Double Play Brigade

After another sterling effort by the Mets last night in which they not only managed to squander a slim lead in the 8th inning, thereby costing Tom Glavine his 300th victory, the Mets also managed to strand about 26 runners on base over the course of a mostly miserable 13 inning loss in Milwaukee.

Luis Castillo didn't light anything up in his Mets debut, and the area that the Mets probably needed to address most, the Bullpen, went untouched, and, oddly enough, the Bullpen frittered away the lead in the 8th, thanks to Feliciano plunking Lil' Cecil and Mota allowing a screamer to Hall that took a fortuitous bounce over the wall for a Ground Rule Double, thereby only tying the game instead of giving the Brewers the lead, and prolonging our misery for 5 more innings until Brett Favre's HR in the 13th won it.

How bad was it? Here's a selection from what a colleague of mine had to say this morning:

"Let me ask you a question. The Mets have the bases loaded and one out. Who would you rather have up? Luis Castillo or Moises Alou?"

I answer with Victor Diaz.

"Well, I'd rather have Castillo. At least Castillo will hit the ball and not hit into a double play. Alou hit into a double play. Worse than Zeile! He's a double play machine!"

He follows that up with this:

"How many games will the Mets lose on this road trip? 4 of 6? 6 of 6? Who would they beat? Mark my words, once the Mets fall into second place, and they will fall into second place, that's the last time they're going to sniff first place this year. You can put that in your Blog."

With the efforts the Mets have put forth over the last week, I have a hard time arguing with him. It kind of makes me glad I haven't been able to see any of these games.

Dueling Dealings

The Mets may have, perhaps, filled a major void at Second Base with their acquisition of Luis Castillo late Monday night as the Trade Deadline looms on Tuesday Afternoon. With Jose Valentin most likely done for the season and Ruben Gotay forced unsuitably into everyday play, the Mets were certainly in need of someone who could consistently get on base, use their speed and score runs in front of Beltran, Wright and Delgado. With few attractive options available, Castillo's the guy. We remember Castillo as the major pain in the ass from Florida's 2003 Championship team, leading off, bunting, slapping and running and generally creating problems for the opposition.

On the other hand, Castillo isn't quite the same player he was back in '03. He's a little older now, 31, and he's begun to lose a step or two. His Steal totals have steadily declined from his career high of 48 in 2002 to 9 this season. He's never been a power threat at all. But his defense has always been solid. And he has proven himself to be a solid everyday player over the course of his career, as evidenced by a .294 career Batting Average and a .368 OBP. This won't be a long term solution, and it won't solve all of the team's problems. But the Mets are built to win in 2007, and Castillo is certainly capable of helping the cause.

It behooves the Mets to solve their problems sooner rather than later, especially with the Braves set to deal for Texas's Mark Teixeira. Adding Tex to an already potent Atlanta lineup serves to make them all the more of a problem for the Mets down the stretch. The Mets are arguably still in need of one more large power threat in their lineup, preferably in one of the corner Outfield spots. Jermaine Dye's name had been bandied about, but that doesn't appear to be much of an attractive solution. It's certainly possible that if Reyes and Castillo serve to provide more RBI chances for the guys behind them, that the Mets could have solved their offensive woes in a more roundabout fashion. But that's not a guarantee, since Beltran, Wright and Delgado have all had maddeningly inconsistent seasons to this point, and have given us no reason to think this will change over the final two months of the season. It could end up that Lastings Milledge's strong play of late will earn him the starting job in Right, or he will simply bounce from Right to Left as often as possible, spelling Alou and Green.

Another arm in the bullpen would be rather helpful as well, and probably much moreso than another ridiculous aging veteran bat to bog down the Outfield, since that seems to be the lay of the land at this time.

But I'll say the same thing that I say at the trade deadline every year. Make the deals that need to be made. Just don't do anything stupid.

Mad Dog Russo on WFAN summed it up this afternoon (and I paraphrase): Whatever happens in the Regular season happens, but it's meaningless once the playoffs start. Any victory that the Mets have had this season that we thought would springboard them on a major hot streak has turned out to be a mirage.

With all that said, let's hope Castillo provides the spark in Milwaukee this evening, spurring Tom Glavine on to Win #300.

Ugly vs. Ugly

This was not the kind of weekend I'd hoped for.

With the miserable, rebuilding Nationals in town, the Mets pretty much played down to their level in four mostly forgettable games over three days, struggling to earn themselves a split against a team that, by all rights, they should have pummeled.

Although, as was the case in June, I am engulfed in work-related Theatrics (For those who don't know, M2M does trod the boards from time to time), and some late nights have reduced these games to a rumor level for me. But I know enough of what's going on (thanks to late night WFAN) and I'm not pleased with the recent results.

I was talking with a colleague the other day who I had not seen in some time, and he basically summed it all up rather quickly:

"The Mets are just there. They're not doing anything. They're just hanging around. They're just there."

They really are. The results of the weekend prove it. After looking bad in losing to Pittsburgh on Thursday, the Mets came out completely flat on Friday. Not even the return of Moises Alou could energize them as they were basically shut down by ex-farmhand (and the Great Hope of 2002) Mike Bacsik in a 6-2 loss.

