Paterno statue down, sanctions coming Monday

Posted on July 22, 2012 by Aaron Yorke

On Penn State

It appears the day of reckoning is upon us. This morning the Joe Paterno statue outside of Beaver Stadium was removed and reportedly placed in “storage.”

Around the same time, a source within the NCAA that “unprecedented” sancations would be handed to Penn State at a 9:00 AM press conference on Monday morning. Immediately, speculation on what exactly “unprecedented” could be referring to began taking place on Twitter and the rest of the internet.

The one silver lining is that ESPN college football insider Joe Schad seems confident that Penn State football will not be cancelled this season.

Rather, the “extremely harsh” penalties could be even worse than the “death penalty.” I’m not sure how this is possible unless the supposed bowl ban is somewhere around 10 years long, but Schad did not rule that out.

PennLive.com did a great job rounding up various opinions on the matter of the possible sanctions. Peruse that at your leisure. It’s important to note that the NCAA may be opening up a can of worms by beginning to issue penalties on criminal issues that are not dealt with in the organization’s bylaws

https://twitter.com/Devon2012/status/227066801891201024

It will be interesting to see if future criminals acts such as DUIs are dealth with in a similar fashion or if Penn State is being singled out because of the horribleness (and high profile-ness) of the crimes.

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Mets Saturday morning: Santana to DL, Hefner up

Posted on July 21, 2012 by Aaron Yorke

After last night’s Johan Santana start that was not awesome (well, it was for the Dodgers, and particularly for Luis Cruz, who hit his first major league home run), Terry Collins discussed maybe skipping the lefty’s next start, because he was tired or something.

“He’s not hurt, let’s put it that way,” said Terry Collins after the game.

That turned out to be false, at least according to the front office. Santana was placed on the disabled list this morning with an ankle injury.

Of course, the ankle thing still doesn’t make a lot of sense given that Collins said that he wanted to “get some energy back in the arm.” You’d think it would be more clear that Santana’s issues were based in the lower body like the Mets are implying with the DL stint.

At least an ankle injury would seem to signify that Santana’s issues are not based on Collins letting him throw 134 pitches to complete his no-hitter on June 1. Said Santana yesterday, “That no-hitter stuff was a long time ago. I don’t think that has anything to do with it.”

Santana has a 6.54 ERA in eight starts the no-hitter. The problem is an insane 11 home runs surrendered as well as 42 other hits in just 42.2 innings. 17 walks isn’t great either, but 37 strikeouts indicate that the stuff is still there. You have to figure if Santana keeps striking guys out, the home runs and hits will go down at least a little bit by themselves.

https://twitter.com/PatrickJFlood/status/226469183603490816

Obviously, I would go with more effective pitching now. Not only did I not get to see the no-hitter alive (I was in Europe), but everyone knows perfect games are the new no-hitters. It’s really ridiculous that the Padres don’t have even a no-no yet.

Jeremy Hefner has been called up, likely to back up Miguel Batista’s start today. Hefner might then pitch in Santana’s stead on Wednesday. Adam Rubin is thinking that this could set up for Matt Harvey to make his MLB debut on Thursday in Phoenix.


I think Harvey would be best used out of the bullpen if promoted this season, but it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen. I would be surprised if Harvey pitches a lot better than a replacement-level guy would, but his debut should be fun nonetheless.

Oh, and today at 1:10 PM the Mets play the Dodgers for game number two of their three-game series. As usual, Collins has loaded the lineup with righties against a left-handed opponent. Scott Hairston, Jason Bay, Ronny Cedeno and Mike Nickeas are all in the starting lineup to face old friend Chris Capuano. Here’s LA’s lineup. Hopefully we’ll find out that two starters are better than one this afternoon.

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Mets bullpen panic and more Penn State yapping

Posted on July 19, 2012 by Aaron Yorke

On Wednesday afternoon for The Daily Stache, I wrote a preview for the Mets vs. National game, but what I want to write about now is the beginning in which I wrote about why the awful bullpen situation has not gotten any better (and might not for another week or two).

Last night was ugly for the New York Mets and now everyone is going nuts about the bullpen. Of course, the bullpen is dreadful, but there’s not much that can be done about it right now. Bringing up Jenrry Mejia (who has been really bad in Buffalo) or Manny Acosta (who has been good in triple-A but not as good in the majors this season) would likely amount to “rearranging the chairs on the Titanic.”

