Team Support

The Mets have a few pitchers that have been victimized by run support this year and some have been brutally abused. Runs scored stats for pitchers is always interesting to me because it ends up being just bizarre how a team just continually hits well when one pitcher is on the mound as opposed to when they give nothing for other pitchers. When Kaz Ishii pitches, it seems that the team basically gives up and does not even try. No Met starting pitcher is below four runs a game of support besides Kaz and despite the fact the Mets are 7-9 in games he started, he is only 3-9. When Ishii loses, he losses fabulously and he just gets killed. In the nine losses by the Mets when he starts, the Mets have been outscored by an amazing 63-26 margin. In the seven games the Mets won when he started, they have outscored opponents 39-11. Kaz should have had more wins, but he was too wildly inconsistent to be in the rotation and even when he won, he was dangerously close to imploding.

                  RS  W  L   W% aW aL  aW% AvgGS  ERA
Kris Benson     6.42 13  6 .684  8  4 .667    54 3.54
Jae Seo         5.67  4  1 .800  4  1 .800  67.4 1.35
Pedro Martinez  5.08 13 11 .542 12  5 .706    64 2.96
Victor Zambrano 4.84  8 14 .364  6  9 .400  49.5 4.16
Aaron Heilman   4.82  4  3 .571  2  3 .400  51.3 4.60
Tom Glavine     4.53 10 14 .417  8 10 .444  45.2 4.41
Kaz Ishii       3.43  7  9 .438  3  9 .250  45.7 5.04

In the thirteen games Pedro has pitched and the Mets won, the Mets have outscored opponents 74-27 and in eleven games the Mets lost that Pedro has started, they have been outscored 53-34. Nine of those eleven games the Mets lost when Pedro started were lost by two runs or less. Only one loss was by more than three runs and Pedro should be in the thick of the CY Young race, but instead is an afterthought behind Chris Carpenter and Roger Clemens. Pedro is 18th overall out of 53 pitchers in terms of run support for pitchers qualified for the ERA title and 101st overall and the Mets simply need to give him more. He has done what an ace is supposed to do every time he takes the mound and give his team a chance to win game in and game out. Though the Mets are ranked fifth in the league in runs, they are feast or famine. They simply need to be more consistent scoring runs and need to be better at backing up their ace. When he goes out, it is a must win game this time of the year and wasting starts like his near no-no is unconscionable.

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This has nothing to do with baseball, but my brother has two Neil Diamond tickets for MSG on the 20th. If anyone likes Neil and is interested in them, please send me an email me. I will not pass judgement on you either.

Minor update:

• Norfolk beat Columbus 8-1. Brian Bannister picked up his fourth AAA win and went 5.2 innings of shutout ball and surrendered seven hits, no earned runs, and struck out six. He has a 2.97 ERA since being promoted. Angel Pagan went 1 for 4 with two walks and his twenty-fourth stolen base, Anderson Hernandez went 2 for 5 with a run scored, Chase Lambin went 2 for 5 with two runs scored and his sixth homer, Prentice Redman went 2 for 4 with two runs scored, a double, a walk, two RBIs, and his seventh stolen base, Brian Daubach went 3 for 5 with a run scored, and Rodney Nye went 2 for 3 with a run scored, two walks, and two RBIs. Tim Redding took the loss for the Clippers and went 5.2 innings, struck out ten, gave up eight hits and four walks, and gave up four earned runs.
  
• Binghamton played Portland in a double header. The B-Mets lost game one 8-5. Lastings Milledge went 1 for 4 with a run scored and a double and Wayne Lydon went 2 for 3 with a run scored and an RBI. Luz Portobanco started for the B-Mets and went three innings and gave up four earned runs on six hits and one walk and Anderson Garcia's season seems to be unraveling after another bad outing and he took the loss after giving up three earned runs, five hits, and one walk in two innings of relief and now owns a 5.40 ERA. Über prospect Hanley Ramirez went 2 for 4 with a run scored and an RBI for the Sea Dogs. In game two, Portland won 3-1. Lastings Milledge has seemingly found his power stroke and went 1 for 2 with his third homerun and a walk. Rafael Lopez and Jeremy Hill combined for eight innings of five hit, three walk ball and gave up only one earned run and struck out six.
  
• Palm Beach beat St. Lucie 4-3. Andy Wilson pounded his twenty-fifth homerun of the year on a 1-4 night and drove in two RBIs.
  
• Hagerstown beat Hickory 4-3. Carlos Gomez went 2 for 4 and got caught stealing for the twentieth time this season. Jason Weintraub took the win in relief and went three innings of shut out ball to get his first win of the year.
  
