Jose Jose Jose

Apparently the old Jose is back (literally). Prompted by Beltran to drop his stoic act and return to his true personality, Jose said he's back:

Reyes should now be more fun-loving. Asked if the celebratory handshakes would be back, Reyes replied, "Everything is back."

Of course when he claimed he would drop all that at the start of the season, it was obvious that couldn't possibly last. I figured it would hold until at least the end of April, but I guess not. On possibly offending other teams with their behavior Beltran said: "We don't care if these other teams get offended. We're going to play the game like that." My take on the Reyes celebrations is that they are done in the dugout, so it's not like they're showing up the other team. I have a problem with on-field celebrations, and particularly a problem with the way Manny Ramirez pulls up a lawn chair at home plate to sit back and watch the entire blast every time he hits a HR. That's poor sportsmanship, IMO, and someone should drill him for it. But since Jose does his thing in the dugout, I think it's fine.

On fire

Ryan Church continues to tear the ass out of the ball. So does Pagan, I hate to lose him once Alou is back. I wonder how Willie plans to play it. Will he give Alou most of the time until he gets injured, or will he try to split time evenly? Two advantages to splitting more evenly: it should help keep Pagan in a rhythm, and it should also decrease the likelihood of an Alou injury. But my guess is Willie is going to choose a steady Alou presence over a platoon.

Bannister watch

3-0, 0.86 ERA, 0.71 WHIP, 21 IP, 13 SO, .143 BAA.

OK, angry Met fans...

...and you know who you are, I challenge you to find the bad news in last night's game.

Wright and Reyes clubbed the ball all night. 5 ribs for Wright. 3rd straight game with a jack. He's on pace for 202 RBI right now.

Reyes had a shot at a natural cycle in his 4th AB but settled for a single. Reyes' hammy looked fine.

Duaner Sanchez made a successful return, and while his velocity topped at 91 (he was in the 94-95 MPH zone in '06), he was mixing pitches and, most importantly, pitching.

Pelfrey threw 7 shutout innings, and, in the 3rd inning, worked his way out of a bases loaded, one-out jam against their 3 and 4 hitters withougt giving up a run, and without getting rattled.

Oh, and BTW, Pelfrey threw 7 shutout innings.

We've got a gem in this one

From the Post:

An ailing Luis Castillo admitted he could use some time off after getting dumped all the way to eighth in the Mets order last night.

Asked if he needs some time off, Castillo said: "Sometimes, I do. When I play three or four games in a row, maybe I can get a day off. I'm going to talk to Willie about it."

Yeah, you do that Luis. You go ask willie if you can play only 122-130 games a year and take off the other ~35 games. I'm sure that's why we locked you into a 4-year deal as our starter, so you could plan to only play part-time. I'm sure that will go over well.

Pedro's return delayed

Did anybody not see this coming? I could tell from day one Pedro was going to be out longer than 4-6 weeks.

Interesting other points from the article:

Combined with an offense that has a league-low five homers and is hitting just .182 with runners in scoring position and two out, the Mets aren't living up to their preseason status as the trendy NL East favorite.

The team's 3.84 ERA is in the middle of the pack, which amounts to a disappointment in the decidedly weaker NL.

Minaya held a closed-door meeting with Willie Randolph after Sunday's ugly, 9-7 loss and said he planned another meeting of the team's braintrust yesterday to discuss the state of the Mets.

What's all the uproar about?

If you ask me, the Mets on-field performance is more offensive than the fact that they got rick rolled.

Hmmm

I see Santana still hasn't kicked his HR habit.

Fernando Tatis watch

I thought this would be helpful, to see why we got rid of Gotay.

Comments and questions

1. Why does Heilman suck so much this year? Is he contractually obligated to give up two runs every time he pitches?

2. Pagan and Church are really ripping it up. I wouldn't move Pagan from 2-hole when Castillo gets back, I'd bury Castillo and his miserable average at the bottom of the lineup.

Is it just me

or do the '08 Mets look strikingly like the '07 Mets?

Let's see: massive numbers of injuries; bullpen blows leads; Scho is useless unless pitching to only one batter, and then only if it is a left-handed hitter; Perez struggles with control; starters only last 6 innings; Maine gets frustrated when a call doesn't go his way and proceeds to lose focus; Mets can't hit Moyer and other washed-up pitchers; Willie can't manage the bullpen; ...

