7
2010
A Mess Of Mets Thoughts
An article by 
Once in a while, I like to sit down, relax, and escape into the world of Mets baseball. It’s a beautiful time to do that right now as Spring Training is heating up, and there’s already so much swirling around Mets camp to consider and debate.
I love all the excitement that is being generated by our young Met prospects; Ike Davis, Jenrry Mejia, and Fernando Martinez. As for them, the position battles, and some of the other off the field stuff, here’s my take on all of it.
FBI Investigation: Way too much is being made of this. Reyes and Beltran did not take HGH, they just happened to be treated by a doctor who was being investigated for it. I strongly believe that Reyes and Beltran are clean, and I’m glad this is beginning to blow over.
Jose Reyes’ Health: So this is starting to bother me just a little bit. I understand Jose Reyes isn’t Cal Ripken Jr., but the guy isn’t Nick Johnson either. He was injured last year, and I understand that. However, once the news was out that he was going back for a check on the thyroid imbalance, people started freaking out even more. The condition is treatable. I understand that I might be minimizing the situation, but it seems as if the fan base is always looking for something to get on Mets brass about.
Ike Davis, Fernando Martinez, and Jenrry Mejia: So I will admit that I am happy to see the three of them looking sharp to begin spring training. Davis has shown nice XBH power, Martinez has 2 HRs and Mejia looks really sharp. However, we really can’t get carried away here. Davis looks lost fielding at 1B. Martinez has yet to prove he can stay healthy for a full year. Mejia has not pitched an inning in AAA. I like these guys, and I think the future looks bright because of them, and I’ll be the first one to cheer for them when they put on a show this spring. However, I strongly believe they all need some minor league seasoning before we get our hopes up too much. The Mets rush prospects and I don’t want these guys to lose it because they were rushed.
The Mood Of The Team: Jerry Manuel is not, and will not be, a no nonsense type of guy, and the mood of the manager does tend to reflect on the players. That said, according to Matthew Cerrone, the team seems to be more serious and at the same time a lot more relaxed. Wait…what? My standpoint on all this, is that you take all the speculation you hear with a grain of salt, because even if Cerrone is the Metsblog man, he’s still not a player, and nobody can tell it like a player does.
Simply put, I may be glossing over some of the on and off the field concerns right now, I guess that’s just the way I want to react after waiting so long for Spring Training to get here. I just want to enjoy the feeling and take it all in from start to finish in April. Look, we may take apart our Mets in different ways, with sabermetrics or with what we observe on our own…but we’re still all Met fans. It’s time to act like that. I understand we all have the right to criticize, because you couldn’t call yourself a Met fan unless you thought you could do Minaya’s job better than he does. I know the team has its shortcomings, and we could sit here and whine about how Omar didn’t sign LaRoche or Sheets or Lackey… or we could start believing again. The latter sounds much better to me.
About the Author: Satish Ram
I am a college freshman in New York City. I have been on the MMO Staff since 2007 and plan to be here for many years to come. I started watching baseball around 2001, and I am a pitching freak - I believe the art of pitching is the most important part of the game. I also subscribe to most old school mentalities about baseball. I'm always up for talking about the Mets.
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NL East Standings
| Team | W | L | Pct. | GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nationals | 26 | 18 | .591 | - |
| Braves | 26 | 20 | .565 | 1.0 |
| Mets | 24 | 21 | .533 | 2.5 |
| Marlins | 24 | 21 | .533 | 2.5 |
| Phillies | 23 | 23 | .500 | 4.0 |
Last updated: 05/25/2012
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Write Your Own Mets Post
Good points….the reality is that all the young guys mentined will be in Buffalo….that does not mean they will not get their shot this year.
The bigger issues are still the pitching, catching and end of the roster players.
Totally agree with you Satish. Way too much time is spent on the negative. Bottom line, we have to work with what we have, period. The coulda, woulda, shoulda can be interesting to spur conversations but I guarantee that EVERYTHING negative that’s been said about the Mets will be erased if the most basic of things happen…they win.
