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2009 MLB National League East Notebook
You can accuse the New York Mets of being very inconsistent in a lot of areas from not scoring runs, to not finding ways to win to just being an average situational hitting team.
But you can’t accuse them of giving outs away at the plate. Through the St. Louis series, the Mets had the fewest strikeouts in the big leagues with 379. Through their first 70 games, they have averaged just a little more than five strikeouts per game. That’s an amazing figure.
Really, the only guilty one has been third baseman David Wright who has fanned 70 times but has walked 41 times. But no one else on the roster has struck out more than 34 times and there five players with at least 120 at bats who have walked more or at least as many times as they have struck out.
PHILADELPHIA
Maybe they should demolish Citizens Bank Park. To be honest, it has not been any home field advantage for the Phillies.
The Phillies recently completed a homestand in which they lost their last six games to Toronto and Baltimore. They lost in a variety of fashions, blowouts, close and blowing late leads.
Philadelphia has a 13-22 home record. That is easily the worst record by any team that has a winning record. Milwaukee and Colorado are tied for the second-worst record at 17-15.
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ATLANTA
The saga of left-hander Tom Glavine reached perhaps a conclusion. Several weeks after being released by the Braves and with apparently no serious takers in the mix, Glavine recently announced that he was not going to pitch for the remainder of the 2009 season.
Glavine was coming off of shoulder surgery and had an up-and-down time with his rehab stint. But the 305-game winner, who probably was not treated as respectfully by Braves general manager Frank Wren as he should have been, was just not showing how strong or durable he was or that he could be.
Now, the question really becomes if Glavine decides to call it a career or not. He left the window open for a return in 2010. But that seems unlikely.
WASHINGTON
If teams are going to look at Nationals’ first baseman Nick Johnson as a trade commodity, they likely know what they are getting.
Johnson will bring a pretty good batting average but not a lot of power. Johnson was hitting .312 for the season and hit .289 and .290 in the 2006 and 2007 seasons. But he has never hit more than 23 home runs in any season.
Still, he is a consistent offensive player and has a good sense of where to drive the ball. He does have 13 doubles and two triples.
FLORIDA
Even though the Marlins moved above .500 for the first time since May 12, they ran into some bad news when closer Matt Lindstrom went on the disabled list with a sprained right elbow.
Lindstrom will not be allowed to throw a pitch for the next four weeks. But the Marlins may not see him until August.
It may be the best thing for Lindstrom because he has been really beaten up. Lindstrom has a 6.52 ERA despite collecting 14 saves. Lindstrom’s control has been a big problem with 20 walks through his first 29 innings.
By Kevin Lonnquist
MLBcenter.com Staff Writer
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