As for outside help, with so many teams still in contention (and thus, so few sellers), the price is going to be driven up on even minor acquisitions. With still two weeks to go until the trade deadline, the sellers are going to hold off on simply giving assets away just in case a buyer gets desperate at the deadline and decides to give up something besides financial relief. There’s little incentive for sellers to give up their assets just yet, and because of that, the Mets front office probably won’t get any help to the bullpen until the deadline draws closer.

Basically, I’m sick of fans being sick of the bullpen. At MetsBlog (linked above), Matt Cerrone takes Sandy Alderon to task for not making insignificant changes to the bullpen. With baseball being as random as it is, there doesn’t seem to be much of a point to calling up lousy players to take the place of other lousy players. Besides, it wasn’t that long ago that Josh Edgin entered the fray to allow Terry Collins more flexibility in his use of left-handed relief.

That flexibility allowed the Mets to get their LOOGY Byrdak up against left-handed amazing person Bryce Harper. Byrdak lost that battle and Bobby Parnell lost his own battle the inning before, but the point is that the Mets were able to get the right people in place to get the job done. Last night was just a lack of execution by guys that most Mets fans would count as pluses.

On his blog, Cerrone talks about how he “had a difficult time sleeping” last night, which is kind of funny to me now. The Penn State scandal has taken me to such a level of fan distress that little Mets collapses like this now seem insignificant by comparison. Just another loss in a season that is bound to have a handful of tough losses.

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On the Penn State scandal

Posted on July 13, 2012 by Aaron Yorke

I’m done defending Joe Paterno regarding his role in the Jerry Sandusky scandal. They can do with they want with the statue. I’m don’t think they should tear it down completely, because that would be like pretending this whole thing never happened. Rather, something should be done so that future generations will see Paterno’s greatness as well as his flaws.

It doesn’t matter much to me, though. The statue is on the non-campus side of Beaver Stadium where you really have to look for it in order to find it. It was never meant to be a central landmark of Penn State anyway (at least not until major expansions were made to the already giant university). No matter if the statue is torn down or not, that’s not what’s going to affect the memory of Paterno at Penn State.

I think Phil Knight said it best, as far as Joe’s supporters go. “I missed that he missed it.” That sums up well how I feel now that the Freeh report has brought so much more new information to the table. Before, I felt that protests of Paterno’s firing were acceptable, because there wasn’t enough evidence to link the legendary coach to the decisions that covered up Sanudsky’s crimes.

That’s all changed now, and while there remain some in defense of Paterno, for me it’s become impossible to look past the fact that Paterno and the other stooges let Sandusky stay affiliated to the university with even a little knowledge about what might be going on. “Inexcusable” doesn’t really seem like a strong enough word.

One thing I don’t agree with is the notion that Paterno was somehow the mastermind behind the whole cover-up. I realize that he almost certainly held more power than Tim Curley or Gary Schultz or Graham Spanier, but that doesn’t mean he was willing to exercise that power to save Penn State some embarrassment. The Freeh Report brings to light that the Sandusky problem was discussed with Paterno, and we know that he certainly wasn’t adamant about turning the guy in, but we don’t know if it was the other way around, either. Maybe it was Curley or Spanier who talked Paterno into the cover-up. That wouldn’t excuse the fact that Paterno was part of what happened, but the point is that we don’t know if Paterno abused his role as football coach, like so many are assuming.

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I liked Dickey before he was cool: Dickey becomes mainstream

Posted on June 20, 2012 by Aaron Yorke

In today’s times of Twitter, hipsters and non-stop baseball media madness, we’re dealing with a lot of the same conversations year after year. Who will get traded at the trade deadline? Who will win Rookie of the Year? How do we make the period between the All-Star break and the pennant race interesting? At what point do no-hitters stop being a big deal?

Well here’s something completely new: The league’s best pitcher is a knuckleball-thrower without a ulnar collateral ligament. Although R.A. Dickey has been thrilling Mets fans for the past two seasons, he’s finally reached national stardom thanks to a pair of one-hitters in which he combined to strikeout 25 batters.

For a Mets fan, this is kind of hard to deal with. The Mets as a whole are still far from completing their renovation that started when Sandy Alderson was brought in after the 2010 season, and yet Dickey has become a superstar. Whether this is a short term Jeremy Lin-like phenomenon or something more, it’s still going to be weird seeing Dickey on the mound to start the All-Star Game. This is something that I dismissed as improbable just last week, but now seems like a distinct possibility.

