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June 26, 2005
Looper
UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH Remember that Benitez blown save against the D-Backs? Or that Abreu walk off HR off Franco? You can add another one to that list. One run game at Yankee Stadium. Looper walks the leadoff hitter, then unexplicably the Mets aren’t guarding the line, and bam…game over. And yeah, this is why they are not a playoff team. Excuse me while I go to break something. 30 Responses to “Looper”Leave a ReplyYou must be logged in to post a comment. «« Dougie DLed |
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Very, very upsetting loss. It kinda takes away from actually winning the series, we all wanted the sweep.. and we had it! Looper killed me, he had a terrible weekend. Should be heading into a day off feeling good about things, but instead we’ll be at our normal pesimistic Mets fan ways for the day. Hopefully a good homestand can change our moods.
Never should’ve walked the damn leadoff guy, thats a f’n no-no. Willie HAS to guard the line esp with David Wright playing third. I wonder why Sandy Alomar is there if he’s not going to help willie in these situations. Now i have to read about A-rods great series in the morning, Great!
fuck fuck fuck, all i can say is bj ryan better be a met next year
Hey, it can only get better from that ninth.
a little off topic but whats up with rick peterson and his jacket? Does he sleep in that thing? Its a warm summer night in NYC and he’s still rocking the jacket.
I hate Fruit Loops…
a little off topic but whats up with rick peterson and his jacket? Does he sleep in that thing? Its a warm summer night in NYC and he’s still rocking the jacket.
It’s a part of the mystique and aura.
damn guys…i feel like someone has ripped my heart out
For those who want the Mets to be sellers and not buyers (I want them to be both) I propose the selling of Looper. The number of hits and walks per inning is just too high. Plus, he looked like a deer in the headlights last night. Why not go with Heath Bell — throws hard, can strike people out — why would he be worse than Looper? Looper has good “save” stats so some team might go for him and overpay.
Anyone see the close up of Looper when he was warming up in the Top of the 9th? He threw a pitch, then just shook his head in disgust. Sweat on his brow? Didn’t like the look of the fat Bronx skanks in the left field bleachers? Or was he having trouble controlling his pitches in warmup?
Enough of the games — the below should be the Mets Lineup — Omar needs to go out and get these guys to make this happen — no matter the cost.
C: Mike DiFelice
1B: Matt Franco
2b: Julio Franco
SS: Rey Ordonez/Kevin Elster (should sign cheap)
3B: Jason Phillips (why not?)
LF: Todd Zeile
CF: Tony Womack (works for the Yanks)
RF: Gerald Williams
Setup: Bobby M. Jones
Closer: John Franco
FRUSTRATED!!!!!!!!!!
Only Mets fans could find total disdain after taking two of three at Yankee Stadium - the way Johnson pithced last night, we were lucky to have the lead. Does it suck that we lost? - Absolutely - was I ready to ride roughshod over all of my yankee fan friends - absolutely - did we still win the series - absolutely!
While you are all riding Looper - I believe he hasn’t blown a save since early May or late April, if he goes another 7-8 weeks without blowing one I will be thrilled! His timing just sucked!
That being said - I think he is one of our best trading chips - why not let Hernandez close for now - he is the best arm we have out of the pen!
While you are bashing Looper - save some Heilman - this was his second straight poor outing out of the pen - maybe if Looper comes on with a two run lead he doesn’t melt down?
While Looper certainly blew it! I’m suprised none of you are beating up on Heilman! He gave up two runs that were of equal importance to the ones Looper gave up, but I forgot his bandwagon is tipping over with all of you…HE’S A BUM!! TWO GOOD STARTS DOES NOT AN ELITE PITCHER MAKE!!!
No, 2 good starts doesn’t an elite pitcher make but, he’s a number 1 pick, young, and throws a pedro-like power change and is adapting to a completely new role. For me, he gets a pass. Loopie, on the other hand, is a B closer and doesn’t scare anybody. Giambi said in the post game interview right after his hit, “I saw the change up right out of his hand (Looper)”. Uh, Rick, maybe we need to work with Looper being easy to read…
Nah, i’mma still give Heilman a free pass. Looper is the one making the big bucks to be a closer. Anyone can earn those 3-run lead saves –it’s situations like this where a closer proves himself. And it’s clear that Looper isn’t up to the task.
The O’s have money and I’m pretty sure they’ll try to hold on to Ryan, but there are a lot of setup guys in the American league that would be a better closer than Looper. That includes pretty much anyone in the Indians or White Sox pen.
Lopper has shown this year to have Benitezitis. Benitezitis is a rare sickness of relievers who come into games, give up walks hits and runs, and then try to save the game by a hair. We saw that for years. That is the type of saves Looper has had all year.
But Let’s not forget Willie-Doof’s part in this. He continues to put Wright batting 6th or 7th, thereby misusing his main contact hitter. He belongs 2nd, no question. Also, he puts Piazza up fourth! after Floyd was up fourth the day before and hits 2 homers! I am surprised he didn’t bench him for doing so good.
Then Willie-doof runs Wright on a hit and rum with Woodward up!
He also stays with Heliman too long, when he could have brought in Bell. You just get the feeling that his mind doesn’t work too well. Compare that to Torre’s moves with his players in the 8th and 9th yesterday. G-d, Randolph looked like a child compared to Torre.
