Mets Merized Online

Spring training is here! Even if the games don’t count for anything, it’s still good to see live baseball once again. Welcome to my first pre-season installment of Hot/Not. So far this spring, we’ve had the good, the bad, and the Freddy Garcia.

The Good
*Jose Reyes looked really good coming out of the three hole this week. At first, I was opposed to this move because his stolen base count might go down, but I’d rather see him drive in more runs than swipe more bags.
*At first I was a little annoyed with Luis Castillo for not showing up to camp earlier. But to hear reports of him showing up to camp having lost weight and being able to run with Reyes were encouraging. Then in the first spring game, he got 4 RBI and I now I have hope that this year will be better for Luis. I’m not on the bandwagon yet, though.
*At this early stage in spring, it looks like Livan Hernandez is the front-runner for the 5th rotation spot. Of course, with troubling reports about Johan Santana, whoever loses this battle may get a second audition after all.

The Bad
I will not rip anybody yet. I will not rip anybody yet. I will not rip anybody yet, unless your name is Freddy Garcia, then I shall rip you (see below).

It’s troubling to hear the reports about Santana’s elbow. It’s troubling anytime the ace of your pitching staff is hurt. I slept better at night knowing that the first game of the regular season was in the bag. I hope, as every Mets fan does, that it is nothing serious and Johan will be lights out come Opening Day. If he is not, I really hope the Mets are looking for more than just a 5th starter. And I hope that Mike Pelfrey gets the nod.

The Freddy Garcia
Ah, now the time has come to talk about Freddy “Start me or release me” Garcia. I know he hasn’t pitched in the bigs since ‘07 and I know it’s still early. But he walked into camp expecting the Mets to make them their fifth starter when he knew like 4 other guys were competing for the job. On the outside looking in, I think we all knew Garcia had the most to prove. He took about three giant steps back if he wants that 5th starter role. Jon Niese makes his case today; I would love for the Mets to build on a rotation of young guys.

Update 3:00 PM – Adam Rubin reports that Johan Santana may not appear in a Grapefruit League game for at least two weeks because of elbow tightness, and the ace wouldn’t rule out missing an Opening Day start in Cincinnati on April 6.

Original Post 10:17 AM – Newwsday is reporting that Johan Santana met with GM Omar Minaya and manager Jerry Manuel for 40 minutes this morning about the best way to handle his elbow tightness. The bottom line is that Santana is officially in limbo and his Opening Day start (April 6) could be in jeopardy as well.

Here’s the plan for now: Santana will throw a light bullpen session on Sunday to see how the elbow responds, and if he feels OK the following day, he still will need another two or three live BP sessions before he can make a Grapefruit League start. That means if everything goes perfectly — perfectly — he could actually face another team at some point during the week of March 9.

As for the worst-case scenario, Santana throws on Sunday, still feels the elbow and the Mets finally decide to send him back to New York for tests. Santana said minutes ago that the elbow still is tight — he’s been told it’s the triceps tendon behind the elbow — and he is considering the possibility that Opening Day might now be questionable for him.

“We have 162 games,” Santana said. “What we have to accomplish takes 162 games. Everything starts April 6, if it’s going to be me or somebody else. It’s tough to say right now.”

Now I’m really starting to worry… The Mets are the most notorious team in baseball for downplaying injuries or misreporting the true extent of injuries to their players.

Redding Will Pitch Today – According to several reports, pitcher Tim Redding will throw a bullpen session today. It will be his first time pitching since he was shelved with some soreness ten days ago

Just Call Him Babe – Bobby Kielty decided to abandon switch hitting yesterday and then came out to pinch hit in the ninth inning… The result was a Ruthian blast that.went for a three-run homer. The Mets came up short in the 9-8 loss, but may have found the righthanded bat they’ve been looking for.

Livan On A Prayer – Not many expected that Livan Hernandez had any chance of cracking the rotation when he signed a minor league deal with the Mets. However, he has regained his velocity and has looked sharp in workouts, but it was the two perfect innings he tosses yesterday that really garnered a lot of attention.  

See, it’s not all bad… 

Righthanded reliever Juan Cruz was signed by the Royals on Saturday.

Cruz signed a two-year contract with an option for 2011.

The deal was believed to be worth $2.25 million for this year, $3.25 million for 2010 and a club option for $4 million for 2011 with a $500,000 buyout.

