You always hear about struggling teams calling a “players only meeting,” right before they fall off the cliff. If you have the right people in the clubhouse, this moment can make or break your season.  I’m of the belief that you don’t call a player’s meeting unless you have your #1 or #2 starting pitchers going that night. This way if something doesn’t click in the meeting, you still have the artificial result by 1 [...]

The Mets ended a lousy 2-6 road trip with a 10-7 win over the Nationals yesterday. That’s the good news, but leave it to the Mets to upstage a solid pitching effort by a Raul Valdes and a ten run offensive outburst by conjuring up yet another public relations nightmare. After the drama that unfolded when Jerry Manuel removed John Maine after throwing just five pitches in the first inning, who knew that the best worst was yet [...]

AAA International League: Buffalo 3/7/0, Charlotte 1/6/0 Pat Misch had an outstanding outing tonight, and it may turn out to be extremely crucial, with the … scary gun readings and slow windup/delievery of John Maine today in Washington. Misch went 7, allowing a run on 3 hits and 4 strikeouts for his 4th win of the season. Ryota Igarashi threw a scoreless 8th on 19 pitches, continuing his rehab. Josh Thole and Ruben Tejada both [...]

Things looked bleak when John Maine was removed after throwing five pitches and walking the leadoff batter, but reliever Raul Valdes stepped up and gave the Mets five solid innings of relief, while the Mets bats exploded for ten runs topped by a two run homer from catcher Rod Barajas, his tenth of the season. The Mets beat the Nationals 10-7. Game Notes John Maine started, and I gotta tell you, I’m growing tired of [...]

I’ve never been a huge David Wright fan. That’s not to say I dislike him, not at all. I just have never owned a Wright t-shirt, and never been a “Wright Guy.” Truth be told, I’m a Reyes guy. Just as I did last year, I’m asking the Mets and the fan base to let David be David. So far, none of what I wrote about Jose has really happened, so I don’t expect this [...]

When the Mets ended the 2009 season, they had three main goals on the agenda; revamp the bullpen, sign a top of the rotation pitcher, and get a power bat to play leftfield, bat cleanup and give David Wright protection. Obviously, we never got the starting pitcher, it’s still too early to tell if the bullpen has been fixed (recent struggles would point to no), but the Mets did manage to sign Jason Bay after a [...]

Only a month ago, the Mets bullpen was being looked at as a big strength for the team as they led the league in ERA, Batting Average Against, WHIP and even strikeouts. They have quickly sunk to the bottom in many of those categories as the season wore on due mostly to some bad bullpen management, pitch counts, and an ineffective starting rotation. Jenrry Mejia, the youngest player in the Majors when the season started, came [...]

The Mets have been outstanding this season at home, going 14-8 over their first 22 games at Citi Field. However, when they leave Flushing, they seem to forget to pack their bats and their ability to win ballgames. After last night’s 3-2 defeat to the Atlanta Braves, a loss that dropped the Mets back into last place in the NL East, the Mets found themselves staring at a 5-13 road record for the season. This [...]

R.A. Dickey made his first start as a Mets filling in for the recently DL’d Jon Niese and delivered a quality start, but the bullpen faltered and the Mets lost 5-3 to the Nationals Game Notes R.A. Dickey went out for his first Mets start, going a solid 6 innings giving up 2 runs on 6 hits with 4 walks and two strikeouts. His knuckleball was dancing around the plate, and getting some swings-and-misses. He [...]

*insert David Wright inadequacy rant here* That is how I choose to begin my article. David Wright looks horrible at the plate, righties are killing him with sliders away and anyone with a fastball has a 33% chance to strike out Mr. Wright. He’s walking a fair amount, but it means nothing when he can’t drive anyone in. David Wright has hit in the 3rd and 4th position in the batting order all season, and [...]