With Or With Out Delgado?

Can the Mets do well in the playoffs without our first baseman?

If Carlos Delgado comes back from his hip injury, will he be the hitter he has been for the majority of the year, or will he be the hot hitter he was before he went down. We've seen streaks of brilliance throughout this year, where he would string together a few games with big hits or home runs. He has consistently driven in runs, driving in 80 this year, even though it seems like 18. He continually has lacked the clutch hitting, and usually strikes out in big situations.

While Delgado has been out Shawn Green, Jeff Conine, and even Marlon Anderson have filled in at first. Green has been a hot hitter as of late, smacking doubles and going the other way nicely. He also holds the longest current streak in the NL of games at first without an error.

Conine hits the ball well, but all of his balls seem to find the other teams glove. He will sting a ball, and it will end up going right to the shortstop or second basemen. He is decent at first, but has limited mobility.

Anderson, as we all know, is a pinch hitting master. He is a utility player, most likely being able to fill in anywhere but pitcher or catcher. He can play well at all positions, but doesn't excel at any particular position.

With Green hitting the way he is, we might be breaking even at first, especially the way Carlos has been hitting all year. I still feel that Delgado is underrated at first base, but Green can play the bag well.

In conclusion, we will need Delgado back, even if he isn't 100% and maybe doesn't even get the start every game. Green can fill in just fine, and we will have Lastings Milledge, Carlos Gomez (maybe), and Endy Chavez to fill in if Shawn is at first. Imagine that big bat of Delgado's off the bench? I like the sound of that.

--TheRopolitans.com--

Some October Questions

With the magic number dwindling by the game, the Mets playoff chances get better and better. They’re a mere fifteen games away from clinching the National League East title for a second straight year and unlike last year will finally might have the entire pitching staff at full strength.

So the only thing for us to do is to take a look at some possible questions that the Mets are going to be faced with as the playoffs loom.

Is Mota playing come October?

The first problem is an enormous one and it all falls on Willie Randolph’s shoulders. Is Guillermo Mota going to be allowed to be on the post season roster? There are an astronomical number of reasons why he shouldn’t and the number on reason is his 5.82 ERA. This should be reason enough for Mota to be sent home packing come October, but we all know how Willie thinks that he will turn his game around come playoff time. The only problem with this train of thought would be, and we all know it’s going to happen, that Mota is going to be brought into a big situation and give up the game.

Pedro, the Number One Starter?

With his first two starts since coming off of rotator cuff surgery, Pedro Martinez is 2-0 with a 1.80 ERA. Should this warrant him as the top dog in the Mets playoff rotation? I firmly believe so. With Pedro atop of the Mets rotation, they look more intimidating than the Peavey, Young combination in the National League.

Is Ramon Castro going to be ready for October ball?

Castro has just started his rehab assignment for Brooklyn and still isn’t ready to come back to the big club yet. Knowing that Paul Lo Duca is going to make most, if not all, of the playoff starts, could Willie bring Castro up before the post season begins? Well he should because I don’t think I could see Lo Duca going down and the remainder of the games played out by Di Felice, can you?

Who’s on first?

Carlos Delgado is apparently out for the rest of the season and that brings a plethora of questions to light. Could Shawn Green cover first in the post season? If not how about Conine? These questions are ones that I don’t want to ask, so Delgado had better suck up the pain come October and make a repeat of his effort last year, when he destroyed LA and the Cardinals hitting .354 with 4 home runs. That kind of production would be sorely missed if he can’t make it back.

Who’s the fourth starter?

Maine and Perez both came up big for the Mets last October, but that was when Pedro and El Duque were side lined, so they won’t be asked to make the same kind of repeat this year. Paul LoDuca already said that he believes that Oliver Perez wouldn’t be a good option out of the pen because of his erratic style. Good enough for me, so my fifth starter would have to be Oliver Perez or even a two headed beast of Perez and Maine. How about a little three or four inning show from each in the same game?

Issues Down The Stretch

Obviously wrapping up and securing the division title and home field through round 1 and 2 are the priorities here. But after that, here are some pending issues.

Jose Reyes NEEDS Rest:
Can we get A Hernandez to play some short? With each new view of a pop up flying off of his bat, it's become over-obvious that he is tired. The 48 hours off ending the Cinci series, followed by the scheduled team day off, will be a nice rest period for Reyes. But a little more may actually be in order.

Keeping Castillo Healthy:
Like Reyes, Castillo needs rest. With Gotay as a solid backup, it should not kill the appearance of the offensive lineup. Defense suffers, but Castillo lightening the workload on his knees and Gotay getting at bats is a good thing; gain a bit of pop and keep the valuable, aging, number two hitter fresher for the postseason. Its a symbiotic relationship that helps the team exponentially because in addition to the rest and health benefits of Castillo, Gotay keeps a nice bat on point.

Pedro:
* Building arm strength.
* Properly evaluating his status for the postseason and how he should be used. Bullpen? Starting? If in the rotation is he your number one, two, three, or four starter?

Sorting Out the Rotation for the Playoffs:
'Nuff said for now. See who has it going down the stretch. Clearly the toughest evaluation the team will need to make heading into round one. And of course this impacts......

