New York Mets 2008

[sonny10305]

^^Great post Sausy, I love reading you stuff. Let me make a few comments

"Yea,I was shocked about Tom Brady's knee injury too....he's been so durable for so long,you expect him out there...
and that the Patriots would always be in good shape to get to the Super Bowl,hardly likely this year.Football out of the way,I must say"

Is this a boost for Brett Favre and the Jets? Lets see how well they do now and what new excuses they can up with for not winning.

"How could the damage to Billy Wagner's elbow be so bad? Strained forearm,elbow strain....nohing medicallly reported previously as bad as a torn muscle and ligament in his pitching elbow!WTF?!!!I feel terrible for him,especially that his Met career is probably over as is pitching career,period.Really tough news,wish his career with the Mets had ended on a really good note,with the Mets seeing a regular appearance of the Houston/Philly Billly the Kid, rather than only the sometimes tantalizing taste we've received over the past few years with his erratic performances.....but it doesn't look good. We have to hope there's someone who can step up permanently,be it Ayala or someone else.They've got this young power arm they've brought up,Parnell I think his name is.Supposed to have electric,Joba Chamberlain like stuff if I'm correct sonny?"

I think part of the reason it is so bad is because of the velocity Billy throws and as he got older it affected him. An examination with some sort of magnetic imaging thingy detected tears in the medial collateral ligament in Billy’s elbow and , a muscle in the forearm, This lead the Mets doctors to recommend Tommy John ligament replacement surgery.
What we now know is that the condition of Billy’s left arm seemingly has deteriorated since mid July. No one knew how large the tear had become till now. So now the Mets know for certain what some had suspected for weeks. that he will not be coming back. The surgery also puts a damper on Wagner’s pursuit of his 400th career save, right now he is at 385.
As I understand it Wagner is to undergo surgery this week. A tendon from elsewhere in his body will be harvested and used as a replacement for the damaged ligament. Pitchers generally need about a year of recovery and rehabilitation. As for Billy ever coming back, ya have to remember; Billy’s velocity will be compromised by the operation. Don’t let Billy’s off-speed pitches fool ya, he is a power pitcher. That said, I also think that if he were ever to come back it would not be a closer, maybe a 7th or 8th inning man, possibly a ninth in a non close situation. I think he will wanna come back
In the mean time we will have to continue to use our mix-and-match bullpen, or bullpen by committee with Luis Ayala as #1 closer.
What I will want is for the Mets to go after K-Rod, go to the Angels and get Rodriguez next year. He had his 55th save of the season on Sunday against the White Sox and is now just three shy of the Major League record.


"David Wright made a couple of great plays behind Johann, particularly backed him up but Santana proved masterful and clutch when he needed to most. And poor Hamels couldn't even make good with the advice of Jamie Moyer how to pitch to Carlos Delgado after the first moonshot....yep,he was Carlos'bitch last night trying to slip the change up by him."


When I mentioned David’s “not to shabby stats” I forgot to mention his gold glove plays this year, some of which have been spectacular. As for Hamel’s, you hit that right; poor bastard, after Delgado smoked that curve ball Hamels thought, ok dude here is a change for you, to which Carlos responded by knocking into Citi Field. Like I said, we needed to send him cryin to his mommy.

Hey Brad, I am glad you liked that picture, His fly was open for that whole inning till someone in the dug out clued him in and he closed it up.

 

[Sausy]

Thanks sonny for the nice words.Again,I'd love to congratualte you for 5,000 posts that really havebeen a pleasure to read,especially the baseball related ones!

Didn't get to see the Billy Wagner press conference today but it does seem clear that the extent of the injury only really was definable now.Though apparently the Mets knew there was a tear in the ligament of some kind and had hoped rest would be enough to heal it.Unfrtunately,it became too significant to avoid a surgical option as the MRI you mentioned showed.

