In case you have missed it, The Hardball Times has had two recent looks at Mets starting pitchers and where and how they are locating their pitches – Johan Santana and Pedro Martinez. Santana may yet end up leading the league in ERA and innings pitched, but THT notes his alarming drop in strikeout rate, which I had assumed was tied pretty directly to lost velocity, but THT’s numbers indicate no loss compared to 2007 (there’s no data shown for his Cy Young campaigns) and seems more concerned about movement on his fastball declining from outstanding to just good. Santana has a 2.13 ERA since June 1, third best in the game in that period, but he’s done it by controlling the high HR rate that plagued him in 2007 and early 2008, possibly at the expense of the K rate. Meanwhile, it seems that Pedro’s lost velocity is making his slider far less effective. Meanwhile, Maine is back on the DL. The Mets have no good options, although if they intend to give Neise a shot, better to try him out now rather than have to throw him to the wolves with no margin for error as they did to Phil Humber last year.
3 thoughts on “Stuff About Stuff”
Comments are closed.
According to http://www.espn.com, Minaya is bringing Neise up. I think it will be against the Brewers, but in any event, check the website for the supposed skinny. I’ve never seen Neise pitch, but he looks respectable for AAA. Looks to be about a strikeout per inning and a homer per game, 3:1 strikeouts to walks ratio. I can’t figure out anything in regard to his velocity, but he’s big (6’4″, 215 lbs). If he’s like most young pitchers, he can throw the hell out of the ball, and the questions are can he mix velocities and throw a change and a curve. Good luck Mets fans, at least you’ve got hopes for September.
I recognize that last night’s disaster was so horrible that you can’t write about it this morning. It was horrible to watch. Maybe neither NY team will make the playoffs this year.
Just from personal observation – so I can’t prove anything – the problem with Pedro is that he just doesn’t have the stamina to last 5 innings anymore, and Santana’s strikeouts perhaps have dropped because he’s pitching to contact in an effort to go deeper into games, whether because he’s been asked to spare the bullpen or because he’s sick of watching them blow his wins. Alas, pitching to contact in Philadelphia ain’t working well tonight.