Mets roll into first, extending streak to 6 over hapless Bucs

by Mike Trovato

Ladies and gentlemen, may I have your attention please: The New York Mets have officially come to life.

Coming off of a sub-.500 April, the Mets are currently the hottest team in baseball, riding the wave of a six game winning streak heading into Mother's Day. It can't hurt to be playing the coldest team in the league in the Pittsburgh Pirates, but no matter how you cut it, wins are wins, and they are piling up rapidly for the Mets.

Like a sleeping giant being stirred from its sleep, the Mets' have woken up in a big way. In just eight games since the calendar turned to May, New York has exploded, and has already almost matched last month's totals in both wins and home runs. Through eight games thus far this May, the Mets are 7-1, turning in their latest winning performance on Saturday, clobbering the Pittsburgh Pirates 10-1. Carlos Beltran's solo shot in the 5th inning of Saturday's game marked the 11th Mets home run in May, after they hit just 13 in April. The club's 10 runs and 17 hits were the highest totals by the Mets in either category this season.

Just nine days ago, I was hard-pressed to find many positives for this team that wasn't Johan Santana. Now, I'm not even sure where to start.

As a team, the power surge is an obvious plus, but the timing of their recent home runs has shown a transformation in the team chemistery. Four times in the past week, the Mets have scored 4+ runs in an inning. On two of the four occasions, New York scored four runs in rapid fashion, courtesy of back-to-back 2-run homers off the bats of Carlos Beltran and David Wright. The Mets also put together two five-run innings in back-to-back games, Friday and Saturday against the Pirates.

It is not surprising that the Mets turnaround has had a lot to do with the success of their core players. David Wright, who had faced much criticism after a lackluster start, has begun to really heat up. He is batting .379 on the month of May, and his RBI total has jumped from 8 to 17 in that span. Jose Reyes has turned on the jets, stealing four bases this week, doubling his total for the season. The two Carlos' are batting a combined 18-for-46 (.391) with 5 HR and 15 RBI between them; Delgado is hitting .455 while Beltran has popped 4 HR during the 6-game winning streak.

Just as encouraging, if not more so, has been the steady improvement in the production of the Mets starting rotation, which looked to have the makings of potential disaster through the season's first month. New York has received 6+ innings and five winning decisions from its starters in each of this week's 6 victories, including two by John Maine.

After posting an ERA just under 7.50 in his first three starts, John Maine has lowered his ERA by nearly three full runs over his last three outings, logging wins in all three. Johan Santana blanked the Phillies through seven strong innings on Wednesday. Santana's 10 strikeout performance held up in the Mets' 1-0 victory, one day after Livan Hernandez gave up just one run in 6 1/3 to seal a two game sweep of the Atlanta Braves. Mike Pelfrey, despite some control issues, was backed by strong run support on Thursday, allowing Frankie Rodriguez to notch his fourth save in as many days.

The one man not surprisingly missing from the equation has been Oliver Perez, who was placed on the DL before Pelfrey's victory over the Phillies. Originally slated to join the Mets bullpen, an MRI revealed patellar tendonitis in Perez' right knee. New York called up Jonathon Niese to fill the void left by the struggling Perez, and the rookie answered the call. Though he didn't record the win, Niese pitched extremely well, allowing just 2 runs in 6 innings. Most impressively, Niese showed excellent command, stirking out 5 without walking a single Pirates batter. Bobby Parnell came on in the 7th to shut Pittsburgh down, earning up his first career major league win in relief.

As though the winning streak hasn't been fun enough to watch (not to mention long overdue), one of the most exciting treats of the week was provided by manager Jerry Manuel. Uncle Jerry (as I like to call him) has to be one of the coolest human beings on the planet; between his demeanor and his voice, I swear he has a future hosting DJ Jerry's Smooth Jazz on the FM dial. Plus, I pray even harder for Mike Pelfrey to dominate his starts, just hoping that Jerry will remind us all just how "absolutely filthy" Big Pelf's stuff is- and I mean it is downright filthy.

In all seriousness though, Manuel always presents a calming, level-headedness in dugout and with the media... but not this Thursday. Up 7-3 in the eighth inning against the Phillies, Shane Victorino got caught up between first and second base, and ran into Jose Reyes during the rundown. Umpire Bill Welke called interference on Reyes, ruling Victorino safe on the play. Not the first questionable call of the night, the obstruction call was enough to break cool Jerry's unbreakable temper. Manuel was ejected for arguing, and proceded to brush brims with Welke, a move that earned him a one-game suspension, which he served on Saturday.

The significance of Jerry Manuel getting in the face of Bill Welke over a call that ultimately had a minimal effect on the game goes far beyond the scope of the game itself. No team, no matter how skilled or how well-paid they are, can survive a general manager and fan base that lacks confidence in it. What Jerry Manuel's outburst did, in its relative brevity, was transform the tone of and inject passion and fire into the 2009 season.

It's never a good thing when the general manager publicly questions the intensity and edginess of the very team he has constructed, and Omar Minaya had done just that not even a week earlier. Following Manuel's ejection, David Wright commented that the Mets lack of edge was history, calling out Minaya himself in his statement, silencing the critics who relished in Met failure during a cold April.

I won't crown them yet, I wouldn't dare. But this team is clicking, awakened like an untamed beast and hopefully just getting started. In one week's time, the Mets have gone from a confused, struggling fourth place team, to a first place ballclub with the swagger of a champion. They've taken first place by going through the champions themselves, taking the bull by the horns, welcoming them into and swiftly booting the Phildaelphia Phillies out of our beautiful new place, Citi Field, home of the New York Mets...