I think the competitor in Billy will try to come back for next September and 2010,his option year.Don't know if he'll ever be a closer again but I feel if he retires he wants to finish on a strong note if possible.I think he deserves the opportunity,only time will tell if it is really achievable.

I like Ayala,Stokes,the possible young fireballers in the Mets system like Kunz or Parnell over a risky move for a sexy name that will cost big bucks.Look at young Mariano Rivera,Jon Papelbon and what they did at young ages for the Yanks and Boston thrown into the closer role .Look at what Adam Wainright did for St. Louis in 2006 as the late season closer for the injured Jason Isringhausen(God,so underrated when healthy and hot as fuck)....great playoff and WS performance for the Cards in what,his first full year?You don't need to always land the superstar to be competitive,even to dominate.So I'm no big fan of going after K Rod,whom I'd doubt leave Los Angeles anyway.


Bad performance by Perez (should have known,crappy team...crappy Ollie)but the relief was superb.And God,sonny.....Stokes has this electric 95-97mph stuff and he is a diamond in the rough....how come it took so long for him to put it together?And Ayala is enjoying his ride as man on the spot,and generally doing a terrific job as tonight.


10-8 and the offense also comes riding to the rescue!Great to see Jose Reyes and David Wright contributing again and Ryan Church seems to be coming back nicely with that home run.The Carlos Boys?Another world class performance as Beltran continues to be the quiet assasin hitting a shot and getting to 100 RBI,and Delgado does it again with two blasts and three RBI....35 homers for Carlos Delgado,can you believe it?MVP if the Mets win the division no question.


Mets and their fans can't be cocky,we've got to go all out to earn it this time.We are playing with the determination we will now.

 

[sonny10305]

Thanks sonny for the nice words.Again,I'd love to congratualte you for 5,000 posts that really havebeen a pleasure to read,especially the baseball related ones!

Thanks, It sure is fun

Didn't get to see the Billy Wagner press conference today

Billy always speaks from the heart and tells it like it is,but this time he really let it all all. A truly moving interview you must see. You can see it here.

http://web.sny.tv/media/player/mp_t...090908_wagner_press_400.wmv&type=v_free&_mp=1

I think the competitor in Billy will try to come back for next September and 2010his option year.Don't know if he'll ever be a closer again but I feel if he retires he wants to finish on a strong note if possible.I think he deserves the opportunity,only time will tell if it is really achievable.

I agree, he is a determined guy who will not let this get him down or finish him off. His family, friends and teammates are all pulling for him and I expect to see Billy in some form or another next year, but not as the Mets closer.


I like Ayala,Stokes,the possible young fireballers in the Mets system like Kunz or Parnell over a risky move for a sexy name that will cost big bucks.Look at young Mariano Rivera,Jon Papelbon and what they did at young ages for the Yanks and Boston thrown into the closer role .Look at what Adam Wainright did for St. Louis in 2006 as the late season closer for the injured Jason Isringhausen(God,so underrated when healthy and hot as fuck)....great playoff and WS performance for the Cards in what,his first full year?You don't need to always land the superstar to be competitive,even to dominate.So I'm no big fan of going after K Rod,whom I'd doubt leave Los Angeles anyway.

I have always thought along the lines of developing what you have and give the young guys all the oppertunities you can. i just do not feel comfortable with Alaya, or anyone else in that pen right now, to take over for Billy. Alaya has a bad past track record and I do not have confidence in his staying power. While I usually prefer to go with what we have, in the case of the closer I still want
a K-Rod or some other more seasoned player for that position.
What I am hearing is that K-Rod may be available but for 5 years/75 million. The money does not bother me as much as the five years. He throws hard, I mean HARD, and could easily suffer the same fate as Billy as a result. I dono if he would last another five years without injury, so that would concern me.


Bad performance by Perez (should have known,crappy team...crappy Ollie)but the relief was superb.And God,sonny.....Stokes has this electric 95-97mph stuff and he is a diamond in the rough....how come it took so long for him to put it together?And Ayala is enjoying his ride as man on the spot,and generally doing a terrific job as tonight.

