A blog dedicated to the New York Mets with some other baseball thrown in.

Saturday, April 12, 2008

Pondering the Two Spot

Though these have nothing to do with actually numbers, I like them. ESPN's Power Rankings have the Mets as the third best team in the bigs. Also, they mention how nice Angel Pagan looks in the #2 spot.

Not that this means much at all, but I was going to write a post about Pagan in the #2 hole before he became the #2 hitter. Of course, that post seems pointless now hence me skipping it. However, it bears noting that many people can see that Pagan looks fantastical there and who thinks Castillo and his balky knees will be there when he returns? Um, me for one.

Willie could care less that Pagan looks good there. I am 99.99999% sure Luis will resume his place as the #2 hitter when he returns despite how great Pagan has looked. For me, a slappy hitter serves no purpose there. Not that Pagan is a masher, but he is a more valuable bat right now while Castillo's stick looks like the weakest on the team.

I am not saying Castillo serves no purpose and is 100% useless. I am not saying he is a disaster in the #2 spot, but I am saying Angel Pagan is better suited there for now. Let us see how Willie plays this one. If I am wrong, feel free to come leave nasty comments and chastise me. I would actually welcome that because it means Willie might actually be learning, but toss me into the 'ye of little faith' category.  

* * *

  • Two nights...two great wins. The Mets are also getting calls their way and even Nelly Fig was getting a Glavine circa '95 strikezone. I mean, what the fuck? When did the Mets start getting calls like this? Some great at-bats from the Mets end of things and a spectacular showing by the bullpen and my man Aaron came out there and did what he does best. Shut down the opposition. It would have been a perfect night if I just remembered to check out my fantasy baseball team and put Edison Volquez into the starting lineup.

  • Reyes has a tight hammy. And now we play the waiting game....

    "It's sore right now," Reyes said after the game. "Let's see how it feels tomorrow. Before the game I felt it. So I went to Willie (Randolph) before the game and told him that I'm not going to give you 100 percent today. He said to be smart about it. ... It's nothing big."

  • Clay Buccholz has a nasty curveball. Nasty.

  • Is it possible the NL is not as bad as people think?
  • Labels: , ,

    21 Comments:

    Anonymous Anonymous said...

    YOu KNOW Willie will put Castillo and his no power, no RBI self in the 2 hole when he returns. It would make TOO MUCH SENSE to have a guy who can drive in a man from 2nd(not to mention 1st) rather than let Castillo hit some weak inf single or a one hopper to the LF who is playing 38 feet behind the ss and keeps reyes from scoring from 2nd. Remember, willie wants the youngsters to "Earn their chops"- -Absurd- bat Castillo 8th, bunt him over, let Reyes/Pagan drive him in

    Adenzeno@yahoo.com

    8:21 AM

     
    Anonymous Anonymous said...

    Outside of systematically destroying the bullpen, the #2 spot in the batting order seems to be Willie's biggest blind spot. (OK, maybe that's generous, let's just say it's in his top five.)

    Castillo will be hitting there because, first of all, Willie believes that the second baseman is the default #2 hitter most of the time. Also, the veteran thing. Did you notice that Willie is already on record as saying that while Pagan is a nice story, he's not his starting left fielder? Now, why does the guy have to go and mess with the kid who's hitting nearly .400? Can't he say "he's playing great, and it's a long season, and right now he's here and the Alou isn't and we have a lot of faith in Angel and his talents" and leave it at that? Nope. Has to make sure he puts it in the press that he really doesn't believe that Angel is this good. Even if that's true, what's the point? Oh, right, Willie hates guys under 35.

    Anyway, I think your 99.9999% prediction is just about right on the money. Angel will hit 7th until he absolutely proves that he's not a .400 hitter, even if it takes all season. Geez it'll be fun watching Castillo limping around third and being held up there on DW doubles in the gap all season, no?

    11:29 AM

     
    Blogger mr.bmc said...

    Castillo's entire raison d'etre is to be the #2 hitter behind Reyes. What use is he if he can't give himself up so reyes can move up a base.

    If you play one bag (or one run) at a time, that's all you're gonna get.

    The other problem is dropping Castillo in the order creates a black hole of suck from 7-9.

    11:45 AM

     
    Anonymous Anonymous said...

    If we have a healthy Castillo who's at full strength, he'll be fine in the second hole. I like having Pagan down in the order and not an automatic out there.

    But that's IF...

    12:37 PM

     
    Anonymous Anonymous said...

    Can we call El Duque "the Bouquet" now?

    12:42 PM

     
    Anonymous Anonymous said...

    I mean the Boot

    12:42 PM

     
    Anonymous Anonymous said...

    I mean the Boot

    12:42 PM

     
    Anonymous Anonymous said...

    Of course Castillo will be hitting in the 2 hole when he's back; that's why Omar signed him. If you don't think Castillo is the perfect #2 hitter, why the heck would you give him a 4 year deal for that money?? Omar certainly wouldn't have given him that much money if he thought Castillo was a #7 or 8 hitter.

    -ube

    12:54 PM

     
    Anonymous Anonymous said...

