Tagged: Opinion
Pick’em Fridays Challenge : Week 7
I am a day early but not sure if I will get my picks in tomorrow. here are my picks: I will be writing them in MLB.com style.
National League:
Cubs over Padres
American League:
(none)
Interleague at NL:
Orioles over Nationals
Reds over Indians
Marlins over Rays
Blue Jays over Braves
Astros over Rangers
Royals over Cardinals
Dodgers over Angels
Interleague at AL:
Tigers over Rockies
Phillies over Yankees
Mets over Red Sox (We will turn it around)
Brewers over Twins
Pirates over White Sox
A’s over Diamondbacks
Giants over Marlins
Opinion: I Hate Sunday Night Baseball
Tonight the Mets are playing the San Francisco Giants in a ESPN Sunday night game.
Sunday night games are bad for the teams because less people want to come to the game. Fans don’t like it because people have to do things Monday morning. People would much rather see a day game on Sundays.
ESPN does it because people around the country want to watch the game at night but my question is, do people actually watch the game when it isn’t your team playing?
The time slot of 8 PM EST makes sense on the west coast because it is only 5 PM. I wouldn’t mind going to a game at 5 PM but at 8 PM the game doesn’t end until about 11 PM so I won’t get home until like 11:45 PM.
Now when I watch the game on TV I have to go through the entire day waiting for the game when usually on Sundays I watch the game at 1 but that isn’t the main reason. Still the game doesn’t end until like 11.
Also I am used to hearing the Mets announcers (Gary Cohen, Keith Hernandez and Ron Darling) and now I hear John Miller and Joe Morgan. I am not used to what they say or the ESPN graphics. It was the same as it was when the game was on FOX yesterday.
Please answer this poll as I am curious.
Opinion: Ollie to Bullpen, I like it
Oliver Perez was sent to the bullpen today. Ken Takahashi, who pitched in long relief when Ollie pitched on Saturday, will pitch in his spot on Friday.
Most people say they want Ollie in the minors but I want him in the bullpen. Here is why:
Ollie needs to clear his head. 2 or 3 appearances in non-pressure spots. Then like 2 appearances in pressure spots and then start a game again. Let him clear his a head in a major league game to prove to himself that he can get major league hitters out. Then make him think that he can get major league hitters out in big spots. Then he can start a game and hopefully we will see good Ollie.
But what if he can’t get hitters out?
Then send him to the minors. It would probably mean that he has a physical problem. So DL or Buffalo.
But I think lets see what he can do with him in the bullpen. If he fails then DL or minors. Give him a bullpen chance first.
Series Wrap Up: vs. Brewers
Friday, April 17th: 5-4 Win
W- J.J. Putz (1-0)
L – Seth McClung (0-1)
Player of Game: Gary Sheffield
ESPN’s
Mets Go’s
Saturday, April 18th: 1-0 Win
W- Johan Santana (2-1)
L – Carlos Villanueva (1-2)
S – Francisco Rodriguez (3)
Player of Game: Johan Santana
ESPN’s
Mets Go’s
Sunday, April 19th: 4-2 Lose
W- Jeff Supon (1-2)
L – Nelson Figueroa (0-1)
S – Todd Coffey (1)
Player of Game: Mike Cameron for home run.
Met of Game: Omir Santos for going 2 for 4.
ESPN’s
Mets Go’s
My Opinion:
I don’t get why in the 7th, Tatis didn’t bunt. Down 1 run, 1st and 2nd, nobody out, they should have hit with Castillo (who I don’t usually like) and bunt with him.
Up Next:
Tuesday, April 21st
Mets: Oliver Perez
Cardinals: Joel Piniero
Cardinals: Joel Piniero
8:15 on SNY
Wednesday, April 22nd
Mets: John Maine
Cardinals: Adam Wainwright
8:15 on SNY
Thursday, April 23rd
Mets: Livan Hernandez
Cardinals: TBA
1:40 on SNY
Opinion: Ollie should be Good
While nobody will believe me this is what I think:
Oliver Perez had a bad outing yesterday. Next start which will be on Wednesday against the Padres, I think he will pitch well. On Mathew Cerone’s, Metsblog he wrote on his twitter feed that he thinks Oliver will do well next start because he did bad yesterday. He said Oliver is a 50, 50 guy so every other outing he will do well.
