Tag: New York Mets

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MLB General

The Full Count: Special August Wrap-up Edition



Often compared to Willie Stargell

1. He’s good. Real good: The Phillies lost to the Nationals last night, but that wasn’t the most important thing going on in that game. It was Ryan Howard’s continued dominance at the plate. Howard jacked his 49th homerun of the year, breaking Mike Schmidt’s single-season franchise record with a month left in the season. Howard has now hit an RBI in 9 straight games and homered in 6 of those games. His August will go down as the best month of the season by any player, as Howard hit 14 homeruns and 41 RBIs for the month. He also hit .348 and slugged .750 on the month and put up a stratospheric 1.214 OPS. The most incredible part of all this? Howard’s just 26 years old and playing in his first full season.

2. Santana strikes again: Who do you call when you need a win? Call on Johan Santana. The pitcher had a great start against the Kansas City Royals, who were actually on the brink of sweeping the Twins. He struck out 11 and pitched seven innings for his league-leading 16th win of the season. Johan just completed a truly special month of August. He went 4-0 with a 2.32 ERA and 47 strikeouts, first of any pitcher in the month. The win improved him to 7-0 after the break this year and 37-3 after the break since 2003. The Twins won 3-1 and are a half-game out of the Wild Card.

3. Where did this come from?: Putting it lightly, Astros pitcher Andy Pettitte sucked the first half of the season. He posted a 5+ ERA each of the first three months and allowed opponents above a .300 batting average. But now, Pettitte is starting to produce like a machine. In August he put up a 2.43 ERA and 44 strikeouts, both very comparable to Santana’s numbers above. Though he just went 3-2 and still has a .500 record on the season, Pettitte is looking more like himself from last year, when he went 17-9 with a 2.39 ERA. Last night he pitched seven innings while only allowing 5 hits and 1 earned run to the Brewers. With Pettitte in addition to Roger Clemens and the recently resigned Roy Oswalt on the pitching staff, the Astros are looking good as they head into September.

4. New York, New York: Both teams from the Big Apple had particularly good months. The Mets finished the month with a loss yesterday but overall posted an outstanding 19-8 record. They gained the best record in baseball, 82-50, in the process. The Mets are 15.5 games ahead of the second-place Phillies in the division, still the only double-digit lead of any team, and they would be 11 games up on the Cardinals if they were in the same division. That’s quite an accomplishment considering the Cards have finished with the best record in the NL for two straight years and are in second this year. And how `bout them Yanks? For them it’s been a great month for them and a bad month for their rival, you-know-who. NYY was tied with the BoSox on August 1, but after their success and Boston’s struggles have opened up an 8 game lead. By the way, that is the second-largest lead in all of baseball. So if you don’t think another Subway Series is a reality this season, you better reconsider.

5. Back to the Bay: After lasting two years with the Boston Red Sox, David Wells is moving on in his career once again. Wells is going back to the San Diego Padres, his hometown team who he played with in 2004. Wells was sent to Cali in a trade for a minor league catcher. Padres GM Kevin Towers thinks Wells is the difference for this team as they look to keep a lead in the Wild Card race.

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MLB General

The Full Count: How do the A’s do it?


1. No offense means nothing: They have the lowest slugging percentage and batting average in the AL. They have scored just one more run on the season than the pitiful Kansas City Royals. No one in their lineup is batting over .300. And yet they still lead their division. The mystery team is the Oakland A’s, and they have rolled through their division despite numerous underachievers in their everyday lineup. The A’s pounded through the Red Sox 9-0 last night, as Esteban Loaiza continued his remarkable resurgence. Loaiza threw seven innings and gave up no runs, his third straight start with no earned runs. His ERA has dropped from 6.72 at the end of July to 4.82 now after an outstanding 4-0 August. Oakland got some offense too, with homeruns from their best two players: Frank Thomas and Nick Swisher. Each player went yard for their 28th time this season as the A’s pounded the ailing Red Sox. Boston has now lost four games in a row. Even worse, David Ortiz was hospitalized for an irregular heartbeat. The length of his absence is unknown.

