Mack Attack: August 20, 2008

By John Mackin Ade
Posted Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Tuesday the U.S. wrapped up a spot in the medal round with a 4-2 win over Taiwan. Along the way, one of Team USA's top prospects emerged from a long slump. Rockies prospect Dexter Fowler had struggled throughout the Olympics, going 2-for-15, which explained why he'd found himself on the bench for two of the first five games. But when Matt LaPorta went down with a mild concussion after being beaned in the China game, there was no choice but to start Fowler—the U.S. didn't have any other outfielders. Fowler responded by going 3-for-3 with a triple and an RBI double. John Gall added a solo home run and Brandon Knight allowed two runs, one earned, in 6 1/3 innings to pick up the win. Relievers Mike Koplove and Kevin Jepsen combined to throw 2 2/3 perfect innings, striking out two. – BA

By now, three things are certain. One is that players have either stopped using or, more likely, are good at not getting caught, as baseball has suspended only two major leaguers for stimulant use in the last three years. The second is that since the ban, an apparent plague of attention deficit disorders has washed over the sport, requiring really stunning numbers of players to obtain therapeutic use exemptions for speed-like drugs such as Ritalin. (One hundred and seven players had such exemptions in 2007, up from 30 in 2006.) And the third is that in a society where you can buy an energy drink called Cocaine, no man really needs to sit around popping Benzedrine.

...Take, for instance, the fastball. One purported benefit of amphetamines is helping wired-up relief pitchers come into games with all guns blazing, throwing their filthiest stuff, and then helping them get ready to do it again the next day. If the new drug policy were having the kind of widespread impact it’s been thought to have had, we’d expect to see average velocities declining across the game. They aren’t. The Fangraphs Web site has data on average pitch speed, licensed from Baseball Info Solutions, going back to 2005. In that year, 89 relievers throwing a minimum of 40 innings averaged 91 mph or better with their fastball. Sixteen of them topped 94; eight topped 95. – NYSun

Mets acquired RHP Luis Ayala from the Nationals in exchange for a player to be named later. Ayala requested the trade a couple of weeks ago and the PTBNL is expected to be Anderson Hernandez, a light-hitting infielder who projects as a utility man long term. Ayala was 1-8 with a 5.77 ERA in 57 2/3 innings for the Nats this season, but he posted ERAs of 2.69, 2.66 and 3.19 over his previous three seasons. He's leaving behind some personal issues and could help the Mets' struggling bullpen. – HardballTimes

Ryan Church (concussion) played five innings in right field in a minor league rehab game Monday at Triple-A.

It was his first action in the outfield since July 5 and he went 0-for-2 at the plate. "Everything was fine," Church said. "It felt good to get back in the field again." Barring a setback, Church appears set to rejoin the Mets next week. - Rotoworld

Zephyrs:

Andy Green went 3-for-4 with a grand slam and five RBI and fell a triple short of the cycle, leading the New Orleans Zephyrs to their first win in eight tries against the Iowa Cubs, 9-5 on Tuesday night.
New Orleans had taken a 2-1 lead in the second inning on a sacrifice fly by Mike Nickeas and an RBI single by pitcher Jon Niese. Green capped the outburst with a grand slam off Iowa starter Mitch Atkins, who had held the Zephyrs to one earned run over six innings five days ago in Des Moines.

Atkins lasted just two innings, surrendering six runs and walking four in suffering his first defeat after seven straight wins with Iowa.

Two outs after an Abraham Nunez solo homer in the fourth, Green doubled and scored on a double by Ryan Church. Green delivered an RBI single in the sixth, but did not get another at-bat in his bid to become the first Zephyr to hit for the cycle since Barry Wesson on May 11, 2002.

Church, in the second game of his rehab stint, went 1-for-3 with the RBI double and a walk. Trot Nixon, also in his second rehab game, went 0-for-3 with a walk and a run scored.

Niese gave up four runs on six hits in six innings while improving his record to 4-1. The southpaw struck out three and walked one.