Cruz, 30, last season had a 4-0 record with a 2.61 ERA in 57 games for the Arizona Diamondbacks.

He led all National League relievers with 12.37 strikeouts per nine innings, based on his 71 strikeouts in 52 2/3 innings.

Two of the key players in the competition for the number five starter delivered performances that were on opposite sides of the spectrum.

Freddy Garcia was slapped around for four runs in two-thirds of an inning. He walked three and allowed two hits before being removed from the game. Afterward, he spoke to reporters.

“I’m always slow, but this year is different. I’ve got to be ready. I’m fighting for a spot. I cannot sleep. I’ve got to perform if I want to be on the team. That’s the bottom line. In the past, every year I come to spring training and I know I’m one of the guys. This year is different. If I don’t pitch good, you know what’s going to happen.”

During a split squad game he fared much better but his fastball was noticeably absent relying mostly on breaking stuff and change-ups.

Meanwhile, Livan Hernandez was a much different story today as he pitched two perfect innings against the Cardinals. His fastball was also clocked 84-46 MPH which is better than he threw last season. He has been very impressive in camp.

“I went out and tried to put everything together and make some outs early.I tried to work on my mechanics and the location. The most important thing with pitchers is location. You’ve got to have location and you’re going to get people out. When you miss some pitches – it’s supposed to go outside and it’s in the middle – this is when you have problems. I tried to go outside and tried to make some good, quality pitches and I didn’t miss the spot too much.”

He also spoke on his chances of winning the final rotation spot.

“I’m the kind of guy, I don’t want to take a spot from nobody. I want to make the team. I want to have a good year and help the team win the World Series. I know I can I have a good year on this team. This is a very good team with a lot of good players.”

Tim Redding has yet to enter the fray, so let’s just say Livan is leading the pack right now.

Great piece based on some nice information gathered from The Fielding Bible – Volume 2.

In 2008, it wasn’t close.  The New York Mets clearly had the best defense, based on Defensive Runs Saved from The Fielding Bible–Volume II.  Outfielders saved 56 runs for the Mets last year.  Using the rule of thumb that the value of a win is about 10 runs, that’s five to six extra victories based on outfield defense alone for the Metropolitans in 2008.  Fielding Bible Award and Gold Glove winner, Carlos Beltran, led the way in center field. He was flanked most often, on either side, by defensive stalwart, Endy Chavez. Beltran saved 21 runs, but Chavez saved eight runs in left field and eight more in right, for a total of 16 runs. That’s just a few runs less than Beltran in over 100 fewer games started in the outfield. That’s defense.

The Baltimore Orioles and the Cleveland Indians were the American League leaders. Baltimore outfielders saved about 45 runs and Cleveland’s saved about 37, both well short of the Mets total of 56. The leading American League outfielder in defensive runs saved was the Fielding Bible Award winner in right field, Franklin Gutierrez of the Tribe. He didn’t start as few games as Chavez, but his runs saved total was equally remarkable. He saved 22 runs in 85 starts in right field in 2008.

For those of you following the transactions, you may know where this is going.  Endy Chavez is no longer with the Mets and Franklin Gutierrez is no longer with the Indians.  Where are they?  Both of them are now members of the Seattle Mariners.  Add Ichiro to the mix and you have a pretty good idea of where the best defensive outfield in 2009 is going to be.  Gutierrez is moving to center field where his right-field-class arm will be a tremendous asset and his pure athletic ability will serve him, and the Mariners, well.

The Fielding Bible–Volume II is all about runs, just like the game itself.  We’ve taken our defensive methods that we’ve developed and converted them into Defensive Runs Saved.  For outfielders we measure range with the Plus/Minus System and use baserunner kills along with the frequency of baserunner advancement to up come with runs saved based on arm strength.  We’ve done the same sort of thing for other positions factoring in defensive ability fielding bunts, turning double plays, preventing stolen bases on the part of both the pitcher and the catcher, and the catcher’s ability to hold down his pitcher’s ERA by calling a good game. 

