Sunday, March 07, 2010

LiveBlog: Spring Training, March 7th

First Inning:
Not holding the walk to Maxwell against Perez that much. It was on a 3-2 pitch and he didn't get the call on a close 2-2 pitch earlier in the count.

Ian Desmond looks like a hell of a player. After going 0-2 because he was taking pitches to let Maxwell steal, he went with a pitch outside and took it the other way for a hard single. Great play.

Mike Morse hit that home run about 150 MPH out of the park. Big guy.

Gary Matthews Jr. looks like he's having a lot of fun out there.

Second Inning:
Jason Bay and Jeff Francoeur don't look very athletic out there. Neither does Luis Castillo, who watched his second consecutive ground ball roll by.

Oliver Perez is not throwing very hard. I realize that it is spring training, but he's only registering 87-88 on the gun right now. The one thing I really like about Perez today is that he isn't falling off toward the third base bag after each pitch like he used to. He's following through toward home and looks strong.

Love the back to back walks by Bay and Murphy! Bay still worries me - he looks so unathletic - but he's got a good batting eye.

AND a walk to Francoeur?! Must be spring training.

AND Cora with a sharp single?

AND AN INSIDE THE PARK GRAND SLAM BY OMIR SANTOS?! Yeah. This is spring training. On a side note, great comment by Ron Darling: "Little-league, inside the park home run for Omir Santos - he gets an ice cream after the game."

Third Inning
Nice to see Ollie back out there, but the Mets defense betrays him again. Jason Bay just looks awful out there. If Luis Castillo could field a ground ball EVER, Perez might have two or three less runs allowed.

Fourth Inning
First look at Ken Takahashi.

Wow, I love this guy already. Strikes out the side!

Four pitches, works at a good pace, and throws strikes. He's obviously not going to be this dominant forever - but he's the kind of pitcher you can watch even when he is not wildly successful. He'll pound the zone, pitch smart, etc. I like it.

Nelson Figueroa, Brooklyn native, being interviewed right now. He's such a smart, tough son of a b... it's impossible not to root for him. There are several differing views on Figgy and how he'll be this year(36 years old already) but you have to root for him.

Fifth Inning
What is Ralph Kiner talking about?

My Dad just learned who Ian Desmond is today, but wants to trade Jose Reyes straight up for him. Sigh.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Age doesn't affect Nelson Figueroa's pitching. He's just like the Eveready bunny, he just keeps on pitchin'- and pitching very well - in his last 15 innings wearing a Mets jersey, he's allowed no runs (9 innings Oct. 4, 2009 at Citi Field, 6 innings in Florida).