The Dumbest Play in Baseball

from MetsLifer.com
Ryan Church did an admirable job last night hitting in the #2 spot in the order. I like Castillo up there but with him struggling just to run to first base I think Church will see this as an opportunity to show he can produce.

Nobody has been better to start the season, except for maybe Angel Pagan, and Church has already impressed me both at the plate and in the field.

Until last night when we made the dumbest play in baseball.

I believe it was in the 3rd inning with the Mets up 2-0 that Reyes led off the inning with a double. Fantastic way to start the inning. Now any intelligent person knows that a single to any spot in the ballpark score Reyes.

So why in the name of all this good did Ryan Church feel the need to sacrifice bunt? Don't try and tell me he was bunting for a base hit. He never bunts for a base hit. The infield wasn't so out of position like they are for Delgado that he could take advantage of that.

To me that is the dumbest play in baseball: a sacrifice bunt with Reyes on second. I can see laying down a bunt if it was Delgado on second so this way it ensures a run scores on a single. But bunting with Reyes on second is just idiotic.

So of course they walk Wright and Beltran hits into a double play. Inning over. I'm hoping this was Church acting on his own and not a planned play from the dugout because then Willie Randolph should not just hand his managerial duties over to Jerry Manuel.

Listen to me Church, you're hitting over .325 for the first time in your life. Ride it until this dream sequence stops. No bunting with Reyes on in front of you. Period.

Divine Met Intervention in Angel and Church?

from MetsLifer.com
Hmmmm, is it coincidence that the Mets top two players to start the year have a more spiritual name than the other players on the team?

The fact that Ryan CHURCH and ANGEL Pagan are leading the team in basically every statistical category doesn't seem a little ironic?

What's that noise? I think I just heard Dan Brown run to go see his publisher.

I'm purely joking, but it is amazing to see two low level acquisitions turn into impact players early this season. I credit Omar Minaya for being able to see talent where others don't. Just when we lose Ruben Gotay, we have guys like Church & Pagan stepping up to replace the role he played.

Last night on SNY's text poll the question was asked which player would make the biggest impact when he returned to the lineup. The leading vote getter was Moises Alou.

I had to laugh. There's no doubt Alou is a bat that is needed in this lineup, but if Pagan keeps playing the way he is, I'm not sure you can take him out of the lineup.

That's a good problem to have.

Editor's Note (from David): When Mr. Alou is healthy, we can have an outfield of Moises, Angel & Church- now all we need is his uncle, Jesus Alou, and wide receiver Muslin Mohammad to join the team and we can cover most of our bases!!! Funny enough, Jonathan and I were talking about this on opening day in Florida, that if we couldn't get some "divine intervention" with an "Angel" in the outfield and a "Church" to go to, we were really hurting!!! And yes, with the way Pagan's playing, especially after tonite's victory over the Brewers, it's becoming impossible to keep him out of the line-up!

The Mets X Factors in 2008

We know what to expect from players like David Wright, Jose Reyes, and even Billy Wagner. We know that they'll go through slumps, but for the most part be the rock solid veteran players that we expect.

But on every team there are "x factors." Those players who aren't the focal point of a team. They aren't superstars, but they're performance just as much plays a role in the fate of a team as those who are the central focus of our opponents.

The list below is comprised of a few players in whom I feel will have a direct impact on the type of season the Mets have. Of course if Wright & Reyes have horrible seasons, then the Mets will suffer, but this is a list of complimentary players that need to succeed to support the season we expect from our marquee guys.

1. Pedro Martinez - Pedro used to be a marquee guy, but those days are gone. Sure he's the headliner on our pitching staff, a guaranteed Hall of Famer, but he needs to prove he's still the pitcher we know and love. Pedro showed excellent control in his few starts of 2007. Even though his velocity isn't there, his movement on his changeup and fastball still make him unhittable at times. The question will be if Pedro can give the Mets 25 starts. If he can, and he pitches like he did last year, the Mets are in a great position to win at least 15 starts. If not, we have a bigger hole in our starting rotation that we originally thought.

