Mets Merized Online

I created quite a firestorm the other day when I wrote… I’m just kidding, I always wanted to know what it felt like to write an intro like that…

One of our readers (Bayonne Met Fan) posted a link to a comment by Adam Rubin that read,

Look for Jacobs to even potentially chip away at Daniel Murphy’s playing time as the season progresses, assuming Jacobs makes the club. Manuel has been testing a 3-4-5 order of Wright-Jacobs-Jason Bay. Let’s say the manager goes to that lineup the first Saturday of the season and rests Murphy, and Jacobs goes 3-for-4 with a homer. Manuel would go back to that lineup again quickly.

When the Mets first signed Jacobs to that minor league deal back in February, I probably put his real chances of making the team as a bench player at less than 50%. Man, was I wrong…

If you were to consider the spring training battle for first base, and give the job to the clear winner based on their spring performance, than go ahead and pencil Mike Jacobs into the Mets Opening Day lineup.  In 27 plate appearances, Murphy has just four hits and is sporting a .194 on-base percentage. Jacobs, in only 20 at-bats has as many hits as Murphy, two homeruns, five walks and a .360 OBP to go with a .860 OPS.

I have no doubt that Jacobs’ .505 slugging percentage and .830 OPS against right-handed pitchers would make for a solid platoon with Fernando Tatis, and also add a solid middle of the order presence to our lineup, at least until Carlos Beltran returns from the disabled list.

If it was a true competition going in, and a true competition going out, than we may have ourselves a new face at first base on Monday, April 5th against the Marlins. Actually, it would be Jacobs’ second stint with the Mets. When we last saw him in a Mets uniform in 2005, he batted .310 with 11 home runs and 23 RBI’s in 100 at-bats, while posting a 1.085 OPS. Wow… I almost forgot just how fast he busted out of the gate that year.

According to a comment in a post by Marty Noble a few days ago, Mike Jacobs isn’t nearly as bad a defensive first baseman as some have suggested. Noble wrote,

“Mike Jacobs is handling his first base assignments more gracefully and reliably than the club anticipated”.

Additionally, Jacobs has agreed to don his old catching gear after being asked by the Mets if he would be willing to catch on a limited basis, according to a Adam Rubin of the Daily News who believes that Jacobs is now the leading candidate for the final bench spot with the Mets. It would certainly give Manuel more flexibility in managing his bench late in games knowing that he can pinch hit for Rod Barajas against a tough right-handed pitcher, and still keep Blanco on the bench.

If Jacobs does supplant Murphy at first base, would Murphy be a better utility player than Frank Catalanotto?

What exactly happens to Daniel Murphy should Jacobs wrestle the first base job away from him?

Well according to Joel Sherman of the NY Post, the Mets have an opportunity develop him into a Ty Wigginton type utility player. He believes that the Mets have miscast Daniel Murphy and have tried to make him something he’s not, basically asserting that Murph has neither the bat or the glove to justify a starting position anywhere. He writes,

To me the Mets are wasting development time when it comes to prepping Murphy for the job that will help the team the most: Which is to make him a jack-of-all-trades. I see Murphy as a lefty version of Ty Wigginton, someone who is not going to be a strong defensive player anywhere, but whose versatility and ability to hit to a fine degree make him a contributing player.

I can’t really argue with his logic, and when you consider that Murphy was just a place-holder for Ike Davis anyway, the Mets were going to have to confront this issue in 2011 regardless, so why not tackle it now?

The best case scenario from Murphy’s point of view would probably be a trade to an American League team who can better appreciate his offensive talents without waiting for him to learn and excel at any particular defensive position.

But as for Mike Jacobs, it’s now become abundantly clear that he has impacted the Mets plans going into the new season and only two weeks remain to see if that impact comes off the bench or as a regular first baseman.

In a new post to his blog, Adam Rubin of the Daily News, analyzes the Mets spring training battles and speculates on the potential Opening Day roster.

Regarding the rotation, Adam believes that Jon Niese is still the front-runner to be the team’s fifth starter and writes,

The smart money still has Jon Niese claiming the final slot in the rotation over Fernando Nieve, with Hisanori Takahashi only on the fringe of that race, despite the Japanese lefthander slated for a pair of Grapefruit League starts, on March 27 and April 1.

