Tag Archives: Fastball

Jul 03

Mets Chat Room; Strasburg vs. Dickey.

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Game #81 at Nationals

They couldn’t be any more opposite, RA Dickey and Stephen Strasburg.

One, Dickey, is a 35-year-old knuckleballer hanging on to his career with grit, guile and perseverance.  The other, Strasburg, is the rookie phenom, who despite a handful of starts in his young career already has some clamoring for him to be on the National League All-Star team.

Imagine, less than 40 career innings and already they are lobbying for him to be an All-Star. It shouldn’t happen, but you never know.

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Jun 29

Oswalt over Lee

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Both Roy Oswalt and Cliff Lee are available on the trade market, but considering all that’s going on around the Mets these days with Johan Santana, Oswalt is the best fit.

With Santana struggling, and reports he’s lost three to four mph. off his fastball and he’s no longer as elite as he used to be, the Mets must be farsighted about whom they bring in, as they are looking to bolster the front end of the rotation.

Given that, unless there was a chance to sign Lee long term, I believe the proper route would be Oswalt as you are addressing your pitching needs over the next three years for the cost of top prospects, presumably guys like Angel Pagan and Jenrry Mejia.

To surrender your blue chips for answers down the road is one thing. To surrender them for a rental is quite another. This thinking might be different if Santana were Santana, but he’s not, and that must be factored into the equation.

Jun 23

Mets Chat Room: Dickey goes for club record.

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Game #71 vs. Tigers

When things looked bleak for the Mets about a month ago, with three of their starters out of the rotation, the Mets brought up knuckleballer R.A. Dickey from Triple-A Buffalo to make a spot start.

He hasn’t left the rotation since, and it’s not hard to imagine where the Mets would be without in 5-0 record and 2.82 ERA.

Tonight he’ll be vying to become the first Mets starter to win his first six decisions with the team, and the first Met to go 6-0 since Mike Pelfrey in 2008.

Dickey was on the ropes in his last start at Cleveland, but was able to make an in-inning adjustment to hold on for the victory.

The adjustment came at the suggestion of pitching coach Dan Warthen, who told Dickey to light a fire under the butterfly.

“I had runners on second and third and he came out and encouraged me to throw the hard one,’’ Dickey said.  “It’s about 4, 5 mph harder than my comfort-zone knuckler. It was a good step in my evolution, learning to adjust in-game.’’

It’s a risky adjustment for a knuckleballer to make because there’s always the possibility the extra push could force the pitch to spin out into a slow fat batting practice fastball.

Jun 08

Mets Chat Room: Wright takes hot bat into SD series.

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Game #58 vs. Padres

A strikeout machine for much of this season, David Wright enters tonight’s game against the San Diego Padres on a big-time tear, with 13 hits in his last 25 at-bats – most of them scalded.

During that span Wright only struck out four times, three of them last Wednesday at San Diego. He did not strike out during the Florida series.

Wright said he was all over the place earlier this season, but has become more selective over the past week not chasing the sliders away. He’s also been quicker with the bat and getting to the inside fastball.

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Jun 08

Pelfrey kept his word

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There’s no question out of necessity the Mets rushed Mike Pelfrey, but it says a lot about him that he was able to learn and not let the frustrations of a 3-8 season in 2007 sabotage his development as it would with many young pitchers.

PELFREY: Goes for fifth straight win tonight.

Pelfrey appeared to find himself in 2008, but regressed last year to the point where he was mentioned in trade rumors. Pelfrey, simply, was a mess with some hideous moments, such as a three-balk afternoon in San Francisco.

He still had all the good things in his scouting report, such as a power fastball, but it was outweighed by a propensity for not being able to finish off batters or innings.

When things got tense, Pelfrey got tight and small threats mushroomed into big innings. When they unraveled for him, he was all over the place.

When he struggled this spring, some speculated he’d be better off in the minor leagues – I had that thought – but Pelfrey promised he was working on things and would be better.

He kept his word.

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Jun 07

Mets select UNC’s Matt Harvey

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HARVEY: Taken with seventh pick.

The Mets selected North Carolina right-hander Matt Harvey with the seventh pick in the tonight’s draft.

