Comments on: Inside The Mets’ Clubhouse; Past and Present

By: METS62FAN

METS62FAN — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 15:43:29 +0000

PERHAPS BECAUSE I’M 1H SLEEP DEPRIVED, I AWOKE THIS MORING YEARNING TO COMPARE WHAT I PERCEIVE AS OUR FIRST IMPORTANT OPOST-MERCENARY ACE INFLUENCED ROTATION AS THE 2015 ROTATION I ENVISION AS BEING…
HARVEY
WHEELER
NIESE
SYNDERGAARD
GEE
AS COMPARED WITH BOTH NYM WORLD SERIES CHAMPION ROTATIONS OF 69′s
SEAVER
KOOSMAN
GENTRY
McANDREW
TAYLOR
AND THOSE FROM ’86″
GOODEN
OJEDA
DARLING
FERNANDEZ
AGUILERA
NOT SUPRISINGLY THE 2015 CONTINGENT IS MUCH LARGER PHYSICALLY WITH 4 STANDING EQUALLY @ 6’4″ & ONE @ 6’5″ RANGING FROM 185# TO 225# WITH AN AVERAGE AGE OF 26.4 YRS OLD.
QUITE REMARKABLY THE EXACT SAME AVERAGE AGE AS THE MUCH MORE DIMINUTIVE 69ers AS BOTH ROTATIONS WERE A TAD OLDER THAN IN 86 WHOSE AVG AGE WAS A MERE 25.2 YRS OLD
THE TALLEST SP IN ’86 WAS AGILERA @ 6’5″ SAME AS SYNDERGAARD’S TOPPING HIS ’15 MATES WHILE THE STILL DEVELOPING YOUNGER SYNDERGAARD WEIGHS IN @ 200# EVEN, A MERE 5# LESS THAN AGILERA’S FIGHTIN’ SCALE TURN @ 205#. WHILE THE 69ers WERE TOPPED BY KOOSMAN’S MERELY HUMAN HEIGHT OF 6’2″ AS HIS SVELT 208# OUT TIPPED EACH OF HIS STABLEMATES

I HOPE U FIND THESE COMPARATIVES AS INTRUGING AS I DID…

By: Joey D.

Joey D. — Sat, 09 Mar 2013 22:26:55 +0000

Hi John,

I remember the friction that came out in the open during 2007 but I wonder if that had to do more with the Mets disappointment in 2006 and the frustration of not being that same caliber-type team the following season that was aging quickly and could just run away with things.

I remember when Sean Green was acquired he remarked how those around the league knew how tight the Met clubhouse was in which case even though there was a dominating Hispanic presence it didn’t seem to matter.

Perhaps it’s just that bitterness that brings out the worst of people. The Mets were used to everything previously coming so easily and for one year being by far the dominant team in the league playing in front of the biggest sports market in America. Perhaps that caused all that cohesiveness we were led to believe existed in 2006 fall so far apart in 2007. That’s often what happens when performance stops matching uninhibited “swagger”.

By: ray sadecki

ray sadecki — Sat, 09 Mar 2013 20:30:28 +0000

good cases to your point come from the 70′s A’s Dyanasty who all shared a common hatred for owner Charlie O finley. Another is the bronx zoo yankees what hated steinbrenner

By: Metsie

Metsie — Sat, 09 Mar 2013 20:29:07 +0000

There can be no US until you have first identified a THEM…..

In the 80′s THEM was the Cardinals…Even when the Mets were playing the Pirates they were actually playing against the Cardinals!

If you want everyone to bind together you first have to find a common enemy.

All it takes is one!

I’m not sure they think of Alderson as the enemy yet…Perhaps… but too many guys are here because of what Sandy did….
Perhaps if it exists it will show itself sometime during this season…
Terry is fighting for a job and will be under heavy scrutiny.
Perhaps they rally around Terry and cite the FO as the enemy and play to get Terry an extention.

But that only happens if Terry turns on Management and how can he do that without trashing the same players he needs to rally around him? So I don’t think it happens….

Last season when they played up the UNDERDOG and the media was saying NO CHANCE they played some pretty damn good baseball!
Then when the stories in the press started taking notice of that they lost the ENEMY they were trying to defeat and tanked the rest of the way….

The best example was in the movie Major Leagues….
They hated the owner and thats who the enemy was….
I don’t see that here though…

By: Matt Balasis

Matt Balasis — Sat, 09 Mar 2013 19:52:19 +0000

Here’s an interesting topic for discussion, the tightest most cohesive units I’ve ever been part of invariably had one thing in common … abject hatred towards our Commanders/Management … we became closer as a result of the adversity of dealing with these unreasonably demanding, hard nosed, unforgiving persons in charge … it wasn’t pleasant at the time, but looking back those were technically some of the finest units I’ve ever been a part of. Was it the high demands of those in charge that made us so effective? Or was it our cohesiveness which was born from an “us against them” dynamic? Or was it a little of both? Whichever, it is abundantly clear to me that Alderson has very much imposed this sort of overbearing top down approach. He’s been cold and ruthless in his willingness to cut ties, has employed cutting wit in reflecting on his players during dealings with with the press, and he’s made it clear that his financial parameters are set in stone having clearly instituted a system whereby pricey veterans routinely get pushed towards the chopping block … retaining (to date) only one such veteran (Wright). I don’t think his players like him, I think they may even fear him a little … and I wonder if that’s such a bad thing?

By: Metsie

Metsie — Sat, 09 Mar 2013 19:15:15 +0000

Chemistry is another of those Chicken and Egg questions….

They say you need Chemistry to win…
But no one ever seems to have chemistry UNTIL they have won if you notice..

There are teams who might have great chemistry but don’t win…
And then there are teams who can’t stand each other and do…

Chemistry to mee has little to do with how much they like each other and more to do with how they complement each other performance wise….

By: Seligman

Seligman — Sat, 09 Mar 2013 18:31:30 +0000

Well, I have to say this is something you would never find on other Mets site including their flagship Metsblog. This is something that can only come from years of access and experience and I enjoyed the insight into what it’s like to cover the Mets beat. Thanks for sharing..

By: Matt Balasis

Matt Balasis — Sat, 09 Mar 2013 17:53:17 +0000

I remember in 2007 and 2008 when there was a lot of tension in the clubhouse because there was a perception among some of the white players (Loduca and Wagner and a few others) that some Latin players were hiding behind an exaggerated “language barrier” to avoid the media — the prime suspect was Castillo, whose English really wasn’t that bad. I understand there’s been a push by MLB to provide more translators, even allowing them to visit the mound with the manager but I wonder if that’s something we’ll see more during the regular season. Are translators made available in less structured media interactions like the one described above? Is there a player’s lounge where the Media are not allowed? How is contact with the players regulated on the field and around the batting cages? I love these “behind the scenes” reports.

Ultimately I wonder if clubhouse chemistry even matters. There have been some pretty successful teams over the years who absolutely hated each other — even the 86 Mets had their share of quarrels and blow ups.