all obviously not going to stay red hot all season, but those first four are proven All-stars, and RBIke (anyone?…Who’s coming with on RBIke?) has been absolutely tearing the cover off of the ball (especially against RHP, well over .400). If these core bats stay healthy, and Daniel Murphy can stay out of the way defensively (also hitting very well, and will continue to start as long as he doesn’t turn into a scrub at second base), the Mets are poised to put up a lot of crooked numbers with these big bats. The Mets could end up having one of the better lineups in baseball, especially in the NL East, but the name of the game is pitching, so the team will only be as successful as the arms on the mound. This weekend will be a real test against the Phils, especially since they will be greeted in Philly by Doc, and Cliff Lee. If they can steal 2 from the Phils, and keep up the recent trend of decent pitching, and solid defense, they might actually keep the fans interested heading into summer. Random thoughts from last week. – NY Rangers blowing 2 very winnable games, including a 3-0 3rd period lead was true fakeness. – Sweet 3 year contract for a straight bum in the 8th inning so far yanks. – Homemade rainbow cookie cake is as real as it gets. – The Knicks went out like chumps (BK Nets for life son!) – Bartender at Blackstones hooking up my fellow jambronis and I with free shots of Jameson was a true American. – Kid Cudi concert was realness, high school kids begging for beer at the show was fakeness. Keep it real America! As I was about to publish this, the herb 3rd base umpire screwed the Mets out of a 1 out triple in the 8th while down 2-1, with a ridiculously bad call, and then up next big Murph dropped a 2 out bomb to tie it! Do it Mets!
Izzy Izzy Izzy!
The Mets continued their recent run of fakeness last night, but more importantly, Jason Isringhausen is back in action! The man is a straight-up stud, and came back with a bang last night, getting the Mets out of a jam with one out in the top of the seventh inning. Big Izzy came out to a hero’s welcome (by hero’s welcome, I mean I was chanting his name in my living room), and proceeded to get a ground out (almost a double play), and then an F8 to retire the pride of the Rockies, Todd Helton. Izzy had some decent pop on his fastball (low-to-mid 90s), and he snapped off some filthy curveballs as well.
I would have been pumped up to see any pitcher in the Mets’ bullpen get out of a late-inning jam, but the fact that it was Izzy doing the work made it certified Grade A Realness. He would have been in line for the W if Tulo didn’t make an absurd (Jeter style) play in the hole to rob Daniel Murphy of the go-ahead RBI base hit (after a two-out triple by Reyes, his second three-bagger of the night). Bobby Parnell ended up getting shelled in the next half inning to break the game open (terrible fielding on the mound, because apparently the Mets didn’t focus during pitcher’s fielding practice in Spring Training; followed by a Tulowitzki biiizooomb), and the Mets went on to lose … again.
As much as I am growing more and more frustrated by the Mets’ bullpen giving away games, for a night my anger was tempered by the return of one of my childhood favorites. Growing up as a Mets fan, Izzy was my favorite player in the mid 90s. Izzy was a highly-touted prospect in the Mets’ farm system (Generation faKe), but as a young kid, that was not the basis for my Izzy love. My adoration of Izzy stemmed from him being one of the first autographs I ever got as a child. There are countless stories across the baseball fandom of people loving or, sometimes, hating players based on an encounter they had with them in person (especially as a kid). Getting Izzy’s autograph before a game at Shea Stadium as a kid forever made me a huge fan of him, and made me want to be a pitcher.
I was a fired-up 12 year old when the Mets traded him to the Oakland Athletics for crap (Billy Taylor … who? Exactly) only a few appearances after he returned from Tommy John surgery. Along those same lines, I was also probably one of the few people (outside of Izzy himself, and possibly some of his close relatives) that was ecstatic to find out that the Mets were bringing him to Spring Training this year. Izzy went on to have a very successful career as a closer for the A’s and Cardinals. He ended up making two All-Star teams, and led the league in saves (2004) once. If he can stay healthy, and K-Rod has any injury issues, he has a chance to reach 300 career saves (currently at 293, second most among active pitchers behind the almighty Mo).