The batting order should be:
Reyes
Wright
Cameron
Floyd
Beltron
Piazza
and then who cares.
But Randolph will continue with his stupidity.
Beltron cannot hit the side of a barn now, but Wille will just leave him where he is.
On Saturday, Willie had Woodward batting with runners on 1st and 2nd with no one out and the Mets leading 3-2. He doesn’t bunt them over and Woodward strikes out looking. I’m screaming at my TV…
I can just hear Looper’s apologists now: “Before last night, he hadn’t blown a save since the second week of the season!” If anything, such a statement is simply a testament to the fallacy of using the save as a metric for evaluating the effectiveness of relief pitchers.
The problem is that Looper’s peripheral stats are not good. His WHIP is 1.57 - bad for any pitcher, but simply unacceptable for a closer. [His WHIP with the bases empty is a staggering 2.06, indicating his proclivity towards allowing the leadoff batter to reach base.] Batters are hitting a crisp .289 against him. He has 12 Ks in 27 1/3 innings pitched. This translates to about 1 strikeout per 2 1/3 innings pitched; therefore the ball is going to be in play a disproportionate amount of time, increasing the chances that a fielder is going to botch a play and also increasing the number of agita moments. The one area in which he showed improvement last year was in decreasing the number of walks he issued - here Rick Peterson’s magic pixie dust apparently worked, and he only walked 16 batters last year. This year, he’s walked 10 already, and he’s on a pace to walk about 30. Looking at the stats of a good closer like Billy Wagner further indicates how bad Looper is.
I don’t expect Looper to be demoted from closer anytime soon, especially given the fact that the Mets have other gaping holes in their bullpen and given that it’s unlikely that they’ll be contending for a playoff spot this year. But I was never an advocate of signing Looper, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the front office isn’t looking into alternatives. Note to Omar Minaya: Danny Graves is not the answer.
Heilman didn’t pitch that badly at all. He jammed Jeter, who fisted a liner into short center. He made Sierra look ridiculous. He retired Sheffield (sure he was safe but he didn’t hit the ball well either). The only well-struck ball was by A-Rod, and that was a single.
Terrible job by Looper in walking Tino to start the 9th. You can’t walk a hitter who’s injured and been slumping the last month. It’s clear right now that Looper is a ROOGY- he just can’t get any lefties out.
Ricardo…don’t slit your wrists - i promise your life will get better!
Quick! Someone put him in a cushioned room so he doesn’t hurt himself!
All joking aside - I agree with Bob Koo. Heilman wasn’t exactly terrible. He did make people look foolish with that Changeup. Let’s not foget that even though the Skankees are struggling, they are still the Skankees! He did not face a single “easy out” in that lineup.
Setup: Bobby M. Jones
Believe it or not, I think I just saw that Bobby “Black” Jones signed with an independent league team the other day.
Most of this has been said, but let me combine a few things:
Number Six is right, Looper allows too many baserunners, mostly because he allows too many balls in play. What makes this even worse for a closer is NOT letting the leadoff guy on-base, IMO, but that with RiSP, he doesn’t really have the ability to rear back and come up with 2 or 3 Ks in a row. (As opposed to Bell, say, who got out of a bases-loaded/none-out situation earlier in the year with K-K-Fly out.)
Chris from Boston is right, the time has come to trade Looper to a team that has a bullpen need. Even if he’s not good enough to close, there are a lot of teams that would covet him as a set-up man. Let Bell close (or possibly Juan Padilla) for the rest of the year, see if he has a future in the role.
And here’s my idea: the Phillies are in need of bullpen help, especially since Urbina has not made the greatest of debuts. Looper for Ryan Howard, with whatever else needed thrown in (meaning, a starting pitcher not named Petit/Bannister/Humber/Hernandez/Pelfrey, or maybe a low-prospect cf like Pagan or Lydon). This will *look* like the Mets are selling, but in fact might just be the move to get them going up towards the top of the division. Oh, and if we can throw in Kaz Matsui, bonus. *g*
(And I agree with Bob Koo, Heilman got nibbled to death. That said, I still like him better as a starter.)
As frustrating as the loss is, think someone can edit the post a bit as it messes up the main page. Sorry to sound so anal… Oh, and on topic… Braden Looper? More like Braden Pooper!
I think you should probably change your baseballreference.com sponsor page from Looper to someone else.
a little off topic but whats up with rick peterson and his jacket? Does he sleep in that thing? Its a warm summer night in NYC and he’s still rocking the jacket.
you think that’s weird, how about his Titanium Underwear?
the problem with looper is he’s the absolute wrong choice to use with a game on the line and a bunch of lefties coming up. unfortunately, we dont have a much better choice. maybe bell or heilman?
Didn’t Bill James point out that unless the Mets are #1 or #2 in strikeouts, they do not have a winning year?
And what’s with Beltran throwing home allowing the eventual 3rd run to get into scoring position? That was just an awful, awful play.
Looper is done - stick a fork in him. I agree he should be moved. Let’s try Bell, Roberto, maybe even Graves if he straightens out…
Here’s a trade proposal for y’all…Mike Cameron to the Yankees for Carl Pavano - what do you think?