Archive for the ‘Blog Entries’ Category

So how about that Rod Barajas signing!? In the unaired episode of NYMetscast, I talked about how much I loved the Barajas signing. Ted was more apathetic than I was, but even I didn’t think Barajas would be this good this early.

Besides the power bat, now a team-leading seven bombs, Rod has been excellent behind the plate. Not that this is saying much, but Barajas is going to put up the best season at catcher for the Mets since the 2006 version of Paul Lo Duca.

At worst the guy is a threat at the plate and when you’re hitting eighth, you can’t expect much more than that.

Ok, now that my love fest for Barajas is done, nice game again for John Maine. Have to be encouraged by the starting pitching over the last two nights after Pelfrey and Santana stunk up the joint in Philly.

Jose Reyes is starting to come alive, which is huge for the Mets. Second straight night Reyes delivered a big hit. Hopefully this is the real start of his season.

David Wright hit a moonshot in the 4th. Looks like his power is back to where it was before 2009.

Just a huge win for the Mets tonight. It would have been a shame if the back to back homers cost them another game and extended this losing streak. After an already fragile psyche, I can’t imagine what another loss tonight would have meant to this team. But luckily thanks to Rod Barajas, we don’t have to worry about that.

Not even a second after thinking to myself, “Wow, Manny Acosta reminds me of Guillermo Mota a whole lot” Laynce Nix homered to win the game in the 11th. Like Mota, Acosta is tall, lanky and has great stuff, yet he stinks.

So another night and another devastating loss for the Mets. You really have to wonder about this team’s psyche after tonight. They were certainly frustrated after this weekend’s poor performance and maybe it was just me but they looked more focused tonight. At the same time, they looked very, very tight…especially in clutch situations. The Mets were 2-10 with RISP and blew some golden opportunities to score runs.

Besides Acosta, the pitching staff looked good tonight. Ollie Perez had a solid outing, giving up two runs in six innings. Of course for the third straight day, after the opposing pitcher gets on, he scores. The Mets really need to focus against the other teams’ pitchers. I remember writing and talking about this in years’ past too. But all in all, a solid outing for Ollie. Jose Reyes should have made that play on Joey Votto’s single anyway.

Mejia, Nieve and Feliciano were awesome. You really have to feel good about the bullpen. I can’t believe I’m saying that and a month from now I might feel the exact opposite, but for now the ‘pen is getting the job done for the most part.

If only the offense could pick it up. They had a good three days in a row, but besides that they’ve been brutal. Even during the eight-game streak, they only scored some runs in the last three of the streak.

Tomorrow night it’s Bronson Arroyo for the Reds. The guy is not very good but to no one’s surprise he destroys the Mets. Since 2007, Arroyo is 4-1 with a 2.61 ERA against the Mets.

We’ll see what the offense can do. I actually feel confident John Maine is going to be solid. The Mets can ill afford to go through a four-game slide after the nice winning streak.

What a brutal 36 hours after an incredible week and a half. As good as you felt on Friday night, you have to be very discouraged after the 21-5 beatdown the Mets have received the last two days.

Mike Pelfrey and Johan Santana were not good the past two days and the most upsetting part is they both gave up monster innings when the damage should have been severely limited.

Pelfrey had some bad luck contribute to his poor inning yesterday. But Santana only has himself to blame. The Phillies scored nine runs with two outs in the fourth inning. Nine!!! And the pitcher came up and walked. Simply inexcusable. Johan has been such a stud this year but come on. You can’t blow up like that.

Equally as upsetting was the complete lack of fight the Mets showed once they fell behind the last two days. Doing nothing against Roy Halladay is acceptable, but how did they only manage one baserunner over the last five innings tonight? That’s really pathetic. I’m sorry. But good teams do their best in the next at-bat after their opposition scores. The Phillies did that twice tonight. The Mets fell asleep. Not a good sign.