This season is still very young, but if the Mets starters do not start pitching deeper into games, and the mess of a bullpen (except for Izzy, obviously) does not start throwing significantly better, this is going to be a very long season for the Mets faithful. The bats are giving them plenty of chances to win games (especially the RBI machine that is Ike Davis), but it ultimately comes down to solid pitching, and the Mets have not shown much of it. Hopefully the play will improve, but for now I will just enjoy watching my boy Jason Isringhausen back on the mound for the Mets.
Pizzas for all.
-Kevin McRainoutsallovertonight
Beckett bringing the high, stinky cheese
Yes, I am typing this while watching “Rookie of the Year,” because I obviously have not watched enough baseball this weekend (fireable). However, “Rookie of the Year” is a tremendous movie with a great soundtrack (Bill Conti of “Rocky” fame … at least I’m pretty sure it’s the same Bill Conti. The movie is not listed on his Wikipedia page, and that’s obviously the most reliable source of information for getting one’s facts correct), and while I would have liked for Josh Beckett to have pitched like Chet Steadman during the first half of that movie tonight, he instead looked like Henry Rowengartner during the second half (minus the floater, of course).
Now, most people have naturally compared Beckett’s performance tonight to how he pitched against the Yankees in the 2003 World Series, but the thing I found most impressive was the fact that, unlike then, when he was a fresh face to New York, tonight’s performance came in his 25th career start against the representatives of Pride, Power and Pinstripes. Beckett’s career stats against the Yanks — not including the World Series, of course — aren’t all that impressive (10-7, 6.26 ERA, 92 earned runs on 155 hits in 132 1/3 innings), which isn’t all that surprising (at least to me) because New York always has a loaded lineup and has faced him so many times. So to be as overpowering as he was tonight against a team that’s seen him a ton of times and has a strong lineup, even with A-Rod out (hell, A-Rod’s replacement, Eric Chavez, got one of the Yanks’ two hits off Beckett), sort of blew my mind. It’s one thing to blow away a team when they’ve never seen you before and you throw in the mid-90′s with a ridiculous 12-to-6 hook like Beckett does, but to dominate them when they’ve already seen you at your best … I begrudgingly (as a Yankees fan) tip my hat to Beckett (Pedroia gets no hat tip, even though he was piling up the big hits all weekend. Guy is clearly a dirtbag. Hate hate hate.).
Now, speaking of pitchers with overpowering stuff (at least at one point in the past), Joba (Joba Joba) Chamberlain had one of his performances tonight that hurt my head. I know young Kevin brought up Joba’s additional pounds in his post below this one, but that’s not what bothers me about Joba. A large belly didn’t stop David Wells, Bartolo Colon (Free Bartolo!) or Hideki Irabu from being top-notch pitchers (OK, Irabu was only a top-notch pitcher in my childhood fantasies … that sounds creepy). Joba’s problem, as always, is his lack of control (leadoff walk to Big Papi in the seventh) and dumb pitch selection (walking J.D. Drew that same inning on a 3-2 slider). Three of the four balls to Ortiz were fastballs: you can’t be an effective pitcher in the big leagues if you can’t control your fastball, and Joba’s tendency to throw 3-2 sliders is something that’s bothered me about him since the 2008 season.
So, decent first week for the Yanks — outside of some poor bullpen performances and whatever is going on with Phil Hughes’ right arm. And this upcoming week brings two more interesting matchups in the Orioles (are they for real?) and the Rangers (off to a red-hot start, and will they continue where they left off against the Yanks in the 2010 ALCS?). I also might head out to Citi Field tomorrow or Tuesday to give some support to Kev’s boy, Izzy. Funky buttloving.
Bring up Izzy!
A weekend of straight fakeness from the New York Mets. Dropping two out of three to the scrub Nats with some weak pitching and continued weak sauce at the plate with runners on (especially runners on third with less than two outs!!!).
Opening Day at Citi Field was not surprisingly a cold and rainy day of grossness — to match the grossness on the field. R.A. Dickey could not find the strike zone (five walks), and for the second time in a week, the Mets have given up a two-run single with the bases loaded to the opposing starting pitcher (Joe Blanton, Jordan Zimmermann). This, ladies and gentlemen, is not how you play winning baseball.
