Tom Terrific?

From DG on Friday:
So, just an observation in regards to Glavine. Three innings so far - and the Detroit loss as well - and I kind of find myself wishing that he'd get his 300th then fade away next season. He cannot beat a patient team. You just really get the impression that he's scuffling toward his career mark and that there's not really that much left in the tank. Take off twenty years and put him in the Questec era, and you really have to wonder how long of a career he would have.

This is one topic that I've been thinking about a lot recently. I actually sent this question into Jerry Crasnick's last chat, but it didn't make it on. Basically I asked this:

Glavine is getting killed lately when he gets squeezed or even gets a true strikezone. If he doesn't get an inch or two off the plate, he simply does not have the stuff to get people out in the zone. You have to wonder if he would have a Hall of Fame career if he didn't have a generous strikezone early in his career. Of course he would have been good, but perhaps not a soon to be immortal.

Back in the 90's, Glavine, Smoltz, and Maddux were the beneficiaries of a very generous strike zone and the fabled one foot extension of the plate on the outside corner.

These days, umps are pressured into calling a more true strike zone and the invention of Questec had helped start that. In Glavine's first year here, there was a big to do about the Questec and how it affected Tom Glavine's starts at Shea. The end result was a sub-par year for Glavine. An adjustment was made by Tom and he started using a change-up inside and he looked as good as ever again. I'm not sure if it was a mechanical tweak, his inside change-up, or him getting a bit wider strikezone again, but he looked like he was back on track. Now the league has caught back up with him, he's doing something wrong mechanically, or the zone is tighter.

These days, I have zero confidence in him putting up a sparkling start. Like DG said, a patient team is not going to chase that fading change-up off the the plate. A younger team might, but he doesn't seem to be fooling anyone these days and laboring through his starts piling up 40+ pitches in two innings in to many starts lately. He still has ten quality starts out of fifteen starts, but he's gotten progressively worse as the season has gone along. He has five wins and is on pace for twelve which would leave him at 302. However, I'm not even sure he is a sure bet to break 300 with the way he is pitching and the Mets are playing. Scary to think about it, but if he doesn't reach 300, we might see him again in 2008 and that would seemingly be a very bad thing.

* * *

Carlos Beltran....he's hurt.

Beltran, who went 0-for-6 Saturday, admits that he has been bothered by a nagging left quad injury, the Daily News reports.
Spin: Beltran plans to play through the discomfort, acknowledging that he can ill-afford to go on the DL, given the state of the Mets' banged-up outfield. Beltran, who added that rest would "probably" fix the injury, said he feels more discomfort when he bats lefty, since it requires him to put added weight on his left leg when he swings.

The Mets have now dropped 11 of 14. If he sat or even went on the DL, how much worse could it be? The fact is, an unhealthy Beltran is not helping this team one iota. At least a healthy Beltran might help this team string a run together. With Gomez heating up a bit and bringing his average up to respectable levels and Milledge around the corner, Beltran can and should take the time he needs and at some point. Met management needs to make that decision because Beltran is not going to make it and a week might do him wonders.

Randolph is not concerned about Beltran's leg and Beltran did look much better on Monday.

Yankee fans now know the name Oliver Perez pretty well. He is 2-0 against them with a 1.20 ERA and a .192 BAA in two games this season. Watching him deal on Friday was a delight. Unfortunately, that was the only nice thing about this weekend. Watching the aforementioned Glavine continually give it back to the Yankees was exasperating beyond belief and I had no confidence in the Mets getting to Wang. It seems the Mets always have trouble with guys that have heavy sink.

What to do now? Not much. Still, the starting pitching is not of paramount concern to me and the offense is not going to get upgrade. What we see is what we are going to get with the exception of Lastings Milledge getting added to the roster when he returns and has a short rehab stint. The bullpen? Not many people are available outside of some guys from Texas and probably some guys that do not appreciably upgrade the team. Basically the Mets have to fix this team and straighten it out with what the currently have.

Depending upon how you feel about the team right now, that could either be encouraging or very, very discouraging. I don't have any doubts they will straighten out, but I do think they look a bit weaker overall than I thought.

Wright, Beltran, and Reyes are still leading the charge in their respective positions. While Miguel Cabrera is getting shut-out here, it certainly is not a stretch for Wright to be in the All-Star game after picking it up. Beltran on the other hand is simply not playing well enough to earn a spot, but hopefully he turns it around like Wright did to make it a moot point.

Marc Raimondi says that John Maine should be included as well.

In 14 starts, he has given up more than three runs only twice and has made it out of the fifth inning all but once. The Mets are 9-5 when he starts and they won his first seven outings of the season before tapering off lately.

Though Maine hit a lull, him and Perez have certainly pitched well enough this season to get some strong consideration. Both are in the top six of ERA and are up there in wins. Also helping out Perez's case is the fact that LaRussa is going to be picking and one has to think Ollie's game seven performance has not been lost on Tony.

Does T.R. Sullivan really get paid for this?

Will the Rangers trade Sammy Sosa once he gets his 600th home run? I would think you can get something good for him.
-- Ralph T., Fort Worth

I don't see trading Sosa, unless it would be to the New York Mets. That's something to watch. Otherwise, it's hard to envision.

First of all you have to assume that it would be an American League team so he could be a DH. But who? The Red Sox have David Ortiz, the Indians have Travis Hafner, the Tigers have Gary Sheffield, the White Sox have Jim Thome and the Athletics are getting Mike Piazza back. The Angels use Vladimir Guerrero too much at DH.

I definitely could see Mets general manager Omar Minaya being interested in Sosa if his outfield problems continue, but it's doubtful that another NL team would be interested unless it's as a platoon player or pinch-hitter. Then the Rangers wouldn't get much in return.

But watch out for the Mets.

The Mets ain't trading for no Sammy Sosa.

Did he ever have a chance?

Lonnie Wheeler thinks the time is right to deal Adam Dunn. Ummm....the time was right two years ago to trade him. Now it's pointless. The Reds have no one to blame but themselves and it's not really a wonder why they are in the place they are in.

A-Rod is hot again....

In his last 28 games, Rodriguez has 12 homers and 34 RBIs. That is more homers than any Yankee has all season and as many RBIs as Bobby Abreu. Yet it is the 22 games that came before this stretch that accentuates his season.

In 28 games, his production numbers look exactly like David Wright's overall numbers. Nuts. Sherman thinks that he could be the first player with an annual contract of $30 million. I don't see that happening just yet, but he's going to get something really, really, really big.

The Mets FINALLY played an all around dominating game. The starting pitching was as tight as a camel's ass in a sandstorm, the bullpen put up goose eggs (Pedro #2 allowed an inherited run to score on a bloop), and the offense was relentless. FINALLY a game I could watch without slightly regurgitating in my mouth...well Friday's game was pretty good as well, but this was more well rounded.