2. Rookie madness: Without a doubt, this has been the year of the rookie in the MLB. From Justin Verlander to Jonathan Papelbon, rookies have been drawing headlines all year. But one of the best first year players, surprisingly enough, hasn’t received enough attention. He’s Josh Johnson, one of many outstanding young players for the Florida Marlins. Last night Johnson improved to 12-6 after a 7-strikeout performance against the Brewers. His ERA, at 2.87 is numero uno in the National League. Johnson has been a tour de force all year, with a winning record in every month since he became a starting pitcher. The Marlins are hot, too: they have won 8 in a row and have moved to just 2 games back of the Wild Card lead.

3. Simply unbeatable: In a National League filled with inconsistent, unpredictable floaters; at least one team is looking good. They are the New York Mets, who have won 9 of 10 to move to an outstanding 80-49. Yesterday they dismantled the Phillies 8-3, sending them back to .500 on the year. The Mets featured two RBIs each by Carlos Delgado and David Wright as well as Jose Reyes’ 16th triple of the season. The latter is good for the MLB lead and gives him two consecutive 15+ triple seasons, the first player to do that in 60 years according to Elias Sports. For the losing Phillies, Ryan Howard jacked his 47th homerun of the season.

4. Inconsistent phenom: Will the real Felix Hernandez please stand up? The second-year pitcher has puzzled many this season while other young pitchers have shined. Hernandez has an 11-12 record and a 4.57 ERA, both very mediocre. But last night he looked like the ace he could be, recording a complete-game shutout of the Angels. Hernandez walked none and allowed just five hits in the effort, which came just one start after being blown away with seven earned runs. Felix is one of the reasons for the Mariners’ disappointments this year. The team had lost 20 consecutive divisional games before their victory last night over the Angels.

5. Your future MLB stars: Almost every major league player started out in the Little Leagues, right? So maybe there were some future MLB players out there in Williamsport, where the Little League World Series final was held last night. In a matchup of Columbus, Georgia, the US champions, and the Japanese champions, the US team showed that our country can still win something in international competition. The Columbus squad took the game and the tournament with a narrow 2-1 victory. This gave the US back-to-back victories in the series for the first time since 1992-93, when Long Beach, California took two straight titles. So while our major league Americans showed they can’t beat Japan (who won the WBC), at least our country’s 13-year-olds can do it.

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MLB General

August 28 in Sports History: Little League World Series

In 1993: Long Beach (CA) became the first U.S. team to repeat as Little League World Series champs with a 3-2 victory over Panama. Only South Korea and Mexico have won back-to-back titles. Long Beach was led by Sean Burroughs, a future first-round draft choice of the Padres (1999) and the son of former major leaguer Jeff Burroughs. (baseball library.com)

The New York Mets made one of the silliest draft choices in baseball history when they selected pitcher Kirk Presley with the eighth pick in the first round. Although they paid Presley a handsome $960,000 bonus, he never made it out of Single-A. The Mets passed on players such as Billy Wagner, Derrek Lee, Jason Varitek, Chris Carpenter and Torii Hunter to select a distant relative of Elvis Presley. They eventually paid Wagner $40 million to sign as a free agent in 2006. (baseball-almanac.com)

In 1942: The Chicago Bears defeated the NFL All-Stars 21-0 before 75,000 fans in the New York City . As a precursor to the modern day Pro Bowl, the popular exhibition pitted an NFL team against a collection of pro players from other teams. In later years, NFL teams would play a team of college all-stars. The games were very competitive (despite this lopsided score) and drew large crowds, including some over 100,000. (footballsearchengine.com)