Yeah Ollie drives me nutz, it's funny how in a big situation he is lights out but in a game like yesterdays against a team like the Nats he falls flat. His problem is with his command especially with his off speed pitches. Location-location-location.

We should not have had to work so hard against a team like the Nats, we shudda beat em to a pulp. pesky Nats....where the Hell did I put that fly swatter.

 

[sonny10305]

Not a pretty win

Ok, so we took the series from the Nationals, but we should not have had to work so hard to get it. We won because of the Nats embarrassingly bad defense and with the help of our bull pen. Our offense was good but a lot of hits would have been caught by better teams. We caught a lot of breaks. What worries me a little is we will not get the breaks we got over the last couple of days when we get into the post season up against the big guys.

Our starting pitching, other than Santana, has not been very good. I sure hope those who said Pelfrey would struggle as he got deeper into the season having never been in that territory before were not right. He has surpassed his total from last year and there is a theory that pitchers who dramatically overshoot those totals put themselves at risk of arm trouble. I don’t want to buy in to that but yesterday he was not focused at all, seemed a little tired. The ’08 Pedro is another concern, the more I see him pitch the less confidence I have in him making into the post season. Perez will be fine in the post season cause he thrives off that pressure, feeds off of it and will do well. We are gonna need a fifth starter soon, who will that be, maybe Niese but maybe not. I am sure he will get the next start but he had better do well or he will be done. Maine is not expected to come back until he has that spur taken care of but he can pitch short innings so maybe he could go into the pen for the post season.

What I do feel good about is that we are fighting back and wining games again. Where as, a couple of months ago we would get a couple of runs early then fade into the background for the rest of the game. Now we are scoring early, late and in between. Plus a short time ago we would have had 5-6-7 run leads early in the game and then go on to lose the game. Thanks of course to our then crappy bull pen, but also to our inability to score runs late. All that is over now.

Congrats to Jose Reyes on his 282 career stolen bases. Way to go Jose.

David Wright is back baby, 4-4 last night and his 125th career home run, a hanging slider hit deep to center field. 125, and he is only 25 years old !
He is seeing the ball better again and lost that upper cut. He should be out of his slump now.

What the hell is up with that Nationals team, what a sad bunch of angry mother fuckers they are. That starting pitcher Perez has real anger issues, what a poor sportsman. Then there was Dukes, WTF was that?? Clearly Mike did not try and hit him with that pitch, what a putz. I can’t believe we had such a struggle beating those guys; their offense is soooo bad, not even AAA material, just pathetic.

Billy Wagner had his surgery and it was a complete success,
Doctors expect him to make a full recovery. Way to go Billy boy, good luck!

We should do well against the Braves this weekend I expect to sweep or at least take 2 of 3

 

[Sausy]

Another great post as usual sonny!Can you imagine where Jose Reyes and David Wright will end up after their careers numbers wise?They're both going to be damn impressive!just to watch Jose go for a triple is such a thrill!And David will get better,more consistent offensively.He's becoming the goods defensively now!

Great news on the Billy Wagner elbow surgery going better than expected.Hope he indeed hasn't pitched his last ball with the Mets!

You're right.Great perserverance and clutch performance by the offense sonny for the second night after Perez' lackluster effort,now Pelfrey's flat one.Hopefully it's just a hiccup,not signalling anything worrisome about the Mets starters dependability.Let's take the series against the Braves and begin finishing off Philly before they can get any second wind.Damn that impressive home run by David was a sight for Mets fan's eyes!Just had to mention it with as well as his 4-4 overall,four run scoring,3 RBI full reawakening after Tuesday's 2-4 encouraging performance.

 

[sonny10305]

Great news on the Billy Wagner elbow surgery going better than expected.Hope he indeed hasn't pitched his last ball with the Mets!