I have a feeling that the winner of the competition for the fifth starter spot may still be undecided when spring training ends. I’d bet that we may see two to three of them each getting starts in April, with Jerry Manuel playing the hotter hand for the rest of the season. The fifth starter spot has been constantly in a state of flux for the past few seasons now, with over a dozen different pitchers trying but not succeeding in keeping a job in the rotation.

In the bullpen Adam writes that Bobby Parnell and Sean Green are in some jeopardy of not making the Opening Day roster, although Green would seem to be less vulnerable because his salary is $975,000 even if he’s in the minors.

I actually mentioned that both Parnell AND Green were dangerously close to losing their bullpen spots last week, especially when you consider the outstanding spring performances of Nelson Figueroa, Pat Misch, Ryota Igarashi, Hisanori Takahashi and Jenrry Mejia.

Rubin points to Francisco Rodriguez and Pedro Feliciano as the obvious locks, with right-handers Ryota Igarashi and Kiko Calero virtually assured of spots as well. Fernando Nieve is also close to locking up a bullpen spot leaving just two more spots that are yet to be decided.

He believes that Jenrry Mejia will most likely unseat Parnell with Green’s spot possibly going to free-agent lefthander Joe Beimel, whom he says the Mets remain in touch with. But if that doesn’t transpire, Hisanori Takahashi or Nelson Figueroa could make the team.

It’s starting to look more and more like Mejia could make the team, even though I’m still against such a move. Ironically, he could replace Bobby Parnell who was exactly in the same position Mejia now finds himself in. We had these same debates regarding Parnell last spring, and I wondered if promoting him to the bullpen would jeopardize his ability to be a future starter for the Mets. Now Parnell could find himself going back to the minors, and whether he returns as a reliever or starter is still to be determined. Now everyone is just as fascinated with Mejia’s fastball as they were with Parnell’s… Hopefully Mejia won’t suffer a similar fate…

I have a strong hunch that the Mets could possibly trade Sean Green to make room in the bullpen and create an opportunity for Misch or Takahashi.

The New York Mets are really hoping to surprise some people this season after the dismal, injury-riddled 2009, but a portion of that expectation is resting on the rehab from surgery on the right knee of Carlos Beltran.

According to the New York Daily News, Beltran is likely going to be back in the lineup before early May.

“Every day I’m improving,” Beltran told the paper. “I don’t feel the same way I did last year. At the same time, it’s hard for me to say when I’m going to be ready. Doing this is no problem, but the big test will be when I start doing baseball activities every day, when I start running, catching fly balls and standing out there on my feet for a full day. I’m looking forward to that.”

The activities that Beltran told reporters about, will begin sometime in April which means that the earliest Beltran will be back is in mid April. You can be sure that the rest of the team along with the Wilpon’s cannot wait!

 Mike Pelfrey was at it again Wednesday, tantalizing Met teammates, management, fans and writers with his Grapefruit League performance against the Red Sox.

‘Big Pelf’ has seemingly been on the precipice of greatness since being drafted by the Mets in the 1^st round, 9^th overall, in 2005. But nearly five years later questions remain about the talented young hurler…

Yesterday, I treated myself to multiple articles from Anthony McCarron from the Daily News and Steve Popper from the Bergen Record regaling the Met fan base with Pelfrey’s exploits against the Red Sox. Both articles were excellent and gave positive reviews of Pelfrey’s performance Wednesday, and of his improvement with his secondary pitches. Improvement of his secondary pitches is only one aspect of Pelfrey’s need for growth though.

I, personally, am a huge fan of ‘Big Pelf’.  I believe he has the physical abilities to be an outstanding MLB pitcher. Pelfrey is being counted on to step up, along with both Ollie Perez and John Maine, to have bounce back seasons and to provide the Mets with 200 innings and 12-15 victories.

My problem with Mike Pelfrey is his inability to harness the mental aspect of the game. Similar to Perez, he goes to pieces when errors occur behind him. Mike’s body language (bordering on anxiety in my opinion) and inability to keep his emotions in check are things he needs to focus on as much as his secondary pitches.  

