First off before I start today’s column, I would like to express my sincerest condolences to former Mets manager Willie Randolph and his family on the passing of his father.
Going into last nights game I was not confident of a Mets win- and sure enough my gut instincts served me right. I was wondering why General Jerry Manual – aka General Kaos- would use Fernando Nieve as last nights starter when
1. He was used in a relief stint earlier in the week.
2. Fernando has not pitched well lately, with whispers that he is suffering from a dead arm.
3. And Raul Valdes, who has not pitched in five days, was a better option.
As I watched the bottom half of the inning unfold , it was plain to see that Nieve just didn’t have it. His control was non existent and wen he was able to get the ball in the strike zone, Corey Hart made sure that he would help himself to some rib steaks ! But the Mets offense would strike back , piecing together two more runs to stay close. But who does Jerry bring in for weekly target practice? You guessed it “Ostracized” Ollie Perez, who went on to give up another three runs – including a two run jack by the aforementioned Hart ! I am still wondering why Jerry would use Oliver in a game that was not out of reach. I have a sneaking suspicion that if Oliver pitched well last night, Jerry would probably given him another shot in the rotation. Either that or he was willing to sacrifice the game to make Ollie look even more foolish. But the highlight was the three run homer by Ike Davis, that kept us within two runs of the Brewers. Unfortunately The Brewers Bullpen was able to shut us down after the fifth and we drop back to mediocrity at .500.
I am wonder with last nights revelation that the Detroit Tigers are designating Dontrelle Willis for assignment, will it put more pressure on the Mets to consider doing the same for Ollie? I highly doubt it because the Mets have rarely showed a penchant for releasing – and paying players with alot of money owed to them.
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                                  ” This is how us Mets fans felt watching you pitch yesterday!”
And with that said… HERE COMES THE INFAMY !!!!
New York Mets purchased pitcher, Frank Lary from the Detroit Tigers on May 30, 1964.
New York Mets sold pitcher, Kevin Lomon to the Atlanta Braves on May 30, 1995.
David Cone announced his retirement on May 30, 2003. That was a sad day. We all knew David wasn’t the dominant pitcher he once was, but we hoped that he could at least go out as a Met on a positive note. Unfortunately in his five games for the Mets that year, he went 1-3 with a e.r.a. of 6.50.
New York Mets signed free agent catcher Mike DiFelice on May 30, 2006.
New York Mets traded back up catcher ( and dead ringer for Darth Tater), Ramon Castro to the Chicago White Sox for reliever, Lance ” The Broadway Bully” Broadway on May 30, 2009.
                                                                         
                                                                       ” Now If you could throw a baseball as hard as you could punch…”
And today’s Mo Vaughn tidbit of the day – He always roots for the kielbasi during the sausage races at Miller Field.
26 comments
stickguy
5/30/2010-11:08am at 11:08 am (UTC -4)
Yeah, yesterday was Jerry at his “finest”. Sadly, I actualy believe he would semi-intentially throw the game (or at least do something he knew would seriously lower the odds of winning) to try and stick it to the FO for giving him Ollie in thepen! After all, this is the guy that buried Evans, who was showing signs of life, for the corpe known as Tatis, admitting it was only to try and save his job (future of the organzation be damned),. So theire is a precedence.
I hit the dugout late, but got MF’s back that Ollie would have been a better choice to start last night. As would the logical option, Valdes. Hell, Mejia would have been a better bet to start and give you at least 3-4 respectable innings.
I said predicted Friday exactly what happened. Neive would stink and get knocked out early, and we would see Ollie anyway. ANd bingo, there ya go.
And I really blame Jerry for making the Pen a bigger problem, but refusing to use ollie when there was a logical place, to get him so work. Sitting for a week+ isn’t likely to keep him sharp (even by his standards).
Now, Neive is not starting, but also has to be unavailable until what, Wednesday? Actual, they should give him a week off (skip the SD series, and Thursday is an off day).
