Well, the Mets tried to strand the bases loaded again, but a botched double play ball opened the floodgates instead...up 6-1 in the third.

 

GH

Second inning, bases loaded...Beltran grounds out. Seriously, if they had this kind of evidence of WMDs, we'd all be better off.

Mark it down...the Mets will leave the bases loaded at least one more time this game.

 

GH

I post yesterday about the Mets not putting the hammer down when they get the chance, so what do they do? First inning tonight, 1 run in, Kyle Kendrick can't find home plate with a compass, Mets load the bases but Easley grounds out to end it. You need to capitalize in those spots, and last year they failed repeatedly at exactly this.

Brutal loss by the Mets in their home opener today. This isn't about panic over a 2-4 start...panic after 6 games is absurd. But the Mets let Jamie Moyer make them look silly, faltering on several circumstances where they could have put the hammer down, and the bullpen spit the bit. Add the Delgado error (throwing a DP ball that would have halted Philly's take-the-lead rally off Chase Utley's back, letting 2 runs score), and it's not just a loss but an ugly loss.

If you fear something as a Mets fan, it's this team lacking a killer instinct. We saw a lot last year that this team refused to bury a team. They would get 2 runs in, but have the bases loaded with 0 or 1 out, and get nothing further. Right now, the bullpen and the top of the order are having a real bad time...that's a good way to, well, start 2-4.

Tentatively, Mondays will be a day to report on the Mets minor leagues, and perhaps some notes from around the farm systems of other teams as well.

• If you were impressed by youngster Jonathan Niese during spring training, you're not alone. Niese was solid during the spring - not ready, but showing certain promise - and his first start of the minor league season for AA Binghamton was 5 shutout innings of 1-hit, 5 strikeout ball. Baseball Prospectus notes that "While working on this pre-season's Mets Top 11, two separate people inside the game pointed at Niese as having breakout potential." Certainly bears watching.
• Top prospect Fernando Martinez started the year 2 for 13 at Binghamton. He's just one of a bunch of top prospects around the minors who started in a rut (we'll get to some later).
• I mocked the signing of Fernando Tatis, and still maintain that position. But his line the first week is pretty funny: .200 AVG, 800 SLG, 1.000 OPS. He's 3 for 15...all three hits are homers.
• I liked what I saw out of 3B Dan Murphy during his spring stay with the big club. Obviously, he's blocked by Wright, and he's not thought to have enough power to play a corner, but he bears watching. Nice start, 5-13, 2 2B, 2 R, 2 RBI.

Outside the Mets:

• Jay Bruce had a rough start down at AAA Louisville, going 2 for 14. Corey Patterson's inevitable slide hasn't begun yet, but it will, so here's hoping Bruce gets righted quickly.
• Evan Longoria is 0 for 14 with 5 strikeouts.
• Switch-hitting catcher Matt Wieters was given a record signing bonus by the Orioles ($6 million), and responded by slamming two homers in his debut.
• Remember Jeff Allison? Top Marlins pitching prospect, focus of a Sports Illustrated report on his drug addiction and legal problems (he's on probation for felonies, including grand theft auto and heroin possession). Hasn't pitched since 2005...until the other night. Struck out 4, gave up 2 hits in 3 innings for High-A Jupiter with the Marlins. Long way to go, but he is only 23. Would be a great story if he makes it back.
• Sticking with the Marlins, remember Dallas McPherson? The former standout Angels prospect and presumed Troy Glaus replacement until years of back injuries wiped out his prospect status. He homered in his first 3 games at AAA Albuquerque. I doubt he'll ever be an impact player, but I'd love to just see him stay healthy a full year and see what he does.
• Browsing AAA rosters is always good fun, because you find guys you didn't even know were still around. Great things were expected for John Ford Griffin, the Yankees first-round pick in 2001. They never happened, and after being the key to the disasterous Jeff Weaver trade and years of assorted injuries, he's now in AAA for the Dodgers.

I mentioned a few days ago I was going to try to form some kind of schedule for the site. On Sundays, I will bang out something called 20 Points, which is pretty much self explanatory. Just things I've seen from the prior week, and thoughts on the current happenings (and perhaps some delving into baseball history and such). A few days into the baseball season, and some observations about the Mets and around the majors:

