Mets pitching, pitching mounds, and the J-E-T-S...
Happy Monday! It's cloudy and yucky outside here in the New York area, but there's a little warm cheer in the hearts of us Mets fans as our Amazin's completed a sweep of the Atlanta Braves and are riding a 4-game win streak, a 5-1 homestand, and are finally above .500. How are they doing it? Pitching, pitching, and more pitching, with a few timely hits and creative baserunning sprinkled in. How about Mike Pelfrey?! How many more scoreless innings can he keep stringing together? Even Ollie Perez is pitching like Dr. Jeckyl more than Mr. Hyde.
But in case we haven't noticed, the Mets pitching staff as a whole is just as bipolar as a Perez turn in the rotation. Did you know that Mets pitchers lead the majors in both strikeouts AND walks? Can anyone say Nolan Ryan of the 1970s? As impressed and pleased by this little hot streak as I am, I'm dipping into my inner Joe Benigno and momentarily dwelling on my half-empty glass. Shutting out teams night after night is wonderful, but how many more Houdini acts are left among the pitching staff? If I'm manager Jerry Manuel or pitching coach Dan Warthen, I'd start addressing this little quirk of wildness ASAP so our pitchers can be more efficient with their arms, pitch counts, and energy. If not, our pitching staff is going to burn out and break down by Father's Day. But maybe I'm just a little too paranoid after the past couple of seasons...
Okay, this whole A-Rod thing is stupid (like MOST A-Rod things), and I do somewhat fondly remember the days of payback pitches after a home run (my favorite is a brawl at a Mets game at Shea – I can’t specifically remember opponent -- in the late ‘70s after Mike Jorgensen got drilled after a Steve Henderson HR. John Stearns came flying out of the dugout and plowed right into the pitcher while Jorgensen was jawing with him halfway between home and the mound)... A-Rod should’ve known better. He lives in his own little solar system and thinks everything revolves around him and the stats on the back of his bubblegum card. If I was that Oakland pitcher, I would’ve drilled him in the ass as he walked back towards first. Hit him where his brains are. After all, rumor has it A-Rod's thinking mechanism is that anatomical hemisphere, right?
Lastly, I want to thank Rex Ryan and Mike Tannenbaum for "punking" us Jets fans during this weekend's NFL draft. Okay, this is all a joke, right? All we kept hearing about was defense, defense, defense, and after the first-round pick you guys wheel and deal and draft OFFENSIVE players? You CUT Alan Faneca while still having to pay him $5M, and you trade Leon Washington to Seattle? Now I know little makes sense and you guys are consulting a Magic Eight Ball or daily horoscopes before you make personnel decisions. All I hope is that you guys are right with these makeover moves. Speaking as a chemist, you're really juggling too many variables in your beaker, so keep the Bunsen Burner flame low to reduce risk of explosion!
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