Where’s Ollie? Here he is…
Thank you to everyone who humoured the child in me by playing Where’s Ollie?
As promised, here is where Ollie was hiding, just in case your eagle eyes could not spot him.
Okay, okay. He’s actually in the bullpen for now. But one more Aaron Heilman-like collapse and he’ll be back in the minors quicker than you can say ‘headcase’.
Watch this space.
Where’s Ollie, Ollie watchers?
OLIVER Perez is a riddle locked in a conundrum; a puzzle wrapped around a quandary; an enigma of what ifs and maybes.
After another disappointing outing this weekend, nobody knows what the future holds for him.
There are three main options available to the Mets:
- They could continue to keep him in the rotation and on the active roster in the hope that he finds the ‘good Ollie’.
- He could get sent to AAA in an attempt to work through some of his problems and regain his confidence.
- They could move him into the bullpen in a long-relief role.
- Or they may put him on the DL with a knee injury.
Ollie is 1-2 in his five starts for the Mets this season with an ERA of 9.97 and a WHIP of 2.26. He’s been awful.
He has only pitched into the fifth inning on one occasion and he was knocked out of his last outing against the Phillies after just 2.1 innings having given up five hits and six walks.
It is this lack of control which has killed Ollie this year. When he’s good, he’s very good. When he’s bad, he’s Bartolo Colon.
Ollie is the perfect example of a pitcher with split personalities. Here’s two different seasons:
| |
Yr | Inn | W | L | ERA |
WHIP |
H% | S% | BB | K |
| ’06 | 113 | 3 | 13 | 6.55 | 1.75 | 34 | 65 | 68 | 102 | |
| ’07 | 177 | 15 | 10 | 3.56 | 1.31 | 29 | 77 | 79 | 174 |
He was walking 5.4 batters per nine innings and giving up 10.4 hits per nine. Worryingly, his K:BB ratio was only 1.50.
Yes, he was slightly unlucky with the amount of batted balls which fell for hits, but make no mistake – he was lousy and deserved everything he got.
2007 was apparently when Ollie decided he wanted to show up to pitch.
He was walking fewer batters, giving up fewer hits, striking more men out and keeping the ball in the park. Despite a big climb in the number of innings he pitched, Ollie was very good.
Everything stems from his control. If it’s not there,you can forget about a quality start.
That’s why 2009 is worrying. He has more walks than strikeouts, and as many walks as innings pitched. 50 of the 115 batters he has faced has reached base and 24 of these have scored.
I don’t know how bad his knee is, but I would be more concerned about his mental state.
Whatever the problem is, physical or psychological, you have to show him some pine. With a team whose rotation is already on the ropes, you can’t afford a 50-50 gamble with a headcase every fifth day.
We love you Ollie, but you’re no good to us like this.
***
Fans, fantasy owners and the Mets top brass have been wondering which real Oliver Perez would take to the mound.
After another beatdown on Saturday, Ollie’s future with the Mets is in doubt, just months after signing a lucrative $36m deal.
While Jerry Manuel works out what to do with Ollie, click on the picture below to find out where’s he hiding.
At the minute, it seems he’ll show up anywhere except on the mound. I’ll post the answer on Wednesday for those of you who can’t find him.
*EXCLUSIVE* Wright donates bats to charity
QUEENS, NY — New York Mets slugging third baseman David Wright has donated more than 50 bats to charity after deciding he had no need for them.
The three-time All Star, speaking exclusively to Fantasy Hardball: a bloop and a blast – said he would rather donate them to a good home than carry them from Major League city to city.
Clubhouse officials insist the decision was made solely by Wright, while fans across the country are speculating on his future with the team.
David Wright is currently 23/82 with 27 strikeouts to start the 2009 campaign. He’s on pace for a record 161 Ks and he is said to be embarassed by not being able to perform to his previous heights.
Wright has never whiffed more than 118 time in his big-league career, so to see him leaving his bat on his shoulder so often is strange.
Wright said: “I thought it was only [Dustin] Pedroia who couldn’t hit the high and inside fastball. But I guess not.“I don’t really know what is the matter with me at the minute. I tried swinging at the beachball in BP on Wednesday before the Marlins game, but I was late on it and kept shanking it foul.
“Jerry Manuel told me to shorten up my stroke, to choke up a little, but then I was too early on it. I kept pulling it foul. I mean c’mon, how do you pull a 12mph beachball foul?”
He clearly doesn’t need his bat, so Fantasy Hardball found some uses for it.