Game 2 of the series went a lot better for the Mets, with some good news coming on the field in the form of a decent outing by Chris Capuano in his first start, and two bombski’s from Carlos Beltran. I have never been the biggest Beltran fan, but I understand his importance to this team. If he bounces back to anywhere near what he used to be at the plate, the Mets lineup should put up a lot of runs.
Today’s game continued the trend of losing baseball. Chris Young threw a gem for seven innings, and now has two impressive starts to begin his tenure with the Mets (one earned run, one hit), but good ol’ Blaine Boyer quickly sabotaged the W. Mr. Boyer and I got off on the wrong foot with the Mets foolishly keeping him on the big league roster over my main man Jason Isringhausen. I didn’t like this decision for a variety of baseball reasons, but the main source of my dislike stems from the fact that Izzy was my favorite player on the team growing up. Izzy brings a lot to the table for this Mets bullpen. He has plenty of experience pitching out of the bullpen (mostly as a closer), to go along with the fact that he’s proven that he can get big league hitters out when he is healthy. The Mets have a very young ‘pen that could really gain a lot with Izzy there to mentor them. Something tells me that K-Rod is not the best guy to turn to for words of wisdom, or encouragement (avoiding a cheap joke about beating up old people).
Well, needless to say, the Mets went the jabroni route, and decided to keep Boyer and have Izzy stay down for an extended Spring Training to prove his health. Blaine has thanked this show of support by getting smacked all over the park every time he has touched the mound (two losses, ERA over 10.0, and almost two hits per inning). That is First Team All Fake material. He retired the Nats in order when he entered in the 10th, then allowed four runs on four hits in the 11th to give the Nats the win as the Mets dropped their second consecutive series to drop to 4-5 on the year. So far, the Mets are doing a good job confirming most of the preseason hate.
Quick thoughts: Beckett is absolutely dominating the Yanks right now, looks like old school Beckett from the 2003 World Series. (Brian’s boy Pedroia is on fire also). … Joba is fat, and way too much was made of his good pitching this spring. He is a mutant, and is definitely not going to be better with the 25 lbs of gut he added this offseason. … The Orioles are going to be a pest in the AL East, and could compete if their young arms stay healthy. Either way, that lineup is going to put up a lot of crooked numbers.
Pizzas for all.
– Kevin McMetsjustcalledupIzzyREAAAL
What a difference an ace makes
After wasting an impressive seven-run comeback last night once Big Pelf was done vomiting out of his right arm, I did not feel very good about this afternoon’s chances agains Doc Hallady … sadly, my feelings were correct. The only good thing about today’s 11-0 beat down was that I did not have to watch it because I was at work. The Mets had a great opportunity to take an early road series from the Phils, but the well documented differential in aces on these two staffs, not surprisingly, proved to be the difference.
If Pelf shows up to the ballpark and throws like the front end starter he’s supposed to be, the Mets would be heading home for Opening Day with back-to-back road series wins against an NL East rival. Instead, the Phillies sent a strong reminder that they are the team with the big gun at the front of the rotation. They also surprised me with the amount of runs they put up without Chase and D. Brown (this is probably more a result of fake Mets pitching than realness at the plate by the Phils, but either way, I was surprised).
In order for the Mets to remain competitive this season, the pitching staff is going to have to do a much better job. The hitting has been very good (the two bad games at the plate were against two studs in Josh Johnson and Doc Halladay), now it’s time for the arms to start pulling their weight.
Opening Day is tomorrow at Citi Field, and I am confident in America’s favorite No. 3, Mr. R.A. Dickey, to pitch a good game and send the Mets faithful home with a W against the Nats, to match the realness of the free Mr. Met bobblehead doll.
Eat your pizzas and read your American History, people.
– Kevin McJabused by the Phils today
A.J. Burnett has more wins than the Red Sox
The fact that we’re six games and two Burnett starts into the season and the title for this blog entry is true is amazing. Was that available as a prop bet in Vegas? Do I know what a prop bet really is? Loyal readers will have to help me out on that question (I will NOT google it).
