Random Friday Thoughts

Ok, I had no idea the Mets even won the game last night until this morning. I turned off game because a complaining girlfriend. She was rooting for the Padres thinking they were Mets and asking if the Yankees won....it was a bad scene indeed. However, being that Peavy was chewing the Mets up and spitting them out and the Mets lack of offensive firepower of late, I conceded the loss and let the channel be changed.

Fast forward to my delight this morning? The Mets won and in pretty amazing fashion. Peavy was a pleasure to watch while I was actually watching the game. The guy changes speed so effectively and can dial it up to 96 mph when he needs it to blow people away. He made Carlos Delgado make a swing like that made him look like a little leaguer...or Anderson Hernandez. Delgado had two strikes on him and gets pretty good plate coverage by standing over the plate. Peavy threw one up and basically over the inside corner of the plate. It wasn't too far inside, but with Delgado hanging, he had to jump back or else he would have taken it between the eyes. Then he threw a pitch down and away and Delgado put out a swing like I have never scene before from him. It looked like a wet noodle.

When the Mets got to the bullpen, they teed off. Embree didn't even record and out while giving up three runs and Scott Linebrink only had give up one earned run all season and entered the game with a 1.23 ERA. It's always good to win, but it is especially good when it looked like a repeat performance of the previous two games of the Mets simply getting dominated. A few random thoughts though....

• Jose Reyes is struggling. Despite his two hits last night, he is batting .273. He did however have a double digit pitch at-bat to start the game and seems to fighting off pitches and working the counts more this season. However, as Keith pointed out last night, he simply is getting under the ball too much. His groundball to fly ratio is 1.10 and that is just not going to make for a successful season for him. Art Howe may not have been a baseball genious, but he was right about Reyes. After him hitting a homerun during Spring Training, he said homeruns were mistakes for Jose. What he really should have said, is that they should be mistakes. If he is swings right, everything is on the ground or a line drive. Getting the ball in the air for Jose will mean a whole lot of struggling. Maybe if he fills out and adds more pop he can try and put more in the air, but right now, the balls are lazy fly outs.
  
  
• Kaz Matsui hit an inside the park homerun as Brian Giles just missed catching the ball and ended up making out with the wall as Matsui ran around the bases. In one at-bat, he had four total bases to Anderson Hernandez's six total bases all season. If these past three games have taught us anything, the Mets need production from second base. Good pitchers can neutralize the Mets good hitters and not throwing easy outs up there is essential. Matsui has an opportunity to seize his spot back and with the Mets doing well right now, it is a prime spot for him to not feel pressure and do what everyone thought he was capable of.
  
  
• Keith Hernandez thinks he is good. He thinks that, but he is right and you have to like his lack of humility. As Gary Cohen said that some guy/coach/whatever said that Adrian Gonzalez fields like Keith Hernandez, Keith remarked that it was pretty good compliment. The Mets broadcasting crew might be the most honest and fair team in the league as they regularly with laud the opposition when it is called for and call as fair a game as I have ever heard from home team crews. The inflection of their calls both ways is something that for some reason is just not done by everyone.
  
  
• The Padres lineup with Josh Barfield, Khalil Greene, Adrian Gonzalez, and Ben Johnson is nothing to sneeze at in terms of youthful core of players. This series is going to be fun one to watch because there are a quite of few young guys with potential on both sides that are going to be great to see play.
  
  
• Duner Sanchez is flat out nasty.
  
  
• Carlos Delgado is a beast. Anyone still think that Jacobs is going to put out the same type of numbers of the course of 2006, 2007, and 2008?
  
  
• Who would have guessed that Carlos Gomez and Lastings Milledge would have more walks than Carlos Delgado, David Wright, Cliff Floyd, and Paul LoDuca combined? In fact, those two are only four walks behind the entire starting lineup when you take Carlos Beltran out.

* * *

Julio Franco became the oldest player to hit a homerun in big league history.

"Why not? They signed me here for two years," said Franco, who turns 48 on Aug. 23. "God gave me the great gift to play the game of baseball, and I want to play until I'm 50. If He gives me two more years, don't you think He's going to give me another one?"

Anthony McCarron lays out his man-love for David Wright.

"This game pushes you because it's so addicting," Wright said in a recent interview. "You can never be good enough, unless you're hitting 1.000 and you never make an error. You can always improve, so that's why I have such a passion for it.

"What you see is what you kinda get with me. The way I am on the field is the way I am off it. I'm very passionate about whatever I do. I have three younger brothers and it could be playing poker with them, I want to win."

Can you really blame him?

Piazza....in the Hall of Fame with a Mets cap or a Dodgers cap?

When it happens, Piazza wants to wear a Met cap.

"It's not my decision, but it's the most appropriate," he said before going 0 for 3 in last night's 7-2 loss to the Mets.

He played with the Dodgers from 1992 to 1998 and hit 177 homers, 563 RBIs, and 115 doubles while posting a .331/.394/.572 line in 726 games. After being traded twice during the '98 season, he landed with the Mets and played with them through 2005. While playing with the Mets, he hit 220 homers (197 as a catcher), 655 RBIs, and 193 doubles while posting a .296/.373/.542 line in 972 games. The verdict? A Met. He lost a bit in average but not production. He was a monster here and did most of damage in what is his claim to fame in hitting homeruns from the catcheing position.

With Beltran's injury lingering still, we can only hope it is not repeat performance of nagging injuries to his legs zapping his ability to play his game. Not good.

Scott Kazmir looks like he is starting to own Boston. Coming into this season, he had a 3-1 record with a 2.64 ERA. He has the lowest BAA and ERA against the Red Sox that he has against any team with the exception of the Mariners (lower ERA and BAA) and the Rangers (lower ERA). That is certainly an impressive feat considering the Red Sox offensive prowess and the fact he is merely 22.