He could recreate the famous NYC skyline…
Take up the oboe…
Or help out Heather Mills…
No no-no for Mets: The streak hits 7,500
THE New York Mets have started the season auspiciously; 8-10 and losers of four one-run games.
But for those who like the small details, the loss against the awful Nationals was even more frustrating. It was the Mets’ 7,500 consecutive regular season game without a no-hitter.
Only the San Diego Padres, Colorado Rockies and Tampa Bay Rays are in the same company as the Mets, although none of these three teams have played as many games as the Mets.
If you’re keeping count, they’ve played 6,374; 2,547 and 1,798 respectively. To put it into context, the Rays have 26 years of no no-nos ahead of them before they’re as unfortunate as the Mets.
It is now agreed that there have been 236 no-hitters, but they have not been shared equally.
The LA Dodgers, in all of their various guises dating back to 1884, have had a huge 20 no-hitters, followed quickly by the Red Sox (19) and Chicago White Sox (13). In fact, a dozen teams have had double-digit no-hitters in their franchise history.
So close
The Mets have thrown 33 one-hitters in their history, including 23 using just one pitcher. The last Mets one-hitter was in July 2008 when Pedro Martinez, Carlos Muniz, Aaron Heilman, Scott Schoeneweis and Billy Wagner one-hit the Rockies at Shea.
Tom Seaver leads the Mets with five one-hitters, including one of each of 1969, 70, 71 and 72. 1970 was a particularly harsh year for the Mets pitchers when they threw three one-hitters.
Incidently, two of the Mets one-hitters have resulted in losses; a 2-1 defeat away in St Louis in 1991 and similar 2-1 loss in Houston back in September 2006.
There have been nine players who threw a no hitter before joining the Mets, starting with Don Cardwell in 1960 and going through to Hideo Nomo in 1996.
And six pitchers have thrown a no hitter after leaving the Mets, including Nolan Ryan on a ridiculous seven occassions all after we let him go. Hideo Nomo also had a no hitter for the Red Sox in 2001.
As well as being unable to record a no hitter, six pitchers have sealed their place in history by no-hitting the Mets. The most notable of these was Jim Bunning’s perfect game for the Phillies in 1964.
During my research, I read on nonohitters.com that Bunning’s perfect game came on just 90 pitches and in just the 31st day in Shea Stadium history. Shea would never see a perfect game in its remaining 33-and-a-half years.
Here are the six no-hitters thrown against the Mets:
Sandy Koufax – June 30, 1962. LA Dodgers 5-0 Mets.
Jim Bunning – June 21, 1964. Philadelphia Phillies 6-0 Mets.
Bob Moose – Sept 20, 1969. Pittsburgh Pirates 4-0 Mets.
Bill Stoneman – October 2, 1972. Montreal Expos 7-0 Mets.
Ed Halicki – August 24, 1975. San Francisco Giants 6-0 Mets.
Darryl Kile – September 8, 1993. Houston Astros 7-1 Mets.
Sticking it to the Mets
My New York Mets are turning into the Nationals. They are mounting a serious challenge to Washington’s bid of becoming the most disfunctional team in professional sport.
Here’s the top 6:
- Washington Nationals
- New York Mets
- LA Clippers
- Detroit Lions
- Pittsburgh Pirates
- Memphis Grizzlies
Remember that saga last week when the Mets front office went nuts because legend Doc Gooden wrote on their shiney new restaurant wall with a Sharpie?
Well, they’re at it again this week.
A group of Mets fans were hanging K cards in the outfield every time Johan struck a National out. And yes, while that meant that they probably needed a lot of pieces of card, the Shea Stadium Citi Field security team stepped in to ruin the fun.
I read in one of my favourite Mets blogs that David Lennon of Newsday wrote this about the debacle:
Johan Santana’s 10 strikeouts Friday nearly got three
graduate students from Syosset kicked out of Citi Field for posting K
cards on the leftfield facade.
Santana was up to six by the middle of the third inning when Keith
Heller, Ryan Krochak and Larry Ziegelbaum said they were told by
security to remove the white signs with Ks made of duct tape because
they were blocking an electronic ribbon board. When the trio asked if
they could move the signs away from the scoreboard, they said their
request was refused and the signs were confiscated by the security
officers.“People were yelling at them [security], telling them they were
ruining a tradition,” Ziegelbaum said. “Everyone was supporting it.”
Caryn, another awesome Mets blogger took this picture of the fans.
So on Saturday morning, a day after Johan and the Mets beat the Nationals, I snuck back into Citi Field while it was empty.
And the biggest roll of Shur-tape I could afford
And I set to work. Almost four hours later and I had got my revenge on the Mets’ suits and front office guys.