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New York Mets

August 25 in Sports History: Doc Gooden enters the record books


In 1985: Dwight Gooden of the New York Mets became the youngest pitcher ever to record 20 wins in a season with a 9-3 victory over the Padres. “Doctor K” was 20 years and nine months, one month older than Bob Feller, who previously held the record. Gooden won the pitching Triple Crown that year with a 24-4 record, 1.53 ERA and 268 strikeouts. He helped the Mets win the World Series in 1986, but substance abuse and off-the-field problems ruined what probably would have been a Hall of Fame career. He became a journeyman instead, drifting to the Yankees (where he threw a no-hitter in 1996), Indians, Astros and Devil Rays. He retired as a Yankee in 2000. (baseballlibrary.com)

In 1939: The first nationally televised Major League Baseball game took place in Cincinnati, with a doubleheader between the Dodgers and the Reds. The game was broadcast by Red Barber over W2XBS, and the teams split the doubleheader. In 1995, Windows 95 debuted, and in 1853, potato chips were invented by chef George Crum (seriously). (Magic City Morning Star)

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New York Mets

Happy at least 48th birthday, Julio Franco


It’s amazing that in a league where the average career spans about 7 years, Julio Franco has been at it for 24 years (with a couple of stints in Japan and Mexico). He made his debut with the Phillies on April 23rd 1982. You want to know how long ago that was? Family Ties and Cheers debuted that year.

So congratulations to Julio Franco for… living and playing baseball. (By the way, here’s a very interesting look at the average length of MLB careers.)


Links:
[Yahoo]: Being Julio Franco
[Hot Foot]: Can I Call You Dad?
[Wikipedia]: Julio Franco entry

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MLB General

The Full Count: Mets vs Cardinals as good as advertised



Bill Clinton approves this series

1. NLCS Preview?: In possibly the best overall matchup possible between National League teams, the Cardinals took on the Mets last night in Flushing. The result was better than anyone could have even anticipated, as the best offensive players for each side really took off. Albert Pujols hit a 3-run homerun in the third and followed it up with a fourth-inning grand slam. His 2 homeruns and 7 RBIs gave him 38 and 105 for the year, and he completely carried his team’s offense for the night. For the Mets, Carlos Delgado hit two blasts of his own, including a towering grand slam that gave him 400 career homeruns. But the Cardinals were still winning 7-6 heading into the 9th inning. That’s when Carlos Beltran stepped up. The slugger, who was 0-4 going into the inning, hit a walk off two run homerun to win the game for New York. It was one of the best games of the year in the NL, and there are still two games to go in this series.

2. NL West Showdown: We can’t believe we’re saying this after months of NL West bashing, but there is actually a watchable series in the division. The Dodgers are taking on the Padres in a battle of the top two teams in the West. So far, the Padres have absolutely dominated the season series over the division leader. They have taken 10 of 13 from LA, including a 1-0 win last night. Jake Peavy pitched a great game to continue his recent success, while Mike Piazza drove in the only run of the night. Peavy has had one of the more puzzling seasons of any pitcher. While he is third in the league in strikeouts and has a good 1.23 WHIP, Peavy owns an awful 7-12 record. That’s due in part to poor run support, and in part to Peavy’s underwhelming 4.35 ERA. But he won last night as the Padres won their third in a row to close the gap between them and the Dodgers to two games.

3. Next step: division lead: With the Cardinals loss, all the Reds needed to do was win to put them one game back of the division leaders. They did more than that. Cincy annihilated the Astros 14-0, crushing them in every way possible. Offensively they put up 4 runs in the second and 8 in the third. Brandon Phillips started the scoring with a solo shot, while Scott Hatteberg and Adam Dunn tacked on two more homers. Then Kyle Lohse, who had been simply awful before being traded from the Twins to the Reds this year, pitched his fourth straight quality start with 8 shutout innings. His masterpiece gave Lohse his first win as a Red and his ERA is now 1.65 with the team. Now at 66-60, Cincinnati is one game back of St. Louis and has the same amount of victories as the Cardinals. They are closing in on the team that has won two straight Central division titles.