My thought is that Oliver will pitch somewhere between well enough to win and 8 shutout or 1 run innings. Ollie is a good pitcher. He was 10-7 last year and 15-10 the year before.
When I think of O.P. I think that he is a very good pitcher. Someone that can sometimes go 8 innings. Most people think of him as we will be lucky if he comes out with less then 5 runs. From when he has been a Met he has gone out and pitched quality games. He just throws a few bad outings which makes people think that he is a bad pitcher. I am not saying he is a guy to trust in a game on the line but you can usually trust him to do well enough to win.
If you remember in the World Baseball Classic, Oliver threw only twice in 17 days and one of those outings he threw 85 pitches. That put Oliver behind everyone. Now I would say that his next start would be his last start of the spring or first start of season. He should get better as the season goes on.
Player Projections
I am going to go through the entire roster giving predictions on how good they will do this year.
C – Brian Schnieder
Schnieder will not hit very well but he will manage the staff well. I expect him to share the catching roles with Castro a lot this year.
1B – Carlos Delgado
Delgado will have a decent year. I think he will get off to a very good start, hit a lot of homers but I think he will cool down in late May and June.I think he then might start hitting well in September and be a big part in this team.
2B – Luis Castillo
Castillo will not have a good year. I think he will either have a really good 1st week or 2 or a really bad one. I think we will see a lot of Cora at 2nd this year and maybe even a trade where they give up someone good for someone else that doesn’t perform. I wouldn’t be surprised if Nick Evens or Daniel Murphy play some games at 2nd.
3B – David Wright
Wright will have a good year. I think the power might not show up until May or June but I think he will get a ton of RBIs. I think he might have a 120 RBI year and hit over .300.
SS – Jose Reyes
Reyes will be a slightly different player this year. I think he will hit 18-20 home runs and steal 50-60 bases.I think at the same time he might win a Gold Glove or compete for one.
LF – Daniel Murphy
Murphy will have a great year. I bet he surprises lots of people by being able to hit lefties so well.I bet he ends up hitting just below .300 and he hits about 15 homers. The amount of RBIs will depend on where Manual puts him in the lineup.If he bats him 6th he should drive in about 80 runs and if he bats 2nd he will drive in like 50 runs. I think he should bat 2nd. I think he would be good behind Reyes and in front of Wright. He will get pitches to hi and I think that would be good for him. i think he will platoon with Tatis at the beginning of the year and play everyday at the end of the year. I think he will play about 100-120 games this year.
CF – Carlos Beltran
Beltran will have a decent year but not one of his bests. I think he will be a streaky player. He will get hot sometimes and show lot of power and drive in lots of runs. He will also get cold and strike out 3 times a game.
RF – Ryan Church
Church will have a average year. Later in the season I bet he platoons with Tatis and Murphy plays everyday. I don’t think you should be counting on Church much this year.
Now the Rotation:
SP – Johan Santana
Johan will have a spectacular year. He should win 20 games now that the bullpen has been fixed up. A low ERA (maybe evan lead the league) and a couple complete games. I think late in the year he will be counted on to pitch on short rest and will pitch fine. I would get him on your fantasy team.
SP – John Maine
Maine will have a good year. I think he will be able to go deeper into games this year but still have some games here he is pulled early due to a high pitch count.
SP – Oliver Perez
I think Perez will have a real good year. All of this stuff about being out of shape should end. I think Perez will respond well to Dan Warthen’s comments. I think he will still have some bad games where he can’t get out of the 3rd inning but I think for the most part he will go deep into games without many runs. I think he might even be a league leader in strikeouts.
SP – Mike Pelfrey
Pelfrey will have a so so year. I think he will be pretty consistent with 6 or 7 innings with 2-4 runs but the question will be if the mets score runs for him. I think the Mets will struggle when Pelf is on the mound. I think throwing a lot of innings last year and this year might get to him at the end of the year.
SP – Livan Hernandez
Livan won’t do so well. THe one good thing he will do is eat up innings and give the bullpen a rest. I think by June Jon Niese will be up. The one thing I hope for is that Freddy Garcia doesn’t come up. If he does then I think he will have a real bad outing.
