Manny Ramirez Suspended: Mets 7, Phillies 5

by Eric Simon on May 8, 2009 12:01 AM EDT

Disregard the post title; I kinda want to see how much fun I can have with SEO.

Mike Pelfrey had another nice start tonight against the Phillies, getting twelve groundball outs -- fourteen if you could the two double-plays -- plus one popup, finishing seven innings and allowing just one walk. He threw 105 pitches, 92 of which were fastballs. According to PITCHf/x, Pelfrey mixed in just eight changeups, three sliders and two curveballs; everything else was heat: 87.6% of his pitches overall, a bit higher than the 83.7% fastball rate he had prior to this start.

One thing that seems to have arrived as a residue of all of these fastballs -- at least if you believe Jerry Manuel's post-game comments -- is the paucity of strikeouts for Pelfrey this season. He hasn't exactly been a strikeout pitcher as a big leaguer, but after posting nary a whiff against the Phillies Pelfrey now has just six strikeouts in 28 innings this season, a K/9 of just 1.93. Manual says that Pelfrey's off-speed pitches aren't where they need to be, which would certainly explain his early season aversion to changeups and breaking balls. It's tough to fool hitters when it's almost a certainty that you'll be throwing a fastball, but it's still a credit to Pelfrey's hard sinker that he has managed to be reasonably successful over his last three starts while only really throwing one pitch with any regularity. If he could cobble together a decent changeup and a passable slider, well, then we might have something.

In other news, did Brian Stokes rape Jerry Manuel's dog when I wasn't looking? Stokes appeared in ten of the Mets' first twenty games this season, allowing just one unearned run and two walks in 11.0 innings of work. Since then -- seven team games and nine calendar days -- Stokes hasn't made a single appearance and I can't even recall seeing him warm up in the bullpen. I'm not suggesting that Stokes is the second coming of Pat Mahomes or anything, but he has clearly pitched well when asked and the big question is, Why hasn't anyone asked recently?

Swag Contest

Swag contest results can be found here and the next game's swag form already available. You can read more about the swag contest here.

SB Nation Coverage

* Boxscore
* Amazin' Avenue Gamethread
* The Good Phight Gamethread

Win Probability Added

Big winners: David Wright, +15.5% WPA, Carlos Beltran, +14.7% WPA
Big losers: Pedro Feliciano, -2.5% WPA, Gary Sheffield, -1.7% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Beltran two-run homerun in first, +15.8% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Ryan Howard RBI double in first, -9.7% WPA
Total pitcher WPA: +13.4% WPA
Total batter WPA: +36.6% WPA
GWRBI!: Ramon Castro

Game Thread Roll Call

Nice job by DevonEdwards; his effort in the game thread embiggens us all.

Num	Name	# of Posts
1	DevonEdwards	205
2	JohnPeterson	116
3	jasondg	112
4	metsman07	92
5	meigs1414	89
6	aparkermarshall	89
7	Major	62
8	pingel	59
9	JADDENHOPKINS	54
10	OVERALLSPORTSFAN	44

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Comments

Balls

The swag wouldn’t show up for me all day, so I assumed filled it out late last night. Big fat zero.

Oh yea, shane victorino is a bitch

by HotChipWillBreakYourLegs on May 8, 2009 12:04 AM EDT reply actions

My fault

I neglected to fill out the questions last night and didn’t realize it until 6pm tonight.

by Eric Simon on May 8, 2009 12:09 AM EDT up reply actions

If I lose the month by less than, say, 50 points

I’ll hunt you down like in that John Leguizamo movie (or was it Pauly Shore?)

by HotChipWillBreakYourLegs on May 8, 2009 12:23 AM EDT up reply actions

To Wong Foo?

by Eric Simon on May 8, 2009 12:32 AM EDT up reply actions

you can take a couple x's

unless you prove that you would do better on this one then you would in a different one that you fill out, you’re SOL.

by DevonEdwards on May 8, 2009 12:46 AM EDT up reply actions

unfortunately

we’re winning, and people are starting to figure out Game Scores. We’re getting some big scores from everyone.

by DevonEdwards on May 8, 2009 12:10 AM EDT reply actions

Stokes

Its beyond weird that he hasn’t gotten into a game and even weirder than none of the beat writers or talking heads have asked Jerry about it. Too busy celebrating the Mets new-found grit I guess.
Good win tonight but the last two innings were more tense than they should have been. I tell you this , if the Phillies had come back and won this, Shane Victorino would have been chased into the bay along with this awful umpiring crew.

by Endys Game on May 8, 2009 1:30 AM EDT reply actions

Yeah man, don't get the Stokes thing...

going back to last year even.

