Mets are getting calls about Bobby Parnell

Posted on May 7, 2012 by Aaron Yorke

Over the weekend, Boston Globe writer Nick Cafardo reported that Bobby Parnell is in demand. The 27-year-old right hander has been very effective so far this season and there are a lot of teams out there with injured or just lousy relief pitchers.

Teams are looking to see whether the Mets would deal Bobby Parnell and whether the Royals would give up a good arm such as Jonathan Broxton (though they’d have to receive his permission, since he was signed as a free agent and otherwise couldn’t be moved until after June 15).

Over at The Daily Stache, I wrote about why the Mets should not trade Parnell. Mostly it’s because he’s good and cheap and he still will be on the team in the foreseeable future.

With Parnell, the Mets have a pitcher in his prime who doesn’t hit free agency until 2016. If given a reasonable extension, the Mets can have him on the team for the next five or six years. After Francisco’s contract runs out, he’ll likely be named the team’s closer. With Parnell handling the ninth inning, the Mets would have a decent closer as well as some extra money in their pockets that they wouldn’t have to spend on an expensive free agent closer. That’s as long as Parnell doesn’t get traded this summer.

Head over to the Stache if you want to check out the rest of the article.

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Mets get good pitching this weekend, also a pair of wins

Posted on May 6, 2012 by Aaron Yorke

Friday night’s bullpen collapse and 5-4 loss to Arizona couldn’t have been very good for Mets morale, but over the course of the next two days, the scraptastic New York club picked itself up and earned a pair of victories. Much of the credit goes to some superb starting pitching.

It’s easy to get sick of analysts rambling about how the ace of a pitching staff is big and macho and how he is supposed to stop a losing streak in its tracks. Rational people like myself know that a starting pitcher doesn’t really play better when his team has lost a bunch recently, but Johan Santana was really good on Saturday afternoon in a streak-stopping 4-3 victory.

“We won and that’s the most important thing,” said Santana, whose 2.61 ERA doesn’t match his 1-2 record. “I wanted to help and somehow stop it and give our team a chance to win and that’s all I was doing. I was going inning by inning, trying to keep the score there and trying to compete and get ahead.”

Santana pitched seven innings with five strikeouts, one walk and three runs allowed while throwing 74 of 108 pitches for strikes. Arizona struck first on a Ryan Roberts solo home run in the second inning, but just like on Friday, the Mets scored four runs in an inning. This time New York turned the trick in the fourth, as Mike Nickeas and Andres Torres both hit two-RBI singles to put the Metsies on top.

Although Arizona would get a pair back in the top of the fifth on a Paul Goldschmidt double, Santana only allowed one baserunner in the next two innings, and Bobby Parnell combined with Frank Francisco to preserve the Mets lead until the end. Despite not factoring into any of the run scoring, Daniel Murphy was the star on offense with four singles in four at-bats. He was very humble about it, though.

“That’s a bonus for me. We’re trying to get wins around here,” Murphy said, according to MetsBlog contributor Amit Badlani. “We end up winning 95 ballgames and end up in the playoffs, everybody’s going to get a piece of it. Johan’s day today, Torres had the big hit that drove in some runs, Turner had a nice day. So, it was nice.”

No extra base hits for the Mets on Saturday, but they did enough early on to get rid of young Arizona starter Patrick Corbin quickly. The southpaw walked two, struck out two and allowed five hits. He was charged with all four runs, but left the game after Nickeas singled with the bases loaded to make the score 2-1 with one out in the fourth. Josh Collmenter came on and let up the Torres single.

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Mets can’t hang onto lead, lose to D-backs 5-4

Posted on May 5, 2012 by Aaron Yorke

It was tough sledding for the Mets once again last night, as they lost their fourth straight game and fell to 13-13 on the season. I guess it’s nice to get to .500 by losing four straight instead of winning a bunch of games… well, not really.

The Mets were leading 4-2 going into the eighth inning and everything was hunky-dory, but that changed quickly. Bobby Parnell, who had used only five pitches to get through the seventh, was pitching to Arizona star outfielder Justin Upton when Upton smacked a hard ground ball to first. Ike Davis was in position to make a play, but the ball just skirted by his glove and the inning started with an error.

Davis had twisted his ankle pretty badly while at the plate earlier in the game, but he stayed in the game like the tough dude that he is. Unfortunately, being tough didn’t make up for the fact that Ike opened the door for the game-deciding rally.

“We lost the game because I made an error,” a visibly irritated Davis said after the game. “That’s what I’m frustrated about.”

Of course, it wasn’t all Davis’ fault. Tim Byrdak didn’t help matters by coming in and walking the next batter, Jason Kubel. After the goofy left-hander struck out Miguel Montero, Jon Rauch came in to face the right-handed Paul Goldschmidt.

This is where the game turned. Rauch hung a slider over the plate for his first offering, and Goldschmidt drove it down the right-center field gap. The ball rolled all the way to the wall and scored both Upton and Kubel to tie the game 4-4.

With Goldschmidt on second with a double and still only one out, Cody Ransom came to the plate and lined a single up the middle to bring Goldschmidt around and give Arizona the lead.

After the game on Twitter, Rauch tried to place the blame for the loss on himself.

162 gms in 180 days. Gonna have a bad one here and there. Guys played hard today and I let them down. This loss is on me.