No question the clubhouse is more cohesive and the team is playing harder and smarter than they have in the past. But you still have to wonder if there’s some sort of mental block that hangs over this team. It will be really interesting to see what happens in Cincinnati. The Reds are a tough team so if the Mets can win a road series, I think they will have moved on from this disastrous weekend. If the Reds steamroll through the Mets, then it’s time to be concerned again.

The Mets picked the perfect time to play their best game of the season. There were so many encouraging things to take from tonight and I’ll try to keep it brief or else I’ll just keep going on and on.

Really for the first time all season, I suddenly feel like maybe, just maybe, this team has a shot to do something special this season. I know everyone talks about chemistry being overrated and I agree, but there is something different about this team and Jenry Mejia proved why.

After two Mets were drilled with pitches, Mejia retaliated by bruising Chase Utley with a fastball in the 8th inning. The past few years I was screaming about how the Mets never did this kind of stuff. Now they finally are. And then Mejia completely overpowered Ryan Howard to end the inning. It was a sweet exclamation point.

And it’s not just that. There’s a certain toughness about this team that we haven’t seen in a while. Guys are hustling and playing really strong defense. Jeff Franceour is a man. I’m not saying he’s better than Carlos Beltran, but no way Beltran stays in the game after colliding with the wall like Frenchy did in the 2nd inning. Franceour might not be the greatest player in the world, but he’s gritty and the Mets need that because they have talent elsewhere.

Jon Niese was dominant tonight. That was the best secondary stuff I’ve seen from any of the Mets pitchers. His off speed pitches were filthy.

I like Rod Barajas. I know the dude swings at everything, but he’s a great defensive catcher and he’s at least a power threat at the plate. He might hit .200 over the course of the season but he’ll get you 20+ homers.

I’m really excited for tomorrow’s game. Pelfrey vs. Halladay should be a terrific matchup. It will be interesting to see who steps up tomorrow. Pelfrey has been baseball’s best pitcher this season, but Halladay is considered the best in the game. Things got testy at the end of tonight’s game. It’s going to be a great way to start May.

I can’t believe the Mets have  just won six in a row and might be in first place when I wake up tomorrow morning.  A week ago this team looked like absolute garbage.  And somehow right now they’re 12-9 and riding a 8-1 homestand against three teams that were projected to be pretty good when the season started.

Obviously the pitching staff deserves massive praise for being the catalyst behind this streak.  Over Mike Pelfrey and Johan Santana’s last three starts each, they’ve given up a combined one run.  That’s pretty ridiculous.  Forty percent of the games the Mets are playing they are giving themselves an excellent chance to win.  And clearly Pelfrey’s progress so far has been the best part of this season.

The bullpen has also continued to be real solid.  I thought the Igarashi injury would hurt them a lot, but they’re getting by with Nieve, Feliciano and a super steady Takahashi.  The Mets seemed to go with Ted’s theory of throw a bunch of stuff against a wall and see what sticks and so far it’s worked like magic.  Even Mejia has looked better although I’d still prefer to see him starting down in the minors.

Ike Davis has been a huge lift for this team too.  I know it looks like a coincidence that the team has gone on its hot streak right as Davis was called up, but just think about it.  Before he was on the team, the Mets arguably had the worst offensive and defensive first basemen in all of baseball.  That’s a pretty tough position to be terrible at because you expect some offense from first base.  Now, Davis provides average production offensively and defensively and that makes a big difference.  I fully expect Davis to hit .270 with a .350 OBP and 15-20 HRs along with 75 RBI.  He really extends the depth of the lineup.

The rest of the lineup has picked it up, but it hasn’t been great.  David Wright was awesome tonight, but he had really been struggling lately.  Jason Bay has been better recently, but he still doesn’t have a homer.  Jose Reyes has been all right.  But honestly if this team is going to stay above .500 until Carlos Beltran returns (and who knows when that will be) the offense will have to be much, much better.

