I’ll make it short and sweet. First of all, no matter what anyone says, Johan did not show up Jerry Manuel. He is the ace -  a veteran - and a little rebuttal against your manager is okay once in a while. He has earned it. As long as it’s conducted professionally and repectfully, which it certainly was. Secondly, it was Santana’s game to win or lose. (How many times have we heard that?) I think if he says he has [...]

Okay, I wasn’t at Citi Field last night, but I could feel the energy in the park all the way from New York to Nashville. It was a playoff game in June, and the Mets continued their dominance of Philly when they absolutely had to have a win against them.

Johan Santana was absolutely brilliant last night… no not on the mound, but at the plate. His RBI double in the sixth inning proved to be the difference maker as the Mets topped the Phillies 6-5. On the mound it was a totally  different story as Santana served up four homers, but on this damp Tuesday night in Citi Field before a packed house, the Mets bats had Santana’s back. Regarding his butcher-boy double, Santana had [...]

Let’s kick off the first of our Fantasy Focus columns with some discussion of our beloved Mets.  We’ll take an in depth look at their fantasy performance – which refers specifically to the following categories found in a ‘typical’ fantasy baseball league – Batting Average, Runs, HR, RBI, SB for hitters and Wins, Saves, ERA, WHIP, and K’s for pitchers. Then we’ll look a little beyond the numbers and I’ll give you my highly unsabermetric [...]

For many years while the Atlanta Braves had a chokehold on the rest of the National League East, Turner Field was a veritable house of horrors for the New York Mets.  Since it opened in 1997, the Mets are 34-66 at Turner Field and have had numerous crushing defeats, including some of the season-ending variety (see 1999 season).  Last year, the Mets were 1-8 in Atlanta, easily their worst record against any team on the [...]

The Mets defense keeps finding themselves in all sorts of predicaments when Santana is on the mound. Seven unearned runs as a result of 11 errors behind Johan. Usually you rely a team’s defense to bail the pitcher out of a jam. In Santana’s case, it’s the pitcher who bails his team out of their jams. That’s how good Santana is. The Mets keep putting Johan in harm’s way and he battles back every time to get himself, [...]

Game Summary It was supposed to be the classic pitchers duel, Randy Johnson versus Johan Santana, but it ended up being anything but. Neither Johnson or Santana brought their “A” games, but in the end it was Santana who came out on top and the Mets who outlasted the Giants 9-6 and won their third straight game in the series. Pitching Johan Santana had a tough go of it against the Giants and was tagged [...]

You can’t win ‘em all, it has been said, but last night’s defeat did sting a tad. For one, the Mets continue to squander sterling Johan Santana performances. He should hire a lawyer and sue the hitters for non-support. Why do the bats take a respite every time the fiery lefty storms the hill? The numbers don’t lie: 2.14 runs per game, worse for a starter (with 6 or more starts) this year. Can’t the [...]

Jerry Manuel was asked a great question during the post game presser. “Will your team come to regret these Johan Santana losses in September?” “There will probably come a time,” Mets manager Jerry Manuel said. “There will probably come a point where you’ll think, ‘Wow, we missed a lot of opportunities with Johan.’” Ya think??? Johan Santana deserves better than this. He deserved a better effort from his teammates and a better effort from his [...]

1. Why did he take out Johan Santana when he was the only pitcher best equipped to get out of that inning? I don’t care if Johan Santana had already thrown over 100 pitches. The guy is a warrior and wanted to stay in the game. Plus even if he was a little winded, 80% of Johan Santana is infinitely better than 100% of any other pitcher on the Mets active roster. Listening to Johan [...]