But it is true, and while Burnett hasn’t been amazing, he has been closer to “Good A.J.” than “Bad A.J.,” which is (sadly) all most Yankee fans ask from him. Should a person being paid $82.5 million over five years be expected to simply keep his team in games? Nope, but as Kurt Vonnegut said, “so it goes.” (Vonnegut hoped that phrase would be used to justify mediocre performances from subpar pitchers, right?)
Back to the Red Sox … this first Yankees/Boston series, which gets overhyped as it is, will now be hyped through the roof due to the fact that the Sawx are going into it (home opener no less) winless. SEASON ON THE BRINK! Are the Red Sox buckling under the pressure of being the team to beat heading into this season? (And were the Yankees smart by pretending to be $200 million underdogs?) Will Boston sweep and immediately return to being most people’s pick to win the AL East? Will the Yankees sweep and cause Red Sox Nation to despair about a season already lost in April? However it ends up, the Red Sox will be happy to know they get to face the Rays starting Monday, and that team is in much worse shape than they are right now (seriously, that offense is little league).
Big Pelf = Big Herb to start 2011
Tonight’s Mets/Phils game put a bright light on the good, bad, and ugly of both teams. For the second straight start, Big Pelf failed to make it out of the third inning. I don’t think anyone expected him to pitch like a true ace, but right now he is straight up grossness. His fastball has no life or location, and his “get me over” slider is doing far more damage than good. The game quickly went south for Pelf after he tried to sneak a double play in by letting a terrible bunt by Blanton fall, and then proceeded to bounce the ball past first base and up the right-field line. The wheels quickly fell off, and the end result was a 7-0 deficit for the beautiful Mets. If Pelf doesn’t figure it out soon, this Mets will be in big trouble, because the middle relief is not a strength, and the starters do not go deep enough to make up for a lot of short outings by Pelf.
On a positive note, the Mets bats continue to show a lot of life. The have now batted around for the third consecutive game, which I cannot recall happening at any point last season. Unfortunately, they are still struggling with runners on third and less than two outs, which absolutely drive me insane. They still managed to score seven unanswered to tie, but the bullpen quickly gave the runs back with some horrendous 0-2 pitches. It is very difficult to win baseball games when you leave runs on third with less than two outs, and when your pitchers serve up 0-2, two-out RBIs. The Mets’ Rule 5 pick, rookie Pedro Beato, also had a solid 1, 2, 3 inning against the top of the Phillies order in his first appearance at Citizens Bank Park.
I’m still not sure what took Charlie Manuel so long to give Heavy B the hook, but it almost cost the Phils the game. I assume he was trying to save the overused bullpen from last night, but Blanton had absolutely nothing left and Manuel left him in there as the Mets rallied to tie. Blanton will not be asked to do too much this year, but with a seven-run lead, he could have provided the overworked ‘pen with some rest before the series-ending day game tomorrow by not being a scrub and pitching deep into the game. The inning ended with two men on, and continuing the trend from earlier in the game, the runners left on base proved costly. The Mets were a very good 5-for-10 with runners in scoring position, but seven men left on base is too many.
Overall, the major weaknesses of this Mets team were exposed, and a good opportunity to guarantee a series win against the hated, division rival Phillies was wasted (Doc Halladay vs Niese tomorrow … not impossible, but not an easy W).
In the other dugout, Ryan Howard is an absolute monster (hit a bomb to center off a hanger from Pelf), and petrifies me every time he steps in the box. With Chase Utley on the DL, there is no reason to let him beat you, but apparently no one told the Mets’ staff about this (they went after him and survived last night, but not surprisingly got burned by the same approach tonight). Victorino had a nice day at the plate (including a huge check swing double that lead to the go-ahead run in the fifth). The bullpen did a good job shutting down the Mets the rest of the way, and are looking towards Doc to provide them with some rest tomorrow afternoon by going deep into the game.
The Mets have their work cut out for them against Doc tomorrow, and both teams will be looking for their starting pitching to take them deep into the game, to give the relief pitchers some rest. Tonight’s Faker of the Game award goes to Mike Pelfrey for his outstandingly fake effort for the second start in a row. The Realest player on the field was Ryan Howard, but unfortunately for him, members of the Phillies are not eligible for this high honor as punishment for playing on the fakest baseball team in the beautiful US of A.
Keep it real, and eat your pizzas, America.
– Kevin McReal
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