On the offday, Pelfrey and Niese are on
When the Mets closed camp March 2, Dan Warthen urged his pitchers to take advantage of the day off, even though three subsequent offdays were scheduled. "They won't be offdays," Warthen said. "Not really." (Note: days without games are called "offdays", not "days off." And I have no idea why.)
No game was scheduled today. So call it an offday and understand not everyone one was off. Mike Pelfrey, the strained muscle in his left leg healed, threw a bullpen session without limitations and now is fit to rejoin the rotation in its next turn.
Pelfrey is to pitch against the Nationals Saturday in Port St. Lucie. He will follow the first exhibition game start of Johan Santana by two days. And unless the sequence of starters unravels between now and Opening Day (April 6), he will follow Santana by two days and start the second game of the season April 8.
Jon Niese pitched four innings -- the first three were perfect -- against a team of Mets minor leaguers as part of his continuing audition for the No. 5 spot in the rotation. He allowed a walk and a hit that might have been scored an error if the game had been official. Niese throws again Monday on another misnomered offday. Such is the life of a rookie.
Then again, this whole exercise is a misnomer. We are in the fourth week of Spring Training. And spring begins March 20.
Niese, his curve ball already a big league pitch, has worked with Warthen and John Franco to improve his changeup. Franco, of course, made a living with his changeup. "John put it perfectly," Niese said. "It's like as soon as I want to throw a changeup, it's not a changeup. I've go to throw it like a fastball with a changeup grip."
Or as Franco says "Just throw a fastball with a changeup grip, then it's a changeup."
Franco learned his changeup from Dave Wallace, later the Mets pitching coach, when he and Wallace were with the Dodgers in the 80's. After Franco moved to the Reds during the '83 season, former Reds starter Fred Norman helped him refine the pitch.
Verses VI
This first one seems appropriate today
The game's had three Francos
All played at Shea
John, Matt and Julio
Were in that array
Frank Robby is one
The past overlooks
A brilliant career
Just check out the books
Two D's for Drysdale
Who pitched hitters tight
He'd hit his own brother
His mother, he might
Case sensitivity
An English professor wrote these words on a chalkboard -- "A woman without her man is nothing" -- and then asked his students to punctuate the sentence properly.
The males in the class wrote:
"A woman, without her man, is nothing."
The females in the class wrote:
"A woman: without her, man is nothing."
I present that probably apocryphal anecdote to make this point. I can't respond to e-mails that I can't understand. This one arrived Monday:
"can't wait to see the mets collapse because they are so cheap to not sign manny was a stupid move because he is so much better than anyone they have on their lineup they should spend the money they got for selling tickets to city field."
Somewhere in that pile of lower-case letters and spaces is a thought. But without upper-case letters or punctuation, it can't deciphered. So please, at least punctuate if you want to make a point.
Origins
And if someone knows the origin of "offday" or "road trip," please advise.
Wouldn't "trip" suffice? But in baseball we have roadtrips, not trips. I'm
No game was scheduled today. So call it an offday and understand not everyone one was off. Mike Pelfrey, the strained muscle in his left leg healed, threw a bullpen session without limitations and now is fit to rejoin the rotation in its next turn.
Pelfrey is to pitch against the Nationals Saturday in Port St. Lucie. He will follow the first exhibition game start of Johan Santana by two days. And unless the sequence of starters unravels between now and Opening Day (April 6), he will follow Santana by two days and start the second game of the season April 8.
Jon Niese pitched four innings -- the first three were perfect -- against a team of Mets minor leaguers as part of his continuing audition for the No. 5 spot in the rotation. He allowed a walk and a hit that might have been scored an error if the game had been official. Niese throws again Monday on another misnomered offday. Such is the life of a rookie.
Then again, this whole exercise is a misnomer. We are in the fourth week of Spring Training. And spring begins March 20.
Niese, his curve ball already a big league pitch, has worked with Warthen and John Franco to improve his changeup. Franco, of course, made a living with his changeup. "John put it perfectly," Niese said. "It's like as soon as I want to throw a changeup, it's not a changeup. I've go to throw it like a fastball with a changeup grip."
Or as Franco says "Just throw a fastball with a changeup grip, then it's a changeup."
Franco learned his changeup from Dave Wallace, later the Mets pitching coach, when he and Wallace were with the Dodgers in the 80's. After Franco moved to the Reds during the '83 season, former Reds starter Fred Norman helped him refine the pitch.
Verses VI
This first one seems appropriate today
The game's had three Francos
All played at Shea
John, Matt and Julio
Were in that array
Frank Robby is one
The past overlooks
A brilliant career
Just check out the books
Two D's for Drysdale
Who pitched hitters tight
He'd hit his own brother
His mother, he might
Case sensitivity
An English professor wrote these words on a chalkboard -- "A woman without her man is nothing" -- and then asked his students to punctuate the sentence properly.
The males in the class wrote:
"A woman, without her man, is nothing."
The females in the class wrote:
"A woman: without her, man is nothing."
I present that probably apocryphal anecdote to make this point. I can't respond to e-mails that I can't understand. This one arrived Monday:
"can't wait to see the mets collapse because they are so cheap to not sign manny was a stupid move because he is so much better than anyone they have on their lineup they should spend the money they got for selling tickets to city field."
Somewhere in that pile of lower-case letters and spaces is a thought. But without upper-case letters or punctuation, it can't deciphered. So please, at least punctuate if you want to make a point.
Origins
And if someone knows the origin of "offday" or "road trip," please advise.
Wouldn't "trip" suffice? But in baseball we have roadtrips, not trips. I'm
Marty, I suppose an "offday" is a day with no game scheduled, though other related activities may be scheduled or occur...like a team meeting, batting practice, etc.
A "day off" is a certain kind of offday, like the day before, or the day after, the All Star game...no baseball activity scheduled, no BP, you can visit the family, sleep in, carouse, etc.
Then of course, there is the fearful "Mad-offday," like the one Fred "Skill Sets" Wilpon had a few months ago, when he learned that his $300 million Met Money stache had vanished. A "Mad-offday" sent Billionaire Bernie to jail, and Manny Being Manny to LA LA Land.
By the way, I agree with the women: "A woman: without her, man is nothing."
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