Results tagged ‘ Jerry Manuel ’
The road can be a lonely place
Just ask the Mets, who entered Tuesday’s play with seven road victories, fewest in the National League. They are 7-17 on the road, 19-9 at home. They are hitting .235 on the road, .272 at home. They have produced a 5.25 ERA on the road, 2.80 ERA at home.
Um, why?
“For the most part, we’ve had our chances to win on the road and have come up short,” manager Jerry Manuel said. “But I do think at some point it will come to a place where we’ll get that hit on the road, we’ll make that play on the road, we’ll make that pitch on the road.”
—–Follow along on Twitter @anthonydicomo.
A more radical lineup suggestion
Mets manager Jerry Manuel shook up his lineup Saturday, shifting Jose Reyes back to leadoff and plugging Angel Pagan into the third spot. Maybe that will give the Mets a jolt, but I just don’t see it.
I’m from the school that you want to have your best hitters bat most often. And as well as Pagan is playing right now, he just does not qualify as one of the Mets’ best hitters. Which is why I’d prefer to see him lower down the lineup, with the more productive hitters clumped up top.
Here is the lineup I would try. Note that the Mets’ three leaders in on-base percentage (Wright, Davis and Bay, in that order) are all in the top half of this configuration:
1. Jose Reyes, SS
2. David Wright, 3B
3. Ike Davis, 1B
4. Jason Bay, LF
5. Rod Barajas, C
6. Angel Pagan, CF
7. Jeff Francoeur, RF
8. Luis Castillo, 2B
If you want to let Chris Carter start over Francoeur for a couple days, I won’t argue. If you want to keep Castillo in the two hole and push everyone else down a spot, I won’t fight you there, either. And if Francoeur ever starts swinging the bat well, he could shift as high as five in this configuration, making it more ideal.
It’s a little radical, and maybe it wouldn’t work. But I’m not just sure how much Manuel’s minor shakeup is going to change things.
Mets poll: If you were GM for a day
Time to try something new here at Mets Cetera. Based on your comments both on this blog and MLB.com, I can tell there’s a certain amount of restlessness within the Mets fan base right now. So I’ll leave it up to you: if you could alter only one aspect of this team, would you…
Anthony DiComo
Recent Comments