Stats of the day

So far this year, Jose is #1 on team in BA (.351), #1 in OBP (.455), #1 in slugging percentage! (.622), #1 in RBIs (11), #1 in R (11), #1 in BBs (7), #1 in SBs (5), and #1 in 3Bs (3). Brings to mind Charles Barkley's great quote one year on 76ers, "If I'm going to play like two players, I want to get paid like two players"!

I'm sorry, but..

...Perez is not a good pitcher. Good pitchers do not walk 7 batters in two innings, load the bases with 2 outs, walk in two straight runs, then hit a batter. Period. It's time for Mets management to stop this charade of trying to fool themselves and Mets fans that Perez is anything more than he's already proven himself to be. He is the most dangerous of players - he has such raw skills and potential upside that you hate to give up on him. Unfortunately, in not giving up on him you're going to rack up 15 L's along the way. If this were early in Perez' career I might have more patience, but he's started 113 games and been in MLB for 5 years. He's not new to the game, he's not even new to the Mets or Rick Peterson. He simply does not have the control necessary for him to be successful.

In this way Pelfrey scares me a bit too, b/c he's shown a tendency to dance around the plate and throw a lot of BBs. But, at his stage of development that could easily just be chalked up to inexperience. Hopefully he'll grow out of it to be the pitcher the Mets think he can become.

In the meantime, though, I think it's time for the Mets to get serious and realize they need to pick up a legitimate starting pitcher. The loss of Pedro, Sanchez, Mota, and Bradford is too much. They need to make a trade, part ways with some of their minor league talent, and pick up a legitimate pitcher to strengthen the rotation. Otherwise, I just don't see how they beat the best teams in playoffs and certainly the best AL teams in WS.

It's also a bit troubling that so far the offense seems incapable of scoring runs except when the opposing team gives them a 4th out in an inning. Hopefully Delgado and Wright break out soon, but even if they do, it's hard to see a repeat of the staggering #s that Beltran, Delgado, and Wright put up last year. That was some massive production.

Weaver

Looks like moving back to AL has been anything but kind for Jeff Weaver. BoSox did to him today what metties couldn't do in playoffs last year - pile on the runs. 7 runs in 1st 2 innings, knocked him right out of game.

Los Bravos

Nothing I enjoy more than losing a series to the Braves at The Ted. Good stuff. Seriously.

Especially when the Braves spent all the time before the series talking up the Mets, how good they are, and we'll just have to see how we "the lowly Braves" measure up against the Mighty Mets.

You can't strand 31 runners on base in a 3 game series. And you definitely cannot leave Reyes stranded on 3rd base with 0 outs in the top of the 1st. That's just ridiculous.

One weakness I see in the Mets that carried over from last season: except for LoDuca, they don't really have any guys who keep spoiling a pitcher's best breaking stuff to get the pitch count up and force him to throw the fastball they feast on. It seems like every Mets at bat goes to no more than 4-5 pitches, and they don't have the ability to keep fouling off tough pitches until they get the one they want. Instead, they swing meekly through low inside breaking stuff and whiff. And someone has got to tell Wright to start swinging at the first pitch sometimes - it is so predictable that he takes pitch 1 that everyone just throws him a strike to start him out 0-1 every at bat. Of course, for most of last season he was toughest out in MLB with 2 strike count; if he could recapture that it would be huge.

4-5

We really could use Delgado and Wright to start turning it on.. Watching Wright's K count rack up is a little troubling, also not much out of him with RISP.. Hopefully one or both of them catch on fire soon, that will help a lot. Especially since I don't see Shawn Green continuing to bat .450.

Truly Amazin'

It's hard to determine what is more amazing this year: balanced production through lineup, each starting pitcher throwing a better game than the person before him, or Jose Jose Jose.

And to think, we've done all this with our clean-up hitter batting .158! Once Delgado turns it on soon, damn!