So the next 4 games will be a 5 man pen.
As to Willis, I don’t think Ollie hit the same level of extended suckitude (or as ceetar says, maybe he is still salvageable). Willis is just done.
So, cut ollie, sign Willis for the minors, and be paying about the same amount for a lousy lefty in AAA, which is where you want ollie to be.
metsfan4decades
5/30/2010-11:24am at 11:24 am (UTC -4)
I should have read your reply first stick, before I typed mine below. All good points and all I agree with. Except Willis. I would just pass on him.
stickguy
5/30/2010-11:26am at 11:26 am (UTC -4)
Oh, I agree that Willis is done (but he does smell like an Omar special).
That was more of a humorous bone thrown out there.
metsfan4decades
5/30/2010-11:22am at 11:22 am (UTC -4)
I’d like to pass on my condolences to Willie and his family as well. I was sorry to hear he couldn’t get a flight out Friday which he tried to. I can’t imagine how frustrating that was for him.
I don’t think Jerry intentionally started out to throw that game last night. I just think his decision to start Nieve was ill advised, to say the least. So many were against it to start with, never mind the outcome.
And if he had pulled Nieve for a PH in the second inning, with 2 on, 1 out, instead of batting him, who knows what that outcome would have been? If they can pull Maine after 1 batter, there was no reason to leave Nieve out there for even one more inning when he clearly did not have it, especially when we had an opportunity to score some runs.
Putting Ollie in, in a close game, coming out of the BP in a role he’s never going to succeed at, was more a calculated move in my mind, then Nieve starting. That was just downright foolhardy, unless Jerry was trying to push the issue with the FO of: ‘see? you’ve left me one arm short in the BP, I’m forced to use him, and this is the result’. Nothing would surprise me at this point.
Pass on Willis.
metsfan4decades
5/30/2010-11:30am at 11:30 am (UTC -4)
Can someone tell me why Ike Davis would be sitting today and Tatis playing 1st? Ike breaks out of a mini slump last night with the Mets only 2nd 3 run HR of the season and he’s not batting? It’s not like Tatis has good numbers against Wolf. He’s 3 for 31 lifetime.
Sigh…..
metsfan4decades
5/30/2010-11:32am at 11:32 am (UTC -4)
And Tatis is batting clean-up? Really? I mean, REALLY?
Nothing against Tatis but if you’re going to start him, he should not be batting 4th.
njstuckintx
5/30/2010-12:26pm at 12:26 pm (UTC -4)
Clean up? This whole trying to keep the integrity of the order thing is ridiculous. Best lineup possible is my manta. Not, “oh no, batting wright or bay in the 4 spot is going to throw them all off”. We. Tar. Dead. Say it 3 times fast! We. Tar. Dead.
ceetar
5/30/2010-1:01pm at 1:01 pm (UTC -4)
Manuel’s hiding an injury to his writing hand. If he doesn’t bat Tatis 4th, he has to rewrite the ENTIRE thing. 4th he can just copy/paste yesterday’s and cross out Ike. He contemplated Cora at first instead just because it’s one less character to write.
DNDJohan aka kistics
5/30/2010-1:10pm at 1:10 pm (UTC -4)
Very good point. I understand why Manuel is putting Tatis at 4th. That’s a very good strategy by him. I wonder if GMJ will have a chance to bat 3rd playing LF. That would be very brilliant!
stickguy
5/30/2010-11:33am at 11:33 am (UTC -4)
just the lefty pitching, and he has loked like he could use a break. And expect him to PH at some point.
Or, just Jerry doing his best Willie “it is Sunday, throw away a game” impression.