B-Mets:

Roster move: INF Anderson Machado assigned to AAA New Orleans. Also, Added RHP Dylan Owen from High-A St. Lucie.

(Owen will start Wednesday vs. New Hampshire. RHP Eric Brown moves from the rotation to the bullpen).

The B-Mets are still in third place in the Eastern League Northern Division, three games behind Portland for the final playoff spot with 13 games left in the regular season. The B-Mets enter this series having won consecutive series and four of their last five games, and the team expects to have rehabbing New York Mets infielder Luis Castillo for at least the first game of the series. The B-Mets bullpen hasn't allowed a run in its last 10 innings. Who's hot: Mike Carp is 8-for-18 with three home runs in his last five games. Who's not: Shawn Bowman is 6 for his last 36.- PressConnects

Jose Sanchez tossed eight shutout innings, helping the Binghamton Mets to a 3-2 win over the New Hampshire Fisher Cats at NYSEG Stadium Tuesday. The B-Mets have won five of six.

Binghamton (68-62) broke the scoreless tie in the fourth. Brad Mills (2-2) issued a one-out walk Mike Carp, who scored on Caleb Stewart’s double to left-center. Two batters later, Ambiorix Concepcion’s single brought in Stewart for a 2-0 B-Mets lead. Jose Coronado began Binghamton’s fifth-inning rally with a double. After Fernando Martinez walked, Luis Castillo singled in Coronado for a 3-0 advantage.

Sanchez (13-6) allowed a pair of hits over the first two innings before retiring 18 straight hitters. The righthander allowed four hits and struck out five.

New Hampshire (55-75) scored a pair off Tim Lavigne in the ninth on back-to-back sacrifice flies by Eric Nielsen and J.P. Arencibia. However, Lavigne held on for his ninth save in 13 chances.

Clones:

Carl Erskine was just a wide-eyed 21-year-old from Indiana when he made his major league debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers on Jul. 25, 1948. As a matter of fact, he was younger than many of the players that currently play in the borough today with the Mets Single-A affiliate, the Cyclones. Despite his rural upbringing, Erskine quickly found a home in Brooklyn and carved out a successful 12-year, 122-win tenure with the Dodgers, helping them win the World Series in 1955, where he went 11-8 with a 3.79 ERA in 194 innings of work. A few years later in 1957, he and his teammates were shipped off to Los Angeles, where he played the final two years of his All-Star career, but it was never the same for hard-throwing righty, as he won only four games in his final two seasons. During his time in Brooklyn, the borough became his second home and his second family, the players he shared a clubhouse with in Ebbets Field for ten years, slowly left the team once they got to Los Angeles via trade or retirement. “The Brooklyn team that I came up with in 1948, basically stayed together until 1958,” said Erskine. “It wasn’t until we moved to Los Angeles that they started making changes. On our off days, the whole team would go on picnics together and our children were raised together. In the Ebbets Field clubhouse, before every game, Roy Campanella would stand up and say ‘The same team that won yesterday is the same team that’s going to win today,’ He put that in our minds and we knew that’s what we had to do.” - DemBrooklynBums

This Day in Mets History:

1985 - Mets' phenom Doc Gooden strikes out 16 Giants in a 3-0 victory over San Francisco becoming the first National League pitcher to strike out 200 or more batters in each of his first two seasons.

1989 - It's a busy day on the trading block for the Mets as they send popular outfielder Mookie Wilson to the Blue Jays for pitcher Jeff Musselman and minor leaguer Michael Brady. New York also gets Frank Viola from the Twins for pitchers Rick Aguilera, David West, and Kevin Tapani and two minor leaguers.

And lastly:

Paul Lo Duca, who was called up from Class AAA late last week, disputes anyone who says that drugs helped make him an All-Star four times (2003-06), or that stopping their use led to his decline this season. "Don't tell me I can't play this game," said Lo Duca, 36. "Don't tell me that was the reason I was good. I think a lot of people perceive that, so my job is to go out and prove them wrong." -- Palm Beach Post