Harvey, a junior, is 6-4 and 225 pounds. He’s a power pitcher with a plus fastball, clocked at 96 mph., and a change-up clocked at a difference of over 10 mph.

The scouting report on him is he’s not afraid to challenge hitters inside and has an above average change-up.

Harvey went 8-3 with a 3.09 ERA for the Tar Heels with 102 strikeouts in 96 innings.

His agent is Scott Boras.

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Jun 06

Perez’s MRI evaluated by MLB

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Eyes had to be raised when after Oliver Perez, who so vehemently refused a demotion to the minor leagues, suddenly came up lame with patella tendinitis after a MRI the day before the Mets activated Jon Niese from the disabled list.

PEREZ: In better times.

Major League Baseball reviewed the MRI because, shall we say, of the convenient timing of all this for the Mets.

Manager Jerry Manuel said Perez complained of knee pain Friday when he arrived at Citi Field, then had a MRI than revealed the tendinitis.

“He says he’s not able to pitch the way it is right now,’’ assistant general manager John Ricco said. “When a player tells you he’s injured and a doctor confirms that, from where I sit, that’s what the DL is for.’’

Maybe it is convenient, but the truth is Perez had surgery on the same knee in the offseason and this spring has had nothing on his fastball. To say it’s coincidental would be true; to say there is a link would also be true.

“I thought that with the velocity not ever getting to what I saw in 2008, that always concerns me to some degree,’’ Manuel said.  “But the athlete tells you that he’s fine, he’s fine, doesn’t feel anything, you have to give him the benefit of the doubt.’’

Perez will rehab his knee at Port St. Lucie, but the team does not have a timetable for when he’ll throw again.

Perez is 0-3 with a 6.28 ERA in 11 appearances, seven of them starts, and has allowed 76 base runners in 38 2/3 innings.

May 19

May 19.10: What’s wrong with Wright?/Adding tonight’s lineup.

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Pedro Martinez once told me one of his greatest weapons as a pitcher is the fear he instilled in the batter’s mind about being hit.

“If the batter is afraid of being hit, then I can pitch him any way I want,’’ Martinez said.

That’s the way it seems these days for David Wright even though he will never admit it. That’s all right, because what the mouth won’t say body language does, and there have been numerous times when Wright bails out.

We see him more turning away from the inside fastball rather than turning on it and ripping it to left. Once a pitcher knows he has the inside half of the plate, there’s no reason to go to the outside.

The Matt Cain beaning last season has had a residual effect of Wright, and it mostly is mental, which leads to bad physical habits.

I’ve seen Wright pull off pitches he used to hammer, and I see him get too anxious when he does get a ball on the outside half and middle. His swing is long with a noticeable uppercut.

Statistically, Wright has made enough contact to be on a pace to hit 32 homers and drive in 105 runs. He’s also on pace to strike out 223 times and hit for a .262, some 43 points below his career average.

Those aren’t the results Wright is seeking.

“If you don’t see the results a lot, you start pressing a little bit,’’ Wright said last night after his three strikeout game in Atlanta. “It’s tough when somebody is out there playing as poorly as I am right now, costing us both offensively and defensively.’’

Wright was having an off-year in 2009 even before the beaning, which some of it being written off as adjusting to the new stadium and him being on an island in the line-up. There was no Carlos Beltran, Carlos Delgado or Jose Reyes for much of this year. There’s no Beltran this year, Jason Bay has done nothing to protect Wright and Reyes hasn’t been on his game. The situations are very similar, as are the results.

Wright called baseball a “humbling” game and right now the man is humbled.

It all boils down to this, that regardless of the psychological and statistical theories, if Wright is the player the Mets and he believes himself to be, things have to dramatically change. These reasons, or excuses, for him not hitting must be pushed aside.

It could start with something small, like hitting a sacrifice fly instead of striking out.

Here’s tonight’s line-up”

Jose Reyes, SS
Luis Castillo, 2B
Jason Bay, LF
Ike Davis, 1B
Angel Pagan, CF
Jeff Francoeur, RF
Fernando Tatis, 3B
Henry Blanco, C
RA Dickey, RP