Tag Archives: marlins

The Parallel Universe Fake Mets

The Parallel Universe Fake Mets: Opening Series

Thumbnail image for show_castillo.jpgFor future installments of The Parallel Universe Fake Mets, I hope to have little screencaps and so forth. That was not possible for these entries, because as I mentioned earlier this week, this week has been a bitch and a half. For now, you’ll have to make do with this realistic animation of Luis Castillo getting forced out at second.

One aspect of the unfairness of MLB10:The Show I forgot about in my first post: If you throw a breaking pitch, there’s a 50 percent chance it will skip past the catcher. Regardless of the pitcher, regardless of the catcher, there are a huge amount of wild pitches/passed balls in this game.

Game 1: Fake Marlins 4, Fake Mets 2
The Fake Mets jumped out to an early lead on Josh Johnson, when Jose Reyes led off with an infield single, moved to second on an errant throw, and scored on a David Wright RBI single. But the Marlins stormed back with four straight hits against Johan Santana in the top of the third, sparked by a leadoff single by Johnson of all people (pitchers in this game are way better hitters than their real life counterparts), and the Fake Marlins went up 3-1. Carlos Beltran thrilled the crowd with an inside-the-park homerun (aided by Chris Coghlan bouncing off the left field wall), but Cody Ross hit an out-of-the-park homer of his own, and the Fake Mets could not catch up, getting just one more hit the rest of the way.

In real life: Amazingly, the Real Mets managed to beat Josh Johnson for the first time. Wright hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the first, Santana was his usual sharp self, and the Mets capitalized on some typically shoddy Marlins defense to cruise to a 7-1 win.

Game 2: Fake Mets 2, Fake Marlins 1
Fake Mike Pelfrey was sharp through 7 innings, and David Wright clubbed a two-run homer off of Ricky Nolasco to provide all the offense the Mets would need. The one run Pelfrey “allowed” should not have scored at all. John Baker hit a ball up the middle, and I tried to make Jose Reyes dive at the ball. But what often happens in The Show is that the computer switches your fielders very quickly. By the time I was diving, my fielding capabilities had already transfered to Carlos Beltran. That meant Carlos was sprawled out on the turf instead of chasing down Baker’s grounder, and he got a gift double, then moved to third on another grounder and scored on a sac fly. Pedro Feliciano and Kelvim Escobar combined for a scoreless eighth, and Frankie Rodriguez set down the Fake Marlins 1-2-3 in the ninth for his first fake save of the year.

In real life: John Maine struggled through five innings, ceding four runs and falling behind every batter he faced, and the bullpen let up two more (including Jennry Mejia in his MLB debut). The Mets somehow “rallied” to tie the game at 6, thanks to a leaky, wild Marlins bullpen. But the Marlins took a lead in the top of the tenth, and the Mets went down quietly in the bottom half.

Game 3: Fake Marlins 5, Fake Mets 3
Fake Oliver Perez was pretty much what you might expect, and struggled through five innings, giving up three runs. The Fake Mets rallied against Anibal Sanchez, taking advantage of two walks in the bottom of the fifth to score two runs, then tie it up on a Jeff Francoeur homer in the sixth. But set-up man Kelvim Escobar got slapped around for two runs in the top of the eighth, and the Fake Mets could not recover.

In real life: Jon Niese had a decent debut, which might have looked even better if he had any defense behind him. He gave up three runs over six innings, but the anemic Mets bats couldn’t catch up and never mounted any threat against Nate Robertson or the suddenly unhittable Marlins bullpen.

Parallel Universe Fake Mets record: 1-2

Real Mets record: 1-2

Baseball

Scratchbomb’s Thoroughly Compromised 2010 MLB Preview: NL East

chipper2.jpgATLANTA BRAVES

2009 record: 86-76

Local weather: Hotter than the devil’s drawers, suh! /sips mint julep

Namesake: Valiant Native American warriors like Chief Noc-a-homa

What will Bobby Cox do after he retires?: I don’t know, but for his wife’s sake, I hope he doesn’t plan on spending a lot of time around the house.

Perpetually overused team-related headline: Anything involving ‘chop’. The only thing that should be chopped on the Braves is their dumb, racist chant.

Best name on 40-man roster: Jonny Venters, who had a few regional rockabilly hits back in the 50s.

The That Guy’s on This Team? Award: Scott Proctor, who was allowed to keep the tiny shreds of his throwing arm that Joe Torre didn’t destroy

Spring standout: Jason Heyward, who is not only tearing the cover off the ball, but can make sportswriters cream their jeans with every swing of his bat.

Probable Opening Day starter: Derek Lowe, taking some time off between injuries to throw a baseball.

Biggest question for 2010: Will Chipper Jones badmouth his own teammates again, or save his dumb outburst for someone on another team?

Advantage to start the season: Low pressure–if Braves fans won’t come out for the playoffs, they surely won’t care if the team starts out slow.

Semi-serious assessment: Potentially great starting rotation, and a formerly suspect lineup has been shored up by the emergence of Heyward (THE CHOSEN ONE!). The bullpen took a step back–Mike Gonzalez and Rafael Soriano were replaced with Takashi Saito and Billy Wagner, neither of whom have any chance of staying healthy all season (mark it down). Regardless, the Braves will definitely compete this year. Fuck.
Continue reading Scratchbomb’s Thoroughly Compromised 2010 MLB Preview: NL East →

1999 Project

1999 Project: Games 76-79

Click here for an intro/manifesto on The 1999 Project.

