Sep
11
Chatter Up! Mets @ Phillies 9-11-09 to 9-13-09 (4 games)
Filed Under (Chatter Up) by mrose at 3:08 PM on 09-11-2009
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| Welcome to Chatter Up! This week features TRS of The Real Dirty Mets Blog facing off against Chatter Up! veteran, Matt Smith from Phillies Phandom. This week we got a lot of questions from users of The Real Dirty Mets Blog as well, so lets get to it! |
| Wally Londo(FishGuts): What’s your hopeful opening day lineup next year? |
| TRS(TRDMB): Lineup: Figgins, Castillo, Reyes, Beltran, Wright, Pena, Frenchy, Santos. |
| Wally Londo(FishGuts): Which of the injured players are a good bet to come back next year and have a decent year? |
| TRS(TRDMB): Beltran to me is the best bet to have a decent year. The bone bruise should not hurt his hitting and at the time he went down he was having a career year. |
| Matt R(NLEC): Rumors are flying again of Castillo being traded, what do you think the likelihood is and what would you want in return after this successful year? |
| TRS(TRDMB): I think most of the Castillo rumors are just fans speculating. I think there is maybe a 10% chance of Castillo being traded. He has rebounded quite nicely but still his trade value would be one that you would still have to take on similar cash to unload him. |
| Matt R(NLEC): Should the Mets entertain picking up Putz’ option? Do you feel comfortable with the bullpen without him or another late inning guy if all else stays the same there? |
| TRS(TRDMB): Ok uhm Putz:No way in hell should they pick up the option for 8M. Putz will be lucky to get a minor league deal at this point from anyone. He is welcome to come back on a minor league deal and prove he is healthy with an incentive based contract. No I do not think our pen is set and it does need a reliable reliever but at this point that is not Putz. |
| Matt R(NLEC): How much would it mean to you as a fan and the Mets psyche if they can take a few games from Philly this weekend and make them sweat a bit and play spoiler? |
| TRS(TRDMB): I don’t think it will help my psyche or even the Mets but I will say it would be nice to put someone else in the category of choke for once. |
| Thanks TRS and we throw it to Matt Smith. |
| Stickguy(TRDMB): What is the comfort level with the pen this year vs. last year? Are they concerned about the recent offensive brown outs? |
| Matt S(PP): The bullpen is a concern because of Brad Lidge and, now, the injury to Scott Eyre means we do not have a reliable left-hander. Last year’s bullpen was dynamite down the stretch and in the playoffs, whereas this year there are some question marks. As a whole, the bullpen has been solid, but not great. The hope is that J.C. Romero, Eyre and Clay Condrey will be healthy before the end of the season. The offense has been hit-or-miss lately, but I’m still confident the bats will get going sooner than later. |
| Stickguy(TRDMB): Do they realize they really need to pass the cards and dodgers for best record in order to get the rockies in rd. 1 of the playoffs? |
| Matt S(PP):The Rockies are the hottest team in baseball. Who would want to face them? As of now, the Phillies would play the Dodgers in the first round, which is a better matchup. Having the best record in the NL would be a bad thing for the Phillies at this point. |
| Stickguy(TRDMB): does it bother them that Vick is a much bigger story in Philly (and the eagles in general) than the Phils shooting for the playoffs for the 3rd straight year? |
| Matt S(PP): Well, the Vick story has died down in recent weeks. The Phillies are the top story except for Sundays. It will remain that way until their fate is determined in October. |
| Metsfan4decades(TRDMB): Are the Phils worried about blowing that 6 game lead they’ve got going into tonight? (’Cause we all know that can happen with 20 games to go). Their offense is down, their BP is struggling and they’re starting to have problems with injuries to their regulars. Their bench isn’t exactly stellar… |
| Matt S(PP):I would say that this year’s Phillies team is weaker than last year’s, but I don’t think anyone is too concerned expect for the manager. This is who the Phillies are — they are an up-and-down squad. Frankly, the Marlins aren’t good enough to catch the Phillies. A five-game lead is managable right now. The schedule is favorable the rest of the way. Those last two Mets teams weren’t anywhere near as mentally tough as this Phillies team. Thus, a “collapse” is not likely in my opinion. |
| Metsfan4decades(TRDMB) & Prismo(TRDMB): Are the Phils making plans to try another closer or will they stick with Lidge rest of the season and into Post season? What do you think will come of the closers job in 2010? Does Lidge automatically get another shot, or will the Phillies try and find another option? |
| Matt S(PP):It’s pretty much been determined that Brad Lidge is no longer the closer… for now. Ryan Madson and, perhaps, Brett Myers will be plugged into that role for the next few weeks. We’ll see how they do. As for next season, I think Lidge is the closer coming into spring training. Hopefully by then he’ll have fixed what went wrong this year. |
Please feel free to email any recommend questions or comments about the segment to mrose@nleastchatter.com or go to this forum topic and post a reply. We need questions for our next Chatter Up! sessions, which are for Tuesday’s games of the Nationals @ Phillies and the Mets @ Braves. Thanks for everyone’s participation!