4. AL Roundup: There were plenty of events in the AL yesterday as well. The Seattle Mariners ended an 11 game win streak with a 6-5 defeat of the Yankees. Adrian Beltre hit a walk-off homer, his second of the night and 15th of the year. The Red Sox continued their poor play with a 4-3 loss to the Angels, keeping them 6.5 back of the Yankees. Also, Kenny Rogers pitched 7 shutout innings for the Tigers as they beat the White Sox again, 4-0. Marcus Thames continued the Detroit tradition this year of unknown players stepping up, with a homer, a triple, and 3 RBIs. And finally, the Blue Jays improved after last night’s embarrassment, defeating the Athletics 4-3 as AJ Burnett won his 4th consecutive start. Fortunately, Jays manager John Gibbons didn’t challenge Burnett to a fight for the 3 runs he allowed.

5. Winning games, losing money: While the Yankees continue to spend, spend, and spend some more on free agents, few people think about whether the team has the funds to support their gigantic $200 million payroll. Well here’s the answer: they don’t. Yankees GM Brian Cashman (what a name!) reported yesterday that despite all the money the team is making, they are still losing money due to revenue sharing. Last year they made the most money in baseball with $277 million in revenue, but still lost $50 million overall. Perhaps this isn’t a good time to remember their $1 billion-plus new stadium that the team has to finance in part.

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MLB General

The Full Count: Royal pain in the ass


1. Beating the Royals: We’re not sure whether defeating Kansas City is getting harder or if teams are just taking them lightly. Either way, the Royals, who swept Boston last week, were in position to take a four game series against Chicago yesterday. But the White Sox won to split the series at two games a piece. Mark Buehrle was victorious for the first time in 9 starts, with two earned runs allowed in a quality start. Jim Thome, Paul Konerko, and Jermaine Dye each drove in runs for the White Sox, who held onto the Wild Card lead with the 5-4 victory. With a Minnesota loss last night they lead the Twins by 2.

2. Embarrassment avoided: The Mets hadn’t just been beaten by the Phillies for three straight games, they had been crushed. Philly won the first 3 games of a 4 game set by a combined score of 27-4, including two shutouts. But the Mets retaliated with a little offense and slick pitching of their own in a 7-2 victory. Their 3-4 punch of Carlos Beltran and Carlos Delgado was very effective in the win. Beltran went 4-5 and hit his 34th homer of the year. He now has a team-high 99 RBIs on the season. Delgado was even better, with 2 homeruns and 4 RBIs on the day. He has a respectable 28 and 78 this season. Pitching-wise, John Maine was effective again, with 6 solid innings and two runs allowed. The runs were because of Ryan Howard’s 42nd shot of the year, tying him with David Ortiz for the ML lead. With the win the Mets kept a 13-game lead in the division.

3. Lack of focus?: Maybe the Yankees couldn’t concentrate with all the hype that is already surrounding their upcoming 5-game set with the Red Sox. Whatever happened, they didn’t look like themselves in their 12-2 loss to Baltimore. While their offense could only muster two solo shots against pitiful starter Rodrigo Lopez, the Yankees’ pitching was even worse. Jaret Wright, who is very inconsistent, had one of his worst days yesterday with 5 earned runs allowed. He also allowed a homerun for the first time in over 50 innings, snapping a major-league long streak. Octavio Dotel, in his second appearance of the season for New York, allowed 3 runs in less than an inning. New York now heads into the Red Sox series with a 1.5 game lead over their heavy rivals.

4. What happened?: The Padres had seemingly captured the division lead until the Dodgers went on their tear. Now it seems like San Diego can’t even win a game. They just took a four game sweep to San Francisco and have lost 8 of their last 10. Jake Peavy lost yesterday to bring his record to an outstanding 6-12, the second most losses of any NL pitcher. He didn’t even have a bad start, but the Padres failed to support their staff until a pinch hit grand slam in the 9th inning by Josh Barfield. Suddenly the Padres, who had led the NL West for about two months, find themselves with a losing record and in 3rd place.

