March 11: Game Notes

Last night, MSG was kind enough to cover a Met pre-season game with the Houston Astros. The Astros pretty much brought their A-team to the game. The Mets left a few of their starters behind (Matsui, Piazza, etc). Jae Seo started for the Mets against young ace Roy Oswalt.

Instead of covering all of the typical stuff you see in the newspaper articles, I am going to speak speficially about certain elements of the game.

Roger Cedeno continues to disgust me. Early in the ball game, I had the pleasure of watching him chase after a soft fly ball down the right field line. For a moment, he put his glove up. It was a play he could have made if he had a better jump, or made a dive at. Of course, he didn't.

As usual, he gave up on the ball, let it drop in, and then proceeded to jog lazily back to the wall. He picked the ball up in no rush, and then slowly pivoted and threw the ball in to the relay man. The throw had nothing on it. The batter, Everett, decided to go for three when he saw Cedeno dogging it out there. Reyes made a fantastic relay to third, but Everett was safe by a step. Had Cedeno done ANYTHING differently, they would have nailed Everett at third base.

To his credit, he did catch a few routine balls that were essentially hit right at him, but who wouldn't? At the plate, it was the same old Roger. His front shoulder was flying open early and he was waving at bad pitches. He popped up meekly once, and hit a few very unimpressive weak ground balls. He ran down the first base line, but never looked like he was really busting it out of the box. He had his typical sour puss on, looking dejected, unconfident and bored. I don't know how much of Cedeno I can take. Let him be a nice guy for someone else, I need a player with a little passion.

Moving on, I would like to now say that I am concerned with Karim Garcia. For starters, he doesn't look to be in any better shape. He still looks like the kind of guy who eats pizza, drinks beer, and urinates on bushes shortly thereafter. Baby's got back, if you know what I mean. As far as his timing, it was non-existing. Let me summarize his at-bats for you: Late on a fastball, way out in front of anything off-speed. He looked like a pitcher, and had one hard swing the entire night (which was late). He looked like a guy that is going to hit .225, not a guy capable of hitting .285.

Reyes looked pretty comfortable in the field. He handled each ball hit to him that I saw and turned a nice double play with McEwing where he got rid of the ball pretty quick. At the plate, Reyes was hitting the ball well and seeing it well, but wasn't getting any breaks.

Offensively, we looked pretty putrid. We had two hits, and neither of them were anything impressive. One from JoeMac, one from Timo.

Admittedly, Timo Perez looked pretty strong last night. For starters, he was hitting the ball hard and seeing it well all night. He still eats up right-handed pitching, even if it's Roy Oswalt. He also stole a base easily and showed good range and leather in the outfield. The more I watch, the more I want us to keep Timo Perez and release Karim Garcia and Roger Cedeno. If the Mets keep Cedeno and let Timo go, I will be disgusted.

Ty Wigginton looked pretty good. He didn't have any hits, but he seemed to recognize the breaking pitch much better this year. He also worked on being quieter in the batter's box and seems more calm up there. He took some good cuts and lined out a few times when he hit hard balls right at people. Jason Phillips looked pretty much the same. Nice level swing, as usual, just hit it right at people on a line.

Mike Cameron still looks pretty darned good. In the outfield, he is a breath of fresh air. When a ball is hit to him, he is innocent until proven guilty. You know he is going to catch anything, and when he doesn't, you are shocked. Exactly the opposite way you feel when a ball is hit to Cedeno. Offensively, he was told to work on hitting the ball back up the middle. Last night in his first at bat, he took a nice easy swing and again drove the ball nicely 400 feet to center. Unfortunately for the Mets, it was 410 to the wall out there. Later in the game he was getting out in front of the ball again, but I am sure that our hitting coach will keep working with him on patience.

Jae Seo did not look as impressive as his box score indicates. He was in a jam in almost every inning he pitched. He got out of the jams each time, but it wasn't easy. I would say he did fair, even though his box score makes it look like he did great. He was struggling with his control, but this is to be expected in his first outing.

Erickson impressed me. He is only throwing 87-88 mph, but his pitches has obvious sink on it. You can literally see it on the tube. He was inducing ground out after ground out. From time to time he would throw a sinker that wasn't sinking and someone would line it into the outfield for a hit, but most of the time he was on. He did struggle a tad with his control as well, especially in his second inning of work (when they scored). He also gave up a hit that looked like a weak ground ball up the middle. In my Met-fan heart, I am expecting Matsui to make those plays. I don't expect McEwing to.

Overall, not much to report, with very little action and hitting to go on.