Did you get a chance to watch the video I put up 2 posts back?
Billy was full of heart and brutally honest. Typical Billy, I have so much respect for that guy

 

[Sausy]

Did you get a chance to watch the video I put up 2 posts back?
Billy was full of heart and brutally honest. Typical Billy, I have so much respect for that guy

Actually I just did(thanks for the link,sonny)It was riveting.Billy was classy,ballsy,funny,honest with no apologies and that last part when asked about his son's reaction,when he just lost it and the tears welled up,it did the same to me.Wish him the best for a speedy recovery.

 

[Sausy]

Disappointing first game 3-2 loss to Atlanta after 7 strong by Santana....great comeback win in the nightcap,5-0 led by Jon Niese's eight strong innings and big hits by David Wright,Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran.I know sonny will give his always terrific perspectives tomorrow,but I just was gratifiied the Mes took a tough bullpen induced loss and turned it around with a solid victory.

 

[sonny10305]

Well kids wasn’t that a fun day at the ball park yesterday.

I get a little scared kids when the Mets start to pay the way they did last September. Once again, at least in the Atlanta series, our pen stunk it up, we did not score in late innings, and we did not coming through in the clutch, leaving the bases loaded and too many ground ball outs. Of course you gotta give credit to Hampton for the ground outs with that nasty sinker of his. Now I am not sayin we are sinking, we did play some really good ball till this weekend and I am not concerned about us coming out of it. THIS AIN’T SEPTEMBER ’07.

I had a fuckin meltdown in yesterdays 9th inning, I mean even Alaya crashed, which while I am not panicking, it does make me worry about our closer, we can’t win a division without a closer. By the way, you know I have been advocating K-Rod for next year, well he now holds the record for saves in a season at 58…. I’m just sayin.

We almost had something going in the bottom of the 9th but then Castillio came up to bat. With two men on I saw him in the on deck circle I yelled out “Get that bat outta that guys hands” I really thought we were going to come back in that inning.

Billy Wagner has now said he does not expect to ever play for the Mets again. I recall him thinking he might be back late next year, but ya know, what I think is they told him that if he returns in ’08 it would not be as the closer, that may have caused him to change his mind about playing this year. We all know Billy is a proud man and I can not see him accepting a role as say the 7 or 8 guy.
Not Billy.

Other good news from this weekend was David Wright, I am happy to say I told you so when I predicting he would break out of his slump and man did he ever. Including his career high 31 home runs.
Murphy continues to hit the ball well, dono why they have had him sitting for the last week.
Even Ollie Perez who ha a decent putting got a base hit and scored on some awesome heads up base running, and how about that slide.
Of course the here of the weekend has to be Niese, I knew he had it in him. He needed that second shot to show what he is made off. Dan has done a great job on him. With all those jitters gone away he was focused and effective. I love that kid!

I have a question for Mets, how long have you known about the tendinitis in Hellman’s knee? If you guys knew about that then why was allowed to pitch so miserably, and if you did not know, why didn’t you?

Poor Johan Santana, it seems the only way that guy can get a win is to pitch 9 innings. The pen has really left him hanging over and over.

The Mets did not let the weekend ruin their annual rookie hazing day.
Mike Pefrey, Joe Smith, Daniel Murphy and Nick Evans had their clothes taken by the veterans and replaced by full body swimsuits, goggles, swim caps and tiny American flags. Murphy and Evans grabbed their fake gold medals and hung them around their necks. Joe Smith and Mike Pelfrey attempted to fit into swim caps, joking about whose head was larger. Niese sat in a corner, waving a small American flag at anyone who passed. Evans said, "I'd rather wear a swimsuit in the big leagues than a tuxedo in the Minor Leagues. After Cancel saw his tight fitting suit said "At least I don't have to get checked at the airport,”.
As Molina walked around in a suit that barely fit him. Easley yelled out” Hey Phelps”
The guys had to walk pout to the bus dressed like that, David Wright saw to that.
Damn, I will be searching for pics or clips you guys know I will.
David Wright was the planner of the hazing.