Barry Zito is 0-1

In the words of Fredo, that is all.

Talk about your money quote

From the "things that make me optimistic file":

In his short tenure with the Mets, the veteran Alou has been impressed by the team's defense and doesn't think it's a fluke.

"This is the hardest working team I've ever been around," Alou said. "You look around the clubhouse after the game and no one is in here, because they are all working out or doing something to get better."

Even harder than McGraw's Giants squads? That's high praise from someone who's been in the league since the Christy Matthewson era.


http://newyork.mets.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070402&content_id=1874438&vkey=news_nym&fext=.jsp&c_id=nym

And we're underway!

One game played, one win. Obviously, the most standout performance of last night's win was the defense. Four DPs, nice catch by Alou, very nice throw from Reyes deep in the hole to first, and great throw by Beltran. Also nice was the fact that the lineup production was so balanced top to bottom. It was great to see every batter do something yesterday to get involved.

Glavine's performance was great, a little shaky in 6th inning but that's par for the course with him. Feliciano was underwhelming compared to last year and spring training, but I'm expecting him to be solid. Not the best first appearance for Joe Smith, but not a disaster either, thanks to Heilman + Valentin. I definitely like Smith's delivery, velocity, and pitch movement. He'll turn out to be a very important part of bullpen..

Good Milledge News

From ESPN The Magazine's 4/9 issue, pg 97, in its preview of the '07 Mets (who BTW, they predict for 1st in the NL East):

Lastings Milledge reported to camp a different guy from the one who arrived last season with both expectations and a sense of entitlement so outsized that teammates posted a sign in his locker: "Know your place, Rook!" Now the 22-year-old says he's all grown up, and he looks it. He shed the dreads, hit the weights and gained 13 punds over the winter while cutting down to one burger a week. On his first day of BP, the righty hit a homer over the right-centerfield fence. "I couldn't go that way last year," he says.

To me, that's even better news than the lofty stats he's put together this spring. My problem with Milledge last year wasn't his numbers, it was his attitude. If he's going to approach the game the right way, he's got the talent to be a solid (and maybe better than that) major leaguer. I don't know if it will take him 1 year or 3 years to progress to the point where he's an everyday player, but if he works, it will happen.

Roster

Roster getting closer to completion. Joe Smith is in as a reliever, and it's been speculated that he's the person to whom Minaya is referring when he keeps saying he expects someone will step up big this year.

Also, rotation will be glavine - duque - maine - perez - glavine - duque.. Pelfrey to be brought in as #5 later. I like this idea, it gives us glavine and duque against los bravos. We need to F the braves early and often.

I like signing of Fernando Tatis. Although he might never be healthy or live up to his potential, he possibly gives us some slugging potential that we can bring up from minors during the season if necessary..

War DC!

Dark Commenteer called. From his 12/29/06 post:

So, it looks like we're going with the Glavine, Hernandez, Maine, Perez, Pelfrey rotation...

It was far from settled at that point. Would Humber or Mulvey jump up to grab a spot? Would the Metties trade Perez or slot him for the pen as several other ML clubs (i.e., Padres) wanted to? Would Pelfrey be needed to shore up the late inning crew?

Luckily, Shea Hey Kids has our very own prognosticator. 1st place for the Mets this year, DC? What say you?

Sanchez

Great, so Sanchez is basically done for at least the first half of the season. Plus Heilman's got tendinitis, and El Duque could fold at any time. If this pitching staff makes it until Pedro / Sanchez / Mota's return it will be a miracle. At this point I have a hard time seeing how we won't need to trade Milledge for a legit starter, but who knows.

Not resigning Bradford for 3 years at $10 M total is still a mystery to me. Why in the world would you let go one of your best guys from last season, for relatively small dollars?

Looks like we'll need to be driving in 6-7 runs per game this year.

Park headed to the pen; Pelfrey the 5th starter?

