The Mets aren't as good as the Phillies.
In the infield, only Wright is having a better season than his Philly equivalent, who these days is Abraham Nunez. And in the outfield, Jayson Werth is better than both Lastings Milledge and Shawn Green; Aaron Rowand (.380 OBP, .522 SLG) has a higher OPS (OBP+SLG) than Carlos Beltran (.356 and .525), and he's almost as good a fielder; and though I'm not a fan of Pat Burrell, whose outfield play reminds me of Ron Swoboda's in his early days, Burrell's hitting on a par with Moises Alou. Burrell's on-base percentage and slugging average are .403 and .508 (.911) respectively; whereas Alou's are .394 and .527 (.921), and Burrell's missed far fewer games with injuries.
Sure, the Mets have "bigger name" pitchers, such as Tom Glavine and Pedro Martinez; however, no Mets pitcher has been as good this season as Phillies starter Cole Hamels, and no Mets reliever has been as good as Phillies reliever J. C. Romero, whose ERA is 2.13.
Further, the Mets bottom two starters, John Maine and Oliver Perez, have been too inconsistent for my liking.
What Perez seems to need
Perez did do something yesterday that he had only done once before this season on May 13. He pitched eight innings, averaging only 13 pitches an inning, a very low number for him.
I think having Castro catch the game had something to do with Perez's performance. Here are the outcomes of Perez's last 10 starts and each game's starting catcher:
I don't think it's a coincidence that all three of the Mets losses and both of Perez's losses (8/3 and 8/29) came with Lo Duca catching. Sure, Lo Duca has caught more games than the others, however, in my opinion when Castro's behind the plate Perez is a better pitcher.
Perez appears to be a "high-maintenance" player, as evidenced by the comments Mets manager made after yesterday's game. “I’m always on his case,” Randolph said. “He needs to prove to himself that when he attacks the zone and trusts his stuff, that’s the kind of pitcher he can be. I told him how proud I was of him.”
Perez is an adult. The fact that Randolph believes he needs to be "always on his case" makes me wonder whether Perez lacks the maturity to succeed consistently in the majors and why Randolph feels he needs to be a cheerleader for a 26 year old.
The Mets have eight games left to play. Perez will pitch at least one of them. Let's hope that Castro's his catcher.
I think you bring up an excellent point. Greg Maddux used a personal catcher all throughout his days in Atlanta. Why can't the Mets use a similar version of that? I don't want to break things down racially, but how about have Castro catch the games Perez, Pedro, and El Duque pitch, and Lo Duca catch Glavine's, Maine's, and Pelfrey's outings. There's really very little offensive drop-off from catcher to catcher, whereas Lo Duca might hit for more average but Castro more power. Language barriers would no longer be a problem, and the pitching unit would develop a sense of commrodery and routiness. It would also keep each catcher fresh for the season's duration.
ReplyDeleteThere would be obvious flaws with the idea, such as unfamiliararity between catcher and pitcher if one of the platoon mates gets hurt and is forced into duty with a pitcher he's not used to catching, but certainly, Howard, your research and maybe a bit more digging would reveal that the system would be much more beneficial than disrupting.