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Upset? No Way Jose!

Dec 6, 2011 By 2 Comments

If you are a realist you saw this coming a mile away, no way was Jose Reyes coming back. However, in my opinion this is a good thing. The way the Mets are currently constructed adding Jose Reyes to mix isn’t the piece that is going to get them back to the World Series. With or without Jose this team is fighting for at best third place. Why should the Mets add another $20 million dollar contract to the mix and give this team less flexibility in the future when they may actually be a piece or two away from playoff contention.

The thing is this is one of the smarter moves the team has made in awhile, the Omar administration would have just throw cash as him like Ollie P, Castillo or Bay. Let’s face it folks, the Mets are not going to be able to contend for awhile. The Phils still have Halladay et. al. The Braves, Nats and Fish all have young studs and well, we have a AAAA team. By time the Mets are ready to contend again, Jose Reyes will be long past his prime. Signing him would have just added another anchor around a team that needs flexibility going forward.

Even with all of this information, we are forgetting the most obvious thing, JOSE IS INJURY PRONE! The Mets definitely cannot afford to take a risk on someone who’s legs have been a problem for most of his career. Jose wanted six years, how productive are those legs going to be in the second part of this contract. For a guy who came back this year after an injury and forgot what a stolen base looked like and couldn’t hit a triple in a triples ballpark, the risk was too much. If we were talking about a power hitter at 34 versus a leadoff guy at 34 are too totally different things.

There is definitely blame to the Wilpon’s in this mess however, they gambled with the Mets money and lost. A team that was adding a $20 million piece an off-season is now reduced to cutting payroll left and right. If this was 5 years ago regardless of how competitive the team was they would have been able to sign Jose to a huge contract. Those days have past us and because of the Wilpon’s we will be reduced to Gee, Duda and Murphy as our best players instead of Beltran, Delgado and Reyes. The ownership is a complete joke in my opinion and things are only getting worse. You can’t blame Jose for running away from the joke that is the Mets.

Lastly, how can anyone be surprised? The Mets are bad, remember the jokes from a few years ago that people didn’t want to play for the Mets, do you think that idea has changed with a few more bad seasons? Are you surprised Jose chased money and moved to Miami. Jose showed his true colors on the last day of the season. Jose didn’t stay in for the fans or to help the team, he cared about his batting title. He doesn’t care about the Mets, he cares about Jose. This is the same guy that fought with Jerry Manuel in the first inning of Jerry’s career in front of everyone to see. Of course, he would chase the money, I am not shocked.

I think most Met fans I know have my same sentiment about Jose and that it is was smart to let him go. I would also go as far as saying that like the Phillies most Met fans are going to hate this guy when he is not in your uniform. Here’s to the Marlins being stuck with a bad contract in a few years!

Filed Under: Breaking News Tagged With: , ,

R.A. The Rugged Man Improves To 3-0

Jun 4, 2010 By Leave a Comment

R.A. Dickey wasn’t too impressive to start Friday’s game but he got through the first 2 innings and then pitched 5 scoreless to finish up with 7 innings of 3 run ball. Dickey is never going to be lights out on a regular basis but what he has shown in his last two starts is that he will battle and keep his team in the game. To me, he is a good number 5 starter for this club and will definitely give you a shot against other teams 5th starters.

Dessens was also good in the 8th before Roller Coast Rodriguez made it exciting again in the 9th. When all was said and done the Mets held on for a 4-3 win over the Fish. This snapped a six game losing streak to them and improved their record to 2 and 6 against the Marlins.

The Mets obviously need to take advantage of their homestands until they show some consistency on the road. It is nice to see Bay driving the ball, Frenchy getting knocks and Reyes stealing bases. This is easily a game they could have to rolled over at 3-0. It is nice to see this team fight their way back into games and they beat up a pretty good pitcher in Anibel Sanchez. Let’s see if the Mets can get on a roll and do to the Fish what they did to us in Miami. Jon Niese will be back from the DL to take on Nate Roberson, definitely a game we need to take in my opinion, as always Lets Go Mets!!!!!!