5. You’re out!: As suspected, eight members of the Texas Rangers and Los Angeles Angels were suspended for their roles in Wednesday’s brawl. Managers Mike Scioscia and Buck Showalter were among those who will miss some action. Showalter will miss four games, while Scioscia will only miss three for some reason. Adam Kennedy, who started the fight by charging the mound, will only get 4 games compared to reliever Scott Feldman’s 6. Feldman did hit Kennedy with the pitch, but we think that the person who actually started the fighting should get a more severe punishment. A few other players won’t see action over the weekend for both teams.

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MLB General

The Full Count: Brawlin’ in Arlington


1. A good ol’ fashioned basebrawl: The Texas Rangers and LA Angels actually played yesterday, but few will remember this game for Texas’ 9-3 victory or 8-run third inning. That’s because in the bottom of the 9th with two outs, Adam Kennedy was hit by a pitch and charged the mound, setting off a benches-clearing brawl. Two Rangers had been hit the inning before, leading to the ejection of Angels manager Mike Scioscia. Rangers manager Buck Showalter was tossed after the fight as well as Kennedy. This type of thing can only be explained by watching, so watch it here.

2. Closing in: Watch out, St. Louis. Your usual huge lead in the NL Central division has all but disappeared this season. Now, after a defeat to the Reds, Cincy is closing in on the defending division champs. Yesterday they mauled the Cardinals at the New Busch by hitting 5 homers in a 7-2 win. Third baseman Edwin Encarnacion hit two big flys in the first three innings to give the Reds a 4-0 lead. That was followed by Adam Dunn (36), Ken Griffey Jr. (24), and Rich Aurilla (17) homeruns. Bronson Arroyo, who had been winless since June, finally emerged victorious by holding St. Louis to 1 earned run. Now the Reds are just 1.5 games out in the division, and they could possibly lower that to a half-game by tomorrow.

3. Reaching 70: Only one team in the National League, the Mets, has reached 70 wins. The AL East and West combined feature one 70-win team as well, the Yankees. Amazingly, the AL Central has three teams that have reached that plateau after the Twins did it last night. Minnesota beat up on Cleveland 7-2 last night for the win. Joe Mauer had 2 RBIs, Jason Bartlett went 4-4, and Michael Cuddyer drove in three runs to lead the team. Carlos Sliva got the win and is 4-1 with a 4.73 ERA since the All Star break, good considering his horrendous first half. Now Minnesota is just 1 game away from the Wild Card leading White Sox, who lost again last night to the pitiful Royals. The teams will play in a weekend series that will give one of them bragging rights in this tight race.

4. Cabrera’s day: Though Miguel Cabrera doesn’t really get mentioned among some of he elite hitters in the game, his all-around play over his short career has been truly extraordinary. Yesterday he led the Marlins to a surprising 15-4 crushing of the Los Angeles Dodgers, who had won 17 of 18 coming into the game. Cabrera hit two homers, his 19th and 20th on the season, while compiling 5 RBIs, 3 hits, and 3 runs. His performance raised his average to an outstanding .337, which ranks second in the NL. He also ranks second in on-base percentage and sixth in OPS. He is having the best of his 3 standout seasons, with career highs in each of the above percentage categories. Cabrera is truly a young stud, and incredibly is only 23. He is the leader of a young, surprising Marlins team that is only 8 games below .500 despite a minute payroll.

5. We’ll play anyone but Oakland: The Seattle Mariners have just slightly struggled against the A’s on the year. Make that mightily struggled. The team lost their 15th consecutive game against Oakland last night as they fell 4-0. That means Seattle is 55-49 against every team but the A’s and 1-15 against them this year. This is the longest streak since 1974 by any team against a divisional opponent, Elias Sports says. Dan Haren won and struck out 8 while the bullpen held their ground. Now Oakland, after sweeping the Mariners, has won 6 games in a row and 10 of 11 overall. Their streak is similar to the Dodgers’ but has received much less acclaim.

