Sigh. Thanks to all of you who suggested the title for this post.
I don’t even know where to start. Jake Peavy was cruising. He had a 2-1 lead through seven and had thrown just 96 pitches. The one run he allowed came on an inside-the-park home run by Kaz Matsui on a ball that Brian Giles almost caught.
The Padres had the bases loaded and nobody out to start the eighth. Geoff Blum pinch hit for Peavy and popped weakly to Carlos Delgado at first. Then Eric Young pinch hit for Dave Roberts and grounded sharply to third for an inning-ending double play.
So much for that.
Scott Linebrink comes in and gives up a leadoff double just inside the third base line off the bat of a former Padre who allegedly can’t hit right-handers. After retiring Matsui, Linebrink makes history by serving up a two-run jack to Julio Franco, the oldest player ever to homer in a big-league game. In Linebrink’s defense, the ball lands in the right field porch and probably doesn’t leave the yard in any other park.
From there — aw, who cares. Just know that by the time the Mets were finished, they’d plated six runs and effectively ended the ballgame.
The Padres went gentle into that good night, without so much as a baserunner in the final two innings. The pisser isn’t that this was a winnable game but that it was darned near a won game. The Friars had to work pretty hard to blow it. Do you know how difficult it is to load the bases with nobody out and not score a single run?
Some games you win, some you lose. Others gnaw at you for a long time. You know which this one is.
This game brings to the forefront the weakness of our bench. Where last season we had Sweeney, Fick, Nady or Klesko to come off the bench with Blum or Young being the 4th or 5th best option, this season they are the best option. We have no hitters on the bench. A couple of guys from Portland would improve the offensive capability of the bench by ten fold. Leone and Valent both have 20+ homer pop and have been around. its not like they are kids and need the playing time to develop. We are carrying too many pitchers and too many catchers. I hope we dont wait too long
Stayed awake as long as I could last night. Listened to about 4 innings of the game on WFAN in NY. The game was 2-1 when I finally dozed off . . . Man, was I jacked when I heard the final was 7-2.
I feel like crap this morning because of it.
When’s Cameron coming back again?
The Padres just failed to execute too many times tonight. I thought Bochy made all the right moves, but the players just really stunk up the bed tonight. Among the bad moves:
-Giles dropping Matsui’s inside the park home run. I know that’s a tough play, but I’m confident enough in Gilly to expect him to make that catch.
-Johnson taking what seemed like forever to go get that ball. I’m not sure, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he weren’t hustling to back up thinking that Giles would either catch it or it wouldn’t roll to centerfield. But you never know, and he got caught.
-Blum popping the ball up foul with the bags juiced and none out. I mean, at least give yourself a chance. That’s pretty much the same as a strikeout there, and we could’ve sent up Bellhorn if we wanted that to happen.
-Linebrink serving up a double on an 0-2 pitch. I can’t recall exactly, but I’m pretty sure that’s the second time he’s given up a hit on 0-2 this week.
-I might have been one of the few, but i was thinking a bunt would work perfectly with Chavez up. Both him and Reyes are very fast, and you knew Embree was going to throw a strike to the first batter he faced, and being left-handed, he wouldn’t see Reyes charging down the line (even though Reyes didn’t leave early). Too me it just seemed like the perfect call, and we should’ve been expecting something unexpected like that.
-Embree serving up a BOMB to Carlos Delgado. Our lefty specialist isn’t supposed to let other lefties take him out to the deepest part of the ballpark.
Ugh. I couldn’t even watch after they brought in Cassidy. I have a theory going that no team has ever won a ballgame after failing to score with the bases loaded and nobody out. But the great thing about baseball is that there’s another game tomorrow. Go get em boys.
Is it possible Bochy makes too many moves???…… with the bases loaded Bochy gives way to Eric Young instead of going with Roberts who had been seeing the ball well all night. I would have liked to see Roberts up with the bases loaded instead of Young even though it would have been lefty lefty matchup. Randolf was in a similar situation the next inning with Edny Chavez and he let him take his at bat. The at bat that sparked the complete demise of the Padres.
Come on Geoff, what pitch did said former Padre hit for his double, to go with he weak groundout and 2 Ks? A poorly located 0-2 splitter – offspeed and inside and low, just the type of pitch that said former Padre can handle from a right hander. All Linebrink needed to do was go with the high hard heat and said former Padre would have been back to the bench, high leg kick and all.