The Bullpen:
Which starter or starters will go to the pen? The Mets win games the Duke starts at a high rate. He has big stage moxy. On the flip side however, he may be the most adaptable for the pen, an area where the Mets desperately need improvement. El Duque has pitched out of the pen in the postseason before (2005 WS Champion White Sox).

I've been vocal since last November about the temptation and logic behind Pedro being used in the pen. But its apparent that isn't a popular thought and highly unlikely due to ego. Some say his arm wouldn't be capable of getting loose on short notice. But being used an inning a night might be easier on the arm than the workload of 6 at a time. I'm no doctor though.

If he takes a step back in performance over the next and final 3 starts of the regular season, it would be a major risk to let him start a playoff game. So this final stretch will determine a lot.

The team will also need to decide how many bullpen guys they carry as their bench is extremely strong and one impacts the other. And where is Joe Smith? Is he coming back soon or what? What is his chance of being on the postseason roster?

Can Mota restore our confidence in him? Can Willie resist the temptation to burn out Sosa's arm? So far he has severley overused him and I fear for his effectiveness dropping off.

The Bench:
Conine needs some ABs. In addition to the chance Delgado's hip issue lingers, Conine is one of the few attractive righty bat options off the bench. It is dominated by sweet lefty options. But other than Milledge, who starts 50% of the time anyway, Conine is the main righty pinch-hitter late in a game. He needs to get AB's in September for his timing come October.

In blowout games or games that seem to not matter (should the Mets build a more than comfortable lead in the NL east), Chavez should be in there relieving the old and fragile, but important to the postseason, Mosies Alou. Let him come off the bench late in the games like Willie has been doing, or get him more frequent starts in place of Moises.

Regarding the rest of the bench, roster decisions will have to be made and the pitching roster will determine how many bench players are carried. As always it all begins with the pitching.

Catchers:
Getting Castro healthy is number one priority here. All the Mets can do is sit back and wait, hoping he heals. He's on the postseason roster even if he only heals by Septembet 30 and gets no MLB ABs before the first round. Will the Mets carry 3 catchers or will they prefer to carry an extra arm in the bullpen or give that spot to a non-catching bench player?

Conine’s Visit Back To The Great American Ballpark

Mark Schmetzer at Mets.com writes about Jeff Conine and his trip back to Cincinnati:

Jeff Conine was standing at his cubicle in the visitors' clubhouse at Great American Ball Park on Monday when somebody came up and asked the former Cincinnati Red if he'd had a hard time finding his way around since he'd been gone so long.

The laid-back, low-key Conine gave a slight smile and went along with the joke, "I went to the wrong clubhouse," he said.

Roster Moves

Anthony Di Como at Mets.com writes about the recent roster moves to get Jeff Conine on the 40 man roster:

To make room for Conine, the Mets optioned second baseman Anderson Hernandez back to Triple-A New Orleans, after his second stint with the club this year came and went without an at-bat.

The move also came with a twist. A day after his third Minor League rehab start drew rave reviews, Pedro Martinez hopped from the 15-day to the 60-day disabled list to make room for Conine on the 40-man roster. Yet Mets fans need not be alarmed by those implications. The move was purely procedural and won't have any effect on the return of Martinez, who has already served well over 60 days of DL time.

Franken-Fish?

Photi at Fish Chunks writes about the Jeff Conine deal and how it seems that the Mets are stocking up on former Marlin players:

So says Mr. Marlin Jeff Conine, who is traded over to the Dark Side as the Mets continue their mad scheme to create the FrankenMarlins. Conine replaces former Marlin Damion Easley, who joins former Marlin Raul Castro and former Marlin Paul Lo Duca on the spare-parts list, and Jeff will now hang out in the clubhouse with former Marlin Carlos Delgado, former Marlin Moises Alou, former Marlin Luis Castillo, former Marlin Guillermo Mota, stepbrother of a former Marlin El Duque Hernandez, and non-former Marlin Marlon Anderson. (SI.com)

Thoughts On Conine

The links between the Mets and the Reds have been plentiful ever since the trade deadline and in this case it was anything but another rumor for the fans and media to frenzy over.

In the wake of the Damion Easley injury, I call it the Cliff Floyd sprain, the Mets were left without a versatile infielder/outfielder. So what did they do? They went out and got one of the best defensive first basemen (career .990 fielding percentage) in the game.

Conine is an absolute great fit to the Mets who were in dire need of a back up first baseman after the departure of Julio Franco (DFA) and Damion Easley (DL) and boy did they get one. On top of his defensive resume, Conine sports a career .285 hitter and career .347 OBS. For the season he’s hitting .265, has 6 home runs, 32 runs batted in and 4 stolen bases.

He has been a part of two World Series Champion teams in the 1997 and 2003 Marlins (traded mid season in 2003), which makes him a great addition to an aspiring Championship team. In the NLDS he’s hit .308 (1997 – 364; 2003 - .267), in the NLCS he’s hit .310 (1997-.111; 2003 - .458) and the World Series .294 (1997 - .231; 2003 - .333). Those are some pretty good marks for a, now, bench player and the Mets are going to need him.

There is no doubt that the Mets, now, have one of the best, if not the best, bench in all of the National League. So, I hope Jeff Conine does great and wins one more Championship before he retires, which could very well be at the end of the season.

Welcome aboard Jeff.