Now the bullpen:
CL – Francisco Rodrigez
K-Rod will have a good year. He won’t save as many games as last year but he won’t blow many either. He will do better than Wagner did last year. I have no worries with K-Rod
SU – J.J. Putz
Putz will do well. He will be useful in extra inning games because he can go more than 1 inning and he will also be backup for K-Rod.
MR – Sean Green
Green will do well pitching a 7th. Even if he doesn’t perform then the Mets still have Feliciano. They will have a good bridge to K-Rod in close games.
MR – Pedro Feliciano
Feliciano will have a fair year. I think he will have trouble facing righties and I think he will be called upon to do that more this year without Joe Smith. He sould be very good against lefties his year which is useful against the Philies Howard and Utley.
MR – Brian Stokes
Stokes I think will end up doing mop-up work. I think at some points this year he will be more useful but for the most part he will just be doing mop-up.
LR – Bobby Parnell
Parnell will be a long man. He will also be used to eat up extra innings.I think as the season goes in he will come in in more important situations.
Now the bench:
OF – Fernando Tatis
Tatis will be a platoon player in left and right. I think Murphy will end up being a everyday player and Tatis will platoon with Church.
C – Ramon Castro
Castro will be the backup catcher but I think he will play more tha the average backup catcher. I think he will show a lot of power but not have a very good AVG.
IF – Alex Cora
Cora will play a lot of 2nd base and might pinch run a lot because he is the fastest one on the bench. I don’t really know what to expect of him because in he was a backup in the American League so I don’t really know him well.
OF – Marlon Anderson
I think Anderson will be a good pinch hitter like he was in 2006. I think he will be someone to count on off the bench but I don’t think he will perform if he becomes a starting player.
The last Bench spot I think will be:
OF – Angel Pagan
Pagan will be a defensive replacement for Murphy or Tatis. I don’t think he will do much pinch hitting but it will all depend on how he hits this year.
If you disagree with anything I said then type it in the comments section of this post.
Jersey Patch
Last Year the Mets wore a jersey patch like this on their right shoulder:
Nice isn’t it. They even have the old panels on it.
This year they will wear one like this:
That is kind of boring. How about a picture of Citi Field on it or even the words CITI FIELD! You would only know that it is Citi FIeld is if you know the Citi Field logo and I don’t think most people do.
What ever. I guess it doesn’t matter. Just thought I should point this out.
Letter from Johan
If you didn’t know, today is Johan Santana’s birthday. The people at the Daily Stache made a letter from Johan for his birthday wish list. This includes:
- David Wright start hitting the other way again.
- Jose Reyes run the bases smarter.
- K-Rod not blow the saves the bullpen blew last year.
- Castillo to perform.
- Murphy to have patience when he hits
- Feliciano to get all lefties out
- Castro to stay healthy
- Church to know his limits.
- Omar Minaya drop Freddie Garcia and Tim Redding
- Fred Wilpon to be honest.
- Mr. Met to get angry and give the players a boost.
- Fernando Martinez stay healthy.
- Jerry Manual not to over analyze things.
If the Mets would do these things then they would be impossible to beat. One thing I would add would be sign Pedro unless the Mets and Johan know something is wrong with him. I would also add to number 4 that if Castillo doesn’t perform then release him and move on. Don’t keep trying to get him going because he didn’t last year and he might not (and in my mind won’t) turn things around ever. He has hurt knees and it will be hard to get him back.
WBC: What I Think
First off I still don’t get how the Netherlands beat the Dominican Republic twice. The good thing is that Reyes is now back so he won’t have to compete with Hanley Ramirez for at bats.
I just don’t like the idea of having it.It is spring training. The players have to get ready for the 162 game season.To get ready they should be with the team they are going to be playing with. The MLB tried to fix it by extending spring training but now spring training is too long.
I think having it is good for players like Pedro Martinez, who is trying to get teams to want him but for players like Jose Reyes, why have it. Reyes should be getting at bats not compete with Hanley Ramirez.
I think if they have it it should be during the winter. Maybe even part of the Winter olympics. Play it in a dome because they got rid of baseball in the olympics because the MLB wouldn’t let their players go to it.
Mets Go 