Skip to main content

One Wise Man

Admittedly, this is coming from someone who once thought that Carl Everett for John Hudek was a good trade, but I have to tell you that I like last week's signing of Matt Wise.

Yes, I know of Wise's struggles in the last two months of the season, but let's look at what he did in the first four months.

3-1, 2.70 ERA, 43 1/3 IP, 34 H, 30 K, 10 BB

That's better than what Aaron Heilman gives you. It's basically as good as what Duaner Sanchez gives you. And it's a hell of a lot better than what Guillermo Mota gave you. And from what I remember seeing of Wise, I liked. In six appearances against the Mets over the last three seasons, he allowed only one run in eight innings

This is a low-risk, high-reward kind of move, basically the pitching equivalent of signing Endy Chavez or Ramon Castro a couple of years ago. If the Mets are a good team this year (there seems to be a lot of doubting at this point) and Wise's mental problems are fixed, he'll be a very valuable member of the staff.

The truly Wise Mets fan knows...That Matt Wise was deprived of two victories against the Mets, in games that ended in walk-off fashion.

On August 2, 2005, he pitched a scoreless eighth inning during a 7-7 tie. The Brewers scored in the top of the ninth to tie, but the Mets tied the game in their half, on Mike Cameron's home run off Derrick Turnbow, then won in the 11th on Mike Piazza's bases-loaded walk.

And on Mother's Day (May 14), 2006, Wise pitched a scoreless eighth inning in a 4-4 tie. The Brewers took the lead in the home eighth on a Geoff Jenkins sacrifice fly, but Wise's chance for a win was denied when Xavier Nady tied the score in the top of the ninth on a two-out single against Turnbow. The Brewers won in the home 10th on Bill Hall's walk-off home run.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The best Mets ejections I know

When you think of the Mets and famous ejections, I'm guessing you first think of the famous Bobby Valentine mustache game, when after Valentine got tossed, he returned to the dugout in disguise. You know it. You love it. I remember being amused when I asked Bobby V about it while we were working on Baseball Tonight, how he simply said "It worked. We won the game." (true) But the Bobby V mustache game of June 9, 1999 is one of many, many memorable Mets ejection stories. And now thanks to Retrosheet and the magic of Newspapers.com , we have a convenient means for being able to share them. Ever since Retrosheet's David Smith recently announced that the Retrosheet ejection database was posted online , I've been a kid in a candy store. I've organized the data and done some lookups of media coverage around the games that interested me post. Those newspaper accounts fill in a lot of blanks. Without further ado (and with more work to do), here are some of my findings ...

The 'Duca of Earl (and walk-offs)

If I told you that the Mets had just obtained a guy who is a career .316 hitter with runners in scoring position? How about if I told you that the Mets just traded for a hitter who has consistently ranked among the toughest in baseball to strike out? Or if I mentioned that the Mets just dealt for a player who was selected to the NL All-Star team the last three seasons, with the last honor coming via a vote by his peers? So, although he's on the down side age wise, his throwing arm isn't as good as it used to be, and he doesn't provide much power, there are a lot of good things that Paul Lo Duca brings to the New York Mets. For example: He'll sacrifice his body for the good of the team The Dodgers and Braves squared off on August 23, 2002 and Lo Duca made an impact both on the start and finish of this game. Three pitches after being dusted by Greg Maddux, Lo Duca made him pay with a first-inning home run. The Braves rallied to tie the game, 3-3 in the ninth, but their bu...

Been There, Won That

The Dodgers had 19 hits in their loss to the Mets on Thursday night in a game that, no offense (pardon the ironic pun), was excruciating to watch for many, many reasons, none of which I feel like getting into at this hour. Willie Randolph summed it up in his press conference afterwards, saying simply "It's not fun!" I wonder if Tom Hanks, Alyssa Milano, Ray Romano and Kareeem Abdul-Jabaar (all in attendance) stuck around for the finish? I do wish to note briefly, again with the aid of Baseball-Reference, that the last time the Dodgers had 19 hits and lost a game, it was to the Mets. The difference between that game and this one was that this contest, of May 24, 1973, lasted an interminable 19 innings., with the Mets winning, 7-3. Rusty Staub's fifth hit of the game drove in the go-ahead run. Ken Boswell added an RBI single and Ed Kranepool salted the game away with a two-run double. Some other noteworthy anecdotes from a quick box score gleaning: * Like Thursday's...