Nice point, but then again after choking it up twice in a row, the last year, and bringing back pretty much the same roster that has failed the past 3 years is no reason to be positive. As much as a fan try to be when u watch pelfrey and perez pitched like this then it all goes back to the negativity, or to the “why we didn’t sign lackey or trade for a pitcher” conversation, yes is true the could’ve should’ve is to have conversation but then again, don’t u feel that minaya could’ve done a better job and shuffling this roster since 2007′s first choke job? Or the 2008 choke job? Or this year when he had the chance to at least get someone else in the rotation instead of having the same failures of the past years? Is tough to be a mets fan this days, and honestly the only cure is winning, but wit this roster, specially the pitchers, is hard to remain positive all year.. I’m glad reyes is back, and (knocked on wood) if he’s not healthy or able to play at his level, we’re gonna be in serious, serious trouble!
Ohh, and another quick point, if the same roster failed 2 years straight, and is gonna be brought back, then try to shuffle the front office by getting rid of the gm and managers, a fresh group maybe will give a better attribute to the players and fans
Alex, with all due respect, I don’t think you can count last year’s roster as a failure. They were all injured, and still won 70 games. That’s not a failure in my book. If you really believe if Reyes played every game, Delgado was there, Beltran was there, Santana finished the season, we had Putz or Maine pitching… that we still would’ve won 70 games, then yes, the roster would have been a failure.
I trust in these guys.
Satish, I love ur optimistim, but let’s be real, since 2007, check the roster and tell me how many players have we moved from our roster? We pretty much had the same team since 2006 from the exception of a few bench players or bullpen guys, the same team pretty much. We need to surround our best players wit different players than what we got, u don’t think this players know what perez is gonna do? Or pelfrey?? Or whether maine will be hurt or not? Other teams got the scouting on us wit their eyes closed, a shuffling players sometimes help a roster, and I don’t mean shuffling wit guys like cora or bench players, I mean wit good players who can provide good offense or good pitching performance
Didn’t they add some guy named Santana after the 07 debacle? They improved the corner outfield quite a bit, the bull pen is improved and many have reported it to be the best in the East.
You’re right, they did nothing, this team sucks.
PS – this team NEVER dominated in 08, it constantly went back and forth, clinging on, and eventually losing in the last game. Some fans would be happy that their team fought to the end unfortunately came up short, not this fan base, its a choke, they suck, the managment sucks, sell the team.
I will NOT argue that 07 was a straight up choke.
Turk, my point exactly, minaya failed to realize what the problem is during the season, he try to fix it after the damage is done, he got santana after the starters filed, then he got rofriguez after the bullpen filed, now he added bay after a couple of years of inexplicable signing of alou follow by an extension..
Oh, and in 2008 the mets choked up a 4 game lead after september 10th to the phillies, and surrender a 7 game wild card lead to the brewers.. that my friend, is another collapse if u ask me..
Alex, if I’m not mistaken, I believe I recently read that during 2006-2008 no MLB team has won more games than the Mets. In those years they were one out away from the World Series, and twice missed the post season on the last day of the season. Great? No. But it’s not the disastrous record some would have you believe. In the two years we missed the post season, it was the bullpens fault. So we brought in the best closer on the market who had just set the all time mark for saves in a season. Everyone thought it was the final piece, and it probably was, but we’ll never know because we lost our 1-2-3 starters, our leagues best centerfielder, baseballs best leadoff man and shortstop, a hall of fame first baseman who has averaged 37 homeruns and 105 RBI’s for ten straight seasons, a setup man would have been a closer for more than half the teams in the game. That’s a lot to overcome.
This team in 2010 is alot differnt than the teams from 06-08. Take the 07 season for example. The Mets only have TWO players that started opening day in 07 that are projected to start this year on opening day.