 

[Sausy]

I hope you can get that hazing video,sonny....sounds hilaruious and kind of titillating!I'm glad David seems back to his old self.And a good effort by Olloie after his lousy last one against the Nationals.

Just couldn't believe the meltdown.....as well as the relievers have pitched overall during the Mets run that same bullpen can go right around and ruin it for them.Ayala and Feliciano really disappointed and yes it would have been nice for the Mets to have disclosed Heilman's knee problem before...sunds like an excuse now.Thanks for your take on Jon Niese,he really showed a marked improvement from his first start.

I was so upset getting home from work Sunday and seeing this embarassment.Five runs in the ninth inning for Atlanta.....no excuse.David and Carlos Delgado started a ally afterwards but nothing came of it,and our clutch hitting woes returned big time in several situations later in the game.


Sorry about Billy Wagner's pitching his last game as a Met,even if he can make it back from elbow surgery.But the Mets I guess want to turn te opage,no telling what kind of Billy Wagner will result after rehab.Better for him in a way as he truly wants to close.Right now,the next closer for the Mets is really an open question be it K-Rod,someone else from another organization or internally wiothin the Mets organization.It really gets tough for Mets fans like you and me sonny and countless others to see the bad habits resurface.

 

[Sausy]

Tonight's game was a total letdown.Pedro couldn't hold the Nationals,the offense couldn't get going and Duaner Sanchez just blew the whole thing to shreds for us.If the Mets are serious about winning the NL East,they better get it together fast.The Phillies are now breathing down the necks of the Mets and for the wild card spot the fading Milwaukee Brewers.I am so disgusted,and I know sonny,chance and our other Mets fans are too.

 

[sonny10305]

Tonight's game was a total letdown.Pedro couldn't hold the Nationals,the offense couldn't get going and Duaner Sanchez just blew the whole thing to shreds for us.If the Mets are serious about winning the NL East,they better get it together fast.The Phillies are now breathing down the necks of the Mets and for the wild card spot the fading Milwaukee Brewers.I am so disgusted,and I know sonny,chance and our other Mets fans are too.

Yeah it was a blow to me as well; this was the comeback game we needed. But with Pedro on the mound I really had doubts he could win it for us. Six innings and a fair outing was about what I expected and what we got. Then Sanchez, who really needs to find some other kind of work, completely melted down once again. I like Parnell, he threw strikes and impressed me a lot, and we should be seeing more of him.
As for Alaya I have to say give the kid a break, he has been pitching very well for us and should be counted out for that last outing. All of em have bad days.
What I want to see, as I have said before, is a designated closer, perhaps Alaya or Parnell.

John Maine tossed on flat ground yesterday with no pain at all, there was some talk of him doing the closing, and he has said he would be up for the idea. But unless Alaya and Parnell both fall on their collective asses over the next few days I don’t think we will see Maine close.

I still can’t get the look of frustration on D Wrights face after he hit into that double play with bases loaded, that had to hurt; especially since he has been swinging the bat so well lately.

I have not changed my position on the Mets going into the post season, not yet.
No C word ever leaves my lips. The Brewers collapsed this year. We have what it takes with starting pitching, offense and defense. My only concern remains with the pen.

 

[Sausy]

Oh,I'm not giving up on them sonny....I just want them to put it away,and with a week and a half left in the regular season it is going to be very nerve wrecking indeed.

 

[Sausy]

Losing to Washington 1-0 when Phillie overtakes Atlanta 8-7.Sonny,chance,all our Mets fans....we're now in second place.Do we know how to win?We couldn't even scratch 1 run against the hopeless Nats!What a fucking waste.....and if we lose this,it isn't the just the poison pen that's to blame but also a lineup not conducive to putting teams away,demoralizing them with a hard charging offense.We need another scrapper,a get the hell on base no matter what guy who forces starters and relievers to throw lots of pitches and works to make em vulnerable.We need to play old fashioned NL run clawing with aggressive baserunning,hit and runs,drawing walks.....we can't have a feast or famine lineup feasting or famining at the same goddamn times!Home runs are great,but aggressive baserunning,good strategic hitting and consistent intensity and effort to suppliment that is even better.Mark Pelfrey deserved a lot more than this crapper tonight.