Filed Under: 2010 Mets, Blogging Tagged With: , ,

Game 36:Mets @ Marlins, 7:10 pm

May 14, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Game #36:  New York Mets (3rd place, 18-17)  vs. Florida Marlins (4th place, 17-18) at Sun Life Stadium, Miami, Florida

Pitching Matchup: Oliver Perez (0-2, 4.50) vs. Anibel Sanchez (1-2, 4.08)

Season Series: Marlins (3-1)

The Mets take on the Marlins Friday night in Miami. The Mets will turn to Oliver Perez who will need to show something if the Mets look to win this one. The bats also need to be sparked to pick up Ollie. Anibel Sanchez will pitch for the Fish, look for a tough game for the Mets here as they continue to struggle on the road.

Coverage will start on SNY at 6:30 with the pregame, the game will start at 7:10 pm and there will be a half an hour post game show after.

Weather at first pitch: 83 degrees, 0% chance of precipitation

Weather at 10 pm: 81 degrees, 0% chance of precipitation

Line: Marlins -135, 9

Filed Under: 2010 Mets, Blogging Tagged With: , , ,

Mets vs Marlins … observations…

Apr 8, 2010 By Leave a Comment

– Who are the Marlins kidding, Hanley Ramirez is not a shortstop. The guy has butchered about 5 plays so far and we aren’t even done with the 3rd game.

– For a team that talks about pitching, defense, and speed, the Mets really do none of the three well. When you taught defense as a philosophy, Fernando Tatis can not be starting at first base for you.

– With Ramirez at SS and Coghlan in LF the Marlins will be one of the worst fielding teams again, and it will probably kill their chances for the playoffs.

– Mike Jacobs should never sniff cleanup again. Hey I understand it’s only 2 games but the guy has done nothing but strike out, and frankly, that’s what you should expect of him from his career stats. You could make an argument that he is better suited to bat 8th then he is 4th. Hopefully Bay batting cleanup sticks and it isn’t just because of the lefty.

– Base running gaffes have already hurt the Mets. Fernando Tatis should NEVER have tried to take home on that passed ball. Hey I always say if your gonna make a mistake make an aggressive mistake, and it was a perfect play that got him, but my point is he should have known the situation and never broke at all. Especially when it’s your best hitter at the plate. Dumb dumb dumb.

– I do like the fight in these dogs. Sure I would rather have seen a few big hits behind that rally in game 2 but they stuck around and never gave up. Reminded me a bit of the 2006 Mets in their perseverance. Playing hard and never giving up creates luck, keep this up.

– With the above said we still make way too many dumb mistakes. Game 2 was like a game of hot-potato between the two teams and neither of them wanted to win the game.

– While I applaude the teams plate discipline and overall approach, we still look at way too many 3rd strikes. They really need to work on protecting the plate. It’s what is pounded into Little Leaguers so there is no reason they can’t improve.

– While I like Cora, and he has actually played well, I like the Game 3 lineup much more then the other lineup used in Game 1 and 2. If Cora continues to swing a decent bat you could swap him for Tejada, but I’d like to see the kid get a shot.

– Luis Castillo looks like he’s on ice skates for the first time. He just looks awkward. He still tries to run around balls like he used to back in the day, and he has no where near enough quickness/range to do so. This is the reason I do not really like the AARP middle infield of Castillo/Cora. I would rather see Tejada sprinkled in there at both SS and 2nd.

– Game 3 is not over as I write this (3-1 Marlins in the 6th) but if we drop this series we absolutely need a sweep in Washington. The schedule takes a big step up after the Nats and we can not drop series to teams we need to beat if we are to compete.

– Tell me where to send the money and I will personally pay for Jose Reyes first class ticket back up to New York. I will even pick him up and escort him to Citi Field. Without him our lineup is a bit blah, we need his dynamic ability and his energy.

Filed Under: 2010 Mets, Blogging Tagged With: ,

Mets 7 Marlins 1: The Morning After

Apr 6, 2010 By 2 Comments

I posted a few of my immediate thoughts on last nights Opening Day victory in my other post “And Away We Go.” I wanted to take a few more minutes and go over a few things that I missed after having thought the game over and over.