2007 opening day lineup
1 Reyes
2 Lo Duca
3 Beltran
4 Delgado
5 Wright
6 Alou
7 Green
8 Valentin
Projected 2010 opening day lineup
1 Pagan
2 Castillo
3 Reyes
4 Wright
5 Bay
6 Francouer
7 Murphy
8 Barajas
You can’t use the 07 team as a exapmle of how this team will play. It is a different team.
Alex, 08 was not a collapse. There was no point during the season where anybody thought we won the division. The bullpen couldn’t even hold a 7 run lead. You knew they were going to lose that year their bullpen was just awful.
The biggest lead the Mets had was 3 games thats not a collapse.
I agree that this season is the final straw when it comes to the tenure of Omar Minaya. However when it comes to upgrading the pitching you have to take into account so is ever other team out there. Other than signing Lackey, which should have been a no brainer, who else is out there that would actually, not theoretically, improved the team without costing and arm and a leg?
Sheets would have been nice, provided he’s really fully healed. If not the same people that have said sign him would be saying the Mets were fools to sign him in the first place. Is Pineiro really worth was he’s getting considering his track record? I just can’t see how replacing one expensive overpaid player with another is going to make it all better.
The bottom line is we need to develop the arms in the minors and get more. Stop comparing the guys we have like Mejia to the next Mariano Rivera. What happened to Eddie Zunz who was the next coming just a few years ago?
All the rhetoric that Omar leans towards signing only latin players, it’s funny how the Mets don’t seem to have a strong Latin American presence there.
We need to accept that this is what we have to work with right now and aquiring players isn’t like playing a video game.
Joe s, my point is that we should’ve been more creative, minaya’s biggest knock is that he holds on a player for too long!! He doesn’t know when is time to move on, biggest casualty was 2008, after delgado having that great second half he opted to keep him, when we could’ve trade him to maybe the angels or a team that needed a popper for good prospect or a pitcher, then try to sign teixeira. But instead he kept delgado, then to top it all signed oliver perez and then.. boooom.. we had our 2009 season..
I think what you fail to take into account, as Joe S mentioned is that other teams are out there.
It’s not at easy as. “Hey, I want Lackey. He’s a Met now.”
There’s money to be agreed on, and it doesn’t even matter if he doesn’t want to play for the team anyway. Not every player wants to play in NY, because there’s a media atmosphere here that takes apart everything a player does.
I wrote, “. I understand we all have the right to criticize, because you couldn’t call yourself a Met fan unless you thought you could do Minaya’s job better than he does.” because I feel that a lot of people don’t realize that Minaya’s job is harder than it seems.
In no way am I saying he couldn’t have done a better job, but he needs to be cut a little slack. A little.
Alex, I disagree with you on several points. First, in 2008 the Mets had a 3.5 game lead with 21 games left and the Phillies went 17-4. That’s unheard of baseball. The Mets didn’t choke, they were just caught by a hot team. It happens. The Phillies rode that hot streak all the way to the playoffs.
Secondly, after 2008, the Mets had no chance of trading Delgado. It was an option they had to either pick up or decline. If they declined, they were out a first baseman, because there was no chance the Mets could afford Tex. So they picked up the option on a guy who played 159 games and hit 38 homeruns. It didn’t work out, but at the time, how could you blame them?
Thirdly, in regards to this specific statement, “he got santana after the starters filed, then he got rofriguez after the bullpen filed,” I’m a little confused. I was under the impression that’s what a good GM does. After the Mets starters hit a wall, he traded a bag of balls for the game’s best pitcher. Then after the bullpen gave the season away, he got the game’s best closer for roughly 40 cents on the dollar he was asking for. I fail to see the problem there.
Xtree,
Again, the mets played the same teams the phillies played during those 21 games, and not only we had a 3 1/2 game lead but we had a 4 game lead in the loss column, and only u as a met fan didn’t think that after getting santana we weren’t the favorites to win it all!! Again, it was a collapse becoz even on the last week we lost the series to the nats, tie 2-2 wit the cubs, and lost the series against the marlins.
