Rainout, And Cory Lidle

The death yesterday of Cory Lidle is obviously a shock and a tragedy, and my condolences go out to his family; though how anyone can be allowed to fly that close to Manhattan is incomprehensible to me. Let’s just be glad that Lidle and his flight instructor (great work there, by the way) miraculously didn’t kill some poor schmuck who was sitting around in their apartment minding their own god damn business.

The rainout yesterday kinda blows for the Mets. It lets La Russa throw Carpenter out there for Game 2 instead of Game 3, though we still won’t see him more than twice. It also allows La Russa to push Suppan back to Game 3 in St. Louis, where Suppan’s ERA is 2 full runs better (5.36 ERA on the road vs. 3.18 in St. Louis).

The other problem is that, with no off day between Games 2 and 3, Glavine would start Game 5 on only three days rest, not than his usual four. But if you hold Glavine until Game 6, then you’re pitching him on five days rest, which is actually too much; never mind the fact that you’d have to find somebody to pitch on Sunday (Oliver? Heilman? Mitch?) I know that Tommy is one of those pitchers who likes to keep on schedule, but can’t find his record in games started with short/extra rest anywhere.

The lack of an off day until after Game 5 is also going to increase the importance of the bullpens, and the Mets definitely have the edge here:



The Mets ‘pen has the edge in total IP, ERA, strikeouts, walks, and HR per game, as well as Reliever Win Expectancy Added. WXRL is a fancy nerd stat that estimates how many more wins a reliever earned for his team over what a replacement-level pitcher would have over the same amount of innings. Basically, the Mets bullpen kicks ass. If it comes down to the bullpens, I am very confident.