Mets drop a deuce

Take this to mean the pathetic 2 runs they scored in the home opener today against ancient Jamie Moyer, or the 2 games they dropped to ATL this weekend. Either way the result is the same, it stinks.

On a positive note: Mets 2B Luis Castillo left after the fourth with soreness in his surgically repaired right knee. I'm not sure I could tell the difference between a healthy and injured Castillo, they both seem to limp and lumber around.

"Top" of the lineup

Reyes and Castillo are killing us. Here are the BAs for the lineup today, after 6 innings of play:

Reyes: .208
Castillo: .182
Wright: .318
Beltran: .333
Delgado: .391
Pagan: .333
Church: .364
Schneider: .316

Clearly Jose is trying to do too much and/or needs to make some adjustments, but he better get going soon.

What good is Santana

if the rest of the team is completely useless?

As usual Mets fold in a key spot. I think I've seen this movie before.

Perez

First, let's give credit where credit's due. Perez pitched an absolute gem of a game in a tough situation. The Mets spirits had to be down entering that game last night after losing Pedro, and next up we play Los Bravos this weekend. So last night's game was a must win, and Perez locked it up.

What I find funny is that every article you read about him starts out with "Perez, who is likely in his final year with the Mets..." Now, do I think he is going to ever shake his jekyll/hyde routine and become stable enough to be legit #1 (when he's on, he easily has legit #1 stuff)? No, BUT I don't see how in the world the Mets could not keep him, at any price. If you don't re-sign him, you are looking at a rotation of: Johan, Pedro (assuming he re-signs and can even pitch), Maine, Pelfrey (??), and Duque (this has to be his last year). We have no exciting prospects, no abundance of good players at one position to use as trade bait, and we'd pay top dollar to buy a pitcher on the FA market anyway.

Given the age/injuries and poor quality of our rotation without Perez, what choice do the Mets have but to re-sign him, at almost any price?

If David Wright's play on Willingham isn't a web gem,

I don't know what is.

Wow, talk about a truly great play. Not only a superb diving stop along the line, but then to get up and rifle that throw to first. I guess he's having an ok game so far, 3-4, 3 RBI, 3-R HR, 2 R.

Pedro?

I'm going to assume the worst here, that Pedro is out all season, based on the fact that he heard a "pop" and the post-game reaction of the other players. It's unlikely, but let's just go with it. If so, what do you do?

The bottom line is, not much you can do. Omar stuck us deep in a hole by losing two key chips (Milledge and Gotay) for nothing. I don't think you'll get anything better than a #5 with what we could reasonably offer, assuming you're not trading Reyes/Wright/Beltran. So you're stuck with: Johan, Maine (I'd move him to #2), Perez, Pelfrey, and Figueroa/Sosa until El Duque is back. But let's be honest, El Duque will be injured again this year, Pelfrey hasn't shown anything, and Figueroa/Sosa is a crapshoot. So we're back to overworking the bullpen and paying for it late in the season.

Bottom line, without Pedro kiss this year goodbye. No way we win the NL East, the Braves and Phils are too good.

With apologies to Mac,

YOU CANNOT BE SERIOUS!!!!

The New York Mets lost infielder Ruben Gotay to the rival Braves this afternoon as part of a host of moves.

Gotay was claimed by Atlanta after being put on waivers by the Mets two days ago in part so they could make room for Fernando Tatis on the roster.

For Fernando effin' Tatis????

Good that we also protected Guillermo Mota leaving that scrub Jesus Flores unprotected last year.

And I doubt we'll miss Milledge what with Church and Schneider around.

Boy is it a good thing that Omar stole Santana or this would have been a really rough couple of year for him.

I still think Ambiorix Burgos will rescue him, though.

PLAY BALL!

Hopefully Johan can make us all forget '07.

Tracking the #s

Updated #s:

3.15 / 2.00 / 1.78 / 5.79 / not fit for viewing

These are the ERAs of Johan, Pedro, Maine, Perez, and two guys who surely will do more to help us this season by riding the bench than playing.

At least the top 3 seem to be settling in, especially Maine. I have little reason to expect that Perez will be any different than his binomial jekyll/hyde routine from last year, alternating brilliant outings with stuff more fit for a compost heap. At this point I just don't even begin to know who you pick as the 5th starter. As I've already mentioned I don't see how Duque can possibly adjust at this age to an entirely new delivery, whereas Pelfrey appears to have made no progress from last year. Additionally, I think Sanchez is much further behind in his rehab than they are letting on, and we'll be lucky to even see him for half the season, which is a big hole for the 'pen.

