Good morning Mets fans, and happy Thursday! In today’s edition of the hot stove rumor roundup, we have an interesting trade between two borderline competitive American League teams as well as a couple of pitcher and catcher rumors that could very well heat up by the beginning of the weekend. Mariners, Rays, Working to Swap Position Players First reported by Ryan Divish of the Seattle...
4:30 PM The Mets have denied the report from Howard Megdal of Capital New York (read below) that the order to fire Mets hitting coach Dave Hudgens came from Jeff Wilpon. Megdal reported that Jeff Wilpon sent general manager Sandy Alderson an “angry” text during the team’s 5-3 loss to the Pirates on Memorial Day and followed it up with an “angry” phone call that resulted in Hudgens’...
As I was driving around for work yesterday, I was listening to the Mets broadcast on the radio, and something occurred to me. At some point this year, this team will be no-hit, and you can pretty much assume that their current major league philosophy is the reason not only for that, but for their overall lack of success at the plate. I’m not a huge “hitting coach” kind of guy. I like to think...
The Mets banged out 13 hits including three home runs to beat the Miami Marlins by a score of 10-2 on Saturday at Roger Dean Stadium in Jupiter. There were a lot of great story lines in this game for the Mets, but let’s begin with Travis d’Arnaud, who blasted a two-run homer against Miami Marlins lefthander Brad Hand. The home run snapped a hitless streak that had lasted 21 at-bats for the...
February 21 Travis d’Arnaud told reporters that regardless of what rule goes into effect regarding blocking the plate, Mets personnel have instructed him today that he is to stand in fair territory and give base runners the whole plate. The rule, which is not official yet, is to allow runners a lane to part of the plate so as to avoid contact and collisions with the catcher. Mets bench...
There was a nice Q&A over on Metsblog with Mets’ hitting coach Dave Hudgens, who gave a little insight into what the Mets’ hitting philosophy is. Hudgens also spends a little time talking about Ike Davis and his recent woes, and seems pretty confident that he can turn things around. Matt Cerrone highlights one quote in particular from Hudgens: “We want hitters to look for their...
The Philadelphia Phillies signed outfielder Bobby Abreu to a minor league deal today, and according to ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick, he was very close to choosing the Mets. (Why?) Abreu, 40, did not play in 2013 after hitting .242 with three homers and 24 RBIs in 100 games with the Los Angeles Angels and Los Angeles Dodgers in 2012. The Mets had expressed interest in Abreu earlier in this...
When the Mets renewed Terry Collins’ contract at the end of September once the season had concluded, it was also announced that the entire coaching staff would return as well. This announcement didn’t come as a huge shock, but it was conceivable due to the fact that the crew has been the same since the start of the 2012 campaign. There has been criticism, praise, doubt, hopefulness,...
I came across this on MLBTR this morning: The Mets are looking for players to buy into their offensive philosophy, and that means finding guys with discipline at the plate, writes Andy Martino of the New York Daily News. That might help to explain why the free-swinging Daniel Murphy has found himself on the pages of MLBTR over the last week or so. I headed over to Martino’s post after...
The Mets are “kicking around” the idea of adding an assistant hitting coach, saying Mike Puma of the New York Post via Twitter. Puma indicates however that nothing is imminent. The Mets have “kicked around” the idea of adding an assistant hitting coach, according to a source, but nothing is imminent. — Mike Puma (@NYPost_Mets) November 13, 2013 New York’s current...
Hodges14 asks… Exactly what does a hitting coach get judged by? How do you measure whether or not he’s doing an effective job? I would think it’s things like improving the team’s overall batting average and reducing strikeouts, so why is Dave Hudgens coming back? There’s a better case to be made for firing Hudgens than there ever was for firing Howard Johnson. I...
JetsMets13 asks… Do you think Dave Hudgens deserves to come back next season? It seems like every player does worse when he gets his hands on them. Look at what happened to Ike Davis, Lucas Duda and Ruben Tejada. They all did great in their rookie years and then got worse instead of better. Look at Travis, Lagares and Flores. They were all top players in the minors, but as soon as they...
