roadtrip roundup

Roadtrip Roundup

Obviously a great roadtrip at 9-1. Stories abound about how great the

Mets have looked. I even had to chime in with my onionesque take on

how the Mets look.

Some other notes:

Wright leads the NL in two-strike hits. This guy is incredible with

two strikes. I wondered about him in the 5 slot, but it's worked

perfectly, because you feel pressure with Beltran and Delgado, and

then Wright is possibly the best all around at-bat of them all, so by

the time you get to him he can really feast ...

Guy (forgot his name) was killing Trachsel on SNY Daily News show.

Going so far to say he thinks Trachsel might be the guy to fall out

the rotation. Which is idiocy. Trachsel has been as good as Glavine

with his overall numbers in NY the last couple years. And he's been

weak this season, but not egregiously so to erase his track record. He

mentions Trachs W-L record, but record is meaningless when evaluating

quality of a pitcher. well not meaningless, but not as important as

ERA and other qualitative peripherals.

A lot of 3B comparisons going around since Arod is getting beat up,

and Wright is on top of the city. I said at the start of the season I

take Wright over ARod. Arod is just too self-conscious in a big spot.

Running over the series -- The Dodgers were better than I thought.

Their lineup had some potency. Beating up on Pedro and Glavine in a

pitchers park is definitely impressive. They have a lot of kids

playing, not sure what I think. I think they're in an interesting spot

and they need some quality leadership to groom the youngsters and make

the right deals and signings to build a team. If I was them I might

try and push hard and see if you can get Bobby Cox out of Atlanta.

Maybe offer him a GM spot. I don't know about getting rid of

Depodesta. He didn't get enough time.

Arizona obviously looked bamboozled from the Jasom Grimsley HGH

scandal. Tough to evaluate them. They have Brandon Webb. Also have

some kids. I'm an Orlando Hudson fan. Don't know much on Conor

Jackson, but he had solid numbers. I know they have Drew just about

ready. Like the Dodgers they can probably go either way.

Philadelphia had no excuse of course. Fully healthy now (no Rowand

last time) they looked horrible when they needed to play well. You

lose some respect for Charlie Manuel the way his team looked for this

series. Fundamental errors all over the place. And in game 2, a must

win with your ace on the Myers and you sit Burrell, the guy who has

been the biggest Mets killer possibly in the history of the franchise.

You sit him??? After a loss, when you must have a win. Then Burrell

hits two homeruns the next day. That makes you look bad. I don't want

to bury Manuel too much. I think he's a plus manager. Decent. But he's

done some bonehead stuff this season. And philly doesn't look good.

In terms of red flags, obviously not many, but Wagner in his first

save was throwing 98-100 on the gun, then later in the outing he

dropped to 91-94. And when he came in today he was at 91-94 and

throwing sliders. He still hasn't been quite as dominant and the force

we were hoping for. The numbers look good, but his performance is not