Frankly, I would play Davis and sit Wright if they want to give someone a day off.
metsfan4decades
5/30/2010-11:44am at 11:44 am (UTC -4)
Or if Jerry wanted to give Tatis a start, I too would have given Wright the day off, not Davis. But maybe there is some good numbers with Wright against Wolf….
stickguy
5/30/2010-11:49am at 11:49 am (UTC -4)
Wright is suce a mess now, and so totally different than what he used to be, that I would trhow out all histroical numbers from him as being meaningless.
ceetar
5/30/2010-11:31am at 11:31 am (UTC -4)
Ollie is a little mindboggling (yes I know), I just went through gameday from yesterday looking at his pitch selections (Or Barajas..or Warthens?) It’s confusing.
The first couple of pitches were all cut-fastballs (hmm..not warmed up? easiest pitch to throw? they told him throw more fastballs as a reliever? )
There were at-bats he threw 2-3 changeups in a row, bad plan.
there were at-bats where his changeup was faster than his fastball. (Not executing pitches/mechanics/whatever)
There at-bats where he mixed pitches and changed speeds and executed a masterful strikeout of Prince Fielder with apparently a wicked slider. (The last two sliders were off the plate, but broke 10+ inches.)
The biggest thing to me with Ollie, and it’s something that he shouldn’t learned by now, but doesn’t mean he can’t still learn it, is he doesn’t think Walks are bad (and they don’t have to be) and doesn’t understand when he should throw a strike and when he should nibble the corners and when he should hit the zone.
ceetar
5/30/2010-11:35am at 11:35 am (UTC -4)
Actually, I take it back. Those two changeups to Braun were both good pitches and he actually did ground into a double play on it. It’s really hard to analyze, because it seems like Gameday gets really confused with Ollie, because some of his pitches break so much. But the Triple earlier in that inning was basically all the same speed, varying changeup/cutter and the changeups were too fast so when he through the cutter on the corner, but too much up, it got smacked.
stickguy
5/30/2010-11:41am at 11:41 am (UTC -4)
The basic questions with Ollie right now are, 1) where did his FB Velo go, and can he get it back, and 2) is his other stuff good enough that he can fashion a productive game plan out of it?
Ollie is so perplexing. He could be this bad all year, ofr he could get a start next week, pitch great, and go on a nice solid winning stretch. Who knows?
I would, however, love to see him land on another team, just to see what they do with him, and how it turns out!
ceetar
5/30/2010-12:02pm at 12:02 pm (UTC -4)
I’d go the ‘another’ pitching coach and manager first.
Yeah, the velocity is perplexing, but you’ve seen it come back a bit with Santana and Pelfrey, and I doubt Ollie gets it back pitching an inning here and there every 8 days or whatever. arm strength, build it up! especially after such a long layoff and injury..
His other stuff is definitely good enough, if he learns how to use it correctly.
Oliver is better than Fernando, however, no matter how you slice it..
stickguy
5/30/2010-11:36am at 11:36 am (UTC -4)
I actually feel bad for the catcher when Ollie pitches. Especially when he can’t throw anything for a strike that isn’t a complete meatball. How the hell do you call pitches for that?
COntrast it to Taka, who pretty much puts anything exactly where you want it to be!
ceetar
5/30/2010-12:04pm at 12:04 pm (UTC -4)
if you look at gameday actually, a lot of Ollie’s pitches were on the corners. You can actually see the strike zone shrink/adjust mid at-bat. (Literally, the graphic shrinks after a ball on the line gets called a ball.) But he needs to be able to set up hitters better so that he can occasionally hit the zone a little more succinctly and not get hit.
metsfan4decades
5/30/2010-11:38am at 11:38 am (UTC -4)
We all know Ollie has no game plan when it comes to pitch selection in the game, never mind batter to batter with different situations. The fact that he’s struggled with that as a starter – and he would have to have been better prepared as a starter with a game plan – you know there is no way he’s going to make that transition coming out of the pen.
