Spring Training Report - March 14

From Kevin watching Sunday's game in Jupiter

1. Johan looked good. He had his changeup working, which is important. Nice pickoff at second base too. It's good to see they work on this stuff in spring training.

2. Maine was awful. He was all over the place, and got lit up. Not much more to say other than he doesn't look ready to be a started right now.

3. Calero's first outing was rocky at best. He loaded the bases and got out of it, but it was not smooth at all.

4. Igarashi did well in an inning, a few days after being smacked around by Boston.

5. The Mets are doing what they always do. Get a runner to second with no out, or to third with less than 2 outs, and don't score him. They are, and have been the last few years, terrible in fundamental baseball.

Thanks again Kevin.


Leave a comment or drop me a line at DyHrdMET [at] gmail [dot] com.
Become a fan of RememberingShea on Facebook.
Become a Networked Blog

Spring Training Report - March 13

Here is Saturday's report from RememberingShea's correspondent down in Port St. Lucie, Kevin Goodman, for the Mets vs. Detroit at Port St. Lucie. Some of my thoughts are at the bottom.

Perez looked good, but the detroit lineup only had 2 regulars. Even so, he mowed down the first 9, and was on his way to 4 perfect innings, when he got flustered over a weak hitter fouling off a few pitches and walked him, and the next batter. He then got out of it.

Takahashi looks good. He doesn't throw hard, but he misses bats and gets guys out. HIs motion seems effortless, so I doubt he would have trouble going deep into games. I think he would do ok as a 5th starter. I feel he would be wasted in long relief as he wouldn't pitch that much.

The homers in the 7th were all wind aided. Matthews shot was nice, but it would not have been out without the wind. Even Castillo got into the action with an RBI single. Note that the Mets had Wright, Bay, Murphy, and Francouer batting in succession. I ma not sure the Mets have even had 4 white guys batting in a row under Omar. And of course to start the 7th, it was homer, hbp, single, homer. Only the Canadian didn't get a hit, but rather got hit. Haha....the point was ruined when he homered 15 minutes later.

Mejia is wild but throws really hard. Nobody really looked comfortable, but they were able to know when he was going to throw fastballs and locked in on them. His off speed stuff, if his fastball is working, looks to be unhittable, kinda like Benitez when he was locked in.

One funny note: Omar was sitting behind home plate, about 5 rows back. In the second inning, a foul ball came right to him, he reached for it with both hands, and dropped it. I think if anyone know it was him, there would have been some boos.

Thanks Kevin. This sounds like the "good Ollie" that we all hope for, except that, as usual, something flusters him and he usually becomes unravelled. Credit the catcher for settling him down. What we can all hope for is that in 5-6 days when he pitches again, he pitches solid, gets flustered, and the catcher can talk him off the ledge again, so that maybe we have a working formula. Personally, I don't need a headcase like that on my team though. For a Mets team that struggled hitting HRs last year, I'll take a wind aided HR or even one misplayed by the LF. In the box score, it's still a HR, and 4 in the inning, and can get a team out of a funk in the regular season.


Leave a comment or drop me a line at DyHrdMET [at] gmail [dot] com.
Become a fan of RememberingShea on Facebook.
Become a Networked Blog

Spring Training Report - March 11, 2010

RememberingShea has a correspondent down in Port St. Lucie following the Mets for about a week. Kevin Goodman is his name, and this is the report he sent me for Thursday, March 11, 2010, for the Mets vs. Boston at Port St. Lucie. Some of my thoughts are at the bottom.

here are my thoughts from the game against the Red Sox yesterday.

Hard to tell how the fans felt. It was rainy and there were a lot of red sox fans there. Certainly since the the cost of the game was double what it normally was, they expected it to be packed. It was pretty full, but not packed.. Maybe that had to do with the rain.

Anyway, it was nice to see all of the same stuff, from food to concessions to activities. The PA system is brutally bad. It all sounds like mumbling. They need to replace this. It was nice seeing John Franco roaming around though.

On the field, they looked bad. A lot of swings and misses before the rain delay. Pagan had a chance to set himself correctly on Cameron's sac fly, but instead he caught it flat footed and had no chance to challenge Pedroia at the plate. That bothers me. I don't think Matthews makes the same mistake. They gave up 3 runs in the first, and nobody was surprised. In fact, no fans were even yelling or heckling. This was new for me. FYI, I was sitting 3 rows back from the Mets bulllpen.

They are lifeless at the plate. Castillo could put you to sleep, and they look like they have no plan up there. Just as hard to watch as September of last year. With Reyes out for possibly two months, the only reason to watch a game is Wright.

Pelfrey was catching way too much of the plate with his pitches and was getting hit hard. I thought he was going to get out of the first after he loaded the bases and struck out Big Papi. I really thought he was going to get a DP from Drew, but no such luck.

Feliciano looked bad. Way too many pitches to get hitters out. Maybe he doesn't trust his stuff yet.

Igarashi was brutal. I watched him warm up in the bullpen, and I kept wondering why he was throwing only fastballs. Well, it's b/c that is all he throws. He got into the game, threw only fastballs to the backups after the rain delay, and got spanked. Even the outs were hard outs.

There is a guy named Cervanek. He looks like a player. He had good numbers at AAA last year. But they are Murphy-ing him. He is in infielder, but they put him in LF and he is lost.

I am not going to Ft. Myers today, but I will see them again tomorrow. More to come.

Thanks Kevin. I was at a Mets-Red Sox game in PSL a few years ago, and Red Sox nation was traveling in full force that night (part of another road trip with Vero Beach and Dice-K the next afternoon). It's a shame for the teams on the Treasure Coast that Boston visits that some games have been rained out (today's Sox game in Jupiter was washed out and the game I was at in Vero Beach was also a washout). It was funny that you mentioned the PA system because I could hear it on TV. They've also had Shea's/Citi's Alex Anthony in the past but not this year.

Kevin, I hope the team plays better for you on Saturday (where those of us up north can watch on WPIX) than they did on Thursday. Saturday should also bit a bit more normal with the Tigers coming to town and not the traveling Red Sox nation.


Leave a comment or drop me a line at DyHrdMET [at] gmail [dot] com.
Become a fan of RememberingShea on Facebook.
Become a Networked Blog