If Shakespeare were to write a play about the state of the Mets these days, it would probably be titled “Much Ado About Valdespin” as that’s about all anyone has to talk about outside of the largely dismal performance of the team between the lines. Inasmuch as the role young number 1 plays on the team is largely limited to that of utility player/pinch hitter, I wonder if the fuss being kicked up over his [...]

The bad news about the Mets keeps getting worse. David Wright, who was supposed to rest his stiff neck last night, was used as a pinch-hitter and now he’s questionable for tonight’s game at Miami, While it is conjecture Wright might have done something to aggravate his condition, the question can’t help be asked. Seriously, is winning a game in April worth losing Wright for a period of time? That’s the perception today and considering the Mets’ [...]

I will remember it as if I saw it yesterday for the first time. A sheet of notebook paper, with the words, “Know your place, Rook … signed, your teammates,” was taped over Lastings Milledge’s locker in the Mets’ clubhouse in old RFK Stadium. This, in the late summer in 2006. The Mets were en route to the playoffs and a veteran laden team was rubbed the wrong way by Milledge’s brashness and arrogance. Then-manager [...]

Folks, I don’t live in New York anymore, and haven’t since 1992.  Sure, I can get all my Mets news online and I can watch and listen to games online or on cable.  But nothing beats living there–the talk, the camaraderie, the print newspapers that you can read with two hands and two eyes (unless you’re Muno from Yo Gabba Gabba). So sometimes I feel disconnected and rely on friends or my dad to fill [...]

Djean Kovacevic of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette believes that the Pirates are interested in signing right fielder Ryan Church. Church, 31, hit .273 with four home runs and 40 RBI’s while splitting time as a member of both the Mets and Braves last season. This news is somewhat surprising as it was rumored for weeks that the Pirates were looking to sign another free agent outfielder by the name of Rick Ankiel. However, as Kovacevic notes [...]

Moments ago in a press conference, Mets general manager Omar Minaya announced that they have traded rightfielder Ryan Church to the Atlanta Braves for rightfielder Jeff Francoeur. It was no secret that Church was on the outs as I have frequently pointed out this season, so this shouldn’t come as a big surprise to readers of this blog. It’s interesting to note that Francoeur was in the same kind of situation in Atlanta, and was [...]

Quick and to the point: I don’t understand the trade. We didn’t gain anything better than what we gave away. The Braves may have needed a center fielder, which Church can be, but the Mets certainly didn’t need a right fielder, which Church was. As Gary Cohen put it, “A one-on-one deal, an outfielder for an outfielder, in the same division …” If you ask me, both organizations got rid of guys their managers didn’t like. This [...]

The last time the Mets were in Pittsburgh, I wrote a piece about PNC Park having similar effects to the Mets as Atlanta’s Turner Field once had, and to an effect, still has.  Over the past few years, PNC Park had become a house of horrors for the Mets.  They failed to clinch the division title there in 2006, they suffered repeated late-inning setbacks there and earlier this season, the Pirates won all three games [...]

Sometimes desperate times make us think desperate thoughts.  Last night as I watched Johan Santana serve up a change-up to Ryan Braun that, frankly, I could have hit, and then watch the ball and a bunch of Brewers bounce all over the field and across the plate four times, my disbelief turned into realism.  I started to think, is Santana the ace he was in April and May or is this worst stretch of his [...]