The John Delcos New York Mets Report Featuring Mets' commentary, analysis and news.

SANTANA: No run support

I won’t say the positive feelings about the Mets in the wake of the Philly series were dashed last night, but they were tempered.

Two things were especially apparent.

The first was their inability to hit in the clutch as they did against the Phillies. They didn’t have many, but they had enough where they could have won. When the bases are loaded with no outs, you should score at least one by accident.

The second was the use of the bullpen. At 105 pitches, Johan Santana was not done. He should have at least been given the first base runner. There is also the use of Ryota Igarashi at the expense of Pedro Feliciano in the ninth. Feliciano is your most reliable reliever and proven to be able to get out right handed hitters. As long as he was in there, he should have stayed.

As long as Jerry Manuel was hell bent on going with the percentages, why didn’t he look at Igarashi’s numbers since coming off the disabled list. In three appearances, including last night, he has given up five runs on five hits for a whopping 27.00 ERA.

He might be healthy, but he’s not sharp. The only thing sharp last night was Santana, and his performance was wasted by the offense and bullpen.

Posted under Commentary/2010, Mets Commentary

Sometimes, I just don’t get Jerry Manuel. For instance, when talking about Sean Green, when the topic was his submarine delivery, he said he hopes it doesn’t reduce him to being a specialist.

Huh?

Isn’t that the whole essence of putting together a bullpen, finding a defined role for each guy? Obviously, there’s room for adjustment depending on the game situation, but don’t the terms long-man, closer, eighth-inning set-up man and “left-hander out of the bullpen,’’ all denote specialists?

When Manuel brings in Pedro Feliciano to face Adrian Gonzalez instead of a right-hander isn’t he using a specialist? Hell, each bullpen decision is about match-ups and subsequently about specialization.

As far as being a specialist, Manuel will determine that by how he uses Green. As a submariner, Green should be effective against both right-handed and left-handed, that is, if his ball in down, moving and on the corners.  If Manuel doesn’t want to pigeon-hole Green’s job – which on the surface would seem to be to come in and get the ground ball, especially against right-handed hitters – then he doesn’t have to.

It is Manuel’s job in constructing the bullpen to slot pitchers to different game situations. To say he doesn’t want Green to be a specialist is contrary to what should be going on.

Personally, I don’t have a problem with specialists as long as they do their job. In the basic sense every reliever should be a specialist in that their role should simply be to get hitters out, which has been a widespread problem of the bullpen the last three years.

Posted under Mets Commentary

I hope everybody had a happy and safe holiday. I enjoyed spending time with my family. I don’t get out here that often, so the time is special.

I wrote several days ago it was time for the Mets to take a “take it or leave it” approach with Jason Bay. With his agent, Joe Urban, talking to the Red Sox and stonewalling the Mets, it’s obvious where Bay’s heart lies.

BAY: End the fantasy.

It has come to that with Bay. It’s time to cut the fantasy with him.

He doesn’t want to play for the Mets, but would be willing to for five years and not four. I’m not deluded into thinking Bay is any different from any other free agent. He’s following the money.

The Red Sox don’t want to go over the $170 million luxury tax marker, so Urbon will have to be creative in backloading the deal. I would have to think the Red Sox would rather have Bay in their batting order over Mike Cameron (making him a fourth outfielder).

But, what about your heroes? Who’s going to play left field for them? They should be thinking hard about this because it should have been obvious to them Bay was a longshot.
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Posted under Commentary/2009, Mets Commentary

The Braves are in town tonight to start a three-game series. I might be in the minority on this but I still believe the Braves to be relevant. Afterall, they do have a winning record against the Mets this season. Of course, that was when the season was young, but it would be a mistake to discount them or take them lightly.

Hell, the Mets were fortunate to hang on against the Nationals, and they are far worse than Atlanta.

David Wright said the other day that the Mets have been finding ways to win, “which is the mark of a championship team.” True enough. But, another mark is putting away teams with losing records. These are teams they must get to early and take away their will to win. If you let a team like that hang around and let it think it could win, that’s dangerous.

That’s what happened last September.

Posted under New York Mets 2008-09