Perez

Perez has no control, continues to be same pitcher as always. He is very erratic and all over the zone, which is why he has both high strikeouts as well as walks, hits, and HRs.

X-man

Could be X-time again soon..

The Mets are in the market for outfield help, though. A club source said the Amazin's have approached the Pirates about bringing back Xavier Nady but have been rebuffed so far.

There is no question that with Alou and Endy injured, Beltran not 100% (is he ever???), no Milledge and no big bats off the bench Nady would be an upgrade at this point. I don't think he's quite as good as Mets fans seem to remember him as, but he would certainly help the team out a lot at this point.

Nice to see Santana and Maine both settling in. Pedro looks good too, so if Perez can settle down we're in good shape. I anticipate El Duque is useless this season unless in bullpen and even then I'm not sure, and Sanchez will probably spend a good chunk of time on DL this season. Even if he starts the season he seems so fragile at this point I expect he'll re-injure himself.

Not surprising

1. El Duque's new delivery is not a winner.

2. Delgado is being fed a steady diet of inside fastballs and choking hard. 5 for 5 Ks.

On another note, the same post article indicated a rumored trade of pagan for coco crisp. All I can say is this would be a bad trade. Coco crisp is perhaps the best defensive CF in AL, but his offense is atrocious. He can't hit for anything. We need to replace alou's bat more than his fielding. I'll gladly take an adequate fielder with a good bat to spell his absence. So far pagan seems more than adequate, although his (limited) career #s are not great.

Numbers

What are these #s?

7.2, N/A, 7.71, 11.57, 7.56

They are the ERAs of our 5 projected starters (assuming Pelf, not Duque) so far in spring training.

Granted, the number of IP is so low that the #s are somewhat meaningless (1 or 2 runs can be the difference between ERA of 2 or 8). However, the fact that all of our starters are sky high is troubling. Also troubling is the injury front, of course...

Alou to miss first month of season

I know, I know--shocking.

I hope F Mart is ready to jump from A to AA to the majors in the span of one year.

Adding insult to injury

Quite literally:

Right fielder Ryan Church's head hit first baseman Marlon Anderson's sternum so squarely during their violent, on-field collision Saturday that Anderson vomited on Church.

Talk about a rough incident. It's not bad enough you pass out and suffer a grade 2 concussion from the collision. You also have to get vomited on.

Poll time

OK, call it now: final order of NL East. I say: Mets, Braves, Phils, Nats, Marlins. I could easily see 2-3 and 4-5 swapping. Phils and Nats have horrific pitching.

Next question: when both are healthy, who will be starter of choice this year? Pelf or Duque? I was originally thinking Duque, but now I'm thinking Pelf. I read that Mets will want to make sure Pelf is a starter since they might lose Perez and Pedro next year, and have slim prospects. If Duque bitches about going to the pen they should remind him that he has been MIA the last two years at absolutely mission-critical times, so shut his mouth and do what the team asks for their best interest.

Pelf: 2 starts, no ER's

Here's the proof.

We now return

And the injuries and poor pitching keep piling up.

We interrupt our regularly-scheduled programming

I know this is a Mets blog, but I'm going to go ahead and comment on the Jets here for a moment since we're all AFC East fans and both sports are out of season right now.

The Jets finally get it. Games are won and lost on the line, and without solid O- and D-lines you've got nothing. I don't care how good your QB, WRs, and RBs are, if you don't have an O-line that can protect the QB and open holes for RB, you've got nothing. And if your front 3 or 4 can't get pressure on the QB without bringing exotic 5 and 6 player packages that bring the LBs and CBs up into the box, you've got nothing.

And nothing is precisely what the Jets had last year, for these reasons. I was furious when the Jets let Kendall go last year, and the short-sightedness of their decision showed all season as our QBs ate turf. Mangold is still not where I thought he'd be (and certainly a huge step down from Mawae); and D'Brickashaw Ferguson, Shaun Ellis, and DeWayne Robertson have all been huge disappointments. Adding Faneca and Jenkins is a huge step in the right direction. Unfortunately because they were cheap with Kendall last year (wouldn't give him a measly extra $1 M per year), they've had to overpay for Faneca. But they had no choice, and I'm glad they finally seem to be acknowledging the importance of the line.