Another thing, do u consider minaya a good gm???? Yes he got santana after he signed el duque inexplicably, he failed to see the bullpen issues then after we collapse bullpenwise the whole year he give mota a contract and that’s it, and knowing wagner was hurt in 08 he didn’t even get arthur rhodes from the m’s when he was available and let the bullpen collapse completely, again, don’t defend this stupid ass gm who gave castillo, alou, perez, cora, el duque contracts when it was obvious he was making mistakes by signing them.. go and check how he is rated in amongst gm’s in baseball then come talk to me.. if, if this team starts bad, he’ll be gone by may!!!
Wagner didn’t get hurt till after the trade deadline in 2008. How could he have traded for someone and not have it blocked? When the season was over, he went and signed the best closer.
The Mets didn’t collapse in 2008, they were caught.
Omar is a good GM. He’s not great. But he’s good. The Mets were the laughing-stock of baseball in 03 and 04 and Omar comes aboard, gets Beltran, Gets Pedro and makes them instant contenders. The Mets have been a very successful team under his tenure and while the Perez contract looks bad now, the Castillo deal will probably break even. Cora’s a backup, so he doesn’t even rate. El Duque went 9-7 with the Mets in 06 (including a 2.01 ERA in September to clinch the division) after Omar traded JORGE FREAKIN JULIO for him, and in 2007, he went 9-5 with a 3.72 ERA. Stop me when any of this is bad. Alou hit over .340 with the Mets and had a .916 OPS in 2007. They exercised his option for 2008 when Alou came back from his injury in 2007 and led the Mets with a .345 batting average and had a 30-game hitting streak.
Your bais against old players is unfounded. The Mets got torched with him and with Delgado, but it was a no-brainer to bring them back at the time. Hindsight is 20-20, but GMs don’t have that luxury when they need to make decisions.
Aside from all that, let us not forget trading away Milledge for Church and Schneider then swinging Church for Franceour. That’s a good trade. How about trading Anna Benson for Julio and getting Maine as a THROW-IN! Trading Nady and his two rotator cuff injuries to the Pirates for Roberto Hernandez and getting Perez as a throw in. Hernandez was very valuable to them when he was there.
Omar has been unlucky gambling with injuries, no doubt about it. But where would the Phillies be if Halladay hits the DL this season. What if he breaks down this year and is still owed $60 mil for useless seasons? Things happen. Deal with it.
Wow, ok, lemme get at u then, by the all star game wagner had 7 blown saves in 2008, and the bullpen total had 15 blown saves before the trading deadline, finishing wit 29 all season,
El duque finish the season hurt in 2007 and omar extended him in 2008 exactly why???
Alou hit 340 true… but he played 70 games!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Mota was caught wit steroids and omar signed him to 2 years extension!!!!!
I’m not gonna mention castillo and perez, but again, u said it urself, he’s been unlucky wit injure players he signed, but again he keeps at it by signing players coming off injury or some type or surgery, took a gamble wit putz last year and then what happened?? Now he’s taking a gamble wit escobar?? Calero?? Come on bro, plus, delgado’s option was picked up, and there were teams interested in him, we could’ve maybe had a kendry morales on our team or another good up and coming good player had we traded delgado and go after either manny or tex in the free agency. He’s a horrendous gm and he doesn’t know how to pin point the problem while is developing, he notices after the season ended.. the way u defending him makes me think u either luis castillo or minaya himself!!
You know what, after this Escobar debacle, I’m just done with signing injured possible high-upside pitchers. Forget it, I’ll go with the sure things. If you’ve ever pitched or seen a big-time pitcher in real life you know that it is a ridiculously violent and completely un-natural motion to put on your body. I say we forget these damn reclamation projects and try to develop better talent in our farm. If we need another pitcher, I’d rather have a Garland and go 10-10, rather than win go 5-2 with an Escobar and then rely on a bunch of hacks for a losing record once the project inevitably flames out.
Satish you hit the mark right on with the Reyes issue. Last year, the MD staff wasn’t proactive enough, NOW, they are taking everything very serious and they are still wrong.