The Mack Attack - 5-13-8

By John Mackin Ade
Posted Tuesday, May 13, 2008

May 13, 2008

Mets News:

Luis Castillo has an MRI this morning on his quad which will determine whether or not he goes on the DL.

Upcoming pitchers: Tuesday: John Maine (4-2, 3.00), Wednesday: Adam Bostick (0-0, 0.00), and Thursday: Mike Pelfrey (2-3, 4.86).

The Nats starting catcher for the series will be Jesus Flores.

Omar Minaya told reporters yesterday that Pedro Martinez threw 60–pitches in St. Lucie over the weekend. According to Minaya, Martinez used all of his pitches, and looked ‘good,’ but a timetable has yet to be set as to when Martinez will throw a simulated game.

Mack’s Facts:

Pitchers needed to take a step back…

Starters:

Jake Ruckle/B-Mets - 6 starts, 7.36 ERA 1.67 WHIP (on IR)

Eric Brown/B-Mets - 6 starts, 6.90 ERA, 1.80 WHIP

Eric Niesen/Lucy - 7 Gs, 6 starts, 6.28 ERA 1.71 WHIP

Scott Moviel/Gnats - 7 starts, 7.53 ERA 1.85 WHIP

Relievers:

Nate Field/New Orleans - 15 Gs 7.53 ERA 1.60 WHIP

Robert Paulk/N.O.-B-Mets - 11 Gs 12.75 ERA

German Marte/B-Mets - 12 Gs 6.48 ERA, 1.92 WHIP

Brandon Nall/Lucy - 13 Gs, 6.11 ERA 1.42 WHIP

Steve Cheney/Lucy - 8 Gs, 6.75 ERA, 2.03 WHIP

Stephen Clyne/Lucy - 8 Gs, 17.28 ERA, 2.88 WHIP

John Wesley/Lucy - 7 Gs, 15.19 ERA, 2.25 WHIP

John Holdzkom/Gnats - 9 Gs, 9.49 ERA, 2.76 WHIP

Wendy Rosa/Gnats - 8 Gs, 6.75 ERA 1.75 WHIP

Mets Contracts:

Johan Santana lhp - 6 years/$137.5M (2008-13), plus 2014 club option - acquired in trade from Minnesota 2/2/08 (Santana waived no-trade clause and agreed to new 6-year deal, replacing final year of previous contract) - 08:$19M, 09:$20M, 10:$21M, 11:$22.5M, 12:$24M, 13:$25.5M, 14:$25M club option ($5.5M buyout) - full no-trade clause - $5M deferred annually at 1.25% compound interest (payable June 30 seven years after season in which salary was earned), reducing present-day value of package to $123.1M - award bonuses: $0.5M-$1.5M for Cy Young (varies based on number won), $0.25M each for MVP or World Series MVP, $0.1M each for All Star selection, LCS MVP, post-season MVP, post-season All Star, Gold Glove, Silver Slugger - 2014 club option becomes player option if Santana: wins Cy Young award from 2008-13 and finishes second or third in the Cy Young vote in one other season - ranks second or third in Cy Young vote in any 3 seasons, 2008-13 - is on the active roster for the final 30 days of 2013 season, and: pitches 215 innings in 2013, or pitches 420 innings in 2012-13, or pitches 630 innings in 2011-13 the party holding the 2014 option must exercise it by Nov. 15, 2013 2014 option is Santana's and he declines it, he receives no buyout - perks: hotel suite on road trips, 15-person suite for 2008 home games - Santana to donate $0.25M annually to Mets charity - 4 years/$39.75M (2005-08) (Minnesota) - agent: Peter Greenberg - ML service: 7.122

Zephyrs:

The New Orleans Zephyrs fell to the visiting Sacramento River Cats by a score of 3-2 on Monday night.

Brad Knox (3-1) picked up the win in relief for the River Cats, no-hitting the Zephyrs in three innings. Jerry Blevins got his fifth save of hte year despite giving up a run on three hits in the final inning.

Sacramento was led offensively by first baseman Casey Rogowski, who went 2-3 with an RBI off of a solo homer in the third inning.

The offensive highlight for New Orleans was outfielder Chris Aguila, who hit a solo home run, his seventh of the year, on a 2-3 night.

Starting pitcher Tony Armas (1-4) gets the loss for the Zephyrs after allowing all three runs (two earned) on six hits in six innings of play.

The win gives Sacramento a 2-1 edge in the four-game series in New Orleans. The teams will face off again on Tuesday in a game scheduled for 11:30am CT.

Carlos Muñiz had pitched 12 scoreless innings before giving up his first run on Sunday.

Tim McNab (2-0, 2.28) threw 4 scoreless relief innings Sunday.

Brady Clark is expected in New York to get his right knee examined after playing just six games with New Orleans

B-Mets:

From BBTF:

Demoted OF Caleb Stewart from New Orleans to Binghamton. For some reason, the Mets like Stewart, who has yet to do anything above A-ball; perhaps another sojourn in AA will get him untracked.

DL’d P Jake Ruckle at Binghamton. Ruckle has some shoulder tendinitis, perhaps brought on by his Dontrelle Willis-like mechanics; lets’ just say he has a lot of moving parts in his delivery and leave it at that.