The top defenders based on runs saved at each position in 2008 were:

              Pitcher – Kenny Rogers, 15 
              Catcher – Jason Kendall/Jose Molina, 12
              First Base – Mark Teixeira, 17
              Second Base – Chase Utley, 33
              Third Base – Adrian Beltre, 24
              Shortstop – Jimmy Rollins,15
              Left Field – Carl Crawford/Willie Harris, 13
              Center Field – Carlos Beltran, 21
              Right Field – Franklin Gutierrez, 22

John Dewan’s Stat of the Week

Johan Santana was supposed to make his spring debut today against the Cardinals, but he was bumped from that start on Wednesday because of a little soreness and tightness in his elbow.

The plan was that we would be shipped until his next scheduled start on Tuesday, but now several sources have confirmed that he will not make that start either.

David Lennon writes:

Johan Santana already had been scratched from today’s start against Italy because of tightness in his left elbow and now it appears that he will be skipped from his scheduled turn Tuesday. Jerry Manuel said he wants to be “extra, extra, extra cautious” with Santana and there’s no need to bring him back Tuesday.

“Just because it’s so early,” Manuel said. “That’s my ace. That’s my card I’ve got to play when I need to play it. I don’t need to play it right now.”

Manuel is thinking that Santana might just need another day or two — not skip an entire turn through the rotation. When asked directly, Manuel said that Santana is not on a plane to New York for an MRI and there are no plans to do so at the moment.

“I’m not concerned,” Manuel said. “But I want to be extra, extra, extra cautious with this.”

I’m still not worried, and I don’t blame the Mets for being extra, extra, extra, extra cautious with Santana. But, my palms are getting a little sweaty now….

I’ve spent the last two hours listening to Mike Francesa who is broadcasting live from Tradition Field at Mets Spring Training Camp.

Ryan Church and David Wright have struck a big blow today against WFAN’s Mike Francesa.

The two of them decided against appearing as guests on Francesa’s show because of comments Francesa has made against both players since the end of last season. Both were scheduled to appear and had been advertised to be special guests since Thursday afternoon.

The reason they snubbed him was because Francesa has spent a great deal of the off season trying to convince listeners that Ryan Church hates the Mets, a claim that has been disputed many times by Ryan Church.

Wright chose not to appear because Francesa has painted Wright as the reason for the two Mets chokes (his words not mine) and called him the most un-clutch player he has ever saw. Of course the facts paint a much different picture of Wright.

Good for them.

I wanted to hear the full blow by blow from Francesa before blogging this and he appears to have moved on to a new segment of the show.

In explaining the snubs, Francesa said:

“Ryan Church is not a big deal. I couldn’t care less about Ryan Church, nobody does. He’ll be out of New York long before I am, he’s just not that good a player. I won’t lose any sleep over Ryan Church not coming to my show.”

He then went off on David Wright saying he has had it too easy in his ascent to stardom, but the fact is he is not clutch and it’s about time we give him a healthy dose of criticism.

“Wright is not a clutch player, he can’t handle pressure, maybe the Mets should have thought about breaking up the core; Reyes, Wright and Beltran. Wright won’t make it in New York because he can’t handle the pressure, and he is very immature.”

“The Mets have no heart, the whole team has no heart. They have had the two biggest chokes in the history of this city, and David Wright is the big reason why.”

Wow… I’m speechless and I’m a tough person to shut up.

To think this is coming from the Mets flagship station is unbelievable.

This is not just a sportscaster levying a little bit of criticism… Francesa has ripped the organization to shreds, and spit on the face of the franchise.

Francesa has shown himself to be the scumbag we all knew he was. His arrogance and biased coverage of the Mets is well known, but this is entirely a new low.

I am shocked by his comments and I would think the Mets are going to address this unprofessional performance and unprovoked mud-slinging at a team that helps pay his salary.

And there is even a crazier twist to of all of this… Brace yourself…

Francesa threw out the first pitch in the game today.

Adam Rubin of the Daily News is reporting that the Mets have signed lefthander Ron Villone to a minor league contract.

Add another lefthander to the Mets’ mix in camp. Ron Villone has signed a minor-league contract. Villone, 39, went 1-2 with one save and a 4.68 ERA in 74 games with the Cardinals last season.

Villone is a New Jersey native, and has a career ERA of 4.75 and has logged over 1,000 innings in his 14 year career.

My guess is that he’s just another arm to bring in as a half dozen Mets pitchers get set to depart for the World Baseball Classic.

Of course, if he proves to be effective he can work his way into a major league gig.