The regular season is over for all three upper minors teams. That means no more baseball for the Bisons and B-Mets, and a best-of-three divisional series for the St. Lucie team. Let’s take a look at who finished up the season strong, and who didn’t. Who’s Hot!!! Wilfredo Tovar 2B, Binghamton- Tovar had a strong first half with St. Lucie, but had a tough time adjusting in Double-A Binghamton. However, he was able to finish [...]

Though the season is a little more than two weeks old, the New York Mets have already shown that they are not afraid to pull the trigger if a player is underperforming. The combination of Sandy Alderson and Terry Collins is attempting to light a fire under their players. Part of the way they’re going about this is by letting players know that if they don’t show up, they’ll be sent out. The first instance [...]

The Mets, backed by overall sloppy play on both the pitching side of the ball, and the defensive side and lost both games in today’s back-to-back double header. Game 1 – Rockies Win 6-5 R.A. Dickey started today, and didn’t have a very good outing today, allowing five runs on eight hits, walking four and striking out four. Dickey still seemed to be bothered by his nail, throwing 64 of his 110 pitches for strikes. [...]

The Mets have played just 10 games this year, but it is not too early to start to be concerned about some of the team’s issues. I am giving the disclaimer in advance that we are dealing with small sample sizes at this point of the year. It is early, but the team is currently sitting in last place in the NL East. While the Mets won’t spend the year in the cellar, there are [...]

R.A. Dickey had ZERO control today, and that seemed to be a recurring theme for the Mets as they took a loss in their home opener to the Nationals, 6-2. Game Notes R.A. Dickey just couldn’t find it today. Dickey allowed three runs on six hits in five innings, walking five and striking out three. Dickey finished the game throwing 98 pitches, 53 for strikes but those numbers didn’t begin evening out until the 4th [...]

Chris Young, in his Mets debut pitched a great first game, going five and one-third innings, giving up one run on five hits with four walks and seven strikeouts and the offense exploded in the third inning, chasing Cole Hamels in their 7-1 victory. Game Notes Chris Young looked pretty good in his first outing for the Mets. He allowed five hits, but didn’t start allowing hits and runs until after the 4th inning. Young [...]

In a further look into the foundations of success, after a team has found a manager, which I wrote about yesterday, that knows the game, can pull the correct strings and can really make things happen with both his direction and his decisions, he then needs to rely in his players. Those players consist of the offensive players, who for the sake of this article we’ll call hitters, his pitching (both bullpen and rotation) and [...]

This weekend, I ventured down to Port St. Lucie to catch two late-March Spring Training games. It’s been a routine trip I make each year, typically toward the end of March, that way I can catch as close to the Opening Day lineup as possible. The Mets beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 16-3, Thursday, March 24, behind home runs from Angel Pagan, Matt den Dekker, David Wright, Brad Emaus and Josh Thole. Thole blasted a [...]

The Contenders: Luis Castillo- .235/.337/.267, 0 HR, 17 RBI, 6.7 UZR/150, 0. 6 WAR, $6 million, 35 years old Daniel Murphy- .266/.313/.427, 12 HR, 63 RBI, 1.0 WAR, $400K, 26 years old Brad Emaus- .290/.397/.476, 15 HR, 75 RBI (between AA and AAA), $400K, 25 years old The Underdog: Justin Turner- .316/.374/.487, 12 HR, 43 RBI (at AAA), $400K, 26 years old The Long Shots: Ruben Tejada- .213/.305/.282, 1 HR, 15 RBI, 1.2 UZR/150, -0.4 [...]

I love when MLB analysts, bloggers and fans release their picks for a team’s projected lineup heading into the season. In many cases, educated baseball fans arrive somewhere in the “ballpark” (no pun intended) of what the Opening Day lineup will look like. Since Terry Collins has given everyone a preview of at least two-thirds of the order, there really is no guessing game associated with what the lineup will be this year. As of [...]