Is this inability to keep his emotions in check a detriment to his continuing development?  Is Pelfrey uncomfortable pitching out of the stretch as opposed to a full wind-up? Does Pelfrey get so nervous when runners get on that he chokes or changes the grip on the baseball? Does Mike get nervous or anxious pitching in front of big crowds in high pressure situations? Pelfrey seems to exhibit a mental inability to simply “turn the page” after a bad pitch or good at bat by an opponent.

When I look around baseball, there just aren’t that many major league pitchers with Mike Pelfrey’s physical attributes or talent. Mental toughness and baseball savvy and knowledge are what separate the bad and mediocre pitchers from the good and elite pitchers. Mental toughness is every bit as important as physical tools. For Mike Pelfrey to conquer the NL and learn the art of pitching he will need to harness the mental part of the game to enhance his excellent physical attributes.

Can you imagine if a gifted physical talent like Pelfrey had the mental toughness and bulldog mentality of say, Nellie Figueroa? (Could you imagine Figgy with Pelfrey’s physical talent?)

All of this begs the biggest question: Can Mike Pelfrey find success in New York?

I hope and believe the answer is yes. If it is not, Pelfrey may find himself eventually pitching in Cincy, KC or Pittsburgh.

I wonder if Mike Pelfrey and John Maine would create as much a stir as young Jenrry Mejia if they too simply decided to throw strikes whenever they got on a mound. I also wonder how long it will be before both of them realize it’s now or never if they intend to hang onto their rotation spots come June or July when the trade deadline nears and Mejia is lighting up the radar gun in Buffalo… or the Mets bullpen.

After mowing down the Red Sox on just six pitches Wednesday, the Mets blogosphere was abuzz with more comparisons to Gooden and Rivera and even Pedro. Craig Carton of WFAN, the biggest clown on live radio, said the Mets would be insane to send Mejia to the minors because as of this moment, he is the best pitcher in Florida hands down. What an idiotic thing to say even for him, but the point is clear, and Mejia has many Met fans in a frenzied exuberance.

Mejia has now pitched 8 1/3 spring innings, almost the equivalent of one game, and somehow he’s become larger than life. I decided to check how many other pitchers were doing as well and over 100 pitchers have performed better. In fact three of them are Mets. While Mejia has allowed one run, Nelson Figueroa has yet to allow any runs in eight innings, Pat Misch in seven innings and Hisanori Takahashi in six innings. No national sports journalists have penned any articles clamoring for either of those three not to be sent to Buffalo, and yet Mejia articles are rampant everywhere.

Jerry Manuel was his usual jovial self after Mejia’s one inning of work.

“Six pitches, five strikes? That’s good for him. It’s very, very encouraging to see a young pitcher that has struggled with command and control come into big league camp and throw the amount of strikes that he’s thrown. That’s impressive.”

Takahashi has struck out nine batters while walking none and has a 0.33 WHIP this spring and hardly a peep out of the Gangsta…

My stance hasn’t changed much since Mejia pitched another spring inning facing the heart of a dangerous, powerhouse Red Sox lineup; Josh Reddick, Tug Hullett and Marco Scutaro who all grounded out. But this tremendous feat didn’t go unnoticed by many of the Mets biggest critics including the always affable Peter Gammons and our own Kevin Kernan of the NY Post who wrote,

“Mejia should be at Citi Field come April 5. If he’s not, the Mets are wasting a golden arm and opportunity.”

Sometimes I get the feeling that all these seasoned and so-called savvy veterans have never experienced a spring training before. All of a sudden they’ve become like a kid in a candy store with eye’s wide open and mouths agape.

Who would have ever thought the day would come that bloggers would be the ones preaching patience and common sense, and that the journalists would become the Twitter happy cornballs.

Can we at least consider the possibilty that Figueroa, Takahashi and Misch might all be deserving of a roster spot, or at least wait two more weeks before declaring a winner, and most of all, can we ultimately select the player who actually pitches the best this spring.

Yes here comes another post about the Mets personnel choices.  We are two weeks away from first pitch so why not.  This post will not be about whom I feel should make the team; my problem is with how the Mets make their choices.

Besides the “core” that everyone keeps talking about.  By this I mean Wright, Reyes, Bay, K Rod, and Santana. Should anyone’s job be safe right now?  Has anyone else on this team really proved that they are a lock to make the opening day roster?  I say, absolutely not! 