 

[sonny10305]

Losing to Washington 1-0 when Phillie overtakes Atlanta 8-7.Sonny,chance,all our Mets fans....we're now in second place.Do we know how to win?We couldn't even scratch 1 run against the hopeless Nats!What a fucking waste.....and if we lose this,it isn't the just the poison pen that's to blame but also a lineup not conducive to putting teams away,demoralizing them with a hard charging offense.We need another scrapper,a get the hell on base no matter what guy who forces starters and relievers to throw lots of pitches and works to make em vulnerable.We need to play old fashioned NL run clawing with aggressive baserunning,hit and runs,drawing walks.....we can't have a feast or famine lineup feasting or famining at the same goddamn times!Home runs are great,but aggressive baserunning,good strategic hitting and consistent intensity and effort to suppliment that is even better.Mark Pelfrey deserved a lot more than this crapper tonight.

Oh man I so agree with that assessment, I could not have said it better.
We need to start playing some old fashion (as you called it) soft ball. Don’t worry so much about the long drives and hitting them out of the park. Start getting guys on base and moving them along to score runs. Another thing the Mets are doing again (all of them) are swinging at balls out of the strike zone. THAT MUST STOP! They need to settle down and take a deep breath, stop pressing so hard. Be more patient at the plate and become less anxious. It is so obvious to me and if I can see that surly the Mets can.

The offensive was DOA tonight and that’s two nights in a row. You said it sausy, what a waste of an outstanding outing for big Pelf, a damn shame. The kid was brilliant and except for that walk to Harris which ended up hurting us he was awesome.

Big loss with Tatis separating his shoulder, I feel so bad for that guy. He has doe so much for us and we will miss that right handed bat. But we do have the “new kids” Murphy and Evans. I have wanted to see more of them in the game don’t understand why Manuel has left them sitting it out so much. Now he will be forced to use them and I have wanted that, just not at the cost of loosing Tatis of course.

Tonight I have great expectations for Brandon Knight to come through and pitch a great game; he defiantly has it in him. Now if the boys give him a little run support we should get the win tonight. With 12 games to go the NL East is certainly in our grasp, we need to wake up those bats, play some small ball, just get back to the fundamentals, that’s how you win ball games.

Speaking of Murphy and Evans they were named the Sterling Minor League Organizational Co-Players of the year, along with Jon Niese as the Sterling Pitcher of the Year. Congrats guys, well done.

 

[Sausy]

Yea sonny,Evans and Murphy and Niese really played well this year and deserved these top minor league awards for the Mets organzation.

I am sorry about Tatis...what a great story and too bad it has to end for this year at least,so soon.He did a lot to get us back on track in July and August,especially.

Really hear you about playing Murphy(preferably) or Evans more,though I agree it's a tough situation with losing Tatis with the separated shoulder.Murphy is one of the type players I had in mind...he works at bats when he's going good,and that is one of the most important things the Mets must remember....work and wear out the opposing pitcher with tough at bats.Too many times we've given up easy innings where the pitcher doesn't have to throw more than ten or so pitches.That will only keep them strong for later innings!

We are still so fortunate even if we blow the NL east,we've got the imploding Brewers waiting to hand us the wild card if we just take it.....problem is,we may not know how to deal with such a generous offer and allow our nagging bullpen and offensive failures to keep us out altogether for the second year of playoffs!

I can't blame David Wright for the offensive failures,though....he was robbed by Harris off that shot and you can see how much it pained him that an opportunity was squelched so heartbreakingly.The Mets never put up a fight after that,and that is what makes it so difficult for their fans.