I don’t want to sound like a negative nellie.  This team deserves all the praise it’s been getting thanks to this streak.  They’re playing really sound baseball and the pitching staff has been consistently solid.  But they’ve also gotten really lucky and the teams they’ve been playing have looked like little league teams at times.  That won’t keep up.  Although I’m really looking forward to seeing what will happen this weekend in Philadelphia.  That will be a true test for the Mets.  Maybe Reyes, Bay and Wright really turn it on and the pitching does enough.  That would be awesome, but I honestly think they need Beltran back if they have any hopes of October baseball this season.

I find myself torn lately.  No it’s not about whether Jose Reyes should hit leadoff or third in the order.  It’s about who deserves the blame for the disaster that is the New York Mets.  If you were looking at how to run a franchise into the ground, the Mets have underperformed at every single level of the organization.

Ownership – I touched on this in my last post, but I’m surprised the Wilpons aren’t taking more heat right now.  I’ve read reports that state the Mets were the most profitable team in baseball last season and it makes sense.  Their ticket sales were strong all season, they locked up a lot of their sponsorship dollars before the market crash, concession and parking dollars were flowing and they have their own TV network.  I think it’s easy to assume the Mets easily made over $100 million in profit last season.

Meanwhile the team on the field was putting up one of the most disappointing seasons in franchise history and Jeff Wilpon called 2009’s performance “unacceptable”.  So what do the Wilpons do?  They cut payroll by $20 million, leave the same GM and manager in place and bring in one major free agent and that’s it.  What!?  How do you call last season “unacceptable” and then do next to nothing in the offseason!?  And how do you justify that to your fans?  I’m shocked no one is calling them out on this right now.  And for people that say “Well the Mets payroll is still among the highest in baseball.”  Then explain why the Mets spent less money their draft last year than any other team in baseball.

General Manager – I won’t go into too much detail on Omar Minaya because everyone has chronicled that pretty well.  Omar has made mistakes all over the place and it certainly seems like he had at least a little more money to do something this offseason.  Why didn’t he sign one of the Ben Sheets, Joel Pineiro, Jason Marquis group?  And they couldn’t upgrade at any position besides left field?  A lot of that blame falls on Omar even if he was hamstrung for dollars.  Look at how much talent the Jets have assembled this offseason without adding too much payroll.

Manager – I think Jerry is getting a pass as well.  The guy has been a brutal manager.  Keith was defending him the other night saying Jerry is a good manager.  Someone needs to show me how that’s possible.  He brings in Fernando Tatis to pinch run last night in the 10th after the count is 2-2 and then is forced to use Alex Cora to pinch hit since he’s the only guy left on the bench besides the backup catcher.

Everyone said the team needed to get off to a hot start and Jerry is the guy to motivate these players to do so.  He’s failed to motivate for two straight seasons now.  And then he said his players were “unprepared” on Sunday.  How is that even possible in the first week of the season after what’s happened the past few years?  Jerry deserves a lot of blame but it’s true that it wouldn’t matter who’s the manager before there’s been so many failures by ownership and the GM.  And of course a lot of blame falls on the next group.

Players – No one else to blame for last night’s 1-12 with RISP.  They’re hitting about .150 with RISP for the season.  You can certainly fault Jerry for Sunday’s performance, but if you can’t get motivated to tee off on Livan Hernandez, then maybe you shouldn’t be in the Major Leagues.  The Mets might not have a ton of talent right now, but there’s really no way they should be less than .500.  Why can’t the starters get ahead of the count?  Why is seemingly everyone’s velocity way down?  Why can’t guys move over the runners when it’s 1st and 2nd and no one out?  Has there been a single clutch hit all season?  The players deserve a huge chunk of the blame just like ownership and management do.

Now what’s your take?

First of all, I want to wish everyone well and I apologize for the lack of content lately. I was away this week and didn’t watch a game until Friday night. I’ll try to keep the posts going and hopefully do a show in the near future.

As for the Mets, about as awful a start as you could possibly have. After a disappointing series loss to the Marlins, the Mets could ill afford to lose another series to the Nats. And of course…that’s exactly what they did.