• Despite doubling Williamsport's hit total, Brooklyn lost 2-1. Joseph Holden went 1 for 3 with two walks and stole his fifteenth base on the year, Caleb Stewart is trying to break out of a slump and went 3 for 5 with two doubles, and Nick Evans drove in the lone Cyclone run and went 1 for 4 with an RBI and a walk. Drew Butera was known as a light stick, good glove catcher, but made his tenth error of the year last night. Bobby Parnell had yet another good outing and went six innings giving up three hits, no earned runs, two walks, and struck out three and took the no-decision and lowered his ERA to 1.58. Travis Hope took the loss in relief and dropped his record to 3-1.
  
• The GCL Mets took out the GCL Marlins 9-0. Junior Contreras went 1 for 5 with his seventh homer of the year and drove in three runs, Emmanuel Garcia went 3 for 4 with two runs scored and a walk, Leivi Ventura went 2 for 4 with a double and two RBIs, and Yasmil Bucce went 2 for 4 with a run scored and a double. Robert McIntyre picked up the win to bring his record to 4-1 and went five innings giving up one hit, two walks, and struck out three.

Kenny Rogers may be looking for $9 million per season after this year at the ripe old age of 41.

Boras knows the Rangers will be dealing from a position of weakness and is going to drive a hard bargain, looking for something in the range of $9 million per season for Rogers.

Even at 41, Rogers could be at the top of a mediocre class of free-agent pitchers this winter that also includes A.J. Burnett, Kevin Millwood, Jarrod Washburn, Jeff Weaver, Shawn Estes, Matt Morris, Jamie Moyer, Woody Williams and Brett Tomko.

Luke Hochevar may begin fall classes at Tennessee on August 24th if he fails to reach a deal with the Dodgers and they will lose rights to sign him. The Dodgers are offering $2 million and Boras is looking for $4 million. Being the sides are way off and the buzz before the draft was people did not think Hochevar was ace material, a deal seems pretty unlikely. Hochevar has a wide arsenal of pitches and is very polished and has command over all of them, but his upside seems to be limited when compared to Mike Pelfrey and Craig Hansen.

Mark Bellhorn may not get recalled from AAA Pawtucket from his rehab assignment.

From Baseball America:

The Angels promoted catcher Jeff Mathis to the big leagues over the weekend. Mathis, a first-rounder in 2001, rebounded from an awful 2004 season offensively at Double-A Arkansas to bat .282-15-57 in 35 5 at-bats at Triple-A Salt Lake this season.

Beltran will decide today if he needs surgery or not.

"I have a little fracture and that fracture is moving inside like six millimeters, so they want to see if it moved more or it came back to place," Beltran said. "So if it came back to place they don't have to do the surgery. I really feel in my heart that I don't want to go through surgery."

Bob Raissman is not a member of the Fran Healy fan club.

Then, viewers heard how Dennis Martinez once pitched a no-hitter - actually, a perfect game - against the Dodgers. There was more chatter about how the Mets' defense must be feeling. And how Ramon Martinez (1995) pitched the last no-hitter at Dodgers Stadium with Mike Piazza behind the plate.

Healy, speaking as if he just discovered the world is round, said it would be ironic "if" Martinez did pitch a no-hitter because Pedro and Piazza - former Dodgers - comprised the Mets battery.

Bob thinks Ted Robinson and Fran Healy called a horrendous game. Check the article out.

Eli Gelman has an article on Drew Butera.

From the NY Post:

Tonight will mark Kris Benson's second career start against his former team. Last Sept. 19, he allowed six runs in six innings against the Pirates in Pittsburgh. Benson (8-4, 3.54 ERA) will face LHP Mark Redman (5-12, 4.75). Matchups for the rest of the series are: tomorrow, Tom Glavine (8-10, 4.41) vs. RHP Josh Fogg (6-7, 4.94); Thursday, Victor Zambrano (6-9, 4.16) vs. LHP Zach Duke (5-0, 2.13).

and

Reyes has not committed an error in 31 games, playing defense flawlessly since his last error on July 8.

Murry Chass has a good look at Carlos Delgado and what he might have meant to the Mets.

Delgado is hitting .293 with 22 home runs and 78 runs batted in. He has a .556 slugging percentage and a .394 on-base percentage.

Want to know what the Mets' first basemen have done offensively? Actually, you might not. It's so bad that squeamish adults should skip ahead a few paragraphs.

The Mets' first basemen - that includes everyone who has played first and what they have done with their bats when they have played there - have been the puniest hitters in the National League. Their batting average, according to Elias Sports Bureau, is .216, which is 31 points lower than the next-worst team.

Their home run total of 11 and R.B.I. total of 39 are also the league's lowest. They have a weak .348 slugging percentage and a .290 on-base percentage.

Wow. Getting .219/.290/.348 out of first base is not good, but I'm pretty sure you did not need me to tell you that.