1. First point, and this goes for the Mets and baseball as a whole...1 week is irrelevant. Now let's continue.
2. Johan Santana is the real deal. Just nasty, nasty stuff.
3. Umpiring has been horrendous so far. Missed calls, erratic strike zones, just a pitiful job in several games I've watched.
4. Chien-Ming Wang is vastly underrated. I've waited 3 years for this guy to falter, and he keeps pitching well ('07 playoffs notwithstanding). He doesn't strike guys out, but he's a Brandon Webb-type, which is plenty good.
5. Johnny Cueto was impressive to watch. We'll see if Dusty Baker can manage to ruin this kid by the end of the year.
6. The Mike Hampton saga is almost comical to watch.
7. The Pedro Martinez saga is not at all comical to watch.
8. Ken Griffey Jr. is 6 homers away from 600 for his career. If this guy had stayed healthy, we'd have been talking about him instead of Bonds.
9. Nice to see good early starts by the Royals and Orioles. Neither will last, though if the Tigers have health problems that division is anybody's.
10. Fantasy Baseball owners shouldn't look at standings until May 1.
11. Ben Sheets is Cy Young Award good if he can stay healthy.
12. The story of Rick Ankiel is truly remarkable.
13. The story of Jose Canseco is truly pathetic.
14. The early developing love affair between Cubs fans and Kosuke Fukudome is enjoyable to watch. Not a superstar, perhaps, but this guy can play. And Wrigley needs a character.
15. Sticking with the Cubs theme, watch for a big year from the terminally underrated Derrek Lee.
16. The whole Joba Chamberlain fist pump debate took up far too much talk radio time here for a couple of days. Between the Yankee haters and the Yankee apologists, it was enough to make you want to throw up. It's simple...I hate it, but it's a different game now than it was (which was Frank Thomas' mature response to the antics). More grandstanding, more attitude. Anyone who thinks what he's doing isn't orchestrated isn't paying attention. And that's totally fine if you want to approve of his doing it, just don't whine if someone takes him or another Yankee pitcher deep and Cadillac's it around the bases.
17. The San Francisco Giants stink. Really, really badly.
18.  If there's a worse investment than Barry Zito I would love to know about it.
19. Hate the Braves...love John Smoltz. What a gamer!
20. Barring injury (always a question with him) Casey Kotchman of the Halos has a breakthrough year.

One added thing...if any of you are trying to comment and can't, please shoot me an email at gforceedit@yahoo.com. I've been at a bunch of blogs here in the past week where it has said I am not allowed to comment. Not sure if this is with the redesign of what, but I'd like to know if you're experiencing such a problem here.

Thanks.

GH

It's just a strain, but even so, the Mets look as though they will be without Pedro for 4-6 weeks. Reportedly, he wasn't limping today, but even so, you may as well get it 100%, particularly with Pedro.

I've been thinking about the injury, wondering if Pedro may have been holding back a little and that's how he got hurt. He was touching low 90s in the spring, but last night I don't think he topped 88. If he shortens up a bit, tries not to overthrow, he can mess up his stride and injure himself. No idea if that's what happened, and you have to think Pedro knows himself better than anybody and wouldn't do anything that would mess with his motion.

Nice work by Oliver Perez tonight, shutting down the Marlins as the Mets bats go wild...it's currently 11-0. Church and Wright have homered, and Beltran had one called back on an appeal.  Nice to see them come out ripping after a disheartening loss, in more ways than one, last night.

OK, so as I'm sure most of you know by now, Pedro Martinez left his first start tonight with what's currently being called a hamstring strain. He'll have an MRI Wednesday.

Of course, the newspapers will be all over him; moron Wally Matthews will call him out, talk radio will be burying him and his season, and in some circles likely the Mets season as well. After all, sports media is under no requirement to be rational.

He walked down the stairs, walked through the tunnel. I don't imagine this is anything major. If it is, it will be a big problem. But rather than shooting first and asking questions later, let's see if this is 2-3 starts missed, or 10 starts. There's a big difference there.

We're two games in, folks. Keep things in perspective.

Got an e-mail from a reader yesterday asking me if I am the same GForce who created popular rosters for baseball video games. Yes, I am THAT GForce (or GForce22, depending where you found me).

For those wondering what the heck I'm talking about, I used to create the leading roster modifications for several baseball video games. I first brought my roster project, called TotalMinors, to High Heat Baseball, because the game came out with a AAA and AA minor league system, a first in the non-text video game category. But those guys would all have fake names, so what was the point. But as a baseball fanatic, stathead and passionate researcher, I developed my own ratings system to project minor leaguers (and reevaluate major leaguers), and what resulted was a full baseball universe that came to be known as TotalMinors.

I moved on to become the official roster developer for Out of the Park Baseball, a stat-based text simulator that basically lets you run an entire franchise, league or baseball universe. The game is simply outstanding, and I encourage any real baseball fan who wants to go beyond the button mashing of standard XBox/Playstation baseball games to give this one a look.

I went from there to bring TotalMinors to EA Sports' MVP Baseball series, and was credited by many with making the game for them because of my project, as well as deciphering workarounds for several glitches in the ratings/performance mechanism of the game.

Now, married with 3 kids, I don't have the time to handle rosters for Opening Day, at least not without being paid. So now I do Alltime roster projects such as my Franchise Stars project, which will be released for OOTP sometime in the next month. Its previous versions have been received very well, as fans love getting to play with MLB, AAA and AA rosters of their respective franchise's alltime best players.

With the regular season upon us, I am going to try and get a blog schedule going here, with daily Mets game reports, but also different items each day, be it minor leagues, baseball history, sabermetrics, and even a baseball fiction story I've been working on. 

More on this to come this week when I figure out my schedule. Hopefully, you'll stick around. I love the writing, and the interaction. It's a beautiful game...so let's share it.

GH

 

 

Opening Day couldn't have gone much better for the Mets. Johan Santana was outstanding, giving up two runs over 7 innings, striking out 8. Wright, Beltran and Reyes each get two hits, Wright drives in 3 and Ryan Church and Angel Pagan each drive in a run. Not too shabby. Sure, it's the Marlins, but the Mets need to beat up on the bad teams and play well against the good teams. And this, for many reasons, was a nice first step.