TDL’s Sports, Wrestling, & Otherwise

Mets starting pitching has been relatively great this season with a great mix of veterans and young guys. It’s one of the few things that’s been fun to watch all year… but kind of in the way you watch the kids in horror movies sleep together — you just know the end is going to wind up ugly.

Johan Santana: The Mets have an irritating tendency to haze new free agent pitchers in their first season. They did it to Tom Glavine, they did it to Pedro, and now Santana gets to enjoy a 2.75 ERA with 11 wins. In his last six starts alone, he’s had no-decisions in games 8IP-2R, 6.3IP-1R, and 7IP-2R. Again, Met fans - an unreasonable lot - want Santana to go out every start and throw 200 pitch, complete game gems. I, on the other hand, argue that if you can’t hand your bullpen a 2-run lead and ask them to get six outs that you’re not long for the season. Somewhere along the line, I had an argument with a friend that the Mets exiled too many guys to the frozen north for Santana. They didn’t.

Pedro Martinez: At the beginning of this season, I wrote about how Pedro would have a great bounceback year because he’s had a full year off to get his arm problems in order. As it turned out, I was right about his arm. About his legs, not so much. He’s made four starts since returning from his second stint on the DL and has looked quite good - notching one win, one hard luck loss, and two bullpen related (shocking) no-decisions. The fans really have to be on pins-and-needles with each Pedro start but, as someone who was only hoping to get 20 starts and the post-season out of him, I’m happy. If you made me sign for a post-season rotation featuring Santana and Pedro pitching some combination of games 1, 2, 5, and 6 — I’ll take it.

Oliver Perez: No one has been more up-and-down this season than Oliver Perez. When he’s good, he’s amazingly good (in wins, 59 IP, 0.983 WHIP, 1.68 ERA in wins) when he’s bad… strap in. Since Dan Warthen and Jerry Manuel took the reigns Ollie is 4-3 with a 2.83 ERA, a 1.18 WHIP while holding opponents to a .296 OBP against. He’s also only given up 2 unearned runs — a huge bane in the Randolph Era. I’m not sure exactly how Manuel’s gotten Ollie past his mental problems. The only noticeable shift was early in the Manuel Era. Ollie walked the bases loaded, gave up two runs on an error and looked to be on the verge of giving up a big inning. In that spot, Randolph pulled the plug. Manuel left him in. I don’t know if the “stop whining” approach is what worked, but something’s changed. It’s going to be very interesting to see how the Mets handle the Oliver Perez contract next year. The Mets have a relatively strict rule about giving pitchers not named Johan Santana no more than 4 or 5 years — however, Ollie is death to left-handed hitters and the Mets are in a division where at least two of their division rivals generate most of their power from left-handed batters (Brian McCann, Kelly Johnson, Chase Utley, Ryan Howard). Toss in two starts against the lefty-dominant Yankees and you have a guy who’s pretty valuable to the team. Crazy as it is to say, I can see the Mets offering five years at $14M per and having Boras turn it down.

John Maine: At the moment, I have to assume Maine’s days in the rotation are numbered. He’s struggled to go six innings over his last few starts and, considering the mess the bullpen’s in, it will be moderately unsurprising to see him and prospect Jon Niese wind up auditioning for the bullpen when the rosters expand. I like Maine — he’s turned in some great performances in big spots since being traded for Anna Benson — but has problems of late going deep into games. That said, you can do worse then taking a 7.75 K/9 guy and grooming him to take over for Roller Coaster Wagner in 2010. I would be completely unsurprised to see Maine get sent to the bullpen in the next few weeks if 1) Wagner doesn’t come back, which is starting to look possible and 2) Jon Niese, a AAA prospect is called up when the rosters expand. If they’re going to do it, I’d rather they see what they have now instead of throwing him on the mound in a playoff game and rolling the dice.

Mike Pelfrey: Pelfrey’s been a fun ride this year. He was the Mets first round pick in the 2006 draft, made his debut with the A+ St. Lucie Mets that season, and made his debut with the big club in the 2nd half of a double header (which I was at) vs. the Marlins. Since Met fans are a somewhat insane and unreasonable lot, most of them were quite unforgiving as Pelfrey proceeded to go 4-13 in 2007 at the major league level after a whole 176 IP at the minor league level. The light came on toward the end of May (pretty good considering the complete lack of minor league seasoning and learning on the fly in the bigs) and following three hard luck NDs in a row (4 ER, 21 IP, 15K) he’s gone on a tear. In 15 starts he’s gone 9-2 (both losses against the Marlins who, for whatever reason, own his soul) with a 3.19 ERA and a 1.271 WHIP.

El Duque?: Duque was making his fourth rehab start for the Binghampton Mets when he took a bad step covering first and did something to his foot. There hasn’t been any updates about Duque’s progress since the middle of July so I’ll have to assume he’s done for the season. Regardless, the team would be hard pressed to remove a starter in favor of him at this point in the season.

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Next up… the PEN OF DOOM

From Michael Goldfarb via the McCain for President website.

It may be typical of the pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons crowd to disparage a fellow countryman’s memory of war from the comfort of mom’s basement, but most Americans have the humility and gratitude to respect and learn from the memories of men who suffered on behalf of others.

Can this discrimination of people who play Dungeons & Dragons in their dad’s basement end now?

Penalty: McCain -1 (2-1).