June 28, 1999: Mets 10, Marlins 4

Robin Ventura shined in the opener of a four-game series in Miami, clubbing two homers, driving in six runs, and leading the Mets to a rout over the Marlins. The third baseman was praised by the Daily News for removing himself late in the game so Matt Franco could get an at-bat against Braden Looper, a reliever he’d likely face in a much closer game somewhere down the road. It was a good rebound after the series in Atlanta, when Ventura struck out an astounding seven times in only 12 at-bats.

Al Leiter struggled a bit in the third inning, giving up two runs, each scoring on two-out RBI singles. But he rebounded to pitch into the seventh inning and reap the benefits of another offensive outburst.

Back in New York, Mets owner Fred Wilpon said he was “hopeful” the team could secure city permission and financing to begin construction on a new ballpark. The desired opening date: 2003. Wilpon’s vision was for “a 45,000-seat, Ebbets Field replica with a retractable roof that would allow the facility to be used ‘365 days a year,’ except for football. He still is committed to the current site at Shea.”

The same article cites the Mets’ desire to trade for a “front-line starter”. The Angels’ Chuck Finley was discussed, but the Marlins’ Livan Hernandez seemed a long shot, since, according to the article, “the Mets don’t consider Hernandez a front-line starter”.

June 29, 1999: Mets 5, Marlins 1

Orel Hershiser left the mound to a standing ovation, a reaction he attributed to large numbers of “the 40-and-over crowd” in Florida.

It was not a very big standing ovation–the paid attendance, only a little over 11,000, was the third lowest in Marlins’ history to date. Regardless of size, it was a tribute to Hershiser’s finest outing as a Met, where he went 8 1/3 innings, giving up just five hits and one run. He kept the ball on the ground, which led to an astounding 11 assists for shortstop Rey Ordonez (only three shy of the all-time single-game record).

Ventura continued his hot hitting. His two-run single in the third inning gave the Mets the lead to stay. Edgardo Alfonzo padded that lead with a two-run homer in the seventh.

On the negative side, Bobby Jones experienced discomfort in his balky right shoulder and was scratched for a scheduled BP session. The news furthered GM Steve Phillips’ search for another starter; he was rumored to be pursuing Toronto’s David Wells, though the length and size of his contract was a stumbling block (not to mention the size of Wells himself).

June 30, 1999: Marlins 4, Mets 3 (10)

Kevin Millar did all the damage against starter Rick Reed. His two-run homer in the second put the Marlins on top, and after the Mets rallied to tie in top of the sixth, Millar’s RBI single in the bottom half put the Marlins back in front and chased Reed from the game.

The Mets tied it up again in the seventh, thanks to Rickey Henderson behaving in typical Rickey-esque fashion: he worked a two-out walk, stole second, and scored on an Alfonzo single.

They had an opportunity to go ahead in the ninth, when Roger Cedeno walked. Closer Matt Mantei tried to pick Cedeno off second, but threw the ball away. That allowed Cedeno to easily move to second–so easily, in fact, that third base coach Cookie Rojas gave him the green light to advance to third. Luis Castillo fired the ball to Mike Lowell, who tagged out Cedeno and ended the threat.

“When the play developed, there were very few people that thought he wouldn’t be safe at third,” Bobby Valentine told reporters after the game. “I think we were a little more surprised than disappointed.”

Mike Piazza made a bid in the top of the tenth, giving a ride to a fastball from Antonio Alfonseca. But in cavernous Pro Player Stadium (as it was then called), it died before the warning track and settled in Mark Kotsay’s glove for a flyout.

Armando Benitez set down the Marlins in order in the ninth, and came out for the tenth as well. He retired the first two batters with ease, but fell behind Kotsay 3-1 before delivering a fastball that Kotsay deposited into the right field stands for a walk-off home run. It was the first hit any Marlin had gotten off of Benitez all year. The loss prevented the Mets from gaining ground on the Braves, whose bullpen had a late-inning meltdown of its own.

Benitez declared himself unshaken after the game, in words that sound bitterly ironic with the remove of time: “It’s nothing. It’s one game. We have a chance to win tomorrow. We have a chance to win against Atlanta. We’re going to win [against] Atlanta no matter what. You give me the ball, I’ll do the best I can. I won’t surrender. I like competition.” The reliever, who already had the rep of being moody and immature, was amazingly praised in some circles for his willingness to put the incident behind him.

July 1, 1999: Mets 12, Marlins 8

The Mets exploded for six runs off of Marlins starter Ryan Dempster in the third inning, with all of the offense coming with two outs. Octavio Dotel made his second big league start, and he chipped in with an RBI of his own when he worked a bases loaded walk that scored the fourth run of the inning and chased Dempster from the game.

They didn’t stop there, scoring two runs in the fourth, fifth, and sixth innings as well. With Piazza resting, Todd Pratt was given a start and knocked in three runs. Henderson and Ordonez each had two RBIs.

Dotel did much better than in his previous start, at least for the first three innings. (Perhaps because the paid attendance was the third-lowest in team history, supplanting the record set just two days previous.) But he gave up two runs in the fourth inning and three more in the fifth. Some of his sudden ineffectiveness was chalked up to the threat of rain; Dotel later said he might have rushed his pitches because he didn’t want weather to wash out his chance for his first big league win before the fifth inning was complete.

Or it might have been the fact that Marlins pitcher Brian Edmonson hurled a pitch near his head in the top of the fifth, after the game had gotten away from the Marlins. Dotel told reporters he never saw the pitch, but was lucky enough to spin out of the way and have it only graze the back of his batting helmet. “It’s hard to say it didn’t affect him,” Bobby Valentine said later.

Whatever the cause, Valentine swapped Dotel for long man Pat Mahomes in the sixth, who held the fort for three innings. Greg McMichael pitched the ninth and allowed three runs to score, but they were of little consequence.

Next up: The Braves again, this time at Shea. The Mets remained a mere three games back, with the chance to make up some ground.