I am a huge John Maine fan, I have been won over by Frenchy, and I salivate over Jon Niese’s potential.  The problem is that, this team cannot afford to let deserving players sit while unproven commodities find their way during the season.

Yes I’m talking about Mike Pelfrey, Daniel Murphy, Jeff Francoeur, John Maine… the list goes on.  Can the Mets really afford to send a guy like Chris Carter (who has done nothing but rake his entire career) down to AAA? 

Can interesting options like Hisanori Takahashi and Nelson Figueroa be ignored when incumbents like Mike Pelfrey and John Maine have done NOTHING in 2 years to prove they deserve to be in the rotation?  Sorry Figgy haters… he has outperformed John Maine, Ollie Perez and Mike Pelfrey for two years and counting!

I am not saying that these other options are clear cut favorites, what I am saying is that other teams do not operate this way.  Why is there such little competiton in Mets camp, year after year?

Why do the Mets continuously reward mediocre performance?  If Mike Pelfrey can’t give us quality starts, if John Maine can’t develop consistent command or an out pitch, if Daniel Murphy doesn’t start hitting…NOW, the Mets need to look elsewhere.  I know some of these guys are out of options, but you can’t let options alone dictate your roster.

Lets not kid outselves, this is still a win now team.  This is a team that needs to win in the next couple of years.

I’m pretty sure all Mets fans want the best possible team on the field, day in, day out regardless of options and contracts.

On Wednesday, the Washington Nationals finally washed their hands of outfielder Elijah Dukes and released him. Can you imagine that… The worst team in the National League cutting bait with the promissing, but troubled, young outfielder not because of any off the field incident or behavioral issue, but simply because he simply wasn’t that good…

And here come the Mets! Or at least many of their bloggers…

It didn’t take long for all “Let’s Sign Dukes” posts to rear their ugly heads, and surprisingly enough, it’s the saber-crowd and those who wax poetically who have posted the loudest appeals.

Nevermind the fact Dukes had a -9.6 UZR/150 and his WARP was -0.1, those things only matter most when building a case against solid citizens like Jason Bay and Jeff Francoeur…

According to Nats GM Mike Rizzo, he made countless attempts to trade Dukes but could not find one interested team in the whole lot… not one.

They wanted so desperately to rid themselves of him that he was cut outright even though he still had minor league options… wow…

But before the plague starts to spread and more fans start clamoring for Omar Minaya to jump on Dukes and sign him, I caution all of you to read his rap sheet as reported on Wikipedia:

In 1996, Dukes’ father was convicted of second-degree murder. One year later, Dukes was arrested for the first time. Dukes has been arrested at least three times for battery, and once for assault. According to court records, he fathered at least five children with four women between 2003 and 2006.

On May 23, 2007, it was reported that his wife filed a restraining order after he threatened to kill her. On June 12, a 17-year-old foster child who was living in the care of a relative of Dukes accused him of impregnating her. Police said the sex was apparently consensual. When the girl confronted Dukes, he allegedly got angry and threw a bottle of Gatorade at her.

Dukes has received anger-management training. When Dukes was traded to the Nationals, the team also hired an ex-police officer in the role of “Special Assistant: Player Concerns”. This person accompanies Dukes everywhere to ensure that he keeps himself free of trouble.

Wouldn’t he fit right in the Mets clubhouse along with David Wright and Johan Santana?

Have you ever seen Dukes play? Of course you have, we played the Nationals 19 times last season, so you must be fully aware of his lackadaisical play in the field first hand, not to mention his complete and total lack of any baseball instincts whatsoever.

He had one of the worst fielding percentages as an outfielder last season at .965… and to prove it was not a fluke it’s exactly the same fielding percentage he posted in 2008 as well. Can you imagine someone this bad, roaming the wide open spaces of Citi Field? And yet his biggest proponents are the same ones who moaned and groaned all offseason about Jason Bay’s defense. Remarkable… 

You may remember his tirade with Mike Pelfrey in 2008 that ended with him giving the Mets fans seated behind the Nats dugout at Shea, the universal arm gesture for performing an unnatural sex act against oneself.

You may also remember (see image) last season at CitiField when he lazily misplayed two fly balls that allowed four unearned runs, leading to a Mets victory. When a team official asked him to remain at his locker and speak to reporters after the game, he responded:

“If they don’t like it they can (expletive),” Dukes said. “Why should I talk with them if they don’t know what the (expletive) happened?”