Thumbs up to Jerry Manuel for calling that suicide squeeze in the 6th inning. I love the call. We had already gone up a few runs and the message sent was that we wouldn’t be content with anything. We will always be aggressive to score more runs. I cannot tell you have refreshing an aggressive baseball move like this was to watch. I hope this type of baseball is the norm, not an exception. The Mets need to dictate their own destiny, not sit back and wait to see what happens.

As I mentioned in my other post I really loved the Mets approach at the plate. I don’t know if this is a product of Howard Johnson or not but they seemed to be very disciplined at the plate against recent nemesis Josh Johnson. Making him come to them rather then chasing bad pitches was really effective. They waited for their pitch and they hit it well when it came. Forcing a pitcher like Johnson to throw a lot of pitches is the smart way to go in my opinion. Like above I hope this proves to be the norm rather then a blip. This approach seems to work just fine for clubs like the Yankees and the Red Sox.

This may seem silly but I love anecdotes like this. The fans at Citi Field actually boo’d the medical staff when they were introduced. I think this is hilarious. Did they deserve that? Probably not. But this is just so funny to me that I had to give it a mention. It shows that despite being a beaten down mass of annually heartbroken fans, we still retain our sense of humor as Mets fans.

This isn’t going to just be a fluff post. I have to mention how out of place and bad the placing of Mike Jacobs in the cleanup spot looked. Yes it was only one game. And yes I understand it’s to balance the lineup out a bit, but I think it’s the wrong move. I think the way to go is to have Jason Bay in the 4 spot. I’d even rather see Frenchy in the 5 spot and then Jacobs. Jacobs strikes out way too much and is to all-or-nothing to be a productive cleanup hitter in my opinion.

All in all it was a great day to be a Mets fan. Now the real fun begins as we start to get an idea where we stand with our entire pitching staff. We heard all the excuses all spring training about “working on other pitches” and “wind driven home runs” and all other sorts of nonsense. None of that matters any more. It’s for real now and their job is to go out there and perform. Our season hinges on it.

Filed Under: 2010 Mets Tagged With: , , ,

And away we go!!

Apr 5, 2010 By 1 Comment

What an awesome Opening Day.  After a disaster of a season in 2009 it was very nice to get off to a good start by winning the game.  How they won the game was an added bonus.  Here is a quick run down on my thoughts after watching the game.  I will go into more depth later.

Johan Santana wasn’t at the top of his game, yet as he always seems to do, he gritted himself through it and pitched a great game.

David Wrights bomb in the first inning was such a lift for everyone in Mets-land.  The added irony that it was an opposite field homerun was not lost on me.  Lets hope that this is a sign of great things to come.  I don’t care if David hits 30+ homeruns, I just want to see him back to swatting the ball into the alleys with authority.

The ability they showed to take advantage of the Marlins mistakes and to tack on insurance runs was so refreshing.  It was so frustrating last year with the teams habit of putting up a few runs early and then just going turtle and trying to hang on for the win as the opponent chipped away.

Most of all I was most impressed with how the Mets seemed to approach their at bats as a team.  Each guy seemed to have a game-plan and took a lot of pitches and forced Johnson to come to them.  Johnson had thrown 60 pitches by the end of the 3rd inning.  This is definitely something I would like to see continue into the future.  Disciplined hitting can help a team in so many ways, and the Mets have enough professional hitters that it’s something they should be able to do.

Kudos to the Mets for having Darryl Strawberry throw out the first pitch.  As a kid that fell in love with the Mets because of those 80′s teams it made the day extra special.  Here’s to embracing more of the Mets contemporary history!

Opening Day is always a great day in it’s own right, but getting the victory makes it even more special.  I had a great time watching the game with my 14 month old son.  He didn’t really get what was going on, but he had his Mets gear on and had a lot of fun “going crazy” when Wright hit his homerun.

Filed Under: 2010 Mets Tagged With: , ,