From NorthJersey.com,

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. -- Chan Ho Park had finished off his third straight perfect inning when he got back to the dugout expecting a pat on the back and instead got the word that he was done for the day. What he wasn't told was that those three innings were his last as a starter.

Confused and disappointed, Park found himself waiting around and finally heading into Willie Randolph's office to meet with the manager, pitching coach Rick Peterson and general manager Omar Minaya. Behind closed doors, the Mets tried to appease him and convince him to accept this role.

And without any official announcement, this likely means that the role that Park hoped for was decided -- although the Mets kept a straight face on the worst-kept secret. Mike Pelfrey almost certainly will be the Mets' fifth starter, a spot he has earned with a stellar spring training and the potential that even the aces of the Mets' staff no longer possess.

Park made 38 relief appearances in 1996, his first full season in the major leagues, but has been in only five games out of the bullpen since then. And he did not seem pleased with the prospect of doing it again.

"To be honest, I feel more comfortable as a starter," Park said. "That's who I am. I've been here 13 years. Yes, I have experience as a reliever and have had some success with it. But I signed with the Mets looking for a job as a starter, that's for sure. If they ask me to be a reliever, honestly, I'm unhappy. I'm not happy."

Not happy, but willing at least for the moment, Park will head to the bullpen.

Spring training

Brief look at spring training so far:

Nice upside surprises:
1. Lastings Milledge, leading the team in BA (.375). Tied with Reyes for most hits (15).
2. Most HRs: Jose Reyes (3), who is also #2 in RBIs (7), #2 in avg (.349), tied for #1 in runs (9), easily #1 in SBs (7), and tied for 2nd most BBs (4) with only 2 SOs. If spring training is any indication, he will have an even more impressive season this year than last. I expect a big improvement in his OBP, something Rickey Henderson has really been stressing with him.
3. David Newhan: .273, 6 R, 3 2Bs, 1 HR, 9 RBIs
4. Glavine (1.29 ERA), Smith (2.16 ERA, 8 Ks to 2 BBs), Perez (3.86 ERA, 13 Ks to 3 BBs)

Disappointing:
1. Beltran (.216), Green (.190), and LoDuca (.154)

As expected:
1. Wright (.316, 1 HR, 4 RBIs). Looks like he'll have a solid season, hopefully build on 1st half of last year.
2. Alay Soler blew, Chan Ho Park still can't pitch, Burgos still has zero control despite great velocity and nice Ks (10) to BBs (3) ratio, and Humber still requires a lot of work.

Alay Soler...

...we hardly knew ye, and now we never will with the Metties releasing you. What little time we had together was too long anyway. As we predicted last season, when he had that atrocity of an outing at Yankees stadium while Minaya was at the game, we knew he would be buried so deep in the minors it would be years before he would resurface again, if ever.

dirty sanchez

Not the best news about sanchez here, apparently his work ethic is causing problems.

Mets Acquire Roberto Alomar

Not again, mind you. This post has a recap of the magical trade that brought Roberto to Flushing five years ago. The author's conclusion: the teams exchanged dung piles to no one's benefit.

Offseason training

Well, you have to like what you've heard from Mets players in offseason. Pedro's put on muscle and is dying to get back to his old form. El Duque just said he wants to pitch at least 180 innings and have a solid regular season, not just post-season. And now Lastings Milledge might be trying to turn things around and become the player we all hope he will be. Wright also saying it's WS or bust. Hopefully Glavine and El Duque can hold together long enough for Pedro to return.

#1 biggest disappointment in offseason: not re-signing Chad Bradford, at $10 M for 3 years. I still don't get that.

I miss this guy

How great a Met was Ty Wigginton? Turns out he moonlights as an O.B.

He's a guy I'd love to see back in NY. Hey Ty, can you play second?

-------

Just as an aside, while I'm mentioning guys I miss, I still miss Murph. It just doesn't quite sound like a Mets game without him.