TF: All I know is, we lost.
Agree completely with Peanut. Why stick Young in there. The doctor had a coupla hits and was up to speed on the game. Thats like putting a frozen steak on a hot grill filled with sizzling meat.
Bochy once again proves he has no feel for the game situtation and is a simply righty/lefty automoton. It time for him to go.
This tinkering with games in the late innings is crap. Hell, take a chance and leave peavy in for one more. That game was mono a mono until bochy spit tobacco juice all over it. Christ. What a meddler.
Besides, do righty lefty stats take into consideration a cold player coming off the bench, or the fact that some guys are crap off the bench like Bellhorn. What about the momentum of the guys who have been battling all game long. Christ, Mirebelli was in to. That change the entire game. I my mind. Bochy blinked in the bottom of the seventh, bases loaded no outs. He couldn’t take the pressure and had to meddle.
And its crap that Bochy can hide behind the righty lefty arguement, playing the percentages. What he’s really hiding is his own incompetence to understand the momentum of a game, and the subtleties of his players, or the nuance of a game situation. But I rant. Who cares, then you die.
Geoff, I am glad to know that you have come to accept the unfortunate reality of yesterday’s performance. Others, like myself, are still in denial.
Pinch-hitting for Peavy with the bases loaded and no outs and a BP that has been very strong was exactly the right move. Criticizing that is pure hindsight.
Blum has never been a good hitter and he had a terrible at-bat. Terrible. Looked like he didn’t have any plan. That may be projection on my part, but he took two floaters that were begging to be driven sac fly deep to right.
I can see pinch-hitting for Roberts, too. One good game and suddenly he’s the player you want in an RBI situation against LHP? What I can’t see is Young’s lack of execution. Ahead in the count and he takes a ground ball swing.
For everyone complaining about Bochy’s lack of rythym, Willie Randolph made 3 pitching changes in that inning. Seemed to work.
Hank is right about the bench. We have 3 utility players. We only need 1. Don’t know if I’d take Valent over McAnulty or Cust, McAnulty has performed the best in Portland so far.
TW: very well said. I wasn’t too surprised by Blum’s poor AB, but Young should know better. As far as replacing 2 of the 3 utility scrubinos, maybe bring up McAnulty for Adkins, release Bellhorn and bring up Leone?
I think the bench needs a total revamping. In an ideal world I would can Blum, Bellhorn, Bowen and Young. I’d keep Johnson when Cam gets activated, unless you want to get him some PT, in which case I would bring up Valent as the fifth OF. In place of EY, I would promote Hill as our PH specialist and backup secondbaseman who could spell Barfield. I’s swap PMac for Blum as our lefthanded bat off the bench. PMac’s the better player now. Finally I would call up Leone for Bellhorn with the idea that he takes Vinny’s job when Vinny inevitably gets hurt. That bench has more power and potential, better defense and just as much speed. Unfortunately it seems that our front office and field management is too busy coddling some old-timers that tell good stories in the clubhouse. A feel-good atmosphere doesn’t do much good when you can’t execute on the field. I was at the game last night and the stench of the bottom of the 7th still hasn’t worn off.
TF: I accept it the way I accept gravity — it’s there whether I like it or not (although for the most part I like gravity).
TW: Agreed. The thought process was fine, the execution was terrible. I could make a pretty good case either way for keeping Peavy in or lifting him; taking him out isn’t a real controversial strategy. Bochy only looks bad because Blum did absolutely nothing with his opportunity.
Bruce: I dunno, I kinda like Bowen. He seems potentially more useful to me than Mirabelli.
Next year. I think you’ll see the start of a youth oriented movement, we’ll see what Bochy will do then but we also need to see how long Bochy will stick with these youth guys right now.
Leone is off to a hot start I think he will be called up
EY brings no marginal benefit right now and I don’t think Mark Bellhorn does either.
Baseball Pros. PECOTA thinks Bellhorn has value but I don’t think there is enough at all. and Blum will be out of baseball in a year or two anyway.
It’s my fault. I didn’t start watching until the 7th. I was fooled when we loaded the bases, I should have known it couldn’t last.
We could bring up all-new bench players and still get no production, it’s the nature of the beast. Look at Mark Sweeney’s year to year fluctuations. But there’s little harm in switching things up. A few hundred thousand bucks, maybe you anger the Grizzled Veteran Lobby. But Leone and McAnulty don’t need any more seasoning.