This weekend was absolutely brutal. There’s no way they should have lost on Saturday with guys on base every single inning it seemed like. And then today was a complete no-show. How do you lose a Santana vs. Livan matchup!? You should win that game every single time.

As for the issues with the team right now, it pretty much boils down to situational hitting. Just like it has been for the past few years, the Mets are allergic to “clutch” hits. The starting pitching has been all right except for two poor starts and the bullpen has done its job.

The offense has been terrible though. And well…who didn’t see that coming. Everyone wrote about how the Mets needed to get more offense and they failed to do anything besides bring in Jason Bay. When you factor in that they were losing Carlos Delgado, it was pretty much a wash.

I know it’s tough to kill the Wilpons because the Mets payroll is still among the highest in the majors, but why were they penny pinching this past season? The team was terrible last year and they basically bring back the same squad. And the Mets spent less money on the draft last year than any other team in baseball. The Mets should be outspending nearly everyone in the draft and free agency, especially after being the most profitable team in baseball last year thanks to the new stadium.

There’s really no excuse to put out a product that’s anything less than the absolute best. Why didn’t they go out and sign another starter, reliever and hitter on the cheap (less than 20 million total for all 3)!? They could certainly afford to do all three, but the Wilpons felt this team would be good enough to draw the box office revenue. So until fans stop going to Citi Field, the Wilpons won’t spend any more money than they have to. I mean why they didn’t fire Jerry Manuel and Omar Minaya in the offseason were just more cost-saving moves.

I do predict, however, that Manuel won’t make it to the All-Star break and Omar might not be far behind. The Mets have a very difficult rest of April and I could see this season spiraling out of control very quickly. They don’t really have an “easy” game until May 10th when they host the Nationals again. And we just saw what happened this weekend against the Nats.

Two things I have liked so far. The first is the new Mets museum. I was at the stadium today and had a chance to check out the museum. It’s awesome. I highly recommend everyone getting out there early to take a look.  For about 30 minutes, you’ll forget how bad the current team is.

And second is Jeff Franceour. The guy has looked incredible so far this year. If he keeps it up, Carlos Beltran comes back within a month’s time and they get someone who can hit a little at first base (i.e. Daniel Murphy, Ike Davis, or Chris Carter) maybe the offense will fall in line.

But all in all, pretty scary first week. The pitching staff, arguably the biggest question mark going into the season, performed admirably and the bullpen was stellar. Yet the Mets sit at 2-4 with a road trip to Colorado and St. Louis opening Tuesday. Yikes.

My hope was that the Mets would play the “nobody believes in us” card and surprise everyone this season.  Through the first week of the season, it looks like everyone was right.

So Ted and I recorded a show just now and the whole recording got messed up. For some reason, it recorded Ted and not me. I recently got a new laptop and haven’t done a show since, so something must have be off on the settings. I apologize to everyone and especially Ted for wasting his time.

Over the weekend, I’ll try and transcribe for those that are interested in hearing Ted’s take. We talked about the offseason, Jose Reyes’ spot in the batting order, the rotation, bullpen and Jenrry Mejia. Needless to say I’m disappointed this didn’t work because it was a good show, but we’ll figure out a work around and I’ll fix everything so we can do another show before the season starts.

I did happen to mention at the end of the show that I’m not sure how frequently I’ll be able to record podcasts moving forward. My free time is much more limited now, so I’ll try to do podcasts every couple of weeks during the season. I will however keep posting almost daily so keep commenting on the site and sending me e-mails.

Al, thanks for encouraging me to make a post and do a show.  It’s good to know I’m wanted.  I’m not sure exactly when a show will happen, but I’m promising something within the next few weeks.  I hope everyone is doing well and is excited for 2010.  Here are just some of my thoughts on the Mets’ offseason so far.