Perez doesn’t belong in the BP, period – not mid season anyway. If they’re going to get anything out of their investment with him, it almost has to be as a starter. I’m inclined to think they’ve giving up on that – or at least don’t want to be bothered with trying to work with him as long as he’s taking a roster spot on the 25 man team. They want him to go down to the minors and have someone else work with him on that. Can’t decide if that means they’ve given up on him or not.
I’ve read somewhere that even if he concedes to going to the minors, the max it can be for is 3 weeks. So it’s not like they’ll stash him down there and forget about him. Why…..for his owns sake….wouldn’t he just try it? He’s not getting anything out of this current situation – and neither are the mets.
ceetar
5/30/2010-12:10pm at 12:10 pm (UTC -4)
I’m not sure if the max thing is true. I think that’s only if they fake-DL him. (which they’d already been shown willing to do with Maine, so if minors was the plan, why not with Perez? Unless they’re scared of Boras calling them on it?) We saw Manuel mismanage the 3-week minor rehab assignment in 2008 already with Castillo.
As little plan as Ollie seems to have sometimes with a lineup at-bat (and I believe he does have one, just if he doesn’t get a call or misses with a pitch he doesn’t know how to readjust. I want to know if he’s shaking off pitches, or if the Catchers are not understanding his pitches that well yet?) it seems the Mets have even less of a plan regarding what to do with him.
stickguy
5/30/2010-12:14pm at 12:14 pm (UTC -4)
actually, there is no time limit. He can go to AAA if he wants, and stay there for the rest of the year.
the 20 day limit comes into play for service time. That is, you can stay that long, and you service clock keeps ticking. But after that, you stop accruing.
Now, I am not quite sure what the impact that has (will it delay his next FA opportunity?), but ti is pretty much a given that if Boras agrees to have him go down, then it won’t be for longer than the 20 days.
metsfan4decades
5/30/2010-12:22pm at 12:22 pm (UTC -4)
Thanks for the explanation. I knew there was something that involved 20 days.
stickguy
5/30/2010-11:31am at 11:31 am (UTC -4)
“Nothing would surprise me at this point”
pretty much the mantra for the current management team of the Mets!
One thing though, about Jerry trying to force the issue. From many reports, it actually seems that Jerry is the dog, not the tail, when it comes to player moves (at least if he is the one that wants Mejia up, he has more sway than the side that thinks he should be in theminors).
So does he really have to throw away games making a spectacle of the team, just to make a point?
Also, I have to assume that Neive starting was all o Jerry. And if you needed example 1,247 that Jerry is not a capable ML manager (certainly in the NL), then there you go.
If you want to use my viability test, it is “if you made your teams manager a FA, would any other team be interested in hiring him to manage?” If the answer is No, then you might want to find a new guy.
oleosmirf
5/30/2010-11:54am at 11:54 am (UTC -4)
Boras wont let him go to AAA b/c he wants the Mets to release him (which Wilpons wont do) and Jerry wont play him in anything other than mop up role b/c his job is on the line…either way he serves no purpose.
Just release him Wilpon. I know its a lot of money but he KILLS the team, even when he doesnt pitch poorly…addition by subtraction
metsfan4decades
5/30/2010-12:24pm at 12:24 pm (UTC -4)
Thing is, that was no mop up role last night. If they were truly only going to use him in that type of role, pitching the 9th inning in that 8-0 game against the Phils would have been the time.
Last night was still a ballgame when Ollie came in. I believe we were only down 2 runs at that point.
njstuckintx
5/30/2010-12:31pm at 12:31 pm (UTC -4)
I would be all for releasing him, a la GMJ with the Angels, but there really isn’t much out there as an option/replacement. The Angels had 3 solid outfields, where as we barely have 5 total SPs.
If Perez was smart, he would agree to be DL’d for some anxiety disorder and then work out his stuff. He’d save some face that way and his value wouldn’t drop as much as it has. It’d be Boras doing damage control for Ollie’s next contract and it saves the Mets as they can put in an actual serviceable pitcher onto the roster.