You wish some of these guys who CAN’T play could find their way into Manuel’s dog house sometime.

"Those who fear disorder more than injustice inevitably produce more of both." -- Rev. William Coffin

by dcrockett17 on May 8, 2009 8:10 AM EDT up reply actions

Perhaps after Saturday's Ollie meltdown

Jerry understood that someone other than he would be starting on Friday, meaning that very realistically, Stokes could be in the game by the 2nd or 3rd inning. Not sure why he hadnt thrown before that in a while, but I would like to think that this has been planned out, and I hope that he hasn’t just been cast aside.

by TBlz on May 8, 2009 8:59 AM EDT up reply actions

Stokes, Takahashi, and Jerry Manuel's dog

Maybe it was a gang bang, because I can’t figure out what Takahashi’s function is either. Feliciano has already appeared in 16 games and thrown 12 innings. A night after being used for a full inning, facing lefties, and up four runs is the eight, seemed like a good time to see what Takahashi could do and to try to give Feliciano a night off. Maybe he didn’t want to use him in case he has to get three or four innings out of him on Friday, but what’s the excuse for not using before last Saturday.

If Jerry isn’t going to use this guy, send him back and bring up a better bench player. I don’t ever want to see Omir F. Santos used a pinch hitter or pinch runner again.

by Reg Dunlop on May 8, 2009 9:13 AM EDT up reply actions

Confidence

Would you have confidence in Takahashi coming into a game that is semi close against the Phils?

I personally can’t complain about using Pedro in that situation. That’s what they have him for

by metsman07 on May 8, 2009 9:18 AM EDT up reply actions

yep

Pedro owns Utley (.762 OPS against with 12 K in 30 PA) and especially Howard (.440 OPS against with 9 K in 25 PA). Torino also, last night’s shenanigans notwithstanding (.433 OPS against in 19 PA). May as well let him continue to do so.

by JoshNY on May 8, 2009 10:30 AM EDT up reply actions

Last night

Pedro did his job on Torino 3 times – K, bad hop grounder, DP.

by Mount17 on May 8, 2009 10:57 AM EDT up reply actions

I wouldn't be confident

But I wouldn’t be biting my nails. If it were a one ore two run game, there is no question about it. But the Mets still had their full compliment of relievers to go to in case Takahashi got into trouble.

At some point you have to figure out if the guy is a credible pitcher. How do you do that if you never use the guy. This was the type of situation that would have been a good test, but still left options to wiggle out of a jam. If Manuel doesn’t think he is useful, then get him off the roster and get someone semi-useful in his place. I hate to think that they are wasting a roster spot to have a “mop-up” man on call.

Plus, I just get worried that Manuel is going to wear out certain relievers early and then we end up with a crapbag pen later on.

by Reg Dunlop on May 8, 2009 10:44 AM EDT up reply actions

Maybe the strategy

is going to be week-by-week: Pedro F and Parns will pitch all the L/R situations before the 8th or 9th this week and Ken Tak and Stokes will pitch all of those situations next week. Frankie will pitch every day until the end of the season. Lather, rinse, repeat.

'Oh yes, I know all about that duty-of-a-citizen stuff. It doesn't go. There are exceptions to every rule, and this was one of them. When a man risks his liberty to come and root at a ball-game, you've got to hand it to him. He isn't a crook. He's a fan.'

by Catsmeat Potter-Pirbright on May 8, 2009 10:50 AM EDT up reply actions

Stokes

He has been great this year so far too. I would figure tonight would be the nitght to use him in long or short relief. K-Rod probably isn’t available, making Putz the closer.

As for Takahashi, I don’t think they ever planned on using him THAT much. He’s kind of like the safety valve…just to be used in situations like last Saturday. I could be totally wrong though.

by metsman07 on May 8, 2009 9:15 AM EDT reply actions

Castro

I usually don’t buy into this kind of thing, but ever since the Santos pinch-hit debacle, Castro has been ripping the cover off the ball. He’s now at .304/.366./.500. Maybe he’s playing with a chip on his shoulder now.

It doesn’t excuse what Jerry did then, but it’s nice to have Ramon in such a groove.

2009 Mets: maybe its the Phillies turn to have a terrible bullpen?

by Greenpoint Ian on May 8, 2009 12:33 PM EDT reply actions