It’s been relatively slow up until this week, but over the last seven days the Mets added Jason Bay and Kelvim Escobar.  While I’m not crazy about Bay, I do think it was a needed move.  I would have much preferred Matt Holliday, but we’ll have to see what he winds up getting.  If it’s 8 years, 120 million as has been reported, then the Mets were right for signing Bay to a 4-year, 66 million dollar deal.  I think 4 years for a guy of Bay’s caliber is worth it.  The question is what are the terms of the vesting option.  If it’s averaging 140 games a year, then I really like this deal.  I would think if Bay is playing in that many games over the next four seasons, he will be well worth the 66 million.

The Mets absolutely needed a bat for the middle of the order.  A lot of skeptics were writing the Mets should have split the dollars over three or four players on one-year deals, but I don’t know about that.  It’s nice to have options, but it’s unlikely any of those guys was going to fill the massive power void.  Also, besides catcher and another starter, what do the Mets really need?  I think they can still afford to spend money on those two spots.

Bay himself does a lot of things well.  He pretty much hits 30 homers, drives in 100 and scores 100 runs every season.  And he’s done that in the pressure-packed Boston market in the pitching-rich AL East, so the New York media shouldn’t bother him and there’s no reason he can’t mash the NL East pitchers.  He also produced for the Pirates when he was pretty much the only guy in that lineup.  He’s going to have a much better lineup around him in New York.  If everyone stays healthy, he’s going to have plenty of opportunities to drive in runs since Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran will be hitting in front of him.  And while he might not hit 30+ homers, he’s a righty pull hitter so if anyone is going to do that in Citi Field, it’s him.

I also think he’s faster than most people believe and he’s not terrible defensively from what I’ve seen.  Plus as Ted pointed out yesterday on his site, the Mets have Carlos Beltran in center.  So you can mask his defense a little bit.  All in all, a good deal that had to be made.  Holliday was the only other real option.  You aren’t going to gut out your finally stable farm system when you can get Jason Bay as a free agent.

I really like the Escobar signing.  These are exactly the types of moves the Mets should be making.  Low-risk, high-reward moves.  Escobar comes relatively cheap at 1.25 million.  That’s almost half of what Alex Cora is making.  He used to be very, very good.  If he can get back to 85% of that, he’s a lights-out 8th-inning guy.  Apparently he looked pretty good in his tryout session.  So the Mets could have a steal if he can stay healthy.

I also liked the Ryota Igarashi move.  I’d be lying if I said I knew anything about him besides what I’ve read on the internet.  But 2 years, 3 mill for a guy that put up his numbers in Japan.  I like that a lot.  Keep in mind the Japanese relievers who throw pretty hard have been very successful in the Major Leagues.  And none of those guys had huge dollars coming their way.  Takashi Saito, Akinori Otsuka and Hideki Okajima have all been awesome over the past few years.  And look how dominant they’ve been in their first year especially.  I like the odds that Igarashi can do the same.

So if one of the Escobar/Igarashi combo work out, then the Mets have themselves a stud reliever for a combined cost of 3 million dollars.  You can’t argue that.  And the bullpen would be pretty solid if that’s the case.  Between K-Rod, one of these guys and Pedro Feliciano, that’s a nice 7-8-9 combination.  If they both work out, then you’re looking at one of the better bullpens in baseball.

I did not like the Alex Cora move just like everyone else didn’t like it.  Way too much money for a guy who’s replacement level.  You could have spent the league minimum and gotten the same production.  The bright side is that’s probably the worst move the Mets have made this offseason.  If that remains the case, then I’m OK with that.

What’s on tap you ask?  Well Bengie Molina looks like he could be next.  I totally understand why everyone is up in arms over this potential move.  Two years, 13.5 million for Molina is absurd, but to say he isn’t a massive upgrade from Schneider and Santos is absurd as well.  Molina is much, much better than both of those guys.  I know when you combine both of their numbers from last year, it isn’t a whole lot different from Bengie, but that’s because Santos got hot when he first came up.