I turned my anger and frustration into something slightly productive. OK, it wasn’t productive at all. But with a little help with my Shur-tape, you could say that I stuck it to the man.
Or, more accurately, to their big, new, all-singing, all-dancing, $10m HD scoreboard.
That’s right, Wilpon. Count them and weep. One mahousive K made out of rolls and rolls of tape for every one of Johan’s 37 strikeouts this season.
I bet you wish you had just let the fans use their paper K-cards now, eh?
The bad news, Mr Wilpon? Johan’s going to have about 170 more of them.
The good news? I’ve just saved 15 per cent on my car insurance by switching to Geiko.
Not that Geiko would advertise with you. Some idiot seems to have put something on your TV in the outfield.
Show the Mets some love – it’s only April
AFTER a pair of September collapses, Mets fans can be forgiven for thinking they need to have a playoff spot in the bag by July.
But why all the panic when the Mets are underperforming after a fortnight? Yes, every game counts, but really this is glorified spring training with real-life wins and losses on the line.
Nobody wants to lose any game, but the reaction of some Mets fans has been surprising.
They have been criticising the front office for only improving the bullpen; bemoaning our corner outfielders; calling for immediate change.
Everyone realises that the Mets need to work on the back of their rotation, on getting another left-handed middle reliever and a reliable backstop. But now is not the time to be overly critical.
While we have not started as hot as the Marlins, we’re also nowhere near as bad as the Nationals
There are going to be statistical pros and cons after so few pieces of 2009 information, so here’s a few bits that I’ve gleaned.
The Mets have the fifth best batting average in the bigs at .283 but they are in the bottom quarter of teams in terms of the number of runs (61) and RBI (57)
Only the Giants and Athletics have hit fewer home runs and only four teams have attempted fewer stolen bases.
Limits
Yes, it’s a small sample size – 467 at bats compared to the 5,606 they had in 2008 – but even at this early stage there are obvious variances to last season’s campaign.
Last year, the Mets ranked in the top half of all Major League teams in homers and RBI and only three teams attempted more stolen bases.
And just for those who are counting, the last time the Mets were three games below .500 was after a June 12 extra inning loss to the Diamondback.
The Mets are drawing walks and avoiding the strikeout. The team’s 11.2 per cent walk rate is the third best in the National League and its strikeout rate is fourth best in the NL and sixth overall.
One caveat to these statistics – other than the fact that we are only in the third week of a 25-week season – is that the Mets have had an above-average of batted balls fall for hits. (.324 is the fourth ‘luckiest’ in the Majors).
Expect the Mets team batting average to reduce towards that of 2008 when this anomoly corrects itself, as it invariably will
So the Mets are putting the ball in play and putting a lot of runners on base. With an above-average batting average and walk rate and a miserly strikeout percentage, it is clear that the Mets are winning half the battle. The problem has been driving these runners in.
So, are there any scapegoats? David Wright is being blamed for the Mets offensive failures and I don’t think that’s fair.
Firstly, it’s waaaay too early to be blaming supposed below-par performances. Secondly, Wright is not the main problem. Just because he is the poster child of the franchise, not everything that is either good or bad necessarily has to be pinned to him.
Struggles
Yes, David has struggled with the high fastball and yes, he has had a ridculous amount of infield hits. He left another man in scoring position today (he’s 3/11 with risp), but there is nothing to suggest any of these trends will continue.
The good news is that he is drawing walks and getting on base. The bad news is that he has struck out 16 times already through April 22.
Last year he fanned 16 times in March and April combined. Wright’s eye is good though and his plate discipline is rock steady – the problem is his bat speed isn’t where it needs to be right now.
Only Luis Castillo has swung at fewer pitches outside the zone than Wright and only Murphy has seen fewer first-pitch strikes.
You want somebody to blame?
How about Fernando Tatis who is 0/8 or the catchers’ spot where Brian Schneider, Ramon Castro and Omir Santos are 9/49 (.183).
Other than Johan, the pitching has not been amazing, but that’s a rant for another day.
Off all the games the Mets have lost, none have been more than by three runs. It’s only a matter of time before the Mets start tearing up the division. Just have a little faith and get behind the boys.
Facebook and baseball? Ask the Mets boss
TECHNOLOGY is a blessing. It can provide up-to-the-minute real-time information about the world around you.
But what happens when you don’t want to believe what it tells you?
Take, for example, the Mets owner Fred Wilpon.
There he was, checking out the stock market and befriending every left-handed reliever he knew on Facebook, when a strange thing happened to him.
