Ya, I heard someone today talking about moving Pagan to Platoon with Frenchy in RF when Beltran gets back too.. HUGE error by Polanco, pllllease let's take advantage of this. and an even BIGGER two run double by Reyes! 3-0 Mets!
And now Jerry has his .289 hitter Blanco bunting with no one out (when he has had 4 successful sacrifices in the past 4 years) in front of a pinch hitter batting .238. Pure genius, I tell you.
I still think Manuel should be fired. After the game tonight look for everyone to be saying "The Mets are Back, Jerry is the best manager!!!"
My comments in posts #37, 38, and 42 tell you what I think about Jerry's brilliance as a manager in this game. Anyone who thinks that the results of the last five games have anything to do with why he should or shouldn't be a major league manager just doesn't understand baseball very well.
Isn't that .238 from when he was starting, and that he actually has a WAY better AVG when he's a pinch hitter?
That was based on 8 at bats, and if he used that as an excuse, it only demonstrates more clearly that he's an idiot. Mets complete the sweep, outscoring Philly 16-0.
It was based out 12. He was 6 and 12. In PH. Most people know he's a MUCH better PH than starter, you're really just digging when you're complaining about that, Hell everyone in the booth said Blanco should bunt it and they have 40 years of baseball experience between them. Great series though by the pitchers.
I refuse to get sucked in by this team. They're going to go in a tailspin soon, because these are the 2010 Mets, and I will not forget this. Which is what makes shutting out the Phillies for three straight games, a whole series, so delightful--It's a "we'll always have Paris" kind of moment.
Sometimes it's easy to forget how good Reyes is and how important he is to the success to this club. I believe they are 17-4 in games he has scored in now. Manuel did do a good job bringing in Feliciano over Igarashi to nullify the double switch and getting Gload out of the game without an AB. This streak isn't about managing, it's all about the pitching. And Reyes.
That is not even remotely true. Tatis' career numbers before this year as a starter were .267/.348/.446, while as a pinch hitter they were .210/.264/.309. For the last two years with the Mets he was better as a pinch hitter, but still not as good as when he started (.284/.348/.445 versus .264/.333/.415). In fact, he has never had even a single year in his career when he was a better pinch hitter than starter, other than this year, which is based on a grand total of 28 plate appearances as a starter and 14 as a pinch hitter. That's pretty much the definition of fluke random variation. If "most people know that he's a MUCH better PH than starter," then I guess "most people" are pretty uninformed, wouldn't you say? My memory of the telecast at that point was that they said that Blanco would bunt, not that he should, but if they said he should, they were simply wrong. And anyone who has ever listened to Joe Morgan knows that being a longtime major leaguer doesn't mean that you actually understand this kind of stuff. It's all moot, anyway, since I expect that it had nothing to do with the decision to bunt anyway. Manuel has demonstrated over and over that he doesn't understand the relative uselessness of the sacrifice bunt (other than by a pitcher), and to claim that in this particular case he thought carefully about it is ludicrous.
95 AB, 20 H, 9 BB, 27 K, 0 HR, 0 runs, .211 AVG, .278 OBP, .232 SLG, .510 OPS Nice 3 game line by our southerly friends. The entire Phillies lineup put up Gary Matthews Jr. numbers. .182 / .250 / .218 (.468)
I kind of feel the same way. I told my boss yesterday that I wish i had video taped the last two games so I could replay these games over and over. They advanced runners, played defense, pitched out of trouble, and got hits with runners in scoring position. I can't remember the last time they played all the facets of the game any better for three games.
I am not a big fan of Manuel I can see why the media likes him but I do not think he is particuarly good. But what I cannot figure out is why we have a career 250 hitter as batting coach.
If your not in full Mets Fever mode now it might be time to take a break from watching baseball. Storming towards 1st place going into Memorial day weekend is all you could have possibly hoped for. No matter who the coaches are, no matter what you thought the should have done. This team is damn fun to watch. The OWN @ citi, and I am loving every bit of it.
I saw something this morning that the Mets starting pitchers over the last 8 games have an ERA under 2 which is unreal over an 8 game stretch, even more crazy when you consider that Johan has only pitched one of those games.