It’s a good sign for team chemistry that more than one guy tried to step up and take blame for the loss, but it’s bad for team chemistry that the team didn’t win the game. I’m probably more upset at the Davis error because I know Rauch is going to give up runs over the course of the season. He’s not that great a pitcher. What I don’t expect is for Davis to let a ground ball go right through him.

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Eli is hosting SNL tonight

Posted on May 5, 2012 by Aaron Yorke

Here’s a promo he did with Rihanna and Andy Samberg

You know I can’t wait! Set your DVRs, people.

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Indiana versus Kentucky series will not continue next season

Posted on May 4, 2012 by Aaron Yorke

Sadly, the excellent Indiana versus Kentucky will be going on hiatus this fall, as the two sides could not agree on where to play the games. I wrote about it at BT Powerhouse, and I’ve already got feedback on Facebook that says the article “did a cruddy job reporting the whole situation.”

I’m not in the mood to get into drive-by arguments, so click here to see for yourself.

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Miguel Batista is going to start again, Vinny Rottino called up

Posted on May 4, 2012 by Aaron Yorke

I really, really thought that the Mets were going to promote Jeremy Hefner and give him an opportunity to start a big league game, but that apparently is not going to happen… yet.

Today the Mets made a roster move by sending the combustible Chris Schwinden back to Buffalo and calling up utility man Vinny Rottino, who was playing left field in AAA while batting .317/.360/.442 with one home run, eight walks and 15 strikeouts.

Rottino is 32 years and has been in the minor leagues forever, although he has had brief stints in the bigs over the years. The most recent was with the Marlins last season, but he also had 25 plate appearances with Milwaukee from 2006 to 2008. He seems to be a classic Crash Davis-type quadruple-A player. He even played catcher for two innings in 2006 with the Brewers, although Rottino will probably play some first base and corner outfield if he gets in a game with New York.

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Schwinden not so hot in 8-1 Mets loss to Astros

Posted on May 3, 2012 by Aaron Yorke


Chris Schwinden has failed to get through five innings for the second time in two big league starts this season, and it’s become unclear if he’ll get a chance at another. After Schwinden allowed five runs on two Chris Johnson home runs in yesterday’s 8-1 loss to Houston, Matt Cerrone of MetsBlog said, “Chris Schwinden should not make another start. It’s that simple.”

Schwinden allowed two walks and six hits while striking out one batter in his short outing. Ruben Tejada continued his hot hitting with two doubles and a single out of the lead-off spot, while Jed Lowrie continued to pound the Mets with three hits of his own. Johnson has been in danger of losing his job as Astros third baseman, but he had a wonderful day, with four hits and six RBI.

Houston ace Wandy Rodriguez mowed down the Mets through seven innings with five strikeouts, two walks and just one run allowed.

Meanwhile, Mets manager Terry Collins wouldn’t say for sure if Schwinden or someone else would start the next time Pelfrey’s old spot in the rotation came around.

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Gaborik scores winner in third overtime, Rangers lead series 2-1

Posted on May 3, 2012 by Aaron Yorke


See, what did I tell you guys? Nothing to worry about! Okay, I’ll admit that by midway through the second overtime in last night’s 2-1 Rangers win over Washington, it felt like the entire universe hinged on the outcome. Overtime playoff hockey is just that intense. I’m not sure if I would have woken up this morning if the Rangers had lost. In fact, I don’t think I would have gone to sleep. Probably would have just wandered the streets of Manhattan, muttering to myself.

Good thing Marian Gaborik finally ended his goal scoring drought with 5:19 left in the third overtime. If he hadn’t the game might have lasted forever. The way Alex Ovechkin’s golden chance bounced off the post in the first overtime and later on the way Mike Rupp’s open net opportunity was blocked by his own teammate Brian Boyle, you’d think that everyone had conspired to keep the game going as long as possible.

“It was about will,” Gaborik said about the victory, “We wanted to win this game, and it feels great to get that winner.”

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Rangers fans don’t have to sweat it in Game 3 tonight

Posted on May 2, 2012 by Aaron Yorke


Hockey is often a tough sport to analyze. There aren’t of stats to discuss like in baseball or basketball and the sport isn’t as complicated as what goes on in a football game. A lot of times the game comes down to which way the puck bounces, or which goalie is hot, or maybe even who “wants” it more.

I’m still trying to figure it out for myself, but I was surprised to see that Joe Fortunato over at Blueshirt Banter wrote a post explaining how important Game 3 is tonight.

If the Rangers go into Washington and get a win over the Capitals, the Rangers would have a 2-1 series lead which would guarantee them at least coming back to Madison Square Garden tied at 2-2. A loss, on the other hand, would give the Capitals a 2-1 edge in the series with Game 4 looming in Washington.

You don’t need me to tell you how much different those two scenarios are from one another. Essentially, if the Rangers win Game 3 then all the pressure is on the Capitals, if the Rangers lose, then all the pressure is on them.

Sure, any playoff game is important, but trying to make Game 3 more important than any other game is kind of counterproductive. Back in the Quarterfinals against Ottawa, the Rangers won Game 3 to supposedly regain the momentum that they lost from the Game 2 defeat. However, the Rangers ended up losing the next two games to come within one loss of elimination.

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Mets lose in Houston again, try to avoid sweep today

Posted on May 2, 2012 by Aaron Yorke

Well, what a bummer. Jon Niese finally had a bad start, and the Mets just could not catch up. Today Houston ace Wandy Rodriguez is on the mound versus New York non-ace Chris Schwinden.

I wrote about last night’s game at The Daily Stache. I also previewed today’s matinee.

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