Molina has averaged 18 homers and 85 RBI the past three years with the Giants.  He had zero protection in that lineup.  I’m serious.  Look at the Giants offense the last few seasons.  Pablo Sandoval was their only other good hitter and last year was his first full year.  You can do a whole lot worse with your catcher and #8 hitter than Bengie Molina.  They’d definitely be overpaying him, but he’s still better than anyone else out there.

Let’s see they got Molina and found a way to get rid of Luis Castillo and signed Orlando Hudson.  Or even if they keep Castillo.  The lineup is looking like 1. Reyes, 2. Castillo, 3. Beltran, 4. Bay, 5. Wright, 6. Murphy, 7. Franceour, 8. Molina.  You might move Murphy to second and switch Beltran and Wright to balance the order a little, but you get the point.  It’s a pretty solid lineup all of a sudden.  You have five guys who can easily hit 20 homers and Reyes and Murphy could get you 15.

The one missing ingredient is that pitcher who can throw behind Johan Santana.  I don’t get why the Mets didn’t jump on Jason Marquis for the 2-year, 15 million dollar deal he got from the Nationals.  He’s far from great, but he’s only had one bad season since 2004.  The Mets like Joel Pineiro and he was excellent last year.  But he might have been a Dave Duncan prodigy who could be one and done.  The one bright spot on why he was so good was that he never walked anyone.  Twenty-seven walks in 214 IP is ridiculous.  So if all Duncan said was throw strikes, then there’s no reason he couldn’t do the same for the Mets in Citi Field.

If I could pick one guy among the group that’s available, I’d go for Ben Sheets.  He’d take a one-year deal and he has by far the highest ceiling of anyone available.  He’s still only 31, and when he’s healthy, he’s a top 10 pitcher in the league.  Look at his numbers.  He’s awesome.  The problem is he’s never healthy.  His 31 starts in 2008 were the most he had since 2004.  Yikes.  He did still average 24 starts in those four seasons though.  I’ll take 24 starts from Ben Sheets and 10 from Fernando Nieve/Nelson Figueora over 34 starts from Joel Pineiro.  That’s how good Sheets is.

On that same note, I’d look at Erik Bedard if Sheets and Pineiro are too much money.  He’s been injured for half of the past two seasons, but he was lights out in 2006 and 2007.  If you’ll recall, I wanted him in the 2007 offseason before he got traded to the Mariners.

And the only other guy I’d even consider is Carlos Zambrano.  No one knows how available he is, but man if you could get him and pair him with Johan Santana, then you’re finally looking at a title contender again.  He’s one of those guys that you think would shine with the Mets.  He’s firey and the fans love that here.  He’s also been consistently one of the best pitchers in the NL the past seven seasons.  So if you could get him for Castillo, Pelfrey and Pagan, then I think that’s a no-brainer.

I have to give the Mets credit for keeping their farm system in tact.  Everyone said the Mets have a lot of talent in the low levels, so when you keep all of those guys and they’re a year older, you have to like where the system will be in 2010.  They also get the 7th pick of the draft so there’s another top prospect heading their way.

It will be interesting to see what the Mets do over the next few weeks.  If they do sign Molina, I think they’re one starter away from being a playoff team again.  Obviously pretty much all of this is resting on the hope that the injuries of 2009 don’t linger into 2010.  Feel free to shoot me your questions and comments.  Until then, Happy New Year everyone!

Hello everyone.  My grandpa made a suggestion this weekend and I agree.  I just wanted everyone to know that I’m alive and well.  I’ve just basically stopped watching the Mets this season because they’ve frustrated me so much, I need a break.  So I’m more or less done.  I’ll probably check in and see how Carlos Beltran and Josh Thole are doing.  But that’s about it.  Feel free to e-mail in your questions still to hosts@nymetscast.com.

Eventually, Ted and I will be back with a show talking about the misery of this season and what’s next for 2010.  Also, send in ideas for shows like Geoff from Mexico did.  Perhaps I’ll do co-host a show with a listener.  Let me know if you’d be interested in doing that.  Hope all is well with everyone and enjoy the start of football season.