He was scrolling down his notifications when he saw this…
This came as a bit of a surprise to Fred. He didn’t think he was friends with Doc and he wasn’t entirely sure just what his Facebook wall was, how to use it, or even how to send him a message back.
“That’s ok,” he thought. “I’ll probably bump in to him near the pre-game buffet.”
And so his day went. Largely unspectacular and with little to note.
But then, things went back to being perculiar…
Missed text messages. Voicemails on his answerphone. Urgent faxes.
They all pointed him in the direction of the Ebbets Club – a restaurant inside the new Citi Field.
Let’s just say he was not amused with what he saw when he arrived…
Yeah, you could say the boss was surprised
But it’s OK, Fred. Things could have been so much worse. Just imagine what people could have wrote…
Or maybe this…
Or simply…
Lighten up, you boys in the back.Having Doc sign our wall isn’t a terrible thing. It’ll be part of our
history and it will be something that fans will come to see.
I’m already salivating at the thought of seeing messages from Carter, Seaver, Mookie, Strawberry, Piazza and Wright. Aren’t you?
Coffey, Brewers, salvage split at Citi Field
TODD Coffey pitched an eight-out save and Milwaukee rescued the final game of the three-game set, beating the Mets 4-2 on Sunday.
The Mets left another 10 runners on base and batted just 2/10 with men in scoring position as they slipped back to .500 despite a fine effort from Nelson Figueroa.
The Mets took a 1-0 lead on Carlos Delgado’s double in the 1st inning, but the Brew Crew plated solo runs in the 3rd, 5th and 6th to turn a 3-1 lead over to the bullpen.
The Mets pulled a run back in the home half of the 7th, but Todd Coffey steadied the sinking Milwaukee ship with 2 2/3 quality innings of work, including working out of an inherited bases-loaded jam.
Figueroa, getting the start in place of Oliver Perez, had the bases loaded himself in the 1st inning on two walks and a hit, but Ryan Braun and JJ Hardy both struck out and Mike Cameron chopped the ball into the dirt to allow Ramon Castro to tag out Rickie Weeks on the force play at home.
Delgado lined a two-out one-hop double off the wall in left centre field to score Daniel Murphy in the bottom of the inning, but Corey Hart scored on Prince Fielder’s groundout in the top of the 3rd inning and Corey Hart drove a sac fly to right to bring in pitcher Jeff Suppan who had singled to lead off the 5th.
Former Met Mike Cameron drilled a solo home run over the 16ft wall in centre field in the 6th and the Mets left runners at second and third base in the bottom of the inning.
Jeff Suppan looked like the pitcher of old, but he gave up a leadoff triple to catcher Omir Santos after the 7th inning stretch, and his 99th pitch of the day would be his last.
Mitch Stretter retired Ryan Church on three straight pitches and Jose Reyes drove Santos home with an infield single which shortstop JJ Hardy could not control.
Daniel Murphy flaired a bloop into shallow left field on a desperation inside-out swing and David Wright walked on four sliders to load the bases.
Stranded
But Carlos Delgado grounded into a 1-2-3 pitcher-to-catcher-to-first double play to end the inning, killing what could have been a big Mets inning.
Reliever Todd Coffey induced the fierce one hopper back to the mound but he could not field it cleanly. It bobbled off the tip of his glove, landed in his bare hand and allowed him to get the tying force at home to keep it 3-2.
Shawn Green pitched a scoreless 7th and Pedro Feliciano and Bobby Parnell combined to put a zero on the board in the 8th.
Carlos Beltran singled to centre field to lead off the bottom of the 8th inning and Gary Sheffield walked, but Fernando Tatis struck out swinging and Omir Santos lined into an unassisted double play when he drilled a ball directly at Bill Hall just as the two Mets baserunners took off on a 3-2 count.
The Brewers padded their lead in the 9th inning on a Rickie Weeks single and Coffey worked around another Hardy error to close out the game in the 9th.
10 things you didn’t know this time last week.
It’s Sunday, the sun is shining and it’s the second in a weekly series of 10 things you didn’t know this time last week.
Supposedly, if you gave an infinite number of monkeys an infinite
amount of time, laptops, boxscores and game reports, they’d make this exact post.
We’ll see.
Let’s get to it….
- The Florida Marlins are still the team to beat. They are now 10-1 with the best start to a season, along with their franchise record, since the ’03 Giants and Royals. For clarity, there are playing the Nationals again.
- Ian Kinsler is the hottest hitter in the Majors. Kinsler was 14/26 (.538) this week, with 7 RBI, 3 walks and 4 steals. That brings his stolen base tally up to…..4.