... The New York Mets have not been this confident in a long, long while. It feels good, and it's about damn time.

Perez falls out of Mets' rotation; Pelfrey and Maine to pick up slack

by Mike Trovato

As the adage goes, hindsight is 20/20. But even before 2009 the season began, Mets fans questioned whether shelling out $36 million to make Oliver Perez a Met through 2011 was the right decision. The reality the Mets face now is one of a sub-.500 record, a general manager skating on steadily thinning ice, and a 40 year-old rookie filling the 5th spot in the rotation while their 36 million dollar man sits at the tail end of their revamped bullpen.

On October 19th, 2006, Oliver Perez pitched in the biggest game of his life. Acquired from Pittsburgh as an add-on to the trade that sent Xavier Nady to the Pirates for Roberto Hernandez, the New York Mets called upon Perez to start against the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 7 of the NLCS. The Mets, in blind faith, had simply hoped he would give them a chance. Instead, Perez gave them one of the best performances of his career.

Ollie scattered just 4 hits over 6 strong innings of work. He allowed just one run, striking out four and walking two while hurling 61 of his 88 pitches for strikes. At the time, Perez' outing was viewed as a huge positive, and rightfully so. But in some twisted way, perhaps that one performance was, over the long term, more of a curse than a blessing.

There were several things that came out of that fateful Game 7. Despite the solid effort, the Mets still lost to the Cardinals, falling one game short of reaching the World Series. In very basic terms, for what it's worth, the performance by Perez ultimately didn't impact 2006 at all. What it did do, however, was beguile Mets brass into thinking that Perez could be the left-hander whose upside- if fulfilled- could erase the regret of dealing Scott Kazmir to the Tampa Bay (then Devil) Rays.

The success of Oliver Perez throughout his career has been somewhat of an anomaly. His best year came with the Pirates in 2004, when he struck out 239 batters and logged a stellar 2.99 ERA. However, he has yet to come within 59 strikeouts of that output in any subsequent season. Before the 2006 NLCS, Perez went 3-13 with a 6.55 ERA over 22 starts between Pittsburgh and New York. He was an absolute long shot to do anything positive in that Game 7; instead, he pitched like Pedro Martinez. The Wilpons rewarded Perez with a contract after the '06 season, and Ollie has been a mainstay in the Mets rotation ever since.

Perez responded to his new contract by winning 15 games in 2007, but regressed last year, going just 10-7 with an ERA well over 4. In September, when it mattered most, he recorded just one victory in six starts with an ERA of 5.79. Opponents hit .260 against him that month, his second worst month of the '08 campaign in that regard. Still, in the midst of a second straight September collapse, the Mets faith in Perez carried over into 2009.

After again falling out of the playoffs on the season's final day, the Mets drastically improved their bullpen this offseason, signing Francisco Rodriguez and trading for J.J. Putz. Yet, Omar Minaya made no other major additions to the rest of the Mets roster. The most significant and controversial of the Mets' inactivity was when Minaya opted to pass on free agent Derek Lowe in favor of re-signing Perez.

With a career 3.74 ERA and a win-loss tally 18 games over .500, Lowe would have been a perfect fit as the #2 starter behind ace Johan Santana. The one knock on Lowe was his age- he will turn 37 next month. But since 2002, the year Perez broke into the majors, Lowe has been unbelievably durable, averaging 33 starts per season. Perez has made 30+ starts just twice over that same span. In the 2004 postseason with the Red Sox, Lowe turned in 3 wins and a minuscule 1.86 ERA en route to Boston's first World Series Championship in 89 years. Perez' postseason experience is limited to just 2 starts ever- both in 2006. Regardless, the Mets did not make the big push for Lowe, allowing him to sign a 4-year, $60 million contract with Atlanta.

So as the Mets have sat and watched Lowe go 3-1 for the division rival Braves through the first month of the season, there is little need to delve into the 2009 version of Oliver Perez, as it is nauseating and ultimately depressing. On the heels of another meltdown this past Saturday, New York has made yet another questionable maneuver with the paradox that is Oliver Perez. Rather than sending him to Triple-A Buffalo, or placing him on the 15-day DL which would allow Perez to regroup before pitching rehab starts in the minor leagues, the Mets announced on Monday that Perez would remain on the big league roster. Perez will be relegated to mop-up duties in relief. Forty year-old Ken Takahashi moves into Perez' place in the rotation, and is slated to start on Friday against Perez' old club, the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Whatever fascination the New York Mets have with Perez can likely be attributed to that fateful NLCS. One game. One game, and what the Mets have done is put way, way, way too much stock in a pitcher whose career record and ERA were 34-53 and 4.80 respectively before October 19th, 2006. Yes, Perez pitched well in 2007, but given his track record, the risk the Mets have taken with Ollie should have ended after his contract expired last October. Now they will have to hope that the rest of their rotation- namely Mike Pelfrey and John Maine- will pull a 180 sooner rather than later.

The good news is that both Maine and Big Pelf have improved over their last two outings, and are a combined 4-0 over their last four starts. Maine has turned in two straight 6 inning performances, giving up just 3 earned runs as his ERA has dropped significantly from 7.47 to 5.21. Pelfrey too has lowered his ERA by over 2 full runs, and is 3-0 on the year despite his struggles. Walks have been a concern for both pitchers: Pelfrey walked four without a strikeout in his last appearance; Maine walked 6 in Monday's win against the Braves. Provided they are stranding those runners on the bases, the walks are something the Mets can deal with as long as they continue to win games.