Strikeless In Seattle

In case you missed it, former Met "pitcher" Oliver Perez signed a minor league deal with the Seattle Mariners yesterday.  That cheer you heard from the Pacific Northwest was from Starbucks, who can now blame people's jitters on Perez's performances instead of their highly-caffeinated drinks.

Last year, the Mets paid Perez nearly $12 million to play minor league ball in the Washington Nationals' organization.  In 15 starts for AA-Harrisburg, Perez went 3-5 with a 3.09 ERA.  The usually erratic Perez found his control in Double-A, as he walked 27 batters in 75⅔ innings for Harrisburg.  However, Perez has not won a game in the majors since August 18, 2009, or 44 walks ago.

We're not sure why the Mariners chose to sign Ollie, but perhaps it has something to do with their recent left-handed pitching acquisitions.

In 2007, southpaw Erik Bedard had a spectacular season for the Baltimore Orioles, going 13-5 with a 3.16 ERA and 221 strikeouts.   That off-season, the Mariners sent five players to Baltimore to acquire Bedard and he rewarded his new team by winning 15 games.  Unfortunately, it took him four years to collect those 15 victories, as repeated trips to the disabled list held Bedard to six wins in 2008, five wins in 2009, no wins in 2010 (Bedard missed the entire 2010 due to injury) and four wins in 2011.

Following the 2009 season, the Mariners went shopping for another lefty, Cliff Lee.  Lee had just helped the Phillies advance to the World Series, dominating opposing hitters along the way.  Naturally, the Mariners traded three young players to Philadelphia for Lee, hoping he'd bring sunnier days to Seattle.  Lee won a total of eight games as a Mariner, as he spent the first month of the 2010 season on the disabled list and was traded to Seattle's division rival in Texas, where he helped the Rangers advance to their first World Series.

Every two years, the Mariners try to bring in a lefty who has just completed a tremendous season.  They did it after the 2007 season and went back for seconds in 2009.  Now that the 2011 season has been tucked away, it's time for them to strike again.  But since Bedard and Lee weren't able to repeat their previous successes after becoming Mariners, perhaps all Seattle needed to do was sign a southpaw who had no expectations; someone who had fallen so far off the radar that even the Nationals didn't feel he was good enough for their Double-A team.

Seattle hasn't made the playoffs in over a decade.  They've tried to improve their team by adding quality left-handed starters to pitch in spacious Safeco Field.  That hasn't worked.  So they added Oliver Perez instead.

It could be worse.  They could have signed Aaron Heilman as well.  Oh, wait.  They did.

So the Mariners' minor league system will now have the pitcher who threw the first pitch in Game 7 of the 2006 NLCS and the pitcher who threw the worst pitch in Game 7 of the 2006 NLCS.  Looks like the road to the major leagues has just been made easier for all of the other pitching prospects in the Mariners' system.

Where Are The 2006 Mets Now?

Don't let the title mislead you.  This post is not meant to inform you on what members of the Mets' last playoff team are up to.  On the contrary, it's meant to show you why that team might not have been as good as we thought they were at the time.

A total of 49 players suited up for the Mets in 2006.  As of this writing, only four of those players played for the Mets in 2011.  Those players were Jose Reyes, David Wright, Carlos Beltran and Mike Pelfrey.  However, Carlos Beltran was traded to the San Francisco Giants in July and Jose Reyes might have played his last game as a Met, leaving Wright and Pelfrey as the only two members of the '06 NL East champions who stand to be Mets in 2012.

Let's put it this way.  If Wright and Pelfrey are the only players left come Opening Day 2012, that'd mean the 2006 Mets would have the same number of players on the 2012 team as they have on the DL.  That doesn't stand for disabled list.  That stands for deceased list, as Jose Lima (four starts in '06) and Geremi Gonzalez (three starts in '06) are no longer with us.

The potential for having only two players left out of 49 a mere five years after that team steamrolled their way through the 2006 regular season is unusual in baseball, even in this day and age when free agents leave their teams frequently.  The 1996 Yankees, a team that won a World Series ten years before the Mets failed to get to one, had more players left on their 2011 roster (Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada, Mariano Rivera) than the Mets might have next April on Opening Day from their 2006 team.

But contrary to what it appears to be, this post is not about the few players left on the team from the 2006 roster.  It's not just that most of the players from 2006 are no longer members of the Mets.  It's that these players are no longer in major league baseball, period.

Of the 49 players who played for the 2006 squad, only 14 played in the major leagues in 2011.  Of those 14 players, two of them finished the season in the minor leagues (Aaron F. Heilman, Lastings Milledge) and another (Chris Woodward) collected only ten at-bats in the majors after spending the majority of the season playing at the Triple-A level.