GY: I’ve nothing against Bowen really, but I just don’t like the idea of carrying three catchers, even if you consider one of them as nothing more than just a pinch hitter. I think that’s a luxury we can’t afford as long as we insist on carrying 12 pitchers. And I forgot about Sledge. He needs to be up here too. I cringe every time EY is inserted late in the game to replace DR, what with his pop-gun arm and limited range. My bench would be Hill, Leone, Sledge, Mirabelli, PMac, and Johnson/Valent carrying 11 pitchers. Maybe Bowen would be adequate to replace Dougie, but we all know that unless Dougie is incapacitated, he’s on this team.
Geoff
I agree, it made since to lift Peavy with the bases loaded and not outs, you have to trust Linebrink in that situation but $h!+ happens.
But I must admit I groaned when Boch put in Blum, at this point I would rather see woody pinch hit then Blum or Belhorn. This anoyment was followed by Boch pulling out Roberts who was 2 for 3 at this point in the game for EY.
Moves I would love to see made:
Release Blum, Belhorn, and I hate to say it EY
Send Adkins to AAA
Bring up, Leone, Hill and Valent
With this your bench would be
Leone – Right handed Power
Mirabelli – Right Handed Power
Johnson – Right Handed Power
Valent – Left Handed Power
Hill – Switch Hitter with Speed
Bowen – Defensive Catcher
I’ve always thought that Bochy makes too many moves. I was really pissed when he brought in EY because I knew that would prompt Randolph to bring in Sanchez. If he leaves the DR in there Randolph probably doesn’t go through that sequence. If nothing else Roberts is less likely to ground into a double play with his speed. Instead you have a guy coming off the bench to face one of the Mets top relief pitchers. I think Bochy feels like he’s not being a manager if he doesn’t make moves but sometimes the best move is to not do anything.
On the other hand I don’t have a problem with pinch hitting for Peavey, Blum needs to do something productive in that situation.
It’s no fun losing but at least the Mets are a good team. I can deal with that, it’s getting blown out by teams like the Rockies that disgusts me.
I’m in Geoff’s camp: Stuff happens. Linebrink is human; he is going to make bad pitches sometimes. Blum normally gives you better AB’s than the one last night. That was one of the worst AB’s I’ve seen all year by a Padre. Completely lost and indecisive. Maybe he got nervous, which is odd for a veteran. DR against LHP? His OPS gap is not as huge as I expected (about 80 points), but I have cringe every time I see him hacking against lefties. I kind of cringe every time he hacks, but he somehow gets results, some of the time, but that is off the point.
The one thing that kind of stuck in my head this morning (I actually dreamt about this; it was that sick), was the take out slide at second on EY’s DP. The second basemen threw after being hit and made a soft but hard enough throw. Whoever it was should have taken him out for real and ball should have sailed into the stands or somewhere, probably scoring a second run. For example, if it is Giles, that guy is toast and there is no throw or an errant one. Little things like that bug the hell out of me and may have cost us the game.
Jay, I deleted the game from TiVo, but it seems like Johnson got down to second base pretty fast. The ball just beat him by enough that he couldn’t put more of a lick on Matsui. The ball was hit hard and Wright got rid of it cleanly. Just a crime that two veterans couldn’t lift a medium-depth fly ball between them.
I dont think thanking out the 2B to break up the DP lost the Padres the game, I think it was more of the 2 run shot by the oldest man in baseball followed up by the Carlos Delgado 2 run shot but like i said before $h!+ Happens.
What bugs me is the on-going lack of production from the Bench, Is this 3 or 4 times that bench has failed with the based loaded and 0-1 outs? That did Loose the game agianst the Rockies as well as the Braves.
Where is Alderson in this mess? If KT will not revamp the bench with the talent in Portland then Alderson needs to step up.
The bench may take another hit tomorrow when the pads send Ben Johnson down.
Gotta say I think you guys have nailed the problem… the bench is almost useless. I’m not generally a Bochy defender, but his choices last night are at least defensible given what he had to work with. But I do think that Bochy’s oft-noted veteran preference is at least part of the reason he has that bench. It’s ultimately up to KT & Alderson to assemble a useful bench by releasing a few vets even if that upsets Bochy.
And I couldn’t agree more with Steve… given the bench Bochy had last night, the best PH option they had really was Woody.