    I love the TIgers being ranked 18th despite having only one win. ANd its not like they're run into bad luck, they've played some shitty baseball. Sucks to be the other 12 teams ranked under them.

    Regarding Pagan, everyone, including me is expecting him to cool down eventually, I mean, he has to right? But the thing is, when you watch his at bats, he handles the bat well, and he has great at bats in general.

    Bold prediction: Willie will leave Pagan in the 2 hole.

    Figueroa deffinitly had a big strike zone to work with. But still that was a beautiful story with Figgy out there. I almost teared.

    Roy Oswalt got BOMBED yesterday. Is it the beggining of the end for him? HE gave up like 4 homeruns so that's a sign it wasn't bad luck.

    Everyone should look at the box score for the Double A Binghamton Mets game. My goodness, this poor kid named Lucas French gave up like 14 runs in 4 innings. I hope he's going to be mentally ok after that.

    1:30 PM

     
    Anonymous Anonymous said...

    I've been defending David's defense ever since he got to the bigs. I've always considered him a very good fielder with an above average arm. I never... EVER thought he had "range" problems. Instead, I thought he had (has) head problems. Afterall, how many times have we seen him toss on-target bullets to first with little or no time to spare? But give him a routine grounder, wait for the ole "Mackey Sasser Double Clutch", and start taking bets as to where the ball will sail.

    This season, however, he is off to a particularly horrendous start. I've watched every game but two (hey, Rangers playoffs take priority), and it honestly seems as if David is doing everything in his power to rip Delgado in half! In fact Delgado has done a spectacular job in saving him about five errors in this very early season.

    I hope he gets this under control.

    Oh, and we really need to get used to Santana letting the homers sail, cause it's gonna happen often. And if this offense can't string together a few hits and bring some runs across the plate on a fairly regular basis, he's gonna have a tough inaugural season.

    3:14 PM

     
    Anonymous Anonymous said...

    if jose reyes comes to the park and tells me that his hammy is tight, i would automatically think "aw shit. i gotta be careful with this. i remember what happened last time he had hammy problems."

    then i talk to my gm and my head trainer and let them know whats going on.

    then i would tell reyes that he wont see a ball field until that thing was 100% healthy.

    but thats just my commons sense. good job willie.

    3:45 PM

     
    Blogger michael o. said...

    Of course, Reyes' hammy keeps him out after I write this, but everyone gets the idea.

    RE: Pagan...I'm with you Benny, but he does not look lucky. He looks solid. Just like Gotay's bat looked real. Power? Not so much, but XBH power. He has been handling the bat, really, really, really well.

    Sitting Reyes is good.

    If Oswalt is done after 4 homers in one game, what is Santana after 3? It happens.

    4:26 PM

     
    Blogger Makes Mets said...

    I guess we have our answers with Pagan's batting spot...leadoff. Of course until Reyes gets back. I am torn on Pagan or Castillo in two hole. Only reason being is that it is nice to have that balance throughout the lineup. Having him in the 7 spot gives some great strength in the bottom part of lineup. As opposed to being top heavy and very weak in the 7-9. That being said, Reyes, Pagan (the way he's currently hitting), Wright, Beltran...nice.

    6:00 PM

     
    Blogger michael o. said...

    You bunch your best guys up together to maximize your scoring chances. You don't give up on the opposition and keep up hard out after hard out. Putting a softer one at the top to bolster the bottom for the pitcher and catcher don't sit well with me.

    Granted, I know there are studies out there that say lineup construction do not matter, but that is counter intuitive and hard to really prove. I have to side with common sense. Of course. Pagan could falter and basically be equally as mediocre, but for now, he looks good. Ride him like a rented mule while he's hot!

    6:29 PM

     
    Anonymous Anonymous said...

    Tough game today. Johan threw a lot of pitches early on and seemed to rely on his change-up whenever he got deep into a count -- and that's what killed him with the homers.

    No idea why people were booing Schoeneweis today considering the effort he put in the other night.

    Pagan is raking regardless of where Willie sticks him right now. Castillo looks like absolute shit, and I mentioned that after every time he grounded out today. Between him and Schneider, it seemed like every at bat was a miserable ground out to the right side.

    15$ parking and 8$ beers are going to catch up to me sooner or later. I tried to get a spot in the iron triangle or whatever those slums across from Citi are called, but some crazy bastard tried to charge me 10$ to park on a public street. I would have left my car there, but I figured I'd come back to broken windows and stolen tires, so I opened the wallet for Mr. Wilpon.

    Can't win them all, and Santana is sitting 1-2, but I have much confidence that he will turn that record around to match his ERA and K's.

    9:10 PM

     
    Anonymous Anonymous said...

    I will be at the game tomorrow!
    Part of my school trip, I'll be in the Upper, Section 35, Row E, seat 15.

    12:41 AM

     
    Blogger Makes Mets said...

    Mike/Benny, that had to really suck today at the game. Two weeks in now and I am not impressed at all with this team. 5-6. Giving up games late. They should be much better than this. I believe the Fire Willie watch is officially beginning. This season has ugly written all over it.

    9:07 PM

     
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