2. Moises Alou - I fully expect Moises Alou to miss 3 weeks of the 2008 season. If he misses more than that, we might have a problem. Alou proved last year that the Mets are a much, much better team with Alou in the 5 hole than without him. Alou gets hits and drives in runs. He's a hitting machine. Without him the Mets lack that RBI man in the middle of the lineup, especially if Delgado continues to struggle. Like El Duque, I'll give Alou a pass on a few weeks on the DL, but he can't miss 3 months like he did in 2007.

3. Ryan Church - Ryan Church has the opportunity to change a city in 2008. I don't think anyone really expects much from Ryan Church, but if he bats around .250 with 10 homers and 50 RBIs he might be run out of town (along with Omar Minaya). The trade for Church and Schneider was questionable at best, but if Church proves he has the talent Minaya believes he does we could have gotten a steal. Church needs to bat +.275 and be in the 20 homers/80 RBIs range to have an impact. Sure he'll probably bat in the 7th spot, but this is a corner outfielder were talking about. We should expect that to be a power position and if Church can't put up decent numbers, the Mets will be looking to fill a void come the trading deadline and could suffer offensively scoring runs down the stretch.

4. Marlon Anderson - Amidst the late collapse, the Mets found a true gem in the latter months of the 2007 season in Marlon Anderson. Anderson was a beast off the bench and seemed to play a pivotal role in nearly every comeback win the Mets had. Having a pinch hitter like that can help you win at least 10 games over the course of a season. Was Marlon Anderson's success one of those passing moments or can he produce of the bench consistently? If he can, the Mets have a leg up on pretty much every other team in the NL East as our bench will be significantly better with Anderson, Castro, & Chavez as the key bench players. If Anderson can't reproduce his 2007 success, the Mets will again be searching for a big bat off the bench come the trading deadline. And we all know how Jeff Conine worked out.

Will The Milledge Trade Come Back to Haunt Us?

The first post at my brand new blog: www.metsbullpen.com which is going to be a Shea Nation Network blog.

When Omar Minaya came to the New York Mets, I wiped the sweat off my forehead, and told myself: thank god, hopefully we will never have the Scott Kazmir trade anymore. Well, I might have gone too far ahead of myself. Omar Minaya may have just made a mistake that will come back to haunt the New York Mets.

When I first saw that Lastings Milledge, who was one of the top prospects in baseball last year, was traded to the Washington Nationals, for 2 mediocre players, two players popped up in my head: Scott Kazmir and Victor Zambrano. Obviously, this was not a good sign, as many Mets fans have feared that the already 1 time all-star, Scott Kazmir, who was traded to the Devil Rays a few gloomy years ago, may be a curse to the Mets in the future.

The trade was wrong. Getting Brian Schneider and Ryan Chuch in exchange for arguably the most exciting prospect the Mets have had since Scott Kazmir, was just idiotic. Why? Well, we had 2 catchers already, 2 that I was very pleased with. Milledge was set to start in right field most likely to begin the 2008 season, so replacing him with Church really gave absolutely no improvement to the team. So why in the world would Omar make this move?

Hopefully, this trade is setting up for a new one. Why do I think this? I don’t think Omar is this idiotic. Yes, he has made some stupid moves in the past year, trading Bannister to the Royals, trading Matt Lindstrom and Henry Owens to the Marlins, but, those trades did not seem absolutely pathetic at the time. This trade does. Which brings me to believe teams were more interested in Ryan Church than Lastings Milledge, which may make sense, as some teams would not like to take in a player with such an attitude and strange and controversial background as Milledge.

My second conclusion to this trade is that Minaya wanted to dump Milledge, because of what I said above- his attitude, and all the controversial things he has already brought to the Mets in his very young career. Personally, even though he had a bad attitude, I really had no problem with it, because, to me, all that matters is how the player performs. However, a GM such as Minaya, who I see as a very tough guy, who doesn’t take any bull, may not want the future of the Mets to be a bunch of thugs like Lastings Milledge. I can see why he would do that, but I still don’t agree with it.

So, yes, in my opinion, Lastings Milledge will be a very special player some day, as I saw during the 2007 season, and this trade will come back to haunt the Mets. Lastings Milledge is a special player. And I really looked forward to him playing for the Mets. But what is done is done, and hopefully this will not come back to haunt the Mets.