 

[Sausy]

Almost forgot to add....next week the Mets deal with the big boys when they face the Cubs so they must take care of Washington and Atlanta the rest of the week.They have to be ready for the playoff atmosphere next week will bring.They fail that test,they're done.

 

[Sausy]

I don't think I can take this anymore!No lead is ever safe if you''re a Mets fan.Brandon Knight gave a gutsy five innings but the bullpen took turns chipping an 8-2 Mets over Washington lead to 9-7,one runner on, tying run at bat before Luis Ayala mercifully ended it by striking out someone I've never heard of.Seriously,how can we let these guys back in the game?I dread the Cubs next week....we have to play really solid,smart baseball against them or they WILL take advantage of what is given to them.

Gotta love Jerry Manuel's bemused,trying to keep a sense of surreal humor in this situation interviewed after the game,especialy on how many relievers he used tonight(7)and how this just isn't fun,this isn't how the Mets planned things to play out.It was a hoot but you can tell he is just hoping some guys will hold things together in the pen to get through this.


Love that Reyes,Delgado and Beltran really stepped up tonight....Daniel Murphy was also very impressive with two hits including a triple and Jerry Manuel in his interview has a lot of good things to say about Murphy's approach at bat.The only problem seems to be David Wright seeming to press again,not having a good series but hopefully will gather himself and get better at bats in the next few Mets games,tomorrow with the Nats and this weekend in Atlanta.

 

[sonny10305]

What a fucking nightmare

Ok, so we won. Big whoop. As hard as the bullpen tried to kill the game for us we managed to get the win in spite of them.
Thanks to a very decent outing by Knight who won his first major league career game, some excellent offense and sparking defense.
What a mess our poison pen is, an absolute disgrace and an embarrassment to the great sport of baseball. Jerry Manual was on the field more often than he players, he went through 8 pitchers in that one game. What a collection of losers.
How in the hell are we ever gonna beat the teams in the central and western divisions for a pennant, we can barley beat the Nationals!!!

Enough about the pitching cause I am getting to irritated just writing this. Let’s talk about the return of the bats and Reyes in particular, he seems to do a lot better swinging from the left, as we know he has struggled a lot batting righty. But with all those lefty pitchers I guess Manuel wanted Jose to bat from the right, but I say let him bat left against the lefties, it can’t be any worse than when he bats righty against them. Beltron and Delgado also hit the ball well. D Wright began to struggle again last night, but in David’s defense the Nats pitcher was banging him hard inside (don’t even think about going there)

Great defensive plays all night especially from Church in the 8th making that catch and a perfect throw to keep the runner from scoring. Another was Delgado in the 9th who also kept runners from scoring by stopping that ball. I also loved that great catch Beltran made robbing Ryan Zimmerman of an extra base hit, that big smile on Ryan’s face was great, it was like “ya got me dude, well done”

To make matters worse those damn Phillies keep winning and so we can’t make up any ground.

Santana tonight, all I can say about that is he better keep his pitch counts low and be able to go 8 or even 9. Otherwise it will be another circus with Manuel changing pitchers for each Nationals hitter.

Looks like Easley is done for the season so it will be Castillo and A. Reyes at second. Of course I expect Castillo to crap out any time now, and you read it here first, he will not be back next year. Too bad a once shinning star will go out with such a whimper; no one likes to see that. He was a great one once and even though it will cost the Mets $, he has to go, plan and simple.

 

[Sausy]

Yea,I read that Easley is done for the year.I hope Argenis Reyes gets the bulk of the remaining staerts at second....Castillo still looks really labored trying to run.I think he's outta there for good after this year,sonny.

Now,I won't go there regarding David getting pounded really hard inside but it is really difficult to lay off

I feel as frustrated as you regarding the outcome.A win but way to much effort had to be expended and that isd because our bullpen is a disgrace....did you catch Jerry Manuel's take on how long he expects Santana to go tonight?Only half jokingly said to the reporter ....but Santana really must give us eight strong innings at least tonight.