Saturday, the Mets won the first game of the Abhorred Day-Night DH 3-1, basically behind the masterful efforts of El Duque and really in spite of another pitiful offensive performance, as they took another ragtag pitcher, Tim Redding, and made him look good for a while. The Nightcap saw Mike Pelfrey again muddle through another inconsistent outing before being bailed out by Delgado in the 6th, only to see Pedro Feliciano melt down in the 8th and some questionable moves by Willie came back to bite them in the ass in the end.

A word on the Anderson/Castro/Glavine fiasco: Although as with the rest of the games, I didn't see it progress, I can only imagine that Willie was trying to play some odd percentage game and gamble that Anderson would have come through against Ray King in the 7th, as opposed to having Castro pinch hit straight off since he was coming into the game for LoDuca anyway, which, as it turned out would have been the proper move, hindsight being 20/20. Instead, he hit Anderson there, lost him after one AB, and rather than having Castro bat again in the 9th, he was forced to Pinch-Hit Glavine since he was out of players. Again, this is a sensible move, but only if Milledge had reached to lead off the inning. And when he didn't, Willie had basically dug his own grave for the game. The strategy is evident and valid, and of course we know Willie will think outside the box. But this happened to be an instance where his plan backfired on all avenues and left everyone wondering what the hell he was exactly thinking about.

Leave it to John Maine to solve all the problems in Sunday's rain-shortened affair. Backed by nice days from Reyes, Wright and Castro, Maine threw an impressively effortless 62 pitches over his 5 shutout innings. Thank Heavens for that, since a poor effort would have meant a completely inexcusable 1-3 series as opposed to the barely acceptable series split the Mets were able to come away with.

Now, the creampuffs are done with. And a road trip that isn't going to be forgiving, beginning on Tuesday in Milwaukee against Mr. Twitches and Lil' Cecil, and continuing on to Chicago, always a fun place to visit (and let's remember what the Mets did when they sojourned to the Windy City last season).

Moves have been made to solidify the bench, with Beltran perhaps DL-bound, and LoDuca ailing. But they're not the kind of moves that are going to excite anyone. Gone is Jon Adkins after all of one outing with the Mets (and my guess is he won't be remembered fondly, if at all). Back for his third stint with the Mets in three seasons, the always annoying, prickly and hideous Mike DiFelice. Back for his Third stint with the Mets this season, the always annoying, wimpy and hideous David Newhan. Real impact moves to help out the team during a tough stretch. Can't wait to see them in action.

Oh boy. Here we go again...

Earthquake Glue

I'm going on vacation to San Francisco for a week (not like I've been tearing up the blogosphere around here lately anyway), so in the meantime you'll continue on in Mets2Moon's capable hands.

My flight's at 7:05 tomorrow morning, so I'll be trying to get to sleep right at the conclusion of tonight's game against the Nats (Bacsik v. Sosa! Cancel all your Friday night plans, kids!). I might even tune in to see if Alex Rodriguez finally hits his 493rd home run. Huh? Yeah, it's confusing, but due to the fact that the Yankees and Orioles are picking up where they left off in a rain-postponed game from June 28, if A-Rod homers tonight that will be dinger number 493, and every home run since then will move up one, so that his 499th, off Gil Meche, will become his 500th. So, depending on what happens tonight, A-Rod may actually have already hit his 500th home run, and I JUST BLEW YOUR FUCKING MIND.

Of course, no one actually cares about A-Rod's 500th home run. Not even this guy:
Have a great week, everyone. In the meantime, here's a little memento to remember me by:
Rodriguez Home Runs: Count Them Backward [New York Times]
"Bobble Belly" El Gaupo image via Minor Enterprise [Deadspin]

Mayhem and Milestones

It was unfortunate that I was unable to use my ticket for Tuesday Night's game, missing the One-Man Wrecking Crew that is John Maine unleash a new wrinkle to his game plan.

He hits, too.

El Guapo kept me apprised of the happenings via text message, so I was aware of Maine's first career HR shortly after it happened, though I didn't see it until later. Maine's shocking display of power was certainly welcome, although it was his efforts on the mound that served to nail down the victory on Tuesday night.

Wednesday night saw more strong pitching efforts, and a standout offensive performance from LoDuca as Glavine's 6 innings were enough to secure his 299th victory.

Both games saw the Mets build up early leads and keep the Pirates mostly off balance for the duration of both games, and for once, we've been treated to a couple of drama-free, cruising victories against a team that the Mets should be beating soundly. But more welcome than that is the fact that these have been sound victories where the team has been both hitting and pitching well at the same time, something that has been lacking overall over the past 2 months.

I made a lot about this week's games last week, while the Mets were busy piddling away in San Diego. These are games the Mets need to win, and win soundly. Against the hapless Pirates, a team that boasts a few young, talented players in Jason Bay, Freddy Sanchez and Tom Gorzelanny, but little else exciting. Washington is in next, and they're currently getting their clocks cleaned in Philadelphia. Kicking off a week in which the key phrase for the Mets is "Smash the Flea with the Sledgehammer," the Mets have come out running, and can look for the sweep later this afternoon behind Oliver Perez, off his fine outing last weekend in LA, certainly with a chip on his shoulder against the team that prematurely gave him away last season.

Philly and Atlanta are beating up on bad teams this week, too. Let's keep the pace.