- Zack Greinke would extend his scoreless innings streak to 34. Only 25 more to go Zack to Orel Hershisger’s 59. No chance, son.
- Jody Gerut would hit the first ever home run at Citi Field for the Padres. Want to know who hit the first bomb in ever other new ballpark for the past 50 years? Click here.
- Jorge Posada would be the first man to circle them all at the new Yankee Stadium. But there is a better Yanks story this week…
- Carl Pavano did not exactly get a warm introduction when he returned to The Stadium. Now I know that is not unsurprising in itself. What is kinda sweet though is the closed captioning on the scoreboard for the hard of hearing. For the hard of reading, it says: “Number 44, Carl Pavano. [Crowd boos]“
- The Rays would become the first major league team
to sponsor a baseball academy in Brazil. The team will invest $6.5 million over the next five years in
the academy, which will promote the game locally and train as many as
4,000 youngsters at a free after-school program. - Brad Lidge would see his 47-game save streak fall in an emotional night in Philly.
- Gary Sheffield would hit his 500th home run – the first Mets to reach the milestone.
- And on a sad note once again, that much-loved Hall of Fame broadcaster Harry Kalas would die this week, aged 73.
And one thing we did know this time last week: Johan Santana is a beast. The Mets ace did not given up an earned run in his 2 starts this week, striking out 20 and lowering his ERA to 0.46.
There is one other thing I wanted to share with you.
It could have gone in the “10 things” category, but I decided this video was special on its own. It is the Mayor of Cincinatti throwing out the first pitch. Check this out:
Mets win at Citi Field on 4-run bunt
After an evening where nothing meant everything, the Mets produced everything out of nothing to record their first ever win at Citi Field.
The New York Mets put up a four spot on the strength of a bunt single, back-to-back four-pitch walks, a stolen base, sac fly, intentional walk, error and two wild pitches to beat the San Diego Padres 7-2 on Wednesday.
Oliver Perez allowed one run on three hits and two walks over six innings; Carlos Delgado hit a hanging slider into the Pepsi Porch for his second home run of the year and Gary Sheffield made his first start of the season as the Mets improved to 4-4 on the season and 1-1 at Citi Field.
Perez, who was 10-7 with a 4.22 ERA in the 2008 season, got his first win of the 2009 campaign and the Mets bullpen pitched three innings of shutout ball as clubs around the league honoured Jackie Robinson day.
Perez threw all three of his pitches for strikes, including a slider with a nasty sinking action, and he settled into the rhythm of the game quickly after getting roughed up by the Cincinatti Reds the last time out.
Lead
After stranding Carlos Delgado and Carlos Beltran in the 2nd inning after they had reached base with no outs, the Mets got on the board in the 4th.
Daniel Murphy singled to centre field, David Wright singled to right and Carlos Delgado walked. Carlos Beltran singled to right to put the Mets on the board and Gary Sheffield produced a run despite grounding into a routine 6-4-3 double play.
Gary Sheffield, in his first start for the Mets, also struck out with two men on base and drew a four-pitch walk.
It was this walk which put the wheels in motion for a crooked Padres inning and marked the start of a problematic period for Padres’ reliever Gregerson who threw ten straight balls in the bottom of the 7th inning after going 1-2-3 in the home half of the 6th.
Edward Mujica came in to face Luis Castillo on a 2-0 count with Sheffield on second and Schneider on first, but Castillo dropped down a perfect bunt single down the third base line.
Kouzmanoff stuttered, staggered and inexplicably headed backwards towards the bag, forcing Mujica – who got the win in the opening game at Citi Field on one pitch – to try and field the ball.
He over-ran it to load the bases for Ryan Church and he then threw the ball away on a wild pitch to score Sheffield to make it 3-1.
Church struck out on an inside slider and Mujica intentionally walked Jose Reyes to get to Daniel Murphy who lofted a deep fly ball to right field to score Schneider on the sac fly.
Reyes took off on the next pitch as Mujica threw his second wild pitch of the inning. Castillo darted home from third base to beat Hundley’s throw to Mujica who had moved 60ft forward to try and block the plate and Reyes followed him home when he saw the ball squirm away.
Adrian Gonzalez made a last-ditch attempt to get Reyes at home as e knew the ball from his knees at the backstop, but the head-first slide easily beat the play to extend the lead to 6-1.
Delgado connected with a solo shot on a hanging slider in the 8th to make it 7-1 after JJ Putz had threw a zero on the board and Adrian Gonzalez hit his 100th home run in the top of the 9th inning against Sean Green.
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