Mets at Nationals, 8/17-8/19

Besides Sosa, is there any trustworthy set up man in the bullpen? No? OK.

 

Props to Mota there. 9 more outs.

 

right into the tag, green... nice.

 

A failure with a man on third and less than two outs. Wow, what a surprise.

 

Maybe so, but there's no one in baseball worse than Mota. The Mets got lucky that he got the out in the 6th, but Mota is doing his best to make it a moot point in the 7th.

 

I think our only chance to win this one is for an immediate flood. Or putting in Sosa, or the guy in the second row. Yank Mota now, please!

 

I wasn't defending the move to put in Mota, I was attacking the lameness of the bullpen.

Duanar Sanchez, where have you gone??

 

gotta DFA Mota

 

Sosa ends the inning.

 

The Phillies lost, and the Braves are three outs away from a loss as well. We could really use this one...

 

L-Millz delivers an insurance run!

 

Easley with a third-degree sprain. He'll be out for the rest of the season, I'll bet.

 

mets win and gain a game on the braves and phils

 

Great win. Now, for the love of god, sweep!

 

That'll do it. Heilman and Wagner demonstrate why the myth that leadoff walks are worse than leadoff hits is just that - a myth. In fact, in this game teams led off two innings with leadoff walks, and neither runner scored, and led off four innings with singles, and three times the runner scored.

 

good win!

now, how to replace easley? trade? anyone out there to fit the bill?

 

I would think they're equal: Each results in a runner on 1st with no outs. Not that simple?

And as for Easley, I'm thinking Anderson Hernandez gets called up. If Delgado needs more time, Green plays first with a Alou-Beltran-L-Millz outfield.

 

please no anderson hernandez. he is so terrible, and useless. he can PR, thats about it.

 

You're right, but that's not what the "conventional wisdom" is - how often do you hear (after a leadoff walk scores) "Those leadoff walks will kill you every time"? And how often do you hear people saying when a pitcher has a lead starting an inning "You can't walk this guy - you have to make him beat you"? People can't have it both ways - if a pitcher does everything to avoid a leadoff walk, it makes a leadoff hit more likely, and that's at least as bad (if it's an extra-base hit it's obviously worse).

I've actually looked at the data, and it's exactly what you said, and what should actually be obvious - leadoff walks and leadoff singles are bad, because there's a man on first with no one out.

 

given the fact that easley's role was lefty killer off the bench/spot starter i doubt we'll see ahern in that capacity.

edit: apparently ahern was taken out of the zephyrs game tonight right after the easley injury. let's hope its a coincidence. bringing ambres back up really seems like the move here, since the playing time easley was getting was in the OF, and ambres has a .340/.463/.701 line against lefties in AAA this year.