It would take longer for you to read the list of 35 players from the 2006 Mets who did not make an appearance at the major league level in 2011 than it did for Steve Trachsel to deliver a pitch to home plate when there were runners on base, but we're going to do it anyway.  Here they are, in alphabetical order, with their current whereabouts and/or statuses.

• Brian Bannister (retired)
• Chad Bradford (retired)
• Carlos Delgado (retired)
• Victor Diaz (out of majors since 2007; played in Mexico in 2011)
• Mike Difelice (out of majors since 2008; managed Kingsport Mets in 2009 and 2010)
• Pedro Feliciano (signed two-year deal w/Yankees in 2011; might never pitch for them due to injuries)
• Cliff Floyd (out of majors since 2009; broadcaster for FOX Sports Florida)
• Bartolome Fortunato (out of majors since 2006; played in Canada in 2011)
• Julio Franco (waiting for Omar Minaya's call from San Diego)
• Tom Glavine (retired in non-devastating fashion)
• Geremi Gonzalez (R.I.P.)
• Shawn Green (retired; on book signing tours for his new book)
• Anderson Hernandez (played w/Astros' AAA team in 2011)
• Orlando Hernandez (played w/Nationals' AA team in 2010, left the team to walk the Earth)
• Roberto Hernandez (retired)
• Jorge Julio (out of majors since 2009; bouncing around in Pittsburgh's minor league organization)
• Ricky Ledee (retired)
• Jose Lima (R.I.P.)
• Paul Lo Duca (out of majors since 2008; serves as a horse racing analyst)
• John Maine (left Rockies' AAA team in 2011; might be walking the Earth with Orlando Hernandez)
• Eli Marrero (out of majors since 2006; serves as batting coach for Reds' rookie affiliate)
• Pedro Martinez (retired 10 minutes ago)
• Kaz Matsui (out of majors since 2010; played in Nippon Professional Baseball league in 2011)
• Henry Owens (out of majors since 2007; suspended for HGH in 2009 and hasn't played since)
• Oliver Perez (played w/Nationals' AA team in 2011; not good enough to make AAA team)
• Royce Ring (played w/Mariners and Red Sox AAA teams in 2011)
• Duaner Sanchez (out of majors since 2009; played in Mexico and Independent League in 2010)
• Alay Soler (retired)
• Kelly Stinnett (retired)
• Steve Trachsel (retired)
• Michael Tucker (out of majors since 2006; played for various independent teams since 2009)
• Jose Valentin (out of majors since 2007; player-owner for Santurce Crabbers in Puerto Rican league)
• Billy Wagner (retired)
• Dave Williams (out of majors since 2007; last played professionally w/Nationals' AAA team in 2009)
• Victor Zambrano (don't ask)

Aaron F. Heilman and Lastings Milledge both ended their seasons at the minor league level in 2011.  Chris Woodward was lucky to get a late September call-up.  That leaves only 11 players from the 2006 Mets who played exclusively in the major leagues in 2011.  One of those 11 players (Ramon Castro) only played in 23 games with the White Sox in 2011, missing the majority of the season due to a right hand fracture.

That leaves only Heath Bell, Carlos Beltran, Endy Chavez, Philip Humber, Guillermo Mota, Xavier Nady, Darren Oliver, Mike Pelfrey, Jose Reyes and David Wright as the only players from the 2006 NL East champions to play exclusively in the majors only five years after they were teammates on the Mets.

Most of the players from 2006 are either retired, dead or Victor Zambrano.  It's also stunning to note that a large number of players who were good enough to be part of a division winner in 2006 were no longer worthy of playing in the major leagues just five years later.

If you recall, both Pedro Martinez and Orlando "The Dookie" Hernandez were scratched from the postseason roster in 2006 because of injuries.  Neither pitched well after 2006 (we don't recognize Pedro's renaissance with the Phillies in 2009 because that would be saying something positive about a member of the Phillies, which is taboo here).

Also, for those who blame Beltran for the Mets' failure to advance to the World Series in 2006, let me remind you that he wasn't the only Met to strike out with the bat on his shoulders in the ninth inning of Game 7.  Before Beltran, Cliff Floyd took strike three as a pinch-hitter with the tying runs on base and nobody out.  That's the same Cliff Floyd who was too hurt to start any of the games in the NLCS after Game 1.

The 2006 Mets steamrolled their way through the 162-game regular season.  But that team was full of players who were either one injury away from ending their careers or no-names who had no business being in the majors.  What do you know?  Only five years later, a great number of those players have suffered career-altering injuries or haven't sniffed the major leagues since Shea Stadium was still around.