And Geoff… you should rub Nady’s performance in TF’s face every chance you get. As his #1 defender, right now you’re completely justified. Do it now… may not have many chances like this.
What is the move when Cameron comes back? I don’t think it’s sending down Johnson as he is even playing against right handers now. I don’t think they can, or should, carry both 12 pitchers and 3 catchers so either Adkins or Bowen goes down I would think.
The problem with assembling a bench is that even players with skills can fail to produce, since they get so few chances. Like I said before, Mark Sweeney is widely regarded as a great pinch-htter, but he’s had OPS stints of 581, 663,679, 479, and 733 (that last for Colorado). Then last year he hits so much that he deserves a starting role, yes, deserved it, even over precious Nady.
That doesn’t mean I’d ever have Blum on the team. Are we drawing more triplet parents to the park?
Bellhorn has two offensive skills, but in 14 at-bats he hasn’t demonstrated them.
I can see where it might be useful to have veterans on the bench, guys who at least theoretically know how to stay sharp despite infrequent play. If you go young on the bench, you’re admitting that those players aren’t big parts of the future because you can cripple them with a lack of playing time.
I didn’t see anyone mention Beltran’s exit from yesterday’s game … here’s a note from WC @ BP …
As soon as Carlos Beltran got back, he came right back out. Beltran lasted only five innings before being pulled from Thursday’s game with tightness in his problematic hamstring. A recurring injury is one of the most frustrating things for a team, killing the possibility of making a retroactive move and putting them back at the start of a process. The Mets will likely push Beltran to the DL to allow him to completely (and hopefully finally) heal the current problem without opening him up to the risk of exacerbating the situation.
Cameron with a 2B and BB in 3 PA’s last night for Lake Elsinore … http://tinyurl.com/oanub (also: Headley was 2-for-2 to raise his BA to .267
.
While we’re looking for good news to wash away the taste of last night’s game, check out the two-headed 1b monster at Ft. Wayne:
Darryl Jones is hitting 327/404/551.
Big Nasty Kyle Blanks is hitting 300/364/625. It’s early, but 625 in the Midwest League in April is outstanding.
Neither has great K/BB rates, but they’re not anti-walk.
Their teammate Will Venable has gone 313/410/438 with 4 steals (no CS). Collegiate in the MWL, but Venable was a collegiate basketball player with little advanced baseball experience.
Is bush still in ft wayne this year?
Bush is hurt, I think he has a broken leg or something. He was supposed to start in Lake Elsinore. Speaking of LE, Cesar Ramos is off to a strong start, although he only has 8 Ks in 16 IP. The draft last year is looking solid.
Bush was assigned to Elsinore, but got hurt and hasn’t played yet. Not sure of his timetable, but I don’t think it was anytime soon.
On removing Roberts for Young: Young was safe.
dprat, rub what performance? Geoff’s precious is doing the same thing he always does, and now he apparently has made it worse by returning to that high leg kick. He weakly grounded out, K’d, hit a mistake 0-2 pitch that never should have been called or thrown, and K’d again. The usual K is making a comeback – 4 in the last two games. Get back to me in June – if the precious has made adjustments and dropped that huge leg kick, then he may blossom into the hitter that you and GY adore.
June isn’t soon enough. I’m personally not touching this subject again until August. For now I’ll just say that it’s not so much that I adore the guy as that I’m glad to see him finally get a chance to prove, one way or the other, what he can do. If he fails, so be it. At least he’ll have gotten the chance to do so.
I just read this note from yesterday’s game …
Matsui raced around the bases and arrived at the plate at the same time as the relay throw, but catcher Mike Piazza couldn’t hold onto the ball.
… hadn’t heard any Piazza-bashing related to this … whassup?
You try and catch a ball with a 140 lb Japanese guy crashing into you. At least he blocked the plate, it would have been a tough catch.
Geoff, while I think that over 750 major league at bats is a sufficient chance, the precious already got at least one chance that you describe, in 2003, and when he lapsed into a predictable struggle at the plate, he failed to make the adjustments necessary to turn it around. That was an ideal situation for him – rookie on a team going nowhere, and he did not take advantage of it.
If you are happy that he is getting ANOTHER chance to play everyday, then great. History, and that darned leg kick that he had temporarily ditched early this season according to Mets coaches, suggests that he won’t take advantage. I hope history is wrong, he loses that leg kick, loses the hole in his swing and his vulnerability to outside sliders, so you can return in August triumphant.