Dukes would be about as perfect a fit on the Mets as Howard Stern would be at a church social.

Can you imagine Dukes mixing it up with the always pointed New York media? Although maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad idea if he shows Wallace Matthews the Bronx..

Grapefruit action seems to be dulling the panic that echoed throughout Mets camp following news of Jose Reyes missing possibly 8 weeks of action due to a thyroid condition. Frankly the club has shown many positives in pre-season action, the negativity was clearly premature and their greatest area of concern, pitching, has shown great promise. That said, I tend to withhold all judgments until regular season action begins in less than a month. Preseason is a nice barometer, but like a digital scale in Kirstie Alley’s house, completely unreliable.

I decided to look at the Mets three cornerstone players in Reyes, Beltran and Wright, and ponder why they seem to have institutionalized their respective positions in a league which can be a cruel and unusual mistress towards even tenured players, especially in losing times. It’s a rarity to see a position secured in Major League Baseball; Cal Ripken and Brooks Robinson will always be Baltimore’s infield, as with Derek Jeter in the Bronx, Barry trotting out to left, so on and so forth.

Such acclaim, reward and status come from years of reliable service, usually a championship or many winning years, and god-like numbers. I’ve seen players expended in sport that have dropped my jaw as I’m sure we have all. I think someone needs to relay the message to young Mets bench players that they can play for starting roles on this team. Idyllically thereby “lighting a fire” under the starters and possibly seeing the emergence of young talent. The recent signing of Russ Adams is especially intriguing to me as he was an emerging star with the Blue Jays, but was overshadowed in the infield by the future all-star Aaron Hill.

I decided to do some number crunching from 2009 on the Mets cornerstone guys paid to delve the team in championship posterity. Why? Too much time, the fact that I believe little knowledge can be gained from watching pre-season ball, and most importantly the fact numbers don’t lie, Pete Rose lies but numbers never do thus producing a culmination of.

2009: G 261, AB 990, R 156, H 305, TB 451, 2B 68, 3B 6, HR 22, RBI 135, SB 49, AVG .303

David Wright in particular, who is nothing short of a human highlight reel, came off a career worst season hitting. Injury aside the trio managed to step-up to the plate almost 1000 times producing less home runs than Jack Cust (random comparison), RBI’s than Prince Fielder and a lower combined average than Erick Aybar. These are simply concerns I believe will need to be addressed should the trends continue. My thesis is this; all the talent in the world won’t do a team any good sitting on the bench. I expect and hope for strong healthy seasons from the Mets three, but should a torrid repeat of ‘09 reoccur, the organization may need to look in new directions before the guys get labeled those two career compromising words, injury prone. But like I said earlier, there are 162 games to produce an answer to this question.

What is just as important as a quick return by Beltran and Reyes, is the hope that once they return, it’s for good. That and a return to form by all three.

In 2000, Mike Hampton helped the Mets win the National League pennant.  After the Mets lost the World Series to the Yankees, Hampton left New York for the better school systems in Colorado.  (The $121 million given to him over the course of the eight years he signed for had nothing to do with it.)

Apparently, Hampton wasn’t the only pitcher to turn down money from the Mets in 2000, only to sign with Colorado.  According to Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports, fireballer Ubaldo Jimenez was offered $20,000 by the Mets to sign with the team after he turned 16 in 2000.  Why did he turn them down?  Yet again, school was cruel to the Mets.

The teenaged Jimenez was still in high school at the time the Mets made their offer.  But his parents chose the benefit of an education over the temptation of quick financial success.

When recounting the reasons for not signing with the Mets in 2000, Jimenez went on to say:

“My parents said no.  They didn’t want me to sign until I finished high school. I always respected my parents, and I knew it was for my own good, so I didn’t sign. I always figured I was going to be a doctor anyway.  I used to love medicine.  My mom’s a nurse.  It’s something I grew up seeing.  Every time people got sick, my mom would be the one who helped make them better.”

So how did the Rockies sign Jimenez in 2001 at the age of 17, thereby negating his chance of becoming a doctor?  It was pretty simple, really.  When the Rockies’ director of Latin American operations paid the Jimenez family a visit, he promised that if Ubaldo signed with Colorado, they would allow him to finish high school.  That was enough for Jimenez’s parents.  After graduating from high school, Jimenez signed his first professional contract and joined the Rockies organization.

