Spring Update: Benches Clearing Brawl, Ollie’s Change, Collins Means Business

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• Mr North Jersey February 19, 2011 at 9:59 am

  so when do the mets play the phillies?

  this will def make it to phillies camp.

  i can hear it now. collins who?
  • srt February 19, 2011 at 10:07 am

    Ha! As long as it’s not any of the Mets players spouting ‘where the team to beat this year’, I don’t mind these type of statements from Collins. If this is just a comment thrown out there to let the league know the Mets will be of a different mindset this year, then it’s fine with me.

    If he keeps throwing out these tidbits though, it could get ugly.

    One of the criticisms most had about Jerry was he’d constantly roast a player in the media, under the guise supposedly of getting him going or sending a message? Plus how often did he tell the media first his plans for a particular player before the player was told?
    These are the kind of things than can cause dissension in a clubhouse real quick. Not saying Terry is going down that road right now but between this thinly veiled message and him letting the media know his ‘disappoint’ in Beltran and especially Castillo not showing up early, I’m wonder if this a precursor of a things to come….

    Or on the other hand, maybe this is just what this team needs at the helm.
    • alwaysnextyear February 19, 2011 at 12:47 pm

      beltran was early. I thought that comment was directed straight at Castillo. with maybe a sideswipe of Bay! But mostly Luis.

      quite possibly intentional too, for an organization persepctive, to grease his skids right on out.

      at this point, after Jerry, blunt and direct is a breath of fresh air.
  • alwaysnextyear February 19, 2011 at 12:48 pm

    oh, the mets play the Phils twice (1/3 of the season series) in about the first 3 weeks of April.
• srt February 19, 2011 at 10:09 am

  O.K……so now there’s a chance Ollie might actually make this rotation?

  Raise your hand if any of you saw this as a possibility when ST started. I was of the mindset it was a matter of when Ollie was gone, not if.

  ST certainly should be interesting.
  • mets2012 February 19, 2011 at 10:26 am

    I’ve been doing it for awhile. OP will be #2 SP.
  • t agee February 19, 2011 at 10:26 am

    Operation pump and dump has begun.
  • Mr North Jersey February 19, 2011 at 10:35 am

    I would not read too much into any of the praising going on in camp. In the end Ollie will have to perform on the mound in games not in a throwing session to make the team and I do not expect much of Ollie whenever he does make the mound.

    Until I see otherwise I expect the same wild pitcher that had no control to take the mound.

    Like Alderson said, the only way Ollie makes the team is if he earns his way on.
    • Des February 19, 2011 at 11:03 am

      Given Ollie’s drop in velocity last year, the changeup will likely be less effective than if he had it with his 90+ fastball, but here’s hoping.

      I think if he has 2 or 3 bad outings, he’s gone. His attitude in 2010 didn’t win him any friends among players. Word among management likely was relayed too.
      • alwaysnextyear February 19, 2011 at 12:53 pm

        Ollie could make therotation. I just don’t think he makes any sense in the BP.

        basically, the mets are doing what they said they would. Give him a chance to prove he deserves to be on the team. If he stiff and results are there, it could happen. Or, like Agee said, that could be blowing major smoke and hoping some team totally desperate for SP bites.

        Hey, think the Yanks remember what he did to them in 2008?

        who the hell knows. If he found the lost MPHs off the FB (where the hell did they go at his age?), and shows any improvement in control (I know, long shot), he might just be a viable option for the rotation.

        also depends on how the other guys do, since if young and Capuano are healthy and dealing, there won’t be room for ollie anyway. If one of the top 5 though goes down, it could be him.
        • Des February 20, 2011 at 1:32 pm

          You’re on target (more than Ollie has been recently)!!

          It doesn’t hurt to bring him in and check him out. The Mets have six catchers in camp (Roster plus Invitees). So we’ll have an opportunity to see him pitch both in games and in practice.

          I don’t think it will take long before we know the truth about the 2011 Ollie.
          • Metsie February 20, 2011 at 2:13 pm

            My best guess of what will happen with Ollie is he will not make the team, And if he wants to continue to be a baseball player, (he won’t have any other options) he will sign up to a Minor League deal which will cost them virtually no money (since he will get his 12 Mil already) and he will take his life from there.

            If he pitches well enough to warrant that kind of offer that is…

            I don’t see how he can pitch his way back into the rotation though.
• Pete February 19, 2011 at 11:05 am

  If Dickey hits Utley in the ear with a 79 MPH knuckleball, would that be sufficient retaliation, do you think?
  • Mr North Jersey February 19, 2011 at 11:11 am

    Have you ever been hit in the ear with a 79.mph anything?