So, is this something that can last for a long time? Knuckleball pitchers have been known to pitch well into their forties, but Dickey is unlike any knuckleball pitcher to come before him. The main reason for this season’s outstanding performance has been a rise in R.A.’s strikeout rate from 5.78 per nine last season to 9.36 this year. Dickey has somehow gained more control of the thought-to-be uncontrollable knuckleball and that’s allowed him to get more swings and misses than ever before.

I’d love to say that Dickey can keep striking guys out at this rate, but that seems highly unlikely. Dickey adjusted to what batters were doing, and the batters are bound to adjust back. The good news is if he can keep eating up innings while performing like he did in 2010 and 2011, the Mets would still have a rock solid rotation pitcher for years to come.

Speaking of years to come, with a one-year club option for $5 million still left on his deal, the Mets have a lot of time to decide how exactly they want to extend Dickey’s contract. It will certainly be tricky because of the prospect of Dickey pitching well and staying healthy for the next 10 years remains possible. However, at this point, I’m sure Alderson and company know that something has to be done to keep him in orange and blue for a long time.

Dickey could certainly command a lot in the trade market, especially with that affordable option coming up, but the connection he has with the fans and his almost magic durability make him a very unique asset, both tangibly and intangibly. Right now, we can only sit back and hope Dickey keeps pitching like a Cy Young candidate. Even if he doesn’t, though, the dude better get his money.

PS: Props to David Lennon at Newsday for thinking up a great way to compare Dickey to Star Wars that I’m sure the nerdy pitcher will appreciate very much.

You can follow me on Twitter: @apy5000

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Bronson Arroyo is back in town as Mets host Reds

Posted on June 15, 2012 by Aaron Yorke

Update: The Mets just posted their lineup for tonight, so here’s that…

Looks like pretty standard stuff. Remember, no designated hitter tonight since we’re back in the National League.

Yes, that’s Wilson Valdez in center field. Drew Stubbs has been out with an oblique strain since June 5, and his replacement Chris Heisey just injured his groin, but the Reds have opted to leave both players on the active roster. That means we get to find out if Valdez can actually play center. I certainly wasn’t aware that he could.

Original Post: There’s something comforting about Bronson Arroyo pitching against the Mets. In today’s age of roster turnover and guys switching leagues, Arroyo is now in his seventh straight season of eating innings for the Cincinnati Reds.

I’m trying to figure out if he’s pitched against the Mets in each of those seasons, but Baseball-Reference is asking for money and I’m not in the mood to pay for inane statistics.

Anyway, it does SEEM like Arroyo has pitched against the Mets every year since 2006, and now here he comes again. The dude is crazy consistent. He pitched 200+ innings in every season from 2005 to 2010 and then last year he failed and only pitched 199. Always solid, but never spectacular, Arroyo is the type of rock that every team wishes to have in its rotation.

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Mets bats blow up again, complete sweep of Rays

Posted on June 14, 2012 by Aaron Yorke

It was great that the Mets were able to score 11 runs in a series opening win against the Rays on Monday, and Tuesday night’s nine runs that backed R.A. Dickey’s gem were more than enough. Yet, the Mets spoiled their fans today with another assault on Tampa Bay pitching that made up for a sub par Johan Santana outing and led to a 9-6 victory in the series finale.

Kirk Nieuwenhuis had the first two-homer game of his career and Ike Davis struck a couple of key RBI hits to lead the attack for the Mets. Tampa starter Jeremy Hellickson never really got comfortable in this one. Nieuwenhuis led off the game with a home run pulled down the right field line and Jason Bay struck with a solo shot of his own in the second inning.

Although the Rays would rally to take a 3-2 lead in the bottom half of the second, the Amazins struck back with another pair of runs in the third. Jordanny Valdespin singled and David Wright doubled to set the table, and then Lucas Duda’s opposite field drive was tracked down by Desmond Jennings for a sac fly. Now with two outs, Davis notched the first of his two RBI with a liner that eluded Ben Zobrist at second base. Wright dashed around from second to make the score 4-3 New York.

Zobrist brought Tampa back with an RBI double in the bottom of the third, but the Mets were still not done with Hellickson. In the top of the fourth, the 2011 American League Rookie of the Year appeared to settle down by getting the first two batters out, but Omar Quintanilla legged out a infield single and Nieuwenhuis followed with an opposite field blast that reached the seats for a two-run homer.