Lucy:

From BBTF:

Added P Casey Hoorelbeke to the St. Lucie roster. Hoorelbeke (it’s pronounced HURL-beck) is a sidearming right reliever who made it all the way to AAA in the Dodgers’ organization before being let go. He has all of the usual problems that sidearmers have, but until hitting AAA a year ago he’d been effective just about everywhere he’d gone. He doesn’t have much shot at a major league career, given that he’s 28, but in the right situation he could be useful.

Gnats:

Members of the Mets minor league brass were in town tonight, and this is the time of the year when people start getting promoted. It may not be a coincidence that Jordan Abruzzo started at catcher tonight (a killer throw in the 4th inning to throw out a runner) and Joaquin Rodriquez played 1B.

Cory Riordan pitched 7.2 strong innings and Jeffrey Cunningham hit a two-out, three-run double in the sixth inning to lead Asheville to a 3-2 win on Monday night. With the bases loaded and no outs in the sixth, Maikel Cleto struck out Brian Rike and forced a pop out from Darin Holcomb to get two outs. After falling behind in the count, Cunningham hit a 1-2 pitch from Cleto to left that bounced on the warning-track for a bases-clearing double that gave the Tourists a 3-0 lead.

Savannah (15-22) answered in the bottom half when Daniel Stegall led of with a triple to right-center. Matt Bouchard followed with a ground-rule double just inside the right-field line to put the Gnats on the board. After Bouchard took third on Michael Parker’s groundout, he scored on a sacrifice fly to right from Casey Craig to cut the Tourists lead to 3-2.

The Gnats would be held the rest of the way though as Craig Rodriguez relieved Riordan and struck out Craig looking with Bouchard on second to end the eighth. Riordan (5-2) pitched well for Asheville (27-11), allowing 2 runs on 6 hits in 7.2 innings. Randall Taylor worked a perfect ninth to earn his tenth save.

Cleto (0-2) took the loss, permitting 3 unearned runs on 4 hits in 6.0 innings. He struck out a team-best nine batters while issuing two walks.

From BBTF:

Sent P Brant Rustich from extended spring to Savannah. Rustich, drafted in the second round in 2007 out of UCLA, was hit hard in his low-A debut after a solid debut in 2007 split between KIngsport and Brooklyn

(he pitched a solid inning tonight in relief)

Brooklyn:

On June 6th and 7th, the Cyclones front office staff - the Jack Bauers of professional sports - will again play 24 straight hours of baseball in a charity fundraising effort, benefiting Autism Speaks, HeartShare Human Services of New York, and the New York-Penn League Charitable Foundation (NYPLCF). Staff members (13 men and women, total) will take the field at 12 noon on Friday the 6th, and play against 12 teams in two-hour games until 12 noon on Saturday the 7th. The Cyclones introduced the idea last May to raise money for Brooklyn food shelters. The event garnered national publicity, spawning the second season of "24" this May.

VSL:

People born in 1991 (I’m really depressed…) have hit the roster:

P Jose Brito - C Hector Alvarez – SS Dimas Ponce – 2B Wilfredo Tovar – OF Cesar Marquez

Minor League Bios:

Arthur Santos P R R 6-0 175 2-20-82 Florida International University

Santos was drafted by the Red Sox in the 34th round of the 2003 draft. He has played his entire 5 year career in the minors, for 3 teams (Boston, Atlanta, Kansas City). His combined stats are: 16-16, 3.29, 140 Games, 22 started, 178K/290 IP, 1.39.

Santos was signed by the Mets in April 2008 and assigned to St. Lucie.

Jonathan Santos SS S R 5-11 165 11-26-85 Puerto Rico Baseball Academy

Santos was originally drafted by the Rockies in the 39th round of the 2004 amateur draft out of the Puerto Rico Baseball Academy in Gurabo, PR. He did not sign and instead played for St. Petersburg Junior College, where he hit .351 with 18 stolen bases.

Santos signed with the Mets organization upon completion of the season and he debuted with the GCL Mets (150 at bats, .260/.369/.307, 19 Ks, 23 BBs).

He played 2006 winter ball for Carolina of the Puerto Rico League (stats through 12/22: 5 games, 0 at bats (???), 2 BBs, 1.000.

In 2007, Santos played part of the season with Kingsport (.067/.167/.133 in 15 at bats, and finished the season with Savannah (.188/.297/.219 in 64 Abs).

Ex-Mets:

Jeff Keppinger reached base 3 times for Cincinnati.

Brian Bannister pitched 2-hit ball over 8 scoreless innings

This Day In Mets History:

2000 - A day after failing to hustle, turning a likely double into a single, a disgruntled Rickey Henderson is let go by the Mets. The 41-year old stolen base leader is batting .219 with no homers and two RBIs at the time of his release.

2001 In a game in which every Padre regular reaches base, thanks to nine walks and a hit batter, San Diego is no-hit by A.J. Burnett. The Marlin rookie was obtained from the Mets among others in exchange for Al Leiter.

And lastly:

"The key to hitting is to relax, concentrate - and don't hit the ball to center field" -STAN MUSIAL, St. Louis Cardinal Hall of Fame outfielder (1941-63)

Johan Santana will be moved back to face the Yankees, Friday.