Tix

Click here to go to mets.com for online entry form for a chance to win tix to Opening Day or subway series. Drawing closes 2/18/07, so move quickly..

Pedro

By all indications Pedro continues to exceed his targeted comeback, certainly great news. If Pedro indeed returns with the physical and mental focus he claims, and one of the young pitchers has a breakout season, we're all set. I think Glavine and El Duque will be up and down in regular season due to age and El Duque's infamous difficulty remaining focused, but come playoff time we should be a force. I'll take Pedro - Glavine - El Duque - ?? (Maine/Humber/Park) and our lineup.

NL East

Well, by the looks of it the Mets are going to be in a horse race with Phillies all year. Phils have an explosive line-up, good pitching, and a GM with an excellent track record of doing what it takes to put together a winning team. I'm amazed the Phillies played as well as they did in the 2nd half last year; they were supposed to fold after losing Abreu and others.

In what can only be considered great news

Aaron Sele is now part of the Mets organization. Jose Lima, Brian Daubach and Edgardo Alfonzo now have a 4th to round out their Euchre game.

Where in the world is Carlos Gomez?

Apparently MetsGeek knows, as Alex Nelson wrote a thorough entry on the speedster's ascent through the Mets farm system. Here At SHKs, we've also had a few links to some of the scuttlebutt surrounding this up-and-coming CFer. With 105 SB in the last two seasons, Gomez could be a terrifying sight for opposing pitchers at the top of the Mets lineup, especially when partnered with Reyes.

That said, his BA and OBP have been .275/.331 at class A and .281/.350 at AA the last two years. There's definitely room for improvement, though the trend is encouraging (especially factoring in a jump in the level of competition). Read Nelson's piece if you want an in-depth look at Gomez' prospects. Here's his summation:

Gomez is still a good prospect due to his age. He’s extremely young for
the Eastern League, and the mere fact that he held his production steady with
some minor improvement despite skipping over High A is a big positive. And there
is no doubt that he’s very talented. But he is still a prospect with some
serious flaws, namely his power and his plate discipline. If even one of those
develops, he could become an elite prospect, but he hasn’t shown it
yet.

The Wicked Witch is Dead

Pats are OVER!!!

Pitchers

Looks like Mets are set with their pitching staff, and also they resigned En-dy Cha-vez to a one year deal.

So many question marks for next season, definitely interesting. How will Glavine's arm hold up? Will El Duque have enough focus and discipline to be a #2, show up at every game, and turn in a good season? Will Pedro and Mota return and perform well? Will Reyes and Wright continue their upward trends? Will Alou serve his purpose, add pop to line-up and protect Wright?

And, oh yeah, I still hate the Pats.

I HATE the Pats

Perhaps in the offseason this blog can be devoted to how much I hate the Pats. I'm sick of their just squeaking by. I have never seen teams make as many absurd and stupid mistakes as they do against the Pats. I don't know why the NFL even bothers existing anymore. Clearly Belichick must be the best coach ever, Brady the best QB ever (despite 3 picks yesterday), Pats' think tank best talent prophets in draft / free agency / trades ever, bob kraft best owner ever, etc. If not, why would EVERY team lay down like a bunch of sallies week in and week out and completely suck? How do you have LT rush for over 100 yds, get 2 TDs, force 3 brady picks, and STILL LOSE??? By miraculously fumbling an interception (I can't even remember seeing something like this before), dropping a punt and instead of just sitting on it trying to pick it up and run, telegraphing a pass that colvin easily picks off, and picking up 2 stupid unnecessary roughness penalties.

Pats have all new receivers (except Troy brown), new rookie RB, new corners, etc. and still dominate. The pats should be beaten - they are NOT the team they were in the past. This year they have a lot of turnovers and a lot of penalties. Usually they won in the past because they avoided those things. So will SOMEONE please beat the F'in pats already???

Off Season Open Thread

Have at it.