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MLB General

The Full Count: Chipper comes off the DL with a bang



3 HR night

1. Chip off the old block: Chipper Jones wasted no time returning to form after his stint on the DL for the Braves. Jones hit 3 homeruns at RFK stadium against the Nationals in just his second game back. It was his first career three-homer game and brings his career total to 350. Chipper went 4-5 to up his title-contending average to .339. Also for the Bravos, Matt Diaz went 4-5 and at one point had a hit in 10 consecutive at-bats. Diaz had gone 2-2 on Saturday and 4-4 on Sunday. His 10 hits in a row streak tied an NL record. The Braves won 10-4. They are still a whopping 16 games back in the division but trail by only 5.5 in the Wild Card race.

2. Run over by a train: We’re not sure if Pedro Martinez and the Mets were altogether ready for last night’s game against Philadelphia. While they lead the Phillies by more than a dozen games and have practically guaranteed themselves a playoff berth, the Mets still need to put on better showing than they did yesterday. They were dominated 13-0 by the Phils. Pedro Martinez only lasting the first inning, in which the Phillies scored 6 runs. According to ESPN.com, it was the first time in 10 years that Pedro had not gone at least 3 innings in any given start. Leadoff man Jimmy Rollins continued his hot streak by going 3-3 with 3 RBIs. Chas Utley added two more ribbies, while Abraham Nunez drove in three himself. The Phillies also got an excellent start from Cole Hamels, who put together his fourth consecutive quality start. He is 3-1 during those starts with 34 strikeouts.

3. Mean streak: The schedule-makers did not give the Detroit Tigers a very easy ride in August. After series last week against the Twins and White Sox, they now travel to Boston to face the Red Sox. They had lost five straight games, their longest such streak of the season, before last night’s much needed 7-4 edging of the BoSox. Sean Casey drove in two runs while Dimitri Young added three hits. Starter Nate Robinson picked up his 11th win with a quality start. For the Red Sox, David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez combined to go 1-6, which is probably the reason they lost. The Tigers still lead the charging White Sox (who beat the Royals 12-2) by 5.5 games.

4. Making their run: Has there ever been a season that the A’s haven’t performed well in the second half? It’s certainly hard to remember, as there has been more of the same this year. The A’s have quietly won 9 of their last 10 games. They are now 14 games over .500 and lead their division by 5.5 games. This is all despite having narrowly outscored their opponents on the year, 530-525. in fact, the A’s offense simply stinks; that total is the second-lowest runs scored of any team in the AL. But when your pitching staff has a 4.16 ERA, you don’t need to worry about trivial matters like hitting. It looks to me like the A’s, who won 5-4 yesterday with Frank Thomas and Nick Swisher homeruns, will return to the playoffs this year.

5. Combined effort: Most shutouts might involve one or two pitchers. Not with the Giants yesterday. Starter Brad Hennessey was taken out after 5.2 innings and 70 pitches, but five relievers held up the 0. Armando Benitez, who had blown three consecutive save opportunities, held up in this one.

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New York Mets

Hey, at least she didn’t say he was gay


It’s not easy being Paul Lo Duca right now. He’s going through a divorce and his wife claims he was unfaithful during their marriage. Of course, as a professional athlete, most people don’t even blink at the suggestion of infidelity. However, there is growing rumor that Lo Duca has a gambling problem.


The sources said Lo Duca also had gambling debts, accumulating a big enough tab that Mets management was aware of it. The morals clause within Major League Baseball doesn’t prohibit a player from gambling at casinos or race tracks, but the league becomes concerned when one of its players runs up unmanageable gambling debts.

That’s because unmanageable debts lead to some guy saying “hey, throw this game and we’ll wipe out 10% of it…” and then all hell breaks loose. Lo Duca insists that he only gambles on horses and that all his wagers were legal.

His estranged wife said, “I just want my privacy. I want what’s best for my daughter.” This is a little odd consider she and Paul are expected to go on WFAN today to discuss their divorce. Perhaps someone has changed the definition of privacy and didn’t notify us.

Links:
[NY Daily News]: Mets star: You bet it’s legal!