Now with the score 6-4, Hellickson appeared to be a bit unhinged. He hit Valdespin on the foot and walked Wright to bring Duda to the plate with two runners on base. A meaty fastball gave Duda the opportunity to crush a line drive over B.J. Upton’s head in center field. The double brought in both runs and gave the Mets an 8-4 lead.

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Santana, Mets try to keep good times rolling in Tampa

Posted on June 14, 2012 by Aaron Yorke

In just a few minutes, the Mets will face off against the Rays and try to win their third game in a row. Johan Santana is on the mound, and the relatively pitcher-friendly Tropicana Field should be a nice change of scenery after he was lit up for four home runs at Yankee Stadium last week.

The Mets lineup for today is as follows:

Against the right-handed Jeremy Hellickson, Ike Davis gets moved up to the fifth spot in the order. Jordanny Valdespin earned another shot at batting second with his four RBI on Monday. However, with Ronny Cedeno and Justin Turner getting ready to return from the disabled list, it appears Valdespin may be sent back to Buffalo some time soon.

Ben Zobrist returns to the Rays lineup to give it a little more teeth, while the lefty Matt Joyce has also been moved down in the order with the left-handed Santana starting.

The Rays starting pitcher Hellickson has been pretty fortunate so far this season with a 2.65 ERA despite a strikeout-to-walk ratio under 2:1. He’s been helped a lot by a .248 BABIP and his FIP stands at 4.74.

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R.A. Dickey has entered another world

Posted on June 14, 2012 by Aaron Yorke

Last night in St. Petersburg, Florida, R.A. Dickey took the mound for the Mets needing to pitch seven shutout innings to match Jerry Koosman’s club record of 31.2 consecutive scoreless innings.

Not only did Dickey break Koosman’s record by pitching eight straight scoreless innings, but he only allowed a single hit in the entire game while striking out a career high 12 batters and leading the Mets to an easy 9-1 victory over the Rays.

In his last five starts (dating back to May 22), Dickey has pitched 39.2 innings while allowed only one earned run with 50 strikeouts and only three walks. The ridiculously dominant run has left the knuckleball thrower ranked third in the National League with a 2.20 ERA. He’s also ranked fourth in the NL in strikeouts with 90 and his 0.94 WHIP is second best.

With the All-Star Game in Kansas City less than a month away, it appears almost certain that Dickey will make the NL side. The only question is whether or not he is going to start the game. I’m guessing that honor will go to San Francisco’s Matt Cain, who just pitched a 14-strikeout perfect game last night against the Astros. The sterling performance now has Cain ranked above Dickey in all three of the categories mentioned above.

Even in the unlikely event that Cain falters between now and the All-Star break, he’s still probably going to get the start in the Midsummer Classic. That’s not only because of his historic moment last night but also because Dickey is better used as a change of pace from the other All-Star pitchers, who will almost all be throwing over 90 miles per hour.

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Niese back on track as Mets take series from Pirates

Posted on May 23, 2012 by Aaron Yorke

If you missed last night’s awesome R.A. Dickey start and the Mets win that came long with it, my recap is over at The Daily Stache. Feel free to read it, or just know that Dickey set a new career high with 11 strikeouts. Hooray!

Today, the decent pitching continued, as Jon Niese went seven and two-thirds innings and allowed just one run against an admittedly weak Pirates lineup. Niese surprised by only throwing five curveballs all day (he had been averaging 21.4 according to an SNY graphic), but he got by just fine with his fastball, cutter and change-up. At the end of the day, Niese had struck out five Buccos and only walked a pair.

“I really didn’t need it [the curveball],” said Niese after the game, “I thought I was really using the backdoor cutter a lot, and it was working.”

The Mets, buoyed by Niese’s fine day, went on to win 3-1. The offense came quickly for New York, who went up 1-0 in the first inning went Kirk Nieuwenhuis singled with one out and eventually scored on a Lucas Duda RBI single.

The lead was extended in the fifth when Rob Johnson and Mike Baxter each hit a single on either side of Jon Niese’s sacrifice bunt. That put runners on the corners with one out and Nieuwenhuis followed with a sac fly to make the score 2-0. David Wright then lifted a fly off of the right field Roberto Clemente wall to get Baxter in from first and give the Mets a 3-0 advantage.

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