Since making his major league debut at the age of 22 in 2006, Jimenez has improved steadily each year and is now among the best (and lesser known) pitchers in the National League.

The Rockies inserted Jimenez into the starting rotation in 2007, just in time for their unexpected run to the World Series.  In 15 starts with the Rockies, Jimenez was 4-4 with a 4.28 ERA, but he held opposing batters to a .228 batting average.  He then turned it up a notch in the National League playoffs, giving up one run in 6.1 innings in his start against the Phillies in the NLDS, followed by five more innings of one-run ball against the Diamondbacks in the NLCS.  His luck (as well as the Rockies’ luck) ran out in the World Series, but he still pitched effectively in his one start against the Red Sox, giving up two runs in 4.2 innings of work.  The 22-year-old pitched like a seasoned veteran in the playoffs, where many pitchers at the same age would have wilted in the national spotlight.

He followed up his rookie season by going 12-12 for Colorado in 2008.  He lowered his ERA to 3.99 and opponents batted only .245 against him.  More importantly, he was able to get his outs via the strikeout and the ground out, thereby overcoming the Coors Field effect.  He racked up 172 strikeouts in 198.2 innings and allowed only 10 home runs.

In 2009, his improvement continued to where he became one of the best pitchers in the National League.  Last season, Jimenez helped lead the Rockies to their second playoff appearance in three years.  He finished with a 15-12 record, which tied for fourth in the NL in wins.  He also lowered his ERA to 3.47 (which is very low for a pitcher who plays half his games at Coors Field) and struck out 198 batters in 218 innings, making him sixth in the NL in strikeouts.  Opposing batters continued to be frustrated by Jimenez, as they only batted .229 against him last year.

How good is Jimenez?  Only seven pitchers in 2009 finished in the top 25 in both strikeouts per nine innings and groundball percentage.  Those seven pitchers were Tim Lincecum, Roy Halladay, Felix Hernandez, Adam Wainwright, Jon Lester, Josh Johnson and Ubaldo Jimenez.  That’s a pretty exclusive class, if I must say so myself.

Ubaldo Jimenez has already been named the Rockies’ Opening Day starting pitcher by manager Jim Tracy.  The 26-year-old will be among the favorites for this year’s NL Cy Young Award and will be counted on to help lead the Rockies back to the postseason.

Imagine what might have been if the Mets had offered to let him finish school instead of just throwing $20,000 on the table.  The Mets might not be having such a problem in the starting rotation had Ubaldo Jimenez signed with them instead of the Rockies.  Hindsight may be 20-20, but in the case of Jimenez, all the 20-20 needed to be was $20,000 and 20 more months in school.  Too bad the it was the Rockies who had the foresight to do so.

We all know the Mets added a power bat in Jason Bay, are still dealing with injuries/medical issues to key players like Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran, and have huge holes in the starting rotation.  But I haven’t heard as much talk about the bullpen.  A year ago, almost to the day, I wrote a blog on this site about how the Mets’ revamped bullpen, a terrible weakness in 2008, would pile up K’s and blow hitters away–with K-Rod, JJ Putz and Bobby Parnell at the back end of the pen.

K-Rod had a nice season, but his dip from 62 saves in Los Angeles the year before to 35 with the Mets was both a reflection on the Mets having a bad season and him being a bit inconsistent.  His 3.71 ERA was also way inflated from his 2.24 mark the previous season.  Putz was pitching pretty well before blowing out an elbow and being put on the DL about a third of the way into the 2009 season.  And Parnell was great at times, and a gas can at others.

So now, how do you feel knowing that K-Rod is coming off a sub-par season, with Parnell, Kelvim Escobar, Jose Feliciano, Sean Green, Pat Misch and Ryota Igarashi behind him?  On paper, this bullpen is almost as much of a question mark as the starting rotation is.  That’s not to say they can’t overachieve and keep the team in games, but how likely is that?  And the rotation is not exactly the kind of group that will give the bullpen long stretches of rest at a time.  To the contrary, they will be called upon to pitch 2-3 innings each night.

So I ask you, how do you all feel about this bullpen?