A winning team needs a mix of veterans to guide the kids along.  But the 2006 Mets depended too much on veterans.  Now, those veterans are no longer around, succumbing to injuries and Father Time.  That has forced players who are still kids themselves (see Reyes, Jose and Wright, David) to be the team leaders.  Given those facts, is anyone surprised that the Mets have now trudged their way through three consecutive losing seasons? 

NLCS Thoughts: Haven't We Seen This Before?

So here we are on the off day between Games 5 and 6 of the National League Championship Series, with the St. Louis Cardinals leading the series, three games to two, over the Milwaukee Brewers.  With one victory over the Brewers in Milwaukee, the Cardinals will win their 18th National League pennant and advance to the World Series to face the winner of the Detroit-Texas ALCS.

As we wait for Game 6 on Sunday, I can't help but think that something is very familiar about this NLCS.  Repressed memories from five years ago are suddenly finding their way back into my consciousness, as the clouds that hid the nightmares of October 2006 are now lifting away.  Oh, yes.  The Cardinals have done this before.

 It's not Halloween yet, but this picture always gives me nightmares.

In 2006, St. Louis didn't clinch a playoff berth until their final regular season game, taking the NL Central when the Astros lost to the Atlanta Braves.  This year, the Cardinals clinched the NL wild card berth on the final day of the regular season after they Philadelphia Phillies defeated the Atlanta Braves in Game No. 162.

The San Diego Padres repeated as NL West champions in 2006 and held home field advantage over the Cardinals in the NLDS.  But St. Louis dispatched of the Padres in the Division Series and went on to face the 97-win Mets in the NLCS.  In 2011, Philadelphia repeated as NL East champions and held the home field edge over St. Louis, but the Cardinals knocked the Phillies out of the playoffs and advanced to the NLCS to face the 96-win Milwaukee Brewers.

The Mets finished the 2006 season with the best home record in the National League, going 50-31 at Shea Stadium during the regular season and winning all of their home games in the NLDS.  The Brewers ended the 2011 season with the best home record in the major leagues, finishing with a 57-24 regular season mark at Miller Park, before winning all three of their home games in the Division Series.

The Mets won Game 1 of the 2006 NLCS over the Cardinals, but lost the second game at home, sending the series back to St. Louis in a 1-1 tie.  The Brewers took Game 1 of the 2011 NLCS against the Cardinals, but lost Game 2 at home as the series shifted back to St. Louis all even at one.

St. Louis scored early and often against the Mets in Game 3 of the 2006 NLCS, pushing across five runs in the first two innings.  They would not score again after the second inning, but were able to hold on to win the game and take a two games to one edge in the series.  In Game 3 of the 2011 NLCS, the Cardinals scored four runs in the first inning against Milwaukee and did not score again.  However, that early outburst was all they needed, as they fought off the pesky Brew Crew and took a 2-1 lead in the series.

In 2006, the Mets stormed back in St. Louis to take Game 4, evening up the series at two games apiece and guaranteeing themselves a trip back to New York.  Milwaukee recovered from their two straight losses in 2011, defeating St. Louis in Game 4 to knot up their series and assuring themselves of a return trip to Milwaukee.

Hoping to come back to Shea Stadium with the series lead, the Mets fell to the Cardinals in the critical Game 5.  For all the success the Mets had at Shea Stadium, they would need to win two consecutive games there to win the 2006 National League pennant.  Fresh off their series-tying victory, the Brewers lost to St. Louis in Game 5 of the 2011 NLCS, putting them in a similar position where they would have to win two games at home to advance to the World Series.

Now do you see why this year's National League Championship Series is reminiscent of the events in 2006?  Of course, the Mets went on to win Game 6 of the 2006 NLCS at Shea Stadium before losing the seventh and deciding game, becoming the first team since the 1975 Boston Red Sox to lose a Game 7 at home after winning Game 6 there.

 The end result of the 2006 NLCS was heartbreaking to Mets fans, but this play gave us all hope.

History has repeated itself throughout late September and early October for the St. Louis Cardinals this year.  Heck, even the Detroit Tigers are two wins away from the World Series.  If you recall, after eliminating the Mets in Game 7 of the 2006 NLCS, the Cardinals went on to defeat those same Detroit Tigers to win their tenth World Series championship.

Contrary to everything I've led you to believe in this post, I don't believe in deja vu.  But if Ryan Braun or Prince Fielder takes a called third strike against Jason Motte in the ninth inning of Game 7 of this year's NLCS, I may have to change my mind, especially since Motte wasn't even the closer for the Cardinals until September, which is the same month Adam Wainwright took over closing duties in 2006.

Uh, okay.  Maybe there is something to this deja vu thing after all.