    I am pretty sure it hurts.
    • alwaysnextyear February 19, 2011 at 12:54 pm

      I got hit occasionally warming up guys when I coached LL. especially when yo get toward babe ruth level, they throw plenty hard enough to hurt. even on a bounce.
      • Metsie February 20, 2011 at 2:14 pm

        Whimps! LOL just joking!
• Bayonne Mets Fan February 19, 2011 at 12:31 pm

  Hojo,

  About 4 minutes ago Adam Rubin just tweeted “Beltran will continue wearing brace”

  Looks like we have 2 different stories?
  • Mr North Jersey February 19, 2011 at 1:56 pm

    True, cause Rubin had reported http://proxy.espn.go.com/blog/new-york/mets/post/_/id/14771/report-beltran-running-without-brace
    that according to Davidoff of Newsday Beltran was runnining without a brace.

    “theAngel Pagan  said he’s happy to yield centerfield to the veteran Carlos Beltran, and word here is that Beltran is in very good shape – better health than at any point last year. He even has started running without wearing a brace on his right knee.”
    mobile.newsday.com/inf/infomo;JSESSIONID=E20995521176BD59351D.3068?site=newsday&view=sports_blogs_item&feed:a=newsday_5min&feed:c=sports_blogs&feed:i=1.2697219&nopaging=1

    Maybe Davidoff had it wrong?
    • alwaysnextyear February 19, 2011 at 1:59 pm

      doing some exercises or light running might be different than playing with it on. So maybe they are both right.
      • Mr North Jersey February 19, 2011 at 2:12 pm

        i think your right.
• Matt February 19, 2011 at 12:47 pm

  People are buzzing over 2 bullpen sessions from Ollie? It is newsworthy that a professional pitcher had a good bullpen session? It’s pretty sad when the only positive thing you can say about a $12 million per year pitcher is that he has had 2 good bullpen sessions.
  • alwaysnextyear February 19, 2011 at 12:56 pm

    right now, ollie should look better than most of the pitchers (better, as in more ready) since he just pitched over the winter in games. THe other guys are still building back up into game shape.

    BPs were never the issue for ollie. Lets see what happens when he gets into a game, and it is “real”
• alwaysnextyear February 19, 2011 at 12:57 pm

  random OT question for any competer geeks that might wander by:

  I need to get a new desktop computer (bad) for home use. I primarily will use it to surf the net, manage itunes, deal with my wifs bazillion digital pictures (all things my current unit is barely doing).

  I also want to watch TV/videos on the thing (MLB.tv especially for games!), and use it to finally get our dozens of camcorder tapes dealt with (stored, edited and burned to DVD).

  I already decided to splurge a little and get a quad core. The one I am looking at has 6gb ram, and a 1 tb HD.

  my questions are, is there any reason to jam in more ram (8 maybe), and do I need to spend extra for seperate and/or upgraded graphics card? I believe the unit I saw has all integrated graphics. I could go elsewhere to configure one with 512 mb or 1gb stand alone graphics. if needed, how fancy is required?

  I don’t do any gaming, so don’t need it for that.

  any thoughts, greatly appreciated!
  • Bayonne Mets Fan February 19, 2011 at 1:21 pm

    I would think you have more than enough for what you want to use it for. You don’t use heavy duty video editing or sound engineering software that would use up a lot of memory do you?

    I run heavy duty software like Final Cut Pro, Photoshop, & many others like MS Office, QT, etc simultaneously on my iMAC and I have 4 g mem, 3.06 Ghz Intel processor w/2 Cores and I’m fine so I think you should be okay too. Just buy as is you won’t need anything else as far as I’m concerned.
    • alwaysnextyear February 19, 2011 at 1:46 pm

      thanks. I figured going from a 9 YO dell with 1 gig of ram and a 40gig HD that whould be plenty of space and memory (and speed).

      just wasn’t sure about the graphics cards. Might be more of a future use, since I plan to keep this for a long time, and who knows if in a few years it will be running all the entertainment in the house.
      • Bayonne Mets Fan February 19, 2011 at 2:12 pm

        yeah, you can update the memory at a later date if u choose to and i guess u can update the graphic card although i’m no expert at that so double check, but otherwise you’re definitely good to go.

        Dell makes a good product, I still have my old 8 year old Dell hooked up to my router and work with that as well as my iMAC when I need to use different softwares that I haven’t had time to find the mac equivalent too. Good ol’ machine.
• Metsie February 20, 2011 at 1:20 pm

  “The word is that Oliver Perez has unveiled a new changeup that he has been working on all winter long.”

  I